How Stress Actually Impacts Your Results
Embrace Your Real
Julie Ledbetter
5.0 • 982 Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2026
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Have you ever had one of those seasons where you are doing the things you are "supposed" to do, but your body still feels like it is not catching on? You are showing up for your workouts, trying to eat well, doing your best to stay consistent, and yet your cravings feel stronger, your sleep feels off, your energy feels all over the place, and your progress feels slower than it should.
If that is where you are, I do not want you to jump straight to blaming your discipline, because there may be something much deeper going on. It may be that your body has been living under more stress than you realize, and when cortisol stays elevated for too long, it can change the way your body holds fat, protects muscle, manages hunger, recovers from workouts, and responds to the effort you are putting in.
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, I'm breaking down what cortisol is actually doing in your body, why stress and undereating can quietly keep each other going, and what it looks like to support your body in a way that helps your results finally match the work you are doing.
What's Discussed:
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Why cortisol is not the enemy and what happens when it stays elevated for too long
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How chronic stress can affect fat storage, muscle, sleep, cravings, and recovery
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Why undereating can become a hidden stressor that keeps your body in survival mode
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Why "just stress less" is not realistic advice for women carrying full lives
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How fueling consistently can help your body feel safe enough to change
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Why sleep, intentional movement, and simple nervous system support matter more than you think
Ready to have every 30-minute session pre-planned, pre-programmed, and built around exactly this structure? Head to movementwithjulie.com and get started inside the Movement With Julie app.
If you loved this episode, you'll also love: Episode 540: Why Beating Yourself Up Isn't Helping You Reach Your Goals
If you want more from me, be sure to check out…
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Follow me on Instagram: @juliealedbetter | @embraceyourreal | @movementwithjulie
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Movement With Julie | App: https://sale.movementwithjulie.com/
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Macro Counting Made Simple Online Academy: https://www.macrocountingmadesimple.com/
Website: www.juliealedbetter.com
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter, |
| 0:05.4 | a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk |
| 0:11.4 | and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving |
| 0:16.6 | your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get and let's go. |
| 0:27.7 | Hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Real podcast. I'm so grateful that you |
| 0:33.7 | are here today because this one has been one on my heart for a while and I think it's going to be |
| 0:37.6 | explaining a lot for you. Here is the scenario that I keep hearing. Like you're showing up, |
| 0:43.5 | you're training consistently, you're trying to eat well, you're doing everything that you know how to do |
| 0:48.1 | and the results are just not matching your effort. Like you feel like your body is stuck. Your cravings |
| 0:52.9 | are out of control. You're exhausted in a way that sleep does not just seem to fix. And somewhere in the back of your mind, you're starting to wonder, like, if something is actually wrong with you, today I really want to give you a kind of a different lens to look through because for so many women, what is getting in the way is really has |
| 1:12.4 | nothing to do with their workouts or their food choices. It's really happening at a hormonal |
| 1:16.8 | level. And it starts with one word that gets thrown out a lot. And I don't think that it's ever |
| 1:23.3 | really properly explained on a regular basis, but you probably hear it. Any guesses? The answer is |
| 1:30.1 | cortisol. I'm sure you've heard about it, but you likely don't know why it's important. And so by the |
| 1:36.9 | end of this episode, I hope that you can walk away with three things. Number one, a clear understanding |
| 1:42.6 | of what cortisol is actually doing your body when your stress stays elevated. Number one, a clear understanding of what cortisol is actually doing your body |
| 1:45.1 | when your stress stays elevated. Number two, an honest look at how under eating and stress really do |
| 1:51.1 | feed into the cycle that most women don't realize that they're in. And number three, some practical |
| 1:56.4 | tools that you can start using today to support your body instead of fighting it. Before we dive in, though, |
| 2:01.3 | I want to share this review. She gave a five-star review and said practical and inspiring. |
| 2:05.7 | My favorite part of the Embrace Real podcast is the variety yet consistency of every episode. There's a |
| 2:10.5 | great variety of very practical tips and information that can be used to grow in physical |
... |
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