Dr. Darria Long Gillespie, Author of MOM HACKS
[0:00]Hi, I'm Zibi Owens and you're listening to Momstone Have Time to Read Books.
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[0:28]Dr. Daria Long Gillespie is known popularly as Dr. Daria.
[0:34]She trained at Yale and Harvard Medical School before becoming an instructor of medicine
[0:38]at Harvard Medical School.
[0:39]She is a frequent contributor on CNN, Fox News, The Doctor Odds Show, and The Doctors
[0:45]Among Others.
[0:46]She also writes, The Busy Woman's Guide to Health and Sanity for The Huffington Post
[0:50]and writes for other publications like Share.com and The Doctor Odds Blog.
[0:55]Dr. Daria's new book is called Mom Hacks 100 Plus Science Back Shortcuts to reclaim
[1:01]your body, raise awesome kids, and be unstoppable.
[1:04]She currently lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband, a renowned hand surgeon and
[1:08]her two children.
[1:09]Welcome, Dr. Daria.
[1:10]I'm so excited to have you on Momstone Have Time to Read Books.
[1:13]Thank you, Zibi.
[1:14]I am honored to be here.
[1:16]So in your introduction to Mom Hacks, which I loved, you say that when you found some startling
[1:21]facts about mother's help, you became really worried for moms.
[1:24]You cited that a mom's risk of obesity rises 7% for every child she has, that moms are
[1:30]statistically more likely to have poor nutrition, get less exercise, have what you said
[1:34]was way less sleep, and face alarmingly increasing rates of pregnancy-related complications
[1:40]in death in the United States.
[1:41]So tell me, is this actually what led you to write the book or how did the whole thing
[1:45]happen?
[1:46]So you are exactly right.
[1:47]Those statistics were pretty shocking, and it's right, 7% increase of metabolic syndrome,
[1:54]which isn't just obesity.
[1:55]It's also cholesterol and high blood pressure for every child they have, which is crazy
[2:00]to me.
[2:01]But Zibi, I'm going to take it a step back, because I was totally unaware of those statistics
[2:06]before I became a mom.
[2:07]I think most moms, it's pretty eye-openingly, anecdotally, you might think, well, yeah,
[2:11]we get less sleep.
[2:12]But to see the statistics against it was pretty shocking.
[2:16]But what's first opened my eyes to it was I was pregnant, and I was talking to a girlfriend
[2:22]of mine and joking about how I couldn't run as well now that I was, you know, seven
[2:27]months pregnant.
[2:29]And she kind of really shortly said, you know, enjoy that while you can, because once
[2:35]you have a baby, you're never going to get to work out again.
[2:38]And it was probably the first time that I had heard that message.
[2:42]And then I started to think in, I realized a lot of women started to hear that.
[2:47]You're never going to sleep again or eat well again or eat anything, but leftover chicken
[2:52]nuggets at the kitchen counter again once you have children.
[2:56]I kind of brushed them off at first, like whatever their naysayers, whatever I can do
[3:00]this.
[3:01]But when my friend told me that, it kind of struck a chord.
[3:05]And that's when I started doing some research, and that's when I found these statistics.
[3:09]Interesting.
[3:10]And you also had an episode in medical school with your own health struggles, which you
[3:14]wrote about in the book, and that affected you profoundly as well.
[3:17]Can you talk a little bit more about that?
[3:19]Yeah, absolutely.
[3:20]And I think you're exactly right, because that episode in residency actually was what
[3:25]gave me the confidence that I could actually do something when I was pregnant.
[3:30]So back up to when I was in residency, I'd been totally healthy.
[3:35]And then suddenly I woke up, seemingly one day, and my hands and my feet were swollen,
[3:41]my knees were swollen.
[3:42]It was all my joints were red and inflamed.
[3:45]And I went over the course of probably two weeks from being able to run three or four
[3:49]miles a day, because I'd always been a runner to the point where I couldn't even stand
[3:54]up to examine my patients.
[3:55]I would sit on a garbage can, or do something just to be able to get off my feet because
[4:00]I was in so much pain.
