November 4, 2025 • 36 mins
I'm Bridget Walton, a Women's Hormone Coach helping ambitious women ages 25-40 naturally restore hormone balance, fix irregular periods, feel confident in their fertility, and resolve gut health issues without restrictive dieting.
If you struggle with missing periods, PCOS symptoms, bloating, or unpredictable cycles, this women's health podcast will teach you how to support your hormones through strategic nutrition and lifestyle changes that actually fit your busy life.
On I'm Hormonal, you'll discover natural solutions for period problems, learn how gut health impacts your hormones, and get practical hormone balance tips from a functional nutrition perspective - no more guessing what your body needs.
👉 Download her free resource: It's not what to eat, it's how to eat
👉 Buy the book, Uncomplicating Wellness
In today's episode, Jenn Trepeck and Bridget talk about Jenn's new book, Uncomplicating Wellness! Listen to their thoughts on wellness trends, foundations of health, and more. Catch part 2 of this conversation on Ep 149.
Jenn is a health coach, host of the Salad with a Side of Fries podcast, business consultant and the author of Uncomplicating Wellness.
👉 Feel like you've tried everything for your hormones? Grab my free guide at imhormonal.com/guide
👉 Have some questions? Not sure if we're a good fit yet? Book a free 15-minute chat at imhormonal.com/start
👉 DM us on Instagram @im_hormonal - we want to hear your biggest takeaway
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:00):
You probably do not need me to tell you that
wellness and health can be alittle bit complicated
sometimes.
If you are anything like I am,if you're anything like my
clients or my friends, we allcan find ourselves at one time
in life or another reallyovercomplicating things because
there's so much information outthere.
(00:22):
How do I know what is best forme?
How?
Well, I'm excited to bring youthis conversation that I had
with Jen Trapeck.
She has just released a bookcalled Uncomplicating Wellness,
and she covers so many greattopics, really good staples, and
really focuses also on themindset of wellness and how to
(00:45):
really make it work for you sothat you're not just on this
never-ending, you know, hamsterwheel of how do I improve my
health?
What works for me?
So we had a really funconversation that I think you
are going to love listening to.
And I will get there in just amoment.
But real quick, I want to sayagain, welcome to the I'm
(01:06):
Hormonal Podcast.
I'm Bridget Walton, your host,of course.
I am a women's hormone coach andI work with busy, ambitious
women offering personalizedcoaching and science fact
solutions.
So whether you are working withme one-on-one or you are
listening to the podcast here,my goal is the same, which is to
(01:26):
help you to stop guessing aboutyour hormone health and start
seeing real progress.
So we are going to get into ithere shortly.
This is actually going to be atwo-part episode because our
conversation ended up being alittle bit longer than expected.
You can hear us, or you canexpect to hear us talk through
some kind of quizzes, gettingeach other's opinions on
(01:50):
different topics and trends.
And overall, we touched on a lotof different topics from the
carnivore diet to gluten-freeto, you know, how do we put, you
know, create good habits thatcan stick with us.
So this is going to be a goodone to help you flex this must
(02:10):
muscle in your brain of, youknow, what is right for me, what
feels good to me, and give you alittle bit of context on a lot
of different topics.
You will hear Jen introduceherself in just a minute here,
but in the meantime, know thatJen is a health coach.
She is also a podcaster.
(02:31):
Check out her podcast, which iscalled Salad with a Side of
Fries.
She has been doing this for along time.
She has so much great insightfrom all of her work one-on-one
with clients.
And she was really just apleasure to talk to and to
chit-chat back and forth with.
So, with that, I will let you umstart listening to this first
(02:54):
half of our conversation.
And you can check the show notesfor links to listen to her
podcast, connect with her onsocial.
Um, or if you want to check outher book, I know that you are
going to love it.
So here you go, and I'll see youon the other side.
SPEAKER_00 (03:10):
Jen, welcome to the I'm Hermannal podcast.
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here.
I know this is not our firstchat, which makes it even more
exciting.
SPEAKER_01 (03:19):
Yeah, not our first chat.
We are both, you know, 248Southeastern Michigan gals.
Um, also, right, you're a healthcoach.
Um, you're a podcaster.
We have those things in common,but um, you're also an author
now.
SPEAKER_00 (03:35):
Congratulations.
Thank you.
It is totally wild and surreal.
Somebody asked me recently,like, was this something you
always wanted to do?
And I was like, no.
Like, you know, no.
And if somebody had told meyears ago that this is what I
would have done, you know, sixyears after leaving my full-time
(03:57):
job, almost 20 years afterbecoming, you know, a health and
lifestyle coach, I would havebeen like, yeah, right.
unknown (04:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:03):
But nevertheless, here we are.
And I think that's what'sexciting.
Here we are.
Well, I'm, I put together somefun games for us that I'm not to
be too into myself, but yeah,I'm, I think this is gonna be
fun.
This is gonna be a good chancefor um the listeners out there.
Hello, gals, to get to know you,right?
Your book is called UncomplicateWellness.
(04:24):
I'll ask you to tell us a littlebit more about it in a second.
Um, but we are gonna touch on alot of different trends and a
lot of different ideas orconcerns that I know are
floating around, certainly havefloated around in my mind in the
past, and perhaps many of thegals out there too.
So we will see where we differ,however, slightly, or if at all,
(04:45):
and um just to chat on ourthoughts on these many different
aspects of wellness.
Yes, I'm super excited.
I love a good game.
unknown (04:53):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:54):
I have some catchy titles for them.
So we'll get to those hereshortly and I'll explain a
little bit more.
But in the meantime, tell us alittle bit more about you for
folks who are just meeting youfor the first time, Jen.
Yeah, so hi.
SPEAKER_00 (05:07):
Um, so my name is Jen Trepik.
Um, my background is reallybusiness and marketing, and I
came to all of this healthstuff, like so many of us,
through my own, I call it a sagaof trying to figure out my
health and my weight.
I grew up a dancer and I reallyI sort of joke, my family
probably hates this joke, and Ishould say something else.
(05:30):
But essentially, like I for alot of my life growing up, I was
the skinny one.
And everybody around me was kindof always on a diet.
So I was hyper aware of dietculture and fad diets and all of
those things.
Even though, like, I mean,generally, we ate well.
(05:53):
It, you know, I ate vegetables.
It wasn't a thing.
And like for so many of us, thisstuff wasn't a thing until it
was.
And that for me was between highschool and college.
I stopped dancing 800 times aweek.
I um went on birth control,lifestyle, going to college and
(06:17):
all of those things, likeeverything changed.
Totally.
And then I was like, okay, well,I know what to do.
You do this diet and then thatdiet and all of the things, and
you live on this roller coaster,and that just like is what it
is.
And yet there were times where Ifelt like I would just breathe
(06:39):
and gain weight.
And like something doesn't makesense.
How is this possible?
Right.
And then worlds kind of collidedfor me.
So I graduated from theUniversity of Michigan, go blue,
moved to New York City, andafter a couple of months, I was
like, okay, I don't know whatI'm gonna do for the rest of my
(07:01):
life, but I know I'm not gonnawork for somebody else for the
rest of my life.
