Nikki Cheak (00:01.942)
Welcome back to Real Food, Real Energy, Real Life. This is part three of the Feel Good by Summer series, and I hope that you have been loving this so far. So just as a reminder, if you're just jumping in, here's what we've covered so far. Episode one in this series was your May survival plan, three simple shifts to ground your routine in a chaotic season. Episode two is
I walked you through three foods that I'd add to slim down without dieting or starting over again. So if you haven't listened to either of those, I would highly recommend going back and taking a listen. And today we're gonna go even a level deeper because if you've been feeling like you're doing everything right, but you're still feeling puffy, feeling bloated, or just not feeling good, it might not be your food that you're eating. Okay, you might be doing some of that stuff and it's your hormones and your body's.
Honestly, just trying to get your attention. So in today's episode, I'm going to break down what's really going on with how, like when your body's feeling off and how to start supporting your hormones in a way that's actually going to help you feel good again. So I want you to know you didn't screw up. You didn't fall off the wagon. Okay. And that puffy and bloated and just gross feeling that you have, it might not just be what you eat. Okay. It's your hormones doing.
something with what you ate, okay? And it's also when, you know, when stress is high, sleep is short, meals are rushed, your body is just honestly whispering for help. And now, because you're feeling all of these things, now it's probably yelling, yelling at you, like, hurry up, take a look at me, what am I doing? Like, I don't wanna feel this way. So if you've really ever looked in the mirror and you're thinking to yourself, why do I feel inflamed even though I'm just trying to be healthy?
Why are my jeans getting tighter, even if I'm eating less? And why do I just feel so disconnected from my body? And then this episode is for you because it's not all about food guilt. It's about understanding what happens when your body is actually asking for help. Okay. And what happens when you give it the support you need? Because most women have been taught to think about food in terms of calories and how many calories you have.
Nikki Cheak (02:24.418)
or how many carbs you take, right? And it's always been that eat less, burn more mentality because that's the formula, right? And so if your body and your hormones aren't supported, even the healthy food isn't gonna land well in your body. And without the protein, the carbs, the fat, the rest and the recovery, your body's gonna start holding onto everything, fat, water, inflammation, and honestly, your frustration.
And I know, I know because I have been there too, more than once in my life. So there was honestly this time, right, when I was working out, I was going to the gym. was when my kids were really young and I was, you thought I was eating healthy, right? I was saying no to desserts. I was going to the gym multiple days a week. I was lifting, right? I was doing my strength training.
But I still felt inflamed, exhausted, and frankly, I was just super frustrated. And it wasn't that I didn't have a lack of willpower to get there or do the things that I needed to do. But the problem was that my hormones were really out of whack and I just, I had no idea. So once I stopped trying to eat less and started learning how to support my hormones, that's when everything really started shifting. So that's what I want you to take from this is that the fastest way to feel better in your body isn't
about cutting more, it's about supporting your hormones because when you do that, everything else starts to work with you and not against you. Because I know you want to wake up feeling light and not puffy. You want to be able to button your jeans and not look in the mirror and want to cry, right? You want to be looked at by your spouse or your partner and feel really good. And you want to be energized. You don't want to be exhausted. You don't want to be, you know, showing up
from home after a long day of work and just like being, you know, not wanting to be there because you are so tired. And so you don't want to just drive through the day, right? And you want all of that without starving and obsessing or starting over every single week, which is something that I used to do because I'd be like, sell off the wagon and be like, yeah, I'll just start and I'll just, I'll just start next Monday. Okay. So honestly, it's not too much to ask, right? And you don't,
Nikki Cheak (04:48.862)
need to go into every single day feeling like this because you really need just a strategy that's going to work with your body and your hormones. And honestly, that's exactly what we do inside of the six week reset because we build a structure that balances your blood sugar through your food, not restriction. It's going to help reduce inflammation with movement and you're not going to feel burnt out. You're going to support your hormones through rest.
and rhythm and real life choices because we are moms, we are busy and you don't have time for all of the craziness, right? And you want to just cut through the noise and you're gonna help. You're gonna feel like yourself again and you're not gonna have to start over all the time because you're gonna have a system that works for you. And guess what? You don't have to be perfect within the six week, within the six week reset, right? You just honestly need a process that's gonna meet you where you are and focus on progress and not perfection.