[4:02]So I went to a bunch of doctors that ended up diagnosing me with this really chronic
[4:07]form of really a destructive autoimmune arthritis called psoriatic arthritis.
[4:11]And there's nobody in my family who has it, nobody in new way I got it.
[4:16]And they ended up putting me on an injectable medication, so I was giving myself an injection
[4:20]twice a week.
[4:22]And that helps my symptoms, but now I was giving myself shots twice a week.
[4:27]And really was told that this is the way your health is going to be for the rest of your
[4:31]life.
[4:32]You're going to need these shots for the rest of your life.
[4:35]And I did not like that answer.
[4:37]And so I decided to start digging and doing a little research and started, that's what initially
[4:44]started me looking at all of this.
[4:47]And so things that ended up later, some day becoming hacks in my book were just solutions.
[4:52]I was desperate to find and started really making drastic changes to my health and my
[4:58]life.
[4:59]And I remember one person when I told him I was going to do this.
[5:01]And they said, oh, that'll never work.
[5:02]Yeah, it's really supportive, friends.
[5:04]Got to love it.
[5:05]Thanks for the vote of confidence.
[5:07]And so it worked, Zippy, over the next few years, I was able to wean myself off on my
[5:12]medications.
[5:13]I came off them.
[5:14]And I haven't been on them since.
[5:15]And that's really quick caveat.
[5:17]I am not saying that medications are bad.
[5:19]I am a Western trained physician.
[5:20]I went to Yale, like you and did that training.
[5:24]So I highly value that, but I also truly believe that there is a significant place for
[5:29]lifestyle and other significant holistic changes, and especially in my case.
[5:33]So all of that to say, I've been told no one and I found a solution.
[5:38]So when I got told that same no as a pregnant woman, it was like deja vu all over again.
[5:44]And I was like, OK, time to roll up my sleeves.
[5:45]I've figured this out before.
[5:47]Let me see if I can do it again.
[5:48]Meanwhile, I can't believe you were still running at seven months pregnant.
[5:51]You should have seen me at seven months pregnant with like, oh, I'm various pregnancies.
[5:54]I was not running.
[5:55]So my pregnancy, it was a bounce and my pregnancy too.
[6:00]I swear, like I was bouncing by like seven days, probably, you know, by everything is just
[6:05]a little looser and pregnancy, as you know, I'm sure.
[6:10]So after you did all this research, you decided to put all these hacks into a book so
[6:15]that you could help other moms use these lifestyle techniques to be healthy and have a,
[6:21]you know, better quality of life and everything.
[6:23]And you said in your book, hacks don't add to your to-do list, they make it easier to
[6:27]do, which is great because nobody needs more stuff to have to do, right?
[6:30]I mean, I don't have time to go pee in private.
[6:32]I don't have that luxury.
[6:34]So how could I have to make these very easy to be very actionable?
[6:38]How old are your kids?
[6:39]So five and two.
[6:40]Oh, yeah.
[6:41]I have five and four.
[6:42]I have five four and then 11 year old twins.
[6:45]So anyway, I get it.
[6:46]I get five.
[6:47]Oh, yes.
[6:48]You are so.
[6:49]You so get it.
[6:50]And the problem is when I was in the ER, I felt this sense as a physician being really
[6:54]in control.
[6:55]I knew whatever came through those doors, I knew that I got this.
[6:59]I can handle it.
[7:00]But then when I was a patient and when I was a mom, especially, I didn't feel that
[7:05]way.
[7:06]And I saw my own patients and my friends who were moms and we were all kind of like
[7:09]me.
[7:10]And I don't got this sort of stage.
[7:11]So that's really why.
[7:12]I mean, how can I take that mentality that helps me succeed?
[7:15]And it's total chaos in the ER, which really isn't that different from mothering many
[7:19]days.
[7:20]And how do I create a system so that we all have that I've got this in our lives as moms?
[7:26]Yeah.
[7:27]And so you were like, wrote the handbook, which is great.
[7:29]It was everything I wished I had about seven years ago.
[7:33]11.
