Have you ever felt totally tapped out, like totally zapped of all your energy? Maybe you're overwhelmed by world affairs, the check boxes on your to-do list, family obligations, or just zapped and don't know why?
This week, we're going to double down on last week's highly downloaded episode and focus on one point, how to better budget your body and your energy.
This episode explores the concept of our body's budget and how understanding it can increase our resilience in managing emotions, stress, and our relationship with food.
Tune in to learn more about our body's energy budget and its impact on our overall well-being.
“Create a bubble of space that is exclusively yours to reestablish personal calm and help you realign with yourself and rethink your priorities.” - Dr. Adrienne Youdim
Topics Covered:
- Learn how to better budget your body and energy
- Determine the importance of repleting our energy stores
- Understand the concept of our body's budget
- Explore the impact of stress on our bodies and emotions
- Discuss the role of nutrition in providing energy and nourishment
- Highlight the importance of sleep in repleting energy stores
- Explore the benefits of a spiritual practice in increasing resilience
- Encourage the incorporation of contemplative practices into daily routines
Episode Mentioned:
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Have you ever felt totally tapped out, like totally zapped of all your energy? Maybe you're overwhelmed by world affairs, the check boxes on your to-do list, family obligations, or just zapped and don't know why?
This week, we're going to double down on last week's highly downloaded episode and focus on one point, how to better budget your body and your energy. Welcome back to Health Bite.
I'm your host, Dr. Adrienne Youdim. I'm a triple board certified internist, obesity medicine, and physician nutrition specialist. And I help people redefine nutrition to include not only the food on your plate, but all the ways that we can nourish ourselves physically, mentally, and emotionally. Last week, we recorded our most downloaded episode in 24 hours. So I decided to double down on what I think is a really important concept and one that is in line with my personal conviction of how we need to redefine nutrition. which is why I've created my 150-minute signature workshop, where we will do a deep dive on how we can apply this in our own lives, as well as addressing practical strategies on how we can eliminate our barriers to doing this work in a meaningful way. More on that at the end of this episode. For now, I want to highlight one of the lessons of last week's episode, which is our body's budget and how we can capitalize on this to increase our resilience in how we manage our emotions and our stress, and how it impacts our relationship with food, with ourselves, our work, and the people in our lives. This concept is so very powerful. So let's discuss our body's budget. What does it mean and how has it come about that our bodies even work in terms of an energy budget? First, we need to remember what is our instinctive goal? It is to survive. We have evolved from a time in which resources were scarce. Food was not abundant. No fast food, no Uber Eats, no abundance. Our ancestors had to seek out food on a day-to-day basis.
And when food was found, there were no refrigerators and Ziploc storage bags to save them for later. meaning that the supply of energy was inconsistent. And so we had to find ways to make the supply of energy last. To that end, it became important to know how we use that energy. Too much activity or expenditure would deplete us of our energy stores. Back then, these analogies were very concrete. Food meant calories, energy, and the hunt for food also meant calories and energy, the energy that was spent to obtain it. But these days, our brains are still wired for survival. But the stress response, or the ways in which we tax our minds and bodies, come in various forms. Stress from work, stress from the political climate, stress from world affairs. I know wherever you stand on the political or social spectrum, you are likely feeling taxed right now. Stress comes in managing our families, sick parents or developmentally challenged children, perhaps a taxing relationship with our partners or a loss of relationship due to death or divorce. The sources of stress are abundant and endless. We all speak of a time when things will settle down only to find that that time is harder and harder to come by. We are therefore met with a constant steady stream of stressors that tax our bodies. That is the energy spent. And yes, we can in some ways change our circumstances, change the situation.
We talked about that a bit last week. But let's face it, often we cannot. The divorce is the divorce. The child with ADD is the child with ADD, and so on. And being inundated by these stressors will ultimately deplete us. If we are not intentional about repleting our stores or filling our cup, as they say, we will get depleted. So how can we replete? Well, our bodies and our mind respond to ingredients, to nutrients, so to speak, that provide us with more energy, more emotional resources to draw from. These ingredients can be food, but there are other nutrients as well. So let's get into these a bit more in detail. What about the food that we eat? We all know that we can fill ourselves with non-nutritive foods. You come home from a long and busy day where you forgot to eat or did not have time to eat, walk straight into your pantry and find a bag of chips. You eat enough chips, and at some point, you will feel full. But full doesn't mean nourished or satiated. The food that we eat does matter in terms of not only receiving energy, but the right energy. And it's worth asking ourselves, what kind of energy are we consuming? Is the goal to just fill up or is it to nourish and to replete? Because merely filling actually leaves us more depleted in the long run.
