Cortisol and Exercise in Menopause

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I'm going to review the cortisol and exercise connection or confusion and offer some solutions and a better understanding of the relationship between your cortisol, your adrenals, your thyroid, and exercise. This episode is packed with solutions, so don't miss the show notes on this one. I'm Debra Atkinson, and you're listening to Flipping 50. I started this podcast over a decade ago to answer questions about fitness in menopause and beyond before you know to ask them. The goal: to help accelerate your results with the science and the practical application of proven protocols. While living your best life. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than a midlife woman. It's not just you, but it's the 3 generations that you influence. My unique 40-year career, including being a university senior lecturer in kinesiology, an industry subject matter expert, an international speaker, to founder of the first and the only exclusively made-for-menopause-and-beyond fitness membership in the world, Every week I interview experts behind the science of optimal hormone balancing, fitness, and longevity, and share answers to our community's questions so you can have the vitality and the energy you want, need, and deserve. Okay, so your body cannot tell the difference between being chased by a tiger and being late to pick up your kid or your dog from the groomer. Have you been there? I have. While responding to a Slack message in bumper-to-bumper traffic, your body doesn't know the difference. The same alarm systems go off. So let's talk about cortisol, what it is, what it does for you, and what it does to you. If it goes wrong. Cortisol is your body's primary stress hormone, but it's also your energy hormone. So it's released by your adrenal glands in response to any kind of stressor that is a literal physical stressor that you couldn't stop from happening if you wanted to, but it's also a mental emotional response to stress. So an argument, somebody in the kitchen drops a plate and it shatters on the floor, the noise startles you. That could trigger that alarm system. So physical, emotional, even imagined stressors. You know, when we go to the movies, they actually do statistically measure what are people's responses to, say, a thriller or horror movies. It's how they test trailers actually, and the music that is used in those kinds of movies because they want us to have those intense reactions and responses, because it's what keeps bringing us back. So for women who are 40 plus, especially in perimenopause or post-menopause, how cortisol behaves is everything. So cortisol, let's start with this. It's meant to follow a rhythm, your circadian rhythm, if you will. So over a 24-hour period, there's certain things that will happen at specific times. Cortisol is like your body's internal coach, so it should wake you with energy in the morning. Now, some of us have to get up to an alarm clock and we're slapping that thing quiet again. But if you were left to no alarm clock, you were allowed to just wake up when you woke up, no dog, no wet nose on the side of your bed saying, time to come out, that literally you just woke up, it would be thanks to cortisol. That hormone is beginning to rise and it's your natural alarm clock. Now you might say, oh no, I wake because the sun streams into my room or I wake because the birds start chirping. Those things might be true, but again, let's say you were in a blacked-out room and you just woke up and just felt like, I'm done here. Like, you know, I could go back to sleep because it's dark, but actually I'm no longer tired. That, that is cortisol, and it's meant to happen. And even if you think, no, no, no, that would never happen to me, it would. It's just we probably never allow ourselves to do that. Or rarely get the opportunity to anyway. So it should wake you with that energy in the morning. It gently taps out at night so that you can wind down and go to sleep. You probably even begin to feel that. Unfortunately, some of us begin to feel it like between about 1 and 3 in the afternoon when it's not appropriate to put your head down on the desk and, you know, would not make it for a very productive day if you did so, even if it was— nobody was watching. But we want to have that kind of chill out feeling. Ideally cortisol is at its all-time low at about 2:00 AM in the morning, 'cause what should you be doing? Sleeping, no energy necessary. And really we don't wanna be staring at the ceiling, right? And at 8:00 AM it's about-ish, right? At its all-time high over that 24-hour period. So morning cortisol should spike and we're, I think we're so in tune to that word, blood sugar spike, anything spiking, that it seems potentially like a negative, but it's not intended to be. It just is higher. It's on the rise. It's elevated. Cortisol should spike in the morning, and that's a good thing. It helps you get up, feel alert, burn fat, and stabilize blood sugar. So you're feeling a little bit more intimate with cortisol right now, and that should be true. It's also true in you if you feel like you've got tasks that require you to focus. You know, I'm thinking about, you know, a bunch of yellow legal pads sitting here where I've got things I need to be writing and projects I need to be working on. And there's certain things that require a little bit more brainpower focus. And that for me has to happen in the morning. And most people, would agree with that, and it's based on your cortisol levels. Now, if your circadian rhythm is slightly different, you may not reach that peak until later in the morning and then feel like you get going. That may be because your cortisol could be off a little bit, and/or your circadian rhythm has always been that way. So it's not right or wrong as long as you are high-functioning functioning optimally in the real world today probably also needs to be added, okay? But in the evening, cortisol levels should drop. And that's when your melatonin, your sleep hormone, takes over, preparing you to feel groggy, relaxed, get to sleep. So this is a healthy stress adaptation release cycle, supposed to be happening that way. Cortisol comes up when you need it, like when you're lifting weights or you need to lift a car off of a trapped child. And I hope you never experience that one, but you get what I mean. We have to have these messages coming to us to power through something. You know, those times when you have to put on this Superwoman cape and go about doing it. So cortisol will, when you lift weights, temporarily come up and then it goes down. When we're done lifting weights, even we do a set, it'll come up, but it will come down. So we'll never see that really in the reflection of your cortisol of the day, but we may see, okay, there's a little spike there. So modern life breaks this cycle. Problem. So what happens here? So you're not fighting tigers anymore. We're not running from them, but you are fighting deadlines and algorithms and emails and notifications and toxic bosses and a lack of rest, constant attachment to the phone. Chronic stress means cortisol stays elevated. Now, it's not necessarily spiking constantly. Let's hope that's the case for you, but it's not coming back to this baseline. Either. It's not at this nice curve that should be peaking in the morning and then coming down over the course of the day, down really low at