Simple Nutrition Insights

Achieve Harmony: Master Stress, Sleep, and Social Connections

• Leonila • Episode 76

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Unlock the secrets to a balanced and fulfilling life as we explore holistic wellness in this enlightening episode. Imagine a life where stress is manageable, sleep is restorative, and relationships are nourishing. By tuning in, you'll discover the interconnectedness of nutrition, movement, stress management, sleep, and social connections, and learn how to create harmony across these vital areas. Through personal anecdotes, I share how embracing these pillars has transformed my own well-being and offer practical insights to help you embark on your journey toward holistic health.

Stress and sleep, often overlooked yet critical components of wellness, take center stage as we discuss how identifying personal stressors and integrating mindfulness practices can significantly enhance your quality of life. From meditation and journaling to deep breathing exercises, learn how to effectively manage stress and improve your sleep health, which is essential for maintaining hormonal balance and overall health. If you're grappling with persistent stress, we strongly recommend seeking professional guidance to develop robust coping strategies that can change your life for the better.

The support of social connections and emotional processing can profoundly impact mental and emotional wellness, even for those who are more introverted. I share stories about staying connected with family and overcoming the challenges of making new friends as adults, highlighting the importance of community and shared interests. We delve into emotional well-being and spiritual health, offering ways to engage in meaningful self-reflection and find purpose. Join us in taking control of your wellness journey by engaging with our community, sharing your progress, and finding motivation to achieve a balanced lifestyle. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with others who are ready to transform their approach to life and wellness.

Embrace Holistic Wellness: A path to a balanced life

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Speaker 1:

Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode in Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast. I am your host, leonida Campos, and I am so excited to have you here today, because today we are going to dive into a topic that resonates with all of us and if it hasn't, hopefully this is an insightful episode for you. But that is holistic wellness. What does it mean to live a truly healthy life? Is it just about eating the right foods or going to the gym? Well, spoiler alert, it is so much more than that and I don't want you to worry about like, oh my gosh, like I'm already overwhelmed with those two areas nutrition and fitness. But I want you to think about yourself, right, as a wholesome person. That requires taking care of more in different areas, right, and it doesn't have to be overwhelming. We'll talk about this in a moment. In this episode, we'll explore the core pillars of holistic wellness, which are nutrition, movement, stress management, sleep and social connections, and a few bonus areas that are often overlooked. By the end, you'll have actionable tips to start creating balance in your life right away. So, when we think about health, many of us default to diet and exercise because there is a huge emphasis on those two areas, right? Well, those are critical. Our well-being is also shaped by how we manage stress, the quality of our sleep, our relationships and even our emotional and spiritual health. True wellness isn't about perfection. It's about balance. When one area is out of sync, it can impact the others. For example, lack of sleep can lead to poor nutrition choices, higher stress and even less motivation to move your body.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to give you an example here On Friday, last Friday. I usually work out Monday through Friday and pretty consistently right, but last Friday I wasn't feeling it the day before I woke up. So many times. My youngest child likes to have someone right next to him, so even if he sleeps on his bed, he moves to our bed. So I was waking up often, but I was also not feeling well. I was feeling nauseous and my stomach was hurting, so I didn't sleep well and my alarm went off.

Speaker 1:

I got up with intention to work out, but as I was getting ready for my workout which I work out from home or at home and it's a lot easier and so I felt like I didn't feel motivated, I felt like low energy and I was like man. This is like I'm really pushing myself and I and this is something that I usually look forward to, right, like, this is my time. And I looked in, I look into, like working out the next day, but not on Friday. So I really listened to my body and I said you know what I am just going to do my workout on Saturday I didn't sleep well. I'm not having the motivation, I don't want to injure myself, maybe I'll just spend that extra 30, 45 minutes taking a nap, right? So I went back to bed and I just listened to my body.

