Infusing Joy into the Daily Grind: Leveraging Play for Health, and Productivity with Behavioral Coach and Director RED January Canada, Janet Omstead

Uncover the secret to a vibrant work-life balance with Janet Omstead, behavioral change coach and enthusiast of playful living, as she unveils how infusing your routine with joy can transform your approach to health and productivity.

Janet's journey from the high-octane world of Olympic Games production to nurturing wellness through play provides a fresh perspective on how we can rewire our attitudes toward exercise and embrace the rejuvenating power of rest. With her expert insight, we discuss the symbiosis of work, well-being, and the natural cycles of exertion and recovery that mirror the athletic world.

Ever thought of making chores a blast?  Imagine jamming out to your favorite rock tunes while tidying up, turning a mundane task into a mini-concert.

This episode is a treasure trove of such playful strategies, including wisdom from her  book, The Play Book, How to Get in the Habit of Good Health, which lists 150 easy ways to introduce more movement into daily life. We delve into how the essence of play isn't just for kids; it's a vital, often overlooked component of adult health. Plus, we shed light on the social benefits of play, as highlighted by Dr. Stuart Brown and Dr. John Rady, and discuss how initiatives like Red January can kick-start a year of wellness through community and shared joys.

As we wrap our conversation, Janet and I cast a spotlight on the growing impact of Red January and its partnership with the Genwell Project, demonstrating its commitment to not just physical fitness, but mental well-being and community connections. We share anecdotes about the personal rituals that keep us grounded and challenge you to think about that one indispensable element in your own life that maintains your equilibrium.

Tune in for an episode that promises a burst of inspiration and practical tips to make every day a playful adventure.

You can learn more about Janet and her work on her site at https://janetomstead.com/

Find out about RED January Canada at https://join.redjanuary.com/canada

Find our more about Wellbeing at Work's Global Summits, our Global Hub Community of C-Suite executives and our Bespoke division at wellbeingatwork.world

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hello and welcome to the latest episode of Conversations on Well-Being at Work, the podcast by Well-Being at Work. We feature discussions with innovative HR well-being leaders from around the globe. I'm John Brewer. I'm a member of the team involved in designing and chairing the events in North America and also actually in Latin America. We had our first Latin event about a month or so ago and you can also find out about the organization at our website at wwwwellbeingatworkworld. We run global summits in eight regions around the world. We have a global hub community that you're welcome to join, which are HR leaders, and we also have a bespoke division that provides in-depth strategic masterclasses and workshops to our growing C-suite community.

Speaker 1: 0:50

This podcast largely features speakers from the events. Today's guest is not yet a speaker with us, but I hope we can persuade her to join us at our Canada events coming up in the fall of 24. Please, I'd like to welcome our guest here today, Janet Omsted. She's the author of the playbook how to Get in the Habit of Good Health. She's a certified behavioral change coach, a play expert and a director of Red January Canada, which is an interesting new not-for-profit initiative to create greater well-being here in Canada at the start of 2024. Welcome, Janet, Glad you could join us.

Speaker 2: 1:28

Thank you so much for having me on the show, John. I've been listening and following your work, so I'm really happy to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:35

I'm happy you're here because we share a common interest in play, and I also want to hear more about Red January. That's my agenda for this conversation. But first of all, I do like to ask all my guests how are you doing today? How are you doing? And we won't accept an answer of I'm doing fine, there's a traditional response how are you doing?

Speaker 2: 1:54

I couldn't be better, thank you. I have enjoyed partaking in some fresh air with my dog so far and of course, I've been looking forward to this conversation with you. So I don't think life gets much better, to be honest.

Speaker 1: 2:05

I hope that the rest of your day I hope this won't be I'm sure this won't be the high point of your day. It'll be the high point of my day because I've been looking forward to this for quite a while. So what I'd like to do, I think, is talk a little bit about your work with play and then move on to talking about this exciting new initiative that you've been leading here in Canada Red January. Play is one of those things which I think and firmly believe has strong links to both work and well-being, but it's not a word that a lot of people shun it, I think, in both those environments. So perhaps if you could just give us some of your background about how you got into play and the relationship of play and work would be, I think, be a good place to start.

Speaker 2: 2:48

Sure, actually, the health of one. This is my second career. I started out working in production for the Olympic Games and to talk about a playing field. That was quite something to be part of a broadcast team covering that. I've always loved to be active and I'm a runner. I have always enjoyed being outside and as a second career, morphing from television production into the wellness industry, I discovered along my certification journey and working with clients that, while we all can appreciate that exercise and working out is obviously invaluable, it's a magic pill for our health.