night. It's not doing that. It's— maybe it's in the same shape, but it's above it. It's over and beyond. And I know you overachievers are saying, well, yeah, but no, that's not what you want, okay? Even you, you don't want that because ultimately there's no more gas in the tank at some point. So let's talk about what this means. Chronic stress means cortisol stays elevated. There's no release, there's no recovery. It's just a constant on. What happens with anything else in your system? We'll tell you with air conditioning, for instance. It got a little hot here last summer in Phoenix. I was away for about 3 weeks in June and came back not until, you know, about 9:00 PM. I pull into my driveway after having driven about 10 hours with an anxious, yes, anxious, anxiety-ridden dog puppy. And I walk into my house, want nothing more than to go to bed. Guess what? It's 94 inside my house because while I was away, my air conditioner stopped working. It had been an extremely hot June while I was away thinking, I am so smart, I'm so lucky, I'm missing it. Little did I know that so was my air conditioner missing it, and Who knows if it had been out since day 2 of my departure or not, but you get the idea. If something has to be on repeatedly working at high levels, eventually that's going to backfire. Your brain's HPA axis. Let's talk about H for hypothalamus, P for pituitary, and A for adrenal. Your hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis.. So these things are playing together, messaging each other. HPA access is the control tower. So think of it like your body's stress thermostat, but when it's overworked, it breaks like my AC. This is called HPA access dysfunction. And yeah, it's a real thing. It's something you can test for when you hear people even myself say adrenal fatigue, that is a lay term that I think we all understand somewhat. We know what it feels like. We may not exactly understand what's going on, but it's a little easier to say. It's a little bit more, okay, fatigue, I understand what that is, as opposed to HPA access dysfunction. It's like, what did you just say? Like, are you talking to me? Right? So the whole idea is If your brain was telling your body to keep running even when your body is already tired and out of gas, that's what's going on. So over time, this constant demand leads to adrenal insufficiency. It's like, come on, cool, cool the house, cool the house, cool the house, cool the house. That can't do it. Cannot, cannot do it anymore. Not doing it. Goodbye. Check now. And your, your system is somewhat like that as well.. So your adrenals simply can't keep up. They dial things down to protect you, and that's when you hit a wall. And this is how women often describe this, like, I am so tired but I'm wired. So literally you're exhausted, can't wait to go to bed, but when you go to bed you can't get sleep. So your brain is still blah blah blah blah blah, right? Still going on. You can't sleep Or you may want to sleep all day. That may be the only thing they want to do, and it sounds really great, but even when you get up, you are not rested. Your blood sugar is almost always out of whack when there's some kind of cortisol or adrenal fatigue. One of the ways you know that is belly fat. You may be finding that you have belly fat, which to a lot of women will cause us more stress because we will want to do the things that we actually have no energy to do. And then we will probably store more fat for having tried to do them because it's not what your body is able to do right now. So hello to cravings, more midsection weight gain, workouts leave you exhausted instead of energized. One of the notorious things that I will ask someone is, How do you feel after a workout? And a lot of times what I will hear from those clients who have adrenal issues— and I won't say adrenal insufficiency because I don't test for it, I'm not a doctor, I don't diagnose— but you actually can test, get tested for where are you with your adrenal sufficiency, and are you at a level that is just 1 or 2, which is easier to fix if you stop pushing through, or are you at a more advanced level and you're struggling probably to get out of bed or to function at all through the day? You may make it through the morning, but then after lunch you're just done. You're not getting anything done. And if you've gone through days like that and you're truly honest, there's probably more of you out there than any woman sitting in a room would guess. A lot of women are functioning because they have to, and they're functioning because of caffeine. But when we push through, as you'll find out later, that doesn't work very well. But if you are one of those women who wants to take a nap, or could after a workout, you are not energized. You're actually depleted. Please stay tuned. Please listen to this one because it doesn't matter if it's a long hike, doesn't matter if it's a bike ride, a walk, a weightlifting session, yoga, any of it. If you feel like you want to lay down after the workout, you could take a nap after the workout, it's too much. And it's probably your adrenals telling you, hey, pay attention here. So why is it that just work out, like, you know, I could always lose the weight when I worked out. I hear that so very often. Why isn't that working anymore when you're dealing with cortisol chaos? And I'll tell you in a moment, if you're a woman in midlife, why that happens to us now so much more commonly. And you may be tired of hearing about it because you're probably hearing about it constantly, and it's a little source of confusion. But it is true that at midlife this becomes a bigger deal. Your old workouts become stressors instead of solutions. This is where we need to unpack: is it HIIT? Is HIIT bad for your cortisol levels? And the answer to that is no, or it could be. So the answer really is it depends. It depends on your status, and it's not that HIIT is doing something bad. HIIT is doing exactly what it's supposed to do, but you may be in a state or a status that is not ideal for pulling HIIT and having it do good. It may be a negative for you right now. That's not a forever thing. So high-intensity workouts do spike cortisol. So there's that word again, spike, and that may sound negative. They increase cortisol. Let's say it that way. That's not a bad thing. That's what's supposed to happen. If you're already running high on cortisol all day, you're above that norm, not necessarily spiking all day, but it's up high all day, then that spin class that you normally do, that hour-long spin class that's really pretty high in intensity and intervals it's more fuel on the fire for your cortisol chaos than it is good. So what you need is cortisol-conscious movement. Let me say that again for the people in the back. What we need is cortisol-conscious movement, meaning not that you need easy workouts. You don't need chair aerobics yet. That's not what we're saying. But you need something to factor in. Where's your cortisol level right now, today, this week on average? What's going on in your life in this moment? Let's take a look at that and the signs and the symptoms that tell us that's true. Good morning energy or morning fatigue? Getting a good night's sleep or tossing and turning? In bed all night but never waking rested? Have a fairly good appetite or no appetite? Very sluggish metabolism, meaning you're probably constipated, right? So signs and symptoms tell me a lot as