Your Midweek Wellness Reset with Nurse Georgie

Send us a text

📌 Episode Summary:
In this mini but mighty episode, we’re joined by wellness expert and hormone specialist Georgie McNiff to talk about a topic that so many of us struggle with—stress and its hidden impact on weight, hormones, and overall energy.

Georgie breaks down how chronic stress throws off your cortisol levels, disrupts sleep, spikes inflammation, and causes stubborn weight gain—especially around the midsection. But it’s not all doom and gloom. We also get into practical, bite-sized tools you can use today to calm your nervous system, support your metabolism, and feel more like yourself again—without adding more stress to your to-do list.

💡 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

• Why your body holds on to weight during high-stress periods
• The connection between cortisol, insulin resistance, and belly fat
• How adrenal fatigue shows up in everyday life
• Why quick-fix diets don’t work when your hormones are off
• Simple ways to reset your nervous system in 5 minutes or less
• Nutritional and lifestyle shifts that support healthy weight loss naturally

🛠️ Quick Tools + Takeaways:

• Breathwork resets (2-3 minutes a day)
• Caffeine cutbacks to reduce cortisol spikes
• Adaptogens and supplements Georgie recommends for stress and weight balance
• How to create a “nervous system friendly” evening routine
• Foods that stabilize blood sugar and help reduce cravings

Support the show

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
So we are here again with Nurse Georgie McNiff and
today we are going to talk abouta health tip that she wants to
share with us that createsoverall wellness and really you
know, can make a huge differencein your life.
Definitely.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
I love having you here.
I love, love working with you.

(00:21):
It has been fun.
It's been super fun.
I think that my number onehealth tip for this year has
been stress management.
When our cortisol levels arechronically high, it makes it
impossible, number one, to losefat.
And so, you know, a lot of myclients, I would say 95 5% come

(00:42):
in and they want to lose, youknow, however much weight it is,
but they want to lose weight.
So that's number one.
If your cortisol levels areconstantly high, you're always
storing fat.
You're never in fat-burningmode.
And how do we get to that levelof stress where the cortisol
starts packing on the pounds?
Yeah, I mean, just totalmismanagement of self-care

(01:05):
activities, lack of sleep, notmeditating, not exercising,
things of that nature can kindof allow these...
levels of cortisol to rise overtime.
Cortisol is a steroid.
As many people know, whathappens when you take steroids,
you retain water, you gain fat.

(01:28):
Steroids cause this waterretention and for our bodies to
pack fat away, primarily in ourbelly.
That's why you hear the termcortisol belly.
That's not all that's bad aboutcortisol.
When you're taking steroids,what else do they do?
They're immunosuppressants.
And so if your cortisol isconstantly high, chronically

(01:48):
high, you're retaining water,you're putting fat in your belly
area, and you're alsosuppressing your immune system.
And that's why people who arechronically stressed end up
getting sick more than othersand can even develop more
serious ailments like cancer andautoimmune disease.
Wow.
So can you give us three ways toreduce cortisol?

(02:11):
in our daily lives that yourecommend for your patients?
I typically recommend thatpeople do some form of
meditation daily.
I know it's not like a fancybiohack, but it's the most
effective thing that you can doto bring your cortisol down.
And that would be like deepbreathing and calming of the
parasympathetic nervous systemand rewiring of the

(02:35):
parasympathetic nervous systemyou are your own most important
tool in getting your system outof fight or flight and producing
less cortisol.
That's number one.
And then number two, um,adaptogenic herbs, and
melatonin.
Melatonin inhibits production ofcortisol at the level of the
adrenal glands.
So if you are someone who's beenthinking about using melatonin

(02:56):
and you're having a hard timekind of like slowing down at the
end of the day, I'll even tellpeople to start taking melatonin
around 6 or 7 p.m.
instead of right before bed justso that they start lumping that
cortisol response that mighthave been high for them all day.
Well, it's interesting.
After we had our last podcasttogether, I tried the melatonin

(03:18):
right after the girls got homeand I passed out on the couch,
like had to go to bed right whenthey went to bed and I was just
like a wreck.
So we need to build it up,right?
So like build up a little bit ofa tolerance or maybe my body was
just like, oh my God, you needto rest, get to bed.
It's the latter.
It's when you are constantlylike running high in cortisol

(03:41):
and you're in go, go, go modeand then you shut down your
body's cortisol all of a suddenyou can relax.
And that's why melatonin helpswith sleep.
Melatonin doesn't directly putyou to sleep.
Melatonin relaxes your body andyour brain and calms your
adrenals down enough so that youcan sleep.