All right, so tell me the truth. After my last cortisol episode, who went and did a ChatGPT search or an AI search or a Google search about how to lower cortisol and what to do and what to take? And maybe by two days later you were more stressed about lowering your cortisol and your stress than you were about the original stress of life in general, right?
Here’s the thing, you can do every protocol perfectly, the supplements, the clean diet, the meditation, whatever it is, and still feel wired, tired, all of that, because calming your stress was not about doing more. I need you guys to really understand that. I think that people often hear these things and it’s like, “Okay, what do I have to do?
What do I have to do?” It is more about sending your body a different message and how to slowly implement those things in your life. This is not another thing to put on your to-do list. So today, this is what we’re talking about. Not a protocol. It’s a conversation with your body. So let’s get into it.
Welcome back everyone to the Rebel Nutritionist podcast. If you’re jumping in here and you haven’t listened to the first episode we did about cortisol, I would definitely suggest you go listen to that first. But you can certainly figure out what’s going on here. It’s not exactly a part two in that it’s a continuation.
It’s more about, what are we doing? How are we implementing these strategies that we talked about and the issues that came up in the last podcast? Because the last time we talked about cortisol as a hardworking messenger with four big jobs. Okay? It wakes you up, it steadies your blood sugar, calms inflammation, and helps you rise to a challenge.
It helps you when your body is feeling overwhelmed and really stressed out. Okay? So we learned the rhythm of understanding this is more than a single cortisol number when you measure your numbers, okay? And it’s the rhythm of the flow, meaning cortisol should be high in the morning, low at night.
We talked about things like the stress buckets with five faucets pouring into this stress bucket. It’s never just one thing. We’ve got blood sugar. We’ve got, how do you fuel your body, meaning nutrition, right? Training, how do you exercise? Hidden inflammation. Light and rhythm, meaning how you wake up in the morning, your sleep cycle, all of that.
And then of course, what we called the emotional faucet. So I had asked you guys to go through that list and look at your five faucets, rate it one to 10, and then circle your top three. And I want you, if you did that, keep it next to you because as we go through this, I want you to notice which parts of what we talk about today line up with your top three.
And again, if you didn’t do it, you’ll still be able to follow along, but I think it becomes more personal, right? What some of what we’re trying to do is really have this relate back to what’s going on in your life and how do you take this and apply this personally. So today we talked about what fill- Last time we talked about what fills up the buckets.
Today we’re gonna talk about three simple pillars. Feeding it, rhythmming it and reframing it, meaning food, timing, and mindset. And each one sends your body a signal that says you’re safe, you can stand down, and things are okay. So what I will promise before we start is not, I’m is I’m not gonna hand you a perfect routine to follow.
That doesn’t work. Because if you’re trying, like I mentioned, if you try to change everything at once, this then becomes another faucet draining into your stress bucket. So what I’m gonna have you do is by the end of today, you’re going to pick one thing from each pillar. That’s it. Small, steady signals and big…
Small, steady signals, excuse me, beat dramatic overhauls every time, right? Small, steady changes beat throwing everything at the wall and seeing what sticks. Just doesn’t work. So let’s start with the pillar that touches your body three, four, five times a day, whether you pay attention to it or not. So I want…
This may surprise everyone, okay? Here’s something that, that I think surprises people when I talk about it. For a stressed body, calming cortisol often means eating more and more consistently, not less. Because if you remember job two, cortisol is your backup generator for blood sugar, meaning every time you run out of fuel, you don’t have enough fuel in your tank, you’re asking your backup reserves to kick on So the more steadily you feed yourself, the less often your body has to go to that backup generator, the less often it has to per- pull the emergency brake.
Things like restriction and skipping meals and long gaps between meals don’t read as, “Oh, I have really good discipline.” No. You may think that in your brain. Your body is feeling that as scarcity, and scarcity is a stress signal. So let’s talk about anchor one, okay? And we’re gonna talk about how we create a little bit of structure, how we find some rhythm through the day with the food, because what I really want you to hear is you need to have something before your coffee.
You cannot just… And I’m gonna say this again, you cannot have coffee and that’s it, with nothing. So my preference is you have some kind of protein and some kind of breakfast. Why? Because the protein helps sustain us. It helps keep us satiated longer. So eat a real breakfast. And I’m not gonna give you grams of protein.
Everyone’s like, “Oh, you have to have 30 grams of protein.” If you are a woman trying to get 30 grams of protein first thing in the morning makes most of you nauseous rather than feeling good. So I want you to eat something within an hour of waking and have it either before your coffee or with your coffee.
But you cannot have coffee instead of breakfast if you are trying to regulate cortisol. It’s just not gonna work. And I’m gonna give you some examples in a little bit, so stick with me. But, you really are looking at somewhere, I don’t want you to just have a, a scoop of peanut butter and call it a day.
That’s not breakfast, okay? You need to have something, whether it’s a smoothie and like I said, I’m gonna give you example. Because why do we need to fuel ourselves? You have just gone 8 to 12 hours without food. And cortisol in the morning, if you remember we talked about last time, cortisol in the morning is at its peak.
So feeding yourself will tell your body that the overnight fast is over and it doesn’t need to keep making its own fuel. And then if you have some protein, it digests more slowly and keeps your blood sugar steady for hours. Protein and fat, right? And we typically see fat comes along with protein. But if you do that, you will see fewer and fewer crashes, or let’s call it emergency calls, before lunch or even sometimes right after lunch.
So a protein-rich breakfast tends to reduce cravings later in the day, and especially for those of you that go on that 2:00, 3:00, 4:00 PM sugar hunt or caffeine hunt, yes, it will help with that. So what coffee on an empty stomach does is that it adds a stimulant on top of that cortisol morning peak.
So that cortisol morning peak in and of itself is a stimulant. When you now add coffee or some kind of caffeine, it now exacerbates it. So if you’re eating food, at least it’s not s- staying spiked so high and creating this, mixed signal in your body truthfully. Okay? So you wanna think of breakfast as the first message you send your body every day.
Because coffee alone just says, “Keep running on adrenaline. Keep going. Keep pushing.” But coffee with breakfast says, “You’ve got fuel. You’ve got something in the tank. Okay, let’s not put, pull that emergency brake. You can relax.” So what does that look like? I promised I’d tell you. What does it look like on a plate?
