If you’re doing the work and still not seeing your body shift, there’s a reason for that.
There’s a lot of talk right now about nervous system regulation, and somehow it’s turned into staying calm all the time. THAT'S NOT WHAT REGULATION IS! Ahhhhhhh. Ok, sorry to yell. That's just my passion leaking out.
Regulation is range. It’s being able to ramp up when you train, think, respond, deal with life… and then come back down when it’s over. That shift is the real skill.
Same thing with cortisol.
Cortisol has been getting absolutely dragged online lately, and most (I'd say 99%) of what I see about it is off. We don’t want your cortisol timing, peaks, or rhythm to be dysfunctional. But somehow that turned into “don’t do hard workouts, don’t get cold, don’t go more than 3 hours b/w meals, don’t stress your body or you’ll spike cortisol and store belly fat.” That leap is wild and just .... isn’t real.
It’s like noticing that doing strength training 6 hours a day, 7 days a week would break your body down… and then deciding strength training itself is the problem. Nope. Dose matters.
Cortisol rises in the morning so you wake up. It rises when you train so you can perform. It rises when life demands something from you so you can meet it. Then it comes back down. That rise and fall is the point. THAT is healthy.
Your body is built for stress. Not constant stress, but dosed stress. On purpose.
Heavy weights that require something from you. Getting out of breath on purpose. Going 12+ hours overnight without food so your body shifts fuel sources. Cold exposure so your system has to generate heat. Heat so your body has to cool itself down. That all raises cortisol and requires your body to respond.
That response is the training.
One of the ways you build a healthier cortisol rhythm is actually by doing things that temporarily raise cortisol on purpose… and then coming back down. You create the spike, your body does what it’s designed to do, and then you return to baseline. Over time, that becomes a skill — rising when it should, clearing when it should, not getting stuck in fight or flight.
You talking like an a$$hole to yourself all day everyday? That's cortisol that stays and never leaves. Not good. You overextending yourself and never setting any boundaries with your unstable family members? That's cortisol that stays and never leaves. You being in a calorie deficit since the last episode of Saved by the Bell aired? Yup ... cortisol that has taken up permanent residence.
Those things are not good. And if you ignore those and instead try to micromanage cortisol by never sprinting or shivering another day in your life, you will continue to be stressed 24/7 but now also have to add "weak, frail, fatigued with worsening lab work and a softer body" to the mix ... especially if you're in the over 40 crowd like me!
Resilience comes from handling stressors and coming back down from them. That’s where metabolism becomes more flexible too. It's also where energy starts to feel more stable.
A lot of people are building their entire routine around avoiding stress, and then wondering why nothing changes. Comfort doesn’t create adaptation. Challenge does. Then recovery and rest lock it in.
The rhythm is the whole thing.
We're not chasing perpetual calm. A body that can handle load, respond, and come back to center without friction is the real goal.
This is also a big part of what I go into inside The Metabolic Edge. This is why today, tomorrow, the next day… the women inside are seeing their results compound in real time. And with summer coming, those compounding results are turning into confidence right on time for the long days ahead.
May enrollment for The Metabolic Edge will be here next week! Mark your calendars for Tuesday, April 28th if you want in on the method that has changed 1000+ women's bodies and lives (I canNOT believe I have served that many women ... pinch me!!!).
Overthinking your health (in a good way),
Tara