Mental Health And Nutrition

This is a casual, uplifting, and honest reflection on nutrition and mental health. In this episode, I’m sharing how mental health and nutrition are connected, so you can have health options to stabilize your mental health and well-being

It’s grounded in my TTJ Method and offered with love to inspire healing, insight, and your next breakthrough.

Welcome to Your Best Podcast. I’m Teemaree.

Transcript

Hey, Hey, Welcome to Your Best Podcast. I am Tee Marie, Your best life coach. So happy to have you here to discuss something very, Very important, And that is mental health and nutrition, Mental health and nutrition. Now, If you have been subscribed and following this podcast, You know that we're coming hot off the heels of last episode where we talked about mental health, And it was a great, Great episode. So definitely be sure to, You know, Subscribe for more and to catch that after this, If you haven't caught it yet. But I wanted to expand a little bit on mental health and nutrition, Because once we kicked off, You know, Mental health in general, It's like, There's so much to this. And I think it's really important and powerful to access all the tools that are possible to have us living our best life. And so I'm really excited to chop it up with you today about mental health and nutrition, About the connections that there are there so that you can have, You know, A way to access better states of mental health nutritionally. And so, Um, Yo, First off, Of course, Anytime we dive into these topics, I have to disclaim that I'm not a medical professional, That I'm not giving you medical advice, That you should not, Uh, Use this podcast as medical advice, Or even as a life coaching or health coaching relationship, Simply because this is here for you to get some tools and information. But ultimately, If you need a doctor, You got to see a doctor. And if you want to engage in a true health coaching relationship, Life coaching relationship, A best life coaching relationship, You got to actually get into a relationship, Which means you got to actually work with me officially. So now that that's said and done, And we're clear that I'm not promising any guarantees of any kind, But sharing information, Then we can begin to talk about some real important stuff. And that has to do with the correlation between mental health and nutrition. And so here are some things that I have discovered and the ways that I've discovered this is both in my personal life. And that means me personal, My own body, My own habits, The things I've seen change and move as I've made changes and what has happened as I've done certain things. And I've also seen that in my personal life with people I love and care about. So people like my husband or even with my kids or things like that, People that are in my life personally. And then there's the professional aspects of what I've seen, Where it's like with my health coaching clients and what has happened for them as we've gone through these processes. And then what I've experienced professionally in terms of research, Data, Science, And just getting my certifications and learning about the implications, The effects of nutrition and how our mental health can really kind of be affected. So I've discovered quite a few things on this journey that I think are really important to share. And I love to share because it's really good news. Okay. It's really good news and it could help us to break some harmful cycles and it could also help us to empower ourselves in ways that we really need to. Um, And, And that's very important. So some of the things that I have discovered along the way is we'll talk about first what happens when we are in low vibration or low states of mental health. Okay. I think so many, If not all of us have experienced those times where sometimes we are very stressed. We're just under a lot of stress. Stress can be both good and or bad, Meaning the, The things that cause us to be stressed. Sometimes we get stressed over what we deem as bad circumstances, Right? Um, A lot of demands on our schedule or, Um, We are working really hard to achieve something or gain something or learn something or do something. And so it's this stress, This pressure, But sometimes we experience stress from positive things, Right? So we are going to sell our house and it's a positive thing because we're going to get a new house or we're going to do something with that money, But we're stressed along the way. Or, You know, We're going to have a baby and that's like a good thing. You know, We're going to welcome this new addition into the family, But now we're stressed around it because now life is changing and will we be good parents and are we ready? You know, Stress just happens. So when we find ourselves in states of stress, Many times what happens, And this happens in states of stress, This happens in states of fatigue. This happens in states of just being pressured for time. So sometimes it is schedule and time constraints. And so we now have entered into a lower state of mental health where, Um, We have pressures and things that are causing that kind of high vibration to lower a bit, Right? And so what happens usually in these states is that we then lean toward what we deem here in the United States, We call this the term a lot. We say we go to comfort food, Okay? Comfort food, Food that brings us comfort. And usually the reason why foods bring us comfort is because we associate them within a very important memory, Right? So oftentimes comfort foods are foods that our parents or our grandparents gave us or their foods we had during good times when we were a kid. And so now that is deemed a comfort food. Comfort foods are usually foods that are not good for us. That's just the way