Strength Renewed

00:18
This is so good. We're jumping right into the boogie man, the things that scare us. And I love it because you're actually saying that a lot of the things that scare us are all related. Totally all related. And one of the things you see all the time, which you rightly wanted to chat about was cortisol. I do, because it's also one of those very open-ended terms. And I think we

00:46
I tend to think of it negatively. In fact, a lot of what I've even said to clients in the course of the day, it's like, I'm here, in the same way that we've talked before about hacks, how we have coffee hacks or ways we connect to each other. I'm like, how many things have you done today to release cortisol, to empty the cortisol out of your body? So I sort of see it as, I see it more that way, but I know that there's probably a need for cortisol too.

01:16
maybe you could kind of like in your way just sort of explain maybe why we don't want it in our bodies and then maybe the positives why it can actually be beneficial. So, and it's such a great question and actually it's like we need cortisol. So there's never a time we want no cortisol and it's not possible to not have cortisol. Like we would die without it. Really? So absolutely. Our bodies, it's like

01:44
everything cortisol, insulin, glucose, ketones, estrogen, progesterone at different levels, you know, like we would die if we didn't have, or would be severely impacted if we didn't have the natural fluctuations in these hormones to support our circadian rhythm. And cortisol often gets a bad rep because people talk about, it's like you see the words cortisol spike and this red flag comes up or this fire comes up or it's like,

02:13
You know, you get this really emotional sort of like, my God, you know, that's like detrimental to muscle mass. It's detrimental to our brain. It's literally breaking down. helps, you know, with, with waking and yeah, you name it. like, know. Yeah. And we want to avoid that at all costs, but without cortisol, wouldn't even be alive. And in fact, if people don't have cortisol, they have something I believe called Addison's disease.

02:43
And it is, it is when they like the body can't produce cortisol, the pituitary gland doesn't make it or it's some sort of, I want to say it, I don't think it's a genetic thing because it can happen over time, but I believe some people would genetically be more predisposed to it. But it is like when your cortisol is absolutely tanked and medically you need help getting, you know, need help resolving that situation. So.

03:12
Cortisol, it's a steroid hormone, much like our sex hormones produced by the adrenal glands. It's often called the stress hormone because it is released in response to physical or psychological stress. That's via the action of something called the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal access, the HPA access. And the thing with cortisol, it regulates metabolism. So it increases blood glucose via something called gluconeogenesis, which is the

03:42
the converting of our stored muscle glycogen carbohydrate into glucose. And it helps the body use fat, protein and carbohydrates effectively for energy. It prepares the body for fight or flight by increasing the energy we have available. So if you think about it from a prehistoric perspective, you know, like there were times where like food was scarce.

04:10
And we had to, we would literally be either fighting for our life, running away from predators, or we would be trying to hunt down our food. We'd need that energy to be in our system to give us that energy. The thing is, and so that is that fight or fight response. But nowadays we aren't either fighting for our life or running for our life. We are, you know, we're stuck in traffic and it's creating stress. You know, the

04:38
a whole host of other reasons for stress, but the body responds the same because the blueprint hasn't changed. cortisol does have a rhythm where it's a thing that gets us up in the morning. We have a cortisol awakening response, which after 30 minutes, it should be at its highest peak. And then it does peak and trough naturally across the day and sort of bottoming out at the end of the day, whereby when we're preparing for sleep, when our sleep pressure has

05:07
where we've just, we're just at this point where we really go to sleep. So cortisol and melatonin work in opposition to each other. So when cortisol is low, melatonin is high. Equally, if you do have dysregulated cortisol and it's high, melatonin production is suppressed. And it has anti-inflammatory effects in the short term. It is in fact an anti-inflammatory hormone. I feel like, as usual, my mind's like,

05:35
blown because when I first asked this question, did not think I thought there would be a litany of all the reasons why it was negative. Right. And there would be a few things as to why it would be helpful. Right. To your body. The way that you're communicating it, it's almost like the reverse. There's a lot more because that is an at all great things. Why is it marketed? And I'll say marketing because I feel like so much of the way that we are receiving information about.

