Vibing Well with Dr. Stacy (A Foundational Approach to Healing the LIFESTYLE)

#073 Supporting Health During Winter, S.A.D., "Cold and Flu" Season, and Barefoot Shoes

• Dr. Stacy Barczak Baker ND IHP

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The clock changed, the light faded, and suddenly sleep feels off, cravings spike, and the calendar is full of sweets and late nights. We break the winter spiral by getting back to first principles: your body runs on time signals from light and food, and those signals need clarity when the days grow short.

We start with circadian anchors you can use tomorrow morning: bright outdoor light to cap cortisol, simple ways to block blue during screen time, and why amber lenses belong after sunset. If seasonal affective symptoms creep in, we lay out a sane toolkit—morning lux sessions, red light within daylight hours, and the sleep hygiene that lets melatonin do its deep repair work. Then we pivot to meal timing and macronutrients, showing how earlier breakfasts and dinners unlock nighttime healing, and why winter physiology thrives on protein, healthy fats, and storage crops like root vegetables rather than tropical fruit and sugar.

From there, we reframe “cold and flu season” as an inflammation problem amplified by indoor stressors—harsh LEDs, nonstop Wi‑Fi, and sedentary routines. Practical fixes include movement snacks after meals for glucose control, opening a window to balance spectrum, using saunas or natural infrared, and putting the router on a timer at night. We also share a gentle reset you can trust: a short bone broth fast to create metabolic space for healing after holiday overindulgence. Finally, we dig into footwear and pain: how switching slowly to zero-drop, wide-toe-box barefoot shoes improved gait, reduced hip and knee pain, and even how grounding-capable soles can add an anti-inflammatory edge when you can’t be barefoot outdoors.

If you’ve felt at the mercy of shorter days, this conversation gives you calm, science-backed levers you can actually pull. Align your light, shift your meals, move a little more often, and let darkness become a nightly advantage. If this resonated, follow the show, share it with a friend who dreads winter, and leave a quick review—what habit will you shift first?

Grounding/Barfoot Shoes Mentioned:

Coupon Code: DRSTACYND https://groundz.com/?ref=hbbxkxbx

I will link up my email list so you get notified for the free circadian seasonal shifts webinar in the show notes:

https://stacy-baker.mykajabi.com/opt-in-9cffc5f4-f006-4adb-a0a7-6c33a0698b4b

Resources mentioned:

Mycircadian APP DOCTOR (code)
Ra Optics (Code DRSTACYND) blue light blockers!
Bon Charge (Code DRSTACY) red light panel and circadian bulbs
Higher Dose (my FAV sauna blanket with low to no EMF) code DRSTACY
CGM (Code DRSTACY and DRSTACYAPP for app only)
Analemma Water (structuring)
Spring Aqua (my FAV water system) 

To work one-on-one with me, y

This information is just that; information only - not to be taken as medical advice. Please contact your primary care before changing anything to your routine. This information is not mean to diagnose, treat, or cure disease.

SPEAKER_00:

