What up guys, Lisa Bill you here and I heard this start that freaking blew my mind that I want to share with you. Did you know the 70% of women have symptoms of stress or burnout right now, right this second. So just think about how many women you know and how many of them actually have burnout. That's seven out of ten guys. So seven of your homies right now feel freaking burnout and utterly stressed. Now as you can see from that start, the reality is that stress actually isn't the exception, it seems to be the wall and us women are conditioned unfortunately to have toxic resilience and embody let's say the hustle culture as a badge of honor and it's literally killing us by causing weight gain, anxiety, premature aging and so much more. And let me tell you, when I was building quest nutrition, it was growing at 57,000%. So even though I seemed like I was stressed every single day, I didn't acknowledge it. So how do we hop off the stress and burnout train and actually start to recognize the signs that, yes, we're stressed like I don't know about you guys but I do the dishes angrily that is my go to some people I know each other cakely at night and so the truth is what on earth are we going to do about it? Well in this women of impact episode guys we have the help of the number one Harvard trained stress expert, my home doctor Adiri Neroukar. Now doctor Adiri guys is not holding back with her actionable practical and science-based approach to improving your relationship with everyday stress so that you can avoid feeling burn out and totally hopeless like I used to film. So I brought one and I'm asking a ton of questions and we're breaking down in detail. Yes, detail. The warning signs and symptoms of stress and I guarantee you that you didn't know about most of these sneaky symptoms guys. And since we already know there's a seven out of ten chance that you have at least one of these. Right now I suggest with other compassion that you pay attention to this episode because my homie this could be your wake-up call. For instance did you know that a lot of women include myself which I just said this to my husband the other day that we have something called revenge bedtime procrastination and I didn't even realize that I was doing this and once I understood why she actually helped me make a conscious decision about it, instead of actually just falling into this mindless pattern over and over again. It was so eye opening. We also cover a ton of practical exercises. And by far, my favorite is Dr. Adidas, three second exercise. Guys, it's so freaking simple and brilliant. you just gotta try it. Apart from that, you'll also learn how to identify your own warning signs, that you're getting stressed that you can actually stop it before you become anxious, cranky, overwhelmed, or overworks, and start yelling at maybe your dog on your partner, which hopefully none of us do, but sometimes we accidentally do because of the stress. Now, by the end of this episode of my home, you'll know exactly what you need to do with strategies, exercises and so much more so that you can stop living in Final Flight mode 24-7 and actually start to cope with your stress before it turns into chronic stress, anxiety, or even premature aging. Or let's face it, health issues like what I'm suffering with now. So let's dive right in guys, if you want to start taking ownership of your life, make changes that actually serve you today is the day and this episode is the one. Let's dive in right now. Us women often try to be really strong, we try to keep

it together and push through it. And let's face it, that's actually now leading to us ignoring ourselves, our needs and our health. So the week is short for everybody else. So Dr Aditi, why is that rapidly aging and killing us? First off, women in general, we are disproportionately impacted by stress and burnout. This is not genetics. There is nothing inherently wrong with us. This is not a personal failing. It's very much all the social norms. If you are feeling a sense of stress and burnout right now, it is not your fault and you are not alone. Just quick statistics. 70% of people have at least one feature of stress and burnout right now. That is across industries. So in a room of 30 people, that's like saying 21 people are suffering from stress and burnout. And so the first step is really acknowledging this in ourselves, acknowledging this in others, and understanding that if you are feeling this way, it is not the exception, it is the rule. The good news is that you can change using a couple of strategies to help with your brain and your body, but your brain and your body are wonderful and expert at handling short bursts of acute stress. But when that stress becomes chronic and ongoing, like the past five years that we've lived through, of course you're going to feel a sense of stress and burnout because your brain and body isn't designed to just keep going and going and going without a respite or without a pause. So physical manifestations of stress you could have headaches, dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, fatigue, muscle aches, anxiety, depression, insomnia, and on and on. It's like, it is endless. The list of physical and mental manifestations of acute and chronic stress. 60 to 80% of all doctors visits have a stress-related component. But yet, only 3% of doctors counsel their patients for stress. That's not saying 60 to 80% of doctors visits are caused by stress. But certainly any of your conditions, almost all conditions, existing medical conditions, are exacerbated and worsened by stress. When I had a medical clinic in Boston, a stress management practice, I had patients sitting, shoulder to shoulder, in a packed waiting room. They would sit very stoically, not looking at each other, not talking to each other, just sitting either scrolling on their phones or looking around or just in silence. They would come into my office, the exam room door would close, and they would burst into tears. And it would just all pour out. And it's because we all are forward-facing, right? In life, we are meant to always be on and present and show our best self. And it's the stress paradox that we are all suffering in some way from stress and burnout, particularly now, unprecedented rates of stress and burnout right now. And yet, no one is talking to the other person and saying, Hey, are you feeling stressed? What's happening to you? What's happening to your body or your brain? What's going on? And no one talks about it. And so we suffer in silence. We think everyone is doing better than us, which we are not based on the science. We are so, so not doing better than anyone else. Everyone is struggling in their own way. And so these physical manifestations, you want to talk about a few more. Yes, it's endless. Let's say, for instance, so I've got just a list of things that I've read in your book and stuff. So rapid aging, health and gut issues, forgetfulness.