06:04
nutrition in science back to things feels very marketed, right? So why is it kind of marketed like not as something that we want to kind of like shy away from or something? It's because everything that I'm describing is a natural fluctuations and natural cortisol response to different things throughout the day that actually allows us to live. Whereas what

06:32
we hear is really related to chronic elevations in cortisol. And that's where the issue lies. It's like inflammation. Inflammation is necessary for life. We need inflammation. It helps us adapt. It helps us adapt to exercise. It helps us with our immune system response, much like cortisol. But if you get a chronic elevation in cortisol and it doesn't then reduce down to these healthy baseline levels, you start getting a disruption in other hormones.

07:02
For example, cortisol and progesterone are both made from the same raw substrate or material in our body. So if you are always stressed all of the time and relying on cortisol, progesterone tanks, because there's now no longer the substrate available to produce progesterone. So a lot of women have like bottomed out progesterone because they are stressed all of the time. And when we don't, yeah. And so when we,

07:31
force our body to be in a stressed state, be it just the way that we live, the lack of sleep that we might get, over training would do it, constantly under eating would do it. All of these things place a stress on the body that if it isn't alleviated will result in that chronic cortisol elevation. And that's when your body starts responding in the way that you describe, like it'll, you'll start storing fat around the middle. Like it's the easiest place to store fat through

08:01
that constant elevation of cortisol. So that's really the main, that's the key right there is it's not cortisol itself. It's not the intermittent-ness of it. It's really the constant elevated-ness of it is where it's dangerous. That's a really good

08:22
differential because I don't think I understood it until now. That's what people are explaining. I'm, hopefully this is all nice and clarifying for lots of people that were a little confused about cortisol because there's a lot of cortisol confusion. know they are. Like I think the beautiful thing is that I am like the majority of the population is that there's, you're trying to make sense of it. But I think simply stated, it's when you are in a chronic state of high levels of cortisol and there's no

08:51
place to release. There's no, it's not intermittent. It's just constant. So your body is just, it's going to burn out literally. Right. For some people, yes. What would be the most like, you know, what are the most common, you said obviously getting fat around the middle, but what are the most constant or I'm sorry, like, you know, common, not constant common high level cortisol responses. Like if you're in a state of high cortisol, what are like your typical symptoms of that?

09:22
So you'd be, you'd feel really like tired, but wired. So even though you feel exhausted, your mind is racing and you can't relax. Weight gain, as you mentioned. Sleep issues. So trouble falling asleep, trouble staying asleep, anxiety, irritability, overwhelm. Yep. A frequent illness because you've got a suppressed immune system because of cortisol's role in the immune system.

09:53
High blood pressure, cravings for sugar or salty food, irregular periods or low libido, muscle weakness or loss and not seeing gains in the gym, elevated blood glucose or insulin resistance because it's just so acutely tied to our ability to use and need glucose. I mean, which all sounds related to the same

10:22
Could this be in the same category of like, you know, in-balanced hormones or whatever thyroid or all these other things? yeah. Because cortisol also impacts on thyroid function. And also what I was saying with progesterone, it impacts on the level of progesterone that is circulating around the body or produced even because they have the same, they're made from the same precursor or

10:49
raw material and there's just a priority list in the body. And because cortisol is related to our survival, your body will prioritize making cortisol over progesterone. So if you were to like, again, know talking about like the top down most important, but if you were to like regulate your cortisol, would it be as important to regulate your hormone? Like if you're like, I can definitely nail, can regulate my cortisol levels. Would you need to be as focused?

11:19
on your hormones if you're regulating your cortisol? I think because so much of cortisol, of the symptoms related to cortisol, it's stress related, right? And so if there's a real focus on stress management, getting sleep, eating like proper amounts of food in a routine fashion, protein centric, carbohydrate that helps support the central nervous system, if you're focused on maybe meditation,

11:48
if you're always training, know, like, so over training, you pair that back, if you do what we were chatting about last week with, you know, reach out to friends and have these supportive relationships, these will all help improve cortisol regulation. Function everybody. which will then offload that, need for all of the precursor to go towards cortisol. So progesterone levels will come up.

