198. The Summer Brain Upgrade: 5 Surprisingly Simple Eating Tricks For A Sharper Mind
Episode Summary
What if a few tiny changes to the timing and way you eat could help you think more clearly now, and support the brain you want to have decades from now?
For high-achieving women, brain health isn't some abstract concern. Your judgment, creativity, memory, and ability to think clearly are part of how you live, lead, and create value. So when surprisingly simple things can make a difference, they're worth knowing about.
From this episode, you'll:
Know exactly why I’m eating yesterday’s pasta, and the surprising thing that happens when you do
Discover the 10-minute post-meal habit that comes with almost no downside
Learn 5 surprisingly simple things you can do right now in summer for a sharper mind, without cutting carbs or giving up the foods you love
Listen now to discover the surprisingly simple changes that can give you a sharper mind without giving up the foods you love, and why a few small shifts may be more powerful than another complicated optimization plan.
Who This Episode Is For
Women entrepreneurs who rely on focus, memory, creativity, and clear decision-making to do their best work.
Women looking for simple brain-healthy eating habits without restrictive diets or giving up carbohydrates.
Entrepreneurs interested in blood sugar regulation for sharper focus, energy, and mental performance.
Women who want practical Mediterranean and MIND diet strategies for long-term brain health.
High performers who are tired of complicated health optimization and want simple, sustainable habits that actually matter.
Women thinking proactively about cognitive health, longevity, and healthy aging.
High-achieving women who want to protect brain health and cognitive performance as they age.
Busy women who want easy summer nutrition and lifestyle habits that support both immediate mental clarity and long-term brain health.
Key Takeaways
Know exactly why I’m eating yesterday’s pasta, and the surprising thing that happens when you do
Discover the 10-minute post-meal habit that comes with almost no downside, and why I’m eating yesterday’s pasta
Learn 5 surprisingly simple things you can do right now in summer for a sharper mind without cutting carbs or giving up the foods you love
Full Episode Transcript:
In this episode, you'll discover five surprisingly simple eating tricks that you can use this summer
for a sharper mind. Welcome to The Uncommon Way, where high-achieving women entrepreneurs and leaders pitch the rulebook and design success on their own terms. I'm your host, Jenna Harrison, a top-ranked business coach sharing business growth strategies, mindset mastery, and power boost to help you attract ideal clients, leverage your unique genius, and scale with freedom. Let's dive in. Welcome, welcome back to The Uncommon Way.
I hope you are having a great summer. I just got back from a trip to Pennsylvania, where it was quite rainy, but that meant everything was so green and lush and beautiful.
I ate a ton of Mexican food because I can't really get that here, and it was everything I remembered. It was so good. So let's talk about eating, because I have learned some things recently that are so simple and so beneficial, and I want everyone else to know. By the end of this episode, you will know exactly why I'm eating yesterday's pasta and the surprising thing that happens when you do. You'll discover the 10-minute post-meal habit that comes with almost no downside, and of course you'll learn five surprisingly simple things you can do right now in summer for a sharper mind without cutting carbs or giving up the food you love. One thing that's probably become obvious if you have followed my work for any length of time is that I am fascinated by the brain. Honestly, I always have been. Long before I became a coach, I was drawn to military psychology and high performance, and later I dove deep into neurodiversity as I tried to better understand my son and myself. And then there was cognitive psychology, nervous system regulation, and all the research that eventually shaped the way I coach today.
I just can't seem to help myself. I think the brain is extraordinary. The fact that this three pound organ somehow creates our experience of the world and shapes our behavior and stores our memories, and that we can direct it in ways that create so much of our reality, I never get tired of learning about it. And if you're anything like the women I know, both clients and friends, you've probably had at least one moment recently where you walked into a room and couldn't remember why. Or searched for a word that you knew you knew and wondered, wait, is this normal?
