Cortisol: The Stress Hormone is Not The Enemy, But It May Be Sabotaging Your Results

Calvin and Brooke Masters: Thanks for tuning in to Master Your Metabolism. If you found value in today's episode, it would mean the world to us if you'd hit subscribe share this episode with someone who could use a little guidance in their health journey. Ready to take the next step? Head over to www.mastersfitnesscoaching.com you can book a free call right from the site. You've counted every calorie, tried every diet, spent hours in the gym, and still something's missing. You want more than just weight loss. You want your energy back. You want your confidence restored. You want a way of living that doesn't feel like punishment. Welcome to Master Your Metabolism, where we cut through the noise, ditch the fads, and give you a real plan to become the healthiest, strongest version of you. Brooke Masters: Hey there everybody. Welcome, welcome to Master Your Metabolism. ⁓ Brooke Masters ⁓ I wanted to talk about a topic today that I think is relevant to a lot of people. So everybody about cortisol and they don't want cortisol, but the truth is cortisol ⁓ is Cortisol what allows us to respond to threats. Cortisol Calvin and Brooke Masters: so we can chat about your goals and how we can help support you. forget to join our Facebook group where we're sharing coaching tips, support, and tricks to help keep you on track and continue making progress. You don't have to do this alone. We're here to walk with you ⁓ step of the way. Until next time, stay consistent, stay kind to yourself, and keep mastering your metabolism. hosted by our team of expert coaches with proven strategies, science-based tips, and real life encouragement, not just to help you lose fat, but actually create that lifestyle that you love. You've tried everything. Now, try what actually works. This is your turning point. Let's go. Brooke Masters: Is what allows us to wake up in the morning. You have a cortisol spike that wakes you up. It slowly goes down throughout the day and stays down at night. Melatonin rises so you can sleep throughout the night. It is called your circadian rhythm. And that cortisol what allows us to be protected when ⁓ is happening. There is a bear chasing you. So is a threat coming towards you. Your body will produce glucose. Calvin and Brooke Masters: Let's do this together. Brooke Masters: So you can run from that bear. You're able to run, get to a safe place, and then everything regulates and comes back down. Now, that is a quick response. what happens when this cortisol response stays chronically elevated? That's where the problem lies. That is where the health problems can be caused. That is what can result in. Body composition problems, all of the things that happen metabolically can be impacted by this response. So again, in a while, it's it's what we need. But when we have stress all the time, right? And we're not being chased by bears. That's not the only stress. We have stress with kids, taking care of adult, like taking care of your parents. ⁓ Making sure that your job is secure, finances are stable. Even dieting. Dieting is a stress. body doesn't know that you're just trying to fit into an outfit for this weekend. Your thinks there is a famine. People that work out because they're stressed. I'm gonna go for a run or I'm gonna do a spin class. More stress on top of an already stressed body. Even ⁓ Watching and making sure I'm checking emails, I'm making sure the kids are taken care of, I'm taking care of the things in the house, I'm making sure that this is managed, that I plan this, the constant of threats, scrolling on your phone, more things going into your brain that your body doesn't have downtime. And just like you at work, eventually we need to sleep, we need to rest, we need a break. But if you're laying down thinking about all the things and you don't allow your body and your mind that downtime, what happens is things start breaking down. So if you think about that same response when you are running from said bear and you get that big shot of glucose, you're not running away from the kids. You're not running away from the financial stability, I mean financial problems. You're not running away the things that are threats each every day. So, what happens is you still get that same response. Glucose shot into your system. Your pancreas produces insulin so that it can store that glucose into your cells. But what happens when it continuously goes and you run out of spots? Now you have a system that is filled with insulin, and it is called insulin resistance there is too much in the system. ⁓ when you have this going on in your system, ⁓ It causes inflammation of the cells. this is where we start seeing: hey, you're pre-diabetic. Hey, your cholesterol, your triglycerides are up, hey, you have some inflammation markers. And then we start seeing chronic illness kick in. So that's extreme part of it. And dementia known as diabetes of the brain. Because people don't pay attention to these things and they allow them to keep going. Many women. Especially in perimenopause, because we don't have the same buffers for stress. Pegesterone is dropped. That is your calming hormone. So when you don't have that and you keep going with the stress, now you are more slighted to or flight. Your body, you have to think about putting yourself into rest and digest, triggering that vagus nerve, calming that nervous system. You have to cognitively think about it because you. ⁓ Automatically go to fight or flight. So, some of the things that you may notice, this is the case, in your body, you may notice more belly fat because ⁓ is where you're going to store that excess glucose. You may notice that you are tired no matter how much you sleep, or you're waking up at 2 or 3 a.m., or when you lay down to rest, your brain is thinking. And when you feel this exhaustion all the time, then you get cravings. ⁓ Because your body, again, is seeking threats, going to be needing more glucose, so it is going to crave more things. So when you think, can't stay on track, why can't I stay on track? It is something physiological. Your body is trying to survive. All of these things start happening, the cravings, the exhaustion, low Because when you're in a threat and you're running from a bear, you're not going to be sitting down procreating. Hunger decreases because, and your digestion can be off because you're not going to be sitting down having a meal when there's a bear chasing you. So all these things start happening in the body. I'm trying to lose weight and all the things I used to do just aren't working. So, if you are noticing one or more of these things happening, it is time to pay attention and time to think about what you need to be doing to calm the system. So, the first thing that I always tell people is protect your sleep. Sleep and rest is where your body recovers, and that is what your body craves when there is so much stress. And laying down in the bed and scrolling is not the downtime. down, putting your feet up against the wall. On a when you're laying on your back, doing some deep breathing, something like the physiological side, where you take a nice deep breath in, an extra little inhale at the top, and then a slow