Redefining Strength Podcast
You train hard. You try to eat well. You stay disciplined. And yet progress slows. Energy drops. Fat loss stalls.
The Redefining Strength Podcast is for women who work hard on their health… but still feel like their body isn’t responding the way it used to.
Hosted by Cori Lefkowith, founder of Redefining Strength, this show helps you understand what’s actually happening inside your body — and what to do about it.
Cori is the creator of the STRONG System, used by over 10,000 women around the world to transform their bodies and build results that last.
Through real coaching insights and conversations with leading experts in women’s health, metabolism, and behavior change...each episode breaks down the science in a way that actually applies to real life.
Because the answer isn’t working harder. It’s learning how to work smarter so your effort finally creates the strength, energy, and confidence you’ve been chasing.
If you’re ready to stop starting over and start building a body you can count on, this podcast will help you get there.
Redefining Strength Podcast
FHP 532- How To Manage Stress (And How it's Sabotaging Your Results)
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How to manage stress...
When we want to lose weight, gain muscle, achieve amazing body recomposition or even improve our health, we turn to the things that are often easiest to adjust….
Our workouts and our diet.
It’s harder to address things like SLEEP or STRESS so we often focus first on those other two things.
And often through changes to our diet and workouts, we CAN improve our stress levels and sleep.
In this episode we're going to cover how to manage stress. We'll look at stress and nutrition and cover some exercises that can help with stress relief.
My amazing Dietitian Brooke will share some key nutrients we all need and even discuss the impact that STRESS can have on the symptoms of perimenopause and menopause!
00:00 - How To Manage Stress
01:49 - Stress is inevitable
05:43 - Stress and Nutrition
29:38 - Macro Tip
32:51 - Mobility Moves
Managing Stress Through Nutrition and Habits
Speaker 1As you know , as you're going through perimenopause and menopause , you have all kinds of just hormone fluctuations . They're slowly dropping , you don't know what's going on . You have all these negative symptoms sometimes associated with it and if our body is under a constant state of fight or flight stress mode , your body's going to prioritize that cortisol metabolism and excreting it as quickly as possible over some of these other hormones , which I find very fascinating .
Speaker 2Hey guys , it's Kourt from Redefining Strength . Welcome to the Fitness Hacks podcast . When we want to see better weight loss results , when we want to gain muscle , we often turn to changing our diet and our workout routine . But we have to realize that our results are impacted by so much more , including our sleep and our stress . So in this episode I really want to dive into stress and how it can impact your results , but also how we can impact our stress levels through how we adjust our nutrition and our workouts . I'm super excited for my fabulous dietitian , brooke , to jump into how we can change some of our fueling to better lessen our stress , reduce our stress from a nutritional standpoint . And then I also want to talk about some workout hacks to really help yourself relax , to even get better quality sleep and reduce that stress as well .
Speaker 2It's not easy to directly change our stress levels . We can't just tell ourselves not to be more stressed . There are some things we can do with our lifestyle to better improve the results we get and reduce that stress so that it doesn't negatively impact our progress . So I'm super excited to jump right in . If you haven't let their review yet , please go leave a review on whatever channel you are watching this on . I really greatly appreciate it . It helps me keep the episode sponsorship free .
Speaker 2Anyway , let's jump into those tips . Stress is going to happen . There is no if , ands or buts about it . We cannot prevent ourselves from ever feeling stress . However , we can really impact the result of that stress and we can make it have a positive or negative impact . While you know there are going to be things that create that negative stress on our life , ultimately it's how we respond to them and deal with them that really results in whether or not it moves us forward or holds us back . I think it's key that we recognize that everything is a stressor . To some extent , exercise can be both a negative stressor for overtraining or a positive stressor . If we're using in the right way , even nutritional changes can better promote positive stresses on our body positive results , positive changes or they can negatively impact things , which is why I often say we're not looking for perfection with our diet , because that can be a negative stressor trying to eat some arbitrary standard of clean , cutting out all the foods we love , over making small changes that meet us where we're at . But there are going to be stressors that occur . So I really wanted to think about the mindset and how we handle these things , so that we don't default back into even old patterns that make the stress worse , because so much of how stress impacts us is the patterns we've created , the responses that we've built up .
Speaker 2If you think about what leads to us emotionally eating , it's often the fact that we've had a stressful day , these negative emotions , and this eating has become a way of handling them that we've seen work , even if it's very short term , even if it's only instant gratification . It's been a pattern that we have created in response to a stressor . So when you're thinking about the stresses that you have in your life , think about the patterns or responses that you have now created . That might even be unconscious in the moment . So if you think about okay , if I get stressed in this way at work , what will happen when I go home , the more you can pause to assess the pattern that you have created in response to that stress , the more you're going to be able to help yourself handle them , make the habit changes that you really need to even see the weight loss results that you want or to better gain muscle , because we all do have these unconscious patterns and part of it . Even creating the new habits that we need is first breaking them , and it's requires self-discipline , it requires a lot of willpower . It drains us just even making ourselves aware of these patterns .
