January 10, 2024 • 34 mins
Lisa Leong discovered the hard way that you can be both fit and unhealthy. While working a high-powered (read: high stress) job that required her to fly around the world, she thought she might need some balance. For some reason, she thought training for an Olympic-distance marathon was the way to do it!
Between working marathon hours and training for a literal marathon, she didn’t have time to slow down when she first got a chest infection. Instead, she loaded up on antibiotics and steroids and powered through. She did the same when the chest infection reappeared, and soon enough she was reliant on her medication. Shortly after, she was bed-ridden for months, suffering from nerve damage so bad she would cry if a breeze struck her the wrong way.
Thus started her lifelong quest for real, life-giving health. And if you’ve listened to Lisa’s ABC show, This Working Life, you know she takes her quests seriously.
Her motto is “every day is lab day,” and the same is true outside the office. Lisa shares a wide variety of the personal health experiments she’s currently running, and outlines the long-term thinking that informs her morning routines and other daily health practices.
Connect with Lisa on Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn
***
My new book The Health Habit is out now. You can order a copy here.
Connect with me on the socials:
If you are looking for more tips to improve the way you work and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life. You can sign up for that at howiwork.co
Visit https://www.amantha.com/podcast for full show notes from all episodes.
Get in touch at amantha@inventium.com.au
CREDITS
Produced by Inventium
Host: Amantha Imber
Sound Engineer: Martin Imber
Episode Producer: Liam Riordan
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Last time I had my friend Lisa Lyong on How
I Work, we were about as nerdy as you'd expect.
We talked color coded calendars, collaboration manuals, and broke down
Lisa's somewhat extreme morning routine. But it wasn't enough nerdiness,
so I've asked her back. Now. If you don't know Lisa,
(00:22):
you perhaps might have heard her as the host of
Sundays on ABC Radio Melbourne, or maybe you've listened to
This Working Life on ABC Radio National, and perhaps you've
seen her on her regular appearances on ABC Breakfast TV.
For Lisa, every day is lab day, and that includes
(00:44):
her days off, so you won't be surprised to know
she's as much as a health nerd as she is
a work nerd. Today, we dive even deeper into Lisa's
new and improved morning routine. We cover some of the
more unusual gadgets and tools that she uses on a
daily basis, and we go right back to the start
(01:06):
of Lisa's experimental health journey. My name is doctor Amantha Imber.
I'm an organizational psychologist and founder of behavior change consultancy Inventium,
and this is how I work. A show about how
to help you get so much more out of the
(01:27):
hours in your day. For the next few weeks, I
am deep diving into my guests habits and rituals around health.
We will be covering physical health, mental health, and emotional health.
And in case she didn't know, my new book, The
Health Habit has just hit bookshelves in Australia. If you
are stuck in a cycle of unhealthy habits, then the
(01:49):
Health Habit will help you design a personalized, science backed
plan to change your habits for good. Now onto my
chat with Lisa, which starts with an event that happened
about a decade ago that completely changed her perspective on
her health.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
So I was actually doing a lot of trithlon and
I was an executive and I'd been posted to Asia,
and so I was really flying around a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I had a high powered job.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I knew it was high powered because I had lots
of emails and lots of meetings.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's why I was high powered. You must have been
very important. I was very important then, was this? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Okay, So that was probably twenty twelve, so a decade ago.
And then at the time I thought work life balance
was I was trained for an Olympic distance trithlon. So
at the same time, I was running, and I was
cycling and swimming, and I think because I run, you
know pretty quickly, you know what I mean, like high energy.
(02:54):
I think doing high energy activities really was too much
adrenaline and cortisol. Now the what happened. What happened was
I was working really hard, but every so often I
would get this chest infection, and you know, I just
thought it was just part of life. And I would
get this recurring chest infection, so I would go on steroids,
(03:15):
antibiotics and all sorts of things, which I slowly started
relying on Amantha. So I would just keep on working,
and then suddenly I would get this chest infection bronchitis,
and I would just keep on going. But I would
just take lots of drugs basically. And then one day
I took a holiday and I basically fell over. It
(03:36):
was like too much, and I found out that I
had shingles. You've heard of shingles.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I have, so what are shingles exactly?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it's I thought it was like a medieval disease
because it sounds really ancient. But it's like this rash
that apparently comes from the same type as chicken pox,
and it's a virus and it gets into you and
then it turns into this rash and then after that
some people get post to pedic neuralgia, which is well.
(04:07):
The GP said to me, whatever you do, Lisa, don't
google it. So I went home and I googled it.
And I'll tell you why he said, don't google it.
It's because some people never recover from it. It is
secondary nerve damage, a nerve pain that was so intense
that I would cry out whenever, like the wind would
brush my clothing against the side of me. I couldn't
(04:31):
hug my daughter, I couldn't hug my husband. I was bedridden,
and I remember weeping because I read these stories saying
some people never go back to work. I was on
seven painkillers a day, different types.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Right, and how long were you in that state?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
For a couple of months, and so I was, you know,
once ago, I was bedridden and I thought, this is it.
I've really stuffed up. And I don't know why, because
I feel like, you know, when you get this chea
list of things that you're supposed to do, you know,
you get the job and husband and a daughter, and
you know, I was training hard, and I thought I
(05:09):
was doing all the right things, but actually there was
something missing, and it was this idea of being fit
but unhealthy. So there were heaps of things that I
had to then do to re design Myselfmantha.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
So was there a moment in that two month period
that just sounds like a nightmare where something switched within
you and you thought I need to change.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, it was the intervention of a friend. So my
friend Tristan. He had been banging on about mindfulness for
so many years, and I'd said, Tristan, and I have
time for that, and why would I stop. I've got
so many things to do, why would I stop? But
I was so desperate, Amantha, that I basically signed up
(06:01):
for John kabat Sin's program. It's a twelve week program
and it's called Mindfulness for Stress Reduction. He went into
hospitals and he started looking at supplementing and complementing normal
Western medicine. But with this tradition of meditation and mindfulness.
(06:26):
And remember back in the day, it was not a
cool thing to do, to be honest, it was a
bit woo woo, and people didn't understand that you know
what we know about science now and so at the
time it was still not that popular. But I signed
up for this program. It was really hard, especially for me.
