Episode 14 - Building Resilience To Stress

In this Episode, Jenna talks about the impact chronic stress has on our overall health. 

She covers how stress impacts our digestion and the relationship between stress and sleep.

You will walk away from this episode equipped with tools to manage the stress that comes our way daily, as moms.

Book a Discovery Call with Jenna here:
https://www.jennahuff.com/booking-calendar/free-discovery-call-1?referral=service_list_widget

Mountain Rose Herbs:
https://mountainroseherbs.com/

Transcript

0:02

Hello everyone, and welcome back to the healthy mom, happy home podcast, where we believe that when moms are healthy and happy, the entire home thrives. I'm Jenna, your host, functional nutritional therapy practitioner and fellow mom on a mission to empower, inspire, and uplift you on your wellness journey. All right. Well, it has definitely been a minute since I've done a podcast. I've had a lot going on in my life both personally and professionally and. I just had to take a little break. I didn't want to but it just kind of happened. I had some other things that really took priority. So but I'm excited to be back and I'm also recovering from a cold. I actually meant to record a couple of weeks ago, but I wasn't able to, because I had no voice. And it's finally just coming back. So I'm excited to be here. And if you've been getting my emails You've seen that I've been talking a lot about stress lately and how stress impacts the body and obviously I think we all know stress negatively impacts the body, but but I, but I really have been going into a little bit more detail about, you know, how it affects our digestion and our sleep and just our overall wellbeing. So if you're not on my email list, hop on over to jennahuff. com and you can sign up for, for the email list right there. So you can become part of the healthy, healthy mom community and join that email list. So let's go ahead and get started. So today we're actually going to start we're going to talk about stress and how it impacts our body and just how to really nurture nurture wellness in. the midst of a busy, hectic lifestyle, which I feel like is just the reality for a lot of us moms. For in, in all different stages of life, this is kind of the reality. So I think, you know, as moms, the reality is we are often. Just stretched thin, right? We're trying to be everything to everyone and it's exhausting. And then also still trying to take care of ourselves too, which again is incredibly important. But you know, when we have families oftentimes their needs, they just, they, they, they come first. It seems, feels like they do. So. And we can also get into, you know, that habit of just putting our own needs last because everything else just seems so demanding. And this leads to emotional exhaustion. This leads to physical exhaustion. It affects not only us, but it affects our families as well. And I talked in the very first episode about making sure that you're putting your oxygen mask on first. And And it's true. And I have to remind myself of that every single day. And it's hard because, you know, there are times where there might be somebody in my family that really needs something, but I also do too. Sometimes that's quiet or sometimes I need to take a walk or or go to bed early or, you know, whatever it is. There are, there are things that I need so that I can show up the best as the best possible mom and wife that I can be. And so just remembering, I mean, the reality is life is going to be a little bit crazy because we have people that are relying on us and and it's a blessing, but it also, sorry, so see coughing, trying to get over this cold. It's a blessing, but it can also really lead to stress, especially if we don't take that time for ourselves. So. It's really important to just acknowledge that we have those struggles and then just recognize how important it is to make sure that we prioritize self care, that you put your oxygen mask on first. So what exactly does stress do to our bodies? So stress actually triggers the release of hormones. Like cortisol and this, and, and over and over and over again, if this is happening all day long, every day, multiple times a day this can wreak havoc on our bodies. So this chronic stress it can contribute to increased blood pressure, even increased blood sugar levels. So if your A1c is creeping up now, you know why, and you're really stressed out now, you know why. It can also compromise your immune function, it can affect your sleep, it can affect your digestion it's not, not a good thing. So, and it affects one of, one of the things I want to focus on a little bit too is how it affects our digestion because if you think about it, I mean, you can have the best diet in the world You can have a very clean diet organic diet, and you're eating great macronutrient ratios and everything's going well, but you're not breaking down your food properly, it really doesn't matter. So when you're stressed, you're not actually breaking down your food properly. So when you experience stress. It could be from lots of different things. It could be, you know, you're eating in the car and you have to slam on your brakes or