a medical exercise specialist and the Menopause Fitness Specialist creator. What that tells us is, okay, wait, we need to pivot. The workout we would have given you that you could have handled just fine when you're apparently healthy and your energy is great is not the one you should do today for optimal fitness. And you can still have some optimal fitness, but not if you try to do that workout over there that was for when everything is quasararasarar. You need to do the workout over here for— I gotta, I gotta deal with a lot of you know what today, and maybe this week, or maybe this month, maybe it's this quarter, right? You've got a lot going on. So you need cortisol-conscious movement, the right exercise at the right time for the right reason. And yeah, do we still have concerns if you're going through cortisol issues and adrenal fatigue? Do we still have concerns about your bone density and about your lean muscle mass? Yes. But there comes a time when we have to say, what's your priority right now? And I had this discussion with someone very recently, and there's a lot going on with her gut. She's also concerned about her body composition, and she's gaining weight and belly fat, and she She's concerned about bone density and she wants all of it all at once. An American girl, right? After our own hearts, because don't we all? We want it all, but you can't have it all at once. I believe it was Oprah who drove that one home. But what we wanna do is take a look at which one of these has to happen first so the other ones will fall in line. Because usually if you want 3 things, it's like that game of whack-a-mole. You're like, here and then here and then here and then here. And none of them is doing what you want it to do. None of them is staying put. None of them is under control. They're just all randomly going off it and they will continue to unless you can just take one, nurture it, and let's fix it so it's no longer a part of the picture. And you've got to decide which one that is. And in this case, it would be the adrenal fatigue because that is the— that is this day-to-day, that is the moment-to-moment, that is the hour-to-hour circadian rhythm control factor. And once we fix that, you can get back to focus on the muscle and the bone density, which in turn will affect positively the body composition. So if you're feeling right now that I am, I have to work out because I'm gaining weight and I don't know how to do this and I'm afraid, you know, the other day I gained half a pound and I just, you know, ate some sweet potatoes, you know, and these are very real stories. If I'm laughing, I'm laughing with you, not at you, but these are very real stories. But the problem here is also the solution. We just haven't identified which thing do we need to focus on fixing so that the rest of those things will fall into order. So let's look at this— that cortisol-thyroid-adrenal kind of triangle. Okay, so cortisol regulates your blood sugar and inflammation, so it's really quite a good thing, right? So in addition to that, remember, it's the energy hormone. So by energy, when you're going to go and do a workout If you've got cortisol already on hand, you've got fuel on hand. It also is helping to release blood sugar so that it'll be taken up by the muscles for the fuel for those contractions that you're going to do. And if you don't have it, your body is probably going to try and go get something to convert to cortisol so that you can have that same domino effect, because otherwise you won't even be able to get through your workout. You won't feel good at all. And, you know, potentially you'll go in there and maybe you'll slog through it because you're disciplined, you're motivated, but you'll probably find you don't do as many repetitions, you're fatiguing sooner, you can't lift as heavy a weight, you're, you know, getting breathless, or your heart rate is higher relative to speeds that you're used to. So all of those things are signs that You know, your recovery is very poor, even though you might say, but it's Thursday, I haven't lifted since Monday, that's my usual schedule. And usual schedules work when you have usual hormone levels. When you have more optimal hormone levels, it's okay. But if you don't, all the rules go out the window and you really have to focus on what do I need right now, and it becomes hard. It becomes really hard because we get emotional about maybe the inability to control our weight, the inability to control our blood sugar levels, and we feel more anxious. Because when blood sugar levels correspondingly with cortisol go up and down and spike, you just don't feel good. You're on a roller coaster ride, not just because of hormones but blood sugar. So cortisol again regulates blood sugar, inflammation, energy levels. Your thyroid controls your metabolism. Let me say that again. It's the master hormone. Thyroid controls metabolism, but it's extremely sensitive to cortisol imbalances. So if you are playing hard for a long period of time, your thyroid is probably going to suffer. And my guess is, if you're listening and it's you, you're on thyroid medication. Your adrenals produce cortisol. So your adrenals burn out if they're overstimulated for too long. It's like, "Go, go, go, go, go. Come on, we're going to push, we're going to push at work. We're going to get up a little earlier so I can exercise before I have to go to work and before I get the kids and before I take them to school and before I then after work come back home and go to the PT." meeting and, and decorate for prom and do all the things that parents do. And maybe that's not your scenario, but for somebody there it is. And maybe it's not that, but it's another set of, my days are so long, I'm an administrator, I have to get there early in the morning so I can get something done before my office workers come in and distract me all day long, and the board members are tackling me, and you know, then I end up staying late, or I take my computer home and answer emails later at night, you know, And so the day is never ending. This is a lot of life for a lot of women. And, you know, even though many of us can sometimes work from home, you know, it often isn't any better because productivity may or may not be better at home. You know, I think there's this delicate balance where, you know, not getting interrupted— people were a lot happier during the pandemic when they were at home. But there's something to be said for, I'm at work, I'm working. When you're at home, it's very easy to be a little bit distracted by the Amazon guy coming to the door, something else happening, the dog, the doorbell, whatever it might be. So realize that we don't want overstimulation. We want stimulation and then release of that. That's the ideal. But if your cortisol stays high The thyroid slows your metabolism down in order to protect you. Yeah, so that's when fat loss becomes frustrating or non-existent. No matter how clean you eat or how hard you train, your fat loss may slow down simply because the overexcess of cortisol for a long period of time was like an alarm system for your thyroid. It's like, wait a minute, we're on high alert here, we're under a lot of stress, so I'm gonna slow down to conserve. It's like, okay, high alert, everything's getting the alarm set off, so let's slow this down over here so it's not so taxing. It's your body's natural homeostasis, if you will. So the good news: cortisol is not