What if the daily habit you’ve focused on is actually sabotaging your overall health? What if there’s a reason the health hack your friend or significant other swears by doesn’t make you feel your best? This episode might explain why. 

Today on Salad with a Side of Fries, Jenn explores some daily habits that can serve or sabotage our health and hormones. She discusses controversial topics like fasted workouts, intermittent fasting, and coffee for breakfast, challenging common health practices. Jenn emphasizes the imp. She breaks down the science behind our circadian rhythm, cortisol patterns, and hormone balance, offering practical advice on hydration, sleep, food choices, and stress management. Jenn highlights the complexity of health choices, so we can learn to pay attention to how our bodies respond to different habits. 

The Salad With a Side of Fries podcast is hosted by Jenn Trepeck, who discusses wellness and weight loss in real life, clearing up the myths, misinformation, and bad science surrounding our nutrition knowledge and the food industry. Let’s dive into wellness and weight loss for real life, including drinking, eating out, and skipping the grocery store. 

IN THIS EPISODE: 

• (00:00) Intro: Blue light and circadian rhythm
• (05:27) Daily habits: Serving or sabotaging health?
• (13:48) Breakfast choices and intermittent fasting impacts
• (20:50) Morning walks and natural light exposure
• (25:08) Fasted workouts: Benefits and drawbacks
• (30:06) Hydration habits and electrolytes 
• (34:49) Importance of quiet time and meditation
• (38:33) Connecting with friends reduces stress
• (40:13) Cold plunges: Timing matters for health benefits
• (43:21) Melatonin use: Context and dosage considerations
• (46:32) Blue light glasses: When to use them
• (48:28) Clean beauty products and essential oils
• (52:38) Final thoughts on tweaking daily habits

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Morning Cold Plunges Can Backfire: Contrary to popular belief, daily morning cold plunges or showers can disrupt your cortisol patterns and lead to fatigue. For optimal benefits, try cold exposure post-workout or in the late afternoon when cortisol is naturally lower.
• Blue Light Glasses Aren't for All-Day Wear: Wearing blue light glasses during the day can actually sabotage your energy and focus and our body’s melatonin production. We need blue light exposure during daytime hours for alertness and mood regulation - save the blue blockers for evening use.
• Essential Oils in Clean Beauty May Disrupt Hormones: Some essential oils in "clean" beauty products can act as phytoestrogens, potentially disrupting hormonal balance. Consider opting for unscented products and being mindful of your overall exposure to these ingredients.

QUOTES: 

(04:58) “The daily habits that nourish the body, mind and spirit, emotion, the soul, are all important and valuable. That's where true transformation happens. It's in the seemingly small things that we do daily. With that said, many of the things that we do daily may not be serving us. They might actually be sabotaging us.” - Jenn Trepeck

(10:27) “The body's job is to survive above all else. Fundamentally, our hormones, especially female hormones, are highly sensitive to nutrient availability and calories, calorie availability. So under-eating really just wreaks havoc on our hormones.” - Jenn Trepeck

(17:37) “Nighttime eating is often directly connected to under-eating in the first half of the day.” - Jenn Trepeck

(22:14) “Our entire body works on this circadian rhythm. The primary driver of circadian rhythm are our eyes through light exposure. If we can get the master clock functioning properly through light exposure when we wake up, it literally has a cascade of health benefits throughout the entire system.” - Jenn Trepeck

(30:45) “Hydration supports all of our bodily functions; cell activity, immune cell activity, it helps flush toxins, it helps ensure that nutrients can be transported effectively. Water is required for digestion, for our glowing skin, for our energy.” - Jenn Trepeck

(35:55) “It is one of the most sabotaging things to our health that we are constantly bombarded with content. That stimulus all hours that we are awake is really a stressor. It diminishes our willpower. We think we're multitasking. What we're really doing is rapid task switching, which is actually exhausting physiologically and mentally to the body.” - Jenn Trepeck

RESOURCES:

Become A Member of Salad with a Side of Fries 

Jenn’s Free Menu Plan

A Salad With a Side of Fries

A Salad With A Side Of Fries Merch

A Salad With a Side of Fries Instagram

Circa Your Circadian Rhythm

Q&A: Women Over 40

Hydration & Dehydration (feat. Desiree Lotz)

Nutrition Nugget: IQMix

KEYWORDS: daily habits, health optimization, circadian rhythm, blue light exposure, cortisol balance, intermittent fasting, hormone health, sleep quality, hydration, electrolytes, cold plunges, melatonin supplementation, clean beauty products, essential oils, phytoestrogens, fasted workouts, stress management, venting to friends, mindfulness practices, nutrition, protein intake, blood sugar regulation, adrenal health, work-life balance, wellness without weirdness, happy healthy hub, debunking health misconceptions, hydration, stress, chronic stress, blue-light exposure, circadian rhythm, breakfast