it is. It's usually things like ice cream, Mac and cheese, Fried food, Your favorite fast food, Uh, You know, And you're not alone. We all have this. We all have this. We all can relate to this. You know, For some of us, For some of us, It might be candy or it might be something that just brings us comfort. It, It, It, It makes us feel soothed. It takes the pressure off. It gives us a quick boost of energy. It, Uh, It's something we go to when we feel sad or stressed or we're so tired today. So we're just going to reach for that comfort food. It's easy to make, Uh, Or easy to eat and, And, You know, Access. And so this is something that we do. And the thing here is to discover is that doing this, It's not about right or wrong or, Or, Or bad or good. It's just about being aware that this is happening. And so the reason why we're talking about this in regards to mental health is because there's a real cycle that happens here. Okay. So I'll give you an example. So for me, A big comfort food has been ice cream. Now I'm definitely shifting out of that in these later years, Just because now I find that it causes other things for me, But for the longest time, Ice cream for me was a comfort food. I enjoy the taste. I enjoy the texture. I have great childhood memories around ice cream and ice cream just fits the bill. It is like sweet and it's wonderful and it's easy to access and it's all of the things. So it works if I'm tired and I just want to kind of check out and have something yummy and it works if it's a treat and a little reward, It works and it works and it works and it works. Right. So how many of us can relate to this, Right? What is it for you? We all have something. And so what happens is when we reach for our comfort food, That usually is a food that's not good for us, Is that the comfort food itself is made with or made of things that actually don't work for our greatest mental health good. So I'll give you an example with the ice cream. So the ice cream usually has a high content of fat in it. It also has a lot of sugar. And so both of those things are not good for my system. They're not high vibration foods that bring clarity, That bring, Um, A good quality of energy that bring a sustainable amount of energy or that bring a good amount of minerals and nutrients that my body, Our bodies actually need. And so what happens is I'm not saying, Hey, Don't ever have ice cream or your comfort food. But what happens when we're in a low vibe, When we're really not experiencing good mental health, When we are not experiencing good mental health, Oftentimes that is a prolonged period of time. So it can be a series of days for some of us weeks for some of us months, Depending on what caused that low vibe, That low feeling of mental health, Right? So if we are mourning a loss of some kind, Then it's highly likely that the mourning of that loss is an extended period of time. And so what are we doing? We're reaching for that comfort. We're reaching for that comfort food. Well, That comfort food has in it things that are also suppressing us mentally, Right? So if it's something like ice cream, For an example, That has a high sugar, High fat content and other inflammatory things to the body, Then we're reaching for that regularly going through this prolonged experience of a dip mentally and the mental health. And then what's happening now also nutritionally now also in the digestive system, There are additional stressors that are causing inflammation that are causing the highs and lows of the sugar, Right? So do you see how this can kind of now become its own hamster wheel of events? And so this is something that happens and why we want to look at this when we're talking about mental health and nutrition, The example I'm giving now is what happens when we are experiencing something that is causing us to feel a low sense of mental health, Reaching for the comfort food and how, Depending on how long that cycle is, How that can start to develop its own series of effects. Okay. But now we're also going to look from another angle that is very important. And that's the important of the preemptive, The preventative, The before the low mental health situation happens, Right? So what we're looking at here from this other perspective is we have the ability to select foods and drinks that can boost our mental health and keep our mental health high that can work with a higher vibration that we want to experience. So we've seen science backs this up on so many levels. We have seen this with children that are eating a lot of low nutrient, High sugar, High salt foods, How then this affects the energy levels that then the energy levels are low. So then this inadvertently affects the interactivity, The physical play and exertion. And so then what happens? So then now we have a low sense of mental health and that's because, Well, We're kind of kicking it off with some low vibe foods that are then just causing this reaction from the pregame show, If you will. Right. So we want to really start to kind of have an understanding about this because mental health is something that is very important and very needed. We want to feel good mentally and we want to have our mental processes be working well. We want to be able to have emotions, Work through emotions, Relay and express our emotions from a very healthy place. We want to be able to handle the things, The pressures and the demands that life has without sharp and hard reactions. We want to be able to have a sensation of anger, Fear, Sadness. We don't want it. We don't want to have it, But we want to, When they happen, We want to be able to do that in a healthful way. We don't want to then now be shut down, Anxious, Paralyzed from fear, Having, You know, Harmful thoughts toward ourself or