Speaker 2But if you find yourself falling back into an old routine , if you've now eaten out of emotion because of a stressful day , even if you can't stop yourself right now , before it happens , I want you afterwards to assess what can I do now to move forward ? Looking at the situation , what triggers were there that led up to this ? What can I do in the future to better handle this ? What pattern or what thing can I do to break this pattern ? Because maybe it is that emotional eating after a stressful day where your habit is just to walk right into the kitchen . Well , instead , can you , you know , pull into your driveway and go for a little bit of a walk ? Can you get right home and make sure that you're going right to get water and said what's something that you can do ? That's a habit change to shift yourself out of the normal pattern . But even asking like okay , if you're a stress at work , what is going to happen when I go home , knowing I'm in this mindset ? How can I not let this mindset lead to the pattern that I've always defaulted back into Because , again , we're not going to be able to prevent ourselves from feeling stress from different things . Like that is going to be a natural response . But we can change the patterns in how we handle the stress that we feel and the more we can impact those things , change those things , the better results we're going to see . So just recognize stress is going to happen . Stress is both good and bad and it's all coming back to how we handle that emotion and the habits that follow . And we can change those habits . But it does take time to really make ourselves aware . So if you do have a response that you want to change , happen , don't beat yourself up . Just assess that situation to move forward and think about one small habit change . The more we can catch ourselves in the act of being stressed to make that change , the better off we're going to be .
Speaker 2I'm super excited to be joined by one of my fabulous dieticians , brooke , today to discuss how to better manage our stress through our nutritional changes and those adjustments there . So , brooke , welcome . Thank you for joining me . August is National Wellness Month . We are talking about self-care , self-love , stress management with our clients , and I love that you mentioned how much we can actually control our stress through our nutrition . So let's talk about how we can focus on nutrition to help us better manage our stress levels .
Speaker 1Absolutely . Thanks for having me . I love this topic and I feel like it's super important to discuss . Obviously , self-care is important , but I feel like a lot of people don't think about how stress and nutrition go hand in hand , because they do , and there are a lot of key nutrients and foods that we can really focus on to help bring down our stress levels , which sounds kind of weird , but we'll get into how that kind of plays hand in hand . I also feel like it's important because everyone goes through stress in their life . I have never met someone that is just no stress right and there's seasons of it , so some people are more stressed than others . But it really can play a role with nutrition because we eat every day . We eat every day and sometimes we are stressed every single day . So if we focus on some of these key nutrients , we can really help bring down our stress levels just by adding simple little things to our meals to really help with that overall stress that we're feeling in our lives sometimes .
Speaker 2And I think it's also something we don't often consider in terms of being managed by the healthy lifestyle changes . Right , we think , okay , I know that stress is important to my health , but I'm going to focus on my diet and my workouts to lose weight , knowing that that will also improve things . But then we know our stress will impact our weight loss results , but we don't sort of see all the ways that we can impact all the different components or pillars of our health , and I think tying these two things together is so key . So , talking about stress , what hormones play a role in our body that lead to our stress levels and that we can even control through our nutritional changes ?
Speaker 1Absolutely . I also think , alongside the hormones , I think it is important to realize that part of managing our stress and self-care is putting ourselves first , right ? So it seems very selfish to say that upfront , like I need to take care of myself , but in reality , if we are not putting ourselves first , if we're not filling up our cup , we're not able to go pour that out on other people . So a part of this self-care month , if you will , or lowering our stress and focusing on nutrition , is also choosing yourself at some points .
Speaker 1Now I get it If you're like I'm that person that I have four boys at home , I am married , I'm the caretaker of my mom , I have a side job , like all of these things are going on . I hear you and I see you . But I think it's also important to realize that we can do something . There is one thing you can do today to help bring down the stress . So don't skip through this podcast just because you're like , hey , I'm so busy . This is not a season of life for me to bring down my stress and put myself first , because it's important and it is , and if you don't start today , you're going to go on the rest of your life without doing it per se , but off that little tangent .
Speaker 1And we're looking at hormones , specifically in regards to stress . We really want to look at cortisol . I'm a science nerd so maybe you literally don't care about hormones , but I do think it's important for us to understand what that looks like in our bodies . When we say you are stressed out , what does it actually look like inside of your body ? So the main hormone in your body that we're looking at is cortisol . It's the stress hormone in your body . Cortisol does increase about mid-morning and you want it to peak or increase mid-morning and then you want it to decrease throughout the day , kind of drop in the afternoon and then really be at ground zero at night . That's when your melatonin kicks in , allowing you to sleep well . So when we say stress and we're looking at cortisol for the most part if your body is in this constant state of stress , your cortisol , instead of peaking mid-morning and decreasing throughout the day , you're going to see this really high rise of cortisol and it's going to be consistent all day . So our goal here is to get it back to that ebb and flow of peaking mid-morning and really decreasing as the day goes on as we're getting ready for bed .