This is another episode of Vibing Well with Dr. Stacy. I am Dr. Stacy, a traditional naturopath and functional medicine provider, here to remind you that health is found where we create space. And today's episode is nothing less. We're going to be talking about all the things that are changing as we transition into winter and the time change and shorter days. What do we do? How do we support that? The ever-evasive quotations, cold and flu season. What does that mean? How do we support that? And then I'm also going to talk about my journey barefoot shoes and my experience with that and why that round stuff talking about all these things before the tight right now. So let's first dive into a lot all these things kind of definitely come together when we talk about everything that's changing as we transition for many of us into the winter months. So our days are getting shorter. We are drawn inside more. There's a lot of things that are happening. And I get a lot of questions this time of year of, well, how do I boost my immune system? And I say that in quotation marks. And how do I keep myself healthy in this cold and flu season and all of these things? And um, for me, it's always about knowing what's shifting in our environment, right? Knowing what's shifting with our food supply, knowing what's shifting with our circadian clock and our circadian timing, supporting that, supporting our metabolic needs as we transition into these changes as well. Because here's the crux of the situation and kind of the confounding uh unit with all of these things is that our we're drawn inside more. And so our internal environment, our home environment or our work environment, it really sheds light as to if that is one of support or if that is one of imbalance and inflammation, right? So that is where the things we can get away with in the summer months and when we're outside more, we're spending more time in nature, we have more true uh light signals, things like that. Um, our metabolism is a little bit more robust. Those things, when we are drawn inside more, um, really come to the surface as to if they are helping us or harming us, right? And we have to learn how to adjust in today's modern environment so that we can still have our health as the days are shorter, the days are darker, right? Like all of those things that are happening. So that is the goal of today's episode is really just finding that universal truth and that foundational truth as to what we can support, why, and how to do that. So, just a little recap on what our circadian clock is. I know I've talked about this in the past in great depth and detail, but I just want a quick reminder because we have to know what's changing, you know, as the days are getting shorter, we have more darkness in our environment in the winter months. What's changing? So let's just reconnect back to that. Our circadian clock is really that clock that runs every biological process in the body. And when our body doesn't know what time of day it is, I always give the analogy of a flight status at an airport, right? So when everything's on time and our body knows what time of day it is, and it receives those signals mostly from our light environment and our food, um, which we'll talk about how to be supportive in both areas. Those are what we call zeitgeibers or timekeepers for those circadian clocks. And then, yes, we can play with temperature and things like that, but let's focus on the main two right now as to not get too confusing. So, flight status schedule. When everything is on time, our body knows what time of day it is, it's getting true light signals, it's getting proper meal timing, then it knows which program to run and when. And this is everything from our hormones to our metabolism to our histamines to our, you know, heal and repair processes that happen at night, everything is run by the body knowing what time of day it is based on most of those inputs. So, like I said, every process in the body, whether it's digestive, whether it's metabolic or hormonal, is running on this circadian or diurnal signal. And so we always have to be thinking about how we can support that in today's modern environment, because everything in our modern environment, our lighting, our caffeine intake, right? Like everything is keeping us a little bit disconnected from this body clock, even the erratic meal timing, right? Just eating when it's convenient, not to think about eating to keep this clock running and like front loading calories, because that is when our cortisol is high and we need that support with from our food and things like that, or that's when our metabolism and our digestion are more robust. Um, so and when whenever we start to get up to places of symptoms and dysfunction, especially this time of year, it's usually connected to our body clock not knowing what time of day it is. And if you think about what happens in an airport when we lose that track of that flight status, what happens? Things get canceled, things get delayed. The same thing happens in our body, in our physiology. So we really have to learn to connect to that first and foremost so that we can really set our foundation up for success. And like I said, know how to support the modern environment and the signals that the body is receiving, remembering that the body is never messing up. It is literally responding appropriately to the signals that we are giving it. And so if we want to change what's happening, we have to change those inputs. So let's first talk about light, and then we'll talk about food and how those two are our most powerful inputs to create some change. Okay. So if you think about it, we have more darkness. And so our artificial light signals are going to impact our physiology that much more and our hormones. Remembering that we have to be thinking about the brightness of our light and also the spectrum of our light in order to maintain and achieve and somewhat replicate balance in our modern environment when it's kind of out of our hands, right? We have to control what we can without freaking out about it. We if we know what to control, where to put our energy, um, then we can get our body into this balanced state so we don't have to worry about all of the other impacts of going into these winter months. So I first want to talk about how we can support our light environment to be one of, you know, balance and our body once again reconnecting to its circadian clock. So a couple things that come to my mind to first support this. So we always have to be thinking about a combination of blocking what we can. And I'll talk about how we do that. And then also making sure that we are still getting outside to get proper light signals, even if it's getting cold, even if it's getting uncomfortable. We were made to do hard things. We need it to keep our body's physiology running smoothly. Um, so can we do that even just in a few moments' time in these light breaks that we take, going outside, getting the proper luxe, which is the brightness of the light, which helps things like our hormones, helps our neurotransmitters, right? Um, so we get into this um seasonal affective disorder um epidemic this time of year. And a lot of it's because we we don't have enough brightness coming in. So that can be supported. And I'll talk about therapies we can use to bring that in as well. But we do have to make sure that we are still getting outside to get proper light signals. Maybe that looks like you know, cracking a car window, doing the best you can, or opening up a window in your office and turning off the overheads, whatever you can do in your environment to support both of these, getting proper light signals and blocking what you can. So blocking blue light looks a little different for everybody based on what their home environment looks like, their work environment. But let's talk about some of the heavy hitters. So obviously, we want to be able to, um, if we work behind a screen, you want to make sure that you're wearing blue light