In this interview, health‑wellness expert Dipa Chauhan expands on the "5 C's" framework for optimal digestion and overall health: Choose (anti‑inflammatory whole foods), Chew (20‑30 bites per bite), Chill (enter parasympathetic state before eating), Cherish (gratitude for food) and Check (monitor stool quality). She links these habits to hormonal regulation, explaining how less than seven hours of sleep lowers leptin and raises ghrelin, leading to increased hunger and calorie intake. Chauhan emphasizes consistent sleep timing, noting that deep sleep—most abundant between 10 PM and 2 AM—is critical for bodily repair, memory consolidation, and hormone balance. She advises shifting “me‑time” to early mornings to support earlier bedtimes. The conversation then moves to nervous‑system regulation, with Chauhan describing breath as the "steering wheel" of the autonomic system; slow, nasal breathing (5‑6 seconds inhale and exhale) promotes parasympathetic dominance, aiding digestion, sleep, weight management, and inflammation reduction. A guided breathwork exercise is demonstrated, focusing on grounding, relaxing tension points, and mindful nasal breathing. Throughout, Chauhan stresses practical, low‑effort shifts that women can adopt to improve metabolism, healing, and overall wellbeing.
Chapters
What is something else that you wish women or, or people knew about their bodies, their metabolism, or their ability to heal?
So another one that we really focus on, once again, I think a lot of the focus sometimes boils down to what we're eating, but equally as important is how we're eating, right? So sometimes there's very simple shifts that we can make with how we eat, nevermind focusing on what we're eating, cuz a lot of people are eating healthy, but they still issues, right? So when it comes to how we eat, there's 5 main things that we focus on. They're called the 5 C's. They're choose, chew, chill, cherish, and check. So you wanna make sure you're choosing the right foods, right? Making sure you're focusing on eating mostly anti-inflammatory whole foods, avoiding the ultra-processed foods, avoiding ensure.
Possibly.
Exactly. Exactly.
There's clutter, body clutter. Yep.
You wanna make sure you're chewing your food well, so 20 to 30 times per bite, or until it's a baby food type of texture. Choose to chill. So you wanna make sure you're in a relaxed parasympathetic state. So the parasympathetic is also known as rest and digest. So you have to be in that parasympathetic state to digest your food. So one of the best ways to get yourself into a parasympathetic state before you eat is taking 3 conscious breaths to shift your physiology. Cherish, so giving gratitude for your food. A lot of the times, you know, right now in the summer, many people have gardens, and we realize how long it takes to grow that tomato, right? So really giving thanks for your food, where it came from, all the hands that went into not just preparing it but bringing it to your table. And then lastly is check, right? We want to make sure that the quality of our bowel movements is, is appropriate, right? We wanna make sure that we have formed stools, the color is right, there's no undigested food particles or food floating, or not food, stool floating on top of the toilet, right? So you wanna also check what comes out on the other end the next day.
I'm gonna have my kids and my husband listen to this because they think I am entirely way too interested. Yeah. In what happens in the bathroom. And when they were younger, I'm like, no, I wanna come see, I wanna come see. And it is. It's so important. Some people are, you know, maybe feel mortified talking about this, but we're all human and, and, and it's, it's something that's so important and, and it does say a lot about our health, doesn't it?
Exactly. Yeah. I think being in this field, it's like normal for us to have these poop conversations, but it is, it is super important, right? It tells a lot about your health. Like, There's two main hormones that regulate your appetite and hunger. One is called leptin. So when you get less than 7 hours of sleep, leptin is gonna decrease, which is gonna, um, you know, decrease satiety. So no matter how much you eat, you're not gonna feel satiated. Ghrelin is gonna increase, which is your hunger hormone. So no matter, no matter how much you eat, you're still gonna feel hungry. And if you get less than 7 hours of sleep, you're going to tend to eat approximately 300 more calories the next day. Goodness.
Yeah.
Oh my goodness.
Just think about the magnitude of that over time.
Exactly. And that's just with one night of sleep deprivation, which is defined as less than 7 hours.
You know, if I get less than 7 hours and I don't remember the last time that happened because I really like to sleep and I, yep. I'm a 9-hour person. So, yep. But I, I just remember feeling so sick to my stomach, like even 7 hours of sleep and I, I don't feel well. Mm-hmm. Oh my goodness. And then, okay. And so then there's the whole hormonal and hormonal, hormonal impact that you just mentioned too. Wow.