Speaker 1Another role in this , when we're looking at nutrition , is going to be cortisol , but also different things , that it does not just kind of regulate your energy throughout the day . It also really can play a role in increasing inflammation , increasing blood sugar . It helps control our blood pressure , but it also helps manage how our body is going to utilize our carbohydrates , our proteins and our fat . So if we are stressed all day , our body really does have a hard time properly digesting and absorbing these foods . Well , because your body is going to prioritize really trying to get rid of the cortisol , the excess cortisol , and so you're going to sit down at a meal and your body is not going to be able to properly digest it and then absorb these nutrients that you need from your meal . Instead , it's going to prioritize metabolizing and getting rid of the high cortisol in your body . So , all that to say , cortisol is one of the main hormones that we're going to look at when we look at nutrition and stress in our bodies .
Speaker 2And I think it's key we really do understand that . Why behind everything ? Because if you're making nutritional changes and if you're making workout changes and you're not considering the impact on the overall stress on your body , whether it's from even as good a stressors as those things can be , the changes you're having to willpower yourself to make , the workouts you're doing and even potentially overtraining , or the other stressors in your life , if you're not managing that stress , all those other healthy changes you're making might not be paying off in the way that you'd like . And so not only seeing how the stress impacts again your nutrition and workouts , but those things impact your stress , is such a key way of looking at the whole picture . And so , talking about that , how can nutrition really factor in to promoting better self-care , self-love , stress management ?
Speaker 1Yeah , that's
Importance of Nutrition for Stress Management
Speaker 1a great question .
Speaker 1I think , again , when we look at self-care and stress management , we never think about nutrition , or if we do , it's more so . I just need to eat healthy and that's going to help me take care of my body , which , yes , to a point that's true . And when we look at self-care , we often think of things like doing yoga or meditating , or going for a walk , or reading a book or all of these different things that are forms of self-care . But again , today is all about self-care , lower in stress and then nutrition . So , really , in terms of nutrition , when we want to nail down key nutrients that we can focus on to help lower that cortisol and inflammation that that high cortisol is causing in our body . So we have five key nutrients .
Speaker 1So that first one that we really want to focus on are going to be our B vitamins . So those directly affect our adrenal glands . So cortisol is directly produced from the adrenal glands in our brain , and B vitamins really help play a role in our sleep and wake cycle , which can be affected by stress and then sleep , like we talked about , when our cortisol increases mid-morning and slowly decreases throughout the day . If your cortisol is not decreasing throughout the day , consistently remaining high , your sleep is going to be affected . So these B vitamins are really good at helping come in and helping manage the metabolism of our cortisol . So foods that are really high in B vitamins , a lot of your animal-based protein , so more so your beef , your chicken , your eggs . We can also look at four to five whole grains , so different whole wheat breads , different forms of cereal sometimes , and then a fun one I like to add is nutritional yeast . That's a really great way to add some B vitamins into your overall diet .
Speaker 2And it's nice and tasty and it can add a nice cheesy flavor , so you can sprinkle it on popcorn even .
Speaker 1Exactly , and that's what I'm saying with these nutrients is it's really easy to add some of these into our diet without even thinking about it . So it's not like I'm asking you to go outside and take an hour walk a day to lower your cortisol . No , you can do something as simple as heading on some nutritional yeast to your dinner tonight , and you've already got some B vitamins in there , which is phenomenal . The second key nutrient that we really want to focus on is omega-3 fatty acids . So you probably hear this one a lot .
Speaker 1It's pretty common , but omega-3 fatty acids are really going to help lower inflammation in our body . So when we have really high cortisol all day , your body's naturally going to be more inflamed . So , in order to lower that inflammation , omega-3 fatty acids are going to be really good at lowering that inflammation . And it also is really helpful for brain function , which , if you're stressed all day , your brain and your thoughts are just all over the place . You're not really able to focus . So these omega-3 fatty acids are going to be really helpful in decreasing inflammation , but also helping our brain function and our cognition to where we'll be able to focus a little bit more . And some of these food sources include things like salmon , tuna , avocado , your nuts and seeds , olive oil , avocado oil . Think really fatty foods , if you will , in terms of healthy fatty foods like the fish and the nuts and seeds and the oils . Those are going to be really helpful again in lowering our inflammation and also helping with brain function .
Speaker 2And I think that's another thing we have to or in looking at like omega-3 specifically and lowering inflammation , it's not just considering the stress that we feel , right , not just that stress oh my gosh , I have so much to do at work right , it's going back to the other types of stressors . So , with our workouts , part of getting omega-3s can even help with recovery from them , because it's helping with the inflammation that you're seeing from the training , which again is a stressor . So even in talking about the impact that these have on stress it's not just negative stress , but even positive stressors and finding that stress balance , almost , and using that nutrition to promote optimal functioning in so many different ways .
Speaker 1Absolutely absolutely .
Speaker 2And so number three , now that I've tangented off a little bit , no , that's perfect , Because you really can .
Speaker 1To your point , you really can kill two birds with one stone , or I've birds with one stone , right , if you're focusing on bringing down inflammation in your body because you're sore from your lift the day before . Focusing on omega-3 fatty acids yes , will help lower inflammation in your body , whether that's due to your soreness from the day before or you're chronically stressed right , it can help really lower inflammation in a wide variety of areas , not just in this specific area . If you're stressed , it really helps with a lot of different things . So , yeah , that's really good . That third key nutrient that we really want to focus on are antioxidants . So when you hear antioxidants , we usually think of lots of fruits and vegetables like dark colors , bright colors , really any kind of colored foods , if you will . In terms of fruits and vegetables , it kind of goes off the point with omega-3s . Antioxidants , again , are going to help really lower that inflammation in our body . So , again , fruits and vegetables , think things like carrots , dark leafy greens , lots of berries like blackberries , blueberries , raspberries , oranges , bell peppers , broccoli really these bright and dark color fruits and vegetables are going to help lower that inflammation in the body .
