January is loud.
Everywhere you look there are detoxes, cleanses, gut resets and six or eight week challenges promising a fresh start. Most of them are built on the same idea. Overhaul everything. Be all in. Then start again when life gets in the way.
In week six of the Stay at the Top Summer Reset series, I explain why this approach keeps people stuck in the same cycle and why you do not need to punish your body back into order.
What you actually need is a rhythm you can sustain.
In this episode, I break down why consistency beats extremes every time and how predictable inputs help your brain and body work better. This is not about doing something exciting. It is about doing what works.
This episode gives you a simple reset for the week that focuses on building rhythm, not willpower.
In this episode I share:
- Why January is so loud with detoxes and challenges
- The problem with overhauls and all or nothing thinking
- Why people do not fail because of motivation, but because of strategy
- What actually works for health and energy
- The power of daily habits over extremes
- How blood glucose stability supports focus and decision making
- Why hydration is about what you retain, not just what you drink
- What your liver really needs to do its job
- Why cleanses cannot override poor habits
- How to reset using rhythm, not restriction
Key Quotes
“You do not need to punish your body back into order.”
“You cannot override poor habits with a three day cleanse.”
“What you need is rhythm, not willpower.”
Episode Resources
Jessica Spendlove Website – www.jessicaspendlove.com
Jessica Spendlove Keynotes – JessicaspendloveKeynotes – Jessica Spendlove
The High-Performance Profile Quiz https://jessicaspendlove.com/quiz/
Jess Spendlove Instagram https://www.instagram.com/jess_spendlove_dietitian/?hl=en
Jess Spendlove LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-spendlove-64173bb8/
About Your Host
Jessica Spendlove | Wellbeing Speaker & High Performance Strategist
Jess Spendlove is an international wellbeing and high performance speaker, coach, and advisor. With over 15 years of experience across corporate leadership, elite sport and the military she is known for helping ambitious leaders and teams optimise energy, build resilience, and sustain peak performance.
As one of Australia’s leading performance dietitians and a trusted voice in executive wellbeing, Jess delivers science-backed strategies that empower individuals, teams and organisations to thrive under pressure and achieve long-term success.
Episode Transcript
The following transcript has been automatically generated and not checked for accuracy
Jess Spendlove (00:07.052)
Welcome to week six of the summer reset series. I don’t know about you, but I personally find January such a loud time of year. And what I mean by loud is that everywhere I turn or look, I’m seeing six or eight week challenges here or detoxes or cleanses or gut resets or liver detoxes. And all of this is basically an overhaul. But here is the honest truth.
You do not need to punish your body back into order. You need an operating rhythm that you can actually sustain. Now, most people do not fail because they lack motivation. What gets in the way is the strategy is built on extremes. It is all about being all in and then all out. It’s about overhauling and kickstarting and all of the things need to change.
And then when they fall off the wagon or life gets in the way, they’ll start again Monday or start next week or start next month or start, insert whatever your favorite, I’ll start again here moment is. But the truth is what actually works is not exciting. And I know you know this by now. What actually works is the predictable. It is the unsexy.
It is the daily habits, it’s majoring in the majors, what we eat, how we sleep, how we move, how we manage our stress and the quality of the relationships in our life. Now, the unsexy things that work include regular movement, cooking more at home, hydrating properly and proactively from the start of the day, focusing on your protein and plant intake at every single meal.
And just as a reminder, when I say plants, I’m talking about anything grown in the ground. So fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, lentils, legumes, whole grains, herbs and spices. Now, yes, you can absolutely go through a period or even subscribe to Living Life this way, where you reduce alcohol or you stop drinking altogether and you reduce your ultra processed foods. Absolutely no issue with that.
Jess Spendlove (02:29.656)
But what you don’t wanna do is come from a place of punishment and restriction. You wanna come from a place of rhythm and systems. Because when your inputs are predictable, your body and your brain work so much better. So some of the examples of this, when you stabilize your blood glucose levels, and we do this by what we eat, both the timing and also the composition.
This supports our attention and our decision-making and our energy. When we have adequate and proactive hydration and we’re managing our fluid balance, so this is not just what we consume, but what we retain, this improves our concentration and our mental clarity. Now these are just a couple of examples how you can build cognitive capacity through consistency, not through extremes. Now,
Before something tries to tell you that your liver and your gut needs a reset, know this, your liver already detoxifies for you. That is its job and it is doing that every single day. What actually works best and what supports it are adequate hydration, regular meals, focusing on your protein intake for repair and satiety.
micronutrients and eating all of the colours from your fruits and vegetables, also filling up on our fibre and focusing on our gut health to reduce our overall, you know, caloric intake if we’ve been in a period of excess and reducing or stopping our alcohol intake. What you cannot override are poor habits with a three day or a three week cleanse, but you can radically change how your body and how your brain feels.
in a few weeks by adopting a new rhythm, a sustainable rhythm that you rinse and repeat over time. So for this week, your reset is simple. Do not add or be tempted by another challenge. Do not overhaul everything. We’re focusing on resetting our rhythm. Now I’m happy for you to pick three areas so you can pick three anchors and ask yourself, what is the one movement habit I’m focusing on?
Jess Spendlove (04:50.092)
What is the one food habit that I’m focusing on? And what is the one hydration habit that I’m focusing on? So you’ll pick the three and you’ll identify your habit in each of those categories. What I want you to do is commit to those for the next two weeks only, not forever, not perfectly, just consistently.
because these are the behaviors that actually move the needle. They compound over time and the return on investment is exponential. So you don’t need a detox or a reset of your entire body and operating system or an overhaul. What you need is a mini reset and a system that does not rely on willpower, but relies on rhythm and consistency.
Jess Spendlove (05:41.73)
That’s all I’ve got for you this week in the summer reset mini series. I’ll be back again next week with another tip, tool or tactic, helping you reset across summer. I’ll see you all then.