How Chronic Stress Disrupts Cortisol—and What Actually Helps with Marina Wright

Tati: If you’re feeling exhausted, but still pushing through or wondering why you’re doing everything right and still not feeling better, this episode is for you. My guest, marina Wright is a functional nutrition practitioner and author of the Cortisol Reset Plan, and she’s here to help us understand what our stress symptoms are really trying to say and how to gently reset from the inside ou
Let’s get into it.
So I am here with Marina Wright. Thank you so much for being on the Calmly Coping Calmly Coping Podcast.
Marina: Thank you so much for having me. Tati.
Tati: So I’m really excited to dive into this conversation because I know that many of my listeners can probably relate to being in this state of being under stress, even chronic stress, and maybe wondering if cortisol could potentially be playing a role or kind of being affected by the stress that they’re under.
So I think a good place to get started is to talk about, I guess what. Stress is and, and how does that affect people, not just emotionally, but also biologically.
Marina: Yes. Well, that’s a great question. Um, look, I think it’s good to start by saying that stress isn’t always bad. I think it really gets a very bad rap.
Stress is always bad, but this is really not true. Stress can actually make us grow stronger and more resilient, but what’s really, really important is how well your body, uh, response and recovers from stress. And I call that stress resilience. That’s really important. And you can think of stress, resilience, just like a bucket.
I like the analogy of a bucket, right? Every time you’re exposed to a stressor, so every stressor you’re exposed to is going to be adding more water to that bucket and something that I think. Not a lot of people are aware of is that stressors are not only those perceived psychological, um, emotional type of stressors that we’re most familiar with.
So here I’m talking about overwhelm and anxiety that comes from very demanding jobs or very tough life circumstances. Maybe you have to look up after a very sick relative or maybe, um, you have lost a loved one, or maybe you have financial struggles. That, of course, it’s one type of stress. But there is also another category of stressors, and these ones tend to fly under the radar, and these are physical stressors, but this, they also add water to that bucket, right?
And here I’m talking about eating a very poor diet that is very high in ultra processed foods. So it doesn’t really give you a lot of nutrients, uh, being exposed to environmental toxins, not getting enough sleep, um, low grades of inflammation. Blood sugar dysregulation. All these things also add water to that bucket.
Now, if, if those stressors are, uh, occasional, if there are not too many of them, and if your body has the energy and the resources to respond and then recover from those stressors quickly enough, so really that’s the, the, the capacity of that bucket to drain. Then the bucket never overfills. You feel fine.
You feel balanced, you feel happy. You feel healthy. Now, when stressors start to pile on, or when the body doesn’t have the energy or the resources to actually respond to and recover from those stressors quickly enough, that’s when the bucket over feels. Now, this is when we start to get symptoms, right?
And you’ll notice things like maybe your sleep patterns change. Maybe you don’t fall asleep easily at night, or you wake up in the middle of the night, or you wake up really tired. Maybe you start to feel digestive issues, bloating, changes in appetite, weight gain. Maybe you have a flare up of your autoimmune disease.
If you have an autoimmune disease, maybe you feel more irritable. You don’t have any patients anymore. Maybe you don’t want to socialize that much anymore. Um, maybe also you tend to rely more on things like caffeine and coffee and alcohol and um, maybe comfort food. So all these are signs of the wear and tear that chronic stress is placing on your body and your mind.
And this is what scientists call Allostatic Load. And Allostatic Load has been linked to pretty much all chronic health conditions. So this is why I think it’s important to first be aware of the early signs that your stress packet is been overfilled. Because when this goes on for a long time, it does have long-term consequences for your health.
Tati: Hmm. Yeah. And, and just to clarify that allostatic. Load. Does that basically mean that you’ve reached your capacity of what your body can handle when it comes to stress?
Marina: That’s exactly right. So every time you are, um, you’re facing a stressor, your body is going to trigger the stress response, right? And the stress response is biological evolutionary mechanism.
Really, that is going to help you react very quickly and then respond to, and then recover from the stressor or the threat. Now what happens is that, um, this system, and I, I, I find this really fascinating. It’s a system that evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago. And, um, it hasn’t changed because your DNA takes a long time to change, but the environment is completely different.
So the, it really evolve in an environment that does not exist today. So, for example, our ancestors had to face things like, uh, mostly short term stressors like running from a predator. Or maybe trying to find food when there was scarcity or maybe trying to find shelter in really horrible weather conditions.
But these stressor were occasional, right? So the stress response had time to, um, well, it, it will switch off always after facing the threat. And then your body had time to. Recover. Now, the environment today is very, very different because you’re probably not running from a predator anymore, but you are being exposed to a chronic flow of low grade stressors.
And here I’m talking about maybe having a horrible commute every morning, or maybe your job is extremely demanding, or maybe just social media and the information overload, or maybe eating a very poor diet, not getting enough. Exercise, not getting enough sunlight exposure, um, exposure to environmental toxins.
All these things were being bombarded multiple times per day, hundreds of times per day. And what happens is that the stress response that was so helpful at keeping us alive now is being constantly triggered. And this is actually causing that wear and tear, um, in the body and the mind and all those symptoms that, that we, we were talking about and, and also the development of all chronic health conditions.