So maybe it’s eggs in the morning with sauteed greens and a slice of sourdough or a half a sweet potato. I do try, I will tell you, I try, personally, okay, I try to be gluten-free. I try to reduce my eggs. I am also pretty much dairy-free. So my mornings look like a smoothie. I put in my protein powder.
I put in greens powder. I put in my fruit and almond milk and water. And that fuels me through the morning, through the day. I have, I do have a banana before I go work out, and then I have my protein shake. And then I’ll have my lunch or whatever, right? Some days I will do, I make my own gluten-free scones.
I make my own gluten-free waffles. And I’ll have those, right? So it’s not like I’m restricting. I’m definitely eating. It’s just a matter of what you’re choosing. And happy to do a Q&A. If you guys want to know more about this, let me know in the comments and we can do a Q&A on this. Again, I don’t do too much dairy, but those of you that are doing cottage cheese with berries and nuts and seeds, you can do that.
I will do a kefir, a, the Forager kefir that is dairy-free. I’ll do that with some granola and berries and nuts, and that’s delicious. And it could even be like last night’s leftovers, chicken and vegetables salmon and rice, like a bowl of chili, whatever. Some people like to have dinner for breakfast for dinner, whatever that is.
So have what you enjoy because, like I said one- Teaspoon of peanut butter is not gonna be enough. Okay? And if you’re in that crowd, ’cause I hear this all day long, “I’m just not hungry in the morning.” Okay, if you’re not hungry when you wake up, that is actually a signal of the stress pattern about your body running on adrenaline.
It’s not, “Ooh, I have such good willpower, I- my body’s not hungry.” No, that’s not what it’s about. It is signaling to us that there’s just too much cortisol and too much adrenaline running through your system. So if that’s you, start with a few bites of something that has protein. Because what I’ll tell you is if you do this, you’re gonna see within about a week or so your appetite is gonna come back, and you’re gonna start to be able to regulate your intake.
Okay? So that was anchor number one. Anchor number two is no naked carbs. What does that mean? Don’t eat carbohydrates on their own. Pair them with a protein, a healthy fat, or fiber. Because what happens is carbohydrates eaten alone, especially like the refined ones… Please don’t tell me you’re having like donuts and croissants and things like that.
Those are refined carbohydrates. Okay? And what happens is that your blood sugar spikes, insulin rushes in, and you crash a few hours later. And this is what happens, by the way. If you guys have kids and they’re eating sugary cereals in the morning, this is exactly what happens. You want your kids to focus at school, doing cereal and milk, like not good.
Just carbohydrates without any kind of protein, not good. But not good for you adults either. So protein, fat, and fiber slow your digestion ge- down so you can get a slower rise and a gentle fall instead of these like roller coaster peaks and valleys of blood sugar and insulin. And fewer of those crashes mean fewer of those emergency breaks, right?
Those cortisol rescues. So I don’t want you to read this as carbohydrate as the enemy, because it’s not. Okay? But our bodies and our stressed out bodies do much better with some carbs, some fiber, some protein, right? So it’s not about cutting out carbs completely. I don’t want you to hear that, ’cause I’m sure some of you are gonna come back to me and say, “Don’t have carbs.”
No. It’s about giving your carbohydrate a buddy. So what does that look like? It could be an apple and almond butter. So if you’re that person that’s not hungry in the morning, do apple and almond butter, not just the apple or just the butter. Okay? It could be hummus and some crackers, not just the crackers.
Could be toast, eggs, and avocado, not just toast, right? So those kinds of things. And if you have questions, again, I’m happy to answer you, because everyone’s situation’s different, and this is where we walk people through these things. And if you’re craving that chocolate- After a meal You, this’ll help, by the way.
Meal timing will help that. But because that 3:00 PM craving is really more about your blood sugar and your cortisol, right? But have your protein, your veggies, your fiber first, and then give it some time. Have some water because You may find you just don’t need the chocolate fix. Now, the difference between needing and wanting is a whole different conversation, and you might be into that whole, “It’s just a habit.”
So again, something else to think about. Is it am I really hungry, or is this just a habit? So I want you to think about that. Then we have anchor three. Eating consistently and enough. I, again, this I can’t tell you how often I see this. You wanna eat at regular times without going long stretches of not fueling your body.
And you wanna make sure you’re eating enough, because this is the other thing I see, especially women. We see our men do it, too, but especially women who are, like, skipping lunch. They have a meeting, so they didn’t really have breakfast. They had coffee. Maybe they had a bar. Went into a meeting, and it’s 3:00, 4:00 by the time you look up and go, “Oh, I didn’t have lunch,” right?
Can’t do that. Not if you’re trying to get your cortisol regulated. And so you really wanna make sure… and then there’s the people who eat, but they have teeny, tiny meals at lunch. I think if you’re this person who’s dealing with this cortisol stuff, you need to be having a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner, or just a bigger lunch and a dinner.
But don’t make your lunch minute and so sparse that it doesn’t fill you up. I want you to feel satisfied after your lunch. And, when you do this, over time, rather, regular meals send a rhythm, send a signal to the body that, “Oh, okay, this is predictable. We don’t have to go into stress or fight or flight or anything like that.”
Because if you’re going, in an already stressed system, five to six hours or more without food, that is gonna keep your cortisol working overtime. It’s gonna keep it elevated. Because undereating relative to your activity that you’re doing… Now, maybe you’re just sitting at a desk. But remember, if you haven’t really eaten all day, your body is now thinking, “Oh, wait, she’s in a famine.
There’s no food. And she’s stressed, so there’s a threat.” Remember, this was from episode one. Famine plus threat will turn up the cortisol, but it’s gonna decrease thyroid output. It is going to slow down that repair cycle in your body, okay? So We just need to be really careful. And then I hear people who are intermittent fasting, and I will tell you for some people it works.
But I’m gonna tell you for women especially who are really stressed and not sleeping well and overscheduled, it becomes another, again, another faucet going into that bucket. So let’s try and correct that whole eating cycle, okay? If you’re fasted, you’re eating, and you’re sleeping poorly you’re like waking up at 3:00 AM and you’re feeling wired and you’re noticing cycle changes if you’re still cycling, like that’s your body telling you something’s not working.
