4 Ways To Outsmart Stress With Food (And Heal Your Nervous System)
Studies show 80% of us are living off of stress hormones and we don’t even know it!
What we do know is that we’re constantly feeling stressed, anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, and exhausted.
We know we have sleep problems.
We know we’re irritable and reactive.
We know hangry is on the rise (when we get angry when we’re hungry), our hair is falling out, we’re constipated, and we have intense cravings for sugar, salt, caffeine, or alcohol—sometimes all four.
I’ve been there… more times than I’d like to admit. 😉
All of these symptoms are a sign of adrenal fatigue and thyroid dysfunction.
The adrenals are the gas tank of the human body and the thyroid is the furnace and thermostat. They are responsible for how you feel and directly affect your ability to live in a state of calm and balance.
If you have any of the symptoms mentioned above, you could be locked in a cycle of living off stress hormones and in need of healing your nervous system with food.
4 Ways To Outsmart Stress With Food
#1 Drink: Our Morning Elixir First Thing Or Within 30 Minutes Of Waking
Ingredients:
- 16 ounces of room temperature or warm water
- The juice of 1⁄4 fresh lemon or lime
- 1 teaspoon of melted raw honey
- 1⁄2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger (if you can’t find fresh ginger, use 1⁄8 teaspoon organic dried ginger)
- 1⁄8 teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt
Directions: Combine in a cup or glass and stir well before drinking.
The honey in the elixir will refill glycogen stores in the liver after fasting all night which will allow you to go through your day with less stress.
#2 & 3: Always Eat Breakfast Shortly After Waking (With These Three Elements)
Eat breakfast within thirty minutes to one hour of waking and make sure your breakfast contains more carbohydrates than it contains protein and more protein than it contains fat.
We’ve gone on a low carbohydrate and ketogenic diet craze where we’ve unfairly demonized an entire macronutrient food group—and it’s led to insomnia, anxiety, and inability to regulate blood sugar that makes us feel so out of sorts. We have to train our bodies to use carbohydrates as fuel once again and to meet the needs of our cells if we are to outsmart stress and truly access the power of life-giving food.
Here are two breakfast options that are perfectly tailored to this ratio.
Yogurt Parfait
Ingredients:
- 1 cup full-fat Greek, sheep, goat or coconut yogurt
- 1 tablespoon pasture-raised collagen
- Sprinkle of Ceylon cinnamon
- 1/2 cup of pineapple, mango, or kiwi OR 1⁄4 of a cup of cooked apples or pears without the skin
Egg Drop Broth
Ingredients:
- 8-12 oz of chicken or beef bone broth
- 1 whole egg (only egg yolk if you are sensitive to eggs)
Directions:
- Pour broth in a pot to heat.
- Drop one egg and stir.
- Add a pinch of salt for taste.
Have your Egg Drop Broth with 1⁄4 cup cooked apples or pears without the skin or you can substitute 1⁄2 of a papaya, 1⁄2 cup pineapple, or 1⁄2 cup mango.
#4: Eat A Balanced Snack Before Bed To Reduce Stress & Improve Sleep
A NIGHTTIME SNACK TO HELP YOU SLEEP BETTER:
Have one of these two snack options about an hour before bed.
Banana Sleep Remedy
The salty banana with cashew snack before bed is for those who have trouble falling asleep, or especially for those people who wake up between 1 and 4 a.m. It’s also GREAT for reducing nighttime hot flashes/night sweats!
We wake up in the middle of the night because of a cortisol (stress hormone) spike. Cortisol spikes when blood sugar is low! So, if we take care of our blood sugar by giving our bodies a balance of protein, carbs, and fat before bed, cortisol will remain low at night like it's supposed to (so you can use it for energy in the am when you wake vs. needing coffee) and you’ll be able to sleep through the night.
Ingredients / Directions:
- Eat 1⁄2 an organic banana, rolled in 1⁄8 teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt with 10 raw cashews before bed.
Protein, Carb And Fat Balanced Golden Milk
This milky, spicy, rich, and warm drink calms the nervous system, while nourishing the thyroid and the adrenals, leading to a sense of emotional well-being which is wonderful before bed. This drink is also a superstar inflammation eliminator (inflammation increases at night, which forces your body to release cortisol to buffer it, which keeps you awake). It’s also a gentle liver cleanser, a digestive enhancer, a blood sugar balancer, and a heart-healthy, soul-soothing sidekick. You can drink it hot or cold, depending on the season or your preference.
