Episode #12 How to Get More Energy

This week we talk about energy because none of us seem to quite have enough of it. Why is that? Let's talk about what is energy, how we can cultivate it without relying on caffeine.

Be sure to let us know about your energy struggles or changes you have made to cultivate more of it on Instagram: @path_nutrition

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You are listening to wait a minute with Beth and Jessica episode 12.

a topic that I hear friends, family and clients talking about is energy. They don't have enough energy. They are struggling to get through the day feeling sluggish and exhausted, or maybe they feel okay until the afternoon. Many people feel a 3:00 PM slump. Some people feel tired all day and then by bedtime the air.

So where do they have a hard time to sleep? It seems like people have a hard time figuring out how to feel energized. Culturally, we turned to caffeine as a solution and there are many alternatives, like energy drinks, bars, smoothies, and even pills or supplements. But what is the best way to feel energized?

We are answering some basic questions about energy today that we hope will help you find more of it. Where does energy come from? Yarra energy. So energy primarily comes from food. So think about carbohydrates fats and a little bit of protein. Our body tries hard not to use protein as energy because it's very expensive in terms of energy creation.

So we primarily are relying on carbohydrates and fats, but it also relies very heavily on vitamins and minerals to be able to utilize that fat or carb molecule to turn it into energy. Also known as. And so depending on the cycle, whether we're using fat or carbohydrates will determine how many. Number of ATPs that we can produce, which is a direct correlation to energy that yoursel uses.

It's the mitochondria, which is like a little battery of ourselves. And so that's kind of where that is. So if we're taking in macronutrients, but we have low quality vitamin and mineral status, then we're not really going to be able to utilize that energy because it slows that process down. So like, as I'm explaining this to you, all I see in my head, which was anchoring from undergrad through grad school is the Krebs cycle.

And. Sedation and all of that. So there's, it's all in there and I can see it's like, we draw it as a circle. It comes in here and then there's riboflavin, niacin. I really it's like all and you can draw a chart. Yeah. NAD and fad. So yeah. So like a big popular supplement right now is NAD plus because that's a really key component to moving.

The Krebs cycle along. And, but I think if it was just got higher quality nutrients in our body, we wouldn't need this very expensive. And Ady supplement. I'm not saying that you couldn't and we could not use a boost, but again, we can't out supplement a mediocre diet. And then somewhere in there we do use components in the Krebs cycle and probably a beta oxidation, but I'll have that one memorized as well of amino acids.

I think that's interesting because so many of us, especially when, uh, you know, we talk about the topic of weight loss, people are cutting down calories and macros often to extreme levels. And then they're like, why am I so tired? Yeah. And that is because those energy cycles are slowed. They don't have what they need.

So if you're say your body is just. Throwing out numbers here. So your body is used to 2,700 calories a day and it's coming in and then you decide I'm going to go on this diet and then you go down to 1600 calories a day. There's a huge drop. And your body's like, what am I, how am I supposed to do that?

And your body is still the same size. So it's requiring that amount of energy to keep it at that same size. Right. And so that's why weight loss. It's really good to go slow if you're. Can't utilize 2,700 calories a day, but you would want to just kind of barely slowly, gradually break that down. So then you're go down.

So your body can get used to operating on a smaller amount, right? Is it's like working with your metabolism, working with it, correct? Yeah. Shocking. It is not helpful. It might be in the short-term, but a lot of times though that first. But I think we've talked about this before, maybe does that rear really losing water because if you drastically cut out your carbs or something, you're no longer, it takes water to store carbs.

And so then you're basically, if you're not eating them, then you're not storing the water with them. So you're really losing water weight in the beginning. So anyways, but some of the energy requires oxygen. Some does not. So for example, there is a robotic exercise and anaerobic exercise. So it really just depends, but we do need oxygen as a whole, right.

To kind of keep like that day to day, moment to moment metabolism. That's like a big part of it, which is why I named Mia iron deficiency. Anemia can be a problem because it limits the amount of oxygen that's floating around in your blood. Because if we take oxygen for granted, because obviously we just breathe all the time, whether we think about it or not, but movement increases that intake of oxygen and it gives you so much more energy.