[7:34]So I started flipping through your nutrition section, ironically, my kids had come back
[7:38]from a birthday party and I had stolen one of the party favor cookies.
[7:42]It was like sugar cookie of a school bus that I didn't want them to know that I didn't
[7:46]think it.
[7:47]I have that in my mouth as I'm reading your book and I'm like, this is not good.
[7:51]This is just not good.
[7:53]This is not good.
[7:54]I mean, you bring up the point, like moms don't need another book saying, hey, don't eat
[8:00]cookies.
[8:01]I mean, yeah.
[8:02]Gee, I know.
[8:03]I know that.
[8:04]I know that.
[8:05]Exactly.
[8:06]And we don't need another thing saying, you know, just use more willpower
[8:10]or maybe you should have just tried harder or those really helpful articles I find
[8:15]that are like, don't eat chocolate.
[8:16]Replace it lists care of in a celery.
[8:19]Like, again, not helpful to me in my life.
[8:22]Right.
[8:23]So in those situations, it's like one of the most fascinating things about the book.
[8:26]There are a couple of different themes.
[8:28]But one is how influenced we are by our environment.
[8:31]And we like to think we're really intentional and deliberate.
[8:35]But your environment makes a huge difference in what we do.
[8:39]So that can be a bad thing when you have cookies sitting there.
[8:43]But if they're not saying there, it's actually a really good thing and we can leverage
[8:46]that.
[8:47]So how can I turn that one is otherwise a disadvantage into an advantage?
[8:50]So digging through the research, there was one study that showed that when food or chocolate
[8:56]because all the behavioral psychologists use M&M's apparently as their studies think of
[9:01]choice.
[9:02]Don't ask me why.
[9:03]There's some samples.
[9:04]Some secret agreement between M&M's and psychology.
[9:08]And there's a bigger lesson there.
[9:11]Maybe that's my next book.
[9:12]They found that when the chocolate was six feet away, i.e., you had to actually stand up
[9:19]to get it.
[9:20]People ate 70% less.
[9:23]And they didn't say that they used any more willpower.
[9:25]70%.
[9:26]So I had a friend who texted me and she was a text with OMG.
[9:31]I just ate all my child's Halloween candy after they left for school.
[9:34]So I told her this study and so what we did is what I tell people is, so put one obstacle
[9:39]between yourself and the cookies or the M&M's or the chips or whatever is your temptation
[9:44]of choice.
[9:45]I had her put it up on a higher shelf so she had to, she could still reach it because kids
[9:49]will probably want that in the house.
[9:51]But she had to actually get a step stool to reach it.
[9:54]And she texted me about a month later saying, I haven't eaten Halloween candy in a month.
[9:59]I forgot it.
[10:00]that I didn't even think about it.
[10:02]I don't think that would be enough for me.
[10:04]I will go down a flight of stairs and up a step tool,
[10:09]and I don't know, if I know it's there,
[10:11]maybe there's something wrong with me.
[10:13]No, but let's take a show.
[10:16]You'll still eat even people who say that
[10:18]end up eating around 20 to 30% less.
[10:20]You'll still have a big deal.
[10:21]Yes.
[10:22]Yes, that will help.
[10:23]Just a little more there, because.
[10:24]OK, OK, no, you're absolutely right.
[10:26]But why do you think it is?
[10:27]So you have all these amazing science-backed tips
[10:31]for eating well and so many different.
[10:33]And I don't mean well, it's so binary.
[10:35]You have to do one thing or the other,
[10:37]but just to improve everything.
[10:40]But sometimes the emotions, and I feel like moms
[10:43]are particularly susceptible to this, especially
[10:45]being so sleep deprived and just
[10:47]needy for some sort of pick me up at the end of the day,
[10:51]when the kids go to sleep, what
[10:52]can we do about the emotional component of the eating?
[10:55]Not that, I mean, I know we all know
[10:58]that it's not good to eat this stuff.
[11:00]But beat him.
[11:01]Yeah, absolutely.
[11:02]And so that's an entirely separate point.
[11:03]So I still say, put it away, but then you're right.
[11:07]You're getting to a much deeper reason.