What if we thought about food truly as nourishment? My favorite example that I've mentioned so many times on this podcast is my cup of arugula. I just love arugula. In terms of energy, it's only two calories per cup, but in terms of nutrition, it offers over 30 vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. So perhaps it would be a good time to discuss what vitamins and minerals really are. What do antioxidants do for us? These substances are essential to our bodily processes. They are cofactors in cellular development, in creating the hormones responsible for appropriate signaling and messaging in the body. They help coordinate our immune system. And these necessary substrates are essential to maintaining homeostasis or balance in our body. In that end, our bodies will get what it needs, but if it's drawing from an empty well that is not replete, the well will dry up, and as a result, our bodies will suffer, physically in terms of illness, and suffer emotionally in terms of resilience. If we offer good energy in terms of healthy carbs, for example, we give our body the energy necessary to run daily functions and we're less depleted as a result. Not to mention that the fiber in those carbs feed the gut flora, the organisms that live off of us, but also help release nutrients that are necessary for important functions like our immunity.
This is just one example of the way in which the food we eat supports our energy and prevents the bodily stress that occurs when these nutrients are not available. That unused energy is then made available for other areas in which we need it. Think of it as a reserve in the bank account, a reserve of our energy. But there are other nutrients that are not food, like sleep, for example. Sleep is one of those nutrients. Sleep is essential for preserving and repleting our energy stores. Not just because it's rest, but because a lot happens during sleep. Our bodies literally power down, reducing our metabolic needs. It clears out chemicals, unused neurotransmitters, helps consolidate memories, and prunes and primes our neurons or brain cells. Sleeping restores our energy stores, but it also reduces the debt of that day and prepares us, makes us replete for the following. When we're rested, we feel better. We all know this. We're less irritable. We're less depressed and anxious. Studies show this to be true. We are also more focused. We have more creativity. We have a greater ability to concentrate. We're less reactive in our relationships and better able to tolerate stress. And you can be doing all the right things to manage your emotional health and wellbeing. Maybe seeing a therapist, taking antidepressants, maybe you have a coach or a guru, you read books, you breathe and meditate.
But if you're not getting enough sleep, you are compromising your energy stores. And as a result, you're compromising your resilience, your ability to manage life's stressors. And the third thing that I wanna discuss is the energy that we give ourselves in terms of a spiritual practice. For me, this is a catchphrase for all the contemplative ways in which we give ourselves time and space for reflection, for introspection, and for growth. This can include breathing and meditation, time in nature, journaling, prayer, it can include movement like yoga or tai chi, among many other things that we can do to create time, space for rebuilding our energetic stores. Engagement in these practices are in essence a personal timeout and a way to increase your body's reserve, your body's energy budget. Now, I know for some of you, it may seem like work to carve out the time and place for these practices, but you know what? The studies show that doing so is an essential way in which you can build up your natural reserve and therefore your resilience to the seemingly endless stream of chaotic events around you. creating a bubble of space that is exclusively yours to reestablish personal calm and Help you realign with yourself and rethink your priorities Also, it is a way to offer greater emotional regulation to deal with the chaos around you without succumbing to it in a way that is depleting and draining and So I wonder, which practice resonates? Which of these might you incorporate and commit to? Because I promise, the commitment will pay you back in dividends.
And finally, I'm excited to share with you my workshop, A Transformational Event, Ditch the New Year, New You Shenanigans, and Create a Sustainable Approach to Weight and Wellness in the New Year.
We're just in the first month of February, and this is a time when we ditch our New Year's resolutions. But I want to invite you to rethink what those resolutions were to begin with. Perhaps they weren't aligned with what you truly wanted and needed for yourself.
This workshop will help you address just that. Being contemplative about what really is needed. What do you need in this moment to garner greater resilience, greater health, greater wellness, and wellbeing. In this workshop, I'll help you redefine nutrition beyond what's on your plate to receive actionable guidance on how to incorporate diet, sleep, movement, and some of these contemplative practices we discussed today into your daily routine. We will discover the profound link between physical and emotional hunger and help you break through barriers and self-limiting beliefs.
And finally, you will get a chance to meet with me and ask all of your questions. I look forward to this time of conversation and community.
So head over to the show notes and sign up today. I can't wait to see you there. Meanwhile, have a great week. Rethink some of these practices, which you may want to incorporate. Maybe it's just giving yourself an extra 30 to 45 minutes of sleep this week. And I look forward to seeing you here again next week on Health Bite.