blockers like the yellow from Raw Optics or Bond Charge. I'll link those both up in my show notes. That we are blocking that as much as possible, turning off overhead lights as much as we possibly can, and wearing our yellow blue light blockers to support our screen usage and things like that. Now we want the yellow because we still need a little bit of that blue and that green coming in to help our bodies continue to make cortisol. If we just went straight to amber during the day, which are darker, they're more tinted, right? They're blocking even all blue light at that point. They're even blocking the brightness of that light, um, which is gonna tell our body to make pineal melatonin, which is great from sunset on, but we don't want to be doing that during the day because for one, that's confusing to our body clock. And for two, um, we're gonna get really sleepy. So sometimes people don't, they really underestimate how good these glasses work. I've had clients to tell me, like, hey, you know, I'm not really sure what's happening. I really get really low energy at, you know, five in the evening when I get home. And I'm like, okay, you know, we're uncoupling what they're doing and everything. And they're like putting their amber blue light blockers on as soon as they get home, and they're immediately just starting to make melatonin. They get so tired. Um, that's how effective they can be. And everybody has a different level of sensitivity to them, which is great when we need them, but obviously we don't want to be pulling on that lever too soon. So definitely not during the day. When we need to be alert, we need to be active. Um, so yellow, blue light blockers, um, doing what you can to your light environment in your home, opening windows wherever you can, the light will bounce in, right? But we still have to get outside and skygaze, especially certain times of the day. Um, you know, as often as you can, just getting out there for a moment or two, sky gazing, getting the proper looks, and remembering and reminding your body what time of day it is. So we can run the program it needs to run. That flight status schedule. I want you to always go back to that because that's one of the things that very heavily gets overlooked this time of year. So blocking what you can during the day, you want to use the yellow blue light blockers. Um, and then in the evening, you bring in those amber because those are gonna block all blue light, and that tint is gonna help absorb all of that and then also block the brightness of it. Now you never want to drive with your amber glasses. You want to make sure that if you are in a driving situation before the sun comes up, that you are wearing the yellow as well, um, just because it the contrast is not there like we need. Um, so just be careful with that. And um, and like I said, make sure that you are taking light breaks as often as you can. Now, something that often comes up is red light therapy. So, since the days are getting shorter, we still want to make sure that our red light is contained within sunrise hours. Okay, so while the sun is up, because the brightness of that LED light can also be confusing to our circadian rhythm. So you want to make sure that if you're doing red light therapy, and I think that it's gonna have more of an impact um on the evening hours than it is uh to wake up. So I often wake up with my red light um because I get I do get up a little bit before the sun. And that is not gonna be as an adverse effect as the brightness of it um going into the evening hours because we really always have to be thinking about preserving sleep because that's when we repair, that's when we re restore and also heal. So red light therapy, make sure that it is contained within the hours of daylight. It's gonna be the most supportive for you. Now, um, I do get questions about seasonal affective disorder and remembering that we can support that by getting proper luxe and then reminding our body, getting it back in touch with the circating clock as often as we possibly can. But there can be a time and a place to bring in something like a happy light. And so that can be um very helpful to do in the morning. Um, generally 20 to 30 minutes with uh Vera Lux is a brand. I'll link it up. I'm not affiliated with them because I would like you guys to get outside and do this, but it can be really powerful to get the proper luxe. Um, so making sure that you are getting outside um when you can, but on those days that you can't, or it's you know, uh really, really overcast or it's rainy, right? Or bad weather or something like that, um, the luxe is always gonna be there, but obviously it's not gonna be as comfortable to go outside and get that if it's raining and storming and snowing, that sort of thing. So that's where the happy light can come into play. You would want to do that 20 to 30 minutes in the morning to get the proper luxe. Um, so another, I just want to kind of go into supporting that for a few minutes, supporting supporting seasonal affective disorder, um, because it is a popular question I get asked. So part of it is that we don't have enough luxe. Another part of it is that we don't have enough protein. We gotta have protein to build our neurotransmitters like serotonin, right? Which eventually gets converted into melatonin. So we have to make sure we have the building blocks first and foremost. We have to think about the things that are causing artificial signals to our hypothalamus, to our brain, right? We receive those signals through our retina. So you have to be thinking about our screen time, our LED lighting, artificial light exposure. So we talked about getting the good but blocking the bad. That definitely comes into play when we're supporting seasonal affective disorder. We have to also make sure that we get the heal and repair time at night. That's when those neurotransmitters talk to the hypothalamus. That's when we heal our neuronal pathways at night. Um, all of those things, right? Where the glymphatic from our brain drains into the rest of the body, right? And all those toxins are kind of flowing from the brain all the way down. So we have to be able to get into deep, restful, reparative sleep. And so, you know, that always has to come into play, optimizing sleep. And we'll talk about how to shift things like meal timing and things like that to support as well. Um, we have to make sure that we are outside as much as we can in the winter. You know, there's no bad weather, there's only bad gear. We can double down on some warm clothing and get outside and make sure that we are still naked eyes to the sky. We're not staring at the sun, but that we are getting the brightness that we truly need as often as we can. Getting outside, there's a lot of benefit to cold therapy. We're not going to talk a ton about that today. Um, but this may be your year to get cold adapted and get all the mitochondrial benefits of that, all the dopaminogenic uh benefits to that, all the neuroplastic benefits as well that can happen when we um teach the body to be a little uncomfortable and to be out in the cold a little bit more. And then, of course, supporting cortisol levels, which is another thing. Like I said, uh our living environment comes to the surface in the winter. So it is really reflective of is this one of balance and homeostasis, or is this one of inflammation and imbalance and high cortisol levels? So, cortisol, we talked about blue light and artificial light. Um, knowing that even our modern glassware in our windows is blocking all infrared light, right? So it is only letting the blue light spectrums, the green light spectrums into our household. So being by the window is honestly not enough. You need to open that window up, let the light bounce in, um, make the time and effort to get outside as much as you possibly can. And then other things that keep cortisol high are things like our exposures to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, EMF, all of those things. That's another