Introduction
You know that moment at the end of the workday when you think, “I should go for a walk”—but you just feel exhausted? Instead, you collapse on the couch, or maybe push through one more practical task, and then just zone out.
You want to move more, to have that spark of energy that makes life feel easy and full. You imagine saying yes to a spontaneous hike with friends, having enough energy to play with the kids, or taking that dream hiking trip without wondering if you’ll keep up.
You have ambitions, but right now, it feels like your body’s working against you. You feel sluggish, tight, and just… tired.
Here’s the thing: your body isn’t the enemy. It’s giving you information — real-time feedback on what it needs.
And that’s where a non-diet approach to boosting your energy comes in. Your fatigue might have something to do with what you are eating, but it is never all about the food. And just learning about cutting carbs, eating superfoods, or never skipping breakfast doesn’t necessarily lead to sustainable changes that make a difference long term.
What has the power to boost your vital energy, no matter the season, is understanding what’s happening with your relationship with food, your body, and your daily choices and learning how to support your energy — through awareness, curiosity, and conscious action.
Ready? Let’s walk through the three steps that will help you reclaim your vitality.
Step 1: Become Aware of What’s Influencing Your Current Patterns
If you’ve ever tried to “eat for energy,” you’ve probably come across the advice:
Eat every 3 hours.
Never skip breakfast.
Add more protein.
But if it were that simple and you could do this all the time, you’d already feel amazing.
So what’s really getting in the way? Why do the “energy hacks” work for a few days, then disappear the moment life gets busy?
The first step in the Nourishing Vitality Method is awareness — not of calories or macros, but of you.
- What’s influencing your eating choices?
- How does your body feel before and after meals?
- What patterns keep repeating?
Through awareness, you connect with what’s real right now — your body, your rhythms, your needs. And this opens up into an understanding of why you are doing what you are doing (there is always a reason!) and the chain-link of choices and habits that leads to feeling drained.
You might realize that you eat breakfast and then question why you are hungry at 10:30AM, or that your desire to just-get-one-more-thing-done pushes lunch off until you are starving, or that grabbing a sweet treat feels like the only way to get through the afternoon. You may notice you ignore hunger cues until they show up as irritability and fatigue, or that you are constantly hungry and feel like you are eating all the time trying to prevent an energy crash.
Inside the Nourishing Vitality Method, I provide personalized coaching to help you take those insights and turn them into realistic actions that fit your life— not what the internet says should work.
We explore how your thoughts and beliefs impact your actions and how to listen and respond to your body’s needs to support consistent energy. This is the foundation of sustainable vitality.
Step 2: Get Curious About Your Thoughts and Reactions
Our minds are designed to judge and organize information to create efficient problem solving. This is great as a survival technique – identify problems (speeding car, snake in the path) and react quickly – but when it comes to meaningful change, this same efficiency backfires. The automatic pattern of judging things as “good” or “bad” causes reactions that keep us stuck in the same cycles.
To shift out of these reactionary patterns, we have to ask our brain to approach the information differently, to move from judgment to curiosity. From a place of curiosity and understanding we can respond to the nuance of the situation and what we truly need.
Getting curious means asking open questions instead of categorizing your choices and criticizing yourself. It promotes flexible thinking, seeing things from different perspectives, and imagining various possibilities. It creates an opening to respond differently, freeing up the stuck energy that’s been trapped in rigid patterns and frustrations.
Some curiosity questions to start with might be:
- What’s getting in the way of responding to my needs?
- Where is the pressure to “push through” coming from?
- What would it feel like to be resourced and energized?
- How might I meet my needs and my responsibilities?
Lisa’s Story: From Pushing Through to Feeling Present
When Lisa first came to me, she talked about her ambitions, things she wanted to be doing in her free time that she just didn’t have the energy for. She recognized that she could be eating better, and more consistently, and she knew this would help.
She repeatedly had good intentions around eating healthy, but as a busy professional who prided herself on being reliable and productive, would go all day without eating, get super hungry and end up eating a bag of chips before dinner. She also noticed that she would eat things, especially when she was stressed, that were physically draining and just didn’t know why.
As we worked together, Lisa learned that her “self-sabotage” wasn’t sabotage at all — it was a reactive pattern to stress, physical hunger, and guilt. We got curious about why she dismissed her body’s cues and why she felt she had to earn a break.