(06:47):
It was super hard, and but what I learned was
pretty transformational for me. So the first thing was informal mindfulness,
so just every so often just being really present in
the moment and being in a non judgmental state. My
team members said that I was much nicer. My brother
(07:08):
said it, I was much nicer as well. And the
reason why I was nicer was that I used to
be so busy that when team members were talking to me,
I was multitasking. I was thinking about other things. Sometimes
I would send them emails and they would receive the
email even though they were talking.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
To me in percenter. Wow right.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And so just this change in my outlook about being
in my body in the present moment and being truly
present with people, and it also helped me with my
client relationships as well. And so that started me on
a journey of understanding my body a bit more. And
then that's when I started working with this incredible GP
(07:52):
when I came back to Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
How did you actually put that into practice and change
those really embedded habits to go from being distracted and
multitasking and feeling like you have to do a million
and one things at the same time to being genuinely
one hundred percent present.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
What's really interesting about that mindfulness practice is there's the
formal part, and that's whether you do, you know, half
an hour in the morning of mindfulness, which I still
struggle with, to be honest, And we can talk about
how I do more of a body practice rather than
a sitting down mindfulness practice. I kept on falling asleep,
to be honest. But the informal mindfulness, you know, you
(08:32):
were talking about my presence when I'm you know, one
hundred percent with you. So that became just a daily practice,
just like going to the gym, of just paying attention,
paying attention to, oh, where is my mind right now?
And how might I be present? And the reason why
Tristan had suggested by the way doing this mindfulness was
(08:55):
not even just about being present in the moment moment.
It's that it can actually help you with pain because
often our thoughts about the pain add on top of
the pain. So you've got the pain, which is the
physical sensation, and then you've got the pain that you
create in your head around the pain, and so just
(09:18):
even I now pay attention to my thoughts and feelings
around things, and that's part of the presence that I use.
I think, whether it be at work or being with friends,
and I think just letting go so there's no outcome
that I need from this moment. It's just I'm in
the moment, and that helps.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Have you got any mantras or self talk that tends
to be repetitive to help ground you in the moment
or bring you back when you find your mind flying
off in another direction.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I think I use my breath a lot. So different
people have different anchors, and sometimes people don't like using
the breath, but for me, it's readily accessible in terms of, oh, yes,
I'll just think about my breathing, even if it's just
for one second. I'll go back to my breath. I'll
often find, especially in stressful situations, that my breath is
(10:13):
way shallower or I'm not breathing right. So I think, oh, wow,
I've just noticed I'm not breathing. I'm obviously getting angry. Yeah,
and I'll go back and I'll just take a deeper breath,
and you know, do those long breaths out and then
I realize, oh, I've actually come back to myself.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Ah. I like that. I try to do that myself.
I've had Christian o'connellin a couple of times and so
into breath works he is. He taught me a couple
of exercises and I can so relate to that. I've
had such a stressful month the last month, and I
like part of me feels like I'm in this constant
(10:56):
stat of sort.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Of flight, the hyper vigilance, say exactly, you know when
you're stuck in your head and sometimes I describe it
as a brain on a stick, and I feel trapped
in my mind and that's when I know, okay, I
need to go back into my body and realize that
I have a body and I'm not a brain on
a stick, because it's quite dangerous actually when you become
(11:19):
disconnected from your body. And so I do try and
get back into it. And yeah, breath work is one way.
Some people also have a yoga practice. It's any practice
that reminds you I have a body.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Which is so obvious but so powerful. Now I know
that since everything that happened in twenty twelve, You've gone
down some pretty extreme bio hacking go you have, you have,
and so I'm really keen to understand where are you
at now currently, what are your current rituals and practices,
(11:58):
whether they be what you do in the morning, evening,
or during the day, that are really working for you.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So, yes, I am a biohacker, and I think it's
because I did science and law at Union. I've always
been fascinated with scientific method and experimentation, and so I
have a bit of that mindset. Every day's lab day
with my own body. So I've become fascinated with biohacking
and tweaking things. Now there's extreme. So I have tried
(12:26):
cryotherapy where you go into a very very cold chamber
for three minutes. How cold I think it's like minus
one hundred and eighty degrees celsius.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
WHOA, Okay, so this is not just an ice bar, No,
this is pretty extreme, and you're trying to expose your
skin as well, so you kind of it's like being
on the top of a mountain with you know, like
a snowy mountain, but you've got no clothes on.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
That's how cold it is. It is cold, and when
you come out. Of course you feel elated, mainly because
you're but do you know what all that cold therapy,
what I realized was, you know, especially with biohacking, just
do what feels good for your body. Because cold therapy,
(13:12):
even though it's super on trend right now, is not
good for my body. So I tend to play more
with infrared saunas and light therapy like my red light
therapy that I use every morning to get over seasonal
effective disorder. So they're the bio hacks that have been
successful for me. But I wanted to describe my morning routine. Yes,
(13:36):
plus okay, so Show and Tell I brought with.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Me my weekly Good Habits No pad. It's great and
so especially this is because this is a podcast, not
a visual medium. But I love that you've done Show
and Tell even though you are a radio presenter and
you're very familiar with the audio radio with pictures. So
we've got a notepad that looks like it's like yeah,
(14:02):
and it says weekly good habits, and then every road
is a different habit, and then you've written in that
you've written in, and then you've got the days of
the week across the top is different and been ticking
them off. Yeah, okay, so talk me through all these
habits that you're ticking off every day.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So these habits are ones that I'm trying out at
the moments that they do change. That's why I quite
like having the notepad. And hilariously, when we're in COVID
and in lockdown, they got so long that it used
to take me ten hours to do my morning routine.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
But I have.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Whittled them down. But it's still a full pad, isn't it.
So for example, my first habit in the morning, the
very first thing I do is I go into the
kitchen and I create a lemon water and I drink
my So it's like a warm, lukewarm water with lemon
juice in it.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And why are you doing that?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I do that because I'm thirsty and the lemon is there,
because it's it just feels like I'm cleansing my body. Yeah,
So I've been doing that, and then I've got something
called this is a little bit hilarious, it's called zen Kitchen.
I clean up the kitchen, clean up the kitchen. Yees,
So I empty the dishwasher. And that's for my husband, Darcy,
(15:14):
because he is an ax of service person. And so
I don't do a lot at home, and so I
did sing.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
That's Darcy's love language, and so he appreciates when you
do yes, good acts. Yes the require time.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And because I was not doing anything at home, at
one point, I was called the Ministry of Fun. And
then he said one day, well, the Ministry of Fun,
please empty the dishwasher. So then I thought, you know what,
I can empty the dishwasher every morning, and I call.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
It zen Kitchen, like the Ministry of cleaning.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, so that's zend Kitchen. That's number two because if
I don't do it, if I don't do it, second,
I won't do it at all. And then number three.
I won't go through all of them, but I'll just
give you the like.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
The top five. Okay, bulletproof coffee. Have you heard of that?
I tried bulletproof coffee. But for those that are unfamiliar,
can you explain what is in a bulletproof coffee? Okay?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
The original bulletproof coffee has butter coffee and some mct ls,
so it's like a coconut oil, and then you blend
it together.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And quite large quantities because we're talking about a tablespoon
of butter, a tablespoon of MCT oil, and then the
rest of black coffee.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yes, I do ghee now, and I do just a
teaspoon of gee gee just because I'm lactose intolerant as well,
so I sort of but I sort of moved from that.
