Is This You?
Have you ever been called “the one that is spinning all the plates!”?
Post lockdown, I know there are so many of us feeling this way! You are not alone in this.
Today, whether you’ve worked out how to *just about keep those plates in the air*, or figured that there must be something out there that will keep your stress levels down, I want to give you 3 strategies to make sure you’re not just known as the stressy multi-tasking Mama.
Because in fact, if you’re dreaming of having energy left at the end of the day for you
… I want you to be in the driving seat of your energy, mood & vitality, rather than feeling your stress hormones are running the show.
If you nail these 3 things, you can start feeling empowered… aaaaaand you can have some easy strategies to pop you in the control seat.
Today, this blogs aim is to make calming options accessible for you. I want to tell you why it matters for your health that you get your cortisol in check, and how these 3 areas below can regulate your cortisol, which allows your energy (thyroid) & calm hormones (progesterone) to shine.
Bottom line? Stop cortisol stealing your energy
Learn today how to …
- create a mindset shift around stress
- which fuel supports lifting you out of burn-out
- what food groups harness your hormones in the peri-menopause Years, so you don’t feel fatigued with stubborn mid-section weight gain.
Let’s dive in!
1. Mindset Shifting
In a nutshell, cortisol is what gets produced when we are in fight or flight mode. It makes our heart beat faster & has helped us run from the lion since the caveman era. For that moment in time, energy is diverted away from all the other hormone production including thyroid & sex hormones, and helps us carry out the task at hand.
This is great news for human kind, as we are still here, being the resilient bunch that we are.
Except now the lion is often the email inbox, the million and one to-dos, or the situation where the children won’t go to bed for the 20th night in a row. Annnnd…..this is happening multiple times a day.
When cortisol is ON, energy delivery is on hold (thyroid) & the calming hormone is on hold (progesterone)….No wonder you don’t feel full of Vitality!
We can’t live in a bubble away from stress, like stopping the emails arriving, or shipping the kids off (although this last lockdown it might have flickered across your mind)
But we can look forward to what we CAN do. This lets you play with stress in a different way – rather than feeling stressed about being stressed, you can flip the script.
What CAN you do in the moment? Here are some examples:
- Movement helps release cortisol – so if it’s an option, taking a flight of stairs can give you an outlet.
- Breathwork. Slow exhalations literally increase our vagal tone, which sends calming hormones throughout your body. Super charge it with grounding essential oils like frankincense, as the scent hits the part of your brain which downregulates our stress response.
2. Foods that soothe our adrenals
Cortisol is produced in our adrenal glands, and whilst I go into much greater personalised depth in the Goddess Program what we know through gold standard research trials is these vitamins & minerals are depleted by chronic stress:
- Magnesium
- Vitamin C
- Omega 3
Magnesium food sources, include:
- Extra dark chocolate (can i get a Yeahh!)
- green vegetables
If you are in burn out, or have high stress, consider a high strength powdered magnesium supplement
Vitamin C food sources are:
- Kiwis
- broccoli & brussels
- oranges (although there isn’t as much in there as we are led to believe)
Supplementing vitamin C throughout periods of stress can be very soothing for the adrenals.
3. Finding what ‘diet’ suits YOUR BODY
We see soo many diet fads out there, I mean, what are we meant to believe? How can you tell if the information is credible? My clinical opinion is, to always look at where the research studies have come from to back up the information you are reading, or find a qualified coach to help you cut through the mis-information & give you personalised help at your finger tips.
My clinical background is hormone balancing for the perimenopause through to menopause, so whilst there can be credible evidence for different diets, always check in that it suits YOUR life-phase & that it supports where you are at now in your stress levels.
One popular diet example, is the Keto diet. When done well, it should give you more clarity, help your thyroid & help regulate insulin.
However, if you are going through a lot of stress, or when ‘doing keto’ interrupts your monthly period, these are alarm bells that something more female-centric and more gentle is needed. This is why we opt for gentle keto throughout our Goddess Programme, which is in line with Cancer Research, as well as published journals like this one, for supportive foods to help our brains, & hormonal balance transition through the menopause. There is an emphasis toward plant based & fish based fats within my programme, as well as gentle carbs. The programme only opens twice a Year. To be the first to know when registration opens, get on the list here.
To summarise:
- 1) look at what actions you CAN do amongst chaos,
- 2) eat high magnesium, vitamin C & supplement if needed,
- 3) Seek out high quality guidance on personalised macronutrients for you.
We can handle a rise in cortisol, we just need to be able to return back to balance so that it doesn’t become chronic & deplete our energy (thyroid) or steal production of our calming hormones like progesterone. It is never too early to start your journey to nourish – it will stand you in good stead, with more resilience, for the natural led up to a calmer Year & ultimately a thriving menopause & beyond.
Over to you, are there any steps here that you are going to action this week? If you would like further support, I am more than happy to help, our next 5 week course starts in the Autumn. Having a supportive group, with Years of experience, can really help to put these steps into action so that you are not going at it alone.
Have a lovely week,
Jana xx