Speaker 2: 3:32

A lot of the clients I started working with often put moving their bodies to the bottom of the to-do list. It wasn't something that they were excited to get up and get going about or working full-time and managing lots of things. Some of my clients often didn't think they had the time to work out. And through all of the highs and lows of helping people, the one common thread that when I would show up and help people, what if you looked at exercise as play? What if we just reframed exercise as play?

Speaker 2: 4:07

Because I wrote a book, the playbook how to Get in the Habit of Good Health, and primarily the reason I did that was there's lots of exercise books, exercise Google, exercise and health books, and I think I did one recently and 90,000 fitness books came up, and I'm sure they're all great, but there's a real lack of anybody approaching exercise as something that is accessible, fun and giving themselves permission to move their bodies in the way they want to. So I look at play as the catalyst for better health. When you move more, you feel better, you eat better, you sleep better. So play as in a behavior change, but play as in please look after yourself. So that's the playing field I'm coming from as the expert that I am here in this space.

Speaker 1: 5:04

So I find it interesting because the metaphor of sport is used a lot in business that you try 110% and you put in all that effort and it's about winning. So there's lots of sort of language and thinking around sports that relates to business. That actually doesn't work with an idea of well-being, in the sense that it misses out the part of sports, which is two parts of sports. One is the need for rest. I think people are coming to recognize that you can't be working 110%. I mean you can't work 110%, anyway, you can't be working at that level of intensity all the time, and that's not where you produce high performance. You produce high performance by creating a rhythm between high intensity activity and rest. And the same way, I think there's that element of play around sport that we've lost, right, because it's become too serious, rather like business, right?

Speaker 2: 6:04

I couldn't agree more.

Speaker 2: 6:07

Yeah, I like how you've trained that. In fact, I think, play when we get into our 20s and into the workforce. They don't cross-sectionalize each other. You don't go to work and say I'm going to work to play, whereas when you give yourself permission to find ways throughout the day to move more, which, let's face it, all of this work is coming from my frustration with the fact that there's an inactivity crisis.

Speaker 2: 6:31

There's been an inactivity crisis Since 2001,. There's been no change in inactivity levels. There's 1.4 billion people in the world that do not do enough physical activity to keep healthy, and I think that's a problem, because I don't think it has to be like that. And it's 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity when you break it down as 20 minutes a day. So if 1.4 billion people in the world aren't doing at least 20 minutes a day to keep healthy, look at what the ripple effect of that has shown us. People aren't connecting, people aren't thriving, people are suffering with isolation and mental health and all the things that if we just moved a little more in a way that works for people on their terms, we would, I think, solve this inactivity crisis and or people would show up happier and healthier at work and at home and in the life.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Now, as I said at the beginning, we share an interest in play and a belief in play, but I come to play at work from a somewhat more cerebral perspective, in that I'm. One of the things I do is I facilitate sessions with Lego, serious play, and there's a physical activity with that. There's the manipulation, the bricks. It's not physical in the sense of when you where your focus of play is on the value around physical play right.

Speaker 2: 7:52

Yeah, but when you move your body it engages so many systems in the body that help with all of your health. It's deeper health than just physical activity. It is the keystone habit for better health. So when you are moving more, like I said earlier, you start to feel better. When you feel better, you sleep better. When you sleep better, you eat better. It's just this incredible opportunity to, and a very simple habit to be able to put into place when people can discover what kind of play works for them and at the workplace, and this whole work 110% what you said even taking play breaks throughout the day with someone doing a walking meeting. There's lots of ways to incorporate play into your day so that you can move more. And it doesn't have to be this all or nothing mountain to climb. Anything is possible when you break it down into manageable actions.

Speaker 1: 8:49

But you can have just thinking about physical health and one of the things we're both. Another thing we haven't come in is we both have a canine member of our in our family. So walking the dog can sometimes be a playful activity, a group playful for the dog. It's not terribly playful for me. There's still a value in that. So it's a physical activity element of that walking a dog. That's good for me, that helps my well-being. But it's missing a playful element. A lot of the time I thought I might throw a ball for her once or twice a week or something which is play, which is play. But there is a dimension to that extra to just the physical side of things, isn't there?

Speaker 2: 9:29

Yeah, so a dimension in the act of going for a walk with your dog.