Yeah. And that's kind of, you know what I like to think about. The other component of where does energy come from is the energetics of energy. I don't know if this is a real thing was just like how I think of it. So example, this is a real law of physics. What is in motion stays in motion. And I also, as a human thing, Is not emotion takes a lot of energy to get going that inertia to get going is there.

And so then if we meaning, if we have been sitting at our desk all day and we were feeling tired, which is our brain tired, because we've been, it's worked hard on our computer and doing these tasks and things like that, but we've been physically sitting there. Or your brain was just bored because your job is not very stimulating for you.

Right. So there's that. So it's kind of under under-stimulated it can feel really hard to get going with things like exercise or cleaning the house or cooking or whatever, because your brain is tired or under-stimulated. And so, and then, and you've been sitting there and not had a lot of oxygen flowing through, like if you gotten up and taken frequent breaks, Moved about.

Yeah. I mean,

I remember when I had a nine to five office job, it was so hard to work out at five o'clock because even though you'd be sitting down all day, you just were done, you were totally spent. So it would take a ton of energy just to kind of force myself to move.

Yeah. And That's that brain tired. Like our brain uses a lot of carbohydrates and energy to function.

And so when it's constantly and cause in a lot of our jobs They require our brain to be going constantly. There is not the concept of working in chunks and taking breaks. It's like, if you aren't doing something productive every moment of your 9 to 5 then. you're not a good worker and that's really toxic because our brains are not meant to be on like that.

Non-stop like they need these little breakdowns. It's insane. And we talk about it too, with teen clients who are in school and how rigid. Academia is these days and how kids have to make time for snacks to just fuel their brain. Yeah. They don't get to have those snacks. And so then they're, they might eat breakfast.

A lot of them don't and then they only, they get to eat lunch like around 11 and then they don't get out of school till like three 30 or four o'clock, four 30 and then they're just. Rumble. Right. They're just done. And so that can be really challenging cause that's hard. I th I think the, the best thing going for them is that they at least get to like walk the halls in between classes.

So their brain can take a moment, but there's all the social parades of the hall that are very stimulating for their brain to that is hard. So it's like we we're learning these habits when we're young and then no wonder the adults are struggling. Correct. So let's talk about the famous 3:00 PM slump.

What is the 3:00 PM slump? Why is this a thing? Okay. Yeah, I used to think, well, is that real? But then I think, yeah, it's totally. There's like a few people that are those Energizer bunnies. And I'm just like, well, that's like all of our ATV people that will just keep going, but it is so, so common for people to experience this for a few different reasons.

One is related to our natural cortisol patterns. So for most of us, like what would you say? Average population and peak somewhere between seven and 9:00 AM. It jumps up in the morning and that's actually what wakes us up. So it's turning off melatonin. It peaks up real early that early in the morning.

And then it naturally starts to decline about noon to three o'clock. And so this is where we start in a very gradual way. So we have like a big up and then. Steve. I mean, it looks like a crazy blood sugar curve. Really? That first one, it kind of goes up like a big roller coaster and you, that first drop that they drop you.

It's almost like that. And that starts to happen like around noonish a little after. And then at various slowly starts to go down and down until we reach our lowest level around midnight. So that three o'clock is really where we start. Entering into that, like lower levels of that evening's slow down.

And so if you kind of just look at the natural ones and so, yeah, that's a big part of it. So that's a component of it. And then again, like we mentioned before, we've been up since, anywhere from, you know, 4:00 AM, 6:00 AM, seven, eight, Getting up doing life working or, you know, caring for your house or your kids, or whatever, stressing about this and that.

And then for many of us, we're spending a good amount of that time sitting down, but using our brain and then a common thing in United States in Western culture is to have a very carbohydrate, heavy lunch. And I don't mean complex carbs will sophistry eating the fast card. And we're going to feel the effects where they meet up with our natural decline of cortisol.

And so then we're like, oh, right. So I do want to point out here. What's interesting is like carbohydrates give us energy, but who many of those process carbohydrates are actually going to create that insulin spike and then another, and then a drug. So then we actually. In an ideal world, we be getting energy in this case.

We're not, or we're getting too much energy that we can't use that causes us to feel tired. It's all right. Yeah. So part of it, so we never want, when we think about our blood sugar curves and how it does help us with sustained energy. So I like to think of it. It can be used in with an athletes for quick energy or for exercise.