Okay? And as I always say, bio-individuality matters, right? There’s no right eating window for everyone, and this is where the personalization comes in, and this is why playing with it. I don’t want you to get so stuck into this regimen, a regimented way of eating. You’re gonna have to go and play with it.
See what works, see what resonates, see what makes you feel better. And here’s a good experiment, okay? Try if you’re like that fasting person, right? Try a protein breakfast, something balanced, for two weeks. Notice your sleep, notice your energy, and just as importantly, notice your mood. Because three balanced meals, plus a snack if you need one, w- that’s built around protein and a healthy fat are going to make a difference in your life.
And the other thing that you can do is use the plate method. We do this with all of our clients, and if you guys are interested, I will sell… sell you, I will send you our new client booklet that actually shows the plate. It shows the plate, and it shows how you should divide your plate. Meaning half of your plate should be vegetables, quarter of it protein, and a quarter of the smart carbs.
Meaning, healthy carbs, your starchy carbs, your sweet potatoes and things like that. Plus a little bit of healthy fat. We don’t need to count how many calories you’re having, right? No macro counting. Just do a picture and see how that resonates with you. Okay? And then anchor four. Let’s talk about the evening plate.
Evening plate and your 3:00 AM snack. Okay? So again, much like lunch, I want you to make sure that dinner has a solid protein. It’s got some, good carbs and fiber. And, if you’re that person who’s waking at 3:00 AM and can’t go back to sleep, maybe you need something before bed. But it really depends on the window of what time you’re eating dinner and what time you’re going to bed.
Because we really don’t wanna eat within two hours of bedtime. That matters. Because that 3:00 AM wake-up could be a blood sugar dip in your early hours, and then it’s adrenaline and cortisol that are coming in to rescue you. So we don’t know what it is. It’s hard to tell, again, if we’re not testing.
But having… The moral of that story is having a balanced dinner can keep blood sudy- sugar… Having a balanced dinner can keep blood sugar steadier overnight, so again, your body doesn’t need to come in and come to the rescue. Okay? And having a small amount of what let’s call slower carbs, those root vegetables, especially as we come into fall and winter, those root vegetables, the squashes are coming into season.
And I will tell you, having those and adding those to your meals is going to be a game changer. First of all, it helps with gut health. It helps with so many things. It help with hor- helps with hormone health. It helps with keeping the blood sugar stable, and satiety, and all the vitamins and minerals.
So doing, adding in some of those root vegetables can be a real game changer. Plus, those root vegetables help the body, help the gut make serotonin, which turns into melatonin, which is your sleep hormone. Okay? So maybe dinner looks like a piece of salmon, some roasted veggies, and a baked potato with a little bit of butter.
Okay? It could be, I know, chicken’s a big one, right? Your chicken, your broccoli, some other veggie, green bean butternut squash. You can do butternut squash soup with some protein, something like that, right? So that you’re having a well-rounded dinner and not just having these small snacky things, which so many people do, just grazing.
Let’s cut the grazing, okay? And then let’s talk about alcohol, because I… Look, I’m not gonna say to you never have a glass of wine. That’s not realistic. Okay? But if you are waking up at 3:00 AM and you can’t go back to sleep, track your alcohol. Because what happens is a lot of people notice, especially women, as they go into perimenopause and menopause, their wake-up cycles track with the nights that they’re drinking.
Because alcohol, you may think it’s helping you fall asleep. It might. But it’s gonna cau- cause blood sugar dips through the night, and then you’re gonna have a much lighter sleep the second half of the night. So you’re gonna feel tired. Okay? Anchor five, I want you to time your caffeine with intention.
As I mentioned, you wanna have coffee after food, you wanna keep it to the morning, and notice how that feels. Because what caffeine does is it nudges cortisol up. And so if you’re doing it in the morning with food, okay, that’s fine. But if you stack that on an empty, stressed system, you’re adding fuel to the fire, as I mentioned.
And caffeine, even though you… There’s so… I was ta- I was at a summit recently I was talking to a few people who have five… women, who have five, six, or, more cups of coffee. And they’re like, “I’m fine. I can have an espresso martini and go to sleep.” Okay, here’s what I wanna tell you, is that caffeine stays in your system for hours, whether you feel it or not.
I’m super sensitive. If I have coffee at 12:00 in the afternoon I’m not sleeping. But for those of you that… and if you’re sensitive, you know it. But an afternoon coffee can still, even if you’re that person who doesn’t feel sensitive, it can affect your sleep at bedtime, even if you’re falling asleep fine.
So I think here’s the question to ask yourself. Do you enjoy your coffee? Do you actually need it to function? If it’s a ritual you love, keep it. I love my morning ritual in the morning. I gave up caffeine a couple years ago, so I have a different ritual. I do mushroom coffee, I do decaf, I do this mush- this, like I said, mushroom stuff.
And if morning coffee is your ritual I know how important that is for people. I want you to keep it. B- but if you’re noticing that you need caffeine more and more through the day, like it’s the only thing that’s holding you up, that’s not a I enjoy coffee problem, okay? That’s your body asking for something else.
More sleep, more food, less pressure, something like that, okay? So here’s what I want you to try. Try a noon caffeine cutoff for two weeks. Just two weeks. Let’s… or a week. Let’s see, okay? And see how your sleep changes. So slow- and taper it slowly. Obviously, if you’re gonna get that caffeine headache, we have to be careful, and I want you to taper it slowly.
I’m not saying have zero. I’m not saying go cold turkey. I want you to just back down so that you can notice how it does affect you. And maybe you wanna swap out the afternoon coffee for a walk, a glass of water. Maybe you can do glass of water with lemon and sea salt or herbal tea. Find something that you can replace it with that, might not bring you as much joy as what you think coffee does, but this would be a good experiment, okay?
Anchor number six: nutrients that stress uses up. So stress does consume nutrients from our body, and it increases the need for certain nutrients. And I’m not talking about let’s just go and supplement away the stress. You cannot do that. So I’m gonna talk about the nutrients, but I’m gonna talk about where we find them because my preference would be have them through food first, and if we need to supplement, we look at that later.
Because just throwing supplements without knowing how much you need, and this is why we test. Because not everybody needs the same amount of the B vitamins. Not everybody needs the same amount of magnesium. And if you’re not testing that, you don’t know. You could be overdo- doing it. You could be underdoing it.
