We might be in an adapted or more accurately a maladapted state. In other words your nervous system, brain and body have conspired to keep you safe and help you survive based on your experiences in the world. And because the brain lives in a dark cave and only has memories to make decisions with, it doesn’t always make the best choices. The only choices it gives you are fight, flight or freeze. And those can end up looking like anxiety, hypervigilance and depression. How can we balance these perfectly rational moods for better mental, physical and emotional health?

What can I eat that will lower stress? I got this question once in a nutrition presentation. My answer at the time was “nothing legal” But what this person really wanted was what we all want when we’re uncomfortable in our own skin. A quick fix. Lower stress really just means better resilience from the inside out. The truth is double edged. No, there's not one thing you can eat to lower stress. But yes there are lots of things. AND how you eat matters. Today we’ll look at how appetite and hunger are connected to the nervous system and stress response. And some ways you can eat that will calm you from the inside out.

one of my goals on this podcast is to try to use these conversations to help normalize the experience of trauma so that people don't feel so alone in their experience. And so that when we encounter someone who has maybe a trauma story, or trauma history or maybe is struggling in that moment, we can hold space for them a little bit and maybe extend a little grace for what they are experiencing. And my guest today is a beautiful example of that and of how you he's using his own experience to help others. Jason Sapp is a retired Army sergeant and Iraq or combat veteran, and now a certified professional life coach and author, Jason guides people to more holistic alternative resources to wellness…

Nobody wants to admit they're traumatized because especially by people, they trusted to love them and empower them, keep them safe, blah, blah, blah, right? That I mean, that is horrible. That's a horrible, horrible thing to think the people who I needed to love me just didn't even give a right is about me to the point that they were hurting me, right. That's horrible. And I think that when we that being so awful, often prevents people from admitting like you know, what, maybe this is related to the fact that, you know, I had this horrible upbringing,..

Part of my mission here on the work IN is to help equip fitness professionals with a bigger awareness of the overlap between physical and mental health so they can take their wellness beyond what the eyes can see. Not just so they can serve their health conscious clients better and level up their coaching skills but also so they can take care of themselves better.