others. We don't want to get into these deep states. And the very interesting thing is, While again, I'm not a medical doctor and there are many reasons why things change with mental health, But the relationship between food and mental health, Mental health is so important because what we eat and drink has an effect. So it may be very obvious, But for example, If we're engaging in a lot of drinks that are high energy drinks, Whether that be a lot of strong coffees or a lot of energy drinks with like, You know, Additives to boost energy. So what's happening here is now there's all the way up and then there's this crash. Now we might think of that only from an energetic level, Meaning actual just energy, But this affects our emotional and mental life as well. So when we're all the way up, We are quick to react. We are quick to feel we are moving at a pace that is unnatural. And also when we're on the way down, We are maybe more easily defeated, Maybe more easily challenged, Maybe more easily upset, Sad, Angry, Because we're not feeling good. We're on the way down. So we want to look at the way nutrition affects our mental health because it is a real and serious thing. And this is proven in two types of science in the physical science of what happens with the reactions of our body as we intake these foods. And also from the mental purview when it comes to science and what we feel and how we can process or stop processing emotions fully when we are under the influence. And I know that sounds harsh, But we literally become under the influence of the things that we eat and drink. It's fascinating. It is powerful. And it's very, Very good for us to start to open this door of awareness because with the foods that we eat and the drinks that we drink, We can be either poisoning ourselves or we can be rejuvenating ourselves. We can be sabotaging ourselves or we can be promoting ourselves to greater states of being in every way, Physically, Emotionally, Mentally. So I've also experienced this from the spiritual level in various spiritual studies, In various spiritual walks and faith walks, Things like fasting, Things like eating fruits and vegetables over animals and over, Certainly over processed foods. It is something that is provided to both believers of various faith and also to those in higher positions of those faiths because it is found to provide us with a clarity and a peace and a calm and a greater ease in which we can access states of grace and love and understanding and forgiveness. I'm telling you, This is fascinating. So when we're looking at mental health and nutrition, And we really want to access mental health in a way that is natural, Holistic, Without harmful side effects, This is the way. This is the way. This is certainly a way that we can start to open the door to some great things happening. And I'll say it again, I'm not a medical doctor, So I'm not claiming to be a medical doctor. I am sharing with you what I've experienced with myself and with my clients without making guarantees, But I'm sharing with you what I've seen and what I've learned because this is a path that's out there and it's really, Really great. So we have a lot of things coming at us from a lot of different angles. We have the angle of how do we feel about food? What do we think we can afford? What do we think is good? What do we feel is healthy? What do we feel we have the time to invest in when it comes to feeding ourselves? I get it. I get it. I've been there. I've done that. And I also have helped people as a health coach. So I understand that all of these concerns are very real and valid. And whether you are in a lower vibe mentally right now, Meaning like right now, Maybe you got some things going on. So when we're in that case, What happens is then we just don't feel the energy to, To make those smarter choices because it is something we got to think about. And when we're really stressed mentally and emotionally, And we're feeling that lower, A feeling of lower mental health, Right? It's not like that, That full vibrancy, Then those types of decisions become hard and it becomes extra. It's like extra you don't want to take on. That's why we reach for the comfort food. But if we're, And there's help for that, There is help for that. I have a health coaching program that can help you with that. And there is help out there for that. But I also understand that that's something that, And that's why I offer the help because that that's a low vibe time. And it's, It becomes very challenging to start to make these decisions and work harder. It's like, No, I'm just going to reach for this easy thing that brings me comfort because good memories are attached to that. But we want to be careful because again, Then we're, We're, We're getting ourselves on a merry-go-round that is not merry, But it goes around and around just around and around low vibe, Lots of stress, Emotions out of whack. Now we're feeling bad about our physicality. Now we're feeling guilty around what we ate. Now we know it's not good, But we just kind of can't stop because it feels good because we feel bad and on and on and on and on and on. Right. And then there's the other perspective. There's a perspective of like, Hey, Sometimes I dip mentally in terms of like how I'm feeling low vibe versus high vibe. And, You know, I want to kind of keep myself, First of all, I want to raise my vibration and I want to keep my vibration raised. What can I do? Is this health thing really something? Yes. Yes. So cool. Right. So what we can do is we can start to look at, First of all, Eliminating, Eliminating would be the best, But if eliminating is not an option for you, Reducing, Reducing also helps those things that cause low vibration. So, You know, The examples, Some of the examples