303-SYNCPodcast_BiohacksHolidays

[00:00:00] Jenny Swisher: Welcome friends to this episode of the Sync Your Life podcast. Today, we’re diving into some of my favorite biohacks for the holiday season, especially when it comes to your hormone health. As we find ourselves in the thick of holiday time, many women often complain of fighting their willpower when it comes to the Christmas cookies or the alcohol and the lack of sleep, thanks to late nights spent with friends and family.

[00:01:18] Jenny Swisher: I thought this would be the perfect episode to dive deeper into controlling the controllable when it comes to this time of year and what we can do in the journey of giving ourselves grace and being present for what really matters. So let’s kick this off by addressing this by way of our five fundamentals of hormone balance.

[00:01:33] Jenny Swisher: As a reminder, they are sleep, supplementation, fitness, nutrition, and managing our traumas. I’ll share my biohacks and tips for navigating each fundamental during what can be a high stress season. We must start with sleep. I know it’s hard, especially when your kids or family members are home or visiting for the holidays and the work parties keep you out late, not to mention New Year’s Eve and late night gift wrapping and all the things.

[00:01:57] Jenny Swisher: But the more you can make sleep a priority, the better. The goal is never perfection, but more so trying to make good sleep happen the majority of the time. Good bedtimes, cause remember, deep restorative sleep occurs before midnight, getting an hour of extra sleep when you’re on your menstrual period, prioritizing nervous system unwinding in the evenings, these things can all make a huge difference.

[00:02:19] Jenny Swisher: The colder temperatures in the wintertime, for many of us, means a natural tendency to want to hibernate and an actual physiological need to sleep more. But the parties, the visitors, all the things make that hard during the holidays. And by the way, if you find yourself getting sick during the holidays, it’s likely because, yes, it’s cold and flu season, but more importantly, if your body isn’t sleeping enough and getting adequate rest, your immune system is often caught by yucky viruses.

[00:02:45] Jenny Swisher: Similar to prioritizing sleep, is also managing your stress. Even if you love the holiday season, which I know I do, and you love the hustle and bustle, we still have to acknowledge that it’s a high stress time of year. Presence to buy and wrap, foods to make, places to be, kids or home, all the things lead to a bit of extra stress, especially for moms.

[00:03:04] Jenny Swisher: Factoring in down regulation points in our day can be game changing. Maybe this means sitting to eat your lunch, as opposed to eating on the go. Or maybe it’s setting an alarm on your phone for 4 o’clock PM to lie down with your legs up the wall for 5 minutes,

[00:03:18] Jenny Swisher: just for rest and rejuvenation. Or maybe it’s breathwork, or sun salutations, or a walk with absolutely no noise. No podcasts, no business calls, just you and the walk. Prioritizing our nervous system, I would argue, makes the absolute most difference during the high stress times.

[00:03:35] Jenny Swisher: While we want to think that it’s prioritizing our workouts and avoiding sugar, if our body is living in fight or flight, I’m sorry to say, it’s just trying to survive. Reducing your stress by crafting these little pockets into your day, helping you reset is the real flex. Beyond sleep and stress management, we have to take a look at supplementation.

[00:03:56] Jenny Swisher: And while supplementation is bio individual, there are some supplements that can benefit most every woman. These include magnesium, specifically magnesium glycinate, which is great for calming, anti anxiety, better sleep, reduction in PMS symptoms, creatine, which is great for brain fog and cognition, and electrolytes for proper hydration.

[00:04:16] Jenny Swisher: I’ll link up for you my favorite brands for these three things so that you can swipe up to grab yourself some if you’re not already using these. But friends, getting adequate magnesium, hydration, and creatine can be game changing for you and your energy. Next up is nutrition. And y’all, here’s the thing.

[00:04:30] Jenny Swisher: I spent my twenties counting macros. I spent my thirties counting containers. And now at the age of 41, I’m embracing an, I don’t like to count in order to eat mentality. Please don’t make me do math to eat. I’ve found that while tracking my food a few times a year helps me dial in how much I might be over or under eating, tracking every teaspoon was leading to obsessive tendencies that did not serve my nervous system health.

[00:04:54] Jenny Swisher: And as we discussed, nervous system is queen. Instead, I embrace the mindset of making half of my plate comprised of what my kids and I call the foods that God made, colorful fruits and veggies. I also add 30 grams of protein with a serving of healthy fat.

