Nicole Laino
Hello, and welcome to the limitless entrepreneur podcast. I am your host, Nicole Laino. And I am here with a very special guest, Miss Kyra Foy. She is a nutritionist and women’s health expert, Kara, thank you for being here. Hi, how are you?

Ciara Foy
I’m so great. Thank you so much for having me. I’m excited to dive into this conversation.

Nicole Laino
I’m excited to have this conversation too, because we talk a lot about business and people don’t realize how much of you and taking care of yourself is part of business. So why don’t you tell everybody a little bit about Yeah, Noah said that you’re a nutritionist and a women’s health expert, but I’m sure there’s a lot more that you can elaborate on?

Ciara Foy
Yeah, absolutely, I have a unique take on business because it did come from the corporate world. And in that world, I was working on Bay Street, which is the equivalent of Wall Street in Canada. And so I saw a lot of women really working hard to break glass ceilings, and I saw, you know, what that did to them from a physical perspective, you know, from a mental health perspective, and really stopping them from being able to continue forward, especially when it came to the time where they had, you know, relationships and families. So, as a nutritionist, when I, after the birth of my first daughter, I really transitioned out of that world and became a nutritionist, and I found myself very much drawn to women, for sure, but also type a women, women who are really, you know, showing up, you know, to a huge extent, every single day and pushing themselves to those limits. And I really want to see more women make it to the top, whether that be with their own business, or you know, in their career, whatever their desire is. And I really believe that women understanding that they need to be on their to do list and that they are a very important part of their business plan, their own health and happiness and well being is really my mission, so that we do have, you know, the energy and the longevity, to be able to make the huge shifts in the world that we need to.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, I, I come from Wall Street, that was my background as well, originally. So I totally feel you on that. Because there’s definitely there, there’s a culture there of both, you know, achievement, and almost wearing the burnout, like a badge of honor. 100%. And, and I think for women, it’s that feeling of, I can keep up, you know, proving yourself to yourself and to everybody around you. And I think entrepreneurship is really similar. Like we’re, we’re, we’re keeping up with ourselves, and we’re, we’re on this, you’re told that you only have the glass ceilings that you install and entrepreneurship, right, but you’re the thing holding yourself back. So I love I love how you put that that you put you on your to do list that you need to be on there. And so, so talk to us a little bit about just how women can start doing that. Because I think I’ve said I love I’m totally your client, like a corporate background type a woman, like I consider myself a type a hippie. Now I always say because I’ve started to embrace that energetic side. And once I did, my world opened up and my business really started to take off that the charging forward massive action. Yeah, it didn’t work for me, or it would work. And then I would burn out. And I would have to like completely disengage. So if you could talk a little bit about your experience there. Like if for the woman who’s right now facing that, that glass ceiling where she’s she can’t break through, she can’t achieve what she wants to achieve.

Ciara Foy
Yeah, absolutely. And I think what you’re talking about, there can be two really interesting aspects of that. So when we’re, you know, always go, go go. And in the doing, we’re in our masculine energy. And as women, if we’re not all also tapping into that feminine side of us, like you’re talking about that energetic part of it, it really does burn us out, but it’s also painful as a woman to not be in touch with that feminine side of yourself. So with respect to you know, the work that I do, that is definitely part of it, but it really does come down to health and hormones and how stress impacts all of our hormones. So what I often see is women, you know, really trying to make it in the world like men and the truth is, is that we’re not little men, and the way that we are, you know made we are actually much more sensitive to stress than men are. It’s just the way that our systems are biologic Really, and so we need to be, you know, more cognizant of that. And that if we do push ourselves too hard, that we do end up creating that own our own glass ceiling, whether that’s you know, in corporate or entrepreneurship, because we will burn out. And so stress actually impacts all of your hormones. So it doesn’t just impact your stress hormones. People are very familiar with like, cortisol is a stress hormone, you don’t want your cortisol to be too high, or, you know, that can that can cause weight gain and belly fat and things of that nature. Which is true, but you know, the term adrenal fatigue, which is, you know, very common to describe this place where you feel completely burned out, is what it actually is, because your adrenals are not actually tired, they don’t give up on you. But what it actually is, is a imbalance in your HPA axis. So your hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis, and when that goes out of balance, it impacts all of your other hormones, it impacts your thyroid, it impacts your sex hormones like progesterone and estrogen. And so from that perspective, it can really throw women off from an energy perspective, from a mental health perspective. From you know, sleep, being able to restore yourself perspective and zap your energy. And as well, your fertility, there is a reason why we have so many fertility issues right now. And it’s not just because women are, you know, waiting to later in order to have children but also because we are so stressed that biologically, you know, our body is like, yeah, it’s not a good time to to be pregnant, because your body is always going to prioritize survival, over prioritizing reproduction. Reproduction only happens when you know, your body feels it’s a safe environment to bring a child into, for example.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, so. So I’m curious to hear what you sow, does everybody always know when they are in adrenal fatigue or when their hormones are out of balance? So I know that in my experience, and with a lot of the women, I mean, all the women around me when certainly when I worked on Wall Street, and now it’s a different in entrepreneurship, it’s a bit of a different, a different thing. Because on Wall Street, it was, well, you go to work, and you work 12 hours a day. And that’s just how it is. And your kids are with a nanny. And there’s, there’s that with entrepreneurship, it’s trying to do all of the things and trying to balance everything and wearing yourself out in a different way. I’m curious to know, because I was certainly stressed, I didn’t know until it all came a little crashing down around me until it was like a full out. I can’t do this anymore. So I’m curious, Are there signs that people can look out for or do you just have to Is it is it just, you either start taking care of yourself proactively or you don’t know until it’s too late.