Speaker 1And then that fourth key nutrient that we really want to focus on is magnesium . This one is one of my favorites because it helps metabolize cortisol . So a lot of people don't , I feel like , realize that you can have cortisol in your body in really high amounts , but how is your body metabolizing that cortisol ? Because if you're not properly metabolizing your cortisol , it's just roaming around in your body . You have all this free cortisol that's hanging out and your liver is not excreting it properly . So magnesium really helps come in and it helps metabolize that cortisol so you can excrete it properly .
Speaker 1Magnesium helps with so many things . I think it's like 300 plus nerve functions in your body . So it helps with a lot . Again , killing multiple birds with one stone . But it really helps us relax our body and our mind relaxed so that we can reduce that stress . And a fun fact as well as most Americans are very deficient in magnesium due to our soil depletion . So focusing on magnesium again will be very helpful , but in terms of stress , it really will help relax our mind and body . You can take a magnesium supplement I would focus on the whole foods first and really helping bring down that stress and relaxation . But reach out to a dietitian or a coach if you feel like that is something you need to look into as far as supplementation , but from food sources , magnesium food sources we really want to focus on things like bananas and broccoli , dark chocolate , even yay , chocolate , pumpkin seeds , nuts , legumes , your beans , tofu has some magnesium and spinach has some as well .
Speaker 2And I think this is a great nutrient to talk about , because not only is it lowering our stress , but it is so key to improving the quality of our sleep , and so it has that dual component of reducing your stress from the day , helping you get better quality sleep so you're even less stressed the next day . Right , you're recovering faster and , as you mentioned dark chocolate , you can easily have it as your dessert and sweet treat . Too often we don't recognize all the different benefits of different foods . We just write certain ones off , as I need to cut out my chocolate cravings because I want to lose weight . But this could actually be the secret to stressing less , finding a sustainable balance with your diet and sleeping better , especially if you're having some struggles with sleep during menopause . So killing like 20 birds with one stone even now .
Speaker 1Yes , I love it , and this is if you need a sign to go eat some dark chocolate , this is your sign . Start having that before you go to bed . It'll help you relax , which sounds crazy , but this is your sign to go eat some dark chocolate if you needed it . If not , fantastic for you . The final key nutrient we want to focus on is not really a vitamin or mineral , but it's protein . I don't think we could get through a podcast without talking about protein , honestly . So if you're not already increasing your protein intake , you don't already understand why protein is so important and you want to help or you want to work on lowering your stress . This is definitely your sign to increase your protein intake .
Stress' Impact on Blood Sugar, Hormones
Speaker 1Something that happens when our bodies are at high levels of stress throughout the day is our blood sugar can get in balance . High levels of cortisol , consistent and long term , can really cause dysfunction with our insulin , so it can really cause blood sugar to be in balance and instead of keeping your blood sugar stable throughout the day , you really get this roller coaster effect of highs and lows , fatigue , energetic , just this massive blood sugar imbalance . So something that is really going to be key if you do have long term stress you feel like you're stressed out constantly is incorporating protein at every single meal and really helping balance out that blood sugar throughout the day can help bring down and lower that cortisol and stress in your body . So protein rich foods are going to be things like chicken , eggs , beef , turkey , greek yogurt , tuna , salmon , shrimp I mean the list could go on and on . But really incorporating some of these foods at every single meal is going to be really key and help balancing out that blood sugar and lowering that stress long term .
Speaker 2And this is also why protein is so key as we go through perimenopause and menopause and see those changes and I know , even after talking to Susan and coming up on the podcast there , like she had issues with blood sugar levels and people even asked about that and made comments like what can I do to do like , balance this out and potentially focusing on more protein to help with those fluctuating hormone levels might be the answer .
Speaker 2So focusing on these tips and thinking about the different ways that you're experiencing stress not only from like acute stress of like oh I have this panic at work or oh I have to make this deadline or whatever else but thinking about how again work out as good as they are , are stress around the body . They're stressed from lack of sleep . They're stressed from fluctuating hormone levels . There's so many other reasons that you are experiencing what is stressed to your body , even if you're not not necessarily feeling stressed out . And then seeing what you can do from a nutritional standpoint to make sure that you're dialing everything in is super key , because even weight loss is a stress on the body and creating that calorie deficit is a stress on the body . So the more you can optimize the calories you're consuming , the better off you're going to be .
Speaker 1Yep , even when you don't feel like you're stressed , you are probably , internally , some form of stress is going on , whether we want to think about it in that term or not .
Speaker 2So yeah , that's spot on , and I wanted to touch on something that you brought up which I think is super interesting , and you called it the cortisol steel , and it happens with perimenopause and menopause . Can you touch on what that really is ?