So I think you really need to look at those numbers if you have the opportunity. But one of the minerals that, one of the nutrients that caffeine gobbles up is, Or let’s say stress, okay? Cortisol, not caffeine. I’m gonna take that back. One of the nutrients that cortisol gobbles up is magnesium, and this gets used up much faster when our bodies are under stress.
So where do we find magnesium? It’s found in leafy greens, in pumpkin seeds, in almonds, in things like black beans, avocado. And yes, it’s found in dark chocolate, okay? So think about adding more of that before we go and throw in just a magnesium supplement. And yes, if you’re not… I know so many people are on the magnesium glycinate for sleep.
I take it, too. Great. You can always try that but shouldn’t be the be-all, end-all. You’re just turning to a supplement to replace that stuff, okay? B vitamins are super important, but you, again, have to be very careful with this. I see so many people just slapping B vitamins into their routine and not knowing, sometimes you can overdo it, and it revs up your system even more.
And so if you don’t know how much you should be taking, you need to be careful. But B vitamins help you– help turn your food into energy and do support your nervous system. So where do we find them? Meat, fish, legumes, leafy greens. Yes, you can find them in eggs. So important to think about. Then we have vitamin C.
Now, I will tell you, your adrenal glands hold some of the highest concentrations of vitamin C in the body. Your adrenal glands use up vitamin C, so you’re gonna wanna make sure you’re getting adequate amounts. I will tell you, most people are not getting adequate amounts of vitamin C. And we can find them in bell peppers, citrus, right?
Your oranges, your grapefruit. And again, those are coming into season now, so you may wanna go grab those. My favorite are those sumo oranges. Oh my God, they’re so good. Anyway kiwis, berries, broccoli, those kinds of places we we find them. We find the B vitamins as well. We know that some of the omega fats, omega-3s, can help calm inflammation and support mood.
I’m actually really not a big fan right now of supplementing omegas. A, a whole other conversation. But we find omega-3s in salmon, in sardines, in walnuts, and in our seeds. So I try and get my omega-3s through chia seeds, flax seeds, hemp seeds pumpkin seeds. I mentioned flax, right? Chia, fla- sunflower seeds, sesame seeds.
If you guys aren’t familiar with tahini, right? Tahinis are great. You can make salad dressings out of it. Great way to get omega-3s into your diet, okay? And then we have minerals and salt. So we’ve gotta be careful with the salt. I know all these electrolyte powders now have a ton of salt. By the way, the electrolyte powders also have a ton of other things, natural flavors, citric acid.
Those things are not good for our body, so you’ve gotta be really careful, and some of them way over salt. And some people under stress actually crave salt, right? So we want real food, quality sea salt, mineral rich foods are what we’re gonna look for. And and anybody who has blood pressure concerns, you also have to be careful with the salt.
So we have to be careful with that. Celery. Celery’s a great way. I do celery juice. There’s mineral salts in celery juice, so great way to to get some of your mineral salts there But you don’t wanna be consuming foods with a lot of added sodium. That’s not the salt that I’m talking about. Natural sea salt, yes.
Minerals from food, yes. But I wouldn’t really suggest salting your water. Do, do some coconut water, right? Do s- I do two ounces of coconut water in a large glass of water, and that can give you some really good hydration and minerals and all of that. Because look, I am always gonna be that food first person.
Supplements can be helpful, and we talk about that, right? But they work best on a solid foundation, on top of a solid foundation. So you want to make sure someone knows your full picture, like work with someone it… if you’re not working with me, work with someone who knows your whole picture about what food is before you go supplementing, okay?
So that’s gonna be important, right? I think you really need to pay attention to all of those things. And then what we can do is look at, All right, wait, hold, guys. I need you to… We’re gonna stop a second ’cause I’m in something where… Oh, this is not… Okay, segment two. Okay. All right. Here we go.
Three, two, one. Let’s- so let’s get back into that. Okay. So that was the first pillar. Feed, right? Feeding it. But food is only part of the message because your body is also asking, what time is it? And really, your body’s asking, what time is it? And for most of us, the answer we’re giving our body is pretty confusing.
So segment two, we’re gonna talk about rhythm. Rhythm it. What does that mean? Remember the wave in the first episode where we talked about the wave, that high wave in the morning, and that’s what cortisol does, and then it comes down slowly, right? It’s high in the morning, rolls out through the day, and it’s calm by bedtime.
Your body doesn’t make that wave on its own. It is set by signals, meaning signals like light and dark. Food, as we’ve talked about, movement, and sleep. So you wanna make sure you’re giving your body clear signals at the right times so that your body is not guessing. And we are constantly giving our body mixed signals, and sh- cortisol, and as a result, our cortisol is showing up at the wrong time.
Think of your body like an orchestra. Your brain’s master clock in here, the hypothalamus, the pineal gland, is the conductor, and every organ is an instrument. So when the conductor is getting clear cu- cues or is giving clear cues, everyone plays in time. But when the conductor’s all over the place, guess what?
You’re getting noise. It’s not music So think about this. In the morning, you wanna set the clock. You want to be getting up, A, at consistent times, and you want to get out and get into natural light within 30 to 60 minutes of waking, and that’s really important. I have… If you have a balcony, walk out your door, like just go look at the sun for 5 to 15 minutes.
You need to spend a little more time on cloudy days, but still, get out. Why? Why does this work? Because bright light… And it’s not the same as like light in your house. Not at all, okay? The sun’s light hitting your eyes in the morning sends the absolute strongest signal to your master clock, to your pineal gland, that the day has started, and it helps sharpen that cortisol surge in the morning so that you feel more awake and alert, but not that frenetic energy, right?
So important. It also starts a countdown timer for melatonin, that sleep hormone, so that you’re getting sleepy at the right time in the evening. So morning, your morning light is actually a sleep tool, believe it or not. That is a sleep strategy. And even on a cloudy day, outside, being outside, you know this, right?
You go outside, even on a cloudy day, it was super black, but it’s way brighter than your typical indoor lighting. So you can look through a window, but being outside is way, way better. And look, this is great. It’s easy. It’s free. It takes 10 minutes, and it works on what we’re trying to fix, which is the timing of that cortisol wave- wave.
