Strategy #4: Your Quarantine Stress Eating Survival Guide
Rest and Repair
I have always had a strong work ethic. Subscribing to the belief that anything is possible with hard work, determination and perseverance. I have always prided myself on my grit, tenacity and resilience. And these traits served me well over the years. In sports. In school. And lately in business.
But this life code also broke my body.
Ever since I launched my business I have been firing on all cylinders. Trying to do it all. Be it all. An entrepreneur. A stay at home mom. It was go, go, go. Push, push, push.
A typical day was divided into quarters and would go something like this:
Early Morning: Up around 4:30 am so that I could get some work in and sometimes a workout.
During School: Attempting to cram in as much as I could in the space of the 6.5 hours the girls were at school. Clients, content creation, cycle classes, personal workout.
After School: Completely switching gears to put the mama hat on. Snacks, homework, clean, cook.
Evening: The running for after school activities, sometimes evening clients or an evening group.
Weekends were spent attempting to catch up or at a dance competition. Many times I would work on Sundays and for a little over a year I was waiting tables at a local restaurant on Friday nights.
I was working out at least 6 days a week - running a few times during the week with a longer run on the weekend. Sometimes I was pulling two-a-days just to fit it all in. Strength in the morning and cardio later in the day. I taught several cycle classes each week.
I had also gotten pretty controlling and rigid with my diet. I was eating incredibly well but I wasn’t eating enough for my activity level. I talk about my slip back into restriction here. I started to heavily rely on coffee. A few cups in the morning to kick my butt into gear. And a cup at 3:00 every day with the girls after school.
The notion that you push hard no matter what is precisely what broke my body.
I ignored all the signs that I was doing too much. A knee injury in October of 2018. An intense fatigue and lethargy that I couldn’t shake. A deep ache in my muscles and my joints. Crazy low blood pressure. A persistent brain fog. Lady hormones that were all out of whack. I’m in my 40’s so this was just par for the course - right? And then the digestive issues. I won’t go into too much detail but let’s just say I was walking around feeling bloated and gassy all the freakin’ time despite eating incredibly clean.
I knew something wasn’t quite right so I began working with my good friend and functional nutritionist, Rachael Pomato. We did a whole slew of tests and we discovered that my thyroid and the rest of my hypothalmatic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis was sluggish due to prolonged stress. I heard the part about the thyroid and the HPA axis. But I wasn’t willing to listen about the stress.
I was driven so I continued to push through. Because hard work = results. And the struggle makes you stronger. I fell for this belief hook, line and sinker and it was a perspective that I prided myself on.
I started doing some work to support the thyroid - a few dietary changes and some supplementation. I stopped running because of the knee injury. I started to feel better but I continued to ignore the root cause. High cortisol levels due to stress.
And because I am hard headed and don’t always listen, my body began to speak to me in the only way I seem to pay attention. Through my food cravings, my weight and my mood.
All of a sudden my cravings felt out of control. All I could think about was food again. And then the weight. This cushion around my middle and tush appeared and my clothes no longer fit. The cravings and the cushion wouldn’t budge no matter how clean I ate or how hard I pushed at the gym. My sunny disposition on life disappeared and I found myself in a looming funk. My motivation plummeted and I had to force myself to do the things that I used to love.
My default has always been work harder. Dig in. Just do it. But this approach stopped working. And I am not going to lie to you. I felt lost. And like a fraud. Here I am in this health and wellness space feeling like a hot damn mess. I had made so much progress in my health journey but then I felt like I was slipping backwards.
But then I started to learn about stress. And I finally started waking up.
Let’s Talk About Cortisol
I’m sure you have heard about the stress hormone - cortisol. It is a hormone produced in our adrenal glands that is designed to help us respond to danger. You can think of it as our internal alarm button and it is responsible for our “fight or flight” response in moments of crisis. It is a very important human adaptation and in moments of actual danger, it keeps us safe and makes us respond.
The interesting thing is that all kinds of stressors can trigger this alarm button. And our body doesn’t know or care where these stressors come from. They only differ in the elicited physiological response and the magnitude of the stress perception.