So I want to break down what's actually going on when your body feels off and even when you feel like you're doing everything right. The first thing is that your cortisol might be spiking at the wrong times. And cortisol is kind of a trendy word recently, but it's your stress hormone. And honestly, it's not the enemy. We do need it because it's flight or flight, but when it stays elevated because you're stressed, which a lot of moms are, right?
you're not sleeping well, you're skipping meals, or you're always doing intense cardio high workouts all the time, your body's gonna hold on to that belly fat and water, okay? So chronic stress actually is going to increase that abdominal fat, that belly fat, that visceral fat, right? And fluid retention without changes in your food intake, okay? So that's a big thing. So like even good stress like HIIT can backfire if your body is already maxed out.
Okay. And within the six week reset, we do do hit, but we're doing it in a way where we're pairing it with our nutrition to make sure that we're not overstressing our bodies. So I want you to think if you've been pushing harder when your body is actually telling you to take a pause, because I know I've done it. We've all been there and it just makes your body hold on to all of that inflammation and like feeling puffy even more. Okay. The second thing.
Nikki Cheak (07:12.896)
is that under eating is going to spike that inflammation. So if you remember in the last couple episodes, we talked about the different foods that are gonna be super important. And when you skip meals or you cut back too much, your blood sugar is gonna crash and that is going to be a roller coaster of creating more cravings and mood swings and inflammation, okay? And when you're under eating or missing macronutrients, especially the carbs and the fat and the protein,
right, it's gonna increase the stomach inflammation and that's gonna disrupt your hormone production. Okay, so that's honestly why women who are trying to eat clean but don't know what they're eating or what they should be eating to fuel their body, they're still feeling puffy and stuck. So are you really eating enough or are you just hoping that less equals better? Okay, the next thing that happens when you're feeling like this is that
your digestion slows when your hormones are off. So stress, perimenopause, poor sleep can slow your digestion and that can cause bloating, constipation or that feeling, okay? Like I've been there, okay? And low estrogen and high cortisol both produce gut motility and enzyme production. And that's vital for you when you are wanting to make sure that your digestion is moving in a direction that you need to move.
and then it's gonna make you feel bloated and inflamed. So if food feels like it's just sitting in you, like, look, like you're just there, it might not be about what you ate. It might be your hormones asking for help to work that digestion, to work through your digestive system, okay? So if you're nodding along and you're like, okay, this actually makes sense, or you're like, I'm still confused, I've got a couple things for you. First,
you can grab my free hormone guide and it's going to break down all of this and help you connect the dots between your symptoms and your hormones and give you some things that you can do to support your body better. But if you're tired of just piecing things together and you want real structure, then I want you to check out the six week reset because honestly, it's everything I wish I had when I felt stuck and I am so glad that I have it now because it's going to walk you through
Nikki Cheak (09:33.462)
everything every step of the way. Look, I used to just think that my bloating was normal, right? Something I had to live with, something that I must be doing wrong. But once I started tracking my habits, not just my food, and once I started noticing how my stress, my sleep, and my movement were impacting everything else, I realized it wasn't just about willpower, right? It was about supporting my body with what I needed. And when I focused on
what helped me feel better, that's when the bloating really started to lift. That's when I felt better. That's when my genes started fitting better and I stopped Googling so many things and I started looking in the mirror and recognizing myself again. And I even had cheekbones again, which I was so excited about. So here's a question that I wish somebody had asked me a long time ago. And that's how are you supposed to feel better in your body if nothing that you're doing is actually working with it? Okay.
Most moms that I know who are energized, who are feeling better, they're not doing more. They're actually just doing the few right things consistently. And that's what I want for you. So we're to bring this home now. So if you've been feeling puffy and bloated and just gross, it's not your fault. It's not what you ate. It's your hormones, your stress, your sleep, your rhythm, and they all work together. So
Grab my hormone guide and take the next step. It's in LinkedIn, the show notes for you. If you're ready to move further, join the six week reset. We start a new round soon. And honestly, it's the most powerful way I know to start feeling good again. And then I want you to send this to a friend who's been feeling off and doesn't know why. Okay. Because we all do, especially around this time of year. And if this episode has helped you or if it sparked an idea, leave a review. It would honestly mean the world to me.
Follow the show, subscribe, because next week I'm gonna be sharing how I'm shifting my own routine for the summer and what you can steal from it to feel better even when your schedule's a mess. Because I already looked at my calendar and I'm, it's mess. So you don't need to overhaul everything, you just need to stop ignoring the signs that your body's been trying to send to you. And now you know where to start.