Tati: Hmm. Yeah, and it sounds like it can be really damaging. I’m curious if, if there’s kind of like this triggering effect, because one thing that I notice is that, let’s say if I get more stressed, then I tend to crave like the ultra process, like the junk food or you know, stop exercising or it seems like they kind of go hand in hand that.
When you get more stress, maybe you tend to go more towards those unhealthy habits, and then that it seems like adds on more stress to your body.
Marina: Exactly. So I always say that, um, physical stressors and perceived emotional stressors tend to feed on each other and it’s very normal. Of course, when you are seeking, um, some relief, you are going to go for things that are or might be, uh.
Unhealthy. I don’t really like to say healthy or unhealthy because it’s still a coping mechanism and it’s still trying to serve a pur purpose. So you always have to be very compassionate, I think, towards yourself because if you tend to, to reach for, uh, comfort food or, uh, maybe a glass of wine at the end of the day because your day has been really horrible.
I think the first thing that you. You should always do is just be compassionate because it is a coping mechanism that you, you are trying to avoid suffering, right? So the there is, there is a good reason. Now of course, once we bring this into a conscious awareness, then maybe we can actually question that coping mechanism and we might.
Change it because there are other coping mechanisms that might be healthier in the long term, but I think it’s completely natural. So, um, I, I don’t think there should be any guilt, um, when, when you do things like that. And, um, there is also. Biological explanation of why you might reach for things like, um, sugar and high fat products, right.
Ultrapro foods. And it is because when you, uh, trigger the stress response, your cortisol is going to be released, which is, we can talk more if you want about the hormone cortisol, but one of the main effects of cortisol is to increase your blood sugar. And he does that because he wants you to have the fuel and the energy that your brain and your body needs to actually face a threat with a fight or, or flee.
Uh, but what happens is that if you’re actually not running from a danger, you have all this extra energy that the body needs to. Really store and it’s going to store it as a form of, um, fat, right? So that’s why, um, chronic stress is linked to, to weight gain, but it’s also going to affect your brain and you’re going to crave foods that are very high in energy because your body, again, is thinking, I need.
All the extra energy because my chronic, my stress response is chronically activated. So you are seeking food that is very high calorie, and that is why you’re going to be more tempted towards things that are high fat and high sugar. When, when you feel, um, that, that things are under stress and you feel very overwhelmed.
Tati: Yeah, that, that makes a lot of sense that in that short term, your body’s trying to give you the energy to survive. But like you said, that chronic stress just puts us in this state of then never getting that recovery. And you mentioned cortisol, which is really the focus of your book. So can you talk more about, ’cause I think that.
Maybe some people might have some knowledge of, of cortisol or have heard of it, but can you just share more about what it is and how that connects to the stress response? I.
Marina: Yes. Um, so cortisol release one of your main stress hormones, so it’s going to be released by the adrenal glands, and it’s going to work alongside hormones that you might be more familiar with, like adrenaline and noradrenaline.
And it’s going to provide your body with all that fuel and that energy and all those resources that you need to react very quickly, respond, and then recover from the threat. Now, it does that mainly by mobilizing. Energy, so it’s going to increase blood glucose. It’s also going to activate your immune system.
And um. And, and all this is going to help you respond and recover from stress. But cortisol has many other functions in the body. I think that’s super important because again, it’s one of those hormones that has, um, a bad, uh, rap, but it is actually so helpful and so important for your health. Um, so it’s going to regulate things like your blood pressure and your electrolyte levels.
And your metabolism and your sleep wake cycle. I mean, cortisol is the reason why you wake up in the morning and you have energy in the morning. And cortisol can be produced in two different ways. So the first way is there is a daily rhythm of cortisol production. And in a healthy person is always gonna be highest in the morning.
The production is gonna pick right after you wake up. So that’s gonna give you all that energy that you need, uh, for the day and then slowly. Uh, cortisol production is going to decrease and lowest levels are at night. So your body can release melatonin and. You fall asleep easily and you repair at night.
But of course there is also, uh, production can be on demand every time the stress response is activated. So what happens is that when the stress response is always activated, as we just spoke about, um, cortisol can stay elevated for long periods of time and eventually. What happens is that the body doesn’t like that.
The body’s going to try to protect itself from the powerful events, um, effects of cortisol because cortisol is so powerful and the way it’s gonna do that is going to either, um, disrupt that daily rhythm of cortisol production that we were talking about. And this is why many people feel tired but wired at night because maybe cortisol is too high before they go to bed.
And then maybe sometimes you feel really tired in the morning because maybe cortisol is not as high as it should be in the morning. So that’s that disruption in the um, the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis, that’s what scientists call the HPA axis dysfunction. And what happens as well is that cortisol, um, well, the cells really.
Um, can become resistant to cortisol. So what happens is a little bit like insulin resistance. Uh, when cortisol is always high, your cells start to become resistant to its effects. So cortisol doesn’t have the same effects on your cells anymore. And this is why some people end up with blunt cortisol response and they feel really tired.
That chronic fatigue that that many people are suffering with.
Tati: And I, you know, I think I remember you mentioning in the book that people can have either high or or low cortisol, so how can somebody know? Maybe, and, and it seems like either one can be unhelpful or That’s right. Difficult in a different way.