Stress can come in the form of physical, mental or emotional stress. Stress from challenging life events. Stress from pain or an injury. Stress from a virus or an illness. Stress from our jobs or finances. Stress from relationships. Stress from eating too much, too little or skipping meals. Stress from vigorous exercise or over-training. The list could truly go on and on.
So if you are experiencing and/or perceiving stress from a variety of sources for a prolonged period of time, that alarm button essentially stays on. And while it is natural (and good) to have cortisol in your body, excessively high amounts for long periods of time is a recipe for disaster.
Chronic stress and high cortisol levels directly affect the function of other key hormones. It can impact your thyroid and interfere with your metabolism. It can cause your sex hormones to become all out of whack - think low libido and irregular cycles, PMS and bloating for the ladies. It can also impact your body’s ability to create the happy hormones which can contribute to anxiety and depression.
In addition to hormonal issues, chronically elevated cortisol levels can impact your digestive system by creating inflammation in the gut. It’s not uncommon for people with high cortisol to develop food sensitivities and intolerances due to compensated gut health.
And on top of all this, it can lead to many other health problems including memory and concentration problems, headaches, trouble sleeping and can pave the way for really scary health issues such as heart disease and diabetes.
Stress Accumulates. We Adapt. Until We Can’t Adapt Anymore.
And I think one thing that is really important to understand is that these stressors can add up over time. And sometimes we don’t even notice. That’s because the human body has this remarkable ability to adapt. We give it some stress and it adapts. Essentially, we figure out a way to handle it and we move on. And similarly, we don’t always notice the symptoms either. We don’t just wake up depressed, 10 lbs heavier, bloated and gassy. It is a gradual occurrence. Because again, we figure out how to handle it and we move on.
So we go through this process of adapting. Until we can’t adapt anymore.
For me, it caused a total suppression of the HPA axis - which meant my thyroid didn’t work properly, my hormones were all out of whack and my microbiome was a mess. My body went into safety mode. My metabolism slowed to a crawl. And this exquisite body of mine tried to protect itself by increasing my appetite, adding some extra weight and lowering my motivation so that I would honor its need to heal.
So How Do We Avoid The Breaking Point?
I have learned two very important things through this experience.
One, it is crucial that we get to and address the root cause. I can do immediate things to support the thyroid and heal my gut BUT the problem is going to persist until I look at what caused it in the first place. Chronic stress is the underlying cause of many health issues because cortisol touches every single system in the body. We must be willing to look at how we are living and all forms of stress - mental, emotional and physical.
Two, we must take a very close look at stress management. It becomes imperative that we regularly incorporate ways to de-stress so that don’t hit our adaptation maximum and then crash. But it is equally important to examine HOW we are choosing to de-stress.
Some Stress Reducers Are Actually Stress Activators
I’m sure on some level you know how important it is to manage your stress. I did too. In fact, I’ve been consistently using meditation as a form of stress management for years. Plus, I exercised regularly and ate nutrient-dense whole food. So here I am thinking I have stress-management in the bag. I exercised regularly, I meditated and I ate clean. I truly thought I was good.
But what I didn’t understand (or maybe didn’t WANT to understand) is that some of the very things I was doing to manage my stress were actually causing more stress on my body. And flooding my body with more cortisol.
Exercise. Running and other forms of hard and vigorous exercise raise cortisol levels. And while this type of exercise isn’t a bad thing, when you layer it on top of other forms of stress and don’t properly recover, it can cause your cortisol levels to remain persistently high.
Nutrition. I was eating incredibly nutritious food but was rigid in my choices. The irony of it all is that I was actually trying to create a strong microbiome by limiting things that were inflammatory for me. What I didn’t realize is that I was being too restrictive and was actually negating any positive intent. All of my nutritional efforts actually wound up increasing the stress on my body and impairing my ability to digest my food and absorb all the amazing nutrients I was eating.
You couple the above with a non-stop schedule, life stress, lots of caffeine and not enough restorative sleep and it’s no wonder my body rebelled. It thought it was constantly being chased by a saber-tooth tiger and was trying to save itself.
I share all of this with you for a very important reason.
I want to use myself as a case in point to show you that living in a state of chronic and prolonged stress is not good for your body. Your stressors might be similar to mine but they might be different too. The point is that a rise in cortisol is a rise in cortisol. Your body doesn’t know or care what caused it.