Speaker 1:

So sometimes we got to do that, right, especially if we are not sleeping well because, essentially, your body didn't have the opportunity to rest and recover. It's a good habit to listen to those cues, right, listen to our bodies. So let's start with. You know, I want to go over each of the pillars, right. As I mentioned, we have nutrition, we have fitness or movement, right, but we also have stress management, sleep right, and social relationships and other ones. So I'll spend a few minutes on these areas, right, and we'll talk about some tips and some ways to be able to achieve them.

Speaker 1:

So, of course, as a dietitian, I am going to start with nutrition Now. Essentially, this is one of our foundations, right? What we eat is going to fuel our body, our minds and our energy. So if we focus on balanced meals and again, I've done a lot of episodes on what balanced meals are, on how to accomplish that, some examples on how to do that so if you are new or if you haven't listened to those episodes, please go back to those episodes and just take a quick listen. Go into the show notes and there's resources there that are showing you how to create balanced meals.

Speaker 1:

What does this mean? Just for a quick recap here, it just means focusing on wholesome foods, adding your lean proteins, adding your plant-based protein sources. If you do that, adding your healthy fats avocados, nuts, seeds, fatty fish, salmon adding your healthy fats right, I mentioned nuts and seeds, avocados. Adding your complex carbs right, if we're thinking about your fruits, your starchy vegetables, your whole grains and plenty of colorful of your fruits and veggies. If you add a variety of those foods, right, you're getting the nutrients that your body needs at a cellular level, which is going to help and repair your cells and that is going to help you overall right, well-being overall.

Speaker 1:

So we want to be intentional about how we create our meals. We want to be intentional about how we create our meals right and how we can build consistency on that, because if we don't feel well, we have to start there right. Sometimes we can control a lot of things, but we can absolutely control how we are nourishing our bodies. So you don't have to be perfect all the time, right, you don't even have to have these meals 100% of the time. If you try to meal prep right using the 80-20 approach meaning 80% of your wholesome foods you know 80% of your foods are wholesome and 20% are treats, right, that you enjoy or foods that you enjoy that bring. You know that you really like that's a pretty good balance, and so you don't have to be 100%. You know that you really like. That's a pretty good balance, and so you don't have to be 100%. You know perfect or 100%, it has to be just you know wholesome foods. You can still add those foods that you enjoy. A lot of the times, the issue comes when we are doing 80% of treats and 20% are wholesome foods.

Speaker 1:

So think about it that way and I talk about these on my last episode where we just really focus on realistic goals and making those goals achievable, right and something that we can sustain. So as we go, as we finish this year right, and we go into the new year. I don't want you to just create these massive goals that it might sound great and we might be so motivated because it's a new year and like we want to start strong. But I want you to be realistic with yourself and ask yourself can I really achieve these consistently for the rest of the year? If the answer is no, then really be honest with yourself and be like you know what I'm going to focus on a month at a time. Right, what do I want to accomplish for this next month? And go that way. You can absolutely plan for the rest of the year, but really focusing on what your steps are going to be on a month-to-month basis, on a week-to-week basis, on a day-to-day basis, to really make sense for you.

Speaker 1:

So the second pillar is movement. Movement doesn't have to mean hours in the gym. It is really about finding what works for your body and your lifestyle, right, whether it's a daily walk, yoga, weightlifting or dancing in your living room. Movement boosts our endorphins, it improves circulation and strengthens our body, and I say this often too. Our bodies are meant for movement. We were not meant to be sedentary or be sitting for hours and hours and hours, because that prevents circulation, right, then you start having issues with your back, issues with your legs, because you are not moving your body. Right, there's not enough circulation going through your body consistently. But the other thing too and this is, you know, I talk to my clients about this often right? Like, let's not think about movement as a way for aesthetics. Let's not think about movement as a way for aesthetics, because I'm so sedentary right now that my body is going to be so weak by the time I'm 65. And I'm going to need a lot of help doing my daily things like cooking or changing myself or using the restroom. So I want you to really think about these things, right, because what we do right now, it is going to affect us as we get older. And as we get older, we're losing more muscle mass, we're losing our bone density. And what's going to help to prevent that Movement? Right, doing some kind of resistance training, doing some kind of weight training.