reason why winter is so much more dehydrating to us on a cellular level than summer is. And we think summer's dehydrating because we sweat more and all of those things. But when we are drawn inside more and we're lacking that infrared and we're lacking the proper lighting, and all of our signals are coming from artificial. Um, and then we have the thermal neutrality from our homes being heated and all of these things. We have no really hormetic stressors. You know, we're trying to be comfortable. We're trying to live in summer 24-7, 365. Very confusing to the circadian clock, right? So think about the things in your modern environment that are keeping your body out of rhythm and that are keeping your cortisol high, right? And some of them are unseen, like the Wi-Fi, the Bluetooth, the EMF. Create as much physical space as you can, right? This is not to elicit fear, it's to control what you can. Obviously, get as far away from that as you can, especially at night, right? Minimize what you can throughout the day, airplane mode where you can, wire, hardwire what you can, um, and then create physical space from the rest, right? If you have no idea what your EMF environment looks like, get a meter and just test it out. Make sure that your bed and your family and all of those things, that you're creating physical distance from what you can. Throw your Wi-Fi router on a on a um timer to turn off, just like you would your Christmas tree, right? Have it turn off during the hours that you're sleeping. It doesn't need to be running throughout the household, right? All of those little things make a huge impact, but also can affect our cortisol and insulin levels. Um, food is only one part of that, right? And so let's talk about the food because this is another huge question I get. Like, all right, well, so now that it's dark at 530, um, do I still need to be eating my meals before sunset? And the answer, honestly, for optimization is yes. You really, in a perfect world, would be just moving everything up just a little bit more, right? Because we are more insulin resistant in the winter. Uh, our days are shorter, we make more melatonin, which is great. Melatonin is an antioxidant, it's a hormone, it's our heal and repair for our mitochondria, everything from our mitochondria to our gut to our skin lining. So we need to just embrace the healing potential of that melatonin, assuming that we're not suppressing it, that our lighting environment isn't suppressing it like most artificial and LED lights do, or that that really unnatural spectrum of light will suppress melatonin. So we're talking about supporting that day and night, right? Um, but also cortisol and insulin will suppress melatonin. So if we're given this gift of more darkness and more melatonin, we got to make sure that we're not doing everything in our, you know, environment to suppress that healing potential. So cortisol and insulin, remember that we are more insulin resistant the second half of the day. That has to be in alignment with the sun, the sun's rhythm, right? That's not based on our schedule, our work schedule. It's based on the rhythm of the sun, and that's how our body stays in tune, right? And so remembering that light is half the battle, food is the second half. Our meal timing, we still have to front load our meals earlier in the day when our cortisol is high. That's when our metabolism is stronger, that's when our insulin sensitivity is stronger, that's when our digestion is stronger. We still need to be front loading calories early in the day. Now, for those of you who went through time change and we fell back and gained an hour, it will help to do things like wake up at the same time every day, right? And then make sure that you're having something within an hour of waking. That is a time stamp. That is a way that we are connecting to that new time change, and that's a way we're bringing safety signal to the body, and that's another way that we're resetting the circadian clock. So having a strong breakfast signal within an hour of waking is one way that we can cue into that. Now, the meal timing doesn't feel nearly as complicated when you think about, okay, from breakfast on, I'm spacing my meals about four hours apart. Maybe four and a half is a stretch for some people. Um, but when the days get shorter, I'd say get as close to four as you can so that you can make sure that dinner is before sunset. When that happens, remembering that digestion strategically is slowing down as the sun sets. So we really can't hold on to this later dinner as the sunlight hours are changing, right? That is disruptive. That keeps us in a place of inflammation, and that really affects our repair and um restorative potential that needs to happen at night. So the more we can fix the timing of breakfast in this new time change, you know, uh in alignment with the new time change, that becomes way easier. So some people, it feels a little daunting to just move dinner up, but if you just move everything up a little bit, then it just becomes natural to have dinner a little bit earlier and while the sun is still up. And that has so many profound benefits. All of those things that need to be repairing and healing, and hormones need to be talking to the hypothalamus. And then we have our growth hormone and our leptin signal, and all of these things do not happen if we're still digesting our food and still balancing our blood sugar from having dinner too late at night. So we always have to be thinking about that, especially this time of year. So let's talk about what else changes because I think the more we understand how we have to embrace the seasonal nature and the cyclical nature of our seasons, right? Our our daylight hours, things like that. But what all what else shifts? Like our food shifts, right? Like we don't have fruit available anymore in the winter for a lot of us, right? We we actually tolerate physically, we tolerate carbs less in the winter. We are more insulin resistant. A lot of that is because melatonin's coming on the scene. The days are shorter, right? And so that's not necessarily a bad thing. We just have to shift our diet in translation with that. Now, when I talk about cold and flu season, in conjunction with more inflammation season, you got to think that most of us are celebrating holidays from October on through the beginning of the new year, and alcohol and carbohydrates and sweets and candy and sugar. And at a time in the year where cyclically we tolerate those the least. So could that be a huge contributing factor to what's creating more inflammation in that individual's body that's suppressing their immune system? Absolutely. We'll go into that in just a minute. But remember that we lose a lot of places in the northern hemisphere losing that strength of the UVB, which is why we don't assimilate as much vitamin D. We're running off our vitamin D stores. So don't freak out about that. And remembering that melatonin is coming on the scene when vitamin D is not as available for everybody. So it's all good. Nature has that figured out for us. But the UVB also helps us with our glucose regulation. And so naturally we should be thinking about eating fewer carbohydrate. For one, it's not even seasonally appropriate, right? We don't have fruit in a lot of our environments grown year round, unless you guys live at the equator, which is great. Then you guys can have it year-round because it's grown there, right? So seasonally, carbohydrates would be more scarce. Now, starches are available, right? Root veggies, things like that. Um you think about things that could store longer. So if there is any fruit that could store an apple, right? Apples seem to store longer and a little bit more seasonally appropriate, especially around fall time. Um, so root veggies and starches, that would be my go-to. That is my go-to for this time of year. They, you know, they store well, they are seasonally appropriate, um, they're harvested in the fall, and then they could be stored well