But it tastes like an amazing cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I agree. So I used to do bulletproof coffee, but
what I found through blood testing pretty regularly is that
it's very high levels of saturated fat. And my body
is one that my cholesterol goes through the roof if
I have even moderate amounts of saturated fat, which is
something I've just had to learn, I'll regularly check my cholesterol.
(17:05):
So bulletproof coffee good for some, good for some, but
not for everyone.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So what do you say the benefits? So for me,
often with coffee, you know how you get the rush
and then sometimes you get a mini crash, which then
means that you might feel like a mid morning muffin
or something sweet. And so what I find for me
is that it evens out the energy that you get
(17:31):
and the focus. And I definitely notice the focus. At
that point, I'm pretty supercharged because I've had my lem
and water, I've had a zen kitchens, so everything's looking nice,
and my bulletproof coffee.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
And then.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm going to share something weird that I don't share
with everyone. But I have a pemph mat. What's that
pulsed electro magnetic frequency MATT? And so it's it's looking
at our bodies. So we are chemical and we're also
energetic our bodies, and so it basically pulse electromagnetic frequency
(18:11):
through my body and is there can you see me
pulsing in front of you?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That's why tell me what like what research there is
around this?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So if you look at the books, it's kind of
like people who think about grounding and the Earth's magnetic
resonance as well. So it looks at each of our
cells as being a sort of magnetic charge and the
fact that you can charge every body. And this is
kind of why I don't tell people about it, but
(18:45):
some practitioners use it, so usually it's something that practitioners have.
I just happen to have my own pimphmat. And that's
another reason why I don't share a lot with people,
because most of the things I do are low cost,
except for that.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
One, okay, and so I'm imagining I use it.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
To sleep as well. It actually helps my brain waves
relax at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Really, so is this like how big is this match?
And are you just like lying on the ground on
the mat.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yes, that's what I'm doing. I'm lying there and in
the mornings, I sort of do it to activate myself.
So I've got my thorough gun out at the same time,
and I'm doing using my Thera gun on my muscles. Oh,
I'm sounding so weird. I can't believe you've got me
to do this.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
For those that don't know, e thera gun is like,
how do you describe it?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It's like a muscle, Yeah, muscle pulsa. So it's got
like a little rubber gun and it.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Goes in and out and in and out like yeah,
a great force. So that do you use it. I've
got a theory gun. I don't use the brand Thera gun,
but I do. We've actually got a couple of lower
cost equivalents get home that my partner and I use.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So I use that for my calves and just my
legs in the morning. And then the last thing that
I do well of this, I basically do ten things.
But this is the fifth and final one that I'm
going to share with you. Is a practice called four
Golden Wheels, and that is part of my chigung practice.
So Chigung is like a cousin of tai chi. I
mentioned that I find it hard to do meditation sitting
(20:17):
down cross legged, so this is a practice that I
do to basically stretch my body and get myself back
into my body. I've been doing that since June. I
used to do tai chi, but now I'm doing chigung,
and I have noticeably made a difference to my headspace
(20:40):
I feel as a result of this.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I remember you telling me after it because you'd gone
to America didn from a master yes practitioner, and I
remember you saying when we caught up after that, that
people close to you in your life, your family, have
noticed a different it's in just how like your personality
all the most.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, I was, I think I've lost my joy. Actually,
at the beginning of the year, and sometimes, you know,
I spoke about being stuck in our heads. I knew
I was stuck, but I felt like a prisoner. I
could not get out, and I was really stressed and
I was feeling really sort of. I was moping around
and not myself and I couldn't buy a.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Hack my way out, Evantha. I really tried.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I tried everything, and I was stuck. And there I
read this book and it was in January about a
guy called Robert Ping. Now he's an Australian citizen actually,
so what happened was Robert Pean. I was in China
and former Prime Minister Bob Hawk happened to be visiting
as a diplomat and got injured, and so Robert Peng
(21:49):
sort of helped him, and Bob Hawk was so amazed.
He said, actually, my daughter, Susan, she's been sick for
seven years, bedridden, kind of like my story bedridden. Can
you help? So he flew Susan all the way to
Robert Ping in China. Robert pen worked with her for
six months and basically she was able to walk again
(22:10):
and get her life back. She flew back to Sydney
and not only was she healed, but she looked younger,
and so all her friends thought amazing, and Women's Weekly
did a story on Robert Peng and the fact that
Susan Hawk looked younger and so he became super popular.
They flew him out to Australia and he lived in
(22:31):
Australia for a long time and taught chigong in Australia.
But unfortunately I missed that because he went to New
York and so I decided there and then and this
is part of my you know, sometimes I do these things.
I thought, I feel like I need to go to
the US to spend ten days learning chigong from Robert Peng,
(22:55):
and I did. And do you know what?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
It was?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
In the middle of the week. Anthor and I had
been walking through this flower garden to get to the
chigong hall every single day, and on that day, it
was a Wednesday, I saw this cuteb dancing on in
between these flowers. And then I realized, I'm back because
(23:21):
I noticed.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
We will be back soon with Lisa talking about how
she sets goals for her health based on working backwards
on what she would physically like to be able to
do and achieve when she is one hundred. If you're
looking for more tips to improve the way you work
and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share
practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life.
(23:48):
You can sign up for that at Amantha dot substack
dot com. That's Amantha dot substack dot com your morning routine.
How long does this all take?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So I only just finished to come here this morning.
I had just start at three am to get to
you today. About that, No, I'm thinking it probably takes
around an hour. I didn't get through everything this morning.
So I also try and hold it lightly. So you know,
that's why I write it every week because sometimes I
(24:24):
change it. I will only put something else in, and
if I substitute out something, so sub out something. So
that's what I'm doing to really keep track. And I
really like ticking it. It makes me feel happy. It's
the dopamine I think of ticking it. So so, yeah,
that's what I do. But there's always a real purpose
(24:45):
to it. And so I wanted to talk a little
bit about goals or you know, mindset around why we
do these things. And we both read Dr Peter Tears
book outliveh Yeah, on longevity. So it's basically thinking about
when you're one hundred, what are the ten most important
(25:06):
physical tasks you want to do for the rest of
your life.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Don't you love that? Oh? I love that? Yeah, I
have it. I haven't actually sat down and written it out. No,
I should.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Should I go through one really quickly. I'd love you too, Okay.