And so I was looking for thingsto do, either to make extra
money and invest it and be ableto retire early, or have
something where like I couldwork for myself eventually.
And then these two worldscollided because I learned about
the curriculum that I've basedmy entire practice on.
(07:23):
And what I heard people tellingstories, their stories, who were
following this approach tohealth, nutrition, life, all of
the things.
And there's one woman inparticular who was telling her
story of removing like 150pounds.
(07:45):
And she kept it off.
Anything she said after that, Ididn't hear.
I don't even know this woman'sname.
Like every time I tell thisstory, I'm like, if you're out
there, please tell me, you know.
So she is telling me, you know,she literally removed the
equivalent of another human,right?
Like another human was attachedto you.
(08:09):
And I'm looking at this womanand I'm like, I can't see where
10 pounds could have been onyour body.
You know?
Yeah.
So I had this conversation withmyself in my own head of like
Jennifer, not even Jen, right?
This was like, I was having amoment with myself.
Yes.
And it was like, they knowsomething you don't know.
Because based on everything youknow, that doesn't make any
(08:30):
sense.
And so I worked with a coach, Ifollowed the curriculum,
completely changed my life.
Like the only thing that allowedme to say I kicked my food
issues.
SPEAKER_01 (08:41):
How old were you?
Like when you start, like whenyou met this woman.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:45):
So this was I was in my early 20s, early to mid-20s.
unknown (08:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:54):
Super 20.
I'm trying to, yeah, exactly.
And I'm trying to think becauseso it was like 2007, late 2007.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:04):
No clue how old you are, but that sounds like early
20s, maybe.
SPEAKER_00 (09:08):
Well, I was gonna say, I'm older than I look.
So I was, you know, early 20sand 2007.
And um, yeah, it was it was likemind-boggling to me.
Two things.
One, that like, this isn't whatwe learned.
And how did all of those thingscome to be?
SPEAKER_01 (09:31):
This being like what you learned in your curriculum.
SPEAKER_00 (09:33):
And yeah, but like to me, I felt like it was the
nutrition education we're allsupposed to know, and no one
ever taught us.
Like, we all have these bodies,and then we're all just supposed
to know what to do with them.
Like, yeah, missed that class inhigh school.
We all did.
And then what we were taught, Iwas like, well, where did that
(09:54):
happen?
Like, how did all of thosethings come to be that that's
what we were taught?
And so I became this insatiablestudent to understand all of
those pieces of like, where didthose things come from?
Why isn't that what you knowwhat we learned?
How did the things, all of thatstuff come to be?
(10:14):
But then also, how do we geteverybody to have and understand
this fundamentally humaninformation?
And small task.
Right.
And understand it in a way thatit's actionable, not
overwhelming.
(10:34):
And so, like, I started doingthis stuff on the side of my
full-time job.
And like I said, this was likelate 2007.
So it was like before healthcoaching was really a thing.
It was before side hustles werereally a thing.
And it's, you know, then I also,as things would come up for me
or my clients, it's like digginginto all of the human behavior
(10:55):
things and all of the, you know,just continuing to learn and
grow.
And I do a lot in my practicewith supplementation.
So, you know, learning aboutdifferent nutrients and
ingredients and herbs and thingsthat they do.
And so kind of this book,Uncomplicating Wellness, is not
(11:15):
a how-to.
Rather, it's a new lens throughwhich we can then evaluate all
of the wellness informationcoming at us.
Because one of the things that'schanged over the last 20, almost
20 years of me doing this isthat people are savvier, we have
(11:38):
more information coming at us,and people have never been more
confused.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (11:46):
I think that's so interesting too.
Right.
There are certain, or curiousyour opinion on this.
There are times when we do needlike more specific direction,
but for the other 90 at leastpercent of our lives, when we're
out here trying to figure outfor ourselves what's best for
us, yeah, unlearning a lot ofthose things and reflecting back
(12:07):
in.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
That's what will get you where you want to go.
Exactly.
And so this book is thecompanion for that.
It's essentially like before youbuy any how-to, before you buy
the plan or the book that's orthe program or whatever it is,
buy this one to help you figureout which plan program book is
(12:31):
the one that's really gonna helpyou move the needle.
Because what I see most often isthat we have like this shiny
object syndrome where, you know,from every, you know, TikTok and
Instagram reel to every headline800 times a day, we have all
this information coming at us.
(12:53):
We're trying to do it all.
We're making sense of doing itall.
And then by extension, we'reactually doing none of them.
And but we feel like we are, andthen we're frustrated, thinking
that something's wrong with us,that it's not quote unquote
working.
So there's nothing wrong withyou, by the way.
SPEAKER_01 (13:14):
The willpower piece too.
I saw that in your book of thelike that kind of I need a
little bit more discipline, Ineed more willpower.
I talk about this hopefully notan annoying amount, but but
anyway, yeah, I saw that and Iwas like, yes, Jen, we are
speaking the same exact languagehere.
Yeah.
Well, good.
Yeah.
Um, before we kind of jump intosome of the games, I and you
(13:38):
touched on this lightly, butwhat are some of your first,
like, do you have a specificfirst memory where you were
learning about what health orwhat wellness is supposed to
look like?
What was that for you, if youremember?
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
Yeah, it's interesting.
I you know, growing up a dancer,there was sort of this piece of
like a dancer's body.
And then I also remember in veryformative years, it was
Victoria's Secret Angels.
(14:13):
Right?
Everything was very much theaesthetic.
And I remember a lot ofconversation around magazines
and ads and how groundbreakingit was when Dove had this real
women campaign.
And the interesting thing islike you asked the question in
(14:36):
terms of health, but that's notwhat it was.
Every message was aboutaesthetics, health was not a
part of that conversation ever.
And I think part of my personalpet peeve about things now is
that every conversation abouthealth and wellness, not every,
(14:59):
but a lot of the conversationsabout health and wellness, it's
just the the new label on dietculture that ultimately no one's
actually defining health.
No one's actually saying this iswellness.
(15:20):
Everything is the biohack, thesupplement, the grams of
protein, the rules or theto-dos, and the interpretation
is that that's health.
SPEAKER_01 (15:35):
I want to ask you in a second what um, like how do
you define health?
Yeah.
Wellness.
Um, but what that kind of mademe think of as you were speaking
is how there's this overlap.
There's this Venn diagram ofwellness or health on the one
side and then status on theother.
And yeah, sometimes it can bepretty confusing of which what
(15:57):
falls into which category and orreally what's the goal of what
we're going through.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (16:00):
And there's a piece of how today society defines
wellness that is very much ifyou can afford it, is it
accessible to you?
And by definition, if it is onlyfor some, it is not fundamental
human health.
It is not fundamental humanwellness.
(16:24):
So at the beginning of the book,it asks everyone to decide for
themselves what is wellness foryou?
What does that look like in yourlife?
You know, for me, it's not justthe absence of sickness,
illness, disease, or symptoms.
(16:47):
It covers physical, mental,emotional, spiritual, all
aspects of being and having theenergy and the capacity to do
the things that I want to do, tobe the places that I want to be,
to be with the people, to do allof that stuff.