you're eating in a car and someone cuts you off. And you immediately, like those stress hormones just kind of flood through your body and, and your body's ability to digest properly just shuts down or slows down or shuts off. Or maybe, you know, you're, you're at the dinner table and maybe the kids start fighting or nobody wants to eat your meal or whatever it is, your stress hormones go up. Guess why? Your digestion is compromised. Or maybe you're, you know, scarfing down your breakfast as you're running out the door and that's a little stressful too, your digestion is compromised. You're not going to be able to properly break down your food. So stress majorly, majorly impacts the digestive system. It makes it so that we're not able to break down our food and get those nutrients that we really, really need. It's kind of, it's that fight or flight. So basically your body can be in a state of fight or flight or a state of rest and digest. In order to be able to digest your food properly. I'm sure you can guess which state you need to be in and it is not the fight or flight. Yes, you're right. It is the rest and digest. So the fight or flight response is our body's instinctive reaction to stress. In times of danger, blood is directed from all like the non essential functions like Digestion and it goes toward the vital organs and muscles. You're like ready for action. You are ready to go. It's like if I were in my office right now and a big nasty dog jumped in, jumped in my window, that'd be weird. But if it did I would immediately kind of freak out even more realistically. Let's say a spider, like is, I don't know, on my screen. Like I'm going to get some stress hormones. That's going to, that's going to stress me out. I'm going to get a little bit of, adrenaline pumping through my blood and my, my ability to digest my food just really slows down, which means the absorption of nutrients is compromised. And this is problematic because every cell in our bodies, every single cell from your fingernails to your eyelashes, to your heart is made up of what you eat. So it's really, really important that you are able to, or that we are able to properly digest our food. Another thing as far as digestion goes is stress is linked to inflammation and gut health. So it's stress has been linked to increased inflammation in the body, including the GI tract. Inflammation can damage the delicate lining of the gut, which will disrupt the balance of beneficial bacteria. and can contribute to digestive disorders like IBS and just you know, all around dysbiosis, which is, you know, an overgrowth of of opportunistic bacteria to beneficial bacteria. You want to have a good amount of good bacteria and bad bacteria in your gut and well, better, more good. Then bad, you're always going to have a little bit of both, but you don't, but stress can really mess that up too. And so you want to make sure that you're keeping your inflammation down. And then also, I mean, just stress eating too, right? Stress eating is a thing. A lot of us will turn to sugary snacks, salty snacks when we're stressed out and, and that's gonna, you know, compromise your, your health goals in, in the longterm. So. If you, if you are some things that you can do to help with digestion when you're feeling stressed is first, first and foremost you don't eat when you're, when you're stressed. Don't eat when you're running out the door, wake up 10 minutes earlier. and eat your food before you go. Don't eat in the car because it is just kind of innately a stressful place to eat. So definitely be mindful of that. Slow down, savor your meals, make sure that your body is in that rest and digest state and not that fight or flight state. Eating mindfully can really help to reduce stress and improve your digestion. Another thing is supporting your gut health. So make sure that you're incorporating probiotic rich foods lots of fruits and vegetables to help feed the, the good bacteria, fermented foods, probiotics, all of that really just. to help make sure that you have that good balance of gut bacteria. You've got more good than bad. And if you have questions about that, reach out that that is what I do. I am here to guide you and help you. I work with clients every day, helping them troubleshoot digestive issues and stress management techniques. And I would absolutely love to help you with that. So another area that that stress affects the sleep and sleep is. Sleep is, you know, we, we tend to look at sleep. It's just something that we do. It's, it's, it's downtime. It's you know, just something that our bodies do. But the reality is sleep is incredibly restorative. It's, it's a time where your body is working really hard on repairing and rejuvenating and, and creating new cells and getting rid of the bad tissue repairs happening during sleep. Your muscles are growing during sleep. Your hormones are regulating while you sleep. And if you're not sleeping well, then all of these essential functions are going to be, they're going to be disrupted and you're going to feel run down and then you'll be even more susceptible to stress. So you need to make sure that that sleep is happening. Sleep also can just. It makes you a