So it's things like hike twenty kilometers a day on
a hilly trail carrying a five kilogram.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Bag when you're one hundred Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Wow, yeah, because I like hiking Ruvy cycle on Saturdays
with the Trihards on my smart bike. So Ruby is
a particular it's a virtual riding program, but it has
footage from all over the world.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Now I had you in here as well.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Oh really yeah, table tennis with Amantha and Darcy. Yeah,
because you know what I mean, because you've got to
have hand eye for that. So what you do with
those examples then is you then look at those and say,
for me to be able to hike twenty kilometers a
day on a hilly trail, what are the things that
I'm doing now to help me with that, or if
(26:11):
I'm going to cycle or play table tennis, what are
the things that would help me? And that's how I
build out my morning routine and the things that I'm
doing during the day is with those goals in mind.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's so cool. I want to come back to the
infrared therapy. Yes, that you are doing, because this is
something that I have tried a little bit. So I've
gone to infrareds yes, and done like about thirty minutes
(26:44):
and I think about seventy degrees sixty five seventy degrees
so quite hot. Yes, But then I haven't done that
for ages. I think like I was going because my
partner was quite interested in it for coming a vascular health.
But then like a lot of the research that's been
done has been on like proper saunas in inverted commas
(27:06):
that they have over in Nordic countries, for example, which
is quite different. Infrared a lot hotter. I think, yeah,
they are a lot hotter. So I'm curious as to
what your experimentation has been and what you have found.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So I started doing this for jet lag and there
was a place where you could do hyperbaric oxygen and
then you do infrared sauna afterwards.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And can you explain what hyperbaric oxygen is?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, you're under pressure. It's like a pressurized cabin and
then you've got all this oxygen being pumped into a mask,
and yeah, do it feels good? And then and then
I did the infrared sauna afterwards. And it was at
a place where there were a lot of flight attendants
and elite sports people like footballers coming into there to
(27:57):
do this. And the flight attendants were doing it for
jet lag, and the footballers were doing it for general health.
And then there was me.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
At what place was this? It's now shut down.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So it was a place in Maulven that I'd found
and they were amazing, but I think it was even
before COVID, but then they shut down, and it was
I absolutely used it for jet lag because I was
flying every week internationally, so whether it be to the
US or to New Zealand, and it was really bonkers
on my body, but it was helping me basically stay vaguely,
(28:32):
you know, in my body. And so I was really
sad when they shut down. And so since then, I've
basically tried hyperbaric by itself and then I've been doing
infra red by itself. I think it was the combo
that was really working for me, and I've stopped doing
hyperbaric oxygen chamber because I'm finding it hard to lie
(28:53):
down for one hour and not do anything one hour. Yeah,
and that the one that I was doing doing through
a medical center, so it's totally supervised because it can
be really dangerous. It's supervised, but they need you to
be there for an hour, and then also you have
to do a series of them. And I'm way too
(29:14):
fiddly to life for an hour, so.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I've stopped doing it.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
But the inf red sauna, I do it every so often,
and I definitely notice the benefits. I come out feeling
like there's a bit of a reset button that's happened,
and I feel clarity in my mind, and my skin
does feel better.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, I must say one of the biggest benefits I
found was it was just such a good state change,
particularly at the end of a hard or a stressful
or exhausting workday. I found spending thirty minutes in an
infrared sauna made my body state do a one eighty
oh and just go to being completely relaxed.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yes, it is really relaxing, isn't it. Something about that
extreme heat and I like it. I can't do normal saunas,
you know, the ones with heated rocks, and I can't breathe,
whereas something about the infrared saunas, I think because they
sort of go into your deep into your cells. I
find it soothing, so it sounds similar. I mean, I
wish I had one in my house. I'd throw you
(30:23):
do it every day?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Didjitz also say that you've got a light that sits
on your desk?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yes? Have you heard of the jew lights JOVV through you?
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I have, yes, Jeeve.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So these are both infrared and red lights that people
use predominantly in the morning for ten minutes. So just
like you would get sunlight on your face in the mornings,
it's kind of that and I definitely use it in
the depths of winter in Melbourne in the mornings, just
(30:56):
to give me that beautiful soft feeling of light on
your face in the morning. People use the full body version,
but I've only got the little one that sits on
my desk, so I haven't invested in the full body one.
But you can use that and it kind of works
the same way as an infred sauna. So it's about
the sort of cellular and energy and infrared in your body.
(31:21):
So and then once again it's what works for your body.
And for me, I have found that the heat and
light works way better for me than cold therapy. Whim
Hoff breathing and that sort of stuff didn't really work.
Maybe I'm just chicken.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I was too cold, don't think so. So we've talked
about so many different health experiments and biohacking activities that
you've done. If you were forced to just like scrap
them all except for two or three, what would you
absolutely keep?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And that's nearly where I've got to this year, actually, Amantha.
Having gone through all of the biohacks with the technology
and the gadgets, I have been trying to pair it
back actually to the essence, because that's the most important part,
and also just being able to do it easily, you know,
and be in a flow state. So for me, my
(32:20):
primary practice is the chigun and that will happen over
and above everything else, and that's because it does integrate
into my body and it feels as natural as possible.
And I think that's where I'm getting to, is where
can I go which is as natural as possible. So
even going back to what food am I putting into
my body and what content am I putting into my body?
(32:43):
That's part of this as well, and going back to
natural I think, and not meddling too much because I
have noticed that when I meddle. You know, other things happen,
don't they, You know, when you're intervene too much.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, amazing, Lisa, It's been so fun chat all things
hell so manicularly nerdy health. So thank you so much
for sharing everything that you're doing. I feel like there's
a wealth of things for people to go try out.
So yeah, and I think just.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Always think about yourself first in terms of trying things.
And I'm certainly not endorsing or suggesting that anyone try
any of the wacky things that I do. And also
maybe research more than me, because I think tend to
just try things and go, oh, well, did it hurt me?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Or is it okay?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So do what Amantha does and do your research properly.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Thank you so much for listening to How I Work.
If you want to connect with Lisa, search for Lisa
Leong on the Socials and check out her podcast This
Working Life, which is also a great book too. If
you enjoyed today's episode, I would love to ask a favor.
Click follow on the podcast app that you're listening to
this on, and if you're feeling really generous, leave a
(33:59):
review for the following this podcast and leaving reviews helps
How I Work find new listeners, and your support is
one of the things that makes this podcast possible. Thank
you for sharing part of your day with me by
listening to How I Work. If you're keen for more
tips on how to work better, connect with me via
(34:19):
LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search
for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the
traditional land of the Warrenery people, part of the cool
And Nation. I am so grateful for being able to
work and live on this beautiful land, and I want
to pay my respects to elder's past, present and emerging.
(34:43):
How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support
from Dead Set Studios. The producer for this episode was
Liam Reardon, and thank you to Martin Nimba who did
the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it
would have otherwise.