To me, we're not well if any oneof those pieces is missing.
(17:13):
We're not well if our food planthat keeps us at whatever number
on the scale has us not beingsocial.
Right.
So I often say if your plandoesn't allow for life, it's not
your plan for life.
Right.
Like all of those people, all ofthose pieces have to be included
(17:39):
as I define wellness.
But everybody gets to decide forthemselves.
SPEAKER_01 (17:46):
I think that the individualization or yeah,
invitation for folks to reflecton what it is for them makes it
probably so much easier to thenaccomplish whatever those
subsequent goals are becausethey're derivatives of that main
overall point.
I know I'm, I know you'reagreeing with me.
So I'm not saying anything todo, but that just helps to
(18:07):
reinforce everything.
SPEAKER_00 (18:08):
Yes.
And the piece of that is then tosay, as all of this information,
and frankly, even everything andanything we're going to talk
about today or in the games,feel free to ignore or leave
anything that does not vibe withyou.
There is nothing that says youhave to do every single thing
(18:33):
that anybody says.
And one of the things I talkabout too in there is like how
do we digest all of theinformation coming at us?
And going back to yourdefinition of wellness and even
understanding like what's yourgoal?
Have you paused to ask if thegoal of that influencer is the
(18:54):
same as yours?
Because not for nothing, likethe New York City marathon's
happening.
I have zero interest in runninga marathon.
Marathon diet is one of myfavorite days in the city.
It like restores my faith inhumanity.
But with that said, when I seepeople on the internet talking
about what they're eating orwhat they're doing, that doesn't
(19:18):
apply to me because mydefinition of wellness does not
include running a marathon.
Yeah.
And it's okay to leave all that.
SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
What are uh I'm I'm curious, like for you
personally, yeah, what are someof those parts of wellness that,
you know, are really importantto you that you keep front of
mind?
SPEAKER_00 (19:38):
So top of my list, and this is not, I know we're
gonna talk about things in adifferent order, you know,
later, but um fun and freedomand joy and connection and are
huge for me.
Being able to enjoy food andallowing food to be part of how
(20:02):
we spend time with other people,how we find joy, how you know,
like I love food.
I'm a total foodie, you know?
So that's a big piece of thingsfor me too.
I love working out.
And so sometimes those are superchallenging, sometimes they're
(20:24):
not, but having movement everysingle day helps me feel like
me, helps me show up as a betterperson in the world.
Um, learning is a big thing forme too.
Like I'm still that insatiablestudent.
I spend an inordinate amount oftime learning, reading,
(20:45):
researching, you know, a lot ofthat kind of stuff.
But I enjoy that.
Um I think I could go on and onand on, but like, you know, of
course, sleep and managingstress and figuring out all of
those things.
But all of that stuff that Ieven talked about is part of
managing that stress and showingup in the world and, you know,
(21:08):
sleep is one.
I call it the ultimate biohack.
I there are a few things betterfor us than sleep.
And I will admit it is one thatI it's a it's an ongoing
relationship that is um what'sthe status complicated, right?
unknown (21:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:31):
Yeah, exactly.
You know, we work on it.
We have our days where we arelike spot on, and then we have
our days where we're like, notmy best work, you know.
But yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:41):
Maybe then on this note with sleep as your as your
number one, let's transitioninto this kind of draft that I
want us to do.
Okay.
Um, and as like a littledisclaimer, too, for all of the
like little games and questions,there are no wrong answers.
Um the point is, you know, forus to just chat through our
perspectives and um share withlisteners out there so they can
(22:04):
think about it too.
And listeners also be, you know,like, what would you draft as
first?
Or we'll do some like kiss merrykill kind of ones with drums.
So we'll get to it.
But that being said, um, Iwanted us to kind of like draft
our foundations of health.
So I'll run through the listreally quick, which is
(22:25):
nutrition, hydration, stress,sleep, connection, and movement,
many of which you justmentioned.
These are the core ones um thatI pulled out from your book.
So I'm gonna make a bigconfident guess about your
number one draft, but do youhave anything else that you want
to add for your number one?
Then I'll let you know what I'vegot.
SPEAKER_00 (22:46):
So my number one is the sleep.
And I will, it is it is toughfor me between sleep and
nutrition, but I'm going withsleep.
SPEAKER_01 (22:57):
Oh, okay, interesting.
I actually went with hydrationfor my first one.
And I put hydration as my numberone draft because I think that
it is well, actually, now thatI'm about to say it out loud,
I'm like, do I think it's theeasiest?
But yeah, I think it's the, it'sat least in the mechanics of it
all, the simplest.
(23:18):
Like, let's fill up a little bitmore water, let's grab a water
bottle.
And so that's why I rankedhydration for my numero uno
position.
Yeah, I thought of it more interms of impact.
Totally.
Like, there's no wrong answers.
Yeah, no, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (23:33):
But it's funny how our our minds work to like, you
know, for that first draft pick.
SPEAKER_01 (23:38):
Yeah.
What's the second foundationalarea that that you want to
draft?
So my second is nutrition.
unknown (23:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
And then the learned the way the body works,
understanding the gut-brainconnection.
A lot of people will try tostart with the mental side.
Fundamentally, I'm sorry, maybethis is a little tangent, but
(24:09):
okay, the vagus nerve is theliteral connection between the
gut and the brain.
Think of it like a five-lanehighway.
Three of those lanes go gut tobrain, two go brain to gut.
So you will never outthink thebiochemistry of what you are
putting in your body.
(24:29):
So if we can sometimes startthere, a lot of the other things
become a lot easier.
And then nutrition plays intoenergy, and nutrition plays into
our sleep, and nutrition playsinto our capacity to move in all
of these other places and ourattention.
And so there's a big impact thathappens when we start with that
(24:52):
nutrition piece.
SPEAKER_01 (24:54):
Okay.
Interesting because I foundnutrition towards the bottom of
my list.
We'll get there.
I'll, I'll defend it.
I'll defend it when we getthere.
I like it.
I had um number two.
I actually had stress for mine.
Yeah.
I thought um hydration, you'relike impacting every cell in the
body.
Stress, I think, makes the otherareas so much easier.
And I'll just recap them all forlisteners who don't have this
(25:16):
list in front of them.
We're talking about nutrition,sleep, stress, hydration,
connection, and movement.
But I thought, I just thoughtstress is like impacting
basically every function, everysystem of your body.
And also, I don't know, for likekind of the quality of life
aspect, I said, okay, for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (25:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:38):
I think stress is on there for sure.
What I see is that when we startwith the sleep and the
nutrition, the physiologicalresponse to stress starts to
change.
SPEAKER_01 (25:48):
Mm-hmm.
Defenda number three.
What you got for number three?
SPEAKER_00 (25:54):
All right.
So admittedly, that's where Istopped thinking.
So I'm now going, you know, kindof thinking through it.
So I might have sleep or sorry,I might have stress at three.
Okay.
Because I do agree with you inwhat happens when we're not
managing that stress.
(26:16):
Because I hope I'm not givingaway too much.
