Colette Heneghan - How to Have the Energy: Your nine-point plan to eating smarter, improving focus and feeding your potential

Welcome to How to Have the Energy. Were so excited to be bringing you this book, which is the result of a few years of collaboration between Colette and myself. Colette has been an inspiration as well as a fountain of knowledge on the topics of nutrition and well-being, and on developing the habits and strategies for peak performance.

Since the release of my first book, How to be a Productivity Ninja, Ive spent the last few years spreading the Ninja gospel around the world, through my company, Think Productive. If youre here because youre already a convert to the way of the Productivity Ninja, then thank you. But if you dont know what the heck Im talking about, then I will explain all shortly.

A couple of years ago, I was finding that while I was sticking to all of the productivity principles that I was promoting, I was still experiencing periods of very low energy and hence poor productivity. I would often experience low moods, especially in the afternoons, and it got to the point where I realized I needed help. Id met Colette a couple of times before, so I asked her to become my nutrition coach. I didnt really know what kind of results I could expect, but I knew that food and fuel are vital for the brains performance. However, the level of additional energy I managed to find was shocking and I didnt think I was eating that badly before.

The changes for me are permanent and habitual. I probably dont spend any more time cooking or preparing food than I ever did. Many of the nutrient-rich meals Im making are simple and fast to prepare. Whats changed is I now have more of a strategy to make sure the meals Im serving myself are serving my brains functions, x too. Id previously experienced a lot of very low-energy days where I didnt feel like working at all, and most days Id feel an energy dip after lunch. Now all thats gone. Ive more or less cut out caffeine and dont feel as sluggish when I wake up. When things get busy or Ive got a lot on, I feel like I can absorb stress like a sponge much like I did in the first few years of my career but this time Im helping myself rest and recover, to keep things sustainable too. And while vanity wasnt part of my motivation for working with Colette, for the first time in my life, friends who I havent seen for a while say things like Youre looking well, or Have you lost weight?, which, to be honest, still feels weird!

For a few months, we had a daily WhatsApp chat, where I would post pictures of every meal and Colette would comment: Doing great, but add some more protein in there, Switch this for that. Simple change, and occasionally Oh dear. [Sad face]. What this process taught me aside from a huge wealth of little snippets of useful nutritional information, was that at times we all need a push to think about what were eating. Colette would challenge my occasional Im too busy for this narrative and remind me that her own work schedule was as busy as mine (as she sent me back a picture of a salad that had been thrown together from brilliant ingredients).