lot more clear and sharp. You know, everybody has had a great night's sleep and you are aware of like how amazing your brain feels. You're like, I am on it today. I've got this going. Because sleep plays such a crucial role in cognitive function in memory. Consolidation and decision making a well rested brain is truly just equipped to handle the challenges and the stresses of daily life. Sleep also helps with stress hormone regulation. So making sure that you're getting enough. Sleep keeps your stress hormones like cortisol in check. When you're not getting enough sleep, your cortisol levels can spike, contributing to, you know, all kinds of feelings of stress and anxiety and mood swings. And when you prioritize good quality sleep, it helps to maintain a healthier balance of stress hormones, making you feel more resilient. Even when life is crazy. And sleep also helps to regulate our emotions too. So. And I mean, if you've ever noticed I know I've definitely noticed when I'm not well rested, I'm a hot mess. I'm a hot mess as mom. I'm a cranky wife. Sleep plays on a really, really important role in, in regulating our emotions. And so it's really the cornerstone of a healthy lifestyle and and not only supports our physical health ball, so just our mental health and our emotional wellbeing. And so, um, so a few tips to make sure that you are sleeping well is having a nighttime routine. So I had no idea what this was until I actually had kids and we realized like, Oh, it's probably important to, you know, get them ready for bed or help them to realize, you know, it's, it's, it's night, night time. So we would have, you know, their bedtime routine of like, take a bath. Read a book, give a little snuggle, say a prayer, sing a song and put them to bed. And, and as adults, it's actually really, really important for us to have the same. So, you know, I don't need someone to rock me and sing me a song. Although, you know, I like singing and I like being sung too, but but I do like, I, you know, we have a routine and I've just recently started this one where I'm reading before bed every night and I'll have to look back, I haven't actually looked at my. Fitbit to see, I, I think I am actually getting deeper sleep. You know, it'll show you the different, like deep sleep, light sleep, REM. I know wake time. I'm still waking up just as much, which is something that I need to work on. But but I have noticed that I am deeper. I'm getting deeper sleep in the last three or four weeks since I've brought in the novel before bed. So. But I'll have to analyze a little more and see if the REM has changed and the late sleep has changed. I'm not sure. But anyway but, but one, but just having that routine of like, this is what I do before bed. Maybe it is a bath. Although you don't want to take about too close to bedtime because you don't want to heat your body up that much. It's best to be a little bit cool, have the room be cool. You don't want to be hot as you're trying to fall asleep. But another thing with a sleep schedule is like just aiming for like the same. bedtime and wake up time every day and it doesn't need to be exact, but even on weekends, that's going to keep especially if you tend to struggle with sleep a little bit, starting to get a little bit closer to the same time or going to bed at the same time every day and waking up at the same time every day is really going to help to regulate your, your sleep patterns. And then, and then like I was saying, you know, reading a book taking a bath, maybe some gentle stretching, try not to get into like deep conversations right before bed. But if you find yourself laying there and you're not able to go to sleep cause all the thoughts are running through your head then that is a good time to like maybe do a little bit of journaling and write down some of the things that are on your mind before bed just to get them out of your head. Even if it's like, Oh, tomorrow I need to call the doctor and I need to go get my tires changed. And I urge. is, you've got all these things on your mind. Sometimes even just getting those written down and out of your head can really help to just calm the mind down. Creating a sleep friendly environment is going to be really important to you. So keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet. So I sleep with earplugs because ever since having kids, I just. I sleep really light and I hear every little thing. And like I said, I, I wake up a lot during the night anyway. I don't need any more help. So I try to block out all the noise. And then limiting screen time before bed. And this one's hard. And this is part of why I moved to reading novels before bed. I would do my, my Instagram scrolling or, you know, news scrolling right before bed because everyone was, the house was quiet and. I don't really like to be on my phone a whole lot when my kids are around. So that was a really good time to do that. But that was not good for my sleep. So so even, I mean, I would even put it on like the nighttime, you know, so I had the red light instead of the blue light, but it's still not what I need to be doing. I don't need to be engaging my brain that much right before bed. So limiting screen