Everybody still go buy the book.
The stress piece.
When our body is in that stressresponse, any body system that
is not critical to surviving thenext 20 minutes shuts off.
So your metabolism shuts off,reproductive system shuts off,
(26:38):
immune system shuts off, growinghair and nails shuts off.
So there's a major piece tounderstanding how to build into
our lives the elements ofmanaging stress and minimizing
its impact or just understandingand helping the body work
through stress.
So I think I've stress at three.
SPEAKER_01 (27:00):
I think it's so interesting about stress that we
all really, or many folks, atleast in these United States,
um, accept that stress is just anecessary evil.
We're just going to beexperiencing it.
This is, you know, I've evensaid this myself where I'm like,
I feel like maybe I'm at a twoout of 10 on the scale, but
like, is something wrong if Idon't have more stress?
(27:22):
Am I like going for stuff?
So um I guess that's curious ifyou see any like interesting
trends, or especially in NewYork City.
I'm out here in San Diego.
Things are like a little bitmore relaxed, but like, what is
the East Coast like cityperspective on stress?
Like, what would you love to seechange like magically in New
(27:45):
York City culture to addressstress?
SPEAKER_00 (27:52):
That is such a complicated question because
it's also things that I loveabout this city.
Like the energy in this city ismagnetic.
And the energy of the city issort of a baseline level of
stress.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's a pace to be pastyour boat time.
Right, exactly.
There's a pace to it.
And I also think because, youknow, it's known as the city
(28:16):
that never sleeps, there isalways something that you could
be doing that it's sort of thatdouble-edged sword.
Like maybe it would be nice foreverything.
There's no FOMO when everythingcloses.
Okay.
What are we on?
SPEAKER_01 (28:29):
Number four now, I think.
Yeah, but what was your three?
Oh, um, oh, my three was sleep.
Yeah, I'm here with you.
Sleep, it's gonna impact everypart of your body, it's gonna
impact all these other systems.
So yes.
Yeah.
What you got next?
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (28:44):
I think I'm going with four being just hug a
person.
Yeah.
And it's a toss-up withhydration.
But because hydration is simple,I think it ends up happening
with some of the other things.
But um I'm going with just hug aperson because this is really
(29:10):
about connection and communityand purpose.
And that is, or those are one ofthe most overlooked pieces of
longevity.
And even the research backs itup when we look at what happens
(29:33):
with our physiology from holdinghands from a hug.
There is so much healing andstress management and all of the
things that come from touch andconnection.
And I want it higher on the listbecause I want to draw people's
attention to it.
(29:55):
Because it's really thatpowerful.
And it's something that I thinka lot.
Of us poo-poo or ignore or setaside.
And it's crazy powerful.
SPEAKER_01 (30:09):
I have it as number four on my list too.
And I think you're right, it canbe easier than we'd all like it
to be for it to be kind of abyproduct or afterthought.
Like once I do all of theseother things that I need to do,
then if I have time, I'llconnect with people when yeah,
just to your point, when you'reconnecting with people, that's
(30:30):
going to fuel everything elsethat you're doing and make it
all really come together.
So I'm right there with you forconnection at number four.
Okay.
What have you got for numberfive around and at the bottom
two?
SPEAKER_00 (30:44):
I know when this one's hard.
I think I'm gonna go withhydration on this one because
there is so much of what weexperience that if we were
properly hydrated, and by thattoken, everybody, hydration is
about more than just water.
That there's so much that weexperience that if we were just
properly hydrated, the bodywould function.
(31:08):
And so again, I think it likeplays into all the other things,
but I think I'm going withhydration.
SPEAKER_01 (31:15):
Okay.
This is one where we had itexactly flip-flop because I've
got nutrition for this one.
Yeah.
Nutrition, absolutely important.
And I mean, these are allfoundations.
Um, but I'm like, if you've gotthese other ones dialed in, I
think you're gonna be digestingbetter and like absorbing those
nutrients.
So I had her down at number fivebefore.
I'll mention my number sixactually must have the same
(31:37):
number six too.
Right.
We do, yeah.
Of movement.
Movement.
What are your yeah, how come youput her down there?
SPEAKER_00 (31:42):
So I do say to everybody muscle dictates
metabolism.
Movement is critical.
The human body was designed tomove.
So it's not optional.
But I have it at five becausepeople overestimate what
movement is going to do when itcomes to some of their health
(32:03):
goals.
SPEAKER_01 (32:04):
Hmm.
Because you because I think thatby, you know, running a mile, it
will have a greater improvementthan what they actually see.
SPEAKER_00 (32:12):
Because everybody wants to undo their food with
movement.
True.
You cannot outrun your fork.
And it's not, it's also notlike, you know, one wildly
intense, like you can't say,okay, I played, you know, on
recess once when I was, youknow, seven.
So like I'm good.
(32:34):
You know, so like your one wildintense workout isn't what's
gonna move the needle.
Yeah.
And I think it gets um overhypedas the answer to a lot of
things.
Although, with that said,movement, muscle, muscle is
muscle is your metabolism,muscle is your longevity, you
(32:55):
know, muscle is anti-aging.
Like there's so much involved init.
It's not negotiable.
Frankly, none of these arenegotiable.
None of them.
Um, but I I have it as last tohelp people right size it in
their plan.
Yeah.
I also think, sorry, I alsothink movement can end up as
(33:17):
part of stress management.
Movement can end up as part ofconnection.
So there's pieces there thatlike it'll end up in the mix
sooner.
Yeah.
Even if you're going in thisorder.
SPEAKER_01 (33:30):
Yeah, I think my main walk, well, okay.
I slipped that.
My main reason.
Um my main activity that I dothough is going for walks.
That is my main socialconnection.
That's what I'll be doing in twohours with my friends.
So um, yes, I'm on board.
I'm on board with that.
That is me too.
SPEAKER_00 (33:48):
Yeah.
Um go ahead.
I was just gonna say, like foreverybody listening, ignore
everything we just said.
Tune into yourself.
You know, which and not to saythat you have to pick your
order.
What I mean is choose the onethat you know requires a little
(34:14):
bit more of your attention foryou to see a massive change in
how you define wellness.
Because it's not about going onour list, like you know the
answer for you of which piece ismissing from your equation.
Cause, like we said, there noneof them are negotiable.
(34:36):
It's making sure that we'regetting them all.
And so you know for you whichrequires your attention.
SPEAKER_01 (34:44):
And hopefully a little more context now, too,
about how one foundation canimpact another foundation and
how, yeah, it's all connected.
We've got to do all of them.
Um and yeah, allows you to bebetter informed about what are
you gonna do today?
What are you gonna do tomorrow?
What is, you know, thatrealistic and sustainable plan
that you can build into yourlife.
(35:06):
So that is the first part of twoof my conversation with Jen.
I hope that you loved it.
And if you did, then make surethat you come back on Thursday
for the second part of ourconversation.
Again, you can check out theshow notes for the links to
connect with Jen and check outher book.
And if you have any questionsfor me, thoughts for me, I want
(35:27):
to hear what your takeaway fromthis episode was, what surprised
you.