So how do we make this stick, right? We talk about habit stacking. So have your coffee on the porch by an open door after breakfast, or make it on the porch at breakfast. If it gets cold, I know you guys, it’s, it… If you’re not in Florida and it’s getting cold put on a jacket and just stand outside for a minute, or try and get as close to the window, okay?
If you have an animal, walking the dog or, walking your dog before the workday or just getting out, walk around the block. Y- you can try and do something where you can get first morning sun because that is so important. If you’re on the phone, take the phone call outside and do not put on sunglasses for those first few minutes.
Obviously don’t stare at the sun, but just don’t put on sunglasses, okay? And and again, if like for people that, who are more now we’re gonna come into winter and y- or someone who’s a shift worker, bright light therapy. So you can get those lamps that mimic the sun. It’s not the same thing as fluorescent and so those actually work really well.
So if you have questions about that, we can talk about that. But mimics the sun. It’s doesn’t replace the sun. And then you wanna have a daytime rhythm if you can. Like we mentioned, eating at fairly consistent times, moving regularly, and taking short breaks if you can. Sitting at your computer, if you are working remote or you have a desk job, sitting at your computer all day without getting up is like smoking cigarettes, as they say.
You need to move. So set your timer. Get up for five, 10 minutes. Go take a walk to the bathroom. Go walk around the corridor. Go outside. I don’t know. Move regularly and take short breaks, and if you can get outside, even better. And why does this work, right? Because meal timing, just like having light in the morning, is a clock signal.
So steady meals keep your internal clock in sync. And sitting for hours and powering through your work without breaks also keeps your system in that push mode, go, don’t stop. Those short breaks let cortisol come down between your work demands, and that is the natural up and down pattern we want.
So like I said, five-minute walk after lunch, and that’ll also help blood sugar by the way, okay? Think about like setting a 90-minute work rhythm, meaning focus for 90 minutes and then take a short break. And please, if you can, eat your lunch away from your desk at least a few times a week. And if you work home- from home, do not eat your lunch in front of your computer while you’re working.
Go put the computer away, go somewhere else, and just regroup. You can step outside for a few minutes in the afternoon, especially if you’re that person who crashes around 3:00. If you notice that you’re gonna have more of a more substantial lunch, then try to preemptively step outside or away from, where you would typically snack because again, that’ll send your body’s signal like we’re reframing things here, right?
Your body was never designed to sprint for 10 straight hours. It was designed to work in waves. So it’s push, rest, push, rest. You want that wave. And then, movement that matches your energy, meaning exercise is a good stressor, and it’s definitely a stressor. But it’s a good stressor when you have the ability to recover from it.
If your bucket is al- if your stress bucket is already overflowing, a hard workout is just, again, adding another faucet to that bucket. And if you have room in the bucket, fine. It’ll make you more resilient. But it’s not a matter of, is an exercise good? Yes, it’s good. It’s more about what kind, how much for where I am right now in my life cycle.
Because if you’re doing too much, too hard, and you’re depleted and you’re running on fumes, not gonna be good. So maybe you wanna walk. You wanna do strength training with plenty of rest in between sets. You wanna do some mobility work. Maybe it’s Pilates, maybe it’s yoga, maybe it’s gentle cycling. Again, working with your provider on talking about the best way to do your workout is gonna be way more beneficial than your…
that person who’s like, “I just gotta lose weight, and I gotta do more cardio, and I got…” No, more is not better. More is gonna stress out your system, and it’s gonna make it worse. So that would be how you wanna do your movement, okay? And if you feel like as you have more capacity, so you do one or two higher intensity sessions, but make sure you have recovery days around them.
And you wanna also look at doing your harder workouts early in the day rather than late, late in the evening, especially if sleep is an issue. So for a lot of people who are doing their workouts later and they’re doing hard workouts, that is going to impact sleep. Really important. And I do want to talk about strength training.
We hear it a lot with people who are on GLPs. We’re talking about it with women who are in perimenopause and menopause, that strength training is non-negotiable. I will tell you, it really is. I, I, it’s not lip service. Ladies, if you are, if you’re young, if you’re in your 20s and 30s, start now.
If you… you really need to start now. The more you build now, the less you have to work to keep it later. But if you are 35, 40, 45, 50 and beyond Strength training is non-negotiable. It is going to help you beyond what you can imagine as you age. Okay? But the other thing that we wanna do, why we wanna do strength training in relation to this conversation, is that high stress, chronic high stress and cortisol will break down your muscle.
And strength training helps to protect and build mu- muscle, which is gonna support blood sugar, it’s gonna support metabolism, it’s gonna support bone health, it’s gonna make you look way better. Okay? And again really important as we age, especially for women who are going into men- perimenopause and belong and beyond.
So if you’re feeling drained and not energized after your workout, this is a signal that this is adding more to your stress bucket. Okay? If you’re feeling sore for days, this is a signal you’re overworking and too stressed. If your sleep gets worse on your workout days, yep, it’s a signal that it’s a problem.
Okay? If you feel like you’re dreading going to the gym and, but you’re that person who feels guilty skipping it, i’m gonna tell you, rest is just as important as the workout. Recovery days are not lazy days. I know those of us who grew up in the ’80s were told “No pain, no gain.
No rest.” “Don’t do it. You’re lazy if you are.” No. No. We’ve gotta send a different message because rest and recovery is essential. Those are the days that your body actually gets stronger and grows. So gotta do that. All right. And then let’s talk about the evening. So in the evening we need to send our body the signal like it’s time to wind down.
So what do we do? Just like in the morning we need that sun, in the evening we need to dim the lights, ease off of your screens, and if you’re not using those, bl- light, blue light blocking glasses, you should get them if you’re on your screen. You wanna try and eat dinner earlier when you can.
Because, again, not eating too close to bed, really important for those blood sugar highs and lows or the blood sugar fluctuations. And create, please create a wind down ritual. So important. Why does this work? Because as the light fades, your brain starts relea- releasing melatonin. Like I said, right? In the morning it sets that melatonin clock, the wind down clock.
And so as melatonin starts to get ready to rise and cortisol drops- It sets us up for better sleep. But things like bright overhead lights, screens, a- and other distractions like that are, whether it’s the noise, whether it’s the light, like I mentioned stimulating television are going to delay that cortisol drop.