Speaker 1Yeah , so this is a theory that I find very fascinating , definitely a newer theory , but I feel like it's something that has been happening for a long , long time . We just haven't had a name for it right . So now this term or this theory is referred to as the cortisol steel . So pretty much the theory , and what cortisol steel even means , is that our body is going to prioritize making and metabolizing cortisol over hormones like progesterone and estrogen and testosterone . So , as you know , as you're going through perimenopause and menopause , you have all kinds of just hormone fluctuations . They're slowly dropping . You don't know what's going on . You have all these negative symptoms sometimes associated with it and if our body is under a constant state of fight-or-flight stress mode , your body is going to prioritize that cortisol metabolism and excreting it as quickly as possible over some of these other hormones , which I find very fascinating . So , for example , let's just take progesterone , one of the hormones that is going to drop in menopause . The cortisol in your body , if you have too much of it , is going to slowly start to block some of these progesterone receptors . So your body could be making plenty of progesterone , you could be making adequate amounts of progesterone in this pre-imperimenopause phase , but if your cortisol is really high , your cortisol is going to block these progesterone receptors and it's going to kind of trick your body into thinking that you don't have enough progesterone . So it's going to start producing more progesterone , when the root cause is really the cortisol . And it's really hard to figure that out , but I think it's something to have in the back of your brain as you're thinking about going through premenopause and menopause , or if you're in those seasons and you're like I'm constantly stressed out . Maybe this could be my issue . Maybe it's not . My hormones are completely out of whack or they haven't fully dropped yet and hit ground zero . Maybe I'm just stressed out all the time .
Speaker 1It sounds very simple to say , but it is a theory and there is a theory behind cortisol blocking the progesterone receptors and then also making you less sensitive to your estrogen , and so something that we look at when we look at estrogen is going to be our hot flashes , and hot flashes as you go through menopause are literally just a result of estrogen deficiency .
Speaker 1So you have lower estrogen , your body's confused , it's going through menopause and you start to have these hot flashes and you just think the symptom is very normal , because hot flashes are very common when women go through menopause due to that estrogen deficiency .
Speaker 1And if our our stress and our cortisol is too high , you could actually have normal to lower amounts of estrogen in your body . You might not even be going through full on menopause yet , but you're still having these hot flashes because your high amounts of stress and cortisol has made your body think that it doesn't have that estrogen in there . So again , it's just this theory behind your high stress , your high amounts of cortisol in your body is really going to affect some of these hormones as you start to go through menopause . So really really continuing to focus on what we've talked about today these five key nutrients is going to be key to start to incorporate into your diet and then also not always blaming the hormones . Right .
Managing Stress and Nutrition for Success
Speaker 1Setting yourself up for success early on in life is going to be key , and part of that is really lowering the stress levels in our bodies well , you know , I love always controlling what we can control .
Speaker 2So the more control you give me over something , the happier I'm going to be , and in this case it's like we can't stop perimenopause and menopause .
Speaker 2I mean we can't stop it , but that means that you would not be alive and that sounds like a way worse thing to me . But you can control your stress levels and it's not easy to do but I think , recognizing the impact that it has , the more you can start to look out for different solutions that really impact your overall stress , remembering that , again , it's not just that stress of , I feel , stressed out , it's all these different things that are creating those stress levels in your body and chronic inflammation . So the more you can really address little details with your nutrition , dialing in everything , even tracking everything to see what you can tweak and what makes you feel better as you're adjusting your workouts , as you're thinking about how to promote you , know better stress levels and manage your time better , change your organization , whatever else it is , the more you're giving yourself control to give yourself a better life experience , to feel and move your best at any and every age , no matter what hormone fluctuations are going on yeah , absolutely .
Speaker 1I like what you said . In terms of you , we're we are going to be under stress constantly , but it's how you can handle it . Up front , right , stress is not inevitable . Right , like again the example of you have or boys at home , you're married , you have a job here , a caretaker for a family member right , we still hear you and we see you . We're not saying that you're never gonna experience stress . But choosing one thing to really help lower that stress levels is gonna be very helpful . Whether that's you just waking up five minutes early in the morning and just taking deep breaths , that could be helpful . But in terms of nutrition , again , just sprinkle some nutritional yeast on your plate . Don't think that that's gonna cure all of your cortisol issues and your stress , because it's not . But over time , these daily habits that you're creating and adding these key nutrients in really will help lower your cortisol over time .
Speaker 2You've got to start somewhere the small changes that up and the more we can make those small changes , the less we add to our stress and the more we can end up taking away from it , because we also feel positive about the changes we're making absolutely , that's good . Well , thank you so much , Brooke , for joining me . This was fabulous and I know we're all going to look at including more of those foods to do what we can from a nutritional standpoint to manage our stress .
Speaker 1Absolutely Thanks for having me .