Speaker 1: 9:34

Yeah, so go for the walk with my dog is good for me, but it's not playful. It's a physical activity that's good but not playful. Vacuuming doing the vacuum cleaning is physical but not playful.

Speaker 2: 9:45

I see what you mean.

Speaker 1: 9:46

But the play element is something that sort of supercharges, in a way that the physical activity if you incorporate an element of play.

Speaker 2: 9:56

Yeah, no, I think what I hear you saying is some of the mundane activities that we have to do in life aren't necessarily playful.

Speaker 1: 10:05

Right yeah. I challenge you on that.

Speaker 2: 10:08

But what if we could make them playful? What if that walk for your dog? And okay, you didn't have time to go to the gym? If you like the gym, this is I'm talking to people who don't feel comfortable in the gym or are looking for alternative ways to keep. Well, you don't need a gym, and the reason people think they need an hour is because that's how trainers get paid. You don't need an hour and you don't need a gym.

Speaker 2: 10:30

So that kind of takes a lot of the burden off our shoulders, into opening possibilities, into what could qualify as play. And I often ask my clients what did you like to do as a kid? So if you're out with your dog, john, and you like skipping down the street, or you want to do some push-ups on a park bench, or you're listening to a song and you're dancing along, all that makes it a little more playful. Or you look at the opportunity to walk with your dog. As you are playful time, you're meeting other people, you're meeting other dogs, whatever that may be, you might take a different route. Is that playful to you?

Speaker 2: 11:06

This is as a coach. It's not my job to explain. These are the parameters and this is how you have to play. This is you changing your mindset into what is playful for you and understanding that not all activity has to be done at once. So you might go for a walk with your dog and you might go vacuum your living room, but you might put on a really great song. We were talking prior to recording about craft work and all these great stands. Put on a rock and great song and do your vacuuming at the same time, not only will you clean your house, but you feel amazing because you've done two things at once and that's playful. And it's an example of thousands I could come up with, and in fact in my book I write 150 ways to move more and they honestly, it's about simplicity and what's playful to you.

Speaker 1: 12:03

Interesting. There's two things that I do skip occasionally. Hey, only when people aren't watching. And I know where my wife's vacuuming because I can hear the heavy metal music shaking the building when she's vacuuming, and I'm not a big fan of heavy metal music. I think where I was going with that, and I love that idea of inserting play into what might appear as mundane activities and I think that's that's great. But play is it has a very strong social dimension to it. That we play with other people, mostly don't we. We don't play. We don't see that as a solitary activity, and I'm not saying it can't be. So is that a big component of the well-being impact of play, the fact that it's something that we can do with other people?

Speaker 2: 12:50

A thousand percent. We are all born as playful creatures. I don't know if you've seen the work by Stuart Brown Dr Stuart Brown or I interviewed Dr John Rady, who is a mental health guru out of Harvard University and the whole idea that we are all born with an eight and an eight trait to play. We are you see it in your dog. They just want to play. It's so do people, but somehow through time and circumstance the play playfulness is sucked right out of us. So it's up to us to choose to bring that back into our life, and it's not that hard.

Speaker 1: 13:31

It just takes some imagination and creativity and if honestly, like I said, I have 150 ways in my book that are just simple, Because I have seen studies and I can't remember where they were from right now, but I know I've seen them show that it was around sports and saying that people who engage in social sports if they play tennis, for instance, it has a better, that has a bigger impact on your well being than if you just jog on your own. There is a tangible, measurable, greater impact through that play activity if it's done in a group in some way. So cycling cycling in a group of people cycling is going to actually be better for your well being, or even it may physically be the same as getting on your bike on your own and riding around.

Speaker 2: 14:18

Yes, but when you add in other people it doubles, triples, quadruples the impact on your, the other pieces of whole health, deep health, social health.

Speaker 1: 14:28

So you've got this sort of fundamental thing around activity, which I think most people would say I understand that activity is good for me and I probably don't do enough. I don't think many people would dispute that, since what you're saying is there are two things to say. If you can add play into that, there's an element that in and of itself will improve your well being, since we're being, and if you can then also add the element of other people, it's exercise to the power of three, in a sense, that you're able to deliver by engaging in those kind of things.