So you really wanna be careful. Also, in that wind-down routine, like plea- like I know I can’t watch dramas or anything at night because I get so amped up. Like I had to wa- I had to stop watching oh my God, Game of Thrones ’cause it was making me nuts. So anyway you wanna really make sure that you have this wind-down res- routine, okay?
And you’re not stressed before you go to bed. Avoid late, heavy meals, late, intense workouts, as I me- mentioned, because all of those things will keep your body in daytime mode and not shift over to the nighttime. Because what’s gonna happen is the these consistent rituals are gonna help create a cue for your body, and over time, your body’s gonna learn when this happens, we’re ready to sleep, right?
So what does this look like? It’s after sunset, switch to lamps and warmer, dimmer lighting. Think like candlelight energy, right? Not like stadium lights, okay? Screens should be off 30 to 60 minutes before bed or, again, use the night mode that you have in your screen, okay? And turn the brightness way down.
Dinner two to three hours before bed when possible. And maybe your wind-down ritual is a warm bath or a nice warm shower, herbal tea, some stretching, reading a book, journaling, praying. I start to put on, I have, And sometimes I actually sleep with this. I have binaural beat music that’s really at a slow frequency, so it actually, we know frequency talks to your body, so it’ll actually, I do, I feel it.
Like it starts to wind down. And if I have it on when I’m sleeping, like it puts me to bed like that. That and, of course, my magnesium. So the other thing you wanna do that’s not gonna keep you up that, because what happens, some of us lay down, and that’s when the, the monkey brain starts going. So if you have the opportunity, do like something like a brain dump, right?
Tomorrow’s… So like with a brain dump, you’re writing tomorrow’s to-do list and anything you’re worried about on paper or talk into your phone, and just create a list like that so it’s out of your head. That can help, right? The goal here isn’t perfection. It’s about giving your body the signals and the cues that it recognize it, that it recognizes evening, every evening, because that is going to matter.
All right? So sleep, we wanna protect it like it matters because it does. Try to keep a fairly c- consistent sleep schedule and wake time. You don’t wanna be waking up at, 5:00 in the morning on your weekdays and then weekends you’re waking up at 10:00. That’s a pr- 10:00 AM, right? That’s a problem.
Try and keep somewhat consistent routines there. Okay? Set up your bedroom for sleep because, again, sleep loss becomes an additional faucet. Even one night of reduced sleep can leave cortisol higher for the next day, so then it’s gonna make the next night harder. It does create this amplification. So a consistent wake time is one of the strongest anchors for your whole rhythm, even more than bedtime, so you know, that’s important.
Social jet lag as we pa- as we call it, right? Sleeping for two hours on the weekends is like fry- flying, Sleeping in, I’m sorry. Sleeping in for two hours on the weekends is like flying across time zones every week. And your bedroom should be cool and dark and quiet. An eye mask if you need it. Again, the fans if you need for white noise.
I use those binaural beats. Make sure your phone’s out of the bedroom or at least across the room, and try not to have your phone in bed with you. Okay? Don’t be scrolling. If you wake up at 3:00 AM, do not pick up the phone and start checking your phone. Okay? And then if you’re, still waking up in the middle of the night, we can talk about reach out to me.
If you’re getting up and Do some breathing exercises. There are some great, the four, the box breathing is great. I know… So I do the 4-7-8. Inhale for four… Hold for seven, exhale for eight. You do that for a few cycles, I’m telling you, that will calm your body down. Okay? Sleep should not be considered a luxury or re- reward for getting everything done.
This is when your body repairs, this is when it resets cortisol, and it processes your day. Sleep is non-negotiable. Okay? So let’s talk about… The last thing I wanna talk about is nature is medicine, and this is passion- my passion, right? Nature is medicine. I love being outside. I’m in an apartment now.
I still have my plants, and I still go out. I actually talk to them. My kids make fun of me. I talk to my plants. Makes them grow much better. But I do find places to walk that are completely in nature. Because what we know is time in nature is linked to lower stress and a calmer nervous system.
There’s something to be said, if you can get in nature and put your feet on the ground, even better. That grounding actually changes the cells in your blood, and we know there’s a growing body of research about this, right? That there’s the, what is it called? Tree- forest bathing. We know these things work.
Because what is it doing? Think about this. It’s combining several signals at once: natural light, gentle movement, you’re walking, you’re getting fresh air, and you’re getting a break from the demands of your life and your screens. It just helps regulate. And if you have something like that you enjoy doing, whether it’s gardening or whatever it is.
Like I said, for me, it’s gardening, maybe it’s being outside, I don’t know. But putting your hands in soil slowing down the fast pace of living is really beneficial, okay? And there’s something to be said for growing the food that you eat. So you may wanna try that. But here’s, here… Like I said, suggestions.
10-minute walk in the park. If you can do it without your phone, go barefoot in the grass or at the beach. If you can get to the beach, great. And if you can’t grow a garden, maybe putting some herbs on your windowsill or balcony if you have the option, trying to eat outside. And on the weekends, try and get out, right?
Whether it’s a hike or a beach walk or just hanging out with the trees, right? We were not designed to live entirely indoors under artificial light in front of screens. That is not how we evolved as humans. So every time we step out, put our hands in the soil, or get into nature, we’re reconnecting with the rhythm that we came from, and our bodies remember this.
If we’ve fed the body, we’ve given it a rhythm and we’re out in nature, there’s one pillar left. In my experience, it is the one that makes everything else stick. And it… Or if you don’t have this, it’ll undo everything we’ve talked about, and this is the emotional faucet. I know, I think I said earlier that was the last one, but that was the last one in that particular segment, right?
But we are now at segment three, and we are talking about your mind So this is when we talk about reframing it, right? Mind over cortisol. Because something that I want you to sit with is that your stress system doesn’t just respond what happens to you, it responds to what you believe is happening. I’m gonna say that again.
Your stress system does not just respond to what happens to you, it responds to what you believe is happening. Your body is constantly asking the question, “Am I safe?” And the answer doesn’t only come from the environment, the outside, it comes from your thoughts, your belief, and the stories you tell yourself.
So let’s take an example. If you’re in a traffic jam, and two people s- who are stuck in the same traffic jam, same road, same delay. Person one is gripping the wheel with their jaw clenched, going, “Oh, I’m gonna be late. My boss is gonna be furious. This always happens to me.” Okay? You can feel their veins in their neck.