[00:05:09] Jenny Swisher: The remaining space on my plate, I leave for the foods that I want to have. Whether it’s the dinner roll, or the tortilla chips. There’s a social and relational side to food that matters. Eating in community with others feeds the soul, just as feeling and smelling your food triggers so many things within the body.

[00:05:25] Jenny Swisher: Spending your dinnertime distraught over the tortilla chips that you’re trying to avoid only to give in to five Oreos at bedtime later is not worth the mental struggle. Half your plate in fruits and veggies, 30 grams of protein, a serving of healthy fat, and when you’ve eaten those things, a few bites of the thing that you really want at the end of your meal.

[00:05:45] Jenny Swisher: This is the way that I treat my nutrition, especially during the holidays when I’m not saying no to a cookie. Next up, we have exercise. For me, exercise is like brushing my teeth. I do it in some way most every day, but friends, if you’re struggling with perfection and your workouts, whether that’s what I call calendar conditioning or hitting a certain calorie burn or doubling up when you miss a workout, this is not the way friends.

[00:06:09] Jenny Swisher: I remember a couple of years ago after literally following home fitness program after home fitness program for over a decade, I finally had a come to Jesus moment with myself. I decided that for the month of December that year, I wasn’t going to follow a calendar of any kind. I was just going to follow my energy day to day.

[00:06:26] Jenny Swisher: If I felt like pushing, I’d push. If I felt like walking, I’d walk. If I felt like a yoga class, I’d do the yoga class. My only non negotiable was that I was committing to 30 plus minutes of movement each day. I now do this every year when I find myself starting to become a little too caught up in the perfectionism thing.

[00:06:45] Jenny Swisher: Instead of dialing it in, I give myself permission to not follow the calendar and to not push every day. And guess what it’s good for? It’s good for my nervous system. So many women are afraid of doing it wrong, but yet the only way to truly do it wrong is to not do it at all, which unfortunately is where many women wind up.

[00:07:04] Jenny Swisher: They wind up starting over. We have three weeks remaining in 2024. So maybe this is the year that you end the year strong in a different way, by letting your energy lead you. And finally, managing our traumas. I don’t think there’s a single one of us who isn’t affected by a loss. Or a tragedy. Or a relational void.

[00:07:25] Jenny Swisher: Whether it’s big T or little t trauma, we all have them. Not a Christmas will go by that I don’t think of my grandmother. She always wore a Christmas brooch on Christmas Eve on her sweater. And ever since she passed away, every Christmas Eve, I pull one out of the ones that she left me, and I wear it on my sweater.

[00:07:42] Jenny Swisher: My mother in law passed away nearly two years ago, and her place at the table is sorely missed. Choosing to push through those memories or push them aside is a choice. Feeling them is a choice. The key here is the awareness. And in knowing that while we have our own battles and traumas, we do all have one thing in common, which is the human condition.

[00:08:03] Jenny Swisher: We all feel. What a blessing and a curse it is to feel. According to van der Kolk, who’s the author of The Body Keeps the Score, quote, traumatized people chronically feel unsafe inside their bodies. The past is alive in the form of gnawing interior discomfort. Their bodies are constantly bombarded by visceral warning signs.

[00:08:23] Jenny Swisher: And in an attempt to control these processes, they often become expert at ignoring their gut feelings and in numbing awareness of what is played out inside. They learn to hide from their selves. Mindfulness this holiday season may just be the thing to once again bring a sense of peace and calm. The bottom line is this, keeping things simple can do your mind and body wonders in seasons of high stress.

[00:08:49] Jenny Swisher: Prioritizing sleep and stress management above all else, staying mindful, moving our bodies in some way, These are all things that we can do to help ourselves not only survive, but thrive during the holidays. Now I could have told you to consume apple cider vinegar before eating desserts because we know it offsets blood sugar spikes.

[00:09:07] Jenny Swisher: And I could have told you to go buy an Oura ring, which I do highly recommend. I could have told you random little tips to help you biohack the holidays, but in the end, it really comes down to these five fundamentals. It’s not about skipping the Christmas cookies and to have stronger willpower. It’s about living through the season with a sense of gratitude and calm while making choices that serve our energy.

[00:09:30] Jenny Swisher: My friends, I hope this is helpful for you. I hope you have a fantastic holiday season. I’ll see you again on the podcast in just a couple of days with our next interview. Stay tuned and we’ll talk soon. Bye bye.