But really food should not make us tired or give us energy in that sense. Like we shouldn't go from being tired, eating and then feeling more awake, nor should we go from feeling mostly awake to feeling tired after eating our energy level should remain relatively the same after meals. Hmm. And so our blood sugar is dysregulated when our energy is affected higher, going up or down after eating.

So then that means we are a little dysregulated. So yeah. So if we have that spike. And then we will get a lot of energy typically for some, and then we come crashing down because it's too fast. It comes way down. I hear people say as a excuse where they're like, I just don't eat lunch because I get tired.

Like lunch makes me tired. Right. So then we need to be looking at what kinds of lunches can we eat in order to not feel tired? And for some it's not necessarily always about carbohydrate types, it can also be the volume. So sometimes the volume of food is more than our body can do. And so we need, it's putting us into that rest and digest mode, which is totally natural, but you know, they're like, well, I need to keep going at this job because I only get 30 minutes for lunch.

I don't have time to eat and rest and digest. The one great thing about one of the great things about Spain as they still do yes. To every day. That's so great. Or you hear about Americans that go there. They're so frustrated by it, but I'm like, man, think about it. Like you get to have this lunch and then afterwards you get to have the natural rest and digest and then you use keep going and you're like, They really designed.

I mean, their culture is designed with the natural rhythms of the day. They're not like trying to fight it and be so overproductive like, we think we're trying to be over-protective but are we, I don't know. I think the only challenging part for is like the natural part of it though, is that they, that's not natural.

And our cortisol rhythm is them eating at nine, 10:00 PM. So that's like that, that does go against like, Very beginning, biological cortisol rhythms. But other than that, like at that launch situation, so are things like caffeine really helping us. Don't I wish I could tell you something differently then what I'm about to say, Beth and I love coffee.

We have both too much. We both gone on and off of it several times, many, many times, and we've found many benefits being off of it. We have found benefits being on it and vice versa. So it is a topic of conversation. We also like to joke that we should start our own caffeine rehab clinics. Yeah. The AA of VCA caffeine anonymous.

Yeah. I think it would be, I shouldn't be the leader of the 12 step program.

Yeah, because we do love it. I, since having my child, I kinda got back on coffee and I do resist that second cup every day. It's a true every single day, every day, the second. Cause I know it's not going to do me any good. It's just this. Yeah, then it becomes like a dopamine hit, right? Like it has nothing to do with, well, it's not dobutamine it's adrenaline, but, well, yeah,

sorry. I mean, maybe there's some dopamine in there, but really just because I love it, but yeah, it's the adrenaline and your body's like, no, I'm RMO. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, I love that. Okay. Well, I feel the same way, you know, you know that my deal with coffee is real intense, but. I only have one cup. That's like the best that's the most entertaining part for me is the intensity around that one cup.

Anyhow, caffeine is not really helping us. I wish that it was, but it is just a false sense of energy. What it does is boost up cortisol and epinephrine and norepinephrine and adrenaline like responses, which does make us feel like we are getting energy, but it is not true energy. But so remember like adrenaline, when, if we're in a fight or flight mode, that's cortisol gets bumped up real fast effort, adrenaline, all those get bumped up so we can flee or fight.

Right? Well, coffee to some degree creates that it's not as intense as having a terrifying moment in your vehicle, almost getting rammed off the road or whatever, but it has a low level response of that. And so if we're doing that over and over again, It makes us feel like we're having an energy, but it's not true energy.

So it's very much like fake it to make it energy source. And then when we are using caffeine throughout the day to keep picking us up, it's continuing to drive cortisol and adrenaline in a way that is not natural. Nor good for us. And then the brain gets totally used to this stimulus and thus, we become addicted to it.

And then we get the headaches. If we don't consume it, we feel tired because we've been we're so used to the style of energy of that upregulation of high adrenaline, like cortisol, higher cortisol rhythms. And this is what totally drives that wired, but tired feeling, especially at night for some people where were, have you heard of this wired, retiring?

So we're totally revved up because we've used various sources of caffeine throughout the day, but now it's nighttime and we're ready to relax or sleep, but because our cortisol and adrenal hormones are up from the caffeine and prevents melatonin from being able to start coming on board, to get us into the relaxing and sleep states.