the enemy. I hope you've already gotten that. Cortisol isn't bad. It is misunderstood when it works with you, and/or better said, when you and I work with our cortisol. It helps you burn fat. It helps us stay focused, bounce back faster. The key is restoring the rhythm that we are supposed to have, which is not always on. Okay, it's on sometimes and then off sometimes. Using smart, intentional exercise that matches what else might be going on in our life using lifestyle upgrades that help to rebalance your body's natural stress response system. So let me paint this picture. Let's understand very clearly cortisol, and I'm going to give you a heads up right now, this is a long hike, I'm telling you. So this one might be something you want to listen to in two parts, but I really hate to break it up into two parts, so it's going to be a longer episode. So just hang with me or come back to this. If you're used to those 30-minute episodes, this one is well worth it. So let's understand cortisol. Just a little kind of rehash on what we've discussed. It's a steroid hormone produced by your adrenal glands, regulates your metabolism, your immune response, and stress. And it's part of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, that HPA axis, your circadian rhythm in the morning about 8 AM-ish, right? Sometimes that's also could be said 30 to 45 minutes after waking. And you know, that means for those of you that wake naturally at 5 AM, yours may peak a little sooner. For those of you that naturally wake at 9 AM, yours may peak a little bit later. But we all have a pretty good steady rhythm, and gradually it declines throughout the day, reaching your lowest at night. So let's talk about perimenopause and postmenopause. So hormone fluctuations really change the game with cortisol. This is a bigger deal, of course, for women than it is for men. So declining estrogen and progesterone affects cortisol regulation. Increased sensitivity to stress and potential for cortisol imbalance is true for most women. It's kind of like the body's decline of estrogen, cortisol is a corresponding elevation. So if you said, okay, from 35 years old to 45 years old, Not every woman goes through the exact same journey at this exact same time, but we would guess that you, 35 to 45, probably have much less estrogen at 45 and relative more cortisol than you did. So just more cortisol at 45 than you did at 35 to any response, right, or at any time of day. 8 AM versus 8 AM, your 2 AM versus your 2 AM. And if you think of it that way, make it easier to see. Okay, so you've also had this estrogen comes down, taking a lot of good things with it, by the way, and cortisol goes up, and we don't control our own blood sugar levels as well. It's why the belly fat and the weight can come on a lot easier for some women If we continue to eat the same way, which is exactly what most of us do, the statement, "What I used to do doesn't work anymore. I haven't changed anything and I'm gaining weight," right? You, habit-wise, didn't change anything, but internally, your hormones changed everything. So it's true if you don't change in response to the feedback your body's telling you Hey, we changed the hormones here. You're gonna need to change your habits. If we don't respond, then we probably will continue to struggle. For many of us, we may find ourselves in a moment where, well, I can't change my job. It's a high-stress job. It goes from early until late, and I take it home with me on the weekends, you know. And I can't change my family. They're what they are. They need me. I'm taxi driver, I'm chauffeur, I'm a credit card, I'm all the things, you know, you can't change that and wouldn't want to, right? You are a pet owner and that doesn't go away. So many things about our lives we can't change and some we get on our plate that we, we wouldn't wish for necessarily, but happen. A lot of us become caregivers. Or we're not a caregiver, but we are caring about a loved one who is struggling and older, and we know we're going to lose from a distance. It's not easier or harder. I, I don't think it's fair to compare. It's just different depending on where you are in that relationship with what's going on. Well, we've got all of that happening while We're at the peak of careers and peak of relationships where kids are growing, not needing you anymore, empty nesting, lots of major life changes, right? So symptoms of elevated cortisol, meaning it is up and it is chronically on like my AC: weight gain, especially around the abdomen, your waistline. Sleep disturbances where you've never had them before. I want to say that. So sometimes, you know, somebody has had chronic decades-long insomnia or struggled with sleep. That's not this. This is kind of onset at midlife sleep disturbances and fatigue. Even if you are in bed and resting, you, you don't wake up rested, you wake up feeling a little hungover, mood swings, and anxiety. So those are just some symptoms of elevated cortisol. There's also— I want to address symptoms of low cortisol. Do you have a question for a podcast? A question you'd love to ask, or maybe a story you want to tell? Did you know we have a special group just for podcast question roundups and the answers? My community coaches and I provide answers daily inside of this group, but it's also where I go when I occasionally say, okay, open call for podcast questions, or tell your story. Would you like to be a guest? So if you're looking for a community of women who are also interested in optimizing their health, strengthening their mindset and looking forward to every new year. Join the Flipping 50 Insiders group. That's Flipping 50 Insiders on Facebook. Symptoms of low cortisol, and those would be fatigue in spite of rest. Again, like, this one doesn't go away though. It's not like You just have a slow start to your morning, like you're all day waiting to start and it's never happening. You have low blood pressure potentially, and weakness just relative to daily activities of life, let alone your workout. Feeling weaker, feeling, you know, unable to have the same stamina, endurance that you normally would or did. Loss of appetite. So just kind of everything is shutting down. Really is one of those descriptions. So you could have either— you could have high cortisol, you could have high cortisol for a long period of time, too long, and then you could have low cortisol where you've kind of hit that wall and your, your body, your system just can't keep up anymore. You also— I would suggest if you have low cortisol, you're probably more likely to be sick more frequently. So if you have elevated cortisol, you may not get sick, but you're kind of using that Superwoman cape so much that it could leave you depleted more so later. Okay, so for this next part, what I want to do is be sure you understand this term, and we've used it, you've heard it— allostatic load. If you imagine a backpack and you're carrying a load of bricks in that backpack. And imagine, you know, this backpack is— you've got a brick for your emotional stressors, your relationship stressors, your financial stressors, your work stressors, the things that bother you about your home right now, the to-do list that you've got. You've got hormonal change at midlife. You're concerned about weight gain that you can't lose, and so you're dieting. Dieting is a physical stressor. Let's say your hormones have changed and you're not sleeping. That is a physical