Marina: So look, uh, symptoms of high cortisol, um, are often linked to the first stages of chronic stress. So when you’re just starting to have that chronic stress, you will have high cortisol symptoms. But when stress continues for a long period of time, eventually you might end up with low cortisol symptoms because of the reasons that we just talked about, the HPA axis dysfunction and that cortisol, um, resistance.
So some of the symptoms that, um, you, you will notice. So this, um, this might be subtle and they might be just in your body and, and in your behavior. So that’s why I think it’s important to know what they are so you can really catch them. And symptoms of high cortisol, again, are going to be, um, problems with sleep.
That is the most common, um, uh, symptom that I see with. With my clients. Um, again, falling asleep easily is hard. So that feeling of you’re tired, but you are really wired so you can fall asleep. Uh, maybe you wake up in the middle of the night, uh, maybe, um, you start to get, um, that belly fat, you start to gain weight without really changing much the way you eat or the way you exercise.
You might have gut issues like bloating, um, and you also might develop a lot of irritability, anxiety. Um, you lose patients more often. You tend to, um, yell more often. So these are signs of high cortisol. Now, low cortisol on the other hand, um, will have different symptoms. Things like especially fatigue, chronic fatigue, waking up really tired, lack of motivation.
Feeling dizzy when you get up from a laying down, uh, position. That’s also a common symptom. Also getting sick very often, you know, when you catch all the cold and then it takes you a long time to recover. That’s another symptom of low cortisol and also inability to exercise. You know, when you feel like really wiped out after exercise and it just exercise doesn’t make you feel good at all.
This could be also a sign of low cortis. So again, these two are a reflection of that, um, wear and tear, that chronic stress, it’s placing on the body and the mind. Uh, but it, it, it, it is usually high cortisol first and eventually low cortisol. And also some people have symptoms of both at the same time, which is also very common.
And it’s more in when you’re in that transition in between high cortisol and low cortisol. So that’s, that’s also common.
Tati: Hmm. So what would you recommend then for somebody who maybe resonates with some of these symptoms that you’re sharing? How they approach this or what steps they take?
Marina: So I think the, the goal is not to eliminate stress because stress is just part of, uh, being human and we’re never gonna be able to eliminate stress.
And as I said before, actually a little bit of stress is going to help you grow stronger and more resilient. So the goal really is to. Improve how your body responds to and how it recovers from stress. So improve that stress, resilience, or expand that bucket capacity that I was talking about before. And the, the way we do that is with two strategies.
The first one is to eliminate unnecessary sources of stress. Um, so unnecessary sources of stress. First, I’d like to tackle physical sources of stress because, um. You tend to be more in control of this type of stressor. So for example, eating a poor diet or not getting enough sleep or exposure to environmental toxins.
Um, low grades of inflammation, blood sugar, dysregulation, all these things we can actually tackle quite um. Easily. So they’re quite under our control and, and we can talk about the tips, um, specifically for that. But then you also want to decrease perceived sources of stress. And I’m sure that you are very familiar with this, but these are more out of our control because they do depend on the way the brain interprets different signals from the environment.
And this is going to depend on your genetic makeup. It’s going to depend on past experiences, especially. Uh, adverse childhood experiences past trauma, this can really affect the way you interpret signals from the environment. Um, and you can, you might start to notice cues of safety or, uh, things are not dangerous.
You perceive them as dangerous, and this is very taxing for the nervous system because it keeps the stress response activated, right? So we want to improve how the brain perceives those signals from the environment. And then we also want to improve the way. That we react or we respond, I should say. We want to respond in a calmer and um, more regulated way instead of those more automatic, uh, reactive, uh, reactions that we have towards triggers and, and then the second strategy.
So all this is going to take a huge burden of the body when we eliminate unnecessary sources of stress. But then the second strategy, which I think it’s. As important, and maybe it’s not talked about as much, it’s that we need to increase the energy and the resources that the body has to respond and recover from those threats and those stressors.
And this is because the stress response really is very energy dependent. Really, the whole point of the stress response, if you think about it, is to mobilize energy and the body doesn’t have limited amounts of energy. It’s not like we can eat more to have more energy. It doesn’t work like that. There is a limited amount of energy that we have to perform all the functions that we need to perform.
Now, of course the body’s going to give preference to survival to anything else, which means that it’s going to have to redirect energy from long-term health functions. Like for example, repair and growth and immunity, and even things like digestion, reproduction. ’cause those things are long term functions that we don’t really.
We don’t really need them right now because we just want to survive, right? So if we redirect all that energy towards the stress response, what happens is that this trade off leads to an accelerated damage of cells and tissues, and this is what has been linked to all chronic health conditions. So there is really, is the, this.
Energetic cost of the stress response. Really that is a problem. So what we want to do is to make sure that the body has all as much energy, energy and resources as possible. And the way we do that is with eating a very nutrient dense diet that is going to provide us with the. I guess the building blocks really the raw materials to keep the stress response activated and successful, right?
Because we want it to be successful. We want to be able to respond and recover. Um, but also we want to do things that are going to improve. The way the body creates energy. So that is your mitochondria. Your mitochondria are the power, uh, the power, um, plants in your cells that help you create energy. Now, what happens when there is inflammation, when there is oxidative stress, when there is glycation, all these things are, um.
Going to affect the health of your mitochondria, and you won’t be able to produce as much energy, so you won’t have as many resources to actually respond and recover from those stressors. So we want to do things that are going to decrease, especially inflammation, because that’s going to increase the amount of resources and energy that your body has and the.
When you combine these two strategies, eliminating unnecessary sources of stress and improving the amount of energy and resources you have, the body really stops wasting energy on keeping the stress response chronically activated, and then it can redirect our energy towards those long-term health functions, especially cell repair growth, um, immunity.
Digestion, reproduction, and that is going to reverse the effects of chronic stress on the body and mind.
Tati: Hmm. Yeah. So that makes a lot of sense that you’re reducing those stressors and then adding on, like you mentioned, the, the building blocks, the, the nutrition, everything that’s helpful so that we can, I would suppose, like thrive so that we can, whether it’s, you know.
Digest our foods properly or, or reproduce or even just not feel dragged down by the, the stress that we experience. You know, one thing that, um. You mentioned specific tips because I think that there’s unfortunately a, not a lot when it comes to education around nutrition especially, and I think that unfortunately the, the quick, the easy thing is to get the food that whether it’s a fast food or food that doesn’t have as many nutrients.
Um, or if people have busy work schedules, maybe they don’t have time for lunch or to prepare their food, and so they’re going for the thing that is gonna be maybe the easiest, but not necessarily paying attention to what kind of nutrients they’re putting into their body. So what would you recommend of that first tip that you shared of reducing that physical stress?
Marina: Yes. So, um, I always start with nutrition, um, because obviously you have to eat every day and you eat multiple times per day. So it’s really the best first step when it comes to reducing stress and, um. The way that I approach food and nutrition is that you first, you don’t want to, you don’t want perfectionism, right?
So I think, I feel like a lot of people are, um, if, if they don’t everything, if they don’t do everything absolutely right, then it’s just not worth it and it doesn’t work like that. I think it’s better to take small, simple steps and day after date, if you consistently take those steps over time, it’s gonna lead to.
Huge transformation, right? So first let go of that perfectionism and, um, when it comes to food, the, my best tip is going to be try to eat food that is not processed. So minimally processed food as much as possible. So you want to eat lots of vegetables and fruit, uh, because they have all these colors and phytonutrients that are going to really help you thrive.
You want good? Sources of protein, meat, fish, uh, fiber, nuts, seeds, legumes, whatever your preferences are, but you want to try to eat more of a traditional type of diet. In the book and in my practice, I always talk about the Mediterranean diet, just because it’s the one that has been studied the most. It really has been shown not only to improve, um, cardiovascular and metabolic health.
But it’s also going to improve symptoms of depression. There is a very, very interesting study in, uh, nutritional psychiatry. It’s called the SMILE Study, and it showed that people, um, that were eating, um, a traditional type of dialect, the Mediterranean diet, they, uh, not only they saw their depression symptoms decrease, but a third of participants actually went into remission, which is, I think it’s just so powerful because when you think about food that way.
When you think that food is actually information for your cells and it’s just, it’s fascinating. And then you look at food in a different way. Um, and also when it comes to food, you have to remember that you’re eating not only for yourself, but you’re eating for your gut microbiome, right? So the gut microbiome is that community of.
Organisms that live in your digestive tract, especially bacteria and viruses, but this bacteria, they can either help you thrive and become very resilient to stress, or they can become a huge source of physical stress and they can especially increase inflammation. And the best way to. Improve not only the, uh, the composition, but also the functioning of your gut micro, of your, um, of your back gut bacteria.
It’s really to change the way you eat because they really want to eat. Fiber, they want to eat, uh, phytochemicals like polyphenols. So things that are very colorful in, in the plant kingdom, uh, fruit and vegetables and spices. All these things are really gonna feed the gut microbiome. And the gut microbiome is going to produce metabolites called short chain fatty acids like beauty rate and.
They’re, they’re actually going to decrease inflammation on your body. They’re going to help you improve how you, uh, create neurotransmitters. So they’re, they’re gonna make you feel better. They’re going to help regulate the stress response. They’re going to improve how your mitochondria produces energy.
So we’re ticking all the boxes, as you can see when it comes to, uh, decrease in sources of stress and increasing your, uh, your energy and the resources that you have. And again, don’t, um, I hope that. Your listeners don’t get overwhelmed when it comes to food. I think the first simple step is just try to eat less processed foods and foods that are more natural, more, um, fruit and vegetables and meat and fish.
And when it comes to, I know that’s a lot of people don’t have time for cooking and I totally get it. Um. But what I find really helpful, and a tip that I always give to all my clients is try to spend some time, maybe on Sunday doing some prep. Like maybe you want to do a lentil soup, you make a huge lentil soup, so you have lunch for the next five days.
It doesn’t matter if you eat the same thing for five days, right? If you’re really busy, but you, you, you’re cooking maybe for one hour and then you have five meals out of it. So just try to get into that habit of, um, of, of cooking, um, ahead of preparing foods ahead and. Again, if you stop your house with, uh, fruit, especially fruit, if you see fruit everywhere, you, you might be more tempted to actually eat that fruit than maybe going for the Oreos or, or whatever processed food that you might have laying around.
Right? Yes. It’s, I think it’s just try to keep it simple. You don’t really need to be a chef and, and come up with incredible meals. I think, uh, just keep it simple and prepare ahead, so, so you can, you can really spend as little time as you have in, in, in the kitchen.
Tati: Yeah, I think those are excellent tips.
And I think the important part that I’m hearing is even just the, the mindset shift around the way that you view the, the food that you’re putting into your body. That it’s, it’s, you know, you mentioned all of those biological benefits that come from having these nutrients and. Does that help to, you mentioned that allostatic load, like does that help to decrease that when we give our bodies more of that, those nutrients and energy?
Marina: Yeah, absolutely. Because not only you are, uh, decreasing the source of stress that comes from ultra processed foods. So ultra processed foods have been linked to many, pretty much all chronic health conditions. So, and what is really scary is that in, in the states and in Australia and the uk, um. Pretty much, I think it’s over 50% of our calories come from ultra processed foods.
So it’s a very, it’s, it’s a really high amount. And for kids and teenagers, it can go up to 60%. So all this has been linked, especially to inflammation. So when we stop eating these type of foods, we’re going to decrease inflammation. And that is just so important. And at the same time, of course, if you, you have to replace those ultra processed foods.
With something else. And if you’re replacing it with minimally processed ingredients, then you’re actually also providing the body with all the nutrients and all those raw materials that it needs to keep the stress response activated. So I’ll give you an example. For example, vitamin C, it’s an incredibly important, uh, vitamin for creating cortisol.
To be able for your adrenal glands to be able to actually produce cortisol, you need vitamin C. So of course, having a diet that is high in vitamin Cs, it’s incredibly important. And it’s the same with B vitamins, it’s the same with um, things like Omega-3 fatty acids. And we can go if you want more into detail with each nutrient, but I think that can sometimes overwhelm people.
And, and if you think about it, if you just eat. A diet that is more, um, based on unprocessed foods, you are naturally going to give your body already all those things. You’re already gonna give all those vitamins and all those, um, all that fiber that your body really needs, especially your gut microbiome.
So I, I think it’s easier to just say, try to avoid as much as possible ultra processed foods and replace them with, uh, minimally processed, uh, foods. And when it comes to, I, I have, um. A good example in in the book, and it’s this client that I had that always used to have a kit cut after lunch. It was kind of her.
Her soothing moment, and I can totally get it right. You have lunch and then you have this little moment for yourself that you’re really savoring your kit cut, and it’s just delicious. So what what we did is we didn’t, I didn’t tell her to stop eating the kit cut. I said, Hey, why don’t you try to eat a date with a piece of chocolate, dark chocolate?
And I don’t know if you’ve ever tried that tattoo, but it’s, it’s really delicious and it’s gonna really, it has that really soothing effect. So she started doing that. Yes. And it, it’s going to hit the exact, the exact same spots in your brain. ’cause it’s that delicious, soothing, sweet, um, treat. And she, she did it and she really stopped missing that kit cut.
And she also felt like she had more energy afterwards so she could up also feel that her symptoms were improving and she really didn’t deprive herself from the treat. Right. So in a way that’s what I. We like people to, to get from this conversation that you, you don’t need to just say, Hey, I’m never gonna have anything nice to eat anymore.
No, that’s, that’s not right. You can actually eat very delicious things that are a little, that are better for your health, that are more nutritious. Nutritious, and. Again, let go of perfectionism. If it’s your birthday and you want to have a cupcake, that’s absolutely fine. I don’t like to vilify food. I don’t think that’s healthy either.
That’s gonna create more stress. I think every once in a while it’s absolutely fine to have a little treat. Um, you know, it’s your kids’ birthday and you want to have a piece of chocolate cake. Of course. I don’t think we should say no to that, but it’s more the. What you do every day, right? It’s the consistency.
What are you doing every day? So maybe having that kit cut every day after lunch, maybe that’s not something that it’s going to really help you in the long term. So can we find an alternative that is also going to soothe you, but it’s also going to support your health?
Tati: If you’re enjoying this conversation and you want more support to feel calm, balanced, and confident in your daily life, then I invite you to join me free at my weekly ish [email protected] slash newsletter, I share practical tips, personal insights and resources designed.
Specifically for high achievers managing stress and anxiety so you can feel more grounded and in control. Again, that’s calmly coping.com/newsletter. I’d love to have you join us now back to the episode. Yeah, no, I think those are really important pieces of information and I’m sure the perfectionism piece, I know there’s a lot of perfectionists that are.
My listeners, because they tend to be high achieving. They tend to be in this place of wanting to go all in on something and then it can feel overwhelming. So I, I think that’s excellent. The, the permission that you’ve given in a sense to, you know, it’s, it’s okay to just focus on this one small step and you don’t need to overhaul like your whole life or change your entire diet.
Yeah,
Marina: no, and in fact, I will say that that that always backfires, right? If you try to overhaul your diet and your exercise routine and your sleep schedule and everything all at once, your brain offers so much resistance because your brain. Hates change. It really doesn’t like it. So you almost have to go, you almost have to trick your brain and you, you have to make it so simple and so easy that it’s, it really doesn’t require that much effort.
And when you take these small steps and you do it every day, they become automatic. So if they become habit. And then there is no effort involved at all. Right? And that is, uh, neuroplasticity. And what happens is that then you can slowly add more and more things. So I, I think it’s important to have the mindset of that this is not a race.
You don’t have. To do this in the next week, right? You have, you have your whole life to actually get better at it. Uh, just, just slowly start with one thing. One, what can you do today? Maybe today you can have a nutrient dense breakfast. Maybe you’ve seen a recipe on Instagram that looks really healthy and say, you know what, I’m gonna make that today and, and that’s what I’m gonna do today.
That’s it. Then slowly you can add more and more, and you also have to be really compassionate towards yourself. Some days are gonna be tough, some days will be easy. The days are easy, you can do more. The days are are tough. Those are the days that just focus on one thing. That’s it. If you can only take a few deep breaths.
That’s it. You, you did enough because that was a tough day for you and, and you shouldn’t say, Hey, you know what? I haven’t been able to do all these things that I had planned, so who cares now I don’t want to do it anymore. No, no, no. That’s, you know, we want to, we want to step away from that type of mentality because it’s not helpful.
And again, it’s not, what you doing one day is not important. It’s what you do every single day consistently.
Tati: Yeah, and I think that what you share in the book really supports this. ’cause I love how you, you have the different sections to focus on and then you say, okay, take like one to two or three weeks, I forget how long exactly to focus on this before moving on to the next step.
So you can really. Build that habit and see what changes you’ve noticed from making that change.
Marina: Yeah, exactly. So I have, um, it’s really based the, the book and, and my online programs, they’re based on five. Steps, and each step is going to focus on a specific type of stressor. So we’re either going to eliminate unnecessary sources of stress, or we’re going to increase that energy and the resources that your body has to either respond to or recover from stressors.
Now, I recommend spending at least two weeks on each step. Each step has a few habits, and again, we want those two weeks because it does require a little bit of. Effort, right? When you do something new, but when you repeat it, it becomes automatic. So once you get comfortable, then you go to the next step and you add more things.
Step. I think for me, two weeks is the minimum amount. I think if you need to spend more time, that’s fine as well. Just make sure that you, you get really comfortable that it’s, it really requires no, no effort anymore, and then you can go to the next, to the next step.
Tati: Mm-hmm.
Marina: So what are those five steps? So the first step, uh, we already touched on it, is eating a nutrient dense diet so that we always start there because we obviously have to eat every day and, um, eat multiple times per day.
So it’s a, it’s, it’s a great place to start. The second one is to balance your blood sugar, which in a way is related to the first step. It kind of overlaps, but I want to make sure that. People understand how they need to build their meals to make sure that the blood sugar is regulated. And this is important because when you have blood sugar that it’s, um, within range with the within not too high or not too low.
You’re providing your brain and your body with the fuel that it needs, with the energy that it needs to, to take on the day and really thrive. However, when blood sugar is either too high or too low, the brain is going to consider that as a threat to its survival. It’s actually very dangerous to either have high or low, um, uh, glucose levels.
So it’s going to trigger the stress response. So this is the perfect example of something that you can do, uh, with your meals that is going to reduce unnecessary sources of stress. And the way you build a meal is making sure that you have a source of protein. So all your meals should have at least one source of protein.
And this could be meat or fish, or eggs, or nuts, seeds, legumes, um, uh, soy tofu. All these things are sources of protein. Then you want to make sure that we have complex carbs. So these are carbs that have, uh, fiber. Uh, here again, we have sweet potatoes, so whole grains or pumpkin or fruit. And then we want to eat also a source of fat, uh, good quality, fat.
So here we, we could do olive oil. Avocado, nuts and seeds. When you combine these three macronutrients, the, uh, the rate at which you digest food is going to slow down, which is going to slow down how quickly your gut absorbs the glucose from the meal. So that’s going to going to help you avoid those spikes that are very metabolically unhealthy and that they’re going to be increasing inflammation.
Um, so it, I explain how to build those meals. I also, uh, talk about some specific nutrients that are helpful at balancing blood sugar. But, um, what I really like about blood sugar reg um, regulation is that. Uh, especially people that have symptoms of anxiety, irritability, mood disorders, uh, brain fog, they can, balancing your blood sugar can be so helpful with, for people with those symptoms because it’s funny or interesting, really how they.
They mimic mental health symptoms, but they’re actually symptoms especially of low blood sugar. And when you change the way you eat and you really start to regulate your blood sugar, you can see improvements in your symptoms pretty much straight away. It might only take hours and you already feel better.
Right. So I think that’s such a powerful way to, to become more stress resilient.
Tati: Yeah. That, that’s super interesting. I’m curious with those. Blood sugar spikes in crashes because I know a lot of people tend to have, like, you know, the, the mid-afternoon, late afternoon crash. Could that be something that comes from that, that blood sugar
Marina: spike?
That’s exactly, yeah, that’s exactly right. So, um, high blood sugar happens when you have eaten. A lot of sugar cakes, cookies, or maybe, uh, simple carbs juices. Um, but, um, what happens is that when your blood sugar gets really high, your pancreas has to produce extra insulin, which is the hormone that is going to help bring that glucose from the blood into the cell.
Now what happens is that if your blood sugar is very high after a blood sugar spike, your pancreas tends to produce extra insulin, and sometimes that leads to low blood sugar so it, it drops too fast. And that’s when we start to get those symptoms that I was talking about, especially fatigue, irritability, anxiety, getting a bit of the shakes, um.
And, and really when you actually improve the way the meal that you, that, that, especially lunch, right? So a lot of people feel that crush after lunch. If you improve the composition of that meal, if you make sure that you’re eating enough protein with, uh, with complex carbs that have lots of fiber and with fat, you’re going to reduce.
That you’re going to avoid the spike. So it’s gonna be a more subtle, it’s still gonna go up because obviously you’re eating, so your blood sugar is going to increase, and that’s normal and natural, but it’s gonna be more moderate, which means, means that when it, it is low, it’s going to also to go down in a more moderate way and you won’t be feeling any of those symptoms.
Tati: Yeah. So that, that’s interesting. So a lot of it is like you’re describing with our diet and, and how we’re feeding our body. What are those remaining steps?
Marina: Yes. So step number three is to regulate your circadian rhythm. So the circadian rhythm, it’s, um, your body really runs on a 24 hour. Internal clock that is gonna tell your body when to do what it needs to do.
So your body has all these functions that need to be done, but you need to do them in order, right? You cannot really do everything at once. So this is what the circadian rhythm is. Therefore, and pretty much all your cells in your body have an internal clock they call peripheral clocks. And the peripheral clocks take their timing cues from the master clock in your brain.
In, in it’s right behind your eyes, and there’s a reason why it’s behind your eyes because the most important cue to synchronize all your internal clocks with the external environment is the exposure to light. And this is why it’s so important to expose your eyes to sunlight in the morning, and that’s gonna help reset your circadian rhythm.
But also at night when you’re exposed to darkness. That is going to send that message to your brain and from your brain to all your, uh, peripheral clocks. That is nighttime. So it’s time to release melatonin and repair and do all the hormone growing. Uh, that happens, um, at night. Now, what happens is that when.
When our internal clocks become dysregulated and they’re not in sync with that date night cycle, and that happens, for example, when you travel to a different time zone or when you have to work night shifts, or it can happen as well if you go to bed really late on the weekends. It can happen if you don’t get any sunlight exposure during the day.
But then at night you get a lot of that artificial, um, blue light exposure. Maybe you’re looking at your phone at 10:11 PM So this is really confusing your internal clocks because obviously you’re getting that light at night and you’re. Your master clock is thinking, I’m getting all these slides, so maybe it’s not time to go to bed then, and, but that happens with all your peripheral clocks.
That happens as well with your metabolic comments and eventually you might, um, it might lead to circadian rhythm dysregulation. And, um, this can be really detrimental for your health, for your metabolic health. So it’s more physical stress for the body. And in fact, many studies show that people that work night shifts, they, um, have more chances of developing cardiovascular disease and metabolic disease.
And, and, and this is the reasoning, um, of, of why that is happening. So the. The best tip that I always recommend is try to get sunlight exposure in the morning. And it doesn’t have to actually be sunny. I say sunlight, but it’s just natural light exposure in the morning. Um, ideally within the first hour of waking up, you want to either, uh, go outside, maybe have a walk around the block, or maybe just step outside in your garden, your courtyard, maybe sit next to a very bright window in your house.
And when the days are very short, I know they’re very short for you Now, um, what you can do is you can actually get one of those, uh, light therapy boxes or sat, uh, lamp, um, and that is going to mimic sunlight exposure. So it’s gonna have the same, uh, benefits. It’s going to help reset your master clock and send that message to your peripheral clocks.
And also something that is very helpful is try to go to bed and wake up more or less. At the same time every day because your internal clocks really thrive on that routine. If you always wake up at the same time, your body knows when to release cortisol to wake you up at the same time. And if you go to bed at the same time as well, then your body knows when to release melatonin to make you fall asleep.
So even on the weekends, um, I, I see that a lot of people tend to sleep in. I always recommend to. Try to keep the same schedule as much as possible because that’s the best way to really reinforce the Ian rhythm. And the same with, with eating, actually, uh, meal timing. It’s also an another way that is going to help.
Um. Reinforce those internal, uh, clocks. So instead of just maybe eating breakfast one day and not eating breakfast the next day, it’s better to just have breakfast every day, maybe at seven or eight whenever it is, but try to have it always at the same time. This is going to improve your metabolic health.
Your, uh, you’ll start to produce grilling to make you hungry at the same time you start to release, uh, insulin to help you, uh, digest the food. Now, of course, if you don’t do that, you’ll still be able to digest food, like your body knows how to digest food. Even if you eat at a time that is not a normal time, but it’s not going to be at its best, it’s not going to be really thriving.
So if you’re really looking for, um, minimizing all sources of stress as much as possible, this is the perfect example of, of what you could do when with your mealtime in.
Tati: Great. Yeah, and I think those are all really practical tips that even if somebody has a super busy or stressful schedule, that they would be able to to implement that.
And I think that that’s. Really powerful about a lot of what you’re sharing, that it’s really accessible for anybody to make these small changes and, and help them to shift out of that place of maybe being chronically stressed and having challenges with cortisol. And I’m sure you know. You provided such a, a wealth of information, I’m sure we could continue going on and on.
Yes. Um, and, and, uh, you know, with, with the interest of time, um, we’ll have to, to wrap things up, but you know, you have so much more in your book and along with. Some really great recipes that I know you share in there that could be another helpful and practical way for people to get these nutrients in and, and make these changes in their day.
Can you share more about
Marina: it? Yes. So I have written a book, it’s called a cortisol reset plan. So it’s exactly gonna give you those five steps that are going to, um. Either help reduce unnecessary sources of stress, or they’re going to help you provide, uh, that energy and those resources that your body needs to respond to and recover from stress.
And I’ve done it. Um, I, I’ve done it in a very simple way. I’ve really tried to translate complex scientific concepts in nutrition and neuroscience and psychology and functional medicine into very simple daily habits. That people can do so they can really take charge of their own emotional and physical health and, and wellbeing.
Um, as you mentioned, there are recipes in there. Uh, you can also follow me on Instagram Marina Write Wellness, where I share recipes all the time. ’cause I, I’m, I just love, um. Trying to make recipes that are nutritious, but also very easy and simple to make. So I think you’ll be able to find ideas there that are not overwhelming.
And, and again, um, I, I, I hope that that will be helpful for you and you don’t get overwhelmed with, with the first step, which is eating a nutrient dense diet. Mm-hmm.
Tati: Yeah. And I, I can see that you’re, you’re very compassionate about like trying to meet people where they are not wanting them to feel overwhelmed.
Yes. And, and taking steps that feel achievable.
Marina: Yes, exactly. ’cause I think that it’s, that is really the, the key. I mean, it was the key for me. Um, I, I, I, I always was a high, um, overachiever with a lot of anxiety. So I, I do understand. I, I come from a place that I, I, I can totally get where. People are coming from and what it feels to be overwhelmed and anxious with chronic stress.
So you really want to, uh, to take simple steps that are really going to empower you because you are at the driver’s seat of, of your own health and wellbeing. And once you understand that you don’t need to do everything perfect, that you just need to take one simple step day after day, you’ll notice that eventually.
Over time, you’ll become a lot more stress resilient, and you’ll feel that your body’s stronger, your mind is calmer and, and all of a sudden you wake up one day and you’re not really, you’re not surviving anymore. You really are thriving. And, and that is my goal. And really my, um, my passion really is, is to try to help people to, to get to that point.
Tati: Excellent. Yeah. Thank you so much for sharing and for, I know you mentioned your Instagram. Is there anywhere else where people can connect with you? Of course. I’ll leave links in the description.
Marina: Yeah, of course. You can also go to my website is, um, marina wright.com and, um, and yeah, but I, I, like, I tend to hang out on Instagram mostly, so I’ll Yeah, just if, if you want to go and send me a dm, um, I, I try to reply to all my messages.
Tati: Excellent. Yeah. And, and just really quickly for anybody who’s curious, ’cause I know you didn’t get to touch on those steps four and five, what are, what are those final steps?
Marina: So step four, yes. Step four is exercise. Exercise is a big part of the program, but it is, the way I approach it is, um, it’s a moderate type of exercise.
It’s an exercise that is going to help you, um, improve your stress, resilience, and the fifth. Step is nervous system regulation. So we, I’m going in, in that step, we’re going to try to tackle the perceived emotional types of stressors. So the first four steps are the physical stressors, whereas the fifth step is the psychological emotional stressor.
And I, um, I. Talk a lot about, um, awareness. So first you need to understand your nervous system, and you need to understand your cues of safety or your glimmers and cues of danger or your triggers. And then I bring some regulation using the body first. So bottom up approaches with, uh, things like breath work and movement.
And then I bring top-down approaches with brain, um, exercises or brain rewiring. Mm-hmm. And that is the, the fifth step.
Tati: Excellent. Yeah. So the, those all I imagine, you know, really come together to give somebody a holistic approach to That’s right. To addressing this and, and to getting out of that place of, of chronic stress.
Marina: Exactly. So it’s, I think I have approached all the major sources of stress, and again, if you just go. Step by step, you just take a couple of weeks or longer if you need, on each step. Um, again, this is not a race, it’s just, it, it really is a, a lifestyle, uh, change. And, and eventually when you keep doing those simple steps day after date, they, they can lead to real transformation.
Tati: Excellent. Yeah. Well, well, thank you so much, marina. It was a pleasure to have you on the podcast. Thank you, Tati. It was, it was really fun. Thank you so much. I hope this conversation helped you feel a little more seen and gave you practical tips to move forward. If Marina’s work resonates, I highly recommend checking out the cortisol Reset plan for practical tools and a grounded, holistic path to healing.
And if this episode supported you, consider sharing it with someone who might need it too. Thank you so much for tuning in today, and until next time, be calm.