Ingredients:
- 12 ounces of organic raw milk or 100% grass-fed/grass-finished milk or coconut milk
- 1 scoop of Organifi Gold Tea OR 1 tablespoon of turmeric with a ⅛ teaspoon black pepper mixed in
- 1/2 teaspoon of ghee
- 1 teaspoon of organic (raw) honey
- 2 tablespoons collagen
- ⅛ teaspoon of Himalayan pink salt
- ⅛ teaspoon Cardamom
Directions:
- Heat together and blend with a spoon until blended and warm.
- Drink 30 minutes to one hour before bed.
Next Steps To Outsmart Stress
The good news is we can heal the damage that’s been done to our physical and emotional bodies from living off stress hormones for so long and begin to start living in a more balanced state so we are able to handle whatever happens in our life with more ease and grace.
To do that, we have to consistently interrupt the chaotic hormonal pattern our body gets locked into and retrain it to respond to life with a new, healthy hormonal pattern.
We want to reverse the hormonal whirlpool – so to speak – so that healthy brain chemistry, hormonal balance, energy & vitality, restful sleep, mental clarity, and positive moods become your new normal and it’s easy to maintain it. All of this can be done with food alone.
Take action and incorporate these simple food-based steps and you will be amazed at the power of food to beat the stress monster.
Trust me when I say that I REALLY want you to beat the stress monster because life is too precious to waste it feeling overwhelmed and exhausted when simple medicinal foods can alleviate so much.
Leave a comment and let us know how we can help.
Take Our Free Adrenal ReCode Mini-Course To Learn More
If you want to find out more about how to outsmart stress with food, be sure to take our free Adrenal ReCode Mini-Course.
The strategies you will learn there are the most holistic way to manage and overcome stress. We have helped thousands of people to feel so much joy when we see that they achieve a full reset, renewed sense of energy and vitality; while also feeling better both emotionally and physically.
Thank you for your wonderful elixirs Christa! They really DO bookend the day and have kept my tooth infection at bay, particularly that kick of raw ginger in the morning. A free resource – thank YOU
I’d also say it’s important like you say Christa, to find what works for the individual and I’d say not get hung up on perfection. I’m eating vegan again and substituting colostrum and collagen with toasted mixed seeds. Many thanks again for giving so freely
Absolutely, Elizabeth – I always say, there’s no perfection in healing 🙂
They really are amazing – we’re so glad you’re enjoying them 🙂
I am a vegetarian. What should I do to replace collagen in your recipes? Thank you!
Hi Charu! You can use marine collagen, or otherwise you would need to omit it. In order to do the Adrenal ReCode, you must eat at least fish (and preferably eggs). Otherwise, you will not be able to implement our 6-Pillar clinical strategy. We prefer to use protein from animals so that your body does not have to work harder to convert the protein into the energy you need. This is especially important when we are in a state of adrenal fatigue and locked into the fight-or-flight cycle as our bodies do not have the extra reserves it takes in the way of bacteria and enzymes to break down and utilize vegetarian sources of protein.
I love these tips! If I am allergic to bananas, can I swap the fruit and still get the sleep benefits? Or is the banana the magic ingredient because of the potassium?
Hi Kelly – yes – try mangoes or another tropical fruit:)
Hi, Christa,
I am such a fan of your available content and often refer to your posts and programs to help my own clients manage psych related issues more holistically.
My question for you is how long do you ‘prescribe’ the morning elixir for? I’ve been doing it now for nearly a month and wondering what the common positive benefits one should be observing. Perhaps this is an elixir that should or could be part of ones daily morning ritual (much like my yoga and meditation)?
Sending love and light~
~Shannon
Hi Shannon- Thank you so much for the kind words, I will be sure to pass on the message 🙂 We typically recommend a variety of different morning routines (we have 7 within our Recode Program), the purpose of the elixir is to support our stress hormones and the natural rhythm of them throughout the day (peaking in the morning and naturally falling through the day). For some, they will find the elixir is enough to support them, for others, we encourage yoga, medication, dry brushing, a high protein breakfast or walking to be added into their routine. I hope this helps!
For the night time snack, can another type of nut be substituted for cashews? I can’t eat them
Hi Cait, you are welcome to include walnuts as a substitute. 🙂
Hello, I have noticed using the Vital Proteins powder ramps up my adrenals. I start getting jittery in my belly. I read from a nutritionist she had to stop taking it because it affected her adrenals. Is there any truth to that? Thank you
Hi Elaine- it is possible for it to be too much protein/amino acid content for you, you may want to try marine collagen instead.
I have found that using the banana and cashew nuts at bedtime and ginger drink in the morning has made my menopausal symptoms much worse. I was waking during the night around 4 times with hot flashes. Before I would only wake once at night!
Hi Leanne- Thanks for writing, you may want to try adding a little more protein to your morning routine and reduce the banana serving size by 1/2 for the next few weeks until your body becomes adapted. Feel free to reach out to our clinical team, [email protected]