Last time I had my friend Lisa Lyong on How
I Work, we were about as nerdy as you'd expect.
We talked color coded calendars, collaboration manuals, and broke down
Lisa's somewhat extreme morning routine. But it wasn't enough nerdiness,
so I've asked her back. Now. If you don't know Lisa,
(00:22):
you perhaps might have heard her as the host of
Sundays on ABC Radio Melbourne, or maybe you've listened to
This Working Life on ABC Radio National, and perhaps you've
seen her on her regular appearances on ABC Breakfast TV.
For Lisa, every day is lab day, and that includes
(00:44):
her days off, so you won't be surprised to know
she's as much as a health nerd as she is
a work nerd. Today, we dive even deeper into Lisa's
new and improved morning routine. We cover some of the
more unusual gadgets and tools that she uses on a
daily basis, and we go right back to the start
(01:06):
of Lisa's experimental health journey. My name is doctor Amantha Imber.
I'm an organizational psychologist and founder of behavior change consultancy Inventium,
and this is how I work. A show about how
to help you get so much more out of the
(01:27):
hours in your day. For the next few weeks, I
am deep diving into my guests habits and rituals around health.
We will be covering physical health, mental health, and emotional health.
And in case she didn't know, my new book, The
Health Habit has just hit bookshelves in Australia. If you
are stuck in a cycle of unhealthy habits, then the
(01:49):
Health Habit will help you design a personalized, science backed
plan to change your habits for good. Now onto my
chat with Lisa, which starts with an event that happened
about a decade ago that completely changed her perspective on
her health.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
So I was actually doing a lot of trithlon and
I was an executive and I'd been posted to Asia,
and so I was really flying around a lot.
Speaker 1 (02:19):
I had a high powered job.
Speaker 2 (02:22):
I knew it was high powered because I had lots
of emails and lots of meetings.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
That's why I was high powered. You must have been
very important. I was very important then, was this? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (02:34):
Okay, So that was probably twenty twelve, so a decade ago.
And then at the time I thought work life balance
was I was trained for an Olympic distance trithlon. So
at the same time, I was running, and I was
cycling and swimming, and I think because I run, you
know pretty quickly, you know what I mean, like high energy.
(02:54):
I think doing high energy activities really was too much
adrenaline and cortisol. Now the what happened. What happened was
I was working really hard, but every so often I
would get this chest infection, and you know, I just
thought it was just part of life. And I would
get this recurring chest infection, so I would go on steroids,
(03:15):
antibiotics and all sorts of things, which I slowly started
relying on Amantha. So I would just keep on working,
and then suddenly I would get this chest infection bronchitis,
and I would just keep on going. But I would
just take lots of drugs basically. And then one day
I took a holiday and I basically fell over. It
(03:36):
was like too much, and I found out that I
had shingles. You've heard of shingles.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
I have, so what are shingles exactly?
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Yeah, it's I thought it was like a medieval disease
because it sounds really ancient. But it's like this rash
that apparently comes from the same type as chicken pox,
and it's a virus and it gets into you and
then it turns into this rash and then after that
some people get post to pedic neuralgia, which is well.
(04:07):
The GP said to me, whatever you do, Lisa, don't
google it. So I went home and I googled it.
And I'll tell you why he said, don't google it.
It's because some people never recover from it. It is
secondary nerve damage, a nerve pain that was so intense
that I would cry out whenever, like the wind would
brush my clothing against the side of me. I couldn't
(04:31):
hug my daughter, I couldn't hug my husband. I was bedridden,
and I remember weeping because I read these stories saying
some people never go back to work. I was on
seven painkillers a day, different types.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
Right, and how long were you in that state?
Speaker 2 (04:47):
For a couple of months, and so I was, you know,
once ago, I was bedridden and I thought, this is it.
I've really stuffed up. And I don't know why, because
I feel like, you know, when you get this chea
list of things that you're supposed to do, you know,
you get the job and husband and a daughter, and
you know, I was training hard, and I thought I
(05:09):
was doing all the right things, but actually there was
something missing, and it was this idea of being fit
but unhealthy. So there were heaps of things that I
had to then do to re design Myselfmantha.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
So was there a moment in that two month period
that just sounds like a nightmare where something switched within
you and you thought I need to change.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
Yeah, it was the intervention of a friend. So my
friend Tristan. He had been banging on about mindfulness for
so many years, and I'd said, Tristan, and I have
time for that, and why would I stop. I've got
so many things to do, why would I stop? But
I was so desperate, Amantha, that I basically signed up
(06:01):
for John kabat Sin's program. It's a twelve week program
and it's called Mindfulness for Stress Reduction. He went into
hospitals and he started looking at supplementing and complementing normal
Western medicine. But with this tradition of meditation and mindfulness.
(06:26):
And remember back in the day, it was not a
cool thing to do, to be honest, it was a
bit woo woo, and people didn't understand that you know
what we know about science now and so at the
time it was still not that popular. But I signed
up for this program. It was really hard, especially for me.
(06:47):
It was super hard, and but what I learned was
pretty transformational for me. So the first thing was informal mindfulness,
so just every so often just being really present in
the moment and being in a non judgmental state. My
team members said that I was much nicer. My brother
(07:08):
said it, I was much nicer as well. And the
reason why I was nicer was that I used to
be so busy that when team members were talking to me,
I was multitasking. I was thinking about other things. Sometimes
I would send them emails and they would receive the
email even though they were talking.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
To me in percenter. Wow right.
Speaker 2 (07:29):
And so just this change in my outlook about being
in my body in the present moment and being truly
present with people, and it also helped me with my
client relationships as well. And so that started me on
a journey of understanding my body a bit more. And
then that's when I started working with this incredible GP
(07:52):
when I came back to Australia.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
How did you actually put that into practice and change
those really embedded habits to go from being distracted and
multitasking and feeling like you have to do a million
and one things at the same time to being genuinely
one hundred percent present.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
What's really interesting about that mindfulness practice is there's the
formal part, and that's whether you do, you know, half
an hour in the morning of mindfulness, which I still
struggle with, to be honest, And we can talk about
how I do more of a body practice rather than
a sitting down mindfulness practice. I kept on falling asleep,
to be honest. But the informal mindfulness, you know, you
(08:32):
were talking about my presence when I'm you know, one
hundred percent with you. So that became just a daily practice,
just like going to the gym, of just paying attention,
paying attention to, oh, where is my mind right now?
And how might I be present? And the reason why
Tristan had suggested by the way doing this mindfulness was
(08:55):
not even just about being present in the moment moment.
It's that it can actually help you with pain because
often our thoughts about the pain add on top of
the pain. So you've got the pain, which is the
physical sensation, and then you've got the pain that you
create in your head around the pain, and so just
(09:18):
even I now pay attention to my thoughts and feelings
around things, and that's part of the presence that I use.