So fun. Yeah. Yeah. So that's usually where we're like, maybe don't have caffeine after noon. Yeah. There's there are a few people that can do this, right. And some people's bodies are wired differently. Well, it's an actual chemical in, or genetic snip in their liver where they can process caffeine very quickly.

And then there are those that process. It average. And those are us. Those are the ones that should not have it after like 10 or noon or whatever, like probably can be like noon-ish maybe to found your bedtime. And then, and then those that process it slowly. And then those are the people that are very sensitive to caffeine and they can only typically have a little bit and asked to be first thing in the morning.

I feel like there is like with alcohol, sometimes you just get acclimated to like, when you haven't had an alcoholic drink in a long time, all you need is like half a drink and you feel pretty buzzed. I feel like that's how it is with coffee. You start with one cup a day, kind of gets you through the day.

And then all of a sudden you're like, I need that second cup because it goes with coffee in particular. It spikes so quickly, right? Like it's like a rush and versus say tea does have caffeine, but it can be less intense and more gradual of that response, especially if it's white and green tea. So like green tea has very little caffeine in it and it's so it's response, your body's response to it is not anywhere near what coffee would be.

Yeah. There's a lot of people too, that don't understand maybe their connection to having anxiety and caffeine. This is like a a hundred percent issue. So just a little side note, but it's like, if you are feeling anxious often, like, is it true? I mean, w we won't even cover what that means. True anxiety, but it's like, is it caffeine per helping to perpetuate it?

Like, is it a factor as well, right? Yes. So something to think about if that's, yeah. So like, if you are a generally, I think what you're saying is if you're a generally anxious person and then you're drinking coffee, Like, how is that making you feel like, are you more anxious or is it like, if you feel like your life is not too stressful or whatever, but you feel anxious?

Is it the coffee? So I know we kind of debated if we should touch on adrenal fatigue, adrenal fatigue, real, what is it? It is real, but it is more rare than you would think based on internet stories that are coming up. And yes, many people are living the wired but tired lifestyle. But what adrenal fatigue is when the adrenal system, which secretes cortisol.

So the, these, the adrenal glands are basically like these. White puffy fatty clouds above your kidneys. Backed up your goodness. That sounds cute. Yeah, they look cute. And I like these little blobby things, but anyways, so they sit up there right above your kidneys. So sometimes it's like, your back is feeling like tender in a certain point.

It's like, Ooh, maybe it's like your, your adrenals. So anyways, they secrete cortisol epinephrin and Nora epinephrin, which are those like kind of adrenal, like hormones. And then they also. Secrete the precursors to our sex hormones. So, and adrenal fatigue, those hormones are no longer able to function normally.

So, not only are your, are you not responding to cortisol and which wakes you up in the day or the epinephrine, norepinephrine, which we use in different neuro-transmitter capacity, you also have a dysfunction in your sex hormones. And one way of having adrenal fatigue or adrenal imbalances is that over time of having near constant levels of stress hormones, which is coming from pushing through the stressors of the day, having stressful job, some people will create their own stress.

Get into that, but you know, like you're just pushing yourself to the limit drama, but you're just pushing yourself through the day and just, and then chronically not getting enough sleep and then not taking time for restorative activities. So. Not getting very much sleep, not relaxing in a way that can restore the system as well.

And then we plus propping yourself up with caffeine. Oh, and I should also add that even over-exercising or over-training can contribute to this as well. All of that cannot be maintained. And there we are, the system goes put in the most scientific way possible, um, scientific yeah, go put as I'm doing. Um, so then what happens in adrenal fatigue?

When, if you look at it, if you get it tested, is that your. Point of your cortisol curve will actually look like how it should be at 7:00 PM. So you never really good gets that initial to that true awake feeling because you don't have that initial cortisol awakening response. It's like down in the 7:00 PM range and you just hang out there.

Yeah. Yeah, but there are different stages of adrenal imbalances before you get to adrenal fatigue. These are the people that are so tuned out because of all the things you mentioned that they're probably ignoring some of these flags until. The happens, right? Yeah. That's part of it. One of the biggest ones to look at is the wired and tired feeling.