[11:09]And we as humans are driven to do that.
[11:11]They say, when you eat that kind of sugar and fat
[11:14]and salt, it activates the same part of your brain
[11:16]as the addictive drugs do.
[11:19]And for millennia, that stuff was short supply.
[11:21]Like our caveman grandmother, even if she wanted to,
[11:25]couldn't go binge on cookies after.
[11:27]If she was mad at our caveman grandfather
[11:29]for being a literal Neanderthal.
[11:31]So our brains are wired.
[11:32]It's just that now we live in an environment
[11:34]when it's possible.
[11:35]So the main thing in that case is to try to figure out
[11:38]why.
[11:39]Why are you trying to eat the cookies then?
[11:41]Is it because you actually have to go do laundry?
[11:43]You don't want to do laundry.
[11:45]So something is eating cookies is like a great way.
[11:47]This is to buy your time or procrastinate.
[11:50]Or is it some boredom?
[11:52]Is it disappointment or upset?
[11:54]What is the emotional or the juice that you need to break?
[11:56]I know it's mom's, especially
[11:58]we think, I can't take a break right now.
[12:01]I have to do laundry, kids who work hard to go grocery shopping.
[12:04]I need to send out these emails for work.
[12:06]And the food actually is your moment of having a break.
[12:09]Well, then find something else that gives you a break
[12:11]and give yourself permission to do that.
[12:13]Is it a five-minute eating chocolate cookie?
[12:15]Is it a walk?
[12:16]Is it watching some silly video on Facebook
[12:20]or that makes you laugh or what calling a friend
[12:24]and giving yourself permission to do that other reward?
[12:27]Yeah, often after it, you'll find
[12:28]you don't actually want the cookie at all.
[12:31]The thing that I do, and I don't know about you,
[12:32]but I have actually found that reading
[12:34]is the thing that makes me like, that's the treat
[12:37]I look forward to all day, is like, when I can get bed
[12:40]and start reading again, so.
[12:41]Yeah, exactly.
[12:42]I love how you have a podcast and mom
[12:43]so have time to read books, but yet reading is what you love.
[12:46]Obviously, you enjoy it.
[12:47]This is a time issue, right?
[12:49]It's a time issue.
[12:51]And giving yourself permission to do that.
[12:53]Yeah, exactly.
[12:54]That's OK.
[12:55]It's OK to take that time.
[12:56]But I think that's the main reason.
[12:57]And trying to address it if you stop and try to address
[13:00]the emotions.
[13:01]And sometime when you're not in the throws of those emotions,
[13:03]kind of figure out, take two minutes.
[13:05]Mom's who are listening right now.
[13:07]What are your usual triggers to reach for the ice cream
[13:10]or the cookies or things?
[13:11]And what helps you feel better?
[13:14]Because let's be honest, eating the cookie
[13:15]doesn't actually feel better.
[13:16]At the end, you feel more guilty.
[13:18]And the problem is still there in the first place.
[13:20]Mm-hmm.
[13:21]That's well, it feels kind of good, but it's OK.
[13:24]But anyway, I know about a second.
[13:27]I know.
[13:27]But this goes into also what you're
[13:29]saying about exercising and how those five minutes
[13:32]that you were saying, like, read or do something for yourself.
[13:36]You have us reframe exercise into small, achievable goals.
[13:39]Like we don't have to go spinning and dance cardio
[13:42]and killing ourselves.
[13:44]But even five minutes a day is good.
[13:46]And it's like good enough if it's better than zero.
[13:49]So it's like, it's like, it's better than zero.
[13:51]Yeah.
[13:52]Like one time I was playing doubles tennis.
[13:54]And I was like, is this even really exercise?
[13:56]Like I'm barely moving.
[13:58]And then I was saying, I mean, I could be just sitting here.
[14:02]I feel like moms are so hard on themselves.
[14:04]I mean, I know I can be hard on myself.
[14:06]I'm sure you can.
[14:07]Like if it's not up to some sort of pre-kid goal
[14:11]of like I'm running six miles or something
[14:13]is one mile even really worth my time.