Yep. Yep, exactly. And then regularity is, I like to also call it consistency. So really trying to bet, get to bed at a consistent time and waking up at a consistent time. So if your bedtime is usually around 10. You wanna try to get to bed as close to 10, plus or minus maybe 30 minutes, as often as possible. Same thing with the wake time. If you usually wake up around 6, then you wanna make sure you're consistently waking up around 6:00 AM. And then the last one is timing. That's basically making sure that you're getting to bed at an appropriate time. So if you go to bed, you know, past midnight, you're missing out on a lot of the healing and recovery time because from 10:00 PM to 2:00 AM, 2:00 AM is when our body does the most healing. So you really wanna try to get to bed as close to 10, if not a little bit earlier as possible. So timing is as just as important.
You know, you just said that the body does the most healing in that timeframe. What do you mean by that? The most healing?
So that's when your body is really going to shift more into that parasympathetic state. That's when your body is gonna repair and regenerate and really go into that deep healing state. If you have an Oura Ring, you'll probably notice that most of your deep sleep is earlier on in the night, and deep sleep is when our body does a lot of that recovery. That's when our brain really recovers. Memory consolidation occurs during that time. So it is really important to get the timing right to maximize the amount of deep sleep you're getting to get that full recovery.
Right. And if we don't get that sleep, if we don't get that deep sleep, what happens?
If you don't get that deep sleep, then you're gonna feel more tired the next day. No matter if you got your 8 hours of sleep or not, you're gonna feel more tired. Your memory is gonna suffer. Your overall, like, even once again, your hormones are gonna be imbalanced. So deep sleep is really important, is a really important part of our sleep that we need to prioritize. And the best way to do that is to get to bed around that 10:00 PM mark.
Yeah. And, and if it, and it's just what a gift to give yourself. There are, there are people in my community that really struggle with going to bed earlier or giving themselves permission to go to bed at a decent time. And sometimes it can be, you know, as simple as, you know, I'm taking care of a loved one. Maybe the loved one has health issues or dementia or something like that. And they feel, well, if I stay up late, that's, that's my, that's me time. That's, that's the only time I have for myself. And really though, really, it's not serving you, you're sabotaging your own health and wellness. And what if, can't, can't we just take the me time early in the morning instead?
Well, that's, that's exactly what I was gonna say is like, just get to bed and, and wake up earlier. And then that's a better time to have that me time when it's, you know, those quiet mornings where a lot of people aren't awake, you know, in, in your family perhaps. So I rather you, have an earlier morning than a later night.
What is your favorite way to regulate your nervous system? There are so many different ways we can do it, right?
Absolutely. Yeah. So one of the things that, you know, my husband always says is the breath is the steering wheel of the nervous system, right? So we can really consciously shift the way we breathe to shift our nervous system. So when we breathe in a rapid state, when we're breathing shallow, when we're breathing from our mouth, that's going to shift us into a fight-or-flight sympathetic dominant state, versus when we slow our breathing down, when we breathe from our nose, when we breathe more intentionally— ideal cadence is about 5 to 6 seconds on the inhale, 5 to 6 seconds on the exhale— we can really shift our physiology more into what we call a parasympathetic state. And the reason why that's important is because any health goal that you're trying to achieve, whether it's better digestion, better sleep, you know, bringing down weight, reducing inflammation, whatever it is, it's going to predominantly occur in the parasympathetic state, not in fight or flight.
Can we do that breathing exercise that you just referenced? I, anytime somebody mentions the word breathwork or breathing, I immediately take a breath or I slow my breath down. And so you, you just mentioned that, you just mentioned it. So could we do that together right now?
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, the best thing to do to really get into your breath, to get into your body, is to just, first of all, try to ground your feet.
I'm gonna uncross my legs. Yep.
Uncross your— I had my legs crossed too. So uncross your legs, try to get your feet on the ground, and then you can close your eyes if that helps you get more into your body and your breath. And you really just wanna relax your shoulders, relax your jaw. Relax your eyebrows. These are places where we hold a lot of tension in our body. For women, sometimes they hold a lot of tension in their abdominal muscles, so relax your abdominal muscles. And then just focus on your breath and it— just focus on your natural breath before you try to change it or shift it in any way. Just notice your inhale, notice your exhale, notice if you're breathing from your mouth. Or are you breathing from your nose? Notice the quality of your breath. Are you breathing shallow? Are you breathing slowly? Are you breathing quickly? And now that you're kind of paying attention to your breath, try to slow it down. So you're gonna inhale through your nose, and then you're gonna exhale through your nose, and inhale through your nose, and exhale through your nose. And for the duration of this podcast, as you're listening, try to just slow your breath down. And focus on that 5 to 6 second inhale and 5 to 6 second exhale.
That felt delicious.
Yeah, you can really notice how your body shifts into that more relaxed state.
