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In this episode of 'Fuck Fear with Christine Sprately,' Christine dives into the concept of HALT (Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired) and its vital role in emotional and hormonal regulation. Designed to provide practical tools for listeners, Christine shares personal anecdotes, scientific studies, and actionable advice on maintaining balanced moods and reactions by addressing basic needs. Whether you're facing stressful situations or general day-to-day interactions, understanding and using HALT can help prevent emotional spirals and improve overall well-being. Join Christine as she explores how managing hunger, anger, loneliness, and tiredness can foster a healthier, more controlled, and fulfilling life.
00:00 Introduction and Welcome
01:05 Discussing 'Little Shop of Horrors' and Steve Martin
03:05 Introduction to HALT: Hungry, Angry, Lonely, Tired
03:24 Personal Experiences and the Importance of HALT
07:07 The Science Behind HALT
09:11 Impact of Hunger on Emotions and Behavior
12:02 Hormonal Influences and Gender Differences
18:39 Diet, Hormones, and Emotional Health
22:15 Navigating Menopause: Understanding Hormonal Changes
23:09 Personal Experiences with Hormonal Imbalance
24:14 The Impact of Diet on Hormonal Health
24:46 Understanding Emotional and Hormonal Responses
25:19 Practical Tips for Managing Anxiety and Hormonal Imbalance
29:19 The HALT Method: A Tool for Emotional Regulation
35:11 Healthy Snacking for Hormonal Balance
37:00 Meal Prep Tips for Busy Lives
42:09 Final Thoughts: Embracing Your Hormonal Journey
Creators and Guests
What is F*ck Fear with Christine Spratley: Living Like a Head Bitch In Charge ?
This podcast is for anyone who wants to live like an HBIC—or lives with, works with, marries, dates, or is raising one. Let’s be real: being a Head Bitch in Charge is messy, bold, and unapologetically badass. This is not a guidebook—it’s a pantry.
My guests and I will share the ingredients that we use—what’s worked and what’s failed—as we say “fuck fear” and take action to live a fulfilled life. We cover real-life hacks and deep philosophical pillars to navigate the chaos of everyday life—where some days, my only accomplishment is having a bra on and my teeth brushed.
We’re tackling the daily shit women navigate, from workplace politics to relationships, raising kids, and building careers, all with humor, audacity, and zero filters.
So, tune in—tell your friends, and even your enemies. This isn’t about aging with grace—it’s about aging with mischief, audacity, and a damn good story to tell.
49 - Fuck Fear - HALT - Feed me Seymore
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[00:00:00]
Christine Spratley: Hello ladies and gentlemen and everybody in between. This is Christine Braley. Welcome to Fuck Fear with Christines Braley living like a head bitch and charge.
How are all the HBS out there today and how are all those that support? Hbs, I know I've got some listeners that are supporters and don't consider [00:01:00] themselves hbs, so thank you. Today is another pantry I item. It's a welcome to the HBIC pantry the title is Halt Feed Me Seymour Joe, you know where Feed Me Seymour comes from?
Yeah. That's a great musical. It's a musical, it's a movie. The movie's fantastic. It's, I've never seen the musical. Oh yeah. My, my kids did it in high school. Yeah, they did a high school musical version of it and it was pretty good. But yeah, my favorite thing from that movie is definitely Steve Martin as the dentist.
Yes. His song, oh my God, his song about just encapsulates dentists perfectly. Like my mom said, I was mean, so I should be a dentist. I mean, I can't sing, but it was great. I think people, I think kids and, and teenagers and, and people that what, what movie we're talking about or the, the is little Shop of Horse.
Right. Right. If you've never seen it. And I think that there's, there's, that's a movie that people need to see [00:02:00] for a lot of reasons. But I also think that Steve Martin is a comