Episode 40: "When Your Get-Up-and-Go Got Up and Left"

In this episode, we’re talking about:

⚡️ Why feeling tired, foggy or “just older” may have more going on beneath the surface

🧬 What your mitochondria do and why cellular energy matters for your brain, muscles and metabolism

🔥 How your mitochondria, metabolism and hormones work together

🦋 Why your thyroid helps set the pace for metabolism and energy

☕️ How stress, poor sleep, caffeine, alcohol and under-eating can leave you depleted

🍪 Why cravings may be your body asking for energy, not a lack of discipline

🐈 How the CAT Method helps you get back into rhythm, awareness and trust with your body

🔬 What’s coming with my new Metabolic Mitochondrial Method mini course

A few studies and resources on mitochondrial health:

Age-related changes in skeletal muscle begin to become more apparent. Muscle mass and strength start declining around the 40s, and mitochondrial changes are part of the picture. One review reports muscle mass declining at roughly just under 1% per year with aging, although the trajectory varies considerably between people.

• PubMed: Estrogen and mitochondrial function
• PubMed: Thyroid hormones and mitochondrial function
• PubMed: CoQ10 and mitochondrial function
• PubMed: Mitochondria, aging and metabolism

More Resources for You:

🌿 The Metabolic Mitochondrial Method

I’m building a new mini course for the woman who knows she wants to feel better in her body but is tired of another diet, another set of rules and another program telling her to simply try harder.

We’ll take a deeper look at cellular energy, metabolism, food, circadian rhythm, stress, movement and the behaviors that actually support your body instead of constantly fighting it.

👉 Join the waitlist: https://l.bttr.to/uMj3E

💛 Work With Cat

If your body feels different lately—more tired, more reactive, less predictable, or simply not like the body you used to know—this is the work I love.

I help midlife women understand what their bodies are communicating and build a steadier foundation for metabolism, hormones, energy and their relationship with food.

🌿 Mood, Metabolism & Bone Health Collective
Learn more & join here

You get ongoing support from me to help you actually put this into practice.

• Personal guidance from me inside the Collective — bring your questions, challenges, wins and “what do I do about this?” moments to me through our private chat.
• Live support + education — join me for monthly live cooking classes and practical teaching so you understand how food, protein, minerals, blood sugar, stress, hormones and metabolism come together.
• A plan you can actually use — practical recipes, meal planning and tools that make nourishing yourself easier.
• Support between the live sessions — a place to ask questions, get guidance, stay connected and keep moving forward throughout the month.

Think of it as working with me in a more accessible way—with the education, tools, accountability and personal support to help you make this part of your life.

🎧 Self-Paced 30-Day Carb Clarity: Protein-First Menopause Plate Mastery

A gentle, step-by-step reset that works with your menopause-shifted body to stabilize blood sugar, quiet cravings and support metabolism and bone health through simple plate shifts.

👉 Join the Self-Paced Program

More Resources for You:

• Bone Health Blindspots Guide: A clear, grounded look at what’s often missing in the conversation around bone loss, midlife metabolism, and stress.
  👉 https://catdillon.com/BoneHealthBlindSpots
• 💌 Inner Wisdom Eating Guided Reset
  👉 https://catdillon.com/InnerWisdomEatingGuidedReset
• ❓ Quiz: How Much of a Mindful Eater Are You?
  👉 https://catdillon.com/MindfulEaterQuiz
• 🍳 10 Craving-Busting Breakfasts
  👉 https://catdillon.com/CraveBustingBreakfasts 
• 📄 10 Best Blood Sugar Hacks for Women 40+
  👉 https://catdillon.com/10BloodSugarHacks

Connect with Me:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/catdillonrhn/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CatDillonRHN/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/catdillonrhn/
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@catdillonrhn

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome back to the Slow Kitchen Podcast, where we talk about food, health, and the sometimes complicated relationship we have with both. I am Kat Dylan. I'm a shop holistic nutritionist and someone who believes that eating well should make your life better, not become another full-time job. If you're a woman in midlife, juggling work, family hormones, cravings, mood shifts, and a world that will not stop moving, this podcast is for you. We take the pressure out of cooking here, and we bring the pleasure back in. Food is so much more than fuel. It's connection, it's regulation, sensory, emotional, mental, and spiritual nourishment all at once. When you prepare food with intention, even just for a couple of minutes, something shifts. Digestion improves, cravings can ease, energy steadies, and your nervous system gets the signal that you're safe. This is where I bring my kitchen to you. Simple tips, health-building ingredients, tiny habits that save you from evening overwhelm, and real life ways to cook and eat more mindfully. Because how you eat is how you live. And when you slow down in the kitchen, even just a little, everything starts to ship too. Let's do this together, one intentional, nourishing bite at a time. And hey, if you enjoy these conversations, please take a minute to subscribe to the podcast. It helps more women find us, and it means that you won't miss the next episode. Today I want to talk about something that has a very complicated name, but it is actually at the center of something very simple. And that's your energy, mitochondria. It's a big word for something your body's been doing every second of your life. Recall your high school biology class and that label of the energy powerhouse of the cell in your body. It's so much more. If you're like so many women in this modern wellness landscape, you may be trying to do all the right things. You're watching what you eat, you're thinking about alcohol, maybe, you're wondering about caffeine, how much is too much. You're trying to get better sleep so you can actually have the energy to work out in the morning. Or maybe you've been given a diagnosis like insulin resistance or high blood pressure or high cholesterol, or maybe you're simply noticing the things that you've been told are a part of getting older and just getting used to the hormone fluctuations of perimenopause or menopause, brain fog, poor energy, stubborn weight, thinning hair, skin changes or mood swings, even lower libido. More on the important hormone piece in just a second. But here's the thing I want you to consider. Some of what we call aging may actually be your body struggling to keep up with the demands being placed on it. And that is where I want to introduce you to your mitochondria. Mitochondria are tiny structures inside your cells that help turn the food you eat and the oxygen you breathe into usable energy. And that usable energy is called ATP, adenosine triphosphate. ATP is essentially the energy currency your cells use to do their jobs. Your brain needs it, your muscles need it, your heart needs it, all of it. Every cellular process depends on having adequate energy available. And something you should know right now: there are estrogen receptors associated with the mitochondria themselves. Estrogen can influence how mitochondria produce energy, how they respond to oxidative stress, how cells function. And mitochondria are also involved in the cellular processes that support hormone production, signaling, and metabolism. The main role of thyroid hormone is to control the metabolic rate. The metabolic rate sets the pace of ATP production in the mitochondria. So thyroid conditions directly influence mitochondrial function. In hypothyroidism or Hashimoto throiditis, lower levels of thyroid hormone mean slower metabolism and less ATP production. Thyroid condition symptoms include a slowing of many body processes, including hair growth, circulation, and digestion. In hyperthyroidism or Graves' disease, higher levels of thyroid hormones ramp up the metabolic rate and the mitochondrial production of ATP. Symptoms include a speeding up of body symptoms like increasing hunger, weight loss, and heart palpitations. So in midlife, I don't think we can have a complete conversation about hormones without talking about cellular energy. And we can't really talk about metabolic health without talking about hormones. They're bidirectional. They're talking to each other all the time. And that is why, if you're using hormone replacement, I also think it's very important for you to think about supporting your metabolic and mitochondrial health. And if you're putting time and attention into your metabolic and mitochondrial health, hormones are another important piece of the conversation. Most conventional providers, though, aren't discussing this at your 10-minute appointment. So as you can imagine, when your mitochondria aren't functioning optimally, we're not talking about one little system being affected. We're talking about yourselves having a harder time meeting the energy demands of the whole body. And that's when things can start to feel very different. One of the things I find fascinating is that your mitochondria don't operate in isolation. They depend on nutrients and minerals that are involved in the processes that create cellular energy, like coQ10, magnesium, iron, copper, potassium, sodium, and other nutrients all have important roles in cellular function and energy metabolism. And you can get many of these from real food: fatty fish and organ meats for CoQ10, pumpkin seeds and beans for magnesium, meat and lentils for iron, shellfish and cocoa for copper, and potatoes and beans for potassium. This is one reason why I don't love the idea of simply looking at calories or macros and calling it a day. Your body isn't a calculator, it's a holistic biological system. If you're not digesting well, you're under chronic stress, you're drinking a lot of coffee, you're drinking alcohol, you're sweating heavily and not replacing what you've lost, or you're simply not eating enough nutrient-dense foods, you are asking a lot from that system. Over time, those things can contribute to feeling depleted. And here's where I see something really interesting happen. A woman starts feeling exhausted. She reaches for coffee, then something sweet, maybe something salty, or maybe more carbs and anything that feels like it will give her a little boost. And then she starts blaming herself. Why can't I control my cravings? Why am I gaining weight? Why don't I have the discipline I used to have? But what if the question isn't what's wrong with me? Maybe the better question might be: what is my body trying to accomplish? When I was studying the biology of trauma, I learned so much about the body's protective mechanisms. And that goes for every part of our physiology and psychology. When a body has been dealing with too much stress for too long, it doesn't simply keep going indefinitely. The body adapts, prioritizes, and conserves. It makes decisions about where limited resources need to go. And that gave me a completely different lens through which to look at women who were exhausted, depleted, and frustrated with their bodies. Because sometimes what looks like a metabolism problem is also a resource problem. Your body is trying to keep you safe with the resources it has available. And this is why I don't want women to approach healthy aging by simply trying to push harder. More intense exercise, less food, more restriction, more caffeine, more supplements, more discipline. Sometimes the first step is actually to restore the resources. So how does mitochondrial dysfunction show up in real life? Here's the woman I might see sitting across from me. She wakes up tired, she needs caffeine to feel human, her brain feels foggy, she struggles to get motivated to exercise, even though she knows it's important to her. She may have poor workout recovery, her digestion isn't moving the way she'd like. She's noticing hair shedding, her libido has disappeared, and she's constantly thinking about food. She's craving sugar, carbs, maybe even salt because she's looking for a quick hit of energy, and she thinks, I'm getting older. But what if her body is simply struggling to meet those energy demands being placed on it? Because your cells don't have enough energy available, the body has to prioritize, and survival comes before optimization. This is the part I love because I've watched women begin to feel like themselves again. It's not usually the dramatic overnight transformation, it's more subtle. She wakes up and realizes she's not quite as exhausted. Her brain feels clearer. She doesn't need that second or third cup of coffee just to get through the afternoon. And eventually she may notice something really interesting. She can enjoy coffee for the taste and experience rather than needing it to function. Her sleep begins to feel more restorative. She's not as reactive. Little things don't bother her quite as much. She wants to be social again because being around people doesn't feel so draining. Her digestion improves, her appetite becomes steadier, her cravings become less demanding, and she starts to feel more connected to her body. That to me is healthy aging. Not trying to become flirty again, feeling at home in your body now. And that's why I want to be very careful. I'm not saying that mitochondrial support is a magic weight loss solution. It is not bad. But your cells do need energy to do their jobs. And mitochondrial health is deeply connected to metabolic health. And when your body is better able to produce and use energy, it supports processes involved in glucose metabolism, fat oxidation, muscle function, and overall metabolic flexibility. And that's important because I see so many women trying to solve a metabolic problem by simply eating less. Sometimes the better place to start is asking: Do I have the energy and resources to build the metabolism I'm asking my body to have? Because if your cells are struggling to make and use energy efficiently, you can't simply shame them into performing better. This is another reason why I find the mitochondria so fascinating in midlife. Hormones and cellular energy aren't separate conversations. Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and thyroid interact with metabolism, cellular signaling, and mitochondrial function. And mitochondrial health is increasingly recognized as an important part of the biology of aging and hormone-related changes. So for women considering hormone therapy, I don't think of it as an either-or conversation. Hormones definitely matter. And mitochondrial and metabolic health also do as well. And so supporting the whole system is where things get really interesting. It's not either HRT or lifestyle, it's not either nutrition or hormones. It's the connection between all of these systems. And when these pieces begin working together, that's where I see the magic happen. You can get annoyed by someone's whistling or chewing without completely unraveling. You can have a stressful day and actually recover from it. You can even walk into a noisy restaurant and not feel like you need to escape. You can be around people and not feel completely depleted afterwards. You start to feel a lot more resilient. And I don't think that's because you've suddenly become a calmer person. Sometimes your body simply has more resources available to respond. Even your skin can tell a story. Your mitochondria are involved in processes related to cellular repair, oxidative stress, and healthy aging. So when you begin supporting your cellular health, you may notice changes beyond your energy. You might feel better in your skin. You may feel stronger. You may feel clearer. You may feel more alive. And suddenly you're not walking around thinking, I need to fix myself. You're thinking, oh, my body is responding. So what do I tell the exhausted woman who tells me she would feel so much better if she could lose five, 10, 20 pounds? First, I tell her this is not a failure of discipline. You've been inundated with stress, stimulation, disrupted sleep, processed food, sitting, environmental demands, and the sheer pace of modern life. And most women were never taught to think about what all of that means for their cellular energy. Instead, they were taught eat less, exercise more, have more willpower, try this diet, that diet. And if that doesn't work, blame the hell out of yourself. I want to completely change that conversation. Your vitality can come back. And it starts with giving your body the things that it needs to create a steadier rhythm. Light, sleep, movement, sufficient protein, minerals, nourishing food, better digestion, recovery, strength training, and yes, the way you relate to your own body. Because ultimately, I want you to have enough energy to do the things you say matter to you, to eat the protein that supports your muscles and bones, to go to bed on time, to move your body, to lift weights, to spend time with the people you love, to cook, travel, laugh, have sex, to live. And that's what we're really talking about when we're talking about healthy aging. Not just adding years to your life, but adding life to your years. And this is where my cat method comes in. The cat method is the framework I use to help women get back into a steadier relationship with their bodies. C is for circadian. Get back into rhythm with your body. We work with your body's natural rhythms to support energy, digestion, appetite, and sleep. A is for awareness, getting curious, not critical. Learn to notice what is happening in your body and understand what is underneath your patterns instead of immediately judging yourself for them. And T is for trust. Come back to yourself. Listen to hear your body's signals without judgment and make choices that serve you instead of constantly second guessing. Because when you have a steadier rhythm, greater awareness, and more trust in your body, you have a much stronger foundation for everything else. And that's exactly why I just don't start with restriction. I start with the foundation. You can't move very well if you don't have both feet on the ground. And that brings me to what's coming next. I've been developing a new mini course called the Metabolic Mitochondrial Method. This is where we're going to take this conversation a little deeper. We'll look at the connection between cellular energy, metabolism, foods, circadian rhythms, stress, movement, and the behaviors that actually support your body instead of constantly fighting it. It's for the woman who knows she wants to feel better in her body but is tired of another diet, another set of rules, and another program telling her to simply try harder. I'm currently building the wait list for this course. So if this conversation made something click for you, get on the wait list. And if you haven't already, subscribe to the Slow Kitchen Podcast so you don't miss what's coming. Because I think we're going to have a very different conversation about aging. One that isn't about fighting your body, it's about understanding it, supporting it, and giving it the resources it needs to come back online. Because sometimes healthy aging isn't about pushing harder. Sometimes it's about turning the lights back on. I'll see you in the next episode.