I gave, It's like that ice cream example or sugar. That's going to bring it, Bring it up. Lots of fat. That's going to, You know, Oh, It's so, It's so good right now in the moment, But we know that either there's a crash afterward, Or we know that now it's going to do other things because the gut, The gut is also a seat of the emotions. So, You know, We want to make sure that our gut, Our intestines are kept clear, Are kept clear. And that is hard to do when we're taking in inflammatory foods and things that are going to cause us to not go to the restroom as often. And then we've got the sugar hikes and dips, Right? Same thing with those energy drinks are always being on that empty fuel. So then we're going to be in a state where we're revving everything up. So we want to reduce or eliminate those types of things. And there's others, There's other things, Right? There's other things, But that's two very common examples that are kind of easy to pinpoint, Right? And then we want to look at being able to infuse more foods that actually are going to bring us that high vibration, That way of processing emotions and keeping the gut clear. Okay. Keeping that gut clear and keeping that gut able to absorb the vitamins and minerals that we need and disseminate it or spread it through the body. So now I'm diving in a little bit deeper than how we started, But it still is imperative, Important information. Here's what I mean. So our intestines, We eat food. It goes down the esophagus into the stomach. It gets broken down by the stomach acids, And then it makes its way into the intestines and in the intestines is where all kinds of now that broken down thing we ate, Whatever it is, Thing we drink, Whatever it is, That broken down now into the intestines. Now the intestines and the good bacteria, Because we have to have bacteria in our intestine, There's good and bad. Now everyone's picking that apart, If you will, Right? And taking the vitamins and the minerals out of that broken down food and taking it into the body so that we have the vitamins and the minerals that we need to feed the nervous system, To feed the responses in our body, The electrical charges that cause all the things that we can do to happen. And then the waste, Which is what we release when we use the bathroom, The waste is the stuff that the body's like, Nah, We don't need this. Let it go. That system, A healthy system. And yes, Everyone is different. So there are variances, But a healthy system is doing this entire process at least once a day, If not multiple times a day. Many Americans at least suffer from constipation. Constipation is everything is stuck now. Okay. We're about to get a little vivid, But everything is stuck. So you ate something, Traveled down the esophagus, Came into the stomach acids, Broke it down, Went into the intestines, The intestines. Now there's a problem here. There is maybe too much bad bacteria, Not enough good bacteria. Something is clogging up the system. You're eating things that are not, That don't have fiber. And so what's happening. So now it's backed up literally and figuratively, And what's happening are twofold. Now, What is being ingested and digested is not being there. The nutrients and the minerals are not being released into the body as appropriate. And the backup is now spoiling inside of you. Sorry. I know it's graphic, But we got to get down to brass tacks here as your best life coach. I keep it 100, Not only about my experiences and what I'm able to do, But also about like the truth about stuff. And so the backup here is essentially it's rotting in your body. And so now you have things on top of things and the gut is the seat of the emotions. So then what happens is chemical things start happening in these processes that then cause us either due to mineral deficiency, Vitamin deficiency, Or just being with rotting things or with parasites or with the poisons as it's rotting. Our body says, Hey, Alert, Alert. There's rotting things in the body. And so then our body goes to help us out and chain reactions start happening. It's wild, Fascinating, Incredible. Okay. Why do we care about this? Because nutritionally, This can start to then cause hormone imbalances. This can start to then cause mineral deficiencies. And sometimes, Sometimes these are things that then cause our mood, Our mental health to totally tank. You say, Hey, I used to be such a happy person. And now I am pissed all the time. Now I'm emotional. Now I'm raw. And sometimes you're wondering what happened in my emotional life and you cannot pinpoint it. And sometimes it's because it's a nutritional thing. I know what, But it's true. Or sometimes it's a hormonal thing. And you won't even know to look there because doctors won't look there oftentimes, Because this is a holistic approach. This is a let's look at your whole system approach and doctors don't do that. They do the vitals. They say what's wrong. And they look right there. Oh, You're feeling weird. You're feeling weird mentally. Okay. Well, Let's try this antidepressant or let's try this or, You know, But sometimes it's a nutritional thing that's happening. And so being able to look at this is very key so we can help ourselves so we can get help. And so we can prevent it. So this is very exciting, Right? So these are some of the things and the reasons why, And I'm, Again, I am not a medical professional. I will say this throughout this episode. Okay. And I'm not claiming to be, And I'm not against doctors, But I am aware of what's happening in our medical system, Meaning what is most common. And the reason why doctors usually can't help in this arena is because they are not trained to look at the entire body as a whole generally. And they also aren't trained to look nutritionally. Okay. And