Speaker 2: 14:59

Yes, it's in a nutshell when you use play as a catalyst for movement, alone or with others, to create an environment that automatically uses joy and fun in our wellness journey, and we all deserve a lot more fun as we age Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 15:17

Absolutely, Absolutely yes. So I want to get on to the red January thing. I don't want to give that enough time for us to understand what you're doing and how it's gone so far and what the sort of aims of it are, Because I think it's something that probably a lot of people aren't that familiar with because it's a new initiative here in Canada. But before we talk about, just one last question around the play. If you're talking to a client, the CEO calls you in and says, Janet, we're a very serious outfit here and decides you are playing sounds all right, but the workplace is not. We don't want play in our workplace. What's your response to that objection?

Speaker 2: 15:55

I'd be curious.

Speaker 1: 15:57

Or have you ever experienced that Well?

Speaker 2: 16:00

I think that's a really good question. I would start with my coaching. Curiosity lens so well, if you have never had it in the past, how do you not know that it's something your team might not want in the future? What would it look like to be more playful to your team? How could your team come up with solutions to be more playful? People have great ideas of what play means for them and I don't think there's ever a bad idea. So when you're trying, I think, and for the health and being and the team building that play can bring to any organization, I think any leader would be smart to put that forward to an approach that maybe could work some magic into retention and happiness levels.

Speaker 1: 16:58

Yeah, yeah, I know when I do the Lego it's often that oh, it's Lego and it's called serious play. But people don't know it's serious. They just hear the play part. But once they get into it they're laughing and joking and almost giggly at times with the sort of the fun and they want to keep doing it. So I want to stop. And I think it's the same with any kind of play you become absorbed by it in a way that doesn't happen often with work.

Speaker 2: 17:24

Yeah, and I think they could be mutually exclusive to each other, and I also think that when people give themselves permission to play, it opens the doors to a physically, emotionally and psychologically healthy society.

Speaker 1: 17:43

Yes, which leads us on physical, psychological, emotional, healthy society. That's not unrelated to your initiative that you're launching in January 2024. It's the when it happens. I guess you've launched the thing because you're now director with Red January Canada. So tell us about Red January Canada. I'm dying to hear more. It sounds like such a great initiative, so please let us know what you've been up to and why.

Speaker 2: 18:09

Yeah, so Red January is a Canada wide movement for physical, mental and social health that empowers people to overcome barriers that lead to higher inactivity and lower wellbeing in the winter. It is free, it is all month long and it's a positive catalyst for health and human connection, and I love it so much. It's been in the UK for eight years. Hannah Beacham is the founder in the UK and I was following her movement for a number of years and I reached out to her in this past year. I had actually had to put my entire coaching and life and business on hold to help my husband through leukemia and when I was taking a pause and looking at how I wanted to make a greater impact when I was able to come back, this was the vehicle in which I knew would include more Canadians.

Speaker 1: 19:06

We have.

Speaker 2: 19:06

If there's 20,000, sorry, 20,000, 20 million adults in Canada, and 90% of them aren't active in the first place, and even less in the winter months this campaign, by bringing it to Canada, we're the first country to bring it outside of the UK.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Right.

Speaker 2: 19:26

This opportunity to have people understand Red means rise every day. So rise every day your way and be part of a movement that's going to set you up for positive, healthy habits all year long. Because when you start keeping track very like as basic as printing off, we have calendars. When you go to joinredjannuarycom forward, slash Canada you can register, it's free and you can join as an individual or a team Workplace huge opportunity for workplaces to be involved as a team to encourage each other to be active through the month and keep track and then, after the 31 days, you will have started ingraining behavior change that you can keep up all year and it can be as simple as walking with your dog.

Speaker 1: 20:22

It sounds good, because it's certainly a challenge.

Speaker 2: 20:30

I'm. My main physical activity is cycling, which is lovely in June.

Speaker 1: 20:33

October through October. This time of year, although it's been fairly mild, I'm not as good with it as I am the rest of you. So this seems like, especially after Christmas, the holidays of various places and those of no faith where you tend to, they tend to be related to the consumption rather than the activity. This is a great time to start, this, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 20:55

Yeah, rather than the New Year's resolution. New Year's resolution often makes people feel like they're failing at something or they have to give up something. In the new year, red actually encourages you to add something positive for your health, naturally, without it being overwhelming or so restrictive. This gives you the freedom to choose a movement that's going to work for you every day. And, honestly, if you pick something, john, like outside of cycling, what would you pick? And it could be different every day, or it can be the same thing.

