Ep #3 - The Stress Effect
Welcome to the balanced business woman podcast.
I am your host, Hannah Hutson, a functional fitness, balanced nutrition, and mindset coach.
And I am going to help you hit new levels in your business by building wellness and balance into your life. Listen, along as I teach you how to get rid of brain fog, balance your hormones, improve your energy levels, lower your stress and become the CEO of your health.
Because we all know if you don't take care of yourself, you won't be able to take care of your business.
Hello everybody. And welcome to episode three of the balanced business women podcast. I am so excited to talk about stress with you guys today because it is such an important topic. And I think we all can relate to it a little bit too much, but here's the thing about stress, because I think that people, like stress gets a bad rep, but stress is actually really good for you, if you can recover from it, because it can make you more resilient and it can make you stronger, if you can recover from it. And we're all going to deal with stress. There's stress in so many areas of our life, not just physical, but we have emotional, mental, social, environmental, and existential stress.
And so we need to understand that this stress, they can add on each other, they can compound and they can make your overall load of stress even worse. Now I know you're probably just stressed thinking about all the stress you have in your life. But the important thing to note is that if we can come up with tools and ways in our routine to help manage our stress. We can actually recover from it the same way. So adding on more and more layers of recovery and ways to manage our stress is going to help us manage our stress and lower our overall load of stress. So today I really want to talk about how the system works. How the stress system works in our body. What you could potentially be struggling with, which could show you like, man, maybe I need to focus on managing my stress better. And then I'll give you some ideas on how you can go about starting a routine to help you manage your stress better.
If you watch my episode or listened to episode two, I talked about taking action.
And so today is one of those things where. If you find that you are struggling and you're in the boat of potentially having chronic stress, or maybe like in the steps of getting chronic stress, then this is where you need to take action and you need to control your stress a little bit better, so that you can, you know, be a healthier version of yourself.
You can be better in your career, you can be a better mom, whatever it is that you want to achieve, stress is not going to help you get there if it remains chronic. So I want to talk about the autonomic nervous system today. And this is the balance between your sympathetic and your parasympathetic nervous system.
This is going to be the stress response that I'm going to talk about. So we're going to use the analogy of a car.
I want you to think about you being in the driver's seat of your own body, of your own life, and you're driving the car when you press your gas, that's like tapping into your sympathetic nervous system or your fight or your flight.
When you press on the brake, that's tapping into your parasympathetic nervous system or your rest, digest and repair. So in order for us to drive the car safely, we have to have a balance of pressing on the gas and pressing on the brake. Right? So the same goes for our life. Our body is constantly trying to find homeostasis. Our body wants to find that equilibrium. That's where we thrive the best. And so in order to do that, we're constantly going back and forth between our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system, which is great. If we can do it properly. The issue is, is that sometimes if we tap into that sympathetic nervous system, The fight or flight, and we can't tap into our parasympathetic.
That's when stress becomes chronic.
So think about it, like I hike a lot, so I've seen a bear once in the wilderness. And when you see something like a bear, you immediately see a threat. And what happens when you see a bear is your body sees the threat and immediately turns you into your sympathetic nervous system.
So what happens here is when we sense the fear or hypothalamus tells our body to turn on the sympathetic nervous system, which then sends a signal to release cortisol from our adrenal glands. And so this process continues. And what it does is it increases our heart rate, increases our blood pressure. Our circulation releases glucose for immediate energy, because again, fight or flight. If you're going to run, you need glucose to be able to do that. You need immediate energy, but so what happens here? It also slows down or shuts off our non-essential functions like digestion, growth, repair, and reproduction. Which is fine in the moment, but if those are turned off for a really long time, that's when we start to see issues coming up in our body.
So it's good to note that nowadays with all the stress that we are surrounded with, you don't just need to see a bear in order to tap into your sympathetic nervous system. Unfortunately, You can get stressed that'll tap you into that nervous system by just having negative or anxious thoughts and feelings throughout the day.
So it's not just about stress that we see, but it's the stress that we feel from the thoughts that we're having. And so that's why it's so important to focus, not only on our physical, but our mental stressors as well.
So let's use an example of everyday stress that some of us deal with. And I'm gonna use working out as an example.
So when we go to the gym and we do hard workouts, like lifting or excessive cardio, that is immediate stress on our body, and this is why I always talk about being able to recover well from our workouts, working out isn't bad. Yes. It's stress on the body. And it's also going to compromise, you know, other systems like our immune system.