exhale. Or you could do box breathing. This is great to do before bed to get you in a rested state. And my second favorite place to do this is before you eat. Because many of us are scarfing down our food. We are eating really fast because I have to get back to work. I have so many things on my plate. I have to do this. So we're eating like we're being chased by the bear. But when you're being chased by the bear, then we can't absorb the nutrients that we're eating in our food. And that becomes a problem because then we feel like garbage. So two times, I always tell people: you're starting these new habits. Don't bring in another thing on your plate. What you want to do is pair it with something you're already doing. So right before you go to sleep to be doing that breathing, right before you're sitting down for a meal, or both. So is number one. Number two, if you are having an issue with sleep, waking up in the morning, going outside and getting morning sunlight to reset that circadian rhythm. Because when you go outside, the morning sunlight actually triggers brain to produce natural melatonin 12 hours later. So remember what I had said: cortisol goes down, melatonin comes up, allows you to sleep. So having the same sleep and wake time, waking up in the morning and getting morning sunlight are two things before starting any supplements. I always have my clients do to start seeing the shift in their sleep. Because once you improve sleep, that is where fat loss can start happening. That is where health issues will start getting back on track. Because now you're giving your body the time to recover, and that's what it needs most. of course, keeping your room cool and dark, ⁓ sure you're staying away from screens for a couple of hours before bed. All of these things seem crazy that it would make a shift, but it actually does. Try for one week and see the difference. Other things that you can be doing is when you are brushing your teeth. Afterwards, since a you already do. Afterwards, gargling, gargling, humming, singing, all of those things will actually trigger the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve is the quickest way to get you out of fight or flight and into rest and digest. So you're done brushing your teeth, you start gargling. That is another time that is going to stimulate that vagus nerve. When you're taking a shower, you can switch the water when you're done to cold. And that cold will also spike up that. Heart rate and then bring you down to rest and digest. That one, to be honest, is not one of my favorites. Cold water is not my friend, but some people really enjoy it. ⁓ is another thing that you can implement into habits that you already have that you are already doing and just incorporating things on top. So other things that you can be doing, breath work is amazing, walking outside in nature. Unless you're here in South Florida at one o'clock in the afternoon, probably not the biggest stress relief, but walking pad will also do great and it helps to regulate your blood sugars. Because remember, we're having excess, so we don't want more. So nutrient-dense foods at your meals, protein, carbs, and fats, having those together will help balance your blood sugars, maintain your muscle mass, because that's what we need, and also making That blood sugar stays balanced, having time between meals and allowing your digestion to rest. When you snack all day or you're having little bits throughout the day, you're constantly getting more insulin in addition to the stress, and this is where we see more belly fat. paying to what you're putting in your body, whole nutrient dense foods, balanced meals, and making sure you're limiting processed foods to give your body all the things that it requires. Remember, this is your Porsche. You want to be fueling it with premium. And another thing that you can kind of keep in mind is that when you are having cravings, You're gonna have the cravings because your body is stressed. So recognize, ⁓ ⁓ really needing this food or I not have a complete meal? ⁓ You paying attention to the signals that your body is giving you. And when you're stressed, don't go running de-stress. ⁓ Let's try weight training instead. And if you are running, just make sure you are eating adequate nutrition because remember that under eating and pushing harder, if you've noticed already, it's not making it any better. We have a different body. And if you keep training your body like you did in your 20s, when your body is different than it was in its 20s, you're not going to get the same results. And many times it's worse. And If you want to get in the best shape of your life, you can do it. When I was 51 years old, I got in the best shape even before I had kids. And it was because I started playing by the rules. I paid attention to my body. I was looking at labs. I knew what my body needed. I recognized it was stressed. And I focused on the things to mitigate the stress. Because remember, we're never, ever, ever going to escape stress. There's always going to be stress. ⁓ But how you are able to manage it, how you're able to manage your response to it, and what we can do those little moments when are able to be calm. When you do more of that, that becomes more of the familiar. But I will tell you in the beginning, from someone who is stressed all the time, ⁓ when would have to sit in quiet, that was really hard. But ⁓ things helped me ⁓ was I would Do things that require my attention but didn't acquire, require my brain, like word finds. So I had to pay attention to what I was doing, and it didn't allow me to think about the hundreds of things that were on my brain. And another thing that I've learned recently from a book called Stop Letting Everything Affect You is giving yourself time to worry. If you tell yourself, don't worry about it, that's impossible when you have something in your brain. But If you specify a time in your day and give yourself 15 minutes and say, okay, this is on my brain right now, but I'm not going to worry about it right now. I'm going to write this down. And when I have my worry time later, I'm going to set a timer for that 15 minutes and anything that's on that list, that's the time to worry. So your brain knows there is a time I can worry, but you now have control. And that's the piece is having control over your responses, having control ⁓ you react and how you respond. And it's a skill. It's not easy. It's not a quick fix. It's not something that can change overnight. It takes practice. But like everything else, once you practice it, once you learn the skill, then that's things are unlocked. That's where you really start to see the shift and the change. So hopefully this helps. I love being able to share things that have helped me. ⁓ So I know when I was going through things and starting to see changes in my body and starting to feel like nothing was working, it was very empowering to feel that control back and knowing that I knew exactly what my body needed. So if anybody needs help or needs help navigating or wants more resources, definitely reach out, find me on Instagram or leave it in the comments. if you wouldn't mind. please share a review and follow us for more. Thank you again. And until next time, I'll see you.