stressor on your body. So you've got a lot of stressors, and then you're adding exercise to it. And like it or not, on good days, on bad, when you feel energetic and when you don't. Exercise is a stressor. We often call those hormetic stressors—on-purpose stress against your system. And if we overload you, meaning you do more, you breathe harder, your heart rate is higher, you lift more, or you lift more times, that's called overload during the exercise so that the body supercompensates and you overcome that stress, getting stronger, getting more stamina, more endurance. That's what exercise should be. But it is a stress, an on-purpose stress on your system. So is giving a speech or presentation at work. It's stressor, and it's going to be done and over and go away, and you'll celebrate it. Yay! But unfortunately, if you are carrying this backpack and you're carrying it for a long time— the dieting, the exercise, the hormone stress, the caregiving, the financial, the relationship, all the, all the stressors— it becomes too much. That allostatic load reaches tipping point, and the needle that broke the camel's back, so to speak, maybe You just went into menopause. Your hormones changed just enough right now that you're feeling the difference. It's making the difference. Your workout used to work, but it won't anymore. You used to get by with the diet you're doing, but you won't anymore. And different things will add this. So you've got all of these things. The workout itself is not the problem, but if your stress backpack is already full, one more repetition, one more workout sooner than you really need it could push you over the edge. And I mean that literally. I, I, not to be dramatic, but you can reach a certain tipping point where it's like that workout really knocked you out, depleted your immune system, and it could leave you sick or in bed in terms of you know, really needing some deep rest. Not— you're not vomiting necessarily, you don't have chills or fevers, but you could be so, so tired and depleted that we can actually do that to ourselves if we're not careful. So let's talk about exercise and cortisol, the impact of exercise on cortisol levels. Not using the word impact to mean high or low in reference, by the way. So let's talk influence of exercise on cortisol levels. So much better. High-intensity workouts can spike cortisol levels. That is natural. That elevation of cortisol level should happen. Chronic overtraining may lead to sustained high cortisol and therefore adrenal fatigue. So chronic overtraining, again, a term thrown around a lot. You've heard it before. You may have said it before, but really what is that? Because there are a lot of people who probably couldn't define it really well. So that chronic overtraining could also be chronic overreaching. Like you've just done a really long and hard workout. And let me tell you what it is that we do as humans, especially maybe as female humans, when we wanna lose weight. We will go do a longer workout, we'll do it harder, and we'll do that more frequently thinking that would be better. Will we not? Hello? Like, while you're walking on that trail, if you are nodding at complete strangers, I hear you out there, okay? But it's crazy, and yet we will do that to ourselves even when we're exhausted because we think, if I could just get a good workout in, I'll I'll reset things. Yes, I know you say that. Yeah, okay, I know I'm not in your head, but I do know many of you are— have said that to yourself, even if you don't admit it until just now when I said it for you. But we can get ourselves to the point where we're either overtraining, meaning yes, we are doing too much too soon, or we're overreaching more frequency, more duration, and more intensity. We're doing them all because we think, okay, I'm just going to whip this and after a week I'll be in really good shape. And it just won't work that way. We're up against something that is not going to respond positively to that. So let's talk about managing timing. Morning workouts align best with natural cortisol peaks. So you've got this circadian rhythm I gave you Cortisol is naturally at its high in the morning. When our cortisol levels are higher, it's a great time to focus and do that kind of careful proofreading work. However, it's also a good time to exercise, and that may seem ironic because cortisol levels are already high, but we need that energy, the energy hormone, and you potentially will take the cortisol a little bit higher, but correspondingly you will also have a decline. A nice natural decline when you're done and be more alert and more optimally at a cortisol level that helps you function the rest of the day. So not an anxious kind of cortisol, but a sustained 'I can do this.' And you've taken some of that blood sugar out, so you're stabilizing blood sugar level. And again, that takes you off the roller coaster as well. Your evening High-intensity workouts may disrupt your sleep and your cortisol rhythm. So the way we like to remember it at Flipping 50 is number one, the rule we go by is restore before more. So if you are, you know, not in need at all of a high-intensity or long workout, you should probably do something like go for a nice easy walk and keep it short, do some yoga or stretching, and Take an Epsom salt bath, like, be good to yourself. But the second rule is intense early and light late. And by the way, we're not always needing intense exercise. So I want to take you back to the beginning when I said, you know, there are times when high intensity is a wonderful tool in your arsenal and in your regular schedule., but it may need to come out sometimes if it's not the right tool for right now. Temporarily, just removing it may help you avoid getting ill, getting sick, or getting deeper on that adrenal insufficiency bar. So let's talk about lifestyle strategies to help manage cortisol levels. Prioritizing your sleep, and stress management techniques. And I, I hate to leave you like this, right? Because I know one of the worst things that someone can say to you, and it's— many women find it irritating, so do I— when somebody says, get sleep, and you're like, yes, I would if I could, right? And so I'm not gonna leave you hanging. We're gonna actually put the lead magnet that we have for you. So it's a freebie. You can get the PDF. But we don't even call it the same thing we did 8 years ago. We named this book Sleep Yourself Skinny. I've rewritten it 3, 3 times, maybe 4 times, and we now call it Sleep Yourself Strong. Because whether you want to optimize your weight, we don't like the message of sending you to get skinny anyway. We love the message of getting you strong and focusing on the muscle because that will help you optimize the weight, not necessarily get you skinny, but get you strong. For a long life. That's what we're after. So I'll give you some tips there to help you, but for some of you, there is a need to prioritize sleep. That I can't give you. If you're blowing it off, are you thinking, I don't really need to, and I want to watch TV with my family until 11 PM, and then I have to get up at 5? You're not prioritizing sleep. You know, at first signs of eyelids droopy, you really need to work on honoring that and going to sleep, and you're gonna get better results from everything that you're doing. So think about what it is you're doing there. Think about whether you're really giving yourself every opportunity to get