Speaker 1:

It doesn't mean that you have to go to the gym for two hours. I don't even have two hours. It's so interesting because my husband said you know, as we were talking about how we have. You know how our bodies have changed just over the years. And you know I was mentioning to him that when I was doing my dietetic internship because I moved to Bakersfield for a whole year, I didn't have any kids, right, so I would go to the gym for over two hours. Because I moved to Bakersfield for a whole year, I didn't have any kids, right, so I would go to the gym for over two hours because I had the time right. And, yeah, I was doing excessive amounts of exercise which were not needed. But now that I don't have that much time right now, I have two children that need me and I have a lot of work to do. Sometimes spending 45 to 60 minutes is more than enough, right. Sometimes, even just going for multiple walks during the day five-minute walks, right which I do that when I'm in the office and I've been sitting for a long time, right, I just go downstairs and take a five-minute walk and come back in between sessions and that helps my body so much, right, because I do feel it, I do feel my legs, I do feel my back and just my mental health right, like my gosh I've been sitting for so long.

Speaker 1:

See, you have to change your mindset about exercise and movement from a negative way to a positive way. Right, because when you make that shift, you are essentially creating this accountability for yourself. Right, like really looking ahead and like visualizing yourself 10, 20, 30 years from now. Right, and thinking, okay, how do I see myself right physically, how's my mobility? Right, and, and that is going to help us to say, hey, wow, yeah, I definitely don't want someone wiping me right, or someone going to the restroom with me because I didn't spend the time right now to really really move my body and help my body age right, in a positive way. Even if it's five minutes, it makes a humongous difference.

Speaker 1:

So, schedule movement right into your day and make it a non-negotiable. So, if it makes sense for you to be like, you know I have a packed day, but you know what I am going to schedule these five minutes to take a walk or these five minutes to do some deep breathing right, or to do a little bit of yoga, whatever, it is right, but you have to make it a priority. If right now it's a challenge, it's because it's not on the top of your list, right? It's just like whatever, when I get to it, you never gonna get to it because a million other things are going to be on your schedule. You're a busy mom, if you're a busy parent or just a busy person in general, everything is going to be more important than that walk, even if it's five minutes, because it's not on your schedule, it's not on your calendar, right? So you have to get into this habit of making it a non-negotiable until it becomes like in second nature or so organic that you know what. You just do it. And I have clients that have built this really strong habit where they're like you know what, at 10 in the morning, I set up a timer, it's on my schedule, it's on my calendar, I get reminders and I stop what I'm doing and I go for my walk Because everything that you're doing is going to be there when you come back, right, but your health, you have to think about that. So, anyway, let's keep going here, my friend.

Speaker 1:

So so far we talked about two main pillars nutrition and movement. The next one is stress management. I can spend and I think I've done an episode on just stress and cortisol and how much that affects our bodies Now there's a lot of noise around cortisol right now and people benefiting for the wrong reasons. But I don't want you to think that cortisol is bad for you. Right, there's a reason why that hormone is available in our systems. Right, it is an alarm that tells our system hey, you need to be ready, you need to be alert. Right, because something's happening. And so, yeah, when we're in a stressful situation or when a fight or flight right response, then we have the endorphins, we have the adrenaline, right, that we need to be able to do what we need to do.

Speaker 1:

But the problem is chronic stress, right, because that means that you're overworking your body, you're overworking your adrenal glands and there is just so much happening that you're not allowing your body to really, really have a rest. Right, because you have this chronic stress and that starts to present, in ways that you wouldn't think that you would be able to see it, of course, your mental health, cravings, your ability and motivation to do things, but your gut health too, because your gut health and your brain are connected. And so oftentimes, when you are expecting something, something that you look forward to, right, you're so excited and you feel butterflies in your stomach. That's because your brain and gut are connected, right, same thing with stress there's a lot of hormones happening, there's a lot of enzymes and chemicals going on, and so stress is going to affect your gut health and I've had lots of patients that you know come to me with gut issues and as we started talking, right, they went through a phase of, like, massive amounts of stress, right, and foods that they were able to tolerate now they're not tolerating because they have that gut imbalance, right.

