CONNECT with Sheila Botelho Podcast

Eating to Win: Simple Nutrition Hacks for More Energy & Focus | Ep 465

• Sheila Botelho

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Your body is your business’s best asset. When you feel energized, clear, and resilient, everything in life and business flows better. 


But what happens when your energy dips, your focus fades, and you feel like you’re running on empty? That’s where strategic nutrition and the right supplements come in.


In this episode, I’m sharing the key mindset shift that changed the way I fuel my body and the go-to supplements I swear by for sustained energy, sharp focus, and better overall well-being. You’ll walk away with a simple strategy to align your nutrition with your goals—without making it complicated or overwhelming.


Because when your body works for you instead of against you, everything else falls into place. Press play to start optimizing your energy and fueling your success from the inside out.


PS: Thanks so much for listening. I would love your review! If you enjoy what I share in this episode, rate, Review & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/connect-with-sheila-botelho/id1527363160 I would really appreciate it. Thanks!





Speaker 1:

You get to decide how you feel, and it may take a bit of time for you to start feeling that way, but it takes a few simple steps initially for you to get there, and one of the ways is by really looking at what you're putting into your body to fuel it. Hi, welcome to the Connect with Sheila Botella podcast. I'm an entrepreneur, self-care strategist and creator of the Season's self-care app. I'm committed to helping you reconnect to your purpose, elevate your well-being and build your version of a happy, successful life. And today, on the solo chat, I want to talk about energy. I want to talk about what gets you energy and what helps you be propelled forward with your dreams and your goals.

Speaker 1:

Life is busy, life is full, and so often, no matter how much you plan, you may feel like your body is not keeping up to you, and what we eat definitely determines the energy that we have. It determines and fuels the results that we create in our lives and businesses. And if you've ever felt like your energy is inconsistent or that, no matter how much you plan, you still are not feeling your best and your body is letting you down, then this is the episode I want you to take some notes on. So the first piece I want to step into is this mindset shift around being healthy and how it can impact our lives, and what I mean by being healthy. Like certainly, that involves so many different things. It involves our mental health, it involves our emotional and spiritual health, our physical health, our relational health. Right now I'm talking about your physical health, and even though we know that impacts everything, doesn't it? When you are not feeling your best, do we not see an impact on our relationships, for instance? Maybe we show up a little cranky. It's hard to be positive and upbeat when we're not feeling good, and so one of the things that we can do is we can start looking at what are we putting in our bodies, what are we putting on our plates? Looking at what are we putting in our bodies, what are we putting on our plates? And the mindset shift is important here, because so often healthy living, healthy eating, can be translation for no fun boring, not tasty, right. So this often stops a lot of us from eating our best, but therefore we're also stopping ourselves from feeling our best, because often those things that we may be putting into our bodies are actually the things that are slowing us down.

Speaker 1:

The reframe is this when you are fueling your body with high quality fuel foods okay, lean proteins, whole grains, plants, leafy things, organic where possible all of those things your body starts to operate on a different level. When you're filling your body up with things that are like highly processed, highly glucose, saturated, fructose, saturated types of ingredients, you may feel great in the moment but then constantly find yourself needing to refill on stimulants like caffeine or more sugar, and then you find you have spikes and dips and spikes and dips in your energy all day long. And good luck trying to take a goal and run with it and complete it and not let the emotions attached to achieving the goal impact the outcome. When you are in one of those blood sugar dips, it's challenging. So, if you look at the way you fuel yourself, is it's going to help give you the future that you most desire? Perhaps that will be motivation enough to start to shift things.

Speaker 1:

For myself, I remember years ago I was very much on the glucose rollercoaster because I ate a lot of fast food. Fortunately, I was in my early 20s and I got over it quickly and started to eat well. Personally, I was in my early 20s and I got over it quickly and started to eat well, but for so many of us this becomes a habit for decades, and it then is not only about the energy decline. It's about what is it doing to our well-being and our health overall. Do we start to develop chronic conditions?