Do you already mentioned,

the of things that are read in your book and stuff. So rapid aging, health and gut issues, forgetfulness, do you already mentioned depression, shame and guilt, that we start to feel around stress? And it's interesting that you said, we don't wanna talk about the stress, but when we do talk about it, we pass it off like, oh, it's just stress. Just a stress. And it's just like that word, it's just stress.

Is the thing that then I think has a knock on effect of us ignoring the fact if we've got headaches, the fact that if we do have the weight gain and understanding how stress actually impacts our weight is insane, and we should, I'd love to talk about that. So these are the things that I think that in for us to be able to talk about, identifies that there's a problem that people need to then take action.

So let's even just take age and weight game, for example. I didn't understand weight game. And even in that, when I had spoken to friends, because I was like, it's like, what have you feel about it? And when they go, I've had one specific friend actually that went to the doctor and they said, maybe you should just put the fork down. Oh my God. I'm going to tear that thing this time. We are interpreting way again as you're just eating too much. Instead of actually understanding, hang on a minute, this could actually be a sign of stress. Absolutely. I mean, it's biological, hormonal. Your cortisol level is increased when you are feeling a sense of stress. Cortisol is a stress hormone when you have a high level of cortisol. Certain changes happen in your brain. When, for example, with eating, it's called emotional eating or stress eating. And you have to ask yourself, what am I hungry for? Because it usually isn't chocolate cake at 11 p.m. but that's our reaction.

And the reason that you have that sense of emotional eating or weight gain or you know, for me, my guilty pleasure when I'm feeling stressed is either chocolate cake or crunchy salty tortilla chips. Those are my comfort foods and when you're feeling stressed, that is because with your brain and periods of stress, it's your amygdala. You don't have to get too scientific,

but your amygdala is driving the train.

And your amygdala. We don't have to get too scientific, but your amygdala is driving the train. And your amygdala is a small, almond-shaped structure deep in your brain, whose sole purpose is survival and self-preservation. And so in the case of weight gain and emotional eating, let's say it's because of emotional eating. Like you're, you know, you are feeling a sense of stress. So you're eating different kinds of foods laid at night, erratic eating patterns, it is

not your fault.

It is... eating like you're you know you are feeling a sense of stress so you're eating different kinds of foods late at night, erratic eating patterns, it is not your fault, it is your amygdala because when you are stress eating or emotional eating with your amygdala it's looking for signs of danger and it's about immediate survival and need and calories quite literally equals survival. So So, under stress, you crave high fat, high sugar foods. Chocolate cake is a great example. It is not you, it is your biology. Your amygdala doesn't understand the difference between a threat or a stress of a famine coming, or a deadline, or marital conflict, or financial constraints. Stress is stress and a threat is a threat. And so calories quite literally equals survival, right? Like when you are feeling nervous and you're wondering, am I going to live or am I going to die? And you're feeling a sense of impending or imminent danger or doom, which is what your amygdala does best. That's what it's known for. The fight or flight response we call it in science. That's why you crave high fat, high sugar food. sugar food not you it's your biology and whoever said that my goodness shame on that doctor for saying put the fork down because a lot of times with that put the fork down comes from a different part of your brain. That part of your brain that is responsible for memory planning organization complex problem solving strategic thinking is this part of your brain? It's called the prefrontal cortex. It's right behind your forehead. However, under periods of stress, you are not governed by the prefrontal cortex. Your actions and how you feel and what you think are all governed by that amygdala, that small, almond-shaped structure. But then what's interesting is how that then has the knock on effect that once maybe the stress is over and I'd love to help break this down, but then you end up feeling the shame because you're like, how did I lose control? How do I, and now that self-judgment and that shame is now I assume building on your stress, not actually alleviating the stress that got you to binge in the first place. Yes, it's called a sense of self-efficacy in the science, or when you feel a sense of agency. So when you are moving from a place of the amygdala, which is just what happens, like, you can't control if you're governed by your amygdala, if that's driving the trainer or prefrontal cortex, you're having experience in life, maybe you're going through something completely out of your control most often. That's what happens with stress, right? Something's happening externally in your life and it's your response to it. And so when you are moving through the world with your amygdala and your fight or flight response that feeling of shame or feeling like I should have done better, I could have done better. It's again, all amazingly and ironically, the amygdala because it's your inner critic. And your inner critic, when you are feeling a sense of stress, holds a megaphone. And it is, so there are many ways that we can silence the inner critic, but understanding that when you have that berating voice, saying to yourself, I can't believe I did this, I can't believe I did into a better job. I can't, you know, why this always happens.