into the winter months. And and that makes sense. It's not as confusing to our mitochondria. And those seem to be things that we um can utilize better in in uh as far as carbohydrates go in the winter over like tropical fruits, right? It makes more sense um just from an evolutionary standpoint. So I want you to think about that. I also want you to think about transitioning um to fewer raw foods, right? Um our bodies want warmth. It wants nourishment this time of year. So I want you to think about more cooked foods, more roasted veggies, soups, nourishing, warming spices, right? Um, those kind of things. Those are way more appropriate this time of year. So embrace the cyclical nature of some of those things and get excited about your food. Like it's it's always inevitable. Um, I notice my kids in the spring. Of course, we don't have a dramatic shift of seasons here, but it's still there. And in the spring, they just they are craving salad. They want that raw food, and that definitely transcends into where we start getting somewhat of a cold snap, and then all of a sudden it just feels inappropriate to be eating a bunch of raw food, you know? And so they're more leaning into the soups and the chilies and you know, the the sheet pan veggies and those sort of things. So thinking about leaning more into foods that that could be stored evolutionarily speaking, so animal proteins, animal fats, things like that, root veggies, thinking about more warmth and warming spices, those kind of things. That's how I would shift food and you know, make it easy. Do food that is local. Um, do a farmer's market, do a CSA. That will tell you what's local and available if you don't want to, you know, dial in and do the research. Um, but definitely leaning more into um animal proteins and fat is more seasonally appropriate and more what your metabolism is going to be wanting to handle versus the excess carbohydrates, the sugars from the fruits and things like that. Okay, so this lands us into talking about cold and flu season, right? And I say that with quotations because really what it is is excess inflammation season. We just talked about how we eat most of our carbohydrates and sugar and alcohol at a time where seasonally we are the most insulin resistant, right? We have a lot more darkness in our um days, and also we don't have the UVB to help with that glucose regulation. So a lot is going on. Uh coupled with that, with a 93% metabolically inflexible population, you have a you have a disaster there, right? It's sugar, it's inflammation, it's being drawn inside more. It is our artificial environment, which is just throwing a wrench in our mitochondria and our energy production, but also affecting our cortisol and our insulin and our blood sugar, right? So food's half of the battle, but our environment is the other half. And so we have to be coupling down on that. Like, why is my body losing energy? Why is my body more inflamed? And then kind of dialing in what we're repeating that is contributing to that. Because it's not, I think I talked about this briefly in my last episode. It's not that all these pathogens are just lingering until winter to just attack everybody. That's not what's happening. We are inflamed. We're very inflamed, and nothing's going to keep you quite as inflamed as probably poorly functioning mitochondria because we're trying to feed it more sugar than it can process, right? And then we have the mitochondrial toxins in our uh, you know, our home and work environment. And so that's also altering our metabolism. And then we're just doubling down on everything that's going to wreck that part of our energy production, right? So those are going to impact us more than ever. So, like I said, we're more sensitive to our lighting. Um, our home and work environments are gonna impact us more than ever. We're drawn inside more. Um, we're not doing things to modulate cortisol, remembering that our immune system can only function properly, assuming that cortisol's in check and in balance, right? We have to be in a place of homeostasis and parasympathetic to be able to heal and just be able to do natural reparative work. We got to get out of sympathetic to be able to do that heal and repair stuff, right? And so if we're not modulating cortisol because of our artificial environment, our lighting, too much Wi-Fi and EMF, um, maybe in it, we already know the, you know, uh high carb loaded meals and high sugar situations, those are all keeping cortisol really high because it's keeping insulin really high. And then we're not getting enough of true light signals to help modulate cortisol as well. Cause remember that part of that cortisol rhythm is getting outside as soon as you wake up, getting a natural light signal. So your body says, hey, they're awake. We can stop making cortisol, right? Um, so that's part of it too. So we still have to do that in the winter. And then the other part is that we're lacking infrared. So that red light, right? And that's why red light panel can be helpful, yeah, but red light's available outside all year round. So we're missing that heat, we're missing that light, right? And so that leads to suppressed mitochondrial function. So the food has to shift, right? Um, we still have to get those light signals. Um, we need to make sure that we are doubling down on things that will help infrared, right? So whether that's sauna, which is my go-to for sure, doesn't feel as appropriate to do a ton of sauna in the heat of the summer. But this is a beautiful time to lean into it because you're getting that infrared from a cellular level out, right? Um, red light panels can be great. Just keep them while the sun's up, right? And then also thinking about um getting infrared outside as much as you possibly can, that full spectrum of light, which is available in a natural spectrum all the time. So artificial light is is really singling out blue and green spectrums, which cause which our hypothalamus reads that and says, hey, make cortisol, right? So when it's balanced in a natural light setting, those that spectrum of light is constantly shifting and changing. To say, yeah, make cortisol now, but like start shifting it down after the peak of the day. But we don't get that in it with our artificial light signals. So making sure that any light bulbs that we're around are ones that are more reflective of a natural light spectrum, like an incandescent bulb or a circadian bulb, right? Or candlelight, right? Whatever makes most sense to you in your environment. Um, and and dialing that in, especially this time of year, is going to be really impactful. Now, the other thing that really happens is that we're not only drawn inside more, but we're more sedentary. We're way less active. We don't have, we don't get as much of the benefit of being out in nature and the cortisol modularly modulating response of that, but also the activity level of being outside, right? And so we need to be find ways to be active in the winter, you know, especially during the daylight hours. That's so it doesn't throw our circating clock even more. But how do we do we just bundle up and go outside and go on a walk, right? So we can get our lighting, so we can get our movement. Maybe you have a treadmill at home that you don't really utilize much, you know, whatever you can do to make sure that you're moving often, right? Because it's easier to not in the winter. So I still always prefer movement in short increments throughout the day versus just one power hour and then you're sedentary the rest of the day, right? Thinking about constantly flowing, keeping the body moving, the lymphatic, the circulation also helps with glucose and insulin regulation. If you can just commit to moving after a meal, that's gonna help you tremendously, right? Um, we know we're more insulin resistant this time of year. So what can we do to support that, right? Lots of ways we can do that. But movement after a meal is always gonna be very supportive. And you know, if we're eating three