some rest. So then incorporate relaxation practices like yoga, meditation, box breathing, which means imagine a box. And if you have, okay, 4 and 2 and 4 and 2, it's a rectangular box, right? So if you breathe in for a count of 4, hold it for 2, breathe out for a count of 4, hold that for 2, and you do that again for a minute, for 2 minutes. My Garmin watch actually has box breathing on it. When it tells me relaxation reminder, you're a little stressed, try taking a breath. It also offers me up some box breathing, so you can do that on your own for a minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes is what my Garmin exists so that I need sometimes. So there's that. Those will help turn on your parasympathetic nervous system, and when that goes on, you're a little less likely to be spiking that cortisol level. In terms of nutrition to help yourself Maintain stable blood sugar levels with balanced meals. And really, that statement is very bland. I get it. But what you're looking for is little tricks like sequences of the food that you're eating. Eat carbohydrates last. So if you're going to have a potato, put it last and have your salmon first. Have your broccoli or your green beans next. And then have your potato last. So that will help stabilize blood sugar levels 75% better than if you have the potato or the carb first. Now, it's probably a toss-up. There are some who would say have the veggies first because that coats your, your gut with some fibrous things, then have the protein, and then have the carbs last. But we all agree, carbs last And I would say if you struggle to eat all the protein because you get full fast, I would go for the protein first because stabilizing and satiety that comes from protein will be much more valuable for you. It's not that we don't want you to eat those veggies, just want to make sure you get that protein in. Limit your caffeine and alcohol intake. Best rule that I've ever made up for myself and for anybody else is if you drink coffee or other caffeine, 2 cups down, 2 cups max, down by 10. Put your cup down at 10 and then don't drink it the rest of the morning or day, period. I know that's a little harsh, and I, I once did DNA testing. We do it here for members who are really interested, but I don't flaunt that. But I've done it for myself, and I metabolize caffeine really well. You know, that was probably one of the worst things I ever learned because I was like, oh yes, I can have more, right? But what's happening is my cortisol still, you know, is not gonna do well if I do that. My, my insulin and belly fat I'm not gonna do well, my adrenals are not doing well because I metabolize my caffeine. It just means I'll probably sleep better at night than the next person who would have had caffeine at 2:00 in the afternoon. So, you know, don't, don't do, you know, anything that is crazy just because you think, oh, it doesn't bother me, you know, it's still in other ways not necessarily good for you. And alcohol is just— alcohol is alcohol. Alcohol is sugar, basically. Basically avoid strict keto or carnivore, meaning very low carb, and include resistant starches on purpose. So your resistant starches, by the way, are those resistant to storage as fat. They break down slowly. It's— we learned the word complex carbohydrates when we were in elementary school, similar to that, but we're talking beans if you can tolerate them, legumes. Sweet potatoes, butternut squashes, or winter squashes— I think acorn would fall in that category— those kinds of things. If you have fruit, berries, or citrus fruits— not the juice, but the actual fruit— those resistant starches. And again, even those at the end of a meal, not at the beginning, can help you because we produce serotonin. It's a feel-good hormone, and that helps to offset cortisol levels. So don't negate carbohydrates. And it's honestly one of the first things I find that women are doing who want to lose weight. And it, it's true, we don't want to eat this 2-bagel snack or 2-bagel breakfast, heaven forbid, that we did in the '80s and '90s and think that was a good thing. We can't do that anymore. That would spike our blood sugar for the entire day. The day is lost, by the way. You've, you've sabotaged yourself. But we also, you know, don't want to completely negate, you know, our carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are good things and they are fuel for us. It's just learn how to have some peace with them. For exercise recommendations, you know, follow a low to moderate intensity, short duration workouts if you have cortisol levels that are off the chart. Do go for frequent walks during the day. Do short, frequent, even high-intensity exercise if you can. Now, most of us can't put on our dress clothes and go to work. You know, I have the luxury of being a fitness professional, so I can be in yoga tights all day— not every day, but often. And yet I don't— like, I'm not exercising all day. I mean, and no personal trainer ever was, by the way. I know that's what you all thought we did, but it's really not. It was— it's a career made to watch other people work out all day. We don't get to. That's kind of how that works. But it's important that you realize that you're not trying to do high-intensity workouts frequently, like 2 a day or even once a day, but being active more consistently is really the bigger thing. So short duration workouts but more often it's actually better for blood sugar if you're really struggling with things. Include restorative activities and don't think those are not valuable. Like yoga, you know, can get you breathing and moving with breath in a way that really decreases that stress and cortisol. When you feel good, you create those serotonin hormones, dopamine, and oxytocin. Those feel-good hormones are up cortisol can't also be up. So although you can't make stressors in your life go away, you can make the feel-good hormones come out. And I know you may be going to, like, endorphins. You may be thinking that because back in the '80s, it's all we talked about. Like, I love those endorphins, you know. And here's the truth, sadly, we may not get as much of an endorphin rush from exercise as we used to. Because we have fewer dopamine receptors in menopause. Another thing, right, that goes downhill. But we have to work a little bit harder. You're not going to get the same high, or you may be waiting for like, where's that euphoria that I used to get? Well, it's like musical chairs inside of your body. Somebody took 3 chairs away. And so the workout you used to do doesn't make you feel quite as good, but we can't escalate it because then we throw our adrenals under the bus. What you can do is try to combine things. Try to combine music and sunshine and walking, or walk with a friend. Have a— I will walk with friends from out of state and have a phone conversation while I'm walking. You know, figure out ways to combine things that are all feel-good. Music is conversations with friends, sunshine, uh, and movement all together really are a great SSRI serotonin release factor, right? That is in an antidepressant. So it is a great little drug-free hormone with all positive side effects. So try and include some of those things and avoid overtraining. Here's the tricky part. Overtraining will look different. So nobody can say to you, if you ask the question, what is overtraining? Or you might say, because I've had this happen, somebody said something very