September's Theme

​Have you ever heard the old adage that when you eat while stressed, your body stores food as fat instead of burning it for fuel? It turns out there is real science behind that. In this episode, we dive into our September Healthy Is Wellness challenge: Healthy is a Mind-Gut Connection.  
​When you eat in a high-stress state, elevated cortisol levels disrupt your digestion, mess with your hormone balance, and signal your body to hold onto body fat. Taking a quick moment to relax before you eat allows your body to process nutrients properly, especially considering over 90% of your serotonin and 50% of your dopamine are produced right in your gut.  
​In this conversation, we explore how stepping out of "fight-or-flight" mode before mealtime can completely transform your health. We cover simple practices like taking four deep breaths, expressing gratitude, or stepping away from your work desk to reset your system

Transcript

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SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome into the Oh Health Yeah podcast brought to you by Healthy is Wellness. As you all know, our mission is to empower you to take control of your health and elicit a little bit of curiosity in your life when it comes to the world of wellness. Thank you so much for tuning in today. And if you have loved ones or friends that you think would benefit from this, share it with them. Let's get this thing going. We're rolling into September hot. Today we're going to be talking about our monthly theme challenge that we'll have on site at all of our on-site locations. We're talking this month about something that is directly tied into our gut health. We're talking about healthy is a mind-gut connection. What this card dives into is the state that we're in when we intake food. Oftentimes we talk a lot about what we eat, whether that's calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, but we don't talk a lot about the way that we feel when we eat or how stressed we are when we eat. So what healthy is, a mind gut connection, talks about is the state that you are in when you intake food. And the main emphasis behind this is to try to allow the body to relax before you start to eat whatever that food is. The way that this card plays into everyday life is directly correlated with gut health and hormone levels specifically. So feel-good hormones come from the gut. The better you feel when you eat, the better your body is going to break down what you eat, and the better you're going to feel after. So the main emphasis here with Mind Gut Connection is can you avoid eating while stressed? Little habits that we like to talk to clients about. Can you practice gratitude right before you eat? You see this in religious practices with prayer. But literally, can you just think about something that you're grateful for right before you intake your food? It changes the way that you're feeling when you eat. Second one, can you take four deep breaths before you eat? Taking four deep breaths before you eat lowers your stress significantly. It lowers your cortisol levels, it allows you to be present in the moment. Third one, can you sit down at a table and enjoy the process of eating? So much of us eat on the go, whether it's in a car, whether it's behind our work desk. Can we just sit down and just eat our food without thinking of other things or watching TV? Can you listen to music that calms you and makes you happy while you eat? Restaurants have long used music. I mean, we see that majority of restaurants we go to, you hear something in the background that puts you in a good state, makes you want to come back. But there's science that shows the more relaxed you are when you eat, the more beneficial the food is for the body. And then the last one, can you prepare the food yourself? Obviously, this doesn't have to be every single time, but when you prepare the food, it helps you to be fully present in the moment, helps you to be a little bit more relaxed when you intake that food, unless you burn it or mess it up. So can you prepare the food yourself and allow yourself to be fully present? Really, what the healthy is a mind gut connection card is after is trying to allow you to be fully present in the moment when you eat. And it's a card that we use quite a bit on site. I'll share an example real quick. We had a client, this was probably like two years ago. He's actually a member of one of the businesses that we work with currently, and he took on this healthy as a mind gut connection card. And all he did was prioritize trying to be relaxed before he ate. He's a very type A personality, a very driven individual. He was working a lot, and all he did was try to take four deep breaths and relax before he ate his meals. He was a person that ate his food right behind his work computer and throughout, whether he's sitting there doing emails, on calls, he was eating, he felt like he had to. Over the course of six months, he lost about 50 pounds just by trying to be relaxed when he was intaking his food. So this card works, it plays dividends on not only body composition, but your ability to be fully present. So, with that being said, try this out if you have a chance in September and see if it makes a difference for you. Zach, do you have anything on mind gut or how you like to talk to clients about it?

SPEAKER_00 4:40

And just slowing down. Excuse me. Oh gosh. Slowing down. And that's the thing I like to highlight is telling people to just slow down a little bit and show, you know, try to some some people like have a goal, so it's like sometimes you can talk to people about like how many times you chew before you swallow, and that'll really set that teaches people to pace, and you only have to do that a few times before it becomes a habit, you know?

SPEAKER_01 5:02

No. Slowing down, being fully present. I think those that's a great idea. I like this too with families. Like, how often can you guys prepare the food together? Obviously, in a perfect world, we're not gonna be able to do, I mean, in a perfect world, we do that every day, but in real life, we're not gonna be able to do that every single day. So, how can you prepare the food together? How can you sit down with your loved ones and just be fully present with whatever you're eating? If it's a work lunch, how do you step away from the computer, maybe sit outside and have it on the back patio, or sit in your office away from the devices and just be fully present with the food you're eating? Another benefit to this is when you intake food in a stressed-out state, when your cortisol is elevated, your body is naturally gonna want to store those foods as fat. And oftentimes we coach people that are based or we coach people that have goals based around body composition change, gaining muscle, losing body fat. If you're eating in a stressed-out state, your body is naturally gonna want to store that as body fat. And you can see it with when women have cortisol levels elevated, it negatively impacts hormones. But also with males, if we're eating in stressed out states, we're gonna hold on to food is more so body fat. Then we what if we relax and we can take those foods? So for the month of September, if you can, try avoid eating while stressed as often as possible. The one that I like to use the most personally is taking four deep breaths right before I eat. I like to take a little bit of time to just sit with my food, be present with my food. We try to prepare food with the family as much as we can, too, but sometimes that can be stressful at our house with all poor kids. So for the month of September, as much as you can, try to avoid eating while stressed, and let us know what you think about this challenge. Thank you all so much for tuning into these. We appreciate you so much. Leave us likes, comments, ratings, reviews. We appreciate you all and can't wait to be back with you soon.