times a day, that's three little snacks of movement we can get throughout the day. So just remembering that cold and flu season, we want to equate that to pathogens. I equate it to inflammation. And we'll talk about how to boost, quote unquote, the immune system, but I always look at that as how can I, how can we create space for healing potential? How do we tap into the body's innate wisdom on how to heal and what's blocking that if we find that we're getting sick or, you know, XYZ. So, anyways, everything comes to the surface this time of year. So the things we have gotten by with more in the summer because we had stronger sun signals, we are sweating more, we're outside more, we're moving more, we have more infrared, things like that. When we have less of that, we can learn what to dial in to support, right? It's not that we want to live like it's summer every single day. Um, but everybody has a little bit of individuality, like response into what they need more of, right? Um, what affects them and impacts them more? Is it their light environment? Is it their meal timing, right? What needs to be dialed in more? Um, so that's where the individuality comes in. But foundationally, those are things that we all need to think about supporting our home and work, our inside environment, um, because that does come to the surface dramatically this time of year. So let's talk about boosting the immune system. And the way I like to go about this, instead of adding, adding, adding, adding supplements in, I look at it as creating space. How can we lower inflammation and create space for that healing potential? Because the body knows how to heal itself. And so if we find ourselves getting sick, if we find ourselves, you know, um, feeling like our immune system's crashing this time of the year, what is contributing to that inflammation and how can we create space for the body to, you know, cash back in on that healing potential? So there's lots of ways we can do this. So obviously, we first start with aligning with a circadian clock, right? That is first and foremost, that's something foundationally everybody needs to do. Allow for more rest and embrace the shorter days. More darkness, more melatonin means more healing potential, assuming we aren't suppressing it with, like I mentioned, our lighting environment, but also our cortisol and insulin at night. So winter's not a time to push. That's why New Year's resolutions feel a little bit unnatural, right? It's not a time where we plant seeds, if you think about it, right? That would be the spring, the summer, right? Those kind of things. But we can embrace the seasonality of more rest, right? We can get into deeper, more reparative states of sleep if we embrace the seasonality of more melatonin. And so, you know, when it gets dark, why are we pushing to stay awake four hours from sunset on? Might we go to bed a little bit earlier and wake a little bit earlier and then start our circadian clock by a real light signal and a good breakfast, you know, and shift our meals up a little bit so that becomes a little bit more natural? Um, what if we can shift our lifestyle a little bit more to be more in conjunction with those shorter days? That would be helpful, right? Because remembering that the body heals and repairs and restores at night. And so we're given that gift of more melatonin. So if we are finding that the immune system is challenged, what if we just shift to support that melatonin so that we have more healing potential, right? We talked about shifting food, right? Maybe being a little bit lower in carbohydrate, um, higher in protein, higher in fat. That's way more seasonally appropriate if you are someone going into the winter months, being more intentional with our lighting uh environment and our time outside, despite the temperatures, right? Um, if anything, that's something that will boost the mitochondria, is challenging them with um, you know, putting it in a cold environment and having the body warm up from the inside out. That is true. Infrared, right? Is that light that the mitochondria makes when it's exposed to cold. So what if we lean into that and make this the year we get cold adapted, right? And we go outside and we take our coat off for a minute and let ourselves to have that challenge, right? Um, that can be helpful. Or even just going outside in a coat is a challenge for a lot of people. So that can also be really helpful seasonally, right? Is embracing the cold, embracing the darkness, um, changing the diet, right? We're not gonna be eating the same amount of carbohydrate we shouldn't be, because we're more insulin resistant, right? And also um we have to think about okay, we double down on the carbohydrates, on the sugar, on the alcohol this time of year. Don't you think that could be contributing to more inflammation? Absolutely. So one of my favorite tools to create space um in these environments and any environment really is by some strategic fasting. And what sounds really good and nourishing this time of year can be a bone broth fast. So let's say you're um, you know, you had, I think one of the biggest things is that we we we know that we have the holidays and there's a level of stress that comes with that because we know that our eating is going to be a little bit out of our control for that day. We can still have that holiday without turning it into a holiday season, right? Where we have three or four months of inflammation versus just one day, and then we go maybe into a bone broth fast to follow, or we increase our drainage or increase our infrared and help our body get back into balance after that, right? That is a lot more doable than three or four months of inflammation and then wondering why we why our hormones can't balance, why we catch every, you know, quote unquote bug that's around, why we're always sick, this and that, right? Maybe it's just because we're chronically inflamed this whole season, our body has no reprieve. Um, but what tools can we do? So we just talked about lots of tools we can use to bring in to help balance that out. Enjoy the holiday, just don't turn it into a whole season, right? Um, and then a bone broth fast can be really healing and reparative because for one, it's very the collagen is very soothing to the gut. It's min it's got minerals and electrolytes and is warming and nourishing, right? And so for if people aren't used to doing, you know, a water fast or you're easing into fasting or haven't done it, you know, supportively, or have done it the wrong way, maybe intermittent fasting every single day, could you bring in a strategic fast? And anytime I feel anything, quote unquote, coming on, anytime I notice symptoms of any kind, I immediately go into a fast. And sure enough, my body has had a break from digestion, a break from the metabolic demands, um, and goes straight into healing potential. So, how could we create space for that, especially if we feel like something's coming on, right? That can be a beautiful way. And if you're not used to just a full-on fast, do a bone broth. It's very nourishing, it's very gentle, and it gives your body some minerals and electrolytes to help ease you into that. So sometimes people really like how that feels after a day of maybe overindulgence. Um, just giving the body kind of a little reset, right? It's not a punishment for overdoing it. It's saying, hey, I know we stress the mitochondria out. I know I increase inflammation a little bit. I'm gonna create space so you can get a little bit more into balance. And that's all that it is. So, like I said, I am much more a fan of creating space for healing potential than I am. Let's just load the body up with a bunch of supplements and force it to boost our immune system, right? That seems so unnatural. And if anything, it's more stress on the body, um, more that the body has to break down and get rid of and remove. And it just isn't where it's at. It's definitely not going to hold a candle to something you can shift metabolically and um