Speaker 1:

And so as we start to focus on the stress management, right, on figuring out triggers and figuring out ways to manage the stress you know, introducing some of these foods slowly then things start to change, right, but we really have to be mindful as to where the stress is coming from. Stress is inevitable, right, but we can manage the chronic stress. We want to be able to really, really hone into it and figure out ways to bring it down, really, really hone into it and figure out ways to bring it down. So the first thing is, right for sure, figuring out what your triggers are. I have clients I say you know, I have high levels of tolerance to stress Wonderful, but you're still affected by the stress in one way or another, subconsciously you are. So you have to figure out how your body's responding to that subconscious and how your body's responding to that subconscious and how your body's responding to that stress. Figure out the triggers, right. Figure out how your body responds to the stress. Oftentimes we see it, we feel it on our shoulders, on our heart rate, our blood pressure, how we respond to people. Right, our mood, our cravings. These are all things that your body's trying to help you manage the stress and cope with it, because it's so much. Now, if you're like I've done all that and I'm still struggling with stress and I mentioned these in my last episode too is that you have to work with a therapist. Right, because they are the professionals and they are going to help you figure out ways, skills and tools to help you get through this. Right, to help you with these strong emotions, with the stress, and just you know this coping mechanism that you can use and that can help you. But in the meantime, right, we can practice mindfulness, meditation, journaling or deep breathing, right, and those things alone can make a huge difference. So a lot of the times we have to like, just take, just like the walk right five minutes, just take five minutes, right, and you can even combine them. You know what this is going to be my mindfulness break. I'm going to take a five minute walk, I'm going to do some deep breathing, and it's going to help me in both ways, right? So if you find yourself throughout the day, right, like really struggling with these, just take five minutes, right. Start your day with a five-minute mind-funnel strike, right, or a five-minute deep breathing session, right?

Speaker 1:

It's funny, my youngest one he wakes up in the morning, oftentimes crying, right, and like upset, because he wanted me to stay in bed with him and I was like, but mommy has to do a lot of things, right, it's late, we have to get ready. And so this morning wasn't any different, right, and I kneeled and I talked to him and I said you know what? The way that you start your day is the way that you can finish your day. We want to start our day happy, right, like, yeah, I know you wanted me to stay in bed with you, but we have to do lots of things. So let's start our day, let's take some deep breathing, right, and let's have a happy day, right, let's have a good day. And so, yeah, he understood that, right, we'll see what happens. We'll have to repeat it tomorrow and we'll see how it goes.

Speaker 1:

But you know, sometimes, even for myself, sometimes I wake up and I'm like, oh man, I have so many things in my mind and like I want to focus on my workout. Right, so I start with just a few deep breaths. Right, and throughout the day I practice that, because these are things that you have to do throughout the day. Right, so you train your brain, you train your body what to do when you're in a stressful situation. Right, and it's like almost automatic. We don't respond well. Our bodies and our brains don't respond well when we are in this stressful situation. Right, because all the alarms are going off and we're like we're in panic mode. Like, what do we do? We run away, we fight? Right, but when you train your body and your brain to know what to do right, because you've been practicing and you've been doing it then it's almost automatic. So that's what you want to do. You want to use these coping skills and coping mechanisms that you learn from your therapist or by you figuring out and finding out on a daily basis. Right, on a consistent basis. So that way it's more natural when things do happen, sleep.

Speaker 1:

Sleep is where the magic happens. It sure does. It is when our bodies repair, it is when our brain processes information, gets rid of things that you don't need. It is when our hormones reset. It literally is where our bodies recover, replenish and repair. So if we don't get good sleep right, all those things are not happening in a way that they need to happen.