I think, whether it be at work or being with friends,
and I think just letting go so there's no outcome
that I need from this moment. It's just I'm in
the moment, and that helps.
Speaker 1 (09:38):
Have you got any mantras or self talk that tends
to be repetitive to help ground you in the moment
or bring you back when you find your mind flying
off in another direction.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I think I use my breath a lot. So different
people have different anchors, and sometimes people don't like using
the breath, but for me, it's readily accessible in terms of, oh, yes,
I'll just think about my breathing, even if it's just
for one second. I'll go back to my breath. I'll
often find, especially in stressful situations, that my breath is
(10:13):
way shallower or I'm not breathing right. So I think, oh, wow,
I've just noticed I'm not breathing. I'm obviously getting angry. Yeah,
and I'll go back and I'll just take a deeper breath,
and you know, do those long breaths out and then
I realize, oh, I've actually come back to myself.
Speaker 1 (10:34):
Ah. I like that. I try to do that myself.
I've had Christian o'connellin a couple of times and so
into breath works he is. He taught me a couple
of exercises and I can so relate to that. I've
had such a stressful month the last month, and I
like part of me feels like I'm in this constant
(10:56):
stat of sort.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Of flight, the hyper vigilance, say exactly, you know when
you're stuck in your head and sometimes I describe it
as a brain on a stick, and I feel trapped
in my mind and that's when I know, okay, I
need to go back into my body and realize that
I have a body and I'm not a brain on
a stick, because it's quite dangerous actually when you become
(11:19):
disconnected from your body. And so I do try and
get back into it. And yeah, breath work is one way.
Some people also have a yoga practice. It's any practice
that reminds you I have a body.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Which is so obvious but so powerful. Now I know
that since everything that happened in twenty twelve, You've gone
down some pretty extreme bio hacking go you have, you have,
and so I'm really keen to understand where are you
at now currently, what are your current rituals and practices,
(11:58):
whether they be what you do in the morning, evening,
or during the day, that are really working for you.
Speaker 2 (12:04):
So, yes, I am a biohacker, and I think it's
because I did science and law at Union. I've always
been fascinated with scientific method and experimentation, and so I
have a bit of that mindset. Every day's lab day
with my own body. So I've become fascinated with biohacking
and tweaking things. Now there's extreme. So I have tried
(12:26):
cryotherapy where you go into a very very cold chamber
for three minutes. How cold I think it's like minus
one hundred and eighty degrees celsius.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
WHOA, Okay, so this is not just an ice bar, No,
this is pretty extreme, and you're trying to expose your
skin as well, so you kind of it's like being
on the top of a mountain with you know, like
a snowy mountain, but you've got no clothes on.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
That's how cold it is. It is cold, and when
you come out. Of course you feel elated, mainly because
you're but do you know what all that cold therapy,
what I realized was, you know, especially with biohacking, just
do what feels good for your body. Because cold therapy,
(13:12):
even though it's super on trend right now, is not
good for my body. So I tend to play more
with infrared saunas and light therapy like my red light
therapy that I use every morning to get over seasonal
effective disorder. So they're the bio hacks that have been
successful for me. But I wanted to describe my morning routine. Yes,
(13:36):
plus okay, so Show and Tell I brought with.
Speaker 1 (13:40):
Me my weekly Good Habits No pad. It's great and
so especially this is because this is a podcast, not
a visual medium. But I love that you've done Show
and Tell even though you are a radio presenter and
you're very familiar with the audio radio with pictures. So
we've got a notepad that looks like it's like yeah,
(14:02):
and it says weekly good habits, and then every road
is a different habit, and then you've written in that
you've written in, and then you've got the days of
the week across the top is different and been ticking
them off. Yeah, okay, so talk me through all these
habits that you're ticking off every day.
Speaker 2 (14:18):
So these habits are ones that I'm trying out at
the moments that they do change. That's why I quite
like having the notepad. And hilariously, when we're in COVID
and in lockdown, they got so long that it used
to take me ten hours to do my morning routine.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
But I have.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
Whittled them down. But it's still a full pad, isn't it.
So for example, my first habit in the morning, the
very first thing I do is I go into the
kitchen and I create a lemon water and I drink
my So it's like a warm, lukewarm water with lemon
juice in it.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
And why are you doing that?
Speaker 2 (14:51):
I do that because I'm thirsty and the lemon is there,
because it's it just feels like I'm cleansing my body. Yeah,
So I've been doing that, and then I've got something
called this is a little bit hilarious, it's called zen Kitchen.
I clean up the kitchen, clean up the kitchen. Yees,
So I empty the dishwasher. And that's for my husband, Darcy,
(15:14):
because he is an ax of service person. And so
I don't do a lot at home, and so I
did sing.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
That's Darcy's love language, and so he appreciates when you
do yes, good acts. Yes the require time.
Speaker 2 (15:28):
And because I was not doing anything at home, at
one point, I was called the Ministry of Fun. And
then he said one day, well, the Ministry of Fun,
please empty the dishwasher. So then I thought, you know what,
I can empty the dishwasher every morning, and I call.
Speaker 1 (15:44):
It zen Kitchen, like the Ministry of cleaning.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Yeah, so that's zend Kitchen. That's number two because if
I don't do it, if I don't do it, second,
I won't do it at all. And then number three.
I won't go through all of them, but I'll just
give you the like.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
The top five. Okay, bulletproof coffee. Have you heard of that?
I tried bulletproof coffee. But for those that are unfamiliar,
can you explain what is in a bulletproof coffee? Okay?
Speaker 2 (16:10):
The original bulletproof coffee has butter coffee and some mct ls,
so it's like a coconut oil, and then you blend
it together.
Speaker 1 (16:19):
And quite large quantities because we're talking about a tablespoon
of butter, a tablespoon of MCT oil, and then the
rest of black coffee.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Yes, I do ghee now, and I do just a
teaspoon of gee gee just because I'm lactose intolerant as well,
so I sort of but I sort of moved from that.
But it tastes like an amazing cup of coffee.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
I agree. So I used to do bulletproof coffee, but
what I found through blood testing pretty regularly is that
it's very high levels of saturated fat. And my body
is one that my cholesterol goes through the roof if
I have even moderate amounts of saturated fat, which is
something I've just had to learn, I'll regularly check my cholesterol.
(17:05):
So bulletproof coffee good for some, good for some, but
not for everyone.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
So what do you say the benefits? So for me,
often with coffee, you know how you get the rush
and then sometimes you get a mini crash, which then
means that you might feel like a mid morning muffin
or something sweet. And so what I find for me
is that it evens out the energy that you get
(17:31):
and the focus. And I definitely notice the focus. At
that point, I'm pretty supercharged because I've had my lem
and water, I've had a zen kitchens, so everything's looking nice,
and my bulletproof coffee.