And then, or if you have a lot of energy in the morning, you crash in the afternoon and then you wake up in the evening. That's another dysregulation of it. Like you get this like second surge. And so that's like one of the early ones that have, that's really common for people. Okay, well, let's help our listeners by telling them what can we all do to actually find more energy I'll start off and then you can add to it.

Okay. So my favorite one that we've already talked about is balancing blood sugar. So balancing those, those hormones. So you're not feeling so sleepy. Cause when we get low blood sugar, whether it's because we've gone a long time between eating meals or we've having like a reactive, almost like an, a reactive hypoglycemia where we go shoot up and come crashing down.

All of those low blood sugar levels make us feel tired. And so being able to have relatively consistent energy coming in good for us. Right? So that's just eating as many balanced meals as you can, eating enough, not eating enough, not skipping meals, or just ignoring your hunger because you're too quote, unquote busy to eat that kind of stuff that catches up to you and does dysregulate, whatever.

Yeah. And we're, and I want to be sensitive to the people that intermittent fascinating does work for. But I do believe we've covered this before is like, if you're, you can do intermittent fasting. If you can get to your eating window without feeling ravenous and you don't like, you're not starving and like wanting to eat all the things.

And if you can get all of your calories and that your body actually needs during that eating window. That's the thing. So a lot of people will try it cause they've heard of it. But then the try, this they've gone from 10 hours of overnight fasting to 16 in a very short period of time and that their body just.

It does not care for that. So just be really mindful about moving into intermittent fasting. So you don't have to eat three squares, but your calories that you get and the types of nutrients you get in are what matter don't ask, want advice. And then overeating, as I mentioned makes you feel tired because your body's like, give me, and that's the challenge with this?

How do you get all your food in, in one or two meals and not. Over eat in those meals. I think that's like a. Three. That's a challenge. Yeah, I do. I think that was a challenge. I don't know. I mean, I know people do it. I'm not super, super reversed. It's not my strong suit for being able to get in somebody, you know, how to get in almost a thousand calories and.

Two meals. I mean, it can be done obviously, but people already struggled to eat the little bit that they eat. So yeah, it is a, it is definitely a challenge for sure. Okay. The next one is. Really simple, which is just staying hydrated, drinking water. There's a lot of times where I talk to people and we look at their day from my water bottle and I left it in the kitchen.

But like, sometimes we're just talking about what somebody's day looks like and how they're nourishing themselves. And then we talk about fluids and they're like, oh yeah, I really am bad at drinking water. And it's like such a simple thing. It's actually really challenging for a lot of people. So just do whatever you gotta to do to get the water in, because that can be really helpful.

Yeah. The water is, it is very important because our brain, a lot of water goes up there too. So we need water to stay hydrated, get moving things through, not having things build up and feel sluggish, drink the water. Remember our body is what 60% water. So all of that has to like move through to get all the stuff that needs to happen through.

So, um, if you have sluggish blood, you're gonna have sluggish energy. Yes. A good segue to the next one, which is just moving your body. And that doesn't mean that you have to go to orange theory every day or join CrossFit or become an athlete. It's just, it might be like, Hey, I get up every two hours from my desk and go walk around the block and come back.

Right. Yeah. I mean, I would ideally love it if people could get up every hour. Sure. And you can stay in your, like, Not every hour. Do you need to go walk around the block or go? You can be in your cube. It can be in your tube. It can be at your at-home desks. And a lot of us are at home now, and then it can be moving there, but standing up, getting your arms above your head, taking a deep breath, letting it out, letting your arms drop and doing that.

Doing some twists, getting your legs, like doing whatever you can to move your legs because your legs are huge muscles, right. That need to be stimulated. And so moving those as well. So as much as you can in between doing that, and that will really help with brain fatigue. And there are a lot of benefits to.

Exercise correct. A hundred percent. We definitely aren't saying don't do it right. But we know that a lot of people during the Workday are really struggled to be able to create a lot of movement, but these are really simple ways that you can get some movement. And if you're feeling really zesty do some jumping jacks, I sometimes from time to time, we'll do use my desk as a way to do like a incline pushup.

Cause I don't want to get it down on the ground. In my work clothes. So I'll use my desk and that will just do a few, not many. Just moving, just moving, moving. What are we say? Sitting is the new smoking and that, that came out like 10 years ago. So really it's just sitting as the new setting. So we just sit too much.