Speaker 1: 21:32

I have been promising myself to get back into swimming because I used to swim in the winter and cycle in the summer. But when COVID hit, the swimming became a little problematic because the swimming pools were closed right, which makes it hard, and I haven't gotten back into that groove. So I'm thinking, actually, this red January thing is probably a good point to say, ok, let's give that a world, this now, because the environment is safe relatively and I should get, and I missed the swimming. I think that's why I'm going to for my rise. Oh, I have to rise every day because my dog likes to go up early in the morning.

Speaker 2: 22:06

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 22:07

And she doesn't like me sleeping in. But I think adding the swimming would be a really good way of putting some activity. But having said that, it's also quite a solitary activity. I think that's. My concern is that a lot of the things I indulge in are fairly misanthropic for one of a better word.

Speaker 2: 22:23

Couldn't you invite a friend or find a group that swims together and you join them?

Speaker 1: 22:27

Not really. No, yes, they're probably is, but I probably is probably that there might be something there might be something about I could make more of an effort to. I've got some people I know in the park I see occasionally. It might be quite nice to organize a like a more formal relationship around walking. That would probably be a good idea, I think as well.

Speaker 2: 22:48

I love that idea.

Speaker 1: 22:49

Yeah, but you mentioned you said there's 20 million adults and they're not. Is this, is there an? Is this aimed at a certain age or can kids join red January?

Speaker 2: 22:58

It is all ages and all abilities and I Really one of the things I value most about this movement is that it is inclusive. It's for everybody. I only mentioned that because I have the number 20 million on my vision board and that's how many people I want to help Change their habit around exercise and reframe exercise as play.

Speaker 1: 23:26

So you set a very uneasy goal. Then yeah, yes, yeah, and you start, obviously, so are there any examples of people, of groups or people who've joined this that you've, you'd like to share that there, what they're doing with us, so maybe prompt people ideas.

Speaker 2: 23:45

Yeah, so I have a school that signed up and Every kid gets to choose how they want to move there during the the week at school. So they have a hat they put their names in and whoever picks it gets to choose for the day. There's I have a national daycare company that's going to implement it with all their daycare centers so that they can actually inspire the families of the kids and the grandparents of the kids to also rise every day. I have a couple of corporations that are signing up. We're really starting to build momentum around Lots of creative ways. There are people I know in the UK. There's tons and tons of examples, because it's been there eight years, yes. So I'm actually really excited to see what people come up with, because the possibilities are endless.

Speaker 1: 24:34

But it doesn't have. I'm sorry.

Speaker 2: 24:37

I'm actually planning to do a silent disco. Have you heard of those? The name rings about, but I've never, I've never, I've never participated in one yeah so you grab, gather a group of people and everybody wears headphones and there's DJ and the DJ has three different tracks on the headphones, so everybody's dancing but it's silent.

Speaker 1: 24:56

It's crazy fun, it's really fun Again it's again, when you think about movement and you maybe think about sports is probably your foot. You think, like I said swimming, I cycle, I walk. This is something that's just pure sort of Joyous activity, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 25:13

Yeah, absolutely joyous activity, and it really is the reason it spoke to me so strongly Under my mission to reignite the world's passion for play to fight chronic disease while improving quality of life as we age. This speaks to me so much because, for those less inclined to be active they don't necessarily like sports or they don't like the gym this just starts to open the doors to oh Okay, you mean I belong to, and isn't that important for people to feel like they belong to something?

Speaker 1: 25:48

It's absolutely. I think that's the again. That's something that that you find within the sports world. People and I mentioned about how your activities that are social are Tends to be more effective in terms of your well-being that one of the strong, one of the big factors around sport is that you feel you belong in a team.

Speaker 2: 26:08

Yeah, there are also other groups that aren't necessarily team sports, but they are Communities that like to do things together. So, whether it's an organized sport or organized Community, or it's an organized, even if it's a community of two, it doesn't matter. Yes, as long as you are engaged in the activity of play, your health will only benefit, and that is where I think we can move the needle on the inactivity crisis in itself.

Speaker 1: 26:37

And I think also. I know there was a group a while ago here in Canada they're everywhere I think it was called the Global Challenge or something and they were ended up getting merged with Virgin Pulse and where they had an annual. It was a walking competition where employees would wear pedometers in teams and the idea was who could walk the furthest in a certain time and I think that for some people in some ways sometimes that competitive element can be a great motivator. But I think it's nice to hear something that is about the enjoyment of the thing rather than the just sort of the competitive need. I really like that with what you're doing.