this is written about by doctors. You can check out Dr. Michael Greger's books and he talks about it from as being a doctor. So, You know, It's a medical doctor. Okay. So not a doctor, Like someone with a doctorate, He is talking about from the medical perspective, How in his field doctors aren't trained and how money isn't put there because our system just isn't set up that way. So again, Do your own research, Check it out. I'm not a medical doctor, But I have done this for years because of personal things that, You know, I needed to address and I wasn't getting the help I needed. And I've learned about what's going out there, Going on. So that's why they can't always help. Doctors are phenomenal, But you know, I can't help you, Uh, Change your engine or, Or fix your transmission. I can't help you. I don't know how to do that, But I do know how to be your best life coach. And I do know how to help you as a health coach. I know how to do that. Right. And same thing with doctors, Right? So you can't go to a cardiologist and ask them to help you deliver your baby. I mean, They may remember some, Some tactics of, From, But that's not really the best fit, Right? So this is what we're talking about here. Okay. We, We appreciate the, The wonderful medical system and we appreciate how great they are with trauma. And we appreciate when doctors help us and we appreciate what they can do. And we also appreciate being people that are after our best and that want to take action and make sure that we're good without drugs. We're getting a live one for that one. Okay. We are getting a live one for that one. So what can we do to help ourselves? I touched on it a little bit here. I'm going to dive in a little bit more real brief, Just so you can have a good takeaway. Okay. So what you want to do to help yourself is you want to really try to go as fresh as possible with your eating. You want to go as fresh as possible with your eating. The longer an article of food, A piece of food or drink can stay without rotting, The less natural it is. That's the easiest way for me to tell you how to know the difference. The longer an article of food can last without going rotten, The worse it is for you, The more process it is. That's just nature. Okay. So notice you cut an apple, You leave it on the counter in a couple hours. You're not going to want to eat that apple. It's going to start to look bad. It's not going to. Okay. So you want to go as fresh as you can. All right. That's tip number one. Tip number two is you want to keep your gut as clear as it can be. So you want to eat things that are fibrous and you want to eat things that are going to help you to have bowel movements regularly, High processed food, High sugar foods don't do that. They do have a tendency to make us constipated. And so if you're not having bowel movements regularly, You want to look there and you want to eat foods that will help you to have regular bowel movements. Okay. That's very important because we talked about what happens when things are backed up in our intestines and we don't want that. We want to also as the third tip, Avoid foods that cause us to get on a roller coaster energetically. So high energy drinks, A lot of coffee or large amounts of sugar, Sometimes large amounts of grain, Like rice, White rice can woo. You can go all the way up with that. Right? So you want to just be careful. Again, I know this can sound overwhelming, Especially depending on your eating habits. And that's why I'm here to help with health coaching, But don't be alarmed. This is just to start to open up and say, Okay, I can eat things that could have me feeling good, Like mentally and emotionally that could have me feeling sharp, That could have me able to regulate the way that I process my emotions. This is wonderful news. And it's super fun. And I'll tell you this, Our taste buds do change as we go onto this process. And it's wonderful. It's wonderful. So, You know, Take heart, Know that this is available to you and do some research out there, You know, Check it out for yourself. Again, I don't want you to just ever take anything that I say for face value and then, You know, Run off and do that. I want you to have the best. And so, You know, Take a look and realize, And if you would like some help with health coaching, Absolutely reach out to me. I love this so much. I have a deep personal, Personal mission around this because I have seen people that I love suffer, Get sick, Have to pay out of pocket for things that are preventable. And I just have, I'm on a mission. I am on a mission to help people have a great life, Have a great quality of life and live long in a wonderful way. Okay. It's important to me. So getting the right help is important. There are specialists for everything. So, You know, If you want help, There's help out there and getting the right help is important. And why do we want help with this? Because there's a lot of things to look at. It can be overwhelming and confusing. You are an individual that requires individual things. So just looking online, Isn't going to necessarily cover it because, You know, Like for me, If I just look at my, I'm a woman and my age range, Well, That narrows it down. But now what are my actual goals and needs? How do I like to eat? Uh, Am I a vegetarian? Do I eat everything? Am I a pescatarian? Am I a vegan? All of these things, These nuances, These beautiful individual characteristics are part of why it becomes overwhelming and why getting help is important. So know that I'm here for you know that I'm rooting for you. And if you would like help with health coaching, Then reach out to me, Ask me your questions, Send me your messages. I'm here for you. Thanks so much for tuning in and can't wait to hang out with you again.