Speaker 1:

I talk about all of this because my background in wellness it's been over 30 years. This because my background in wellness it's been over 30 years. I've had a product partner in the supplement space. That has been fantastic for my health and the health of hundreds and hundreds and thousands of clients who have come through our business and family members as well, and also I am a certified independent nutrition health coach, so with that I'm able to look at what is the science behind our food, what is happening with big food, all of these things. So I have that understanding. That's really been my background and as well as like alongside of business, really for many years, and so now, as I'm looking at the next goals in my own life, I'm constantly looking at ways to up-level my own energetic imprint.

Speaker 1:

I am an optimist by nature and I am very creative, and so I love to go from idea to idea at times. So for me, sustained energy and focus are my main reasons why I want to be putting good things in my body, because it's too easy for me to go off course and if we have these dips in our blood sugar, it's very easy on the downward dip, to say, hmm, this thing I started isn't working, I need to do something different, and so with that, we end up not ever finishing anything. So for me, the sustained focus and the clarity of mind to make long-term decisions and stick with them has been so key, and I can point to the things I put in my body as being a really helpful ally in that process. So what do you want to achieve in your life? How do you want to feel number one and where do you want to be? Where do you want to be enjoying your life? Who do you want to be spending time with? What do you want your financial goals to look like? Everything ties to your energy.

Speaker 1:

As I was talking about on the mini-sode this week about energy, we should never fear aging, but maybe instead fear the regrets we're going to have when we reach one day where it's too late. What are those things you want to do and achieve and what are those things that you wish you would act upon at the end of your life, so that you're like okay, this is the thing I want to have completed. When I rest my head for the last time on my pillow, think about that and let that be the catalyst to you starting to fuel your body in a way that is actually going to help you achieve those things and feel good in the process. So that's the mindset shift. It is about achieving your goals. Putting good things in your body and being healthy is about really achieving the life that you want, and the reframe also is once.

Speaker 1:

I'm telling you, so many clients over the years, my wellness clients particularly would come to me and be like wow, I didn't know that I actually would start to really crave broccoli, like crave good quality, lovely plant-based foods and by plant-based I mean actual plants. I love protein, chicken, beef, all the stuff you get to do you when it comes to your way of eating, but what I mean is eating clean, eating, actual whole foods. They never realized how good it would not only make them feel, but they would actually want themselves to come back for more. It actually starts to taste really good when you start to crowd out those things that are synthetic and addictive type of processed foods and you crowd them out with the good stuff, you actually start to crave it and your energy is limitless. I do not do caffeine. I like a good matcha Most mornings I forgot to have mine today.

Speaker 1:

Literally, I'm fueled by lemon water in the morning and then water throughout the day, and as healthy food as I can find and make for myself, and so this is possible for you too. And I'm in my fifties. So it's like you know, we all have the ability to start making changes. Um, and what we choose to put in our bodies is just that. It is a choice. So that's the first key point.

Speaker 1:

The second thing is our food. I love to eat organic wherever possible, although here we are in the winter in the Northern hemisphere, it's a little challenging to find really fresh, like I do. I have some really good markets close by, but there's certain foods like it's limited right what you can actually get during these seasons. So what becomes even more important, and even throughout the year, is supplementation. What do you supplement with? You go to Healthy Planet, you go to GNC, we're all these places and it's walls and walls and aisles and aisles of different supplements. What do you take? How do you know what to take? Well, I'm here to tell you there are some key things that everyone needs, and that your body gets to decide how much of it it keeps once you take it, and so supplements are a beautiful way to do that.

Speaker 1:

I have some recommendations for you that you can check out for yourself that are beautiful, high, high quality, proven supplements. And then there are things called optimizers, which are also supplements for people with special needs. Let's say, you have knee issues and you need a good glucosamine or something like that, so that you are able to actually get out for your walk or get to the gym and do those things you want to do physically and feel good. There are supplements to help you with that. If you find yourself needing support for your better oxygenation in your body, there's coenzyme Q10. There's just so many different things, so these are optimizer type things.

