🧠 Episode Summary:

If your stomach feels like a balloon, your brain feels like scrambled eggs, and you're wondering if it's the smoothie, the stress, or the slow hormonal unspooling of your sanity—you're in the right place. In this episode, Jen breaks down the connection between gut health, hormone swings, and brain fog in perimenopause. Spoiler: it's not just in your head. It’s in your microbiome, your cortisol curve, and your second brain (yes, your gut has one).

We’re talking bloat, brain fog, IBS-like symptoms, emotional overload, and why the food you used to love suddenly turns on you like a traitor.

What You'll Learn:

• How your gut, brain, and hormones are in a messy group chat you didn’t sign up for
• The role of the enteric nervous system (aka your second brain)
• What estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol are doing to your gut
• Why chronic stress = gut disruption = brain fog = adulting failure spiral
• Real-life examples including: the infamous “unsent email incident,” smoothie sabotage, and your sweet-but-clueless boss saying “you okay, kid?”

🧰 What You Can Do About It:

1. Stop gaslighting yourself – Your symptoms are real, not a character flaw.
2. Track what sets you off – Food, timing, mood. Start connecting the dots.
3. Lower the bar – No joy-free diets. Just eat, hydrate, and keep it simple.
4. Support your gut – Add fermented foods, fiber, and mood-supporting probiotics.
5. Balance your blood sugar – Yes, again. It’s THAT important.
6. Stay hydrated + add electrolytes – Your brain is thirsty.
7. Ease up on inflammatory foods – Try rotating gluten, dairy, sugar, and alcohol out.
8. Support detox naturally – Poop, sweat, and eat your damn broccoli.

🧨 Myth Busting:

• Myth 1: Hustle harder → No. You need nourishment, not shame.
• Myth 2: Eat clean → What does that even mean? Your gut wants fiber, not bleach.
• Myth 3: But it’s healthy! → If it wrecks your gut, it’s not healthy for you.

📌 TL;DR:

Start small. Eat real food. Track what triggers you. And know this: your body isn’t broken. It’s speaking. We’re just finally learning to listen.

🔜 Next Week:

We’re tackling Cortisol Meltdowns—how perimenopause + stress = emotional algebra with no answer key. Think rage-naps, panic spirals, and what to actually do to stop feeling like you're emotionally malfunctioning.

🆕 Coming Soon:

🎧 Men Meet Estrogen — A Wednesday mini-series to help the men in your life not say “you seem off lately” ever again.

🎧 Learn:

• Learn more about The Balanced Life Lab community: Here
• Join Jen for Group coaching: Here

💬 Let's Connect:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• https://www.jenleemorse.com
• Email: [email protected]

If you felt seen, validated, or less alone, subscribe and share the episode. Keep being unapologetically imperfect - you've got this.

Until next time—

Keep being unapologetically imperfect. You’ve got this.