Speaker 2After chatting with Brooke about ways to adjust our nutrition to better manage our stress levels , I asked her for recipes using the different ingredients that she went over to hit those micronutrients and include more in your diet . The first recipe she gave me was this great five-ingredient sheet pan salmon . It was a one option because it was a very simple recipe . I think often when we're trying to meal prep , hit different micronutrient intakes also hit our macros . The simpler the recipe , the better , especially for someone like me who's not necessarily the best cook . This allowed me to just put everything in the oven , cook it quickly , hit all the micros that she mentioned . But then as I was looking at it and I was going to present it to you guys and I will share that with a link in the video description on YouTube especially or in the show notes if you're listening when she gave me this recipe I was like , okay , this is really great . But another thing that causes stress when we're talking about our nutrition is meal prep right and cooking the day of . The last thing you want to do sometimes , when you get home after a long day maybe been running around the kids , a long , busy day at work , stressful day at work , things happen is go and cook something , right , that's where we end up going to eat out . We doordash something or we grab something that's maybe not the healthiest because we just don't feel like cooking . So I was like , okay , that's a stressor , right , the meal prep side . So I asked her for another recipe and she gave me a crock pot recipe and I was like , oh , this is fabulous , but what if someone doesn't have a crock pot ? And so then she pointed out that both of these recipes the next one she gave me was a freezer meal as well you could basically prep everything , have it frozen for when you really need , and even just prep it in a simple bag to then cook when you really wanted it .
Speaker 2Because I think it's really key that we recognize that eating well doesn't have to be stressful . We don't have to always cook the day of that . We can't even prep and know ahead of time , like if you're going into a busy season , right , it might be a different habit in terms of meal prep than when you're not busy Maybe over the summer you are barbecuing a lot more the day of but having those options on hand for when you do have stressful periods , to make life easier and take away one of the tasks . One of the stressors that you do have is always key , because stress goes in one bucket , right . So if you have stress at work , that's still detracting from , maybe , the motivation we'll , power , self control that we have in other areas when we're making changes , maybe to our nutrition or our workouts . So the more we can reduce stress in any area that we can control , the better off we're going to be . So I'm going to share those three different recipes that she came up with , but it's always nice to know that we can meal prep in a way that really meets us where we're at and fits the schedule that we have , right then . So if you do have a busy time at work maybe you're even traveling more so when you're at home it's harder to always , you know , go and cook or even go to the grocery store right when you get back home Having those meals , even frozen , that you can just pop in the oven , pop in the crock pot , go about your day , have there ready so that you can just even maybe already have them cooked and put in the microwave . Right , that's all going to help you not create more stress as you're trying to hit those micros to prevent stress further and also hit your macros to see the weight loss results you want . So , as you're thinking about how to meal prep , creating recipes , the more you can plan ahead and the more you can really steer into what your schedule allows for right now , the better off you're going to be . But I hope you enjoy those three different recipes to boost that micronutrient intake and also make meal prep really easy for you .
Speaker 2So I wanted to talk about some workout practices to help you de-stress , relax , because I think it's really key that we recognize that training hard is a stressor on our body . It's a good stressor that forces our muscles to be torn down and rebuild stronger . It's a good stressor that can help us lose weight , function better , move better to our final day on this planet . However , it is a stressor and there can be a point of diminishing returns and it's very key that we focus on also doing enough recovery and prehab , which is that whole foam rolling , stretching and activation process , to make sure we're moving our best and even addressing some of the compensations that build up because of having our common desk job postures sitting in a car , sitting in a bus let's face it , we're not moving as much as we probably should during the day . So , as much as it's key we find that balance between recovery workouts and workouts that stress us , even if it means cycling areas over the week .
Speaker 2I also want to talk about how you can better use that prehab process , but specifically two parts , to actually relax at the end of the night and even allow your mind to unwind . If you've ever thought about trying to relax right in the moment , you use deep breathing a lot of times . By actually physically relaxing , you mentally relax as well , and I think using that foam rolling and stretching , especially as a prebed routine , can be very beneficial to help you transition from the day to relax for bed . It sets up that prebed routine which can help improve the quality of your sleep . It allows you to get in some of that deep breathing work which can really pay off . But it's that physical relaxation which can pay off mentally as well , and it preps and primes our body to function better in subsequent workouts , addresses some of the common aches and pains or imbalances we might be developing throughout the day .
Speaker 2So I wanted to share nine of my favorite moves , and these are really key . Again , I'm going to show you foam rolling and stretching . This allows you to relax and release overactive muscles , mobilize the joints just slightly and improve your flexibility . If you are using this as a warmup or if you really do have a weak , underactive muscle , you might even add in that activation component . But because this is for relaxing , de-stressing , that wind down to transition to sleep , I think these two components are really key .
Speaker 2So number one is upper trap foam rolling . You can take a lacrosse ball . You can , of course , do this on the roller where you do your entire upper back on the roller . But you want to think about putting the lacrosse ball up at the top . You can work all the way down along your shoulder blades . So when I say upper trap foam rolling , it's more the entire trap muscle group and it even works into levator scapula and stuff as well . But you want to work down all that entire shoulder blade . And if you are listening to this , I'm going to demo all of these in the video so you can check that video on YouTube as well .