Speaker 1:

And if you have kids and you want to make sure that they are actually walking your talk as well, watching you model it and then saying, oh, I want to do this too, that's a great way to get them supplementing and eating. Well, by the way, is just do the thing yourself. They will do what you do, not what you say. I'm a parent over here, so I know this. So we have supplements available for younger children and teenagers, because each body children, teenagers and adults all have different needs. Think about it A child is growing at a very rapid rate and then, once you hit adolescence, the brain is still in a massive growth stage all the way until the middle twenties, and then we kind of like, okay, we are complete, and then we grow in different ways, like our neural pathways are constantly growing and our bodies and our brains, they're just on overdrive most of the time, and so there are supplements for the things to help fill in the gaps that maybe what you're getting at the market is just not cutting it Like you need more. In our very toxic world, in our very busy, stressful world, we need to be able to protect our bodies, our cells, and supplementation is a wonderful way to do it and, again, I've been doing this for more than 30 years and seeing beautiful results in my own clients' lives. So you can check out supplements that I recommend in the show notes of this episode.

Speaker 1:

The next thing a very, very simple strategy that I want to share with you to help nutrition work for you and not against you? Is this and not against you? Is this? Tune into your body Actually, take space and think about those things that feel good to you to eat and then think about those things that don't. Let's actually listen to our bodies and know when we're eating something, if it actually feels good.

Speaker 1:

There are so many different types of diets out there right now. There have been for years. The diet industry is huge and there are people saying, oh, I don't eat this, I don't eat that, and people cutting out things. Cutting out things, cutting out things and I invite you to consider this. Your body needs a balance of a whole lot of different types of things. It needs fats, it needs carbohydrates yes, it needs carbohydrates. It needs carbs and protein. The simple way to look at what you should be eating, should be eating is is it a whole food? Is it highly processed? Are there additives? So if you can stick to whole food and then also eat those things, like, try a variety of things, the more colorful your plate the better and you can identify. How does it feel in your body Like, does it actually agree with you or is it something that really doesn't make you feel good. That is a great indication of what you should eat and what you shouldn't be eating. And then those things that you are craving. Let's say, there might be fast food that you're craving. Take that as an indication, as there might be something a mineral, a vitamin or something that perhaps you need more of, for instance, for a long time back in 2018, into 2019.

Speaker 1:

I'm not a chip person. Okay, I don't like potato chips. It's not. I mean, they're okay, but they're never anything I've ever craved. I was craving potato chips and French fries like nobody's business, and I was like what is going on? It turns out I was really, really low in iron, and so really, what I needed was a good iron supplement because of some things I was going through with my health at the time that I didn't realize was happening.

Speaker 1:

So check your blood, get a blood test, find out what are all your levels and actually pay attention to how you feel when you're eating things and see what you are craving, because if there's certain things that you're craving, maybe it means you're deficient in something, and a good blood test will help you guide. Get guided on that. And, of course, when it comes to your health and wellbeing. Please talk to your doctor, talk to your talk to your health professional, whoever that may be, to guide you, especially if you have health issues, because you want to make sure you know what your baseline level of health is so that you know where you can grow from there. And it's important to get their guidance. And everything that I share is from my own experience, but definitely disclaimer I'm not your doctor and you know yourself best.

Speaker 1:

So work in conjunction with someone you trust and I do recommend the supplements in the show notes because they're guaranteed supplements and you get to decide for yourself what you want to put in your body. You're doing that already. You're doing that whenever you go to any restaurant or any drive-through. You're making that decision for yourself. Let's help you up level what you're putting in your body so you get to have higher quality outcomes in your life and feel really, really good. That's the silver lining of this whole story. You get to decide how you feel, and it may take a bit of time for you to start feeling that way, but it takes a few simple steps initially for you to get there, and one of the ways is by really looking at what you're putting into your body to fuel it.

Speaker 1:

So thanks for listening. This is a topic that's very close to my heart. Again, I direct you to the show notes. There's some other good stuff in there. When you think about your goals, when you think about what do I want to achieve in my life, I do have the embodied success method and meditation that is linked in the show notes. Also, if you're looking to really up-level in your life overall and decide, well, what does that look like, I help you reverse engineer from your goal back to today so that the process can be a lot more enjoyable than just giving your all all at once. It can be done step at a time. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you have a beautiful rest of your day and I'll see you on another episode. Big blessings.