Today we are talking with Functional Nutrition Counselor, Lindsay Tobias. We are chatting about all things stress, hustle culture, and staying on top of your health!

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Meet Lindsay Tobias

Lindsay is a Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor,  Holistic Health Coach, Exercise Physiologist, and Owner of Keep Your Plants On, LLC. She graduated from Liberty University, Precision Nutrition, the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and the Functional Nutrition Alliance where she learned to look at root causes of imbalance, rather than symptom suppression.

She teaches clients how to use food as medicine, movement, and habits to restore energy, balance hormones, banish bloating, gut dysbiosis, and clear skin, sustainably.

 

How Does Stress Physically Effect Us?

Lindsay talks about how stress is the body’s way of telling us to do something; stress is something our body has to do something with.

She says, “stress is our body trying to protect us; it’s a response to danger.” So when we feel super stressed, our body perceives a threat and tries to protect us.

In addition, she talks about the importance of listening to our body signals that come with stress and paying attention to what we need. 

Stress is an essential signal. “In the same way that hunger is an aversive state that causes us to eat, or exhaustion is an aversive state that encourages us to sleep. Stress is an aversive state that encourages us to slow down or get away from danger or pursue safety.”

She also talks about how in our society, we usually view stress as a negative thing. However, “the way that our body views stress is we look at our allostatic load, which is basically our body’s resilience. How much can we kind of put on over and over, it’s just load. It’s not necessarily negative or positive. It’s just quantity.”

Lindsay stresses that when experiencing stress, “if we can find purpose behind it, it really does make sense that we can live with stress, it would be an incredibly unfruitful and unfulfilling life to have this stress free life.”

What Is The Difference Between Acute And Chronic Stress?

To understand the difference between acute and chronic stress, we first need to understand that stress is a cycle. As Lindsay discusses, stress is a cycle where the body undergoes a lot of changes that encourage us to act. 

Acute stress is something where we go through the cycle of stress. For example, exercise is a common experience of acute stress. In other words, with acute stress, maybe there are a couple of hours, days, or weeks where things are crazy but there is an end in sight.

On the other hand, chronic stress is something that never leaves or completes itself. It has no light at end of the tunnel. Lindsay says that “when we shift from acute to chronic stress, this means that we lose foresight, we lose the ability to have any sort of long term planning when we’re in this cycle of chronic stress because there’s no need for your body to allocate energy or your mind to allocate energy to long term planning when there’s immediate danger in front of you”.

 

What Role Does Hustle Culture Play In Added Stress?

Lindsay states that hustle culture is not just playing a role in added stress. It is “setting the stage; it’s creating the culture.” 

In other words, hustle culture makes it so we are always chasing productivity and purpose in achieving and always searching for more. As Lindsay says, “hustle culture is basically like that idolatry of productivity at whatever cost. There’s no off switch, which is giving us this really inaccurate and unattainable view of productivity.”

In order to combat this, we need to prioritize rest and regeneration. In addition, we need to look at our body’s symptoms as signals and truly listen to our body.

Lindsay talks about a number of ways to combat stress and hustle culture. This includes things like crying, reading, exercise (especially exercise in nature), deep breathing and sleeping, and experiencing long-form affection.

Stress is not something we can just put a bandaid fix on. In order to truly release the stress, we need to physically release the stress from our bodies in an intentional way. 

 

How Can We Be More Intentional With Incorporating Nutrition Into Our Lives?

First, Lindsay talks about how we as humans are meant to eat with one another. She suggests trying to have at least one meal a day where we are eating with another person without electronics to distract us. 

Next, she stresses the importance of figuring out what truly works best for us. For those of us who feel pressed for time every day, she encourages getting our groceries delivered or purchasing pre-chopped or frozen vegetables to save time.

She talks about how we “have three resources; we have time, energy, and then we have money. And so when money is really short, we might need to have to spend a little bit more time and energy . . .  But if time and energy are really, really short, it might be time to pay the $7 delivery fee for grocery shopping.

A big thing to remember is that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. As Lindsay states, the “all or nothing mentality completely negates growth. There’s no such thing as growth if you’re all or nothing.”

To combat this, Lindsay encourages her clients to add in where possible. For example, when going grocery shopping next time, try adding in 3 pieces of produce you will be having as snacks. Focusing on where we are adding in allows us to experience growth and give ourselves compassion.

If you’re ready to start learning more about stress, hustle culture, and taking care of your body, connect with Lindsay Tobias by checking out the links below!

 

LINKS MENTIONED

Burnout To Breakthrough: Building Resilience To Refuel, Recharge, And Reclaim What Matters By Eileen McDargh
How To Keep Your Plants On For Good Program
Check Out ClickUp Here! (and use code SYSTEMSUP15 to get 15% off the Unlimited and the Business Plan!)

 

CONNECT WITH LINDSAY

Lindsay’s Instagram
Lindsay’s Podcast
Lindsay’s Website
Lindsay’s Art Instagram

CONNECT WITH US

 

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