12:18
they'll have more of a balance with estrogen and progesterone because progesterone levels will be higher. So there's a term people use called estrogen dominance. I don't love it. Yes. I hear this all the time. What is that? Yeah. It's basically just how much estrogen you have relative to progesterone, but it's not a dominance per se. And equally when you then allow your body to produce more progesterone, then you'll have less of a gap between the two.

12:46
And so you'll have less of these symptoms of high estrogen because often those symptoms are actually related to relative to progesterone anyway. all of these things- And if your cortisol is regulated, then your progesterone is going to be related and that's going to help your estrogen. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. It absolutely can. there is, so it's all interrelated and this is why looking at hormones or looking at cortisol, it's just, you can't look at them all in isolation because you just miss things.

13:13
Because if you look at something in isolation and just try to fix this one thing, if you're thinking about hormones, then everything works together. Of course, if you step back and go, I need to address my cortisol and actually I need to, it's a behavior change thing that needs to happen. And so what are the behaviors that help this? Those same behaviors will then help with the regulation of everything else. yeah. I just, think sometimes in a place to try to

13:42
centralize the information because it's just, you know, again, I know there's ways to test your hormones and the whole thing, but like cortisol seems almost like an animal that you could have a little bit more control over, if you will. Like you could, that goes back to like being really mindful about your sleep and your eating and your connection to somebody who can help lower your like your stress levels and your exercise. It's like

14:09
doing those things simultaneously will help lower this thing. And I know that they're all interconnected, but it does seem like that's a fairly giant piece of the puzzle is regulation of your cortisol levels, which will help these other things that... And I'm not saying I mean, we could talk more about hormones, but there's something really elusive about the conversation around hormones because it's just like...

14:34
like a little bit here and then pull that one back and then it's a, it feels like a never ending science experiment. But cortisol seems after this discussion seems a little bit more easy to understand, I guess. And I guess it's, just comes down to stress management because it's all about stress on the body. That's what it seems like. And then, so if you can, you can make changes to the stress load, then you'll make changes to your stress response. Hmm. That is so good.

15:04
Say that again. What did I say? If you make changes to your stress load, then you'll adjust your stress response. Yeah. It's really good. You can write that down. That's going to be our thing at the end of the strength renewed on this one. Well, it has been completely eye opening because it was, you know, kind of in the same way we were talking about, um, you know, when we just kind of did an actual deep dive into muscle, was like, you allowed me to kind of use these

15:33
ways and I've been explaining it ever since like muscle acts like a blocker and a barrier, right? Like it's a barrier to operate blood sugar. It's a blocker to help protect your muscle or your bone. And it's logical when you think about it like that. Of course it is completely so much more complicated than that, but at least simply put, that's what it's doing. So when you think about the importance of having it, and it's the same kind of thing with cortisol. I just, I thought it was just all bad. You know I mean? I was like, Oh God, you're to do with a huge thing. And really I think

16:03
simply put, simply put, that it isn't actually. It's the chronicness of it. Like if you're in a chronic state of high cortisol levels, it is dangerous for your body. But the intermittentness of it is just kind of the natural ebb and flow of what your body is experiencing. And so the more that you can put things in place to help regulate the amounts of cortisol in the body that healthier and better you're going to feel, and that in tune will help balance your hormone levels too.

16:33
Totally. it just demystifies it. Yes, demystifies it is such a big thing. I'm telling you, you can't do this like habit stacking like we talked about. You cannot create habits if you are confused by the habits you're creating. think seriously. And I think as well, it's like, it's actually, it's not hard. isn't like these things we're talking about, they are simple. They're not easy, but they're simple things. And so

17:01
if it allows you to understand it better with some of the emotional hijacking that happens the way that I saw you talk about cortisol. Like then suddenly you get this blind panic and you can't do anything. But if you understand- emotionally hijacked all, like that's the thing I work on every single day, Yeah, I Is not being emotionally hijacked, literally. Yeah. Yeah. But I'm aware of it and I'm working on it. Totally. And you're asking the right questions.

17:29
Tell me why cortisol is bad, we need to remove it. And I'm like, okay, it's really interesting perspective because that's not actually what's happening. And so if you keep asking the questions and then we're able to chat about it, that just alleviates, dare I say it, the chronic cortisol elevation that occurs when you think about cortisol. Well, you nailed it. And that also goes back to what we talking about last week. When you have a connection to another person or you're doing, just by the nature of that.