It's that cycle of negative self-talk. The first step is having a sense of self-compassion. Saying to yourself instead, hey, wait a second. I'm under a lot of stress. There's been a lot going on. This is just a symptom of something else. When you get at it through the back door, I can't tell you Lisa how many of my patients have come to see me over the years, feeling

a sense of shame and blame because they're gaining weight or they're having emotional eating and they want to stop but they can't stop. And so when you target it head on and start focusing on your food choices or getting hyper aware of what you're eating, sometimes it can be self-defeatest and it ends up not being the best strategy. Instead, focus you can decrease your stress It's all connected so maybe you need to get better sleep We know that when you sleep better and longer and deeper your cortisol level decreases when your cortisol level decreases You feel less stressed thereby your mental is not firing So you're not gonna crave that 10 or 11 p.m. Snack and chocolate cake, which then affects your weight. So all of these things are really deeply tied. It's really challenging and it's easy for us to say like it's one thing that's causing me to gain weight. It's so many things. We know that sleep has an impact on weight and so many factors. So you have to look at it, you have to zoom out and look at your life from a wide angle lens and really take stock of what's happening in your life, both physically,

emotionally, spiritually, psychologically, and then create a plan based on that. I love that so much. The message of it being A, it's not your fault, but then also the idea that we do hyper-focus on the food. And so we think we're doing the work that needs to be done, but we're not because we're not addressing the stress. And so I love the idea of reorienting people to, hey, look, we understand why, but if you actually focus on your stress, it would then have the right knock-and-offent that you're looking for. And then like so, the sleep is one example, right? Another really simple strategy to decrease your sense of emotional eating since we're talking about weight gain and emotional eating is to go for a short walk every day. So what does that do over time, daily movement, and some form of exercise? It doesn't have to be going to the gym for an hour a day that feels too hard of a lift and too heavy of a lift when you don't really, when you're feeling a lot of stress or just a simple walk around the block, 20 minutes, can have a profound impact on your stress and your brain and your body. Exercise also thickens your prefrontal cortex. When you thicken your prefrontal cortex, your cravings decrease. When you're cravings decrease, your stress, and cortisol, it's all connected. It's not like one action is to change everything, but we as people, we're all connected,

we're connected to each other, we're connected to our communities, to our families, to so many things. So of course, it can't just be like one tweak. And so when we hyper focus and say, okay, this is about my food and I can't eat that, you end up in a vicious cycle. I was saying earlier, when you're in that vicious cycle and then you have the magnifying

glass over like, why am I eating?

Why am I opening my fridge at 10 p.m. or why am I eating everything in my snack

cabinet at 3 p.m. When we do that and berate ourselves forward and that inner critics voice is

holding a megaphone, what often happens is that erodes are sense of self-efficacy or are sense of

agency. What that means is, so you're a great example of someone who just has such a strong sense of personal agency. You say you're going to do something and you do it. When you complete that action, you know, that feeling of like, I didn't. I didn't. It helps you do something else again, something a little bit harder again and again and again. But when you say to yourself, I am not opening that fridge door to eat my chalk.

I just keep using chocolate cake 10 PM

because that's like, I've heard over and over again, from patients, particularly women who say that it's that late night snacking that is really doing them in, or like three o'clock, four o'clock. And so because it's all driven by stress. And so when you are feeling like, I didn't do it again.

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