just creating space in the body, even if you think it from a very simplistic point of view, if you're not digesting food and you're not requiring a lot of metabolic demands and balancing blood sugar and cortisol and inflammation, then your body has no other place to put all of that extra energy except into healing and repairing and fixing um inflammation. And so that's something to dial in, right? As much as you can. So, how can we create that strategically? Um, maybe with the use of a bone broth fast every now and then, but also that overnight fast. How do we prepare our body for that rest and replenishment going into the night in the most balanced way possible, right? And so making sure that dinner is before the sun sets, um, making sure that dinner is not going to be one that's gonna spike our cortisol and insulin really dramatically, and that it's it's setting the stage for that healing potential to actually take place. Okay, I do want to share one more thing today. I don't want to make this a whole other podcast episode because I've been talking about it on Instagram and I told you I would talk about it. So let's talk about barefoot shoes for just a second. This is something that I um have recently been exploring and it's been on my radar for a little bit of time, but I wasn't like fully convinced until I had this recurring episode and I finally pinpointed what it was, what was happening. So, my structurally, we all have our things, right? And so physically in my body, I have this right hip pain that kind of flares a few times a year. And so it was really interesting because someone in my family was recently having a lot of uh knee pain, and it was all stemming kind of from the IT band and just this flare that was happening. And, you know, I was like, yeah, you know, I get this flare in my hip, and I was just kind of making connections. I always like to make connections with things because it helps simplify and kind of cut through the noise and really just like that Occam's razor of like, what's the most obvious solution to this problem, right? So, anyways, was having this really uh friend, uh family member was having a really dramatic flare, and it made me think about my own um sciatica. Sometimes that happens in my right hip and it kind of wraps around uh to my lower back, and it was flaring uh once-ish a year, but once it flares, it it would get pretty intense. And so um I got to thinking about it, and I was also thinking about from the ground up, right? I walk a ton, right? And I walk at least an hour a day. And so obviously, my alignment, my posture, my gait is gonna have a huge impact on everything downstream, upstream from that. So my knees, my hips, right? Everything up from there, back pain, all of those things. And so I was thinking that for one in their situation, but then I was also thinking about how I also do walk barefoot, if you think about it, when I'm on the beach. And so I what I was noticing is the days that I would walk in my shoes in my neighborhood would be the days that my hip would bother me the most. And it was a little tricky to pinpoint because when it's flaring, the pain can last a few weeks. So I was just kind of putting all these pieces together, and I finally was, you know, I was talking to this family member and I was like, I really, I don't know why, but I feel like it's related to your shoes. Because at the same time, I was also thinking, I've worn through my current shoe. And even though the shoe looks fine in and of itself, the insole and this the arch support and all of those things do wear over time, especially how much I walk. And so I was just kind of putting these together. And this individual, too, was getting um about a year in on their specific shoes. And so I was just doing a little bit of research on barefoot shoes because those, like I said, it it was a seed that had been planted, but I wasn't fully in on it yet. But like I said, I also do some bare actual barefoot walking on the beach. So I'm doing that in a sense, but thinking about where do I walk the most is probably in my neighborhood. So obviously my shoes are gonna have a tremendous impact on my posture, my gait, um, my hip, right? And so when I um when I made that connection, it definitely was every time I have a flare, it does come around the same amount of months with that new shoe that I've brought in. So in my mind, I'm thinking, okay, well, I either need to get an another shoe with a tremendous amount of support, which is what a lot of us kind of fall victim to, or I just need to just bite the bullet and just go completely barefoot. Barefoot shoe in my neighborhood, because I definitely don't want to walk around barefoot here. I will at the beach. Um, but everybody sprays here and it's all sidewalk too. So I don't want to tear my feet up per se. But, anyways, so it's kind of like that all like all or nothing. Like if you're gonna do a fully supportive shoe, that's fine, but you need to make sure that you're replacing it as when you start to feel the structural impingements happening, because that's a sign that you're losing that support. So either you're replacing the insoles or replacing the shoes, or you can do what I do and switch to completely barefoot shoe where you don't have any arch support. And then you have your natural gait, your natural posture and your natural alignment. Now, I'll say this with a little disclaimer: if you are easing into barefoot walking and decide you want to try a barefoot shoe, you have to ease into it, right? So if you're used to walking, you know, an hour a day like I am, you don't want to go full on with that because you're gonna start to elicit different muscle groups you aren't used to. Your alignment is gonna shift with your knees, your hips, things like that, which is good. It's shifting it into a more natural position. Um, but you also want to consider giving your body time to ease into that. So you would want to just do a few minutes at a time, right? So let's talk about some of the benefits of the barefoot shoes. And one of the things that was a natural, like yes to me was that if you think about it, it's not gonna lose its support like a very highly, heavily cushioned shoe will because there's no arch support there at all. It's a zero drop situation. So the only thing that's really gonna wear out on that shoe eventually will be the sole itself, right? But that will take some time, a lot longer than it will to just to lose your arch and your foot support. So longevity is I'm all about sustainability, absolutely. Also, just thinking about utilizing muscle groups that help with balance and cordile core coordination that don't necessarily happen when you're at the mercy of a heavily padded shoe. So you're gonna have improved posture, improved strength in your feet, right? So regular shoes are gonna give you a little bit excess arch. So that can lead to fasciitis at time and pronation, right? Or even supination, depending on your shoe. It also is very constricting, right? It very keeps your ankles really stiff. It can keep your calves really strict, um stiff as well. And over time can lead to things like bunions and hammer toe and things like that, right? When we've been wearing these our whole lives. Um, but the other thing is the raise heel can throw the alignment. So even just thinking about from um a fitness trainer perspective, we always knew on leg day you had to wear a zero drop shoe. That's when you're wearing your Chuck Taylor's, or you were, you know, now they have all kinds of fancy like training day shoes. But basically what they are is they don't have the raised heel because they want to activate your lower body musculature in the correct position. And that can't happen if you have an excess of arch support. So that's why, right? It's throwing your natural alignment and it's also throwing which muscles you're eliciting and activating. So when you have a zero drop shoe, is what you want to, that's what a barefoot shoe is. Your foot is in a neutral position. So then