But if we take the time to recover, eat nutrient dense foods, hydrate, get electrolytes and sleep well, then what happens is our muscles can recover, our body can repair our muscles and we can grow back stronger. So you just became more resilient.
But if we are constantly under other stress in our life, we're working out and we're never resting or allowing ourselves full rest days, or, you know, doing things to help us recover or getting poor sleep.
Then we're going to start to notice that we're plateauing in our workouts. We're constantly fatigued. We feel inflamed all the time and our performance is diminishing. So we got to make sure that we're recovering when we do have stress from our lives.
So let's bring it back to cortisol. Because last time I mentioned cortisol was when we have that stress response from our sympathetic nervous system and our cortisol gets released, which at the moment of having immediate stress, that's fine. But the issue is, and I'll come back to the car analogy, if we're constantly on the gas, our car is going to run out of gas and the car is going to stop. It's not going to be able to work with. The same thing is going to happen with your body. So you're going to either run out of that cortisol because you're, you're, over-producing it. And I have to add too, we're not going to get into a bunch of hormones, but cortisol is one of those high up hormones and it's like a web effect or a domino effect with all other hormones. If your cortisol levels are unbalanced, it's going to affect every other hormone in your body.
And so. Our normal cortisol levels, we want them peaking in the morning when we wake up and then we want them to be at their lowest at the end of the night before we go to bed. However, when we tap too much into the sympathetic nervous system, when we can't get out of it, our levels can become imbalanced. And so let's talk about some of the ways that this can affect us and we're going to start with sleep.
So if your cortisol levels are imbalanced, you could find that you have an inability to fall asleep. Or maybe you can fall asleep, but then you're waking up between like one and 4:00 AM. This is a good sign that your cortisol levels could be spiking at the wrong time. And the issue with this is that sleep is super important for our bodies to recover, you know, physically and mentally.
And so when we are unable to recover, We are going to wake up feeling foggy brains. We're going to wake up, not being able to concentrate. We're going to be forgetful. And we're also going to be on edge. We might be having a lot more self doubt when our brain can't function correctly. So think about how that's gonna affect you in your career, think about how that's going to affect you in your job, if you're a CEO or an executive. If you can't think, you cannot do your job to the best of your ability. And so sleep is super important. And if you're having trouble with sleep, don't just focus on how can I make my sleep better. It could be the fact that your cortisol levels are imbalanced and that it's your stress that's the actual issue.
Along with those cortisol levels being high, we might start having GI issues. So your gut health might start getting bad and you might start having more stomach aches, you might start having more heartburn, or you might notice that you're getting food allergies or food allergies are getting worse. Because again, remember when we're tapped into that sympathetic nervous system, we turn off our digestion. Our rest and digest gets turned off. So your ability to actually digest foods properly stops or becomes impeded, and that's going to affect your gut health.
When our cortisol cortisol levels are high, we compromise our immune system. This is going to lower our white blood cells, and this is going to increase our risks at infections. And also you might notice that you're getting sicker more than normal. Like I mentioned before, when our cortisol levels rise, our blood vessels constrict and our heart rate rises. And if this becomes chronic, it can lead to things like diabetes, heart disease, and a lot more. And worse things than that.
Along with the poor sleep, this is going to hinder your ability to work out and perform well in the gym. So you might notice you're more inflamed, more fatigued, um, and you can't, you know, exercise to the abilities you once could. So you're going to notice that performance lacking.
And then, like I mentioned, your cortisol levels will affect other hormones. Specifically. I want to talk about ghrelin, which is your hunger hormone these levels are going to rise, while your leptin or your SAT, your satisfying hormones are going to lower and what's going to happen here is it's going to boost cravings specifically for sugars and carbs. So you're going to want those, like carby sugary foods more often. Um, and it's also going to slow your metabolism down by down-regulating your thyroid production. In turn, a lot of people are going to notice weight gain, and specifically this usually happens around the midsection. So this really does explain why people who are stressed out complain about weight gain or people who are hardcore dieters notice that even with the added exercise and the, you know, more restrictive food calories, they're actually gaining body fat and it's all due to the shift in hormones and how our body responds under stress. And then because our reproduction system slows down, you'll notice that you have low sex drive, you might struggle with trying to get pregnant. Or women can lose their cycles all together.
So these are all signs that we could potentially be dealing with chronic stress. And if you are someone who is listening right now, and these sound like something you may be dealing with, first of all, don't freak out. I have a feeling that a lot of you might be hearing signs and thinking about the stress you have is probably going to give you more stress. So I want you to understand that first off, you're not alone. There are solutions for all of you, and it's just about taking small actions daily to help you with your stress.
