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Like most people, you are at the mercy of an energy crisis, and I’m not talking about the one Eskom has imposed. It’s about the stresses and strains of modern 21s Century living, and the increased demands on our time that are making us stress-rich, time poor and drained of energy. Help is close at hand for corporates and ordinary mortals in a new book co-authored by a dynamic Johannesburg duo: Celynn Erasmus, registered dietitian, professional speaker and writer, and Joni Peddie, CEO of the BizComm Group, a leader ship and skills development business.
Called The F+A+B Quotient – the FAB part stands for Fuel, Activate, Behave – it gives tips and strategies for optimum fuel (the right diet) for your body, how to activate body and brain to manage stress, get proper restorative rest, and ensure optimum mental performance. It is also about learning to behave authentically, to play to your strengths, collaborate more effectively at work and at play, and generally feel fabulous. Here are some pointers from Erasmus and Peddie. – Marika Sboros
Today, I’m talking to two remarkable Johannesburg women: Celynn Erasmus, a registered dietician, professional speaker, and writer and Joni Peddie who is the CEO of the BizComm Group. It’s a Leadership Training and Skills Development business. The two have written a really, fabulous book called The F+A+B Quotient. Celynn, the first question is to you. In the back of your book, I see that you are sharing performance chemistry methodologies. Give me a layperson’s definition of what that is?
What Joni and I do together (as a dietician and a human behaviourist coming together), the methodology that I use as a dietician is performance chemistry. It’s about helping people perform better, but it’s strongly focused on nutrition. Of course, we know that you can’t eat right and not do other things that are really important, right. The FAB Quotient incorporates nutrition as well as two other key components.
Joni, remind me what FAB stands for?
F is for fuelling. A is for activation, and B is for behaviour. It’s an interaction effect. Referring to Celynn’s point, fuelling is the nutrition part but you really need to activate your body and your brain, and you need to look at how you behave; both in terms of understanding self as well as interacting with others.
Celynn, tell me about the fuel. What is the best fuel for the body?
The best fuel is more about having a strategy. One of the key chapters is around snacking for stamina and strategic refuelling. Each of us are different, so knowing what the right fuel is can sometimes be complicated. We actually discuss all the different things that are currently going on in the market and what’s very important for us, is that it becomes part of your lifestyle. Whatever change you make to the way that you eat, it should be sustainable and not something, you can just do for two weeks (for example), but rather for your life.
The book doesn’t specifically speak to vegetarianism or different forms. We highlight the Mediterranean approach, which is an approach to eating that Joni and I live by. We also have some FAB food guidelines – simple things, which we often forget about such as eating more mindfully and incorporating the 80/20 principle in terms of the way that you eat and your lifestyle. It’s about doing the right things right about 80 percent of the time and 20% of the time – not.
You can cheat?
Yes. Absolutely, instead of striving for perfection because that just sets you up for failure, as opposed to setting you up for success.
It sets you up for a lot of stress, too. Joni, as a human behaviourist, is stress one of your main focuses in your business?
Yes, it is. Marika, it really is about looking at the two angles of the emotional quotient because stress can be self-induced, so you’re not self-aware in terms of how you’re managing yourself (to handle the stress). In addition, there can be external locus of control such as stress in your environment, how you manage it and interrelate with others to minimise that. We are finding – exactly, to that point – that people are stress-rich. You may be speaking to similar people as we are and they’re saying, “We’re overwhelmed and we’re stressed”, and actually, that’s how we came to write the book. We felt so many of our corporate clients were really, time-poor and stress-rich.
In a nutshell, how can you teach people (in this book) to be stress-poor? I would love to be stress-poor.
Marika, the very first point of departure is to understand their natural personalities. In other words, the personalities they were born with. This book has a first. We have an enneagram, which is a system looking at personality and the first in the book is that we have an assessment, called Quest. It’s never been printed before. We’re linked to the Enneagram Institute in New York. They’ve been around for many years – decades – and the system has been around for 2500 years. When people find the authentic type they were born with, they can manage their stress better because there’s no cookie cutter approach here. It’s not the same for you, Celynn, or me in terms of how we handle stress.
Looking and feeling fabulous, Celynn Erasmus (left) and Joni Peddie
Celynn, what about the link between diet and stress?
There’s a strong link, actually. We know that when you’re quite stressed and you don’t have much time, good habits go out of the proverbial window. One of those habits is generally, making good choices around the way that we eat. We also know that it can increase cravings, specifically for carbohydrates, starch, and sugar. We know a lot about sugar and sitting as being as bad as smoking, so I think we have to acknowledge that it isn’t easy to make change. That’s why it’s so important to make tiny, sustainable changes, which is what Joni and I have done in the book.
Every section ends with a simple call to action. What now? What can you do now? You’ve read the section about a particular fuel topic, activate, or around managing stress and your behaviour. What can you do? There’s a simple follow-on step. I think that is the key to understanding that we are stressed, and that potentially, that’s not going to go away. To make it easy, be more resilient and feel FAB.
Joni, one of the elements in the book that spoke to me was ‘teaching people how to power nap’.
Yes, I think it’s essential. It’s probably the best tool in my toolbox of activities, Marika. The ability to power nap…even if you cannot get the required number of hours’ sleep per night, power napping once or twice during the day will actually, be far better for you. The latest Harvard research shows that if you really need seven hours sleep, but you can only get six, a power nap or two during the day is actually, more effective than seven consecutive hours of sleep. Your question is, “Who can teach you?” We do have a section in the book and it’s really, pretty simple if you get into a relaxed posture – and that can be behind your desk if you have privacy.
We have some corporate guys who go to their cars and have a power nap during the day. Set your Smartphone for 20 minutes later and then don’t be stressed (we’ve just used that word) or hard on yourself if you don’t sleep for those 20 minutes. You really want to use a simple breathing technique to just, simmer down the brain and relax so that you ‘windscreen-wipe’ your prefrontal cortex – the part of your brain that’s so active, making decisions, and clarifying problems, etcetera.
Right. Do you power nap, Celynn?
Marika, it’s something, which I’m trying to do because Joni (my partner here) does it everywhere. I have photographs of her in travel lounges, in the car, and in her office and it’s remarkable. She can disappear for 12 minutes – that’s how long I think her cycle of power napping is – and she’ll come back and look as though she’s had a double espresso so it is something, which I’m trying to do. I have started incorporating breathing techniques and I find that I can really, relax my body and loosen muscle tension, which seems to help a lot so I’m hoping that power napping is the next step for me.
It sounds to me that a thread running through your work is ‘living, eating, and breathing more mindfully’. What’s the connection between power napping and meditation, if any?
There doesn’t necessarily have to be a connection, but they both disengage the brain. Our brain is a muscle. We’re overusing it and we’re stressing it, and that’s why people are generally, quite fatigued because their brains are fatigued. Disengaging by meditating and having that quiet time (12 to 20 minutes) and power napping, does the same.
Where can readers buy the book? Where is it available?
The book – as an eBook – is available on Kindle, through Amazon. In addition, it’s available as a PDF eBook off our website. Hard copies are available off our website, as well.
Can you give me the URL, please?
It is www.resilientenergycenter.com.
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