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- [00:01]
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Welcome to five Minute Magic from the Mindful Creative Podcast, a short bonus episode sharing tips and insights from the pages of the book of the same title. Every week I'll be sharing one or two ideas that can give you an actionable takeaway for your creative process, your work, your business, or just food for thought for the weekend ahead. These episodes share content from the audiobook and you can find the link to the full version in the show Notes below. Today we're going to talk about food because I'm going to share with you a story which is called Heavy Head your mouth bar yet. And it's a perfect prequel or pre episode to episode that's coming out next, which is a interview with a nutritional therapist talking about how to eat for resilience and have you had your mask by it is a real story in my last daytime job, how we didn't eat properly, how we just were sort of seen as those people sort of chained to our desks, eating like crap, working long hours, not necessarily looking after ourselves. And I'm not going to spoil it, but it's a story that I really wanted to share because I have tried everything since not to be seen as someone who survives on Mars bars at lunchtime.
- [01:18]
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Have you had your Mars bar yet? Many moons ago, one of my projects included marketing collateral for a local Mexican restaurant. One of the secret perks of this was the vast number of printed vouchers for free nachos in exchange for an email address that was often simply made up. Oops. As you can imagine, I got through a few of the vouchers and nachos alike. We can't hide the fact that an office diet isn't the healthiest of them all. We're all guilty of eating at our desks to save time on breaks in favour of maximising creative time. In fact, when one of the guys from the Mexican would come over to collect the stuff we'd done for him, often during the lunchtime pickup, he'd always ask if we'd had your Mars bar yet. It became a running joke. How silly the lunch habits could appear to an outsider. He often backed up his joke with a free Mexican takeaway for us delivered right to the office. Now, having a sense of humour is indispensable, and we'll get to that shortly. But this banter was making light of the uncomfortable fact that we were fueling ourselves with the wrong things. Unless you spend time and effort planning out your food with the right knowledge, you can fall into the broad bracket of office workers who survive largely On a diet of processed food, refined sugar, too much caffeine and not enough water, it easily becomes a habit, partly in reaction to our environment and the stress we often put ourselves under. The giveaway is when your energy levels throughout a given day resemble a sine wave, up and down in big peaks and troughs. Realizing how intrinsically your diet is linked to your mood is a real game changer. It feeds into the mood action feedback loop we looked at earlier. Realising what food and drink suits you best and at what time of day can also invigorate your energy and sleep levels. It involves learning about yourself as much as learning about which foods are the healthiest. How you feel after you've eaten something can indicate whether you're doing it right or not. If you want to become a creative athlete and keep yourself strong, then there are some habits you can begin building. One of the most obvious concerns your diet. The right healthy food means a healthy body, which can contribute to a healthy mind and a healthy, creative practice by giving you sustained levels of energy, not the sickly rollercoaster that energy drinks and chocolate bars chain you to. Planning is vital. If you don't plan your workload right, you'll end up in a mess. If you don't make time to prepare and enjoy your food properly, you'll end up rushing and grabbing whatever comes to hand, assuming you remember to eat at all. If you've got a busy life, and especially if you've got kids, then taking 10 to 15 minutes before the start of each week to work out what you're going to eat each day can transform your diet. Make time for meal times where possible, or at least try and eat at roughly the same time every day. And remember to leave sufficient time to prepare your food beforehand. Sometimes we can be so preoccupied that we can eat a whole meal without noticing a single thing about it. When you eat, try and slow down. Focus on the smell, the taste and the look of your food. Savour it as you chew. Even if you only manage to do this once a day, it's a way of becoming present, and the more you do it, the more natural it will become. It's been scientifically proven that the more visually appealing food is, the better people think it tastes. So bearing in mind that it's food that you're going to eat and smell and look at and savor. Try to make every meal the best it can be. Search for the colours and flavours that wake you up and which inspire your taste buds and your creativity. Share that inspiration by cooking for others, there's no one more passionate about their craft. As chefs at the top of their game, their obsession with flavour and the essences of culinary creativity can be mind blowing and immensely inspiring. Watch an episode of shows such as the Chef's Table or the Chef show and take notes, mental edible or otherwise. Even if you're no Michelin star chef, simple seasoning or cooking techniques can transform the most ordinary dish into something you'd happily pay good money for in a restaurant.