I have also always believed in being completely transparent. Because that is what is real and true. From day one, I have wanted to make my mess my message. And I will tell you that every single experience that I have had around food, weight and body image has not only made me a more compassionate coach but it has given me hands-on life experience.
And it is through this life experience that I have learned so much about lifestyle, diet, exercise and mindset. So the suggestions that I make and the tools that I teach are not just theoretical. They are tried and true. And they work.
Rejuvenate
And so this brings me to the rejuvenation part. The rest and repair part.
When it comes to keeping our cortisol levels in check, it’s important to point out the balancing act that needs to happen within the two branches of our autonomic nervous system - our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and our parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS). They are the yin and yang when it comes to our stress response and they work together to balance each other out.
The SNS is responsible for the fight-or-flight response described earlier. The two main hormones at play are cortisol and adrenaline. The PSNS, on the other hand, is responsible for calming the body down after the SNS has been activated and returning the body to an unstressed state. It is often called our “rest, repair, and digest” system and it helps produce a state of equilibrium in the body.
When the PSNS is activated, it allows our body to rejuvenate and recover. This is when our food digests, our muscles repair, our hormones are made, damage is restored and strength is built. Ultimately, the more time we spend with the PSNS activated, the quicker our bodies will recover and the healthier and stronger we will become.
And super interesting side note, the CNS and PSNS will influence the fuel your body chooses to use in any given moment. The body is constantly deciding whether to use glucose, fat or a combination of the two as fuel. When the CNS is dominate and active, it is communicating to your body that there is a threat so your body will need to react and get you out of that situation. It will naturally choose a quick burning fuel - glucose. So this means you will crave anything that will power you and provide you with fast fuel - caffeine, sweets, carbohydrates. The end result is a wild ride on the blood sugar roller coaster and never providing your body with the opportunity to use fat as fuel. BUT when the PSNS is active and dominant, you will be able to use fat as fuel pretty efficiently. Pretty wild huh?
And so what if we could look at our quarantine time as an opportunity to up-regulate our PSNS and down-regulate our SNS? Could we challenge the notion that we must push ourselves into the ground in order to achieve success? And could we instead embrace the slowing down of things and look at it as an opportunity to redefine what it means to work hard?
Could we challenge the cultural norm of what it means to work hard?
I recognize that the quarantine, in and of itself, adds in a whole slew of stressors. Particularly emotional and mental. There is fear, worry, anxiety, loneliness. And then the juggling act that happens if you are working from home and have kids.
But we are also forced to physically slow down a bit. We can’t run around non-stop. Gyms are closed. Kids activities are cancelled. We now have fewer commitments and obligations. We have space and time to prioritize rest. And the bottom line is that is how we repair and rejuvenate. With rest.
So instead of worrying about the HIIT workout, hard cycle class or intense strength training session that you aren’t able to do, perhaps focus on taking a walk instead. Let yourself sleep in on the weekends. Take a nap. Read a book. Journal. Find ways to truly rejuvenate. You know what this means for you.
Let’s give ourselves permission to take advantage of this slower pace so that when the quarantine is over we can re-enter with more strength, optimism and resilience.
And stay tuned, my friend. In my next post, you will learn specific ways and activities to help you down-regulate your SNS and up-regulate your PSNS.
A Note To All Of You On The Front Lines & Working In Essential Services
Thank you. I see you and appreciate all you are doing in this time of crisis. You don’t get to slow down. This is not your renewal and your stress is likely through the roof. The world needs you right now and you are doing what the rest of us cannot.
It is my hope that the portion of us who are staying at home can intentionally rest, repair and rejuvenate so that when this is all over we can return the favor to all of you who have not had the opportunity to do so.
xoxo
Sources and Additional Reading
Understanding the Stress Response - This article breaks down the stress response in detail and explains how stress activates the HPA axis.
The Link Between Cortisol and Exercise - A short article explaining how exercise impacts your cortisol levels.
Sara Gottfried, MD - Dr. Gottfried’s book and mini-course Fast Track Your Hormone Cure really helped me understand the interplay of hormones and the cascade of issues causes by high cortisol.
Exercise, Stress, Hormones and Inflammation - SCW Fit Session from February 2020 DC Mania Fitness Conference.
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