Speaker 1:

Right now we take into chronic sleep deprivation, right, or inability to really sleep and have good quality sleep, and now we are in trouble, right, because, yeah, we can have hormonal issues, we can have, our stress could be even more in whack, our cortisol levels can be high, and we are just not repairing right, we are just not recovering our bodies. So it is really important to prioritize your sleep and not only getting the amount of sleep right Eight hours at least, seven to eight hours of sleep. The quality of sleep, too, makes a huge difference. So you could get 10 hours of sleep, but if you don't get into a deep sleep, that good REM sleep, then we're not really really resting and our brains need that right. It's so important for our brain function and our brain development and just our brain health, which can also help, you know, with managing dementia and Alzheimer's, and so if we're having issues with that, right, talking to your doctor about it, they can send you to see a sleep specialist, right, and figure out if there's something clinically underlying. If it's because you decide, and you choose to go to bed late and you choose to use your phone, you know, while you're trying to go to sleep, then you choose to use your phone while you're trying to go to sleep then we have to work on those habits, right? Because then that means that you're not allowing your body, you don't have the sleep routine that is conducive for your body to really really have that good quality sleep. So, look at your environment, look at the things that you do leading to bed and if you need to create a bedtime routine, go for it. Dim the lights, avoid screens, go to bed at the same time each night, right? So you start training your body, training your brain, like, okay, it's time to get ready, right, and that's going to help you too.

Speaker 1:

Number five social connection Connections. Believe it or not, human beings are wired for connection. We are social beings. Even myself as an introvert, right, I love having my family around, right, even though I love being home, I love having my husband around and my children. I really enjoy that. Even if I feel overstimulated, right and overwhelmed, I miss them. Overstimulated, right and overwhelmed, I miss them all the time, right? If I'm away from them, I miss them and I think about them all the time. Because we are social beings.

Speaker 1:

So, whether it's family, right, or friends or community, nurturing meaningful relationships can improve mental and emotional health. So make it a point to connect at least with one person a day, right? Or even if it's a quick text or call I text my sister every single day, um, because in the morning, because she wakes up really early, like me, right? So we are working out at the same time, maybe not in the same space, but we're working out at the same time. So that's an opportunity for to connect with each other, right? We ask how we are, we ask you know how week is going to be, how the children are, and we do that pretty much every day. I talk to my mom and my other sister every day too. So having those social connections can really help your emotional well-being and your mental health.

Speaker 1:

Again, even if you're an introvert, I'm an introvert, but I still need that. I still need that social connection with those people that I really enjoy being around with If you need to find a group that you can connect with, or if you have a friend that you really enjoy talking to or that you haven't talked to in forever and you want to reconnect. Amazing, try that. It's funny because I looked into, you know, part of local mommy groups, like Facebook groups, and oftentimes I hear some of the moms say you know, it's so difficult to make friends at this age right Over 30, over 35, because we're so busy, right, but sometimes even building a community that you don't even busy, right, but sometimes even building a community that you don't even know, right, but maybe you have a common theme, right? A girl who likes her mom, a boy mom or whatever, can help, right, not to feel so alone, because we are social beings and creating these relationships and these social connections can help us with our mental health and our emotional health. Bonus areas here so we've talked about the five main pillars of holistic wellness and holistic well-being Nutrition, movement, stress management, sleep, social connections. Now there are two bonuses here that kind of, in a way, fall into the ones that we talked about Emotional well-being Taking time to process your emotions, and so therapy can absolutely help with that.

Speaker 1:

Self-reflection, right, or creative outlets can help. Oftentimes we don't learn how to deal with our emotions, right, because maybe our parents didn't know how to do that or their parents didn't know how to do that, and we grew up not knowing how to do that, so we kind of have to figure it out on our own. Right? Like, how do I manage when I'm really angry or when I'm really sad or when I don't have motivation or when I'm depressed, right, all these other emotions? And so you know they can be reflected in different ways in these other pillars, right? Like how our food choices or our stress or our sleep, right, they can all be impacted by not being able to regulate our emotions.