Ciara Foy
So there’s definitely a lot of signs and that’s really important to remember is that our body is always talking to us. And the only way that it can speak to us is through symptoms. So all symptoms are important, you know, we tend to in our society, brush them off, oh, there’s a pill for that symptom. But the truth is, is that by doing that you are just pushing the problem, you know, down deeper, and then you will get to a point where you can no longer ignore the symptoms and your body’s going to be screaming at you. So that’s kind of that full on burnout point. That burnout point can look like you can’t sleep at night, you know, your your mind is racing, you’re not sleeping, you’re waking up at three or four o’clock in the morning, completely wired. You feel exhausted during the day, but no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get a good night’s sleep. So you know, that is an example of being really in a kind of stage three phase where you’ve already gone through a period of being quite stressed that stress has now become chronic. And then it’s got to a place where it’s your whole HPA access is kind of flipped where often people will have a surge of energy in the evening but they’re waking up in the morning exhausted and then they’re getting their second wind at night staying up too late and they’re in this you know horrible pattern. What comes after that is complete burnout when you are absolutely have no energy and your day to day you can’t you can’t even keep up with what’s normal, let alone keep up with the pace that you had been going at. So in between all of that there’s so many things and I think as women this is where we really need to tap into our intuition and and listen to those symptoms and really honor how we feel and have good boundaries and say no and not say yes to everything, especially if it’s not in alignment with ourselves. So and another thing that I find so common with entrepreneurs is that they feel unmotivated. So if you’re an entrepreneur and you’ve been pushing really hard, and all of a sudden you feel, you know, just unmotivated, you’re, you know, maybe you’re not closing, you know, clients, or you don’t feel like doing another launch. And nothing is really getting you excited, like the passion is gone. That’s a big sign that you’ve been pushing yourself too hard, and you can’t even tap into, you know, what is what lights you up, and what’s exciting for you. So there’s, there’s so many things that can tell you that you’re going off. And of course, another huge one, which is what I deal with as well, is your menstrual cycle. So if you are not, and this is really for the women who are not on some type of hormonal birth control, but you know, if your cycle starts getting out of balance, if you are having a shorter cycle, if you are finding yourself more symptomatic, if you’re getting headaches, if you know you’re gaining weight, all of these things are signs and symptoms, that your body is out of balance. And so, you know, initially, there are always going to be little things and you think it’s no big deal. But when you don’t address it, like I said, they just keep multiplying, and it will get to the point where your body will make you hard stop. There is no question.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, I think that’s true with everything. I think when you have like an internal knowing that you are not, you’re not facing or you’re not listening to something, your intuition is telling you, the knocks. And the same thing with your body, I think it’s, you know, the knocks are soft, and like really polite at first, like, I just wanted to let you know that things aren’t going so well over here. Maybe if you could just take a few moments. And then when you stop listening, and you’re not in your shoving show, excuse me shrugging it off, then the knocks get louder, and louder and louder, and then a beat your door down. So you know, we want to get there before we get to that point. So let’s talk a little bit about that. And about some ways that people can deal with this that they are noticing that they in and outside of Is it as simple as saying I’m not sleeping? Well, I just need to get more sleep? Or is it? Is it really looking at this a little bit more, you know, going up a level to remember not 30,000 feet, but 10,000 feet and saying like, let’s look at the bigger picture here, besides just getting to bed earlier?