Lisa reflected on her experience with using the Nourishing Vitality Method:
“When I started working with Julia, I thought I was going to learn how to eat. What I’ve actually gained is a whole new level of understanding myself and what makes me tick. No diet ever asked me how my brain works — and now I know why none of them ever worked for me long term.”
Through practicing awareness and curiosity and with personalized coaching, Lisa learned how her thoughts were driving her eating and energy patterns. She rebuilt her connection with her body and began to listen — and respond — to her real needs.
“I used to think of my brain and body as separate. Now I feel completely connected. I notice when I need food, water, movement, or rest. It’s become second nature — like riding a bike.”
Curiosity replaces guilt with understanding, and from understanding a new way to respond.
Step 3: Give Yourself Permission
If awareness is the kindling and curiosity is the match, then permission is the spark that lights the fire.
Giving yourself permission means reclaiming your right to decide what you need and how to meet those needs. It’s recognizing that you are the expert on your body and your life.
Many of my clients realize they’ve spent years outsourcing that authority — to diet plans, to workplace expectations, to what they think a “good” person should do. But when you start granting yourself permission, you begin to reclaim your energy.
Here’s what that can look like:
- Giving yourself permission to take a break to eat when your body signals hunger because your needs matter.
- Giving yourself credit for that walk around the block or dancing in the kitchen – it “counts” as movement!
- Giving yourself permission to say “no” to a request you know will be draining.
- Allowing yourself to prioritize enjoyment throughout the day – choosing food that’s satisfying, putting on fun music, connecting with friends.
When you give yourself permission, you begin to trust yourself again — and that trust becomes a renewable source of energy.
Inside the Nourishing Vitality Method, I help clients practice this step intentionally. From the awareness you build I coach you to recognize where you can step into your own authority to take actions that protect, support, and maximize your energy. From food choices to stepping out of people pleasing mode, we get to the root of what is draining your energy and how you can keep the fire of your vital energy stoked.
One client described it beautifully:
“I stopped chasing the idea of a perfect routine and started listening to what my body wanted that day. And without forcing it, I ended up moving more, eating better, and feeling happier.”
I stopped chasing the idea of a perfect routine and started listening to what my body wanted that day. And without forcing it, I ended up moving more, eating better, and feeling happier.
You Might Be Thinking: “This Sounds Like a Lot of Work — I already feel overwhelmed.”
Recognizing your capacity level is important. When you’re struggling to manage it all, taking on one more thing can feel overwhelming.
That overwhelm often means you’re trying to do too much on your own and getting lost in the big picture. The beauty of personalized coaching is that you have guided support that helps you break down the big stuff into manageable pieces.
As your guide, I hold the larger vision, the therapeutic space, and the toolbox. You come as you are, share what you’re experiencing, and through simple conversation you get the insights and the tools you need to take the next step in your journey toward improving your energy.
And more often than not, it’s an “aha!” moment in the coaching conversation that breaks open the ability to move forward with more ease – not completing homework.
You don’t have to go it alone in trying to manage your life and get your spark back. Working together we dial in to what matters most for you – so you can experience more vitality without adding pressure to your already full life.
Let’s Recap!
Instead of trying to incorporate a list of “energy boosting foods” into your next meal plan, start with these simple steps:
- Become Aware – Notice what’s influencing your choices, how your body communicates what it needs, and how you’re currently reacting. This real time presence can unlock new insights that become the keys to breaking old patterns.
- Get Curious – Engage in flexible thinking that opens up a whole new way of approaching situations and responding to your needs.
- Give Yourself Permission – Recognize that you are the expert in your own life and reclaim your right to decide what you need – be it rest, movement, nourishment, or fun.
These steps reconnect you with your body’s natural wisdom and break apart the reactive patterns that are draining your energy. They allow you to reclaim your autonomy to eat, move, and live in a way that supports your vitality and the kind of life you want to live.
Next Step: Ready to Revitalize Your Energy?
If you’re ready to stop ending your days completely spent — and start feeling more alive, more present, and more capable in your body — I’d love to support you.
Inside the Nourishing Vitality Method Jump Start, we take the guesswork out of what’s draining your energy. Together, we identify the patterns, pressures, and habits that are quietly wearing you down, and replace them with simple, doable shifts that actually fit your real life.
You’ll walk away with clarity, confidence, and a renewed sense of possibility — not from following a rigid food plan, but from understanding yourself and your body, and how to respond in supportive ways.
If you want to feel lighter on your feet, more energized after work, and more excited to say “yes” to the activities and people you love, this is the perfect place to begin.You don’t have to figure this out alone — I’m here to guide you.