For women whose careers depend on their judgment, their creativity, and their ability to think clearly, those moments are really unsettling. Our minds aren't just how we navigate life, they're how we as entrepreneurs create value and get paid. And then a week ago, someone very beloved to me was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. As you can imagine, that sent me down an even deeper rabbit hole. And I assumed I'd come back talking about some obscure supplement or cutting edge treatment I'd discovered. But instead, I kept running into the same surprisingly ordinary advice. It wasn't glamorous, it wasn't expensive, it's just a handful of simple eating tricks that go against what many of us were taught, but they seem to create a much friendlier environment for the brain over decades. And you'll notice a difference now. And because so many of us are trying to enjoy ourselves without overcomplicating everything, I thought I'd share these five simple changes that I have started making personally. Now, before we get into food, let's just get the assumptions out of the way. Yes, sleep matters for our brain, exercise matters, building muscle matters, managing blood sugar and heart health matter. And I've talked about most of these before, and frankly, if those aren't in place yet, I'd start there. And I see you staying up later now that it's summer. I'm a night owl by nature myself. But set yourself of tomorrow, the you of tomorrow up for success by getting enough quality sleep. But I don't want to harp on any of that stuff today. I want to focus on the things that really surprised me. And obviously, this is for informational purposes only, not intended as medical advice. Talk to your doctor, see if it's right for you. Okay, so here's what a day might look like if you're using these tricks, which I'll describe further in a second. But I just want you to see that there's nothing super difficult and no deprivation involved. So in the morning for breakfast, have some protein, you know, maybe you have eggs with your avocado toast instead of just avocado toast. It's a small change that has a big effect. And then for lunch, maybe you have a salad first or gazpacho, maybe with some beans or salmon in it before your vacation linguine. So again, no deprivation. And if you're at home, cook the linguine the night before. Stick with me here. Although I can't help thinking of an Italian friend of mine, she's such a food snob in the funnest way. We'll ask if she's been to a certain Italian restaurant and she's like, it's okay. We're more like, it's okay. It's okay, but you can tell they don't use Italian tomatoes. So pre-cooked pasta might sound like sacrilege to some of you, but something miraculous happens in the process, which I'll talk about in a second. And then after lunch, take a 10 minute walk, or just move your body in some way for 10 minutes. I know that is so different than how I was raised, which is you need to let your tummy rest after eating.
Come sit down and rest. But you know what? I remember the first time I visited a friend in Germany. After our meal, my friend's father goes, and now we walk. And I'm like, it's 25 degrees out there. I think I'm good here by the fireplace. But I bundled up and ventured out into the snow. And I still remember how refreshing and amazing I felt. To this day, this is still something I see a lot of my German friends doing. Now, for a mid-afternoon snack, maybe you nibble on some grapes. Actually, frozen grapes are a household favorite here. You've got to try them. They are so good. So maybe you nibble on some grapes, but you also grab a handful of nuts. Same rule applies if you are trading your snack for an aperitif on the beach. Nibble on some nuts or olives for the protein or fiber at the same time. Okay, dinner, pretty much the same as lunch. Maybe you start with roast veggies, you know, antipasti style, and then protein, then starch, followed by some gentle movement. Really, nothing difficult here. Now, let me tell you what's going on behind the scenes with what I just described and why it's so powerful. Our brains run on glucose, but they don't seem to love the roller coaster of glucose levels rising and falling in the bloodstream. I know. So these kind of frequent spikes and crashes over time are associated with inflammation and oxidative stress and vascular damage. And it makes it much harder for your brain to maintain optimum performance and gives you a higher risk of cognitive decline.
If you have ever felt amazingly productive one minute and ready for a nap the next, your blood sugar may have something to do with it. Stable blood sugar doesn't just support long-term brain health. It also helps you think more clearly in the moment and stay focused longer and avoid the mental highs and lows that come with big glucose swings. So that's why researchers have become very interested in simple habits like pairing your carbohydrates with protein and fiber and some of the other things I mentioned, right? None of these are about restriction. They're simply ways of helping your body manage glucose more smoothly. So let's go over the five tricks that we're playing out in the day I just described.
Ready? Number one is move after you eat. Take a 10-minute walk after eating or move your body in some way. That alone improves how your body handles glucose. Your muscles kind of suck up the first available glucose in the bloodstream and then you are more protected, right? And since it also improves your heart health and your mood and your digestion, it's practically all upside. So take the dog for an extra walk and enjoy some fresh air. Number two is don't eat naked carbs. It's so easy. If you're having carbs, whether that is a potato or a drink, combine it with protein, fat, and fiber, or all three if you can, because that slows the digestion and it often really reduces the glucose peaks. Number three, I've never heard this one before, create resistant starches. So if you just cool down in the fridge, you cool down potatoes, rice, pasta, it transforms the amount of simple starch in that food and it increases the resistant starch.