And you can send me a message onInstagram at I'm underscore
hormonal.
As always, I'll remind you thatthe information I share on the
podcast here is for educationalpurposes only.
It is not medical advice,diagnosis, or a replacement for
it.
If this episode resonated withyou, if you love the
(35:49):
conversations that we're havinghere, then I would really
appreciate you if you for free,for free, just a couple seconds
of your time, left a review or arating for the podcast and many,
many, many things in advance.
So that's it for today.
I'm Bridget Walton, and I willsee you on the next one.
You probably do not need me to tell you that
wellness and health can be alittle bit complicated
sometimes.
If you are anything like I am,if you're anything like my
clients or my friends, we allcan find ourselves at one time
in life or another reallyovercomplicating things because
there's so much information outthere.
(00:22):
How do I know what is best forme?
How?
Well, I'm excited to bring youthis conversation that I had
with Jen Trapeck.
She has just released a bookcalled Uncomplicating Wellness,
and she covers so many greattopics, really good staples, and
really focuses also on themindset of wellness and how to
(00:45):
really make it work for you sothat you're not just on this
never-ending, you know, hamsterwheel of how do I improve my
health?
What works for me?
So we had a really funconversation that I think you
are going to love listening to.
And I will get there in just amoment.
But real quick, I want to sayagain, welcome to the I'm
(01:06):
Hormonal Podcast.
I'm Bridget Walton, your host,of course.
I am a women's hormone coach andI work with busy, ambitious
women offering personalizedcoaching and science fact
solutions.
So whether you are working withme one-on-one or you are
listening to the podcast here,my goal is the same, which is to
(01:26):
help you to stop guessing aboutyour hormone health and start
seeing real progress.
So we are going to get into ithere shortly.
This is actually going to be atwo-part episode because our
conversation ended up being alittle bit longer than expected.
You can hear us, or you canexpect to hear us talk through
some kind of quizzes, gettingeach other's opinions on
(01:50):
different topics and trends.
And overall, we touched on a lotof different topics from the
carnivore diet to gluten-freeto, you know, how do we put, you
know, create good habits thatcan stick with us.
So this is going to be a goodone to help you flex this must
(02:10):
muscle in your brain of, youknow, what is right for me, what
feels good to me, and give you alittle bit of context on a lot
of different topics.
You will hear Jen introduceherself in just a minute here,
but in the meantime, know thatJen is a health coach.
She is also a podcaster.
(02:31):
Check out her podcast, which iscalled Salad with a Side of
Fries.
She has been doing this for along time.
She has so much great insightfrom all of her work one-on-one
with clients.
And she was really just apleasure to talk to and to
chit-chat back and forth with.
So, with that, I will let you umstart listening to this first
(02:54):
half of our conversation.
And you can check the show notesfor links to listen to her
podcast, connect with her onsocial.
Um, or if you want to check outher book, I know that you are
going to love it.
So here you go, and I'll see youon the other side.
SPEAKER_00 (03:10):
Jen, welcome to the I'm Hermannal podcast.
Thank you.
I'm excited to be here.
I know this is not our firstchat, which makes it even more
exciting.
SPEAKER_01 (03:19):
Yeah, not our first chat.
We are both, you know, 248Southeastern Michigan gals.
Um, also, right, you're a healthcoach.
Um, you're a podcaster.
We have those things in common,but um, you're also an author
now.
SPEAKER_00 (03:35):
Congratulations.
Thank you.
It is totally wild and surreal.
Somebody asked me recently,like, was this something you
always wanted to do?
And I was like, no.
Like, you know, no.
And if somebody had told meyears ago that this is what I
would have done, you know, sixyears after leaving my full-time
(03:57):
job, almost 20 years afterbecoming, you know, a health and
lifestyle coach, I would havebeen like, yeah, right.
unknown (04:03):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:03):
But nevertheless, here we are.
And I think that's what'sexciting.
Here we are.
Well, I'm, I put together somefun games for us that I'm not to
be too into myself, but yeah,I'm, I think this is gonna be
fun.
This is gonna be a good chancefor um the listeners out there.
Hello, gals, to get to know you,right?
Your book is called UncomplicateWellness.
(04:24):
I'll ask you to tell us a littlebit more about it in a second.
Um, but we are gonna touch on alot of different trends and a
lot of different ideas orconcerns that I know are
floating around, certainly havefloated around in my mind in the
past, and perhaps many of thegals out there too.
So we will see where we differ,however, slightly, or if at all,
(04:45):
and um just to chat on ourthoughts on these many different
aspects of wellness.
Yes, I'm super excited.
I love a good game.
unknown (04:53):
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (04:54):
I have some catchy titles for them.
So we'll get to those hereshortly and I'll explain a
little bit more.
But in the meantime, tell us alittle bit more about you for
folks who are just meeting youfor the first time, Jen.
Yeah, so hi.
SPEAKER_00 (05:07):
Um, so my name is Jen Trepik.
Um, my background is reallybusiness and marketing, and I
came to all of this healthstuff, like so many of us,
through my own, I call it a sagaof trying to figure out my
health and my weight.
I grew up a dancer and I reallyI sort of joke, my family
probably hates this joke, and Ishould say something else.
(05:30):
But essentially, like I for alot of my life growing up, I was
the skinny one.
And everybody around me was kindof always on a diet.
So I was hyper aware of dietculture and fad diets and all of
those things.
Even though, like, I mean,generally, we ate well.
(05:53):
It, you know, I ate vegetables.
It wasn't a thing.
And like for so many of us, thisstuff wasn't a thing until it
was.
And that for me was between highschool and college.
I stopped dancing 800 times aweek.
I um went on birth control,lifestyle, going to college and
(06:17):
all of those things, likeeverything changed.
Totally.
And then I was like, okay, well,I know what to do.
You do this diet and then thatdiet and all of the things, and
you live on this roller coaster,and that just like is what it
is.
And yet there were times where Ifelt like I would just breathe
(06:39):
and gain weight.
And like something doesn't makesense.
How is this possible?
Right.
And then worlds kind of collidedfor me.
So I graduated from theUniversity of Michigan, go blue,
moved to New York City, andafter a couple of months, I was
like, okay, I don't know whatI'm gonna do for the rest of my
(07:01):
life, but I know I'm not gonnawork for somebody else for the
rest of my life.
And so I was looking for thingsto do, either to make extra
money and invest it and be ableto retire early, or have
something where like I couldwork for myself eventually.
And then these two worldscollided because I learned about
the curriculum that I've basedmy entire practice on.
(07:23):
And what I heard people tellingstories, their stories, who were
following this approach tohealth, nutrition, life, all of
the things.
And there's one woman inparticular who was telling her
story of removing like 150pounds.
(07:45):
And she kept it off.
Anything she said after that, Ididn't hear.
I don't even know this woman'sname.
Like every time I tell thisstory, I'm like, if you're out
there, please tell me, you know.
So she is telling me, you know,she literally removed the
equivalent of another human,right?
Like another human was attachedto you.
(08:09):
And I'm looking at this womanand I'm like, I can't see where
10 pounds could have been onyour body.