[14:16]But I think the answer is absolutely yes, right?
[14:18]I mean, don't you agree?
[14:19]The absolute, the answer is 1,000% yes.
[14:23]So I had written this hack.
[14:26]A mom friend had machine hour on the phone.
[14:28]She was like, yeah, I didn't work out.
[14:29]This morning because I didn't have 30 minutes.
[14:32]And I was like, wait, like exercise is not binary.
[14:36]There is no exercise please.
[14:37]But if you only worked out for seven or 17 or 27 minutes
[14:41]that they're like, nope.
[14:42]You don't get to talk about it.
[14:43]It doesn't count.
[14:44]Like it doesn't exist.
[14:46]And in fact, studies show that when women
[14:49]are told just exercise in seven minute increments.
[14:52]And if you can do it multiple times a day great,
[14:54]but just aim for seven minutes,
[14:56]those women exercise more per week.
[14:58]And actually lost more weight than women
[15:00]who were told to go exercise for a 30 to 40 minute
[15:03]aerobics class.
[15:04]So you actually end up working out more,
[15:08]which is a great thing because think about it.
[15:09]Like whether you have to get up in the morning
[15:12]or you're tired, I can do it for seven minutes.
[15:15]And I am not telling people go for seven minutes
[15:17]and hopefully you'll stay longer.
[15:19]I don't want people to do that.
[15:20]Because then if they don't, they feel bad.
[15:22]Like the point of half is it's tiny things.
[15:25]And why are they tiny?
[15:26]Because you can do them.
[15:28]And I want you to do them and I want you to succeed.
[15:30]I want because that's an endorphin bump.
[15:33]Just like you go for your cookies,
[15:34]you're going for endorphins.
[15:35]And if you can check off, my goal was a five minute
[15:38]or a seven minute walk, I did it.
[15:41]You get an endorphin bump.
[15:42]You realize that you are a person
[15:44]who can go for a walk in the morning.
[15:46]And yeah, sure, eventually that will probably increase.
[15:49]That doesn't matter to me.
[15:50]I just want you getting that sense of success
[15:53]and it is just as good for your health.
[15:54]So make it small, make that the goal.
[15:58]And you'll realize that you can do that.
[16:00]So I downloaded this app recently
[16:02]from the Fitbit app and they have seven minute workouts.
[16:06]And like each one is a minute.
[16:08]And I actually did it once or twice with my kids too
[16:11]because they thought it was so fun.
[16:13]I know one of your hacks was giving kids
[16:15]maybe some sort of special toy
[16:16]or something when mommy exercises like,
[16:18]okay kids, like here's your special, I don't know, something.
[16:21]But if you can have them work out with you
[16:23]that also can help, but both are great.
[16:25]That's a great way.
[16:26]I mean, that's even better
[16:27]because ideally when you're exercising
[16:29]you're getting your kids exercise
[16:30]because then you're teaching them,
[16:32]they're not all there, they're getting fitness.
[16:33]They're learning that it's kind of fun.
[16:34]It's the thing you can do is a family.
[16:36]So we have, you know, once or twice week every weekend,
[16:39]we go on a hike together.
[16:40]You know, I mean, it's nothing intense
[16:43]because I have a five and a two year old.
[16:44]So it's a two to three mile hike
[16:46]but we get out and we do it during your videos with them.
[16:49]That's amazing.
[16:50]In terms of the toys, so what I do for this is,
[16:53]I actually have like this kitchen
[16:54]that I got from like secondhand from a friend.
[16:58]And so I have that in this unfinished section
[17:00]of my basement, I have a treadmill
[17:02]and I have a little pen down there
[17:05]so that my child can't get out of the pen.
[17:07]My brother says I put my child in jail.
[17:09]So it kind of looks like that
[17:10]but he has the kitchen in there.
[17:12]He loves to play with the kitchen.
[17:14]He has all sorts of random toys in there
[17:16]but the only time he gets to play with that kitchen
[17:19]is when I'm running.
[17:21]So he actually does look forward to it.
[17:23]Doesn't mean I can run from 45 minutes.