Ciara Foy
Yeah, absolutely. So the bed earlier part is always going to be part of the solution for sure. But there can be many roadblocks and even getting to bed earlier, right. So it sounds like an easy thing to do. If you’re tired, you should get some more sleep. But then you have the problem where people really are attached to their to do list, they can’t step away from that. And they feel like you know, if they go to bed earlier, it’s like, you know, that fear of fear of missing out or fear of their to do lists being that much bigger the next day, when it really comes down to that mindset piece where the reality is, is that your to do list is never going to go away. Right. But if you don’t take care of you, you know, you’re going to be pulling yourself out of the picture. So, you know, the the lifestyle changes are usually the hardest, and they are the most impactful. So from a perspective of I’m a nutritionist, and I help women balance their hormones and prevent and heal burnout. But the digestive system is also a huge part of that. There’s the nutrition part, there’s the supplementation part, you know, I do hormone testing, I use the Dutch test for hormone testing, which is a dried urine test, and it is the most comprehensive test you can get. But there’s not a quick, easy fix pill you can take and it really is those lifestyle changes. So, you know, deciding and again, this comes into mindset and where you know, a good coach is so important is deciding that you have to have you know better boundaries so that you can actually start getting to bed at night that you can actually start winding down that you can actually start listening to your body, that you get yourself in rhythm, your circadian rhythm back, which is you know, going to bed at a better time at night. And believe it or not, this is very hard for a lot of people but for women being asleep between the hours of 10 and two are particularly important for hormonal balance so that It’s definitely something that I recommend. And then, you know, getting up at the same time. And, you know, it’s kind of like, well, you have a younger child. You know, our body is very much like children, it likes to know what’s going to happen next, it works really well on a schedule, right. So those lifestyle, things just going to bed except, etc, are really important. And then in the nutrition, exercise, having mindfulness practices, like you can get deeper and deeper into that. But if there’s one bit of advice that I can recommend to people, it’s really, you know, putting yourself on your to do list and having some time and space for yourself. Because sometimes in the beginning, like, talking about thinking about right now, all of the things that I just mentioned, sounds like a lot, and it is a lot, and it’s not something you can just put into place right off the bat. But the important thing is, is that if you can give yourself a little bit of time and space and put yourself on your to do list every day, you will be able to hear through your intuition through your body, how you were feeling to be able to reflect, and that is always going to be you know, your your guiding light, right. So being able to check in with yourself, I think is the very first step. And from there. People, women especially, they know what they need to do, they know what the actions are. And that might be you know, saying no to things, and creating boundaries. First, it might be bedtime, it might be nutrition, it might be a combo of those things. But if you are not giving yourself time and space every day, you’re never going to know because you’re busying yourself and ignoring every you know, sign and symptom, and little nudge that your body is telling you.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, the I love that you brought that up about you know, or at least acknowledge the fact that the lifestyle changes are the ones that are really, really hard to do. And I think that this is true with everything with business and with life, that trying to while you’re running, trying to make changes in the route is really difficult. But before you start running, to take time to plan to take to take a step back, that can honestly the taking the step back to take a look at things and be like what needs to adjust here. How can I rather than saying I’m so stressed, there’s so much to do, which are statements asking the question of how can I reduce stress? How can I reduce the load on me right now? How can I put me first here? And I think that that’s really hard for moms in particular, I think that that’s we’re very used to putting others first. And I think there’s also an you know, if we’re talking about high achieving women, I think there’s this feeling that, you know, there’s the proving ourselves, there’s the proving we’re worthy. And then there’s also the feeling like, I think we will a lot of us have a hard time asking for help. I think that that’s a common problem. We’re okay, like, well hire coaches and stuff like that, because we’re paying them but just asking for help, can be or admitting we need it that we can’t do at all.