You know?
Yeah.
So I had this conversation withmyself in my own head of like
Jennifer, not even Jen, right?
This was like, I was having amoment with myself.
Yes.
And it was like, they knowsomething you don't know.
Because based on everything youknow, that doesn't make any
(08:30):
sense.
And so I worked with a coach, Ifollowed the curriculum,
completely changed my life.
Like the only thing that allowedme to say I kicked my food
issues.
SPEAKER_01 (08:41):
How old were you?
Like when you start, like whenyou met this woman.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:45):
So this was I was in my early 20s, early to mid-20s.
unknown (08:53):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (08:54):
Super 20.
I'm trying to, yeah, exactly.
And I'm trying to think becauseso it was like 2007, late 2007.
So yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (09:04):
No clue how old you are, but that sounds like early
20s, maybe.
SPEAKER_00 (09:08):
Well, I was gonna say, I'm older than I look.
So I was, you know, early 20sand 2007.
And um, yeah, it was it was likemind-boggling to me.
Two things.
One, that like, this isn't whatwe learned.
And how did all of those thingscome to be?
SPEAKER_01 (09:31):
This being like what you learned in your curriculum.
SPEAKER_00 (09:33):
And yeah, but like to me, I felt like it was the
nutrition education we're allsupposed to know, and no one
ever taught us.
Like, we all have these bodies,and then we're all just supposed
to know what to do with them.
Like, yeah, missed that class inhigh school.
We all did.
And then what we were taught, Iwas like, well, where did that
(09:54):
happen?
Like, how did all of thosethings come to be that that's
what we were taught?
And so I became this insatiablestudent to understand all of
those pieces of like, where didthose things come from?
Why isn't that what you knowwhat we learned?
How did the things, all of thatstuff come to be?
(10:14):
But then also, how do we geteverybody to have and understand
this fundamentally humaninformation?
And small task.
Right.
And understand it in a way thatit's actionable, not
overwhelming.
(10:34):
And so, like, I started doingthis stuff on the side of my
full-time job.
And like I said, this was likelate 2007.
So it was like before healthcoaching was really a thing.
It was before side hustles werereally a thing.
And it's, you know, then I also,as things would come up for me
or my clients, it's like digginginto all of the human behavior
(10:55):
things and all of the, you know,just continuing to learn and
grow.
And I do a lot in my practicewith supplementation.
So, you know, learning aboutdifferent nutrients and
ingredients and herbs and thingsthat they do.
And so kind of this book,Uncomplicating Wellness, is not
(11:15):
a how-to.
Rather, it's a new lens throughwhich we can then evaluate all
of the wellness informationcoming at us.
Because one of the things that'schanged over the last 20, almost
20 years of me doing this isthat people are savvier, we have
(11:38):
more information coming at us,and people have never been more
confused.
Mm-hmm.
SPEAKER_01 (11:46):
I think that's so interesting too.
Right.
There are certain, or curiousyour opinion on this.
There are times when we do needlike more specific direction,
but for the other 90 at leastpercent of our lives, when we're
out here trying to figure outfor ourselves what's best for
us, yeah, unlearning a lot ofthose things and reflecting back
(12:07):
in.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (12:08):
That's what will get you where you want to go.
Exactly.
And so this book is thecompanion for that.
It's essentially like before youbuy any how-to, before you buy
the plan or the book that's orthe program or whatever it is,
buy this one to help you figureout which plan program book is
(12:31):
the one that's really gonna helpyou move the needle.
Because what I see most often isthat we have like this shiny
object syndrome where, you know,from every, you know, TikTok and
Instagram reel to every headline800 times a day, we have all
this information coming at us.
(12:53):
We're trying to do it all.
We're making sense of doing itall.
And then by extension, we'reactually doing none of them.
And but we feel like we are, andthen we're frustrated, thinking
that something's wrong with us,that it's not quote unquote
working.
So there's nothing wrong withyou, by the way.
SPEAKER_01 (13:14):
The willpower piece too.
I saw that in your book of thelike that kind of I need a
little bit more discipline, Ineed more willpower.
I talk about this hopefully notan annoying amount, but but
anyway, yeah, I saw that and Iwas like, yes, Jen, we are
speaking the same exact languagehere.
Yeah.
Well, good.
Yeah.
Um, before we kind of jump intosome of the games, I and you
(13:38):
touched on this lightly, butwhat are some of your first,
like, do you have a specificfirst memory where you were
learning about what health orwhat wellness is supposed to
look like?
What was that for you, if youremember?
SPEAKER_00 (13:52):
Yeah, it's interesting.
I you know, growing up a dancer,there was sort of this piece of
like a dancer's body.
And then I also remember in veryformative years, it was
Victoria's Secret Angels.
(14:13):
Right?
Everything was very much theaesthetic.
And I remember a lot ofconversation around magazines
and ads and how groundbreakingit was when Dove had this real
women campaign.
And the interesting thing islike you asked the question in
(14:36):
terms of health, but that's notwhat it was.
Every message was aboutaesthetics, health was not a
part of that conversation ever.
And I think part of my personalpet peeve about things now is
that every conversation abouthealth and wellness, not every,
(14:59):
but a lot of the conversationsabout health and wellness, it's
just the the new label on dietculture that ultimately no one's
actually defining health.
No one's actually saying this iswellness.
(15:20):
Everything is the biohack, thesupplement, the grams of
protein, the rules or theto-dos, and the interpretation
is that that's health.
SPEAKER_01 (15:35):
I want to ask you in a second what um, like how do
you define health?
Yeah.
Wellness.
Um, but what that kind of mademe think of as you were speaking
is how there's this overlap.
There's this Venn diagram ofwellness or health on the one
side and then status on theother.
And yeah, sometimes it can bepretty confusing of which what
(15:57):
falls into which category and orreally what's the goal of what
we're going through.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (16:00):
And there's a piece of how today society defines
wellness that is very much ifyou can afford it, is it
accessible to you?
And by definition, if it is onlyfor some, it is not fundamental
human health.
It is not fundamental humanwellness.
(16:24):
So at the beginning of the book,it asks everyone to decide for
themselves what is wellness foryou?
What does that look like in yourlife?
You know, for me, it's not justthe absence of sickness,
illness, disease, or symptoms.
(16:47):
It covers physical, mental,emotional, spiritual, all
aspects of being and having theenergy and the capacity to do
the things that I want to do, tobe the places that I want to be,
to be with the people, to do allof that stuff.
To me, we're not well if any oneof those pieces is missing.
(17:13):
We're not well if our food planthat keeps us at whatever number
on the scale has us not beingsocial.
Right.
So I often say if your plandoesn't allow for life, it's not
your plan for life.
Right.
Like all of those people, all ofthose pieces have to be included
(17:39):
as I define wellness.
But everybody gets to decide forthemselves.
SPEAKER_01 (17:46):
I think that the individualization or yeah,
invitation for folks to reflecton what it is for them makes it
probably so much easier to thenaccomplish whatever those
subsequent goals are becausethey're derivatives of that main
overall point.
I know I'm, I know you'reagreeing with me.