Meaning, again, it's harder for your body to digest and your blood sugar has fewer spikes. But resistant starches are also very healthy for the gut microbiome. So win-win. Unless you're at risk of offending a foodie and then, you know, trade-offs. And number four is food sequencing.
I didn't know this one either. Studies show that eating vegetables first, then a protein or fat, and then starch slows digestion and reduces those spikes. So it's the same meal, but a totally different glucose response. It's not about restricting yourself. It's just engineering the meal differently. It's so funny because I know so many people, especially as children, didn't like the parts of their foods touching and they wanted to eat one thing first and then the next thing. And that's always been, at least in my family, something to tease somebody about.
But it turns out there was some innate intelligence in it too. All right. The last one is called MIND-Style Eating, which stands for Mediterranean and DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. Love that. So one thing that surprised me is that there's actually an eating pattern designed specifically around brain health. And that's what it's called, the MIND diet. It's this blend of these two different diets, but with a stronger emphasis on foods that are really protective for the brain, like leafy greens and berries and beans and whole grains and nuts and olive oil and fish. What I love is that it isn't about perfection. It's about just eating simple, real foods consistently and how it creates an environment overall where your brain has what it needs to perform really well. And that is a philosophy I can definitely get behind because I am not giving up a croissant once in a while living here in Europe. So I think one of the biggest shifts for me with all of this has been realizing that protecting your brain isn't really about chasing optimization. It's about creating the conditions where this incredible instrument can keep serving the life you want to live. After the Alzheimer's diagnosis, I couldn't control what had already happened. But I could ask, if I am starting over today, how much would I care for the brain that I hope is later going to carry me through conversations and travel and coaching and dinners with friends 30 years from now? That's a question I think is worth asking a little earlier than most of us tend to do. And the simple moral here is don't spike the system if you can just kind of gently support it instead. The great news is that you can do it with just a few simple interventions. Those are the ones that I'm now making part of my lifestyle. And I'm very curious to know, like, which of these do you already do? And which are you going to start doing? Drop me a note at Jenna @theUncommonway and let me know. And if someone you know would appreciate this episode, please pass it along. And let's keep as many women as possible doing their best work now and well into the future. All right, take care. I'll talk to you soon.
Core Concepts in This Episode
Leadership Capacity in Business
Cognitive health directly supports the capabilities high-performing women depend on as leaders: clear thinking, creativity, judgment, focus, and sustained mental energy. Protecting those capacities is part of protecting the leader herself.
Brain Health & Cognitive Performance
Brain health isn't just about preventing future decline; it influences how clearly and consistently you perform today. Stable blood sugar, movement, sleep, cardiovascular health, and nutrient-dense eating can create better conditions for sustained cognitive performance.
Blood Sugar Regulation
A series of simple interventions are presented as simple ways to reduce glucose spikes and crashes supporting both immediate mental performance and long-term metabolic and brain health.
MIND Diet & Longevity
The MIND eating pattern offers a practical framework for supporting long-term cognitive health through specific foods without requiring dietary perfection or carbohydrate elimination.
Sustainable Health Optimization
The distinctive insight is that brain longevity doesn't require endless biohacking or extreme interventions. A few low-friction habits that consistently create better physiological conditions can be more powerful and much easier to sustain than an elaborate optimization protocol.
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The Uncommon Way is a leadership and business podcast for ambitious women entrepreneurs, founders, and leaders who are scaling companies and expanding their influence.
Hosted by business and leadership coach Jenna Harrison, the show explores how power, authority, and leadership capacity shape business growth. Episodes focus on decision-making, founder leadership evolution, team stability, and the structural shifts that allow companies to scale without overwhelming the person leading them.
This podcast is especially relevant for women navigating:
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• Identity and leadership evolution during scaling
The Uncommon Way approaches growth differently.
Not through hustle, constant self-optimization, or endless inner work — but by upgrading leadership, strengthening decision structures, and expanding the capacity required to run the company you’re building.
Topics include:
• Founder leadership capacity expansion
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Whether you’re an experienced founder, a rising leader, or building something that’s starting to matter at a bigger level, this podcast helps you access more power and lead accordingly.
