We believe in functional mental wellness, a holistic approach to mental health. We know that there's hope for those of us who have experienced trauma, even profound trauma and that's why we created the universe is your therapist podcast, we believe whether you call it God, the universe, source, unity or love that there is something much greater than us that conspires for our good, we envision a world of healing and connection, and we teach you simple but powerful practices that integrate your mind, body and spirit so that you can come home to your highest self and your truest identity. You are not broken, you are loved, and you can heal. My name is Amy Hoyt, and together with my sister Lena, we will take you on a journey of healing and self discovery.
Thanks for joining us for this podcast of the universe is your therapist. We're excited to speaking with Dr. Geno Hoyt, who's a medical doctor. And he's going to talk to us a little bit about how fast food when we have toxic stress can seem like an easy solution. Or when we when we have toxic stress or trauma, why we are so drawn to carbohydrates and sugars and fats. So this episode will talk a little bit about what the body craves under toxic stress and when having been affected by trauma. Thanks, Dr. Gina for joining us again, it's great to see you. And this time I see we did not wear matching shirts.
So nice to talk with you again.
Thank you. Go ahead and tell us a little bit about what we're talking about right before we started recording, which is how we can get into this vicious cycle. And then they're no fault of our own. But then it's very difficult to break.
Well Lena, when I think about fast food, I like to think about what's going on in our lives behind the scenes that's driving us to maybe need fast food, there's a lot of different reasons that we might need to eat fast. And usually, most of those reasons are stressful. So we might be really tired, we're exhausted or we're in a hurry, we're in a rush, we don't have time. So we're feeling really depressed. Or maybe we're feeling like we need an emotional break. And that's a way to kind of treat ourselves or sometimes we're just starving. And so those are all kind of stressful circumstances that might drive us to fast food when we might not normally have a planned outing. Are you planning to eat fast?
I was thinking about what you were saying earlier Gina and contemplating that the reason I usually pick fast food is either because I'm so hungry, and I can't. I don't have like the brain power to figure out a better option. Or if I do have the brain power to figure out a better option. I just want something that's comforting.
Yeah, I've definitely been there before where you're just feeling a little bit foggy. And you're like, I just know, I need some calories, I need some glucose, I need something to help. That's definitely part of it. All of these situations that we're talking about here, increase our cortisol levels a little bit. And cortisol is this hormone that comes from these little teeny tiny glands that sit on the top of our kidneys, and they produce our adrenaline and noradrenaline. And they, this, they pump this stuff out this cortisol that helps us be driven to seek out higher calorie, higher sugars, higher fat foods. And this was really helpful back in the day when we needed the cortisol to help us fight Tigers or danger and things like that. We needed our muscles to be absolutely primed and they need glucose to do that we needed our brain to be really sharp, and they need glucose to do that. So this is our body's way of saying you need something and it kicks into this little bit of a fight or flight mode and causes us to start looking immediately for food. What can I grab? What can I get immediately that's going to help me feel better? And it's just a natural biological drive. That's the way I like to think of it when I'm wanting fast
food. GMAT. How do we combat then? Do you have any suggestions for some small ways that we can start doing something different so that we are not so caught up in this cortisol stress cycle and that we can grab something fast and easy that isn't necessarily fast food?
Yeah, there's a lot of alternatives that we can do that don't end up causing us in the long run. To have these increased feelings of tiredness, irritability, anxiousness, lacking focus, the irony about fast food, or these highly processed foods that are highly refined is that they seem like they're going to be helpful in the moment. But over time, they actually cause the exact same symptoms that we're trying to kind of get ourselves out of. So there's a few things that we can do occasional fast food definitely has saved my bacon before. So I definitely feel like on occasion, these are great, but regularly eating them is problematic to our mood.
One thing that I like to do Gina when I'm trying to avoid fast food, is I like to remember that anything that I eat from my house is way less money and is likely to be way healthier for me. It doesn't always work. It depends on how dysregulated I am emotionally and physiologically. But that is one thing that I tried to keep in mind. Unfortunately, I don't love a lot of fruit. But I love vegetables and vegetables, the vegetables I like I like to have them roasted or sauteed. And that takes a little bit of time. So it's not super fast. So what do you
Yeah, yeah, definitely, I'm gonna give you some tips. Because what you said is so true, almost without exception, you're going to consume a higher number of calories, lower nutritionally dense food, fast food, you're at home, you're almost almost without exception, gonna get more brain foods like lower calories, lower cost, which leads to better mood, and less anxiety to for the financial reasons. So you're right, eating at home is definitely better. But we can always, logic doesn't always work. In those moments, when we're activated, our cortisol is going we're hungry, we're in stress. So I'm going to give you tips and maybe do some things ahead of time, that maybe it won't eliminate it. But like we always say kind of like maybe it'll reduce it that the feelings of the running through that fast food line when you're having those moments. So one thing I like to do is have snacks in the car. And things that are stable in the car would be things like nuts, so I have just a little bag of sunflower seeds that I eat in the car trail mix things that aren't going to go bad necessarily in a week or two just sitting in a place in your car so that when you're in those moments, you can eat them, they're very filling. And so you may have just what you need calorically to get you out of that mode, that emergency mode that you might be a ticket to home. On the drive home from work, I'd like to have saved from my lunch one baggie of vegetables that are already pre cut for an apple so that I eat that on the way home it helps me feel less guilty about fruits and vegetables in my meal when I know that I'm eating them on the way home. And it gets me away from the fast food lines that I'm driving past on the way home and also, like gets me through dinner prep. So I'm more satisfied to get through and take the time it takes to dinner prep. My other tip is just to have some five minute dinners bought out on hand ahead of time that you can just throw together in literally five minutes. That's the same amount of time it takes to drive through a drive thru even less in some cases. So this would be like being dip with tortilla chips with a little bit of salad on the side or rice and beans. pre cooked rice with being a sandwich even a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is healthier for you and more of a brain food, any kind of sandwich turkey with avocado, that would be great brain food for you. My our newest thing that we're doing here at home is buying the non that are pre made and making pizzas on those. And that that literally takes five minutes, a little bit of pizza sauce and cheese, some toppings vegetables, and we're done. So you're not going to eat like that every night, like a five minute meal. But when you're in that crisis mode, having those on hand Five Minute Meals already kind of thought out can be really helpful. And it's sort of like the good, better best. You know, if you're not always going to eat at a five star restaurant or make a huge meal, sometimes you need a 20 minute meal and sometimes you literally do need a five minute meal and if you have some of them planned out ahead of time it can help prevent those from the best food five minute meals. So the goal is really just crisis management and having a few tools on hand beforehand to prevent those emergencies. It's really a win win win. We can lower our anxiety when we're already feeling anxious by eating healthy.
I love those suggestions. Gina Those are great. One thing I forgot to say that I do sometimes I use my crock pot a lot. And here in the Midwest it is very, very hot right now. And if I use my crock pot in the morning, then I have a meal to come home to and eat.
Wonderful. I know that instant cookers instant pressure cookers have really changed the way that people are able to prepare meals a lot quicker. So that's a great tip using your crock pot using your freezer. Use your freezer Great. Anytime you've cooked a meal and you have leftovers soup or anything like that it can go right in the freezer for a five minute meal with the grilled cheese or sandwich.
That's awesome. Well Thank you Gina for joining this. We are so glad to get some practical tools and advice and we welcome you to continue to add your micro steps of adding fruit and vegetable servings to your day as you continue on your journey to heal from toxic stress, trauma and learn how to live a more beautiful, full, healthy, happy life. We enjoyed having you here and we look forward to seeing you next week.
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