227. Mastering Uncertainty: How to Transform Reactivity into Resilience Using the F.U.E.L Method

Feeling overwhelmed by constant change? You're not alone.

How do we navigate change and uncertainty with resilience and adaptability? 

And how do we navigate our natural tendency to become reactive, especially in times of uncertainty, especially when the worst thing we can do is to be reactive? 

In a world where uncertainty seems to be the only certainty, our knee-jerk reactions can sabotage our success and wellbeing. Whether it's that angry email you wish you could unsend or that late-night pantry raid after a stressful day, reactivity costs us.

In this episode, Dr. Adrienne Youdim reveals why your brain goes into "emergency mode" during uncertainty and shares her revolutionary FUEL Method—a science-backed protocol that's transforming how high achievers respond to pressure.

Share this episode with someone who needs more calm in their life right now!

What You'll Discover:

• F - Food strategies: Discover how the right balance of proteins and complex carbs prevents the blood sugar crashes that trigger reactivity (and the simple meal formula that promotes calm decision-making)
• U - Unwinding practices: Learn why strategic rest and play are non-negotiable for resilience (not just nice-to-haves)
• E - Energizing Movement: How Dr. Youdim's client completely transformed her email reactivity with this 5-minute physical practice
• L - Leaning into Mindfulness: Master the 3-breath technique that creates instant mental space between triggers and reactions
• Emotion-Mapping Technique: How to decode what your emotions are actually telling you instead of being hijacked by them

"When we act from a place of reactivity, we are not acting from a place of clarity, from purpose or intention."— Dr. Adrienne Youdim

Ways that Dr. Adrienne Youdim Can Support You

• Join the Monthly Free Mind-Body Workshops: Participate in engaging mind-body practices designed to help manage your stress response. Register here.
• Sign Up for the Newsletter: Stay updated with valuable insights and resources by subscribing to the newsletter. Sign up here.
• Freebie alert. Register for our monthly free MindBody Workshop and receive a downloadable guide on emotional labeling to help you manage your emotions effectively.

Connect with Dr. Adrienne Youdim

• Website :https://www.dradriennespeaks.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dradrienneyoudim/

Transcript

How do we navigate change and uncertainty with resilience and adaptability? And how do we navigate our natural tendency to become reactive, especially in times of uncertainty, especially when the worst thing we can do is to be reactive? 

