One question to ask yourself

How can I cultivate joy, even in the midst of this challenge?

Journal on this - because we can be stressed and we can be joyful; grieving and be joyful; overwhelmed and be joyful. Without feeling the lows, we cannot fully experience the highs. It's important to make time for them all. the beauty of human emotion is that the full spectrum can be felt even in one day. Try not to drown in one colour of the rainbow. 

Something to consider

Whenever you see me succeeding in one area of my life, it almost certainly means I am failing in another area of my life - Shonda Rhimes

Another day, another light by the torch of Shonda, guiding me through my weeks. I know the 'you can have it all, all of the time' narrative is really inspirational but I can't tell you the feelings of failure, shame and guilt it creates when one part of your life suffers at the expense of another (I don't need to tell you, you know it already, even if you haven't identified it yet). Everything is a sacrifice, what an incredible power and gift we have to choose where that sacrifice comes from this week

One thing I'd tell my younger self.

There's a discipline in remaining receptive to your rhythms of energy and inspiration - Catherine Andrews  


Structures and deadlines and hard rules for productivity are great, until you fail at them, procrastinate on them, question if they're too lax or too hard. All ways I failed at working hard (aka overworked and underdelivered as a result) when I was younger. I was speaking to a legend coach I mentor about this topic last week - the difficulty of setting doable, helpful deadlines. Your gentle reminder that, just like your diet, some flexibility and intuition are helpful in order to get the most out of yourself. 

One thing to try this week

Cultivate one daily joy

No matter the size, shape or duration of that joy. Dark chocolate salted chocolate with a hot tea. My therapist ghosted me and airplane mode. A contact nap watching your series instead of doing the chores. Whatever your chosen joy each day, note it, be fully present, let it envelop your entire being for those few minutes or hours. Write it down at the end of the day or talk about it over dinner with your family. Pick a time to own that joy and reflect on it. 

A few things to tell you...

Oh hello solo podcast is that you? I discuss the dangers of fasted training as a woman on today's ETPHD team podcast (v sorry you'll have to search for ETPHD podcast on your platform as I wrote this email on Saturday night (that's right I am that prepared) and the pod isn't even out yet)

Buzzing that I am BACK on the EIQ pod this week with my angel Em - we covered women's hormones, crap science, fasted training, protein needs & kidney stones here

FREE EMOTIONAL EATING GUIDEBOOK - you might have this already, but if you don't, join the 1000s of people who've benefited from this ridiculously good value (aka totally free) guidebook on stopping emotional eating

One more thing...

Please share your favourite stuff.

Thank you all for continuing to share your favourite Monday email quotes. I see them all. I know how much I love seeing impactful quotes from strangers, so it means a lot that you allow me to hopefully be that person for someone else. If there's something you really relate to or know someone who'd benefit from something in this email, please share it and pay it forward. Words are magical, and if I've learned anything from writing these emails to you for years, you never know when someone needs to hear the exact thing you've got to say.