Speaker 2: 27:19

Thank you. I think competition definitely is a motivator for people, but it's also an eliminator for others. Yeah, I think, yeah, intrinsically motivated people like yourself being a cyclist, being a swimmer, being doing the things. It's very innate to you, but there's a lot of people that need extrinsic motivation to participate in something like this, to help them too. So it's really speaking to everybody and leveling the playing field, because we are all. It's a gift really to be able to move your body. We don't have to, we get to. So let's get it, let's go.

Speaker 1: 28:02

Go.

Speaker 2: 28:02

Red yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:04

Absolutely. Before we wrap up, just a couple of things. Is there anything else you want to share about the initiative that you haven't had an opportunity to any last thoughts about it? To encourage folk.

Speaker 2: 28:19

Yeah, share. When you're out doing your thing, take pictures and share them, or send me an email. I'll have John put them in the notes. Send me an email of how Red January has inspired you, because I think that this is only going to grow and grow over the years, like it has in the UK. They've had almost a half a million people participate in eight years and they've raised over 3.5 million pounds for mental wellness initiatives and we've partnered here with the Genwell Project, who is our charitable partner, and they're all about human connection and I'd love to know what people are doing. That would really fire me up, because you just don't know who's listening and who might just use this as their excuse to finally do something positive for their health that isn't overwhelming and is just playful and starting a good habit.

Speaker 1: 29:13

I'm glad you mentioned that, because I was aware of the link with Genwell, but I didn't realise that, and if I'm misdescribing this, then tell me that the Red January was also working as a fundraising vehicle for them. Effectively their partner, yes.

Speaker 2: 29:32

So in the UK they have worked with a number of charities over the years, but in Canada we've partnered with the Genwell Project as our first charitable partnership.

Speaker 1: 29:42

So what I was going to say was one of the things that isn't necessarily playful, that improves your sense of your wellbeing, are acts of kindness for other people. So by working with a charity, you've got this play thing, you've got the physical activity, you've got the sense of community, the sense of belonging, and it's also combined with something where people are actually doing something good for the world.

Speaker 2: 30:05

That makes you feel so at grand.

Speaker 1: 30:06

But that's another element of what is, I think, the participation in that is a very rich experience for people from their point of view.

Speaker 2: 30:13

Yeah, absolutely. I would just add that you do not have to raise funds to participate in Red January. It is not a criteria. The only criteria is that you sign up and try something new and fun in the new year.

Speaker 1: 30:27

Fair, fair quantity. I'm glad you made it. So just remind us once again of the URL for Red January. We'll put it in the notes, but just run it off there for us one more time.

Speaker 2: 30:37

It's a bit long, but bear with me. It's joinredjanuarycom. Forward slash Canada. And even if you go to joinredjanuarycom or redjanuarycom, there will be a pop up that says if you live in Canada, you can join here, so that if you do choose to raise funds, you're not doing it in pounds, you're doing it in dollars, but you don't need to raise funds to participate.

Speaker 1: 31:03

Okay, yeah, just make that clear. Sorry, I didn't want to make that look that way, so that's unclear. To conclude, I always ask many of these conversations. This question just ends up being rather redundant. So this is maybe one of them, but I have rules around running these things and I always ask the same question at the end, which is to ask what's the one thing they do that they most value, that supports their well-being? And you've obviously listed a number of things in the physical realm around, things that people can do and that you probably do. What's the one thing that you do that really keeps you in that zone of well-being, the one thing you'd be most reluctant to give up, as it were?

Speaker 2: 31:41

Besides play.

Speaker 1: 31:45

Let's play off the table because we know you like that.

Speaker 2: 31:48

What's the other thing you like? I love to sleep. There you go. I love to sleep because it's the best time to recover from all my play.

Speaker 1: 31:58

Yes, if you're playing in a physically active, that results in better sleep, which results in better performance and better sense of well-being. So yeah, it ticks all the boxes.

Speaker 2: 32:08

Especially for my brain, especially for my brain. I am determined to keep as much of the mind body functioning optimally as possible and I definitely find the one, two punch of there's obviously a lot of good nutrition and I love all that stuff.

Speaker 1: 32:24

I don't think anyone listening today would doubt the functioning of your brain. It's been a delight speaking with you. Really appreciate you joining us. I'll be following what you're doing on Red January and wishing you well every day of the month. I will try and get out swimming a little bit, because I said I would, and I'll be in touch because hopefully we can set something up around the event the summit in Canada in the fall, when you'll be ramping up for Red January too. So thank you so much. Really appreciate you joining us today.

Speaker 2: 32:55

Fantastic. Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure chatting with you.