Methods for Foam Rolling and Relaxation
Speaker 2If you can't get down on the ground or it's too much pressure down on the ground , you can always place the ball against the wall in your upper back and then you can sort of move up and down on the ball to find a tight spot . Once you find a spot that is tender or tight , you want to focus on those deep breaths , so breathing in , holding the air and then exhaling . By relaxing as you breathe onto that tight spot , you're going to help the muscle relax and release itself . If you're tensing against it and breathing short and shallow , you're not going to allow the muscle to actually relax and release . So as you hold , you might then pull your arm sort of across to dig a little bit more out on your shoulder blade , but you want to hold on that spot for 30 seconds to even up to a minute . That's one area and you can do that lying on the ground as well . The next one is peanut foam rolling . So a peanut is two tennis balls taped together . You can get one that you've already purchased . I also like the simple mobility tool . If you don't have a peanut , you can also use a roller to do this .
Speaker 2Thoracic extension . I like the peanut because it's a little more versatile . You can use it at the base of your skull in that suboccipital region . So placing it right at the base of your skull as you relax over it , it's great for the thoracic spine and even the lumbar spine . You want to be careful with the roller in your lumbar spine just because you don't want to hyper extend anything . So if you have the roller , you can put it in your upper back , mid back , and then you can just relax over it , breathing deeply , even circle the arms out and come up to do this little spinal extension .
Speaker 2We do want to work on that thoracic extension because we spend so much time hunched over and often our lower back can end up with aches and pains because we don't have proper thoracic extensions . So when we try and create that flat back during movements , we end up arching our lower back . Same thing can be said with overload of our cervical spine or our neck . We might find that we're overloading those areas because we don't have proper thoracic extension . It can lead to shoulder aches and pains as well .
Speaker 2If you do have the peanut whether you've made one , even by putting two balls in a sock you can place this in your mid back and again you can work down your entire spine . But you're going to have a ball on either side . You'll again want to relax over it and you can even just relax for a few seconds just sort of relaxing everything out . But then you can even do that little crunch up the tense against it , because that tension forces the muscle to tense and then by actively releasing it again when you relax over that can help the muscle relax and release . And again , think about that deep breathing as you work in an area .
Speaker 2You can extend the arms over circle them out to the side , come up and then crunch and then move to another area .
Speaker 2But you want to make sure as you're foam rolling you're holding on any spot to give it time to relax and release itself . There's a process called autogenic inhibition . The muscle is actually relaxing and releasing itself . Next one is the piriformis foam rolling . You can do this up on a bench if you want to apply a little less pressure , just like you could foam roll against the wall for your upper back . But you want to take the ball and think about where the top of that back gene pocket would be and you're going to sit on the ball in that area . So , sitting on the ball right where the top of the back gene pocket would be , you can then lift and relax the leg down again , tensing against it to tense the muscle and then relaxing to help the muscle relax and release . You can breathe as you hold . You again don't want to be tensing against it because that's going to fight against the process of relaxation , the process of de-stressing and even the muscle relaxing and releasing , because if you're too much pressure , that's where you might want to use the bench . So , putting the ball on the bench and then sitting on it , leaning into that side leaning and a little slouching . Just make sure you're not like a rolly chair or anything that's going to roll away as many as I've done lots of weird stuff trying to roll out , especially even at the desk . But you can also use the roller as well , because the roller won't dig in , it won't be as much pressure or a bigger ball . It could also be another solution . You can pull the one ankle across the other knee to work into that muscle and help it sort of show itself a little bit more , reveal it to the roller , so to speak , get it to pop out , stand out , so you can apply pressure and then you can even extend the leg out back in and raise it up and down Again , tensing and relaxing the muscle to help it relax and release . But the piriformis can be a key one , especially if you've ever had sciatic pain or issues . You want to , of course , know where the nerve is being compressed , but the piriformis is a common area that causes compression and that nerve pain , especially if you have been sitting a lot
Foam Rolling for Muscle Relaxation
Speaker 2.
Speaker 2The next one is rectis femoris , foam rolling . So this is the only quad muscle that actually connects at the knee and hip . Fun fact . So it's a hip flexor as well as a knee extensor . So you want to think about putting the ball right in the front of your middle of your thigh and then relaxing over it . You can use the roller as well , again , if this is too much pressure . But think about flexing that quad by extending the knee and then relaxing . Flexing the quad to extend the knee and then relaxing . Relaxing this muscle can be really key if you are spending a lot of time seated and you have either hip or knee pain , or even if you've had one or the other and now you're starting to feel a little nagging ache in the other area . Because of that connection right there , it's super key . We relaxed . That Helps with glute activation as well .
Speaker 2Moving into the stretching , I love the active foam roller star stretch . So again , generally , when we're addressing these areas , not only to help us relax but to also address compensations that are common from our desk job postures , from traveling the car , all that jazz we want to think about working on the thoracic spine , the hip mobility , even addressing ankle mobility as well , and even if you tend to have knots in your upper back , think about opening up your chest . So the active foam roller star stretch is one of my favorite because it addresses that thoracic mobility . You'll even feel it into your glute stretching . It also will open up your chest if you do it correctly . So while you're going to bring your elbow open .