you have a reduced risk of impact-related injuries to your feet, your knees, your hips, and back, right? Because it's absorbing your impact more evenly, which I love. And so you're also increasing your sensory feedback to where you are stepping, right? Which, which, which improves everything. It's your appropriateception. So um it's gonna help with your balance, your stability, your strength, your posture, just your overall foot function. We really overlook how important that is. But especially if this has been, we've been in regular shoes our whole lives and we're starting to see structural issues in our bodies. That's one of the biggest things we can change. Now, I am a shoe person. I love shoes. I think it comes from being in private school, as long as I did, because I think that's the only way you can really express yourself, you know, is having the shoes. Um, I love shoes. I'm not getting rid of all my shoes, but the ones that I'm most active in, I'm gonna do the barefoot shoes. It's undeniable the difference I felt in overall muscle activation, posture, alignment, gait. And now my hip is no longer flaring because I've gotten used to barefoot shoes and barefoot walking on the beach, like truly barefoot walking on the beach when I when I do. And so it's undeniable for me that anytime I was having a flare in my structural body that it was tied to my shoe wearing out. And I know that now looking back. And the same for this family member of mine that just went through the same thing. It helped me refocus back to my own issues and be like, yeah, that makes so much sense. And it's it's the Occam's razor, right? What are you repeating the most? Um so the thing about the barefoot shoes, like I said, you have to ease into it. You have to get out of that mindset of like, oh, the more support, the better. Because we've what we're finding is that just like the convenience trap, the more support we have going into it leads to less um proprioception overall, right? It's what like um it's kind of like a band-aid effect where we're we're weakening uh certain muscles, we're weakening our balance, we're weakening our posture in conjunction with being more comfortable initially, but over time that's gonna kind of bite us in the butt with some of these other issues. So um now I want to double down on the barefoot. Like I love barefoot on the beach, yes, because I'm actually barefoot, I'm receiving electrons from the earth. You know, I love everything about that, my natural posture, my natural gait, but also the benefits of grounding. And so that's why I had to mention, so when I was like researching barefoot shoes, I came across a line that actually is grounding as well. And so when we can get the grounding potential and the barefoot in a situation where we can't walk barefoot, right? Maybe it's in the winter, maybe we are walking through the grass or you know, the somewhere that's really sprayed, or just a normal neighborhood walk, right? We want some grounding potential, but we also kind of need to have shoes on, right? When we get a shoe that will allow for that grounding potential, then we're once again receiving the electrons from the earth, right? Those are gonna help us neutralize free radicals, they're reducing inflammation. This will have positive impacts on everything from sleep to metabolism to hormones to our pain levels, all of the things. We are literally staying connected to the earth, right? Um, when we are grounding. And so we so to think about that, I I wanted to make sure that if I'm gonna invest in a pair of barefoot shoes, that it's gonna be one that's also going to give me grounding potential as well. Now, grounding surfaces will make a difference, right? So you cannot ground on something that's rubberized. So asphalt, turf, things like that, right? Anything that's got like um some kind of rubber barrier. You can't ground that's gonna uh interrupt that electricity from the magnetism from the earth, right? And impede on that electron flow. Um, but the things you can ground on are grass, sidewalks depending on how thick they are, gravel, right? Wood that's live, um, natural stone, right? Depending on the thickness, once again. And you can test these things. You can use a multimeter and plug one end to the ground and one end, you hold on to one end and you test your shoes to make sure you're grounding, you know, if that's what you're trying to achieve. And um, that's gonna be based on the shoe you're wearing, but also your mineral levels. So if you're dehydrated, if you haven't eaten well that day, haven't, you know, eaten some nutrient-dense foods, things like that, that will affect your grounding potential too. And we can go deeper into this on a whole other thing. Um, but just in conjunction with the actual grounding barefoot shoes, I just want to kind of throw it out there because there might be somebody else seeking the same thing that I'm seeking. And so if I'm gonna do a shoe, um, I'm gonna walk often, you know, I want to make sure that I'm gonna get some grounding potential from that on the days I'm not walking on the beach. So um I will link up these shoes that I have uncovered. There's a couple of barefoot shoes I've played with. So I I do have a few different brands I've I've played with. I'm affiliated with one and not the other, but it doesn't matter. It just go, what are you focused on? Like if you're only gonna do barefoot gems or barefoot shoes in the gym on a treadmill, then it doesn't really matter that you get the grounding ones, right? But if you really want to double down on your potentiality of grounding and receiving the electrons from the earth and you can walk outside, then yeah, it's probably worth, you know, they're both about the same cost. So it's like, what do I, what am I gonna invest in? Um, like I said, I don't switch like I don't switch out all my, I didn't get rid of all my shoes. It's just like which ones do I spend the most time in? Which ones am I most active in? Um, those are gonna make the most sense when I'm trying to maintain a body's natural alignment and posture. So um just wanted to throw that out there because it's been coming to the surface for um not only family members, but me personally and even a lot of my clients um when we talk about chronic pain, um, things like that. So sometimes it is as simple as like what we're repeating, what are our issues? Our physical um structural, you know, alignment is responding from the ground up. So what can we do to support that? Right. So I just wanted to throw that out there um and talk about that for just a moment because it's been something I've been playing with. It's been on my radar for a long time, but just recently is something that I've really um been playing with. And I always like to try things and utilize them personally before I talk about them too, just to really kind of cue in on like, is this really worth it? You know, that sort of thing. So if that's something that resonates with you, try it out, right? Um, or if you are somebody that loves the really supportive super cushion-y shoes, make sure that you are replacing them when they are worn out because you will have a postural and a structural impact if you're not replacing them often, especially if you're someone who likes to walk a lot like I do. So, anyways, I hope this helps. I hope you guys have some great tools to ease into the winter months now that you know what to support, why, and of course how. That's the most powerful thing to embrace some change as everything around us is changing seasonally right now. Um, I'm also gonna link up my circadian support webinar that I recorded for you guys a few weeks ago. Um, uh it's a Zoom link. It's a you know 45 minutes or so talking in a little bit more depth in a class like setting on some of these things. If you're interested, I will definitely link that up for you as well. Otherwise, I hope you guys have a beautiful rest of your day today. Thank you so much for joining me, and I will be back on soon. Talk to you later.