[17:25]No, it means I get usually about seven minutes
[17:28]and I have some topic as he's thrown something
[17:29]out of the pan and he wants it.
[17:31]But again, that's okay.
[17:33]So they have these special toys
[17:35]that can keep some interchange at least
[17:36]so I can get a seven or maybe a 15, 20 if I'm lucky run
[17:40]and it makes a big difference.
[17:42]It's great.
[17:43]The sleep section of your book
[17:44]had so many helpful things that I was actually
[17:46]and not for kids, not for kids, for parents.
[17:48]Like, I mean kids too.
[17:51]I shouldn't say not for kids, for both.
[17:53]But I am used to sort of reading advice books about kids' sleep
[17:56]and I am less used to finding information
[17:59]that helps me with sleep
[18:01]because I feel like it's like a lost cause, right?
[18:03]Like, but your advice is sort of like
[18:05]it's not a lost cause.
[18:07]Like, you know, last night my daughter was up
[18:09]for 40 minutes dressed up like a wolf.
[18:11]She came in and like had put on a wolf costume
[18:13]in the middle of the night.
[18:14]I don't know, I don't know what happened.
[18:15]But anyway, it took 40 minutes to get her back to bed
[18:17]and then by the time I got back to bed,
[18:19]I was like thinking about all the stuff I had to do all day
[18:21]and I couldn't stop so I actually thought
[18:24]about how you wanted us to set a worry time
[18:26]or like have a worry lock box before bedtime.
[18:29]And I was like, okay, I'm gonna like set on my worries
[18:31]as I didn't, you know?
[18:33]I mean, maybe I should have done it ahead of time.
[18:34]But anyway, I really appreciated that tip
[18:37]and all your other tips on sleep.
[18:39]One to five, I was gonna ask you which one was your favorite.
[18:41]So if you think that was your favorite on sleep
[18:43]with a worry lock box.
[18:44]Yeah, cause then it's like out of the way.
[18:47]Right, like I've already, you know, even,
[18:48]I mean, that helps just with life.
[18:50]You know, I feel like I don't know.
[18:51]I'm like a warrior, you know, my grandma says like,
[18:54]I have her worrying or whatever.
[18:55]And I think a therapist, therapist, my call it's something else.
[18:58]But anyway, having a set time to put it all down
[19:02]and get it out so it doesn't creep in, you know?
[19:05]Like otherwise it'll just come out.
[19:07]It'll come out anyway if you don't deal with it, right?
[19:09]So I think that was my favorite tip for that you gave.
[19:11]It absolutely will.
[19:12]And the worry lock box is great for anybody
[19:14]who's just gonna struggling, like all of a thing.
[19:16]And it was great like after you become a mom,
[19:18]there's just so much more to worry about
[19:20]plus the things you already worried about before.
[19:23]So that's why I love the worry lock box
[19:25]because you can spend five minutes,
[19:27]just put it all in there, right?
[19:29]Everything would don't sense to yourself.
[19:31]But then at the end of that time, again done.
[19:34]It's locked away, that worry is locked away.
[19:37]I can look at it again tomorrow
[19:39]or I can write more about it tomorrow,
[19:40]but now's not the time.
[19:41]So it's helpful both for the day.
[19:43]And when you can't sleep.
[19:44]And that said, yes, you are right.
[19:46]To better if you do it proactively,
[19:48]but if there's something keeping you awake at night,
[19:50]you can get out your little worry journal,
[19:53]the journal, not your phone,
[19:54]because you're phone is too much blue light.
[19:56]Write it down, like dump it in there,
[19:57]like let it take your burden right then.
[20:00]And there, leave it there, and then you can go back to bed.
[20:02]Yep.
[20:03]Another one of my favorite tips was in your resilience section, and it was the test of
[20:07]will it bother you in five years?
[20:09]Like whatever's bothering you right now.
[20:11]Is this really going to bother you in five years?
[20:13]And if it isn't, then just like move on.
[20:15]Right.
[20:16]Let it go.
[20:17]I mean, how often do we hold on to all those little tiny things that you can know?