time can be really beneficial at least an hour before bedtime to avoid disrupting your sleep cycle. And then incorporating healing herbs to, to your daily routine, adaptogenic herbs can be really helpful for sleep and stress management too. So, and I'm going to talk about adaptogens in just a little bit, but know that there are certain teas, certain herbs that you can incorporate into your daily life that can really help with that. So and. Actually, you know, I'll just talk about those now. So adaptogens, they're a it's a class of herbs that help the body adapt to stress by regulating the adrenal system. So they work by restoring balance to the body's physiological functions and promote resilience to physical and mental stressors. So they help your body adapt to physical stressors and mental stressors. It's pretty amazing. And so a few of the herbs that can, that can do that. And if you have the herbs that are particularly beneficial for moms would be ashwagandha. So I'm sure you guys have heard of ashwagandha before. If you haven't, you can look it up. It's spelled super weird. Just so you know, it's A S H W A G A N D H A. And this is known as the king of. Herb astragonda helps to calm the mind and support the body's natural stress response. It can enhance energy levels. It can improve sleep quality, which we all love, and it also can help reduce feelings of anxiety and fatigue. Rhodiola is another one. And this herb helps to increase endurance and resilience to stress because the reality is the stress is there, right? We just need to be able to deal with it. We just need to be able to, we need to be able to adapt to be able to just make it easier to tackle, tackle all the craziness that comes into our lives every day as moms with ease and rhodiola can actually help do that. It can help boost mental clarity and focus. It is a fantastic herb to add in. Another one is holy basil. Holy basil is also known as Tulsi. And it's It helps to reduce cortisol levels. So those stress hormones, especially, like I said earlier, if we're constantly exposed to stress after stress that this helps to reduce cortisol levels, promote relaxation and enhance mood stability. And so all three of these herbs are great to add in. There are more, but these are probably the three most popular and you can get them in tea form. You can get them in capsule form. You can get them in a tincture form. You can make them yourself if you want. There's a store that I love. And you can also order online, but I live in Oregon and they're in Oregon. So I can just go in person, which is lovely. But they have all kinds of recipes. All kinds of recipes that you can look up online for making your own tinctures. And it's mountain rose herbs. So if you want to look that up, mountain rose herbs, and if you live in the Oregon area and you want to make a trip down there with me, let me know because I, I'm actually planning a trip down there this spring. So those are some herbs, some adaptogens that you can add in that can help. And the thing to remember with that is that they can, they can take. Sometime to work. So, you know, we're all Western medicine. We're used to Western medicine where our bodies you know, I, I have a headache. I can take ibuprofen and within 30 minutes it's gone, which I'm grateful for, but that's not exactly how herbs work. They take a little bit longer. They can take a good like 30 days before you start seeing some results. So remember that if you do add some of these in, if you're adding in an adaptogen, You do need to be consistent with it, and you do need to do it for at least 30 days to start to see some results. So just some practical strategies for managing stress. I'm going to say it again, and I'll keep saying it, but sleep. And not just sleep, restorative sleep. You're aiming for 7 to 9 hours of quality sleep each night to help support your body's natural processes. You want that restorative sleep. Another thing is making sure that you are taking time, even if it's just a few minutes of quiet of solitude. I remember when my kids were little, little. And I couldn't leave the house obviously because they were little and napping or having quiet time or whatever. I just wanted some alone time. I would go walk back and forth in front of my house or we've got property so I'd go walk in our backfield, not too far because I wanted to be able to hear if they needed anything, but just to get some quiet time, some alone time, some sun on my skin. Yup. Yeah. Hear the birds singing, whatever it is, just, just to get outside, have some time, or even there are times where, like again, when my kids were little when they were done napping, we still did quiet time for a long time. So they did quiet time for an hour a day. And I would have that time to, maybe it was to clean, maybe it was to prep dinner, maybe it was just to sit in silence or scroll Instagram or whatever, but it was just some time to myself. And that's so incredibly important. And, If you don't have an hour a day, then maybe, maybe start with 10 minutes a day. Maybe wake up a little bit earlier, but find a way to make sure that you have some time. And then maybe once a month, plan a longer, a longer chunk of