So how can we manage our stress? How can we lower our stress or learn how to recover from it better? So the one thing we can do is eat more nutrient dense food. More nutrient dense foods, the colorful foods that you get from, you know, the, the, the outside of the grocery store, the fruits, the vegetables, um, getting a balance of protein, proteins, key carbs fats, and fiber is going to be key. And one way that I'll say that you can try to include these is don't go on a crazy diet focus on the basics first.
So what is your time management look like? If you're a CEO, if you're a business owner, if you're an executive, I would expect that you're using a calendar to schedule in your day to day meetings and whatever you have to do.
What I want you to try to do is also add in your meals in your day. Put in when you're going to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner and make those be non-negotiables. No, you aren't too busy to eat. Your body physically needs fuel to survive. You have to feed your body. So stop using that as an excuse and learn time management skills, make sure that you're prepping. You don't need to make crazy meals. They can be super simple, but you just need to make sure that you're doing it consistently. So getting nutrient dense foods, moving more. Again, going back to the schedule, adding it into your calendar.
And the one thing I don't want you to do, cause my husband did this and it was not helpful.
He actually ended up gaining more weight, doing this. He cut his sleep in order to wake up earlier in order to work out before he went to work and it actually made his body way more inflamed and fatigued. So don't sacrifice your sleep for movement, find areas in which you can add movement into your day.
Even if it's like 15 minutes, maybe it's going for a walk. Maybe it's doing a yoga class. It doesn't need to be this high intensity interval training. I try to encourage my clients to do three days a week of lifting. And then we can add in other fun things that they enjoy doing, whether that be walking, biking, yoga, I like to hike.
So what really, whatever it is that. We'll get you moving. And that doesn't feel like a chore is what I want you to start with. And then things like yoga and walking. Those also help you tap into your parasympathetic nervous system. So that's actually going to help you come out of that sympathetic nervous system and work on getting into the rest, digest and repair.
So trying to add those kinds of activities that aren't hard or more stress on your body. That's why I'd go on walks almost every single day, even if it's just 15 minutes long, it not only helps my physical, but it also helps my mental health as well. And then having good sleep habits. So this is a big one, making sure you're setting a schedule.
I'm going to go back to time management, making sure you have a schedule. Maybe you need to set an alarm. 30 minutes before you need to go to bed so that you have 30 minutes to start thinking about what is my routine that I need to be doing before I go to bed.
And then eventually, and we'll talk about this on another episode with sleep, but you don't want to have to be woken up by an alarm.
I don't wake up with an alarm. I wake up at 6:30AM every single day, on the dot, no alarm. And that's because my circadian rhythm is so good because I make sure that I have my sleep a priority. My body needs eight to nine hours of sleep. Everyone's going to be a little bit different. You're going to have to figure out what is the best or the most efficient time for you to sleep.
Some people that's seven hours, for me, my body needs more sleep. I make sure I'm in bed at like 9:30 in order to get that. And I automatically wake up every morning at the same time. And that's because I have a schedule. It doesn't change on the weekends. I keep it the same. Yes. There are times when I go out a little bit later and hang out with friends, but that's okay. That's about balancing life, but eventually you want to get to the point where you don't have this aloud, annoying alarm waking you up and really disturbing your body. So we'll talk about that more in another episode. Um, and then the last one to help is just learning stress management skills.
What are tools that can help you?
How can you ground yourself when you're feeling stress coming on? Do you enjoy journaling? Maybe you need to work with the coach, maybe working with a coach to help shift your mindset is going to be key for your stress. If you're finding that you're constantly thinking negative thoughts all the time, having a self care routine, maybe you love a bubble bath. Maybe you like getting your nails done. Maybe those things help you feel better. You need to figure out what works best for you. And then one that I always try to encourage clients to do is focus on breathing. Maybe you're having a period of time where you are feeling super stress, intense. Go sit in your room, go sit outside in nature. That helps me and focus on your breathing because your breathing is again, going to tap into the parasympathetic nervous system. Meditation works for a lot of people. Sometimes it doesn't work for others, but again, this is all about you finding your journey, you finding your tools that are going to help you decrease.
All right, guys, that is it for today. If you feel like you're struggling with stress and you're really just not sure how to cope with it, I am taking on three clients this December going into the New year of 2022. So go ahead, fill out an application if you're interested or DM me on Instagram, I'm more than happy to have a conversation and answer any of your questions.
Thanks again for joining guys. I will see you next time on the balanced business women podcast!
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