This is the topic of today's Health Bite, the podcast where I offer high-achieving professionals the essential nutrients for mental, emotional, physical, and professional health and well-being. I'm your host, Dr. Adrienne Youdim. I'm a triple board certified internist, obesity medicine and physician nutrition specialist. And I've learned in working with patients and clients for nearly 20 years, that good nutrition is not just about the food that you eat, but all the ways in which we can nourish ourselves, mind and body. And as you know, I just love this stuff. So let's dig in to today's episode. So, this is an interesting time in which my two worlds collide. Just last week we heard an announcement by the CEO of Novo Nordisk. This, of course, is the company that's responsible for making the hit drugs Ozempic and Wagovi. that he will be stepping down as CEO. And just as an aside, the Washington Post reported last week that this category of drugs hit nearly $72 billion in revenue in 2024. Oh my God. And yet, he stepped down due to market changes. It's a reminder that life is unpredictable, as if our lives haven't been in masterclass in this, right? And that everything changes even when there is success. So today I'm gonna talk about how we can navigate uncertainty without reactivity. And I'm gonna share with you some strategies and mindset shifts that I teach my patients in my weight loss practice, because let's face it, hunger is a form of reactivity, or at least it can be, like when we find ourselves in the pantry scavenging for something to eat, when we just ate. It's also what I teach in my resilient minds group, a eight week course that I've developed to teach high achieving professionals how to navigate professional pressures with emotional regulation and ease. And again, you don't need to be a professional to need this stuff. as in me on any given weeknight when I'm navigating homework and dinner. But I know that the stuff that I teach is incredibly impactful because I personally use it all the time. And in fact, one of my group participants said, quote, it's not about slowing down for the sake of slowing down, but about reconnecting to yourself in a way that actually fuels your life and leadership. I just love that and I couldn't say it better myself. So today I want to share with you some of my favorite skills and mindset shifts. Some of the shifts we're going to talk about today include what is your reaction telling you and how can you use your emotions as a guidepost. The other is how not to catastrophize And then some skills. How do we manage our natural tendency to react? And how to be kind and why it matters in this work? So first, some shifts. What is it that your reaction is telling you? And this requires awareness. So when something difficult happens, our tendency is to react. We want to pick up the phone. We want to shoot off an email. We want to maybe tell somebody off, right? We get primed to react, particularly when we are exposed to a situation that makes us uncomfortable, fearful, uncertain. When there's change, right, reactivity never results in anything good. when we act from a place of reactivity, we are not acting from a place of clarity, from purpose or intention. And so it requires us to slow down and to ask ourselves, what is this reaction telling us? And more specifically, how we can use our emotion as a guidepost, because before the reaction is the feeling, the emotion, right? Perhaps you feel fear or you feel scared, perhaps you're angry, perhaps you're sad or disconcerted, right? It's really important to one, identify the emotion that you're feeling and be really discerning, be really specific and clear in what is that emotion. So it's not enough to say, I feel bad because bad can mean fear, bad can mean sad. And those two things are very different. When we can be specific about the emotion, it gets to the root of what the reaction or the desire to react is actually telling you. And that allows us to act in a way that is more deliberate. So for example, news of market shifts is evoking a sense of fear that may guide certain changes, right, or certain decisions that we have to make in order to get us out of that place of fear or out of that place of scarcity. If it's sadness, that could mean something totally different. Maybe this shift is not about fear or financial instability. Maybe it's telling you that you actually deeply care about something and it is a call to activism. Or maybe it tells you that you actually were not doing the right thing. You were not engaged in the right work. And that this sadness is actually a guidepost that is telling you that you need to shift your work or your workplace or the Stuff that you're putting out there in the world, right? these emotions can tell us different things maybe it's anger that anger can be a guidepost that you haven't set certain boundaries in your work relationships or you have allowed yourself to play small or that there's a relationship in your work or you have a relationship with your work that is not aligned with your true purpose, your true goals, your true selves. When we can slow down, when we can understand and identify the emotion that is triggering the reaction, we can really be deliberate about what our next step is. what this situation is really calling from us. And in that way, we can take actions that actually have some kind of effective outcome. So I want you to think about this shift of What is it that your reaction is telling you? What is it that the emotion underlying that reaction is telling you? And how you can use your emotions, your habitual reaction, as a sign or a guidepost as to how you need to act. What are your next steps? The other mindset shift is to recognize when you're catastrophizing. So, we've talked about this before in this podcast, how our minds are wired to detect threat and to respond quickly. This, again, is the basis of our reactivity. And so, because we're scanning for danger and we're trying to figure out how we can get ourselves out of harm's way, Our minds will always go to the worst outcome. I'm going to lose my job. I'm going to be irrelevant in this work. I'm not valued. Whatever the case may be, it doesn't really matter what the example is. What matters is the recognition that we tend to assume the worst case scenario when we're faced with some kind of turmoil or distress or despair. What it requires of us is to, again, pause, slow down, recognize that we're catastrophizing, and then to ask ourselves, what are the other possibilities, right? If not the worst outcome, what else could be going on here? What are other courses of action that could transpire, right? So that, again, we can be mindful and not reactive. So catastrophizing, again, will take us to the worst case scenario and will promote the sense of reactivity. But if we can slow down and recognize that usually the worst case scenario is not the most likely scenario, then we can really be deliberate about our course of action. And then what if, what if the worst case scenario is a possibility or a likely possibility? The reality is that even with the worst case scenario, there is a solution. However, We cannot figure out that solution. We can't have the clarity of mind in order to be really tactical in our decision-making. These mindset shifts, while they're not rocket science and they may not feel like a very big deal, especially when you're faced with a significant challenge, they can mean everything in terms of what action you take, in terms of determining whether