Speaker 1 (17:43):
And then.
Speaker 2 (17:45):
I'm going to share something weird that I don't share
with everyone. But I have a pemph mat. What's that
pulsed electro magnetic frequency MATT? And so it's it's looking
at our bodies. So we are chemical and we're also
energetic our bodies, and so it basically pulse electromagnetic frequency
(18:11):
through my body and is there can you see me
pulsing in front of you?
Speaker 1 (18:19):
That's why tell me what like what research there is
around this?
Speaker 2 (18:24):
So if you look at the books, it's kind of
like people who think about grounding and the Earth's magnetic
resonance as well. So it looks at each of our
cells as being a sort of magnetic charge and the
fact that you can charge every body. And this is
kind of why I don't tell people about it, but
(18:45):
some practitioners use it, so usually it's something that practitioners have.
I just happen to have my own pimphmat. And that's
another reason why I don't share a lot with people,
because most of the things I do are low cost,
except for that.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
One, okay, and so I'm imagining I use it.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
To sleep as well. It actually helps my brain waves
relax at the end of the day.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
Really, so is this like how big is this match?
And are you just like lying on the ground on
the mat.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Yes, that's what I'm doing. I'm lying there and in
the mornings, I sort of do it to activate myself.
So I've got my thorough gun out at the same time,
and I'm doing using my Thera gun on my muscles. Oh,
I'm sounding so weird. I can't believe you've got me
to do this.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
For those that don't know, e thera gun is like,
how do you describe it?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
It's like a muscle, Yeah, muscle pulsa. So it's got
like a little rubber gun and it.
Speaker 1 (19:40):
Goes in and out and in and out like yeah,
a great force. So that do you use it. I've
got a theory gun. I don't use the brand Thera gun,
but I do. We've actually got a couple of lower
cost equivalents get home that my partner and I use.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So I use that for my calves and just my
legs in the morning. And then the last thing that
I do well of this, I basically do ten things.
But this is the fifth and final one that I'm
going to share with you. Is a practice called four
Golden Wheels, and that is part of my chigung practice.
So Chigung is like a cousin of tai chi. I
mentioned that I find it hard to do meditation sitting
(20:17):
down cross legged, so this is a practice that I
do to basically stretch my body and get myself back
into my body. I've been doing that since June. I
used to do tai chi, but now I'm doing chigung,
and I have noticeably made a difference to my headspace
(20:40):
I feel as a result of this.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
I remember you telling me after it because you'd gone
to America didn from a master yes practitioner, and I
remember you saying when we caught up after that, that
people close to you in your life, your family, have
noticed a different it's in just how like your personality
all the most.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yeah, I was, I think I've lost my joy. Actually,
at the beginning of the year, and sometimes, you know,
I spoke about being stuck in our heads. I knew
I was stuck, but I felt like a prisoner. I
could not get out, and I was really stressed and
I was feeling really sort of. I was moping around
and not myself and I couldn't buy a.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Hack my way out, Evantha. I really tried.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
I tried everything, and I was stuck. And there I
read this book and it was in January about a
guy called Robert Ping. Now he's an Australian citizen actually,
so what happened was Robert Pean. I was in China
and former Prime Minister Bob Hawk happened to be visiting
as a diplomat and got injured, and so Robert Peng
(21:49):
sort of helped him, and Bob Hawk was so amazed.
He said, actually, my daughter, Susan, she's been sick for
seven years, bedridden, kind of like my story bedridden. Can
you help? So he flew Susan all the way to
Robert Ping in China. Robert pen worked with her for
six months and basically she was able to walk again
(22:10):
and get her life back. She flew back to Sydney
and not only was she healed, but she looked younger,
and so all her friends thought amazing, and Women's Weekly
did a story on Robert Peng and the fact that
Susan Hawk looked younger and so he became super popular.
They flew him out to Australia and he lived in
(22:31):
Australia for a long time and taught chigong in Australia.
But unfortunately I missed that because he went to New
York and so I decided there and then and this
is part of my you know, sometimes I do these things.
I thought, I feel like I need to go to
the US to spend ten days learning chigong from Robert Peng,
(22:55):
and I did. And do you know what?
Speaker 1 (22:58):
It was?
Speaker 2 (22:58):
In the middle of the week. Anthor and I had
been walking through this flower garden to get to the
chigong hall every single day, and on that day, it
was a Wednesday, I saw this cuteb dancing on in
between these flowers. And then I realized, I'm back because
(23:21):
I noticed.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
We will be back soon with Lisa talking about how
she sets goals for her health based on working backwards
on what she would physically like to be able to
do and achieve when she is one hundred. If you're
looking for more tips to improve the way you work
and live, I write a weekly newsletter where I share
practical and simple to apply tips to improve your life.
(23:48):
You can sign up for that at Amantha dot substack
dot com. That's Amantha dot substack dot com your morning routine.
How long does this all take?
Speaker 2 (24:03):
So I only just finished to come here this morning.
I had just start at three am to get to
you today. About that, No, I'm thinking it probably takes
around an hour. I didn't get through everything this morning.
So I also try and hold it lightly. So you know,
that's why I write it every week because sometimes I
(24:24):
change it. I will only put something else in, and
if I substitute out something, so sub out something. So
that's what I'm doing to really keep track. And I
really like ticking it. It makes me feel happy. It's
the dopamine I think of ticking it. So so, yeah,
that's what I do. But there's always a real purpose
(24:45):
to it. And so I wanted to talk a little
bit about goals or you know, mindset around why we
do these things. And we both read Dr Peter Tears
book outliveh Yeah, on longevity. So it's basically thinking about
when you're one hundred, what are the ten most important
(25:06):
physical tasks you want to do for the rest of
your life.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
Don't you love that? Oh? I love that? Yeah, I
have it. I haven't actually sat down and written it out. No,
I should.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Should I go through one really quickly. I'd love you too, Okay.
So it's things like hike twenty kilometers a day on
a hilly trail carrying a five kilogram.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Bag when you're one hundred Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
Wow, yeah, because I like hiking Ruvy cycle on Saturdays
with the Trihards on my smart bike. So Ruby is
a particular it's a virtual riding program, but it has
footage from all over the world.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
Now I had you in here as well.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
Oh really yeah, table tennis with Amantha and Darcy. Yeah,
because you know what I mean, because you've got to
have hand eye for that. So what you do with
those examples then is you then look at those and say,
for me to be able to hike twenty kilometers a
day on a hilly trail, what are the things that
I'm doing now to help me with that, or if
(26:11):
I'm going to cycle or play table tennis, what are
the things that would help me? And that's how I
build out my morning routine and the things that I'm
doing during the day is with those goals in mind.