specific. I walk 4 miles a day. Is that overtraining? And the answer is, I don't know. Are you somebody who was previously a marathon runner? Then Probably not. 4 miles is just, you know, going for a 30-minute walk twice a day, and you might have a dog and have to do that anyway, you know. But for somebody who's, you know, driving herself to do 4 miles thinking it's just walking, but she's already exhausted, walking 4 miles might be overtraining. So the only one who can answer that is you, and it's not based on what I'm used to and what I'm conditioned to do because it's based on how's your body responding to that. If you're going for that jog and you're getting breathless and you're barely moving, snail's pace compared to your norm, it's overtraining probably for you. If you feel like taking a nap when you come back or for the rest of the day or days on end, you are compensating and recovering on the couch. It's overtraining. So you've got to just listen to yourself, and man, is that hard for us. Super hard. I'm going to give you a few supplement suggestions. These are not— I hate to say recommendations, you might read that in the show notes, but it's not suggesting everybody should. It's suggesting things you might want to consider. Maybe that's better— supplement considerations. Your B vitamins and magnesium are depleted when you're under stress, so you might consider looking and supplementing those. Maca and ashwagandha both are what we call adaptogens. So they're herbs. You're not taking a drug, not an over-the-counter drug, not a pharmaceutical, but it's an adaptogen, an herb that naturally will help your body kick into its own good. So maca, what I would suggest to you is if you go to the shelf in your health food store, you'll find it. Don't get it there. Okay. And the reason is this. I learned too late that there are over 11 strains of maca, and we go to the store and we just pull one off the shelf, and I was dumping it into my smoothies. This is back in my 30s. We don't know what strains we're getting. And, you know, manufacturing being what it is, it's probably some of the cheaper of those. They're not necessarily clinical grade, helping us do what we want them to do. So FeminEssence is a brand, um, and it's kind of made for women in either perimenopause or postmenopause. There are two distinct products and maca— PAWS or MacaLife are the names of those specific brands— are things that you can take, and you kind of take them around the schedule that is yours. So my problem when I first went into menopause, it was, um, I was 56, and that kind of in June hit. And by December, January, I had done some things that threw me under the bus— a major move, I was training for an Ironman, I had been exposed to mold. I've told this story multiple times. If you're an OG, I'm sorry, but I started taking maca. Within about a week, I felt better already, and I knew I needed it because I was getting up in the morning and I was no longer a morning person. I was like, what is going on here? Like, I feel hungover, like I'm starting slow, I can't get going. What's going on. So I started taking that, and again, just picked up within about a week. I didn't crash in the afternoon, it was just the morning that was really bothering me, so I only took it then. I didn't take a second dose in the afternoon. And you too may find that's what you can do. So there is an advisory board, a 1-800 number you can consult with docs on that board about you know, what should you do based on your signs and symptoms. So it's kind of a comforting situation to be in. So I would recommend that. Don't shoot blanks, just go to your grocery store and cross your fingers. It's probably not a good idea. Ashwagandha can also be helpful, helpful for energy, but also helpful for sleep. So just want to be cautious about that one. I have found more clients report that sometimes winds them up if they take it at the wrong time of day. So just be strategic with that one. But you also may have good luck. There's a product called Cortisol Manager, and before you go buy, say, both maca and Cortisol Manager, you might want to look at the label on Cortisol Manager and note there is a little bit of maca in it, or there's ashwagandha in it, you know, so you're not overdoing and doing both things. I would generally recommend add one thing at a time, test it, see how you feel after a week. But a lot of docs I've I've worked with recommend both Maca and Cortisol Manager generally at the same time, so they don't see any problem with it. But you're readily available online as well, as you know, on Amazon, um, and that is really easy to take. You can get a bottle of 30, just try it for a month. Um, actually, I take that back. I think you take 2 a day. If you get a bottle of 30, it's only going to last 15 days. In my mind, I would get one that was at least, uh, caps of 60 so that you know you can test this for a month and know, is this doing any good? Here's the caveat with all of those guys: you have to take them regularly. And I know none of us loves to take supplements, and nobody wants to take another supplement. I hear you, I do. But if it's going to work, and living in the modern world we live in, I don't think any of us is going to get by without taking supplements and having really optimal health and longevity, because nobody's been exposed to the amount of toxins and radiation and EMFs that we have been exposed to. We're gonna need a little help. We don't have as high a quality soil as we used to. So consider that you're not doing anything wrong. It's not a weakness that you don't like to take supplements. I get it. But don't wear that like a badge of Courage, cuz that kind of went out. We're probably all gonna need to be wise. Just choose wisely. You don't have to take them all. So here's the truth. Even good stress, like a strength workout, can become too much when it's layered on top of emotional, mental, physical overload. Your body does not grade stress by your intention. Your best intention might backfire. So it just feels the weight, right? Think of your stress like a bag. Backpack already filled with bricks, adding another dumbbell, even a good one, will still weigh you down. So that's why smart exercise in midlife means checking your stress load before you lift. Sometimes the bravest thing that you can do for your hormones is rest. All right, I'm going to finish with this, and it is answering some questions. So frequently asked questions, we get this a lot. We cover this within our community, our membership, and within some of our programs. So I'm gonna give you a bird's-eye view of what is Q&A time like behind the scenes. So number 1, related to adrenal fatigue: can I recover from adrenal issues on my own? The answer is yes, but only if you actually slow down and you stop pushing from it. So I've got an example here to share with you, and that is that You know, I've worked with CEOs, administrators, people who have to go to a job, and yet, you know, their job starts early, it goes late, they're always on, it's always what they're thinking about, it's their major stressor, and they're carrying that load around because I'm the breadwinner, I bring home the paycheck. I'm stuck right now is kind of the feel. So if you continue doing the same schedule, and you continue resorting to the caffeine to get you up and going and to get you through the rest of the day, and you don't take care of yourself, you don't draw