It's time to stand up. We don't sleep. Yeah, firstly, we're sitting, but honestly, sleep hygiene is really important, especially because we are all addicted to our screens. Tell us about sleep hygiene. What do you recommend? Oh, yes. Which I'm working on this to folks is not looking at your phone until you go to bed.

If you are. And you just can't find a way to break that habit, get blue blocker glasses. Like they make these glasses that are either orange color or have the blue blocker tent on it. And so then you're not being stimulated by that blue light and start to turn the lights down and your house like around.

Say for example, you go to bed at 10. So around nine o'clock start turning off lights or Deming them. So you're not all your lights are on full blast up until you're going to bed. So start to dim the lights and that will start to cue your body. Yeah, that starts to cue your body. That it's dark because the lights are lights in our house, you know, make our brain think like, oh, it's still daylight.

Great. And then, so that's one thing. Some people liked to have the room cooler to sleep. That's not my thing, but I know a lot of people really like that. I can't sleep with them call. So make your room cozy as best as you can for the temperature that you feel best sleeping in. But really it's all about starting to dim the lights down.

Start to not be so stimulated. And if you need, if you can't break the phone habit at night put or the TV put on the TV in your room, we. Currently do it's a new thing. It has. We've not, but we currently do. And I think it's been on once in the last month, not twice. So typically when is Saturday night live?

So we'll or watch it live into a watch or nightlife? That's pretty much, yeah, we do not have a TV in our room, but we have gotten in a habit of like watching a show in bed, on a laptop. I know it's not great sleep hygiene, but, well, where blue blockers, they're like 13 with light glasses on in bed. I don't know.

Yeah, it's just, we got, we always keep buying things right on the bedside. I mean, the thing is because we're not really watching TV at night. It's like we put the baby to bed and then it's. We're either working or trying to wind down. Like, I don't know. There's just so much else going on in the evening that we don't really do our TV time until like right before, try to squeeze in a show.

So we did the best you can. Yeah. We're not big. We don't watch a ton of TV as a whole, but we're also in bed at like eight 30 or nine. Most, which is great. Yeah. So, and then also there's the energetics of the time when the day's over, we talk about like IRA Veda, right? Like they say that the best time to go to bed is before 10:00 PM during the coffee time on the day was at like six to 10:00 PM, right?

Yeah. So anyway, so, and if you go, if you stay up much past 10:00 PM, then you go back to time of the evening, which is very fiery. Then it's like the second wind and it can take a long time, which that's why that was laughing at me because. Did you used to be a night owl? I used to go to bed somewhere around midnight to 1:00 AM almost every night.

And then I fell asleep in the chair at 9:00 PM. Yeah. And then I would laugh at her and I'd be like, I don't understand, like, why can't we do work calls at eight or nine o'clock and now. I understand. Yes. Yeah. Jessica would be like, let's do group calls with people on Wednesdays at like 7:00 PM. And I'm like, that's where my brain is starting to go down.

It was okay. So the other big thing is watch the caffeine. So have your one cup. Yeah. But maybe you don't have caffeine in the afternoon. A few. Yeah, do that slowly, but again, don't do it drastically on this one. I don't want people to have, this is the reason why people struggle to give up caffeine as the headache, so slowly bring yourself off.

So if you're used to caffeine in the afternoon, start just doing less and less and then getting in decaf or whatever, if you'd still like that comfort of a coffee, like beverage in the afternoon, and then don't replace it with sugar, which is a common thing. Yeah. And then this one is honestly my favorite, which is just, can we just be realistic about it?

We, we're not robots. We are not supposed to feel jazzed 24 7. It's okay. To find times of the day where we rest. And sometimes that's really hard to do. If you are in an office job, that's like eight to six or whatever. You're like why can't just like hide under my desk and take a nap, which I have done.

That's the beauty of being self employed is being able to follow your rhythms more naturally. But you know, we get that. Not everybody has that luxury, but then we have to look at like, well, how am I committing my energy? My time? Of the week I might over committing myself. I feel a family, some people are over committing because of other family members as well.

So yeah. It's like we got to it's okay. To take a step back and that can be really challenging. I know. And that's just, that's getting down to the work of figuring out like, well, what are my priorities? What are my family's priorities? Like what is, what actually is my time management? Am I using time management skills?

