Women's hormones, gut + metabolism

Reminder: You Need To Consume More Than 1200 Calories A Day

If someone tells you to eat 1200 calories a day I give you permission to tell them to fuck off. 1200 calories is the recommended caloric intake for a toddler. Why would a grown adult think 1200 calories would sustain a body that weighs 8x that of a toddler?

1200 calories is the minimum requirement you need just to stay alive.

On top of that, stress increases your need for more nutrients.

Stress in all forms: exercise/physical stress, poor sleep, a fight with a friend, work stress, family stress, driving to work, health anxiety, poor digestion, environmental toxins, EMFs, blue light, emotional stress, scrolling social media, etc…

But Laura, I don’t feel stressed. Stress comes in so many different forms. Tell me you are not exposed to at least three of these stressors daily?

When stress demands are high there is a rapid turnover of protein, fat + carbs needed to produce energy.

Increase in cortisol = increase need for nutrients.

No appetite when stressed so you don’t eat!?

Well girlfriend, let’s just add more fuel to the fire by having your body go through the super stressful process of having to eat its own tissues and use its reserves to create energy that you are neglecting to give it.

With that said, the only way to bring down stress in your body is by eating! Giving your body the energy it needs to handle these stress demands.

I don’t care if you “didn’t workout that day” or “you’ve been sitting at your desk all day”- feed your body, give it the nourishment it needs and for the love of whatever you believe in, do not restrict yourself to 1200 calories a day.

This is the perfect storm for hormonal imbalances, irregular or missing periods, digestive distress, anxiety, depression, you name it… It all comes back to nourishing your body enough and often.

I have said it before and I will say it again. YOU DO NOT NEED TO EARN YOUR FOOD.

When your body is underfed stress takes an even greater toll on your health.

Some quick foods to help bring down stress that are pretty tasty to help with that stress induced low appetite:

Adrenal cocktail
Quality ice cream
Raw chocolate milk
Fruit + cheese
Homemade gummies
Parm + fig jam
GF Sourdough + butter

What’s Your Food Rule Story?

From day one my relationship with food was fucked.

I remember being 10 and my grandmother eating a box of peeps, telling me they are good for you because they don’t have any fat and that fat is bad for you. There began my journey into low fat dieting.

I remember in middle school my mother doing all those slim fast shakes and only allowing herself to eat wheat thins or pretzels if she needed to.

I remember when I was a teenager and the biggest thing to hit the news was that Oprah had lost weight. During all of her interviews she said all she did was “not eat past 7pm. Not even a grape.” – Yes, I literally remember hearing these exact words. There began my journey of always thinking I would get fat if I ate a grape past 7pm.

Then in my early 20s, YouTube bikini competitor influencers were the hot new thing. I started watching videos religiously and began inheriting food rules- always work out fasted, have coffee on an empty stomach for weight loss, always have nut milks because they are lower calorie, sugar is a no, sugar free sweeteners are better, avoid fat at all costs and the biggest one…

Never enjoy food or allow yourself to eat unless you earned it at the gym.

THIS.

This is a constant mind fuck that we have all been exposed to at a young age. At this point we are so damn confused about food it’s honestly quite sad.

We have such anxiety and stress around food no wonder why are guts are fucked and our hormones are wack.

I can talk about all the “sciencey” things and how food works with our biology but at the end of the day, its all about LIVING and reducing stress.

At what point do we just live? I mean truly live.

I have come to realize the happier a person is in their life, the easier it is to heal.

Nutrition doesn’t need to be hard. At the end of the day it’s about nourishing your cells, getting in the most nutrients possible so you can live a happy, fulfilling, symptom-free life, one of joy and excitement, every damn day.

Eat real food. Eat like your great grandmother ate. It’s that simple.

And fuck the rest.

Oh and incase you were wondering all the above rules are bullshit and do not work with our biology. ✌🏼

Are Some of Your Symptoms Related to Your Anxiety Around Food?

“I can’t eat the dessert unless I go for a run”

“I earned this wine!”

“I eat ‘clean’ most of the time”

“Too many calories!”

“I’ll pass on the rice + potatoes, too many carbs! But I can have cauliflower!”

“I should really eat more vegetables”

“It’s the weekend, I can have a cheat meal”

“Good thing I am working out tomorrow to burn all this off”

You start learning more about nutrition + your thoughts turn into…

“God knows what oil that was cooked in, I can’t eat it!”

“I don’t trust that meat, who knows the quality and where it came from”

“I can’t eat the sugar, it’s so bad and will cause diabetes and insulin resistance”

No matter what end of the spectrum you are on, these thoughts are FUCKED. And quite honestly, It is hard being a woman.

It is so sad that diet culture + propaganda makes us feel so much guilt, shame, + confusion around food.

I remember living in Chicago 5 years ago + the only way I would allow myself to eat out at a restaurant was if I walked at least 3 miles there + back. I remember all the times I stayed home rather than going out with friends because I had anxiety around going out to dinner at an “unhealthy” restaurant. I remember only having a few restaurants to choose from because they had a “safe, healthy option” on the menu.

Whether you are eating to earn your food or being hyper aware of everything that goes in your mouth, it’s not the food that is unhealthy, it’s these thoughts that are. These thoughts are what causes stress, these thoughts are what causes physical symptoms from hormonal imbalances to digestive distress.

Deep healing only happens once we let go of these thought patterns and start enjoying food for what it is- fuel and energy so we can live our happiest most fulfilling lives. If you don’t have the energy + your stressed out about your food all the time you can’t truly expect to heal.

Once I found food freedom, became less obsessive about every damn thing I put in my mouth + started to understand my body better that is when I found true happiness in all aspects of my life + began to heal on a deeper level.

Do you think some of your symptoms are related to your anxiety around food?