[20:22]Are you like, I think I would not have that person about that five years ago or 10 years ago.
[20:26]I have no idea why.
[20:28]And so it's just, it's still need to hold on to it.
[20:31]So yeah, that's one of my insincey angering techniques.
[20:33]It can be hard.
[20:34]That's why I usually need to do the breathing exercise first.
[20:37]Yep.
[20:38]So then I can say, because often if I'm already angry, then it will it bother me in five
[20:42]years.
[20:43]Well, I don't know, but it bothers me right now.
[20:44]Do my breathing exercise first that in for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, out
[20:49]for four seconds, hold it for four seconds, do that a couple of times.
[20:53]And then I can say, you know, will it bother me in five years?
[20:55]OK.
[20:56]OK.
[20:57]I'm going to let it go.
[20:58]But you are a doctor, you're a mom, you run, you are on TV all the time, you write.
[21:05]What hacks are getting you through life?
[21:08]Like what are your top three for you?
[21:10]So yeah.
[21:11]So actually, you said the run is if it's an accomplishment.
[21:13]It is.
[21:14]The run is the hack.
[21:15]No.
[21:16]It is the hack.
[21:17]And people need to know that because it's not, you know, I am no superwoman.
[21:21]I don't have any of this figured out.
[21:24]I just have figured out the things that helped me to keep my sanity.
[21:27]So the run is indeed how I do all those things.
[21:31]There were many times that I was stuck with the writer's block where I just didn't carry
[21:35]more about the book.
[21:36]I wanted it to be done.
[21:39]And that's where I reached this point.
[21:41]And you know, maybe that's when I wanted to reach for the cookie or something.
[21:44]And so I'd go for a run.
[21:46]And maybe for other women, that's maybe something different.
[21:48]Maybe that's a walk.
[21:49]Maybe it's a Zoom book class or a video or whatever.
[21:52]Everybody's different.
[21:53]So if you hate running, that's another key part of my book.
[21:56]It's like, if you hate running, then please don't try.
[21:58]Do something you like with a double tennis.
[22:00]That's fine.
[22:01]So for me, the running is a really big deal in terms of keeping my sanity.
[22:05]And to help me do that, I have all my playlists.
[22:07]Like, again, music is a big, you probably know this throughout the book.
[22:10]I'm always quoting song lyrics or things like that.
[22:13]So I've created these playlists.
[22:15]And I have a running playlist, so I only let myself listen to when I run.
[22:20]And now I've shared it for anybody who orders the book.
[22:22]They get access to five different mom hacks playlists.
[22:26]It gets me going.
[22:27]And it's like the good memories.
[22:28]And it just, it makes me go and makes you go run.
[22:32]Not go the other.
[22:33]Right.
[22:34]And as a mommy, we always have potty brain on the mind.
[22:38]So that's, for me, running is a huge deal.
[22:41]And having that music to help me do that makes a very big difference.
[22:44]So exercise is truly how I keep my sanity.
[22:47]And keeping all those worries at day.
[22:50]I mean, there have been studies from Duke that showed they gave women who had depression.
[22:54]Either were given antidepressant or were put on an exercise regimen.
[22:58]And they both of those groups have the same rate of remission of depression.
[23:02]So exercise, it gives you those endorphins.
[23:05]If there is a magic code for mental health, not to see that people still don't need medications, of course.
[23:10]But exercise is massive for that.
[23:12]That's one.
[23:13]Two is my routine.
[23:14]I need to have a little routine in the morning.
[23:16]I have every morning I get up at the same time.
[23:18]I go for a run and then I come and maybe catch up on email for about a half hour
[23:22]and then I really get into like anything creative I need to do.
[23:25]I have to have that because otherwise like with our days as a mom, it's like, it's just our day gets out of hand.
[23:31]So my routine that all starts before my kids wake up.
[23:33]Wow.
[23:34]So that's been really important to me as well.
[23:37]What time do you wake up?
[23:38]So I get up at five this team.
[23:40]Okay.
[23:40]But I'm not a morning person.
[23:41]So again, how did I do that?
[23:43]I have to hack to my way to getting up at five this team.