Ciara Foy
Absolutely, yeah. Because we’re told, I think that as women, it’s ingrained in us to believe that, you know, we’re a better mother, the more we sacrifice ourselves, right, which means we have to do it all ourselves. Because we’re in that proving place of you know, if I’m going to be a great mom, I’ve got to put everybody ahead of myself, I’ve got to put my child ahead of myself. And that’s what makes you a great mom. In reality, it’s actually what throws us under the bus. Because you know, I have two daughters, I have a 17 year old and I have a nine year old and I can tell you there’s one thing I know for sure is that children don’t do what you tell them to but they absolutely mimic everything that you do. And so they are always watching you. So how you are treating yourself is inevitably how your child is going to learn how to treat themselves. So it’s it’s so so important to be able to take take that step back and and really prioritize yourself in order to be able to you know, change change course. And it’s particularly important for Type A personalities because it’s usually all or nothing, right? It’s it’s like you said it’s you know, I have this to do list I’ve got to do more. Okay, now I’ve got to add this meditation and exercise and nutrition and sleep and all of these things. And the truth is, is most you Know Taipei’s will go well, if I can’t do it perfectly, I’m just not going to do it. Right. And then they don’t end up doing anything. Or they, you know, they tell themselves, it’s not possible for them. And so one of the really important things, and that’s why I said, like, just giving your yourself time and space to ask, what you need is, you know, such a gateway for you to really tap into your truth is that if you want to actually be successful at any of these things, you’ve actually got to choose a benchmark that is attainable for you. So one of the things that I do with my clients instead of like, you know, throwing them into all of that is, for example, if I want them to work out in the morning, I’m not going to say, Okay, you’re going to, you know, get up an hour earlier in the morning, and have that workout. But if I set a goal and say, Okay, everybody has 15 or 20 minutes, then typically, especially with that type A personality, they can do that everybody has 15 minutes, everybody can do something for 15 minutes. And then the truth is, is that habits are not necessarily what makes you feel successful. But the emotion of feeling successful, because you can do something, and you’re continuing to do it makes you successful. And so that person who you know, only has to do something for 15 to 20 minutes, totally doable for them, they do that. And then they’ll usually do more than that, because you know, they want to push themselves. And so that ends up really creating this habit that they’re excited to do because they feel great. And our actions are driven by emotion. So they feel great. They want to keep doing it. Whereas if you set a goal for yourself when you’re trying to change these things, and you always day by day, feel like you’re not meeting that goalpost and you are feeling unsuccessful, you are absolutely going to quit.

Nicole Laino
Amen, amen. Because what I’m hearing here, like kind of what keeps coming back to me is just this mind body connection, that often we neglect our bodies and the signals that our bodies are giving us because right now there’s a whole like, mindset thing happening and, and people are misunderstanding I think that movement, which is you know, the positive, just positive thoughts. And it’s really about paying attention to your thoughts. Not so much and not getting stuck in negative loops, recognizing your patterns, but all of that stuff it manifests in your body. And then some of us are more head and more and then others are more in our bodies and feel things in our body go pay attention to all of it. But that’s what I keep coming back to and the setting yourself up for success. It’s so important that if you get into that, and I see this a lot with side hustlers. And because a huge part of most of my clients, or my clients are side, hustle hustlers, and also on in this audience, but you’re really going to back yourself out of your business. If you are looking at everything from too broad of you, you have too many things on your list because you have everything you ever want to do on your list. And you’re like I have to exercise. So I think what you brought up, I think that’s such a great point, that define that, specify that I’m going to exercise for 15 minutes every day, I’m going to move my body and you can really broaden that I’m gonna move my body 15 minutes a day that could be going for a walk with your dog. Yeah. But like, I’m going to do rigorous exercise four times a week, because anybody can find that, like, how can you set yourself up where you feel good. So where your mind is triggered to feel that feeling of success? And you’re doing that through? Taking good care of your body putting good foods and nutritious foods into your body? Yeah. So that just that just kept coming back for me that you know that this mind body connection, setting yourself up for success and feeling that feeling is so important. And so often, we set ourselves up for failure.

Ciara Foy
Yeah, we do. We totally do. And it’s rigid dieting.

Nicole Laino
Huh? Yeah. Yeah.

Ciara Foy
And it’s, you’re right, is that something that’s not sustainable? Right. So whether you’re talking about a diet, you know, if somebody’s trying to lose weight, it’s really important how you go about that, because it’s way more impressive to see somebody you know, lose 10 pounds over two months than it is 10 pounds in two weeks, because I can guarantee you what somebody’s doing in two weeks to lose 10 pounds. They’re never going to be able to sustain long term and is the exact same when it comes to your hustle when it comes to building your business. When What can you do day in and day out no matter what, you know, shit is hitting the fan. And that is really that consistency no matter what area of life we’re talking about is what leads to success.