17:56
you're reducing it. So you must think about it in a bigger way. It's not just like a box or I have to see this friend because I haven't seen him for a long time. I'm actually going to meet with this person because my cortisol levels will be lower. And in turn, my hormones will be more balanced and I'll just be healthier. You know what I mean? Like that's how you have to start kind of like thinking about it. But I love how we did demystify actual cortisol. It's intermittently is what it's just a natural part of existence. But when we're just in this constant elevated state of it, it's quite dangerous for the body and not healthy.

18:26
But you can have some pretty intense control and say over it. I think, you know, going back to what you're eating and who you're talking with and how much information you're consuming and taking a moment to just also like step back and be quiet, you know, for a moment too. But there's real power in that. That does seem to be. I'd be curious to know out of all those things that they were like, put me under like a little like, like a scale, you know, like a rain or, you know, like the red or the lights flashing over me.

18:54
out of all those things that we talked about as possible ways of regulating cortisol, which one would be the greatest cortisol regulator? Just a question. don't know. That's one. Yeah. It's a rhetorical one, Yes. It's a rhetorical one. And I just wonder for my own body, what would be literally just kind of like the thing that maybe it's subconscious. You know I mean of what is creating the most stress in the body? I'm just, you know,

19:23
you know, deep dive a little bit there. Yeah, totally. And only you can answer that. And it's so individual, right? Yeah. Yeah. And it's, that's why, you know, when you understand your anchor behaviors, which what, are the things that really ground you? They're the big pillars. So, yeah. I love that. Yeah. Nice one. are your, what are your quick two anchor behaviors? Oh, well, exercise and diet.

19:51
What are you grateful for today? I am grateful for, I'll be seeing my husband in about 23 minutes and he's bringing home dish washing liquid, which is great because we need it. That's real relationship right there. Yeah. I mean, you didn't have to go get the soap. Exactly.

20:15
I am grateful for you. I'm grateful for our shrink renewed because it brings a lot to my life. And I love that. And I love that it brings a lot to other people's lives too. So I feel really grateful for it. I'm also really grateful for I got to see one of my best friends in the whole wide world and I love her so much. And it was funny because it wasn't exactly how she's in town visiting from the East Coast. And it's our spring break here. I didn't

20:41
It wasn't exactly how I was hoping I would see her. I thought we'd have like a little coffee date or a little glass of wine together or a walk. Just the two of us. But it just didn't go anything like that. And it was all of our families and the kids were running amok and it's rained and we wanted to go for a walk. so just so we ended up going to her family's house and it was like we like poured hot cups of tea, made a little beeline to the living room. The kids had a...

21:09
grand old time playing in the room above. And I was thinking to myself that if we continue to do this as a practice to keep walking into spaces where we might hope it looks a certain way or it should be this way or whatever, whatever, and you just kind of let it be the way, it's really freeing. And I just entered in, because I did kind of want it to be a different way. I'm not going to lie. But I went in and it was just like super open and couldn't have been a more recharging visit.

21:39
The cortisol levels felt lower. And it was just so nice to connect and you just realize like your people are your people. And no matter how many times or how you see them, they give you something really powerful. And then you share it, you share it with you and you share it with everybody around you. And so I'm just, I'm grateful for that practice that I'm working on. And I'm also grateful for friendships and people in your life that just really allow you to feel seen.

22:09
You know, just for exactly as you are all of your ridiculous imperfections and silliness. So, so that that is it. And that's one of my pillars, So nutrition and and strength training and gratitude. It's a real practice for me. So, yeah. Good luck at your run, my girl. You're you're going to you're running, running, running. You got Boston coming up, right? So you've got your marathon. Yeah.

22:33
Couple of weeks away. Couple of weeks away, but we're working toward it. we'll keep going. We'll talk about it on the next one. I'm excited. That's a big deal. know it is. I know. I cannot wait. cannot wait. All right, Jess. So cool. Yeah. See you. Bye. I'll see you on the flip.