And is there something that maybe I could be saying no to. There might be. So it's important to put yourself first because we don't want you to go caput. That's the worst science. I mean, it's funny. Cause I do feel like your body will catch up to you. It will ask you to rest. It will force you to rest. You will get a cold, you will get sick and I'm not talking like, yeah, something will happen where your body's like, Hey, we gotta slow down.

And so if you do find grains are common for people. It's a force them that push themselves a lot, getting sick, that sort of thing. Yeah. There is a practitioner who I have learned a lot from, and he does push himself, but on Sundays, It's like houses down and he just literally does nothing. Like, yeah, like he will like watch some shows, but it spends a lot of time really relaxing and things like that.

And so he's kind of built up to his body, knows, Hey, we do this hard work, but we know that we. All of this rest on this day. And so, and it's true rest. Like he doesn't make busy side house projects or whatever. So you make sure that his body gets like a full wrath. That's a great point when we talk about time management and when I'm talking to clients about it, it's like, I want you to build that in plan, you know, for self-care.

Yes. Like, is it an hour a day? Is it a full day on Sunday? I don't know what works for you, but. Making sure that you're building some time in to do nothing is really important, which is hard because as the us, as a whole, we feel like we're supposed to be productive. All right. Well, that's why it's important to plan for it, right?

Because if you're not planning to do it, then what happens is you just find yourself sitting on the couch with your phone and then you feel guilty. You're like, oh my God, I should be doing all of these other projects. I shouldn't be working. There's so many things to do. We don't enjoy the downtime when it's not like curated as part of our life.

So something to think about.

each week, we keep our eyes peeled for things in the media or in real life that come from diet culture, or that perpetuated in some way. These are often the subtle ways it seeps in, which is why we are shining a light on it and sharing it with you. So this week I had one. And it was an ad. I just, now my algorithm is giving me all the things.

So this was an ad and it's for a gummy that is designed to. Well, let me just read the ad. First of all, it's a photo. It has the gummies and it says I lost 10 pounds the first month. And then the ad says, weight gain during PMs is now optional. And then it talks about the benefits of the gummy and what's in it.

Of course it says results may vary. Um, and I think that this was interesting to me because it's like, are we talking about balancing hormones or are we talking about weight loss? And it just. It's they know that the weight loss part sells and then the whole like weight gain during PMs is now optional.

It's like, what? Right. But I mean, there's inflammation, that's happening to some degree, which is a natural part. There can be some weight gain that happens with it. It's totally natural. I mean, some of us have more exaggerated. Parts of PMs than others, but it's like, how did we turn? Just like what you said, how did we turn a thing that helps with PMs into a weight loss product?

And then it's like, well, does the way, what happens. After the pier. I don't understand. The whole thing is confusing. I'm like, well, here's what it says. This product has been shown to reduce hormonal weekend by telling your cycle hormones to chill. Yeah. Is what

first started. And I think I said this to you earlier. It's like, We're not supposed to weigh the exact same number on the scale every moment of the day, every day of the month of the week. Right. It's not how that works. Right. We all have a natural fluctuation, but could be five to 10 pounds depending on who you are, where we're just kind of adding and flowing and that's totally natural and normal.

And then yes, I think we're undereducated about our hormones in general, as women and our cycles in general. And so what frustrates. Me the most is like, we're just skipping over. Any education about what our cycles actually should look like and feel like, and we're just focusing on the weight and it's like, oh, why again, why are we only thinking about the weight as like the problem with our cycle when there's easily, at least five things, five other things I can think of off the top of my head, like cramping, bloating, headaches, irritability, but also like, what are my hormones doing?

Why are they doing this? And I dunno, how can I be better educated about this and not just focused on. Right. I have nothing else to say. It's just that's exactly it, it was like, stop it. Just stop. Let's just stop trying to cheat our cycle and spend more time learning how to understand our cycle. How can we add and flow with it?

Understand it, work with it. Be educated about it, all of these other things. Yeah. I sure hope we get you something new to think about today and helped you take one more step on your path to freeing yourself from diet culture. Be sure to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at path underscore nutrition, and we'll see you next week.

Bye everyone.