Nicole Laino
Yeah, I couldn’t agree more with all of it. I have one question since you are a nutritionist. What is something that people can? What is it? What’s a, an issue that you see with a lot of women and what they put in their bodies? Because I think this is often neglected. With the way that we think about dieting, we think about fat, not fattening, not fattening not necessarily nutritious, not nutritious. And that’s a huge issue, particularly when we get really busy. Sometimes we’ll just choose something that’s not necessarily fattening but not necessarily good for us, because it’s fast. So what do you what do you what do you see? Or is there any advice that you have for like people to watch out for what they eat or things that they should be looking out for?

Ciara Foy
So I think, you know, I think, two parts of this one is, it’s really important from a mindset perspective, to bring it to the mindset first, is that often when people are really busy, when they’re stressed, when you know, business isn’t going well, or they have too much on their plate, they tend to take out the nutritious food, the exercise, the sleep, all of the things that are actually going to help them get through this really, you know, tough time and be able to manage properly, they actually throw themselves under the bus by thinking I don’t have time to eat healthy, I don’t have time to you know, get enough sleep, etc. And that’s the wrong approach. When we think about giving ourselves a break, it’s often we take out all the things that support us, right? So instead like giving yourself a break, you know, feeding yourself nutritious food, that should not be a well, you know, when all of my ducks are in a row, when life is perfect. When I have that week where you know, I’m I’m taking off for a week, and then I’ll be able to plan on my meals and eat nutritious, that’s when I’ll focus on that. That’s the wrong way of thinking about it. Because the more stressed you are, the more you need that nourishment. And so the very first thing we have to do is turn that mindset around, and really look at it from a perspective of if I’m really stressed, what does my body need, so that it can support me during this time. And when it comes to nutrition, you always you know, we can take it really basic. But if you always focus on food that is close to its natural form as possible. So meaning we’re going to eat whole foods meaning Keane, wha the whole grain is better than quinoa pasta, because the quinoa pasta has been processed. So it’s going to have less nutrition, it’s going to impact our blood sugar more. So always taking it back to how can I get more nutrition, more vitamins and minerals and phytochemicals into what I’m eating. And that always means that you want it to be as fresh as possible and as basic as possible. So I think people get very caught up in you know, don’t have time to meal prep or recipes or having all of the different pieces. And I’m not a fan of recipes, I always tell my clients I’m not like I’m, I’m a women’s health and hormone expert. I’m not a recipe tester. And because I really think that that stops people from eating healthy, you know, sometimes it’s just I throw, you know, some salmon and some broccoli and some brussels sprouts and everything on a sheet pan on some parchment paper and bake it in the oven for 35 minutes. And that’s that like it really doesn’t take a lot to eat healthy. But those are the things that you want to focus on. A huge part of my practice is teaching women about hormone balance when it comes to food. So what you eat at every meal is going to impact your your blood sugar. And that is so critical because if your blood sugar, if you’re not getting that balance correctly, then your blood sugar goes up and down all day and when your blood sugar goes up and down, your energy goes up and down. It’s also a stress on your body. So you know your cortisol levels are going to be affected because believe it or not cortisol is main job is you know people know it as the stress hormone but its main job is to balance blood sugar. So those are things that are so critical because when you learn how to balance each and every meal Feel, then your energy, your mental health, your focus can stay intact instead of you know, being up and down all day, because that is really going to take a huge toll not only on your body, but on your productivity for sure.

Nicole Laino
Are there any foods that people would be surprised to hear about that are actually going to take their energy and mess with their blood sugar levels.

Ciara Foy
So I think from that perspective, what is important to focus on is making sure that you have fat protein and carbohydrates together, because the things that can, you know, impact you as far as your blood sugar levels are going to be carbohydrates that are not balanced with protein and fat, and that are going to have more of an impact on your blood sugar. So even some healthy things like a banana, there’s nothing unhealthy about a banana. However, at banana on its own is a lot of simple sugars. And tropical fruit tends to be higher on the glycemic index, meaning that they impact your blood sugar more quickly. So if you eat a banana just on its own, your blood sugar is going to go up, when your blood sugar goes up, your pancreas is going to secrete insulin, insulin brings your blood sugar down, but it brings it down a little bit too low. And then you end up with a craving. And again, your body is going to crave sugar, something that is going to get your blood sugar up quickly because low blood sugar is actually dangerous for your body. So but if you had that banana with for example, you know you had banana and boiled egg. So the boiled egg has protein and as a source of fat, that’s going to help to slow down those simple sugars in the banana. And it’s also going to help to stabilize your blood sugar. And because you’re not going to have that, you know, quick influx of energy that is also going to be followed by that dip, you were going to have sustained energy focus and your appetite is going to be much better, it’s going to sustain you and you’re going to feel satisfied for a longer period of time by balancing out that meal.