boundaries and say, here's what I need in order to do this job, and you're not willing to stand up for yourself or somehow perceive that you cannot. Most women will make the mistake of thinking that resting is weakness, that drawing those boundaries and saying that out loud is going to put you in a a place where you appear weak. It's not. Recovery starts when you listen to your body's signals instead of ignoring them and you honor them. No one, let alone you, would be able to sustain what it is you're doing potentially. So dialing down high-intensity workouts, focusing on sleep, managing blood sugar, pulling the right kind of movement, stop with the processed foods, You're not looking for what's a good protein bar. I get that question a lot from somebody who's ultra stressed, not eating enough whole foods, or what's the best kind of coffee. Oh my gosh, not the question you want to be asked if you are talking to somebody who's got adrenal fatigue. There's no coffee that you need, right? You need, you need tea, you need herbal tea, you need water, you need electrolytes. We need to get you off of needing the caffeine. That's really what we need. Said with respect, I know we all want to get through the day, but we've really got to watch this. So putting in the right kind of movement— yoga, walking, strength training, short duration, always intentional— and you might need help identifying how deep your HPA axis dysfunction has gone. So this is where you seeing a functional doctor and getting a test would come in. Don't go through a month of trial and error and thinking, oh, it's not that bad. It's probably something that you really need to kind of get sorted. Look at it now, because level 1 and level 2 are just irritating, right? You're feeling it, you're not functioning optimally, you're putting on weight, belly fat. Level 3 and 4 are much more serious. So your immune system is depleted, you're not functioning very well, you're not getting out of bed, you know, at level 4, and the recovery will take longer. Next question is, how long will that recovery take? It depends on how long you've been burnout and how bad you've let it get. So in general, very, very general, if it's mild adrenal fatigue, probably 4 to 6 weeks of rest and smart training Nutrition can turn things around. If it's more moderate dysfunction, you 3 to 6 months to really feel like yourself again. So really dialing back on the exercise, focusing on the sleep, probably going to take some supplements, might need some special classes or counseling, working with a coach to help you identify where are you your own worst enemy. Severe HPA axis dysfunction or adrenal insufficiency. And this is where those stages 3 and 4, where you're not functioning, you're probably struggling to get out of bed. 6 to 12 months of consistent changes— diet, nutrition, you know, the exercise, and by that I mean supplementation as well, the mindset making sure you're drawing boundaries, you know, and possibly working with functional medicine for support. But some of the things that I've mentioned, like maca, ashwagandha, cortisol manager— but you may need additional support too because it may have begun to tax your thyroid. So reminder that the sooner you start, the sooner you pay attention to— I'm a little bit tired, I'm kind of dragging the faster you're going to bounce back. But the deeper you go down that road, the longer it's going to take you to come back, and the more your life will be compromised from what you know it to be in the meanwhile. Last question: will I lose the weight once I fix my cortisol issue? Most likely yes. Cortisol dysregulation is insulin resistance blood sugar swings, cravings, metabolism slowing down. When cortisol normalizes, your thyroid, your adrenals, your metabolism start cooperating again. And that means your workouts work, your body lets go of fat, and you're not fighting cravings 24/7. All of those things begin to disappear. But here's the kicker. You cannot outwork cortisol. You have to work with it. So I hope that was helpful. So really deep diving, and please share this if you know somebody who's struggling or you've got a daughter or a daughter-in-law. They hopefully won't get to this point if we teach them early enough about cortisol, about taking care of themselves, about putting things regularly on their calendar. Like vitamins instead of like medicine. You know, I am extremely proud of my son and my daughter-in-law. They regularly, I think once a month, will go and get massages. And I don't know if they get couples massage or they just happen to go at the same time and get individual massages, but you know, so smart that they're basically supporting each other in doing something. You know, they're in the trenches, they're both working really hard they, they're earning it enough that it's not an outrageous thing for them to be doing, but they are really setting time aside to have a, like, a self-care date. So smart. So think about ways that you can do that for yourself, or maybe enlist your partner in doing that, even if the two of you end up doing things that are not exactly the same. And honor your needs, but you help each other stay true to that. So if this sounds like you, you're tired of spinning your wheels, exhausted all the time, you're unsure of what to do next. And if this is hitting you at the right time, few times a year we open up a 10 or a 12-day challenge. We've called it for years the Hot Not Bothered Challenge. It's got a bit of a facelift, But when we're talking about the understanding of hormonal changes, adrenal fatigue, and the need to reset, and/or if you're just starting exercise, avoiding issues by starting with the right dose and realizing what we really need is not more exercise, we need better, and we need the minimum viable physical activity to get us stronger in the muscle, in the bone, take care of our brain health and help us be out in life enjoying life, not exhausted because of the exercise. So it should work the opposite. So we should be exercising enough that we are feeling energetic and we are living the bucket life. If that sounds like something you wanna do, there'll be a link in the show. If you go to flipping50.com, you'll probably see a banner at the top of the page if we're open right now. That Hot Not Bothered Challenge is a 10-day. It's It's well worth it though. For less than a coffee a day, you will understand how exercising correctly, properly in midlife, and uniquely to midlife, can actually help you optimize your adrenals, your cortisol, and your thyroid. I hope that was helpful. And again, if it was, please share this with a friend. And thank you if you are here and you lasted all the way to the end, staying for this extra special bonus episode on cortisol. Thank you so much for listening. To listen and access a decade of episodes and the show notes, visit flipping50.com where you'll be able to find all of our prior episodes. And I made it easy for you to make the most of your listening time by selecting 5 specific areas most commonly high priorities for our community and giving you top 10 lists if you let me know you'd love them. If you know a midlife woman or a soon-to-be one who wants to optimize her midlife energy and time with the right exercise and lifestyle changes and a mindset shift about just what is possible, share this podcast with her, and I thank you. There is no more powerful health influencer in the world than you, midlife woman.