Speaker 2You want to think about opening it up to the other side as you rotate open , keeping your knee down on the foam roller and as you pull the elbow open towards the floor on the opposite side , opening your chest towards the ceiling , think about actually engaging your upper back . So when we're stretching it's not just sort of trying to stretch the muscle , it's engaging the opposing muscle group to drive the stretch , to truly activate any underactive muscles and not even just seek out joint range of motion from areas we shouldn't . Because you'll be surprised by how many people stretch their chest and I will put stretching quotes where they're seeking out mobility from their shoulder instead of truly stretching out those pecs . So just be conscious that you're engaging that upper back when you are trying to stretch out that chest . But that active foam roller star stretch is great . If you don't have a roller , you can put your knee on blocks as well . That's going to work on that thoracic mobility as well as stretch out your glute and even open up your chest .
Speaker 2Another stretch I like is the child's pose or the kneeling lat and thoracic extension stretch . So if you have like a bench , a chair or edge of a couch , you can put your elbows up on it and you can actually drop your chest through . You can hold here , bring your hands back towards your neck as you focus on extending that upper back and even feeling that extension through the back of your arms or your triceps , and then you can come out . So if you want to make it a little more dynamic , you can come out . Otherwise you can just hold and every time you exhale try and relax deeper into the stretch . If you don't have like a bench or anything like that , you can also do a child's pose where you're sitting back on your heels . You can point your toes or flex your feet , depending on what's more comfortable . When you do the child's pose , the one little tweak I like to make is palms up towards the ceiling versus palms down towards the ground . That external rotation helps you better stretch your lats , which is super key if you've had any neck or shoulder aches and pains just because our tight lats can cause that internal shoulder rotation and perpetuate that hunched . Look , just turn your palms up as you reach and you can even reach each side and hold and again walk your hands back and forth if you want .
Speaker 2The next stretch I wanted to go over is the TFL stretch . This is a version of the hip stretch . If you've ever done the half kneeling hip stretch , you want to make sure you're squeezing your glute to drive that hip into extension , because often we'll just see people end up arching their lower backs when they're doing this hip stretch over squeezing the glute , which activates the glute but also drives the hip truly into extension and doesn't seek out mobility from other areas . So while you're doing that hip stretch , I like to focus on the TFL , which is the outside here , and if you've ever had IT band issues , hip pain , you want to pay attention to this , especially if you notice your knees cave in when you squat or your toes turn out . This is a really good stretch , but you can come over the wall and while you're still using that glute to drive the hip forward , you'll reach over and across the front knee and this will quickly relax , but then down into the TFL as well and that can be a really good one where you can just hold and breathe and relax into it , focusing on that glute engagement to drive the hip stretch . If you can't kneel on the ground , you can do a standing version as well and you're reaching across . There's lots of different ways to vary this . If you want to get an IT to even your quad a little bit more , you can also pull your heel back towards your butt . Knee flexion will get your quads as well .
Speaker 2The next one is the QL stretch . So if you've ever sort of been like , oh , my lower back right , this is a great one . To not only get the QL but even the TFL as well and still open up your chest , what you're going to do on this is you're going to bring one ankle on top of your other knee or even your heel on top of your other knee , so you're going to be sort of pinwheeling your feet like this , and then you're going to relax back , driving the knee down towards the ground . As you open up , you don't have to get the knees all the way down , but you're just pulling them across . But as you're doing this , think about engaging the glutes to drive the hip into extension versus keeping the hip flex . If your hip is flexed , you're not going to get the hip stretch as well , but you'll feel this rotation through your back and then even through the TFL , the side of your hip , there as you open up your chest .
Speaker 2The last stretch I wanted to go over . I like using the foam roller , for you can do a standing variation of this in a doorway . You can do this in the suspension trainer . I love the suspension trainer , snow angels . You can even do a standing chest stretch where you put your hand back on the wall . I like , when I do that , to even rotate the thumb open again to open up that shoulder a little bit more . But when you do this , focus on engaging that upper back .
Speaker 2Don't just seek out mobility from your shoulder . I love the snow angels on the foam roller because it really allows you to relax open more . You just want to drive your hands out to the side or relax your hands out to the side . You sort of pinch your shoulder blades into the foam roller and relax everything open . Then you can just breathe here
30-Second Fitness Hacks for Stress Management
Speaker 2.
Speaker 2It's a great one to end this series with , even for just 30 seconds . You can move the arms overhead , you can move them down by your side . Try not to hit anything . You want to think about opening up that chest and really engaging that back as you do . You can combine all nine of these and do about 30 seconds per mover , per side , or just even select a couple that really address what you need .
Speaker 2Even a five minute routine is not only going to prep your body for the next day , address any common compensations and balances , areas of tightness that you have , but it's also a great way to just separate and wind down from the day . Do that deep breathing , feel your body relax , which will help you mentally relax as you go to bed to get better quality sleep , which can also help your stress levels as well . That's a wrap for this episode of the Fitness Hacks podcast . While we can't stop ourselves from being stressed although that would be nice and we can't remove all stressors from our life , because some stressors are even good there are better ways to manage the patterns of how we handle the stress , to see better weight loss , better fat loss results , even better gain muscle and just strike an overall healthier lifestyle balance . I'd love to hear what tips really resonated with you . Make sure to comment and again , if you haven't yet , please leave a review on iTunes or wherever you're listening . I really appreciate it .