So I'm not saying anything todo, but that just helps to
(18:07):
reinforce everything.
SPEAKER_00 (18:08):
Yes.
And the piece of that is then tosay, as all of this information,
and frankly, even everything andanything we're going to talk
about today or in the games,feel free to ignore or leave
anything that does not vibe withyou.
There is nothing that says youhave to do every single thing
(18:33):
that anybody says.
And one of the things I talkabout too in there is like how
do we digest all of theinformation coming at us?
And going back to yourdefinition of wellness and even
understanding like what's yourgoal?
Have you paused to ask if thegoal of that influencer is the
(18:54):
same as yours?
Because not for nothing, likethe New York City marathon's
happening.
I have zero interest in runninga marathon.
Marathon diet is one of myfavorite days in the city.
It like restores my faith inhumanity.
But with that said, when I seepeople on the internet talking
about what they're eating orwhat they're doing, that doesn't
(19:18):
apply to me because mydefinition of wellness does not
include running a marathon.
Yeah.
And it's okay to leave all that.
SPEAKER_01 (19:28):
What are uh I'm I'm curious, like for you
personally, yeah, what are someof those parts of wellness that,
you know, are really importantto you that you keep front of
mind?
SPEAKER_00 (19:38):
So top of my list, and this is not, I know we're
gonna talk about things in adifferent order, you know,
later, but um fun and freedomand joy and connection and are
huge for me.
Being able to enjoy food andallowing food to be part of how
(20:02):
we spend time with other people,how we find joy, how you know,
like I love food.
I'm a total foodie, you know?
So that's a big piece of thingsfor me too.
I love working out.
And so sometimes those are superchallenging, sometimes they're
(20:24):
not, but having movement everysingle day helps me feel like
me, helps me show up as a betterperson in the world.
Um, learning is a big thing forme too.
Like I'm still that insatiablestudent.
I spend an inordinate amount oftime learning, reading,
(20:45):
researching, you know, a lot ofthat kind of stuff.
But I enjoy that.
Um I think I could go on and onand on, but like, you know, of
course, sleep and managingstress and figuring out all of
those things.
But all of that stuff that Ieven talked about is part of
managing that stress and showingup in the world and, you know,
(21:08):
sleep is one.
I call it the ultimate biohack.
I there are a few things betterfor us than sleep.
And I will admit it is one thatI it's a it's an ongoing
relationship that is um what'sthe status complicated, right?
unknown (21:30):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (21:31):
Yeah, exactly.
You know, we work on it.
We have our days where we arelike spot on, and then we have
our days where we're like, notmy best work, you know.
But yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (21:41):
Maybe then on this note with sleep as your as your
number one, let's transitioninto this kind of draft that I
want us to do.
Okay.
Um, and as like a littledisclaimer, too, for all of the
like little games and questions,there are no wrong answers.
Um the point is, you know, forus to just chat through our
perspectives and um share withlisteners out there so they can
(22:04):
think about it too.
And listeners also be, you know,like, what would you draft as
first?
Or we'll do some like kiss merrykill kind of ones with drums.
So we'll get to it.
But that being said, um, Iwanted us to kind of like draft
our foundations of health.
So I'll run through the listreally quick, which is
(22:25):
nutrition, hydration, stress,sleep, connection, and movement,
many of which you justmentioned.
These are the core ones um thatI pulled out from your book.
So I'm gonna make a bigconfident guess about your
number one draft, but do youhave anything else that you want
to add for your number one?
Then I'll let you know what I'vegot.
SPEAKER_00 (22:46):
So my number one is the sleep.
And I will, it is it is toughfor me between sleep and
nutrition, but I'm going withsleep.
SPEAKER_01 (22:57):
Oh, okay, interesting.
I actually went with hydrationfor my first one.
And I put hydration as my numberone draft because I think that
it is well, actually, now thatI'm about to say it out loud,
I'm like, do I think it's theeasiest?
But yeah, I think it's the, it'sat least in the mechanics of it
all, the simplest.
(23:18):
Like, let's fill up a little bitmore water, let's grab a water
bottle.
And so that's why I rankedhydration for my numero uno
position.
Yeah, I thought of it more interms of impact.
Totally.
Like, there's no wrong answers.
Yeah, no, exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (23:33):
But it's funny how our our minds work to like, you
know, for that first draft pick.
SPEAKER_01 (23:38):
Yeah.
What's the second foundationalarea that that you want to
draft?
So my second is nutrition.
unknown (23:45):
Okay.
SPEAKER_00 (23:46):
And then the learned the way the body works,
understanding the gut-brainconnection.
A lot of people will try tostart with the mental side.
Fundamentally, I'm sorry, maybethis is a little tangent, but
(24:09):
okay, the vagus nerve is theliteral connection between the
gut and the brain.
Think of it like a five-lanehighway.
Three of those lanes go gut tobrain, two go brain to gut.
So you will never outthink thebiochemistry of what you are
putting in your body.
(24:29):
So if we can sometimes startthere, a lot of the other things
become a lot easier.
And then nutrition plays intoenergy, and nutrition plays into
our sleep, and nutrition playsinto our capacity to move in all
of these other places and ourattention.
And so there's a big impact thathappens when we start with that
(24:52):
nutrition piece.
SPEAKER_01 (24:54):
Okay.
Interesting because I foundnutrition towards the bottom of
my list.
We'll get there.
I'll, I'll defend it.
I'll defend it when we getthere.
I like it.
I had um number two.
I actually had stress for mine.
Yeah.
I thought um hydration, you'relike impacting every cell in the
body.
Stress, I think, makes the otherareas so much easier.
And I'll just recap them all forlisteners who don't have this
(25:16):
list in front of them.
We're talking about nutrition,sleep, stress, hydration,
connection, and movement.
But I thought, I just thoughtstress is like impacting
basically every function, everysystem of your body.
And also, I don't know, for likekind of the quality of life
aspect, I said, okay, for sure.
SPEAKER_00 (25:37):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:38):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (25:38):
I think stress is on there for sure.
What I see is that when we startwith the sleep and the
nutrition, the physiologicalresponse to stress starts to
change.
SPEAKER_01 (25:48):
Mm-hmm.
Defenda number three.
What you got for number three?
SPEAKER_00 (25:54):
All right.
So admittedly, that's where Istopped thinking.
So I'm now going, you know, kindof thinking through it.
So I might have sleep or sorry,I might have stress at three.
Okay.
Because I do agree with you inwhat happens when we're not
managing that stress.
(26:16):
Because I hope I'm not givingaway too much.
Everybody still go buy the book.
The stress piece.
When our body is in that stressresponse, any body system that
is not critical to surviving thenext 20 minutes shuts off.
So your metabolism shuts off,reproductive system shuts off,
(26:38):
immune system shuts off, growinghair and nails shuts off.
So there's a major piece tounderstanding how to build into
our lives the elements ofmanaging stress and minimizing
its impact or just understandingand helping the body work
through stress.
So I think I've stress at three.
SPEAKER_01 (27:00):
I think it's so interesting about stress that we
all really, or many folks, atleast in these United States,
um, accept that stress is just anecessary evil.