And then there’s person two, who’s like, “I’m gonna put on another podcast. I’m gonna call a friend,” and thinks there’s nothing I can do. Might as well enjoy the downtime.” Same traffic, very different chemistry. And I can tell you, I practiced this last week. I had to go from Boca to Coconut Grove, Miami.
All right? When I looked at nighttime, it was 52 minutes. When I went in the morning and I accounted for this, but there was an extra half hour. It took me two hours to get there, and I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic. I listened to a podcast, and I couldn’t do anything about it. Nothing was changing, right?
So I put on a podcast. After my podcast was done, I reached out to a friend who I hadn’t talked to, and before I knew it, I was breathing and I was where I needed to be because I knew, which I would typically do in the past, get upset. So what we know is that stressful thought can trigger a stress response just like the event.
So if you are sitting there and thinking all of these things, guess what? Your body is feeling that stress response just as if you were in a stressful event. So the good news is the opposite is also true. A calming thought can help turn it down. So how we see stress changes how stress affects you, right?
So the idea is not that stress is the enemy any more than cortisol is. It’s how do you relate to the stress that matters. So we do know there’s some research that a Stanford researcher has studied and calls stress mindset. And her work suggests that people who see stress as something that can sharpen and strengthen them respond to it very differently in both mind and body than pe- people who see it as purely harmful.
When you see a challenge as a threat, your body braces for harm. When you see the same challenge as something you can rise up to, you can meet, your body tends to mobilize it for action rather than bracing for harm. Very different response in the body because, that racing heart before a big presentation can read as, “I’m panicking,” or, “My body is getting me r- ready.”
How you interpret it is very different, and it’s gonna be very different in what happens in your body. It’s the same sensation, different story. So stress isn’t the problem. It’s the chronic stress plus the belief that it’s destroying you is the heavier load. So next, next time you feel that surge before something big, try saying to yourself, “This is my body getting ready.
It’s on my side. I am good.” Take a couple of deep breaths, and then notice if anything shifts. Okay, part two, the identity trap. This is the labels, right? The labels we give ourselves can keep our stress response switched on. So tell me if any of this sounds familiar, right? Because common labels that we hear all the time.
I’m a stressed person. I’m a terrible sleeper. I’ve always been anxious. I’m the strong one. I don’t need help. Oh my God, tell me you guys are not resonating with this, right? I can’t rest until everything is done. So your brain is a prediction machine. It looks for evidence that fits the story you already believe.
So if you believe you’re a terrible sleeper, you’re gonna go to bed already braced for a bad night, and that bracing yourself is a stress signal in and of itself. And labels, we’ve talked about this. Amanda and I did a really great podcast on this. Labels can keep us from trying anything new. This won’t work for me.
I’m just wired this way. Your body is gonna live up to the story you keep telling it. So can we tell it a better story? I… Think about this. If you say, “I’m a terrible sleeper,” maybe we say, “I’m someone who’s learning how to rest.” If you’re that person who says, “I’m always stressed,” maybe you can become the, “I’m learning how to come back to calm.”
If the I’m the stronger one, maybe you can say, “I’m strong, but strong people ask for help, too.” I want you to pick one this week. One. And if I didn’t mention it on here think of how do you rephrase what you are saying to yourself. And so pick one, catch yourself. That’s the, the tricky part. Catch yourself when you’re saying it, and then swap in the new version, because I guarantee when you start paying attention, it’ll be like, wow, I didn’t realize how often I do that.
Okay? And part three of this is safety signals that your body understands, okay? Because your body doesn’t respond to just being told, “Just relax.” Like, how many times have you been sa- told, “Oh, just relax.” Doesn’t it make you mad when someone’s, “Just go ahead and relax.” So it responds, though, to signals of safety.
So here are some really powerful signals that your body is safe. The long exhale. So breathing out longer than you breathe in activates that part of the nervous system, that parasympath- pa- parasympathetic part of the nervous system that slows heart rate and helps you calm down, and it is one of the fastest, easiest tools that you have, and you can do it anywhere, right?
So you wanna breathe in slow. You… and if you can you breathe in. So breathe in, let’s say, for a count of four, and we’ll do this in a second, right? And you hold it and exhale for a count of eight because that’s gonna be helpful, and we’ll practice that in a minute. But number two is connection.
Feeling seen and supported by people you trust is one of the strongest you’re safe signals there is, right? It’s when your body says when I say, “You’re safe.” It’s a signal. So laughing with a friend, a long hug. We know hugging for 20 seconds activates that parasympathetic nervous system.
A real conversation, like a real conversation with someone actually calms down your system. And creating eye contact with someone who loves and cares about you. Those are easy, okay? Because we know loneliness is a stressor and connection is medicine. We already went through this experiment in COVID, right?
Isolation and disconnection made us all sick, so connection is medicine. And we know that connection and being part… Connection, and purpose, and being part of a community of people is one of the longest predic- predictors of longevity. We were never meant to carry everything alone. And so maybe something like the s- most powerful cortisol intervention is a phone call to a close friend, okay?
Number three, please learn how to set boundaries, right? Every yes that you don’t mean when you want to say no is adding, is pouring more into that stress bucket. Try saying no without explaining. Maybe just say, “No, I can’t take that on.” That’s it. No. Because protecting your time and energy tells your body you’re not under constant demand.
And I will tell you, I have so many clients that we talk about boundary setting, and we talk about protecting our, our own… women especially, people pleasers don’t wanna say no. I feel guilty, right? Whatever that is. And so protecting your time and energy actually tells your body you’re not under constant demand.
Really important. Gratitude. You wanna express gratitude. Practice honestly. You wanna really not just say it. Don’t just give it lip service, because you want to just not pretend things are fine, right? Maybe just notice what’s going r- right alongside of what’s hard. ‘Cause things can be hard, but you have things that are grow- going right.
And just be in that moment of, “All right, I’m grateful for this.” I know when I… One of my practices, one of my wind-down routines is I get into bed, and I literally say out loud things that I’m grateful for that happened that day. And it really calms my body. So When you start doing that, your brain puts attention away from scanning for threats, and it really allows it to calm down.