Speaker 1 (26:23):
That's so cool. I want to come back to the
infrared therapy. Yes, that you are doing, because this is
something that I have tried a little bit. So I've
gone to infrareds yes, and done like about thirty minutes
(26:44):
and I think about seventy degrees sixty five seventy degrees
so quite hot. Yes, But then I haven't done that
for ages. I think like I was going because my
partner was quite interested in it for coming a vascular health.
But then like a lot of the research that's been
done has been on like proper saunas in inverted commas
(27:06):
that they have over in Nordic countries, for example, which
is quite different. Infrared a lot hotter. I think, yeah,
they are a lot hotter. So I'm curious as to
what your experimentation has been and what you have found.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
So I started doing this for jet lag and there
was a place where you could do hyperbaric oxygen and
then you do infrared sauna afterwards.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
And can you explain what hyperbaric oxygen is?
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, you're under pressure. It's like a pressurized cabin and
then you've got all this oxygen being pumped into a mask,
and yeah, do it feels good? And then and then
I did the infrared sauna afterwards. And it was at
a place where there were a lot of flight attendants
and elite sports people like footballers coming into there to
(27:57):
do this. And the flight attendants were doing it for
jet lag, and the footballers were doing it for general health.
And then there was me.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
At what place was this? It's now shut down.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
So it was a place in Maulven that I'd found
and they were amazing, but I think it was even
before COVID, but then they shut down, and it was
I absolutely used it for jet lag because I was
flying every week internationally, so whether it be to the
US or to New Zealand, and it was really bonkers
on my body, but it was helping me basically stay vaguely,
(28:32):
you know, in my body. And so I was really
sad when they shut down. And so since then, I've
basically tried hyperbaric by itself and then I've been doing
infra red by itself. I think it was the combo
that was really working for me, and I've stopped doing
hyperbaric oxygen chamber because I'm finding it hard to lie
(28:53):
down for one hour and not do anything one hour. Yeah,
and that the one that I was doing doing through
a medical center, so it's totally supervised because it can
be really dangerous. It's supervised, but they need you to
be there for an hour, and then also you have
to do a series of them. And I'm way too
(29:14):
fiddly to life for an hour, so.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
I've stopped doing it.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
But the inf red sauna, I do it every so often,
and I definitely notice the benefits. I come out feeling
like there's a bit of a reset button that's happened,
and I feel clarity in my mind, and my skin
does feel better.
Speaker 1 (29:40):
Yeah, I must say one of the biggest benefits I
found was it was just such a good state change,
particularly at the end of a hard or a stressful
or exhausting workday. I found spending thirty minutes in an
infrared sauna made my body state do a one eighty
oh and just go to being completely relaxed.
Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yes, it is really relaxing, isn't it. Something about that
extreme heat and I like it. I can't do normal saunas,
you know, the ones with heated rocks, and I can't breathe,
whereas something about the infrared saunas, I think because they
sort of go into your deep into your cells. I
find it soothing, so it sounds similar. I mean, I
wish I had one in my house. I'd throw you
(30:23):
do it every day?
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Didjitz also say that you've got a light that sits
on your desk?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (30:28):
Can you tell me about that?
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Yes? Have you heard of the jew lights JOVV through you?
Speaker 1 (30:33):
I have, yes, Jeeve.
Speaker 2 (30:35):
So these are both infrared and red lights that people
use predominantly in the morning for ten minutes. So just
like you would get sunlight on your face in the mornings,
it's kind of that and I definitely use it in
the depths of winter in Melbourne in the mornings, just
(30:56):
to give me that beautiful soft feeling of light on
your face in the morning. People use the full body version,
but I've only got the little one that sits on
my desk, so I haven't invested in the full body one.
But you can use that and it kind of works
the same way as an infred sauna. So it's about
the sort of cellular and energy and infrared in your body.
(31:21):
So and then once again it's what works for your body.
And for me, I have found that the heat and
light works way better for me than cold therapy. Whim
Hoff breathing and that sort of stuff didn't really work.
Maybe I'm just chicken.
Speaker 1 (31:37):
I was too cold, don't think so. So we've talked
about so many different health experiments and biohacking activities that
you've done. If you were forced to just like scrap
them all except for two or three, what would you
absolutely keep?
Speaker 2 (31:56):
And that's nearly where I've got to this year, actually, Amantha.
Having gone through all of the biohacks with the technology
and the gadgets, I have been trying to pair it
back actually to the essence, because that's the most important part,
and also just being able to do it easily, you know,
and be in a flow state. So for me, my
(32:20):
primary practice is the chigun and that will happen over
and above everything else, and that's because it does integrate
into my body and it feels as natural as possible.
And I think that's where I'm getting to, is where
can I go which is as natural as possible. So
even going back to what food am I putting into
my body and what content am I putting into my body?
(32:43):
That's part of this as well, and going back to
natural I think, and not meddling too much because I
have noticed that when I meddle. You know, other things happen,
don't they, You know, when you're intervene too much.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
Yeah, amazing, Lisa, It's been so fun chat all things
hell so manicularly nerdy health. So thank you so much
for sharing everything that you're doing. I feel like there's
a wealth of things for people to go try out.
So yeah, and I think just.
Speaker 2 (33:14):
Always think about yourself first in terms of trying things.
And I'm certainly not endorsing or suggesting that anyone try
any of the wacky things that I do. And also
maybe research more than me, because I think tend to
just try things and go, oh, well, did it hurt me?
Speaker 1 (33:31):
Or is it okay?
Speaker 2 (33:32):
So do what Amantha does and do your research properly.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
Thank you so much for listening to How I Work.
If you want to connect with Lisa, search for Lisa
Leong on the Socials and check out her podcast This
Working Life, which is also a great book too. If
you enjoyed today's episode, I would love to ask a favor.
Click follow on the podcast app that you're listening to
this on, and if you're feeling really generous, leave a
(33:59):
review for the following this podcast and leaving reviews helps
How I Work find new listeners, and your support is
one of the things that makes this podcast possible. Thank
you for sharing part of your day with me by
listening to How I Work. If you're keen for more
tips on how to work better, connect with me via
(34:19):
LinkedIn or Instagram. I'm very easy to find. Just search
for Amantha Imba. How I Work was recorded on the
traditional land of the Warrenery people, part of the cool
And Nation. I am so grateful for being able to
work and live on this beautiful land, and I want
to pay my respects to elder's past, present and emerging.
(34:43):
How I Work is produced by Inventium with production support
from Dead Set Studios. The producer for this episode was
Liam Reardon, and thank you to Martin Nimba who did
the audio mix and makes everything sound better than it
would have otherwise.
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