We're just going to beexperiencing it.
This is, you know, I've evensaid this myself where I'm like,
I feel like maybe I'm at a twoout of 10 on the scale, but
like, is something wrong if Idon't have more stress?
(27:22):
Am I like going for stuff?
So um I guess that's curious ifyou see any like interesting
trends, or especially in NewYork City.
I'm out here in San Diego.
Things are like a little bitmore relaxed, but like, what is
the East Coast like cityperspective on stress?
Like, what would you love to seechange like magically in New
(27:45):
York City culture to addressstress?
SPEAKER_00 (27:52):
That is such a complicated question because
it's also things that I loveabout this city.
Like the energy in this city ismagnetic.
And the energy of the city issort of a baseline level of
stress.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's a pace to be pastyour boat time.
Right, exactly.
There's a pace to it.
And I also think because, youknow, it's known as the city
(28:16):
that never sleeps, there isalways something that you could
be doing that it's sort of thatdouble-edged sword.
Like maybe it would be nice foreverything.
There's no FOMO when everythingcloses.
Okay.
What are we on?
SPEAKER_01 (28:29):
Number four now, I think.
Yeah, but what was your three?
Oh, um, oh, my three was sleep.
Yeah, I'm here with you.
Sleep, it's gonna impact everypart of your body, it's gonna
impact all these other systems.
So yes.
Yeah.
What you got next?
All right.
SPEAKER_00 (28:44):
I think I'm going with four being just hug a
person.
Yeah.
And it's a toss-up withhydration.
But because hydration is simple,I think it ends up happening
with some of the other things.
But um I'm going with just hug aperson because this is really
(29:10):
about connection and communityand purpose.
And that is, or those are one ofthe most overlooked pieces of
longevity.
And even the research backs itup when we look at what happens
(29:33):
with our physiology from holdinghands from a hug.
There is so much healing andstress management and all of the
things that come from touch andconnection.
And I want it higher on the listbecause I want to draw people's
attention to it.
(29:55):
Because it's really thatpowerful.
And it's something that I thinka lot.
Of us poo-poo or ignore or setaside.
And it's crazy powerful.
SPEAKER_01 (30:09):
I have it as number four on my list too.
And I think you're right, it canbe easier than we'd all like it
to be for it to be kind of abyproduct or afterthought.
Like once I do all of theseother things that I need to do,
then if I have time, I'llconnect with people when yeah,
just to your point, when you'reconnecting with people, that's
(30:30):
going to fuel everything elsethat you're doing and make it
all really come together.
So I'm right there with you forconnection at number four.
Okay.
What have you got for numberfive around and at the bottom
two?
SPEAKER_00 (30:44):
I know when this one's hard.
I think I'm gonna go withhydration on this one because
there is so much of what weexperience that if we were
properly hydrated, and by thattoken, everybody, hydration is
about more than just water.
That there's so much that weexperience that if we were just
properly hydrated, the bodywould function.
(31:08):
And so again, I think it likeplays into all the other things,
but I think I'm going withhydration.
SPEAKER_01 (31:15):
Okay.
This is one where we had itexactly flip-flop because I've
got nutrition for this one.
Yeah.
Nutrition, absolutely important.
And I mean, these are allfoundations.
Um, but I'm like, if you've gotthese other ones dialed in, I
think you're gonna be digestingbetter and like absorbing those
nutrients.
So I had her down at number fivebefore.
I'll mention my number sixactually must have the same
(31:37):
number six too.
Right.
We do, yeah.
Of movement.
Movement.
What are your yeah, how come youput her down there?
SPEAKER_00 (31:42):
So I do say to everybody muscle dictates
metabolism.
Movement is critical.
The human body was designed tomove.
So it's not optional.
But I have it at five becausepeople overestimate what
movement is going to do when itcomes to some of their health
(32:03):
goals.
SPEAKER_01 (32:04):
Hmm.
Because you because I think thatby, you know, running a mile, it
will have a greater improvementthan what they actually see.
SPEAKER_00 (32:12):
Because everybody wants to undo their food with
movement.
True.
You cannot outrun your fork.
And it's not, it's also notlike, you know, one wildly
intense, like you can't say,okay, I played, you know, on
recess once when I was, youknow, seven.
So like I'm good.
(32:34):
You know, so like your one wildintense workout isn't what's
gonna move the needle.
Yeah.
And I think it gets um overhypedas the answer to a lot of
things.
Although, with that said,movement, muscle, muscle is
muscle is your metabolism,muscle is your longevity, you
(32:55):
know, muscle is anti-aging.
Like there's so much involved init.
It's not negotiable.
Frankly, none of these arenegotiable.
None of them.
Um, but I I have it as last tohelp people right size it in
their plan.
Yeah.
I also think, sorry, I alsothink movement can end up as
(33:17):
part of stress management.
Movement can end up as part ofconnection.
So there's pieces there thatlike it'll end up in the mix
sooner.
Yeah.
Even if you're going in thisorder.
SPEAKER_01 (33:30):
Yeah, I think my main walk, well, okay.
I slipped that.
My main reason.
Um my main activity that I dothough is going for walks.
That is my main socialconnection.
That's what I'll be doing in twohours with my friends.
So um, yes, I'm on board.
I'm on board with that.
That is me too.
SPEAKER_00 (33:48):
Yeah.
Um go ahead.
I was just gonna say, like foreverybody listening, ignore
everything we just said.
Tune into yourself.
You know, which and not to saythat you have to pick your
order.
What I mean is choose the onethat you know requires a little
(34:14):
bit more of your attention foryou to see a massive change in
how you define wellness.
Because it's not about going onour list, like you know the
answer for you of which piece ismissing from your equation.
Cause, like we said, there noneof them are negotiable.
(34:36):
It's making sure that we'regetting them all.
And so you know for you whichrequires your attention.
SPEAKER_01 (34:44):
And hopefully a little more context now, too,
about how one foundation canimpact another foundation and
how, yeah, it's all connected.
We've got to do all of them.
Um and yeah, allows you to bebetter informed about what are
you gonna do today?
What are you gonna do tomorrow?
What is, you know, thatrealistic and sustainable plan
that you can build into yourlife.
(35:06):
So that is the first part of twoof my conversation with Jen.
I hope that you loved it.
And if you did, then make surethat you come back on Thursday
for the second part of ourconversation.
Again, you can check out theshow notes for the links to
connect with Jen and check outher book.
And if you have any questionsfor me, thoughts for me, I want
(35:27):
to hear what your takeaway fromthis episode was, what surprised
you.
And you can send me a message onInstagram at I'm underscore
hormonal.
As always, I'll remind you thatthe information I share on the
podcast here is for educationalpurposes only.
It is not medical advice,diagnosis, or a replacement for
it.
If this episode resonated withyou, if you love the
(35:49):
conversations that we're havinghere, then I would really
appreciate you if you for free,for free, just a couple seconds
of your time, left a review or arating for the podcast and many,
many, many things in advance.
So that's it for today.
I'm Bridget Walton, and I willsee you on the next one.
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