that next step or next action is really aligned with your own knowing, with your inner wisdom, and it allows you the clarity of mind to access that inner knowing. So as you think about what's going on in your life right now, maybe it is a work challenge. Maybe it's a personal challenge. Maybe it's a relational challenge, a challenge with your partner or a challenge with your children. Stop and think about what emotions are coming up, what they are drawing from you, what could they be signaling in terms of a true call to action, and then how you can take steps to navigate this challenge with clarity and intention rather than with catastrophizing and reactivity. So then the question might be, well, how do we do that, right? Particularly if we've gone into this pattern of quick action, quick response, quick reactivity, how can we slow down and pause? It sounds great to say just pause, but when you're in the thick of it, it really isn't. And I know that personally and professionally. So there are skills, there are strategies. And these strategies, again, you've heard me talk about them before when we talk about our physical health and wellness, our mental and emotional health and wellness, because really these skills are all the same. What's good for your body is good for your mind, is good for your relationships, And it's good for how you act in your professional world, how you act in your workspace. The very same strategies and principles are what give you the pause that's needed in order to navigate what feels like ever increasing, ever evolving, challenging times. The first set of skills really depend on setting yourself up for success. So these may not be things that you do in the moment, but this is like putting money in the bank. So if we engage in these practices on the regular or almost regular, then we build the reserve. so that we have more resilience when that trigger comes. They are based on my fuel protocol, which is food, unwinding with rest and restoration, energizing yourself with movement or physical activity, and then the last one, which is leaning into contemplative practices that help you achieve a sense of pause. Why does food matter when it comes to your reactivity? Well, we know that when we eat certain foods, typically these are your ultra processed foods, sweets, your processed carbohydrates, these foods break down into your blood quickly. They're digested quickly, the sugar is released into the bloodstream quickly, and that typically gives us a rush, that sugar rush. That, by the way, doesn't only come from sugar, but it also comes from simple carbohydrates like, I don't know, pastries, bread, cereals, that sort of thing. When we eat these foods, we get a sudden rise in our blood sugar. The body responds to that by giving you a surge of insulin. That's the hormone, of course, that helps you manage blood sugar so that, you know, you don't have tons and tons of sugar streaming around in your bloodstream. It helps you process that sugar. It helps you store it in your liver. as glycogen and it helps you store it in your fat cells as fat. But in that acute moment, when you eat a surge of sugar, it is met with a surge of insulin and that rapidly brings down your blood sugar. That is the sugar crash. What happens when we crash? We get irritable. We get unfocused. Sometimes we get lethargic or tired. These are all experiences that promote reactivity. So do you see how if we were to change our diet to more balanced eating foods that contain or meals that contain a good mixture of protein, which actually staves off hunger and cravings, which again is a form of reactivity. Complex carbohydrates, carbohydrates that have a lot of fiber that help you level your blood sugar as opposed to having this quick rise and quick fall. Look, we need carbohydrates in our diet. It's what gives us energy, right? The issue is that we don't want that quick energy though. We want that sustained energy. That is what gives us durability in the long game. And then, of course, when we eat whole foods, we're getting vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and nutrients that help support all of our cellular functions, including our cognitive processes. And actually, they've shown that individuals who consume more processed foods or consume the SAD diet the standard American diet, the typical American diet, they tend to be more reactive and less productive in the workplace, as opposed to people who consume a more, for example, Mediterranean style diet. And again, this is not only relevant to our work, right? It's relevant to our personal lives. It's relevant to our relationships. Because if you are experiencing these dramatic shifts in your blood sugar, then that is going to exert itself. That's going to play out in the way that you respond to the people around you. Are you able to engage in meaningful and calm conversation when you're irritable and hangry? You can't. Are you able to engage in collaborative relationships and teams When you're dysregulated in this way, you absolutely can't. So nourishing food is a critical tool to help regulate your reactivity and to give you the clarity of thought that you need in times of chaos and turmoil. The second is unwinding with rest. We all know that when we are sleep deprived, when we have poor sleep, our mood suffers. and we're more reactive as a result. We're less able to be thoughtful in our actions and in our intentions when we haven't given ourselves that restoration through adequate sleep and through adequate play. So unwinding with rest doesn't just mean good sleep, but it also means time to decompress, time to engage in hobbies, time to spend time with people that you love, time to do frivolous things like watch nonsense TV maybe, or even play a game on your phone. I don't usually recommend these things, but there is a role for them. There is a role for engaging in activities that are just mindless, that can allow you to unwind, while also engaging in those types of activities that are also fulfilling, like engaging in nature. or being outside, or moving your body, which is the next one, energizing with movement. Now, this can be a strategy of putting money in the bank, building your resilience. It can actually also be a very effective strategy in the moment. So several years ago, I was working with a business coach, I had this practice of getting up in the morning, going straight to my phone, into my emails, and invariably there was something on my phone, something in my email, some notification, some news report that would get me all irritable, irritated. And I would get on my email and throw off a note to this coach that I was working with, sharing something that I was upset about or distressed about. And mind you, it may not have had anything to do with what I read on my phone. It had to do with, it was like a domino effect, right? So you expose yourself to something that makes you irritable and that will set off this domino where then you start catastrophizing about this thing and that thing and that thing and the other thing. And for me, it always ends in my work. So I would rattle off an email about how something in my work was off. At one point I told her, disregard, I sent another email and I said, disregard, I haven't gone for my run yet. I'll reconnect with you after my run. And every single time after I went and moved my body, I had the opportunity to move this negative energy, to digest and metabolize this worry, anxiety, and to be in a place that was a lot less reactive. And so it became a joke between us that if I were to send an email that was kind of filled with angst, she would always respond, have you gone for a run yet? And it was a perfect question to ask because invariably I always was more clear minded about the problem or the issue at hand afterwards. So you can use a movement practice in the moment to help ratchet down your reactivity, but it is also something that when done regularly, it kind of pervades your mind and body. It gives you an overall sense of well-being that then makes you less reactive at baseline. So using movement, using physical activity as a way to manage your reactivity in times of uncertainty. And finally, the L in fuel. is leaning into contemplative practices. The practices that help you create a sense of pause. And there are so many different practices that I fit under this umbrella. Journaling, meditation, maybe it's yoga. There's lots of things that you can do. The number one, easiest, fastest way to create pause is by Taking a few deep breaths now. I know for the non-yogis out there This may sound so trivial just breathe, right? It's like on every meme every other day But it's true that when we take time to breathe just three deep breaths done in the right way so slow deep breaths that allow you to bring the air not just in your chest like you're panting but slow allowing the air to come all the way down towards the diaphragm to the part of the lung that is involved in the parasympathetic response. This type of breathing, and by the way, I have several podcasts that I've done on this practice, and I actually lead you through a breathing practice if you're interested in checking that out. But this form of breathing literally will send signals to your cardiovascular system. It'll bring down your heart rate. It'll bring down your blood pressure. It sends signals to your brain. It brings about a sense of ease and wellbeing, and it allows that time. It allows you to insert a pause between the trigger, between the inciting incident, and between the habitual response, whether that is going into the pantry, grabbing a glass of wine, or shooting off a nasty email. It helps regulate you, create pause, not only in your mind by building emotional regulation, but also, as I mentioned, physical regulation. You are literally regulating your stress response so that you act from a place of intention, so that you tame down that physical reactivity that occurs when we are distressed. So, lean into fuel. Fueling yourself with nourishing foods, unwinding with rest and restoration, engaging in movement and physical activity, and leaning into contemplative practices. And the one that I would say is the easiest to do is the breathing practice. These are essential skills to help you regulate your mind and your body so you can act from a place of intention so that you can draw from your own internal wisdom. The second skill, or maybe the fifth one, depending on how you look at it, is being kind. Being kind not only to others, but being kind to yourself. And in fact, kindness to others is dependent on how much kindness, how much compassion you give to yourself. This is literally a way to give yourself a hug in times of distress. And Self-compassion practices, again, something that I've talked about oodles and oodles on this podcast, is a science-based way, an evidence-based way to help you manage your reactivity and to act from a place of intention. Why? Because when you engage in self-compassion, you are better able to give yourself what you need in that moment When you give yourself what you need in that moment, then you can act in a way that is more favorable. And guess what? Self-compassion practices have been shown to not only regulate your emotions, reduce anxiety, reduce depressive thoughts and symptoms, reduce rumination. That's the overthinking that we do that gets in the way of anything mindful of any mindful decision making. It's also been associated with better health. It's been associated with a greater likelihood to engage in behaviors, lifestyle behaviors, like eating healthy, like exercising regularly. Because think about it, what happens when you are down on yourself, when you meet that limitation, that stressor, particularly when it's related to you, particularly when it's something that perhaps you have done to yourself a failure that you have stumbled upon. And by the way, when I say you've done it to yourself, I don't mean to say it's your fault, because we all experience failure. We all experience limitations. We all experience imperfections. That's what it means to be human. But what do we do when we are met with this very human reality that we're imperfect? We double down on the self-hate, on the self-deprecating, on the negative self-talk. And this makes us less likely to want to act. What happens when you're feeling down on yourself? You become apathetic. You lose your mojo. You lose your desire to get back into the game, to get back into the driver's seat, in the front seat as the driver of your own life. So engaging in self-compassion, whether it's a formal self-compassion practice or just saying, hey, it's OK, offering yourself some kindness instead of badgering yourself, that in of itself is a skill that is going to help you build resilience and help you move into rightful action. I know that things are crazy right now. Whether you are following the political and policy changes that impact your life, whether they're impacting your work, whether they're impacting your financial circumstances, Whether you are dealing with instability at home, difficult relationships with your children or with your partner, difficult relationships with friends or co-workers, whether you are reacting or troubled by what's happening in the world, by world affairs, I mean, there's no shortage of crazy things that are happening right now that are triggering to us. And what I'm saying is that both things can be true. We can be met with difficult circumstances and we can build resilience. We can do hard things, but we cannot do those hard things with mindful intention if we are coming from a place of reactivity. So I go back to our initial question. How do you navigate change and uncertainty with resilience and adaptability? And what I'm telling you is you don't need a guru. You don't need expensive supplements. You don't need to go buy something. You have what you need inside of you. You have the wisdom. You just have to take advantage of it. So I encourage you to lean into the fuel method to use these skills and the mindset shifts that we talked about to manage your natural tendency to become reactive, particularly now, particularly in times of uncertainty. And if you want more information on this, if you go to my website at www.doctoradrieneadeem.com, and sign up for my newsletter, I've actually created a free PDF, a free download that you'll be emailed that goes through the different strategies within the Fuel Method. It gives you some micro shifts that you can engage in. It gives you some writing prompts that you can reflect upon on how to incorporate these simple strategies into your day-to-day life. head over to my website, get your fuel download. And if you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I encourage you to head over to wherever you listen and to rate and review us so that we can grow this message. I am wishing you a more calm week, one that is filled with more ease and intention despite these times of uncertainty. And I look forward to seeing you here again next week on Health Bite. I'll see you then.