time find somewhere for your kids to be so that you can be at the house alone, or you can go out and have some restorative time with friends or by yourself, it's going to be really helpful for overall stress management. Move your body and this could be walking, this could be stretching, this could be a HIIT workout yoga session, a dance party with the kids. I don't care, but you need to move your body. Moving your body is going to be so incredibly important when you're trying to reduce stress levels and even just to your overall health. Move your body. We are way too sedentary as a whole in our country. And we need to move our bodies more. Our bodies were made to move. So move your bodies. Let me know if you guys send me your videos of your dance party with your kids. Set boundaries with technology, create space for relaxation and meaningful connections with loved ones. I love technology. It's fun. It's a great, it's, it can be very relaxing sometimes too, but it's important to have boundaries. It's important to, you know, not wake up. And the second you wake up, run to your phone or, or be scrolling on your phone right before you go right up to the minute that you go to bed, have some time to unplug. Maybe that means you're setting an alarm on your phone. Like, all right, I'm done. Or just having some accountability with a friend or. Or your husband, but but take time to set some boundaries and that can be, you know, even like at the dinner table, phones are away. Just whatever you decide your, your boundaries with technology are going to be, just make sure you're creating that space for, for meaningful connections. And then, you know, if you are struggling with, with an abundance of stress. Don't be afraid to reach out and ask for help. Don't be afraid to, you know, to talk to a professional. I've had to do both of those things during, you know, and again, I keep going back to when my kids were little. It's not like there's no stress now, but when they were little we don't have family, my husband and I both moved away from family. And so we really had to lean into our friends or I was going to very quickly get overwhelmed. Especially as a stay at home mom with three kids and my husband was working all day. I just, I, I needed to, and well, I needed to lean into my friend groups. And so sometimes I was just getting together with friends and their kids. Sometimes it was like doing a kid swap so that the mom could have some time off. But, but definitely seek out support. And then lastly, just make time for activities that bring you happiness and, and fulfillment and joy. For me, it's gardening for some people it's crafting though. I don't quite understand that I'm not much of a crafter myself, but I know for some people they love it. For, or like sitting out on my back porch with a cup of tea or coffee or I don't know. Just, you know, whatever brings you. Joy, whatever brings you peace. I love walks. I try to make sure that I get a walk in every single day. And I, I hold that really like I I'm very protective of that time to make sure that I'm taking care of myself and also just doing something that I really enjoy. So I find a really good podcast and I take anywhere from a 20 minute to a 40 minute walk a day. And I absolutely love it. The only time I don't is if we have an ice storm outside, although apparently. There are my husband gave me some they're called, yeah, I think yak tracks, but it's like chains for your shoes. So I could walk on the ice. It was great. I even walked when we had an ice storm. It's just something that is, is really important to my overall wellbeing and my, it's something that I've learned over the years that I need to make sure that I protect and take care of. And then, so really just remember, like I wanted to do this episode because stress has been over the years as a mom, it looks a little bit different in different seasons. And sometimes I, I think I'm like dealing with stress. I'm overwhelmed with stress and I don't even realize it until my body starts. Showing me that like I'm, I'm doing too much or I've said, I've said yes too much. I'm not saying no enough. I'm, I'm not putting myself first. And then I usually get a big wake up call. And so it, it's important to just have some of these. Practices in place that can help this become more of just like a regular routine for you so that it's not so that self care isn't something that you're neglecting. And just remember that you, as moms, we have to put on our oxygen mask first by prioritizing self care. You're not. You're not just honoring yourself, but you're also nurturing your family's health and happiness because we all know when mom is happy, everyone's happy. Not really, but kind of. So I hope that this was helpful. I hope that there are some strategies that you can put into practice. And again, I reach out if you have questions or you feel like you are just over. Loaded with stress, and it's starting to affect your health. This is what I do. This is what I help people with, and I would love to help you. So feel free to reach out if you do want to talk further on this and thanks for listening and I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of your day.