Nicole Laino
That’s really interesting because I never I’ll have a banana for a snack thinking like I’ll go into the kitchen, I’ll be like, I just need a little something. And I’ll see a banana up there. Because it’s such an easy thing. And you think like, oh, it’s healthy, it’s a piece of fruit? Absolutely. I’m actually probably spiking my blood sugar. And that’s probably why I have a little bit of a crash after and I’m looking for something else to eat at that point. Because I think I need more fuel is actually really an accurate depiction of, yeah, you’ve

Ciara Foy
got it because it’s not there’s nothing unhealthy about the about the banana. But if you’re stressed, you’re already asking your body to you know, to do a lot of managing. So often when we’re stressed, we might skip a meal, that’s a stress on your body. People don’t think about that. But it is and when you’re already stressed and you are you know, producing more cortisol, when you skip meals, your body is going to use cortisol to keep your blood sugar balance. So that’s one of the rules that cortisol is actually its main role. So if you have a banana, there’s nothing unhealthy about the banana. But it’s not the best thing to keep you stable, or to, you know, keep you satisfied for a longer period of time, it’s going to be more of a quick fix, as opposed to if you added that egg, you know the protein and fat to it, it’s going to stabilize you better so that your body is not having to manage your blood sugar for you. And it’s going to help to keep you full longer, which is so critical. So you know, that’s why there’s so many things that that people eat. Like when when somebody says to me I eat healthy, I’m like, what does that mean? Because I can tell you that there is no definition of eating healthy, right? That’s it’s going to be different for everybody. There’s not one way of eating that works for everybody. But there’s certainly a lot of things that people think are healthy and that are not and you know, the banana, again, is healthy, but things like granola things like bars that have you know artificial sweeteners in them or have sugar alcohols and then just meals that are unbalanced, like processed grains. When I talk about sugar, most of my clients will say to me, Oh, I don’t eat sugar, but what they’re actually talking about is that they don’t put sugar in their tea right or they don’t add sugar to their meals. But we need to understand sugar on a broader rate like just a much broader scope that if you have a refined foods so for example a quinoa pasta, something that is processed is going to again spike your blood sugar the same same description is what I was talking about with the banana, it’s going to spike your your blood sugar, which is acting like sugar in your bloodstream. So, you know, the impact of sugar is not just sugar itself, but it’s all the foods that act like sugar, and that cause stress on your system. And those are the things that we want to minimize. And we want to learn how to control our blood sugar, and how to increase our insulin sensitivity. Because at the end of the day, whether you want to lose weight, whether you want to balance your blood sugar, you know, in order to sleep better, whether you are trying to manage your mood, whether you’re trying to manage your energy, prevent diabetes, prevent cancer, insulin sensitivity, and blood sugar is the most important thing for you to be focusing on.

Nicole Laino
Well, and I think, I think just to putting it in the context of your business, putting it in the context of being productive, I will say that time management, a lot of people say they don’t have enough time. They’re so busy, they can’t get through their list. And so much of that, I would say, is it time management is you management, it’s management of your energy. And what you’re talking about is how food affects your energy, and will affect the way that you feel which ultimately will affect what you’re able to produce how you’re spending your time. And that includes your focus. Absolutely, yeah, right. So that goes down. And you’re like, I can’t seem to get it together today. And I don’t know why. I like what, what’s sort of standing out to me with everything that you’re saying is, we’ll take a look at, like, a good question, it seems like to ask would be, well, did I take care of myself today? I did I like and maybe that is something like, you know, as simple as what you were saying that putting you on your To Do lists like literally put take care of me on your to do list. And then when you’re not feeling right, taking, you know, taking stock and being like what did I eat this morning? Did I balance that? Am I like am I imbalanced is probably a really good check in to have with yourself