Speaker 1:

And so oftentimes I talk to my clients about that right. Like this is not your fault, right? We don't learn how to deal with, you know, that anger that we have or that sadness that we have, and our brains and our bodies try to figure out, right, well, this works well, right, or eating this chocolate bar feels really good right now, and so every time that we are feeling this way, this is what we're going to do, because that hasn't worked well for us. It might not be the way that we want to do it right, but that's all we know until we learn new ways to do it. And so if we need help with that, right, it's okay. It really is okay to ask for help when we are struggling with our emotions because we didn't learn how to deal with them. So don't feel shame, right? On the contrary, you should be so proud of yourself to recognize that and be like you know what.

Speaker 1:

I need help with these, and I actually had a client recently that said you know, she's newly retired, her husband has been retired for over 10 years and she's trying to figure out how to find herself now right as a new retired person, being at home more often with these health conditions that she has and trying to figure out how to stay healthy. And it's a lot, it is absolutely a lot for a human being to go through that alone in a way. Yeah, our families might understand, right, or our partner might understand, but it's not like having a professional really giving you an outside look on some tips on how to manage them right. So we're working on getting a therapist right To help with that, on getting a therapist right to help with that, and it's something that she's open to, which I'm so grateful that she is, because, one, it's out of my scope of practice, but it's also great because she's going to get the support that she needs.

Speaker 1:

The next one, the next bonus area, right, is spiritual health. Now, this doesn't have to be religious. If you don't want to, it could be, if you do whatever works for you. But it could really mean connecting with nature right, meditating or exploring your purpose. Oftentimes we find ourselves like man, I don't know what my purpose is in life, right. Or like I feel so empty. Or, you know, as we get older and maybe we are empty nesters, right, and the children are gone right For college or their careers. And now I have to find my new purpose, right. So really connecting with yourself in that spiritual way, right, can help.

Speaker 1:

Sometimes, just being grounded, like you know, taking your shoes off when you go to the beach, right, or feeling the grass, or just connecting with yourself in such a different level, right, like really, really, really getting in touch with yourself, can also help you in so many other ways too. So how do we bring it all together? Really, start small, right. As I always say, you have to focus on one or two things at a time. Focus on smaller, actionable steps versus like, oh my God, now you're telling me that I have to focus on these five pillars plus the two bonus ones. This is a lot, right? No, I'm not. I'm just giving you these options, right. I'm just giving you what really holistic well-being is and holistic wellness is, so that way, you can start taking care of yourself in so many other ways and areas.

Speaker 1:

So, yeah, maybe focus on that one pillar at a time, right, maybe this week. Or prioritize better sleep, or next week, add in a daily walk, right. Or focus on preparing balanced meals. Do what you think is going to help you and what's going to give you the most satisfaction and what you can do without adding stress. Right. Maybe it is deep breathing, maybe it's starting your day on a happy note, right, thinking I don't know whoever to start a beautiful day, right, or something along those lines, or whatever it is that's going to work for you. But these are things. These are actionable things that you can absolutely do and they are, you know, they're in your control. You can absolutely do these. So use tools like habit trackers or journaling to keep yourself accountable.

Speaker 1:

Remember that holistic wellness isn't a one-size-fits-all approach. It's really about finding what works for you in your unique life Pretty much what I do on a day-to-day with my clients right? I don't give you a one-size-fits-all approach. You are a unique person and you deserve to have a unique plan and a unique way to set up your goals and a unique actionable plan. Okay, so let's recap here some key points.

Speaker 1:

So, to recap, holistic wellness is about creating harmony between nutrition, movement, stress management, sleep and social connections. It's just not about doing everything perfectly. It's about making progress one step at a time. So my call to action for you today, my friend, is what's one of the pillars that we talked about that you're going to focus on this week? Right? Choose one.

Speaker 1:

You can send me a message, either through send us a text on Apple Podcast, or you can send me a text right at 559-512-0404, and just tell me what pill are you going to work on this week. Share your thoughts on social media. You can find me at Nutrition underscore, with underscore Leonila, on Instagram, or find my name on our Facebook or my Facebook page. So I'm keeping you accountable here, and if you found this episode helpful, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone that could, who could use a little more balance in their life. Again, thank you so much for joining me today on Simple Nutrition Insights. Until next time, take care of your mind, body and soul, because you deserve to feel your best every single day. Bye-bye for now.