[23:45]Because if I had my way, I'd stay up till two in the morning and then love to sleep in.
[23:50]But with kids, if I don't work out in the morning, I'm not going to have time to do it later.
[23:54]So again, tiny changes.
[23:57]So I didn't just one day say, I'm going to wake up at five to 10 and go run three miles.
[24:01]I pushed my sleeping a little bit earlier by 15 minutes.
[24:04]And I'd actually say, I would just go run a mile or I would do something else.
[24:09]I enjoyed sometimes I'd get up and meditate for 10 minutes.
[24:11]So first, I was just getting used to waking up early.
[24:14]Sometimes I would just get up and read and have coffee and get that in.
[24:17]Once I started getting up earlier, then I started adding in the exercise in short increments
[24:22]and building it up.
[24:23]So it took about six weeks for me to get to be able to do that if not more.
[24:27]So that's okay.
[24:28]Again, don't say tomorrow, I'm going to wake up at five a.m. and I'm going to go run
[24:32]three miles because you'll be miserable and you won't do it and you'll eventually
[24:35]give up after three days and feel badly about yourself.
[24:38]Do it incrementally.
[24:39]So do you have any advice to other aspiring authors out there?
[24:44]Right.
[24:45]So sure, that brings up so many different thoughts.
[24:49]But aspiring authors, you know, speak with other authors, there's a lot of different author
[24:53]groups, learn from other people who have gone through it and then just start writing
[24:58]because it took me, you know, I've been doing media for about, you know, several years
[25:05]and my first couple of years, it took me several years to really find my voice.
[25:10]And that takes time and the only way to find your voice is to just write a whole lot
[25:15]of things.
[25:16]I wrote a blog the other day and I showed it really quickly and my friend had commented
[25:20]email me back and she said, this is great.
[25:21]She said, do you realize that, you know, two years ago, this would have taken you two weeks
[25:26]to write and now you pulled it off in about 30 minutes.
[25:29]It's practice, writing like anything else takes practice just to do it and to find your
[25:33]voice.
[25:34]So that's the number one thing I would tell any aspiring writer is just get started.
[25:38]Awesome.
[25:39]Well, I know you have to run.
[25:41]So thank you so much for being on mom's time to read books.
[25:43]Thank you for all the tips.
[25:44]I'm going to be thinking of you as I, you know, go about my day today and every day,
[25:49]you know, with all the helpful things.
[25:51]So thank you.
[25:53]Thank you.
[25:54]One more tip for the morning.
[25:55]If you want to wake up, this is a really easy thing everybody can do.
[25:58]Most of who wake up and we keep it dark for a while because that bright light kind of
[26:01]hurts.
[26:02]What I want people to do to start if making it easier for them to wake up, first thing
[26:05]you do in the morning, get bright light.
[26:07]Yes, it hurts for about a hot second, but that bright light shuts off your body's
[26:11]melatonin production.
[26:13]So you have more energy in that moment, but not only that since it reset your body clock,
[26:18]it's like doing that hard reset on your iPhone.
[26:20]It means you're going to have an easier time falling asleep that night and an easier time
[26:24]waking up the next morning.
[26:26]So the first thing I do is I get my phone that in the morning, I look right at my phone
[26:30]or I slip on my bathroom like bright and that is a key part of my routine kind of like
[26:35]a bio hack that everybody can do that is no effort at all.
[26:38]Excellent.
[26:39]Okay.
[26:40]I can do that.
[26:41]There you go.
[26:42]Thank you so much.
[26:43]Thank you so much.
[26:44]Thank you so much.
[26:45]Thank you for me too.
[26:46]Thanks so much.
[26:47]Have a great day.
[26:48]You too.
[26:49]Hey, Ken.
[26:50]Okay.
[26:51]Bye bye.
[26:52]Bye bye.
[26:53]This episode has been sponsored by Bookhampton, Bookhampton.com.
[26:54]Thanks to Ryan and Steve at Texture Sound for the audio editing and mixing.
[26:58]Thanks for listening to Momstone.
[26:59]Have time to read books.