So here’s what I want you to do. Three specific things at the end of the day, okay? These are the things I want you to practice. Think about… Or this is gratitude. Sorry. These are the gratitude things that you can look at, okay? Maybe you’re in your kitchen. Okay, three… Sorry. Whoop. Take that back, guys.
Okay, here we go. Let’s go back. So I want you to notice what’s going right alongside what’s going hard because that shifts your brain away from scanning of the what am I looking for threats, and it puts it into this calm. So maybe you could try doing this. One of the gr- one of your gratitude things.
Oh, I love that I was able to get up and look at the morning sun. I was so happy that I spoke to a friend. Or, ah here, this is the beautiful herb from my garden, right? Something. Small little things. Oh, maybe I had a… Yeah, I was sitting with my kids, and they were laughing, and we were all laughing, and we were having a moment.
Small little things because those matter. And think about play and joy. We’re so busy doing the adulting thing. I, I don’t want you to feel like your joy should be tied to finishing and checking off your to-do list. No, it shouldn’t be a requirement, right? Think about putting on some music, and when you’re cooking jamming to that, having creative projects, spending time with your animals, right?
Anything that makes you lose track of time. I will tell you, like, when I’m in the kitchen cooking, it’s so relaxing. I totally lose track of time. Sometimes I even get caught up in counting if I’m chopping. Little things, but they signal to my body that I’m safe. I’m enjoying what I’m doing. So really important that you have joy, that you have play, that you have fun.
And the other thing is present. Be present. So much of us are doing the phone thing, and we are not present, whether we’re at a meal with someone. Like, how many times do you see people at dinner? Makes me nuts. Even the kids they give them a pad, an iPad or whatever, a, a screen, and they’re… And nobody’s talking, right?
Stress lives in the past, right? If you’re replaying the past, or it lives in the future if you’re rehearsing your future. So always thinking about the past, always thinking about the p- no. Come back to the moment through your senses, through what you’re doing. Pay attention to what’s going on.
We have gotten so lost. And if you do that, it tells your body that right now, in this moment, you’re okay, you’re safe. So maybe name five things maybe name things that you can hear. Maybe name things that you can touch. Okay? This emotional faucet doesn’t show up on a lab test, right?
So let’s talk about what turning it down actually takes. The people-pleasing, the perfectionism, the over-functioning, the unprocessed grief and trauma, these don’t resolve with a supplement or just a morning routine, okay? They soften with awareness, with support, and sometimes you need professional help.
Okay? So let’s normalize getting help. Therapy, somatic work, support groups, a trusted mentor, a faith community, whatever that is. Asking for support is strength, not failure, and I think more of us really need to hear this. Because if you’re struggling with anxiety or depression, it… W- we know, right? How many…
We have seen way, way too many people gone way too soon because they have struggled. So reach out to a qualified professional, right? These practices that we’ve talked about are a complement, not a replacement. Because healing your stress response isn’t just something you do to your body, it’s something you do with your story, right?
So light, energy, connection, this is all part of healing. And so this spiritual work, like I’ve talked about this, for me, there’s a deeper sense of peace knowing that I’m connected to something bigger than myself. And I truly believe after the work that I’ve been doing, we’re made of light and energy, and that we can shift our energy towards healing.
I know we can do it, right? So whether we call it God or nature or spirit or universe or a sense of meaning, whatever it is for you, feeling connected to something larger can be one of the most powerful signals of safety there is. So try this, right? Try your meditation, your time in nature, moments of awe.
I know when I’m walking and I see a sunrise, that’s a moment of awe. So try and do some of this, right? Try and do a breathwork practice. And I had mentioned about that breathwork where it’s inhale for four, hold for seven, exhale for eight. So again, you inhale for four. Hold for seven
Exhale
For eight. If you do that for four, three, four, five cycles, you’re gonna notice your shoulders, your jaw, your hands are gonna soften, right? So when you’re doing this, I want you to say in the moment silently to yourself, “I am safe in this moment. My body knows how to come back to calm.” So what I want you to do now as we close is take one full breath in
And a long, slow breath out
And you just told your body, in a language that it understands all its own, that it’s safe to calm down. And you can do this anytime, anywhere. So we’ve talked about what actually works. Let’s… I’m gonna, I’m gonna actually, I’m not gonna do it on this because we’re running long, but I’m gonna attach to this some of the cortisol myths that are floating around the internet, okay?
So if you’re listening to this and you don’t see it attached, or you want us to send it to you send me a note that says cortisol myths, and we’ll send you the guide and the myths, and and it’ll help you understand this a little bit better, okay? So what I really want you to know is, you know- Life is not about being completely stress-free, stress-free.
But what I want you to think about is take one action from each pillar for the week, right? One thing from each pillar. How do you feed your body? What is your rhythm? Is it the, the morning light, right? The sleeping. Reframing it. How do you catch the labels about yourself? And look back at your faucet list, your top three, and pick one that t- that you can turn down.
Not all three, pick one. Small and consistent will beat big and overwhelming every time, because your body’s gonna learn through repetition, not intensity. And give it time. You need to have patience. Your stress pattern didn’t build up overnight, and it’s not gonna shift overnight either. And many people notice that small changes in a week or two, you’re gonna notice better sleep, a steadier afternoon.
Those bigger shifts are gonna take months, but every small signal you send to your body adds up. And look, if you’re having symptoms that are severe and persis- persistent, you do need to get help. Work with someone who can look at the whole picture. Mention red flags that are worthy of, seeing someone.
Unexplained weight changes, fatigue, extreme fatigue, mood changes, significant mood changes, because that’s gonna be important, right? But you want to make sure that you are giving your body the answers it needs with food, with rhythm, and with kindness, because your body has been loyal to you, now it’s your turn.
So I hope you enjoyed this. I know it was a long one, these two cortisol ones, but there’s a lot to cover, and a lot of people are suffering with this. So as always, if you wanna work with us, I do a complimentary 15-minute consultation. Please sign up, go onto our links. We’ve got them here. And if you would like our free resource for cortisol friendly meal guides, please let us know.
Put in the… We’ll put in the comments down on the, We’ll add it to the show notes. And send me a message. Tell me which faucet you’re turning down this week, and if you need some help. And as always, please share the episode with someone who needs to hear it, and comment and subscribe. This is your rebel nutritionist signing off, everybody.
Make it a great and stress-free day.