Ciara Foy
100% Because you have to look at how you can support your body, right? Like if you want more out of your body, if you want your if you want to be able to push harder, right? Because there’s always a period of time whether you know, it’s life or business where there is a sprint, it’s not always a marathon, sometimes there is a period of time that is a sprint. And so if you want to be able to do that, to the best of your ability, you have to ask yourself, What does my body need more of right now to support me when I am asking it to go full tilt. And that is something that people don’t do because they take out all of their health care or their self care habits instead of really devoting more time to those things in order for you to be able to accomplish what you want. So you know, it’s really just about working with your body instead of working against

Nicole Laino
it. Yeah, someone gave me some of the best advice I was given when I was going into my one of my launches, my first long launch, like a nine day launch was self care, self care, self care, you’re going to be thinking about all the things you need to do and everything on your checklist. And there’s going to be a lot, but exercise every single day of your launch, meal prep leading up to the launch. So you are not choosing the wrong things because it will bite you in the tokus. And you will lose all of your energy, you will not be able to get all the way through, make sure you are in bed by like really set those hard boundaries for yourself. And it sounded like such. I took it to heart, thank goodness. But it sounded like yeah, I’ll take care of myself is sort of where but the fact that that this was a person I respected was really coming down and being like, no, no, no, seriously, like, focus on you take care of you. Because if you aren’t at your top performance, the launch is not going to be a success.

Ciara Foy
Absolutely. You need to be able to show up.

Nicole Laino
And for your business as an entrepreneur, you are your business. So it’s important to not be short sighted and not be surface level with these things. Like we think about it all as the what we need to do that we really need to take care of ourselves. We need to be more mindful, we need to manage our energy because that’s kind of what this whole podcast is about is that strategy will only take you so far that you need to start looking levels deeper at how you manage yourself and how you view yourself and what you’re bringing into your work and how you’re showing up in order to see the results that you want if you want to play a bigger game.

Ciara Foy
Yeah, absolutely. And it’s it’s that short sightedness that you talk about When it comes to health that, you know, really, really bites people in the butt. I mean, they think that it’s only going to be for a short period of time. And, you know, when this passes, I’ll be able to go back and focus on those things. Again, the truth is, is that this is life, life is never perfect, there’s always going to be something, we don’t get to control most parts of it, but what we can control is our, you know, our ability to respond to whatever situation does present itself. And that is always going to come down to your self care. And you know, how well you were feeling how well rested you are, and you know, your response is going to be a direct correlation to that.

Nicole Laino
Absolutely. This, honestly, this has been, I think, I think you’ve done such a great job of talking about things from a really high level and showing people how they can see themselves in these scenarios and, and see how their health plays a role. But given such great specifics and takeaways for them to, to hold on to and to actually put into action right now. So thank you for that. Thank you for sharing that. And let’s tell the listeners how they can stay in touch with you. How can they get more information about this? Since we have got a limited amount of time, we have only scratched the surface? How can they go deeper with you?

Ciara Foy
Absolutely. So the best thing to do would be to go to my website, Kara foy.com. See iarafoy.com. And I have a brand new free resource on my website, which is a download of the full version of my digital book. So I have a best selling Amazon book called heal your hormones, sorry, it’s called empowered by food. There’s the title, and powered by food, heal your hormones balanced stress and become unstoppable. So you can absolutely go to Amazon and buy that hardcover. But you can get the free download right now on my website. So that I think is the best resource. And you know, to connect with me, I hang out mostly on Instagram at Kira Foy Inc.

Nicole Laino
All right, well, that I mean, that’s sort of the perfect lead in right there. If you were interested in this episode, if you got value out of this episode here is offering very generously the free version of the E version for free of her amazing book that dives into all of this into empowered by food. I love that because everything that we talked about sounds like it’s kind of encapsulated in that great piece that you have there. So we will be linking up all of that information in the show notes. So if you’re not able to go there and grab that right now or can’t find her website, just hop on over to the show notes, and we will have those links for you. But Kara, thank you so much. This was such a great discussion. I think it’s one that needs to be had. And I’m so grateful that you were here with us and you shared everything that you know, and this wonderful resource with us.

Ciara Foy
Thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun. Thank you,

Nicole Laino
and to everybody who’s listening. Thank you so much for being here. Remember, you are only limited by the limitations that you accept. And when you stop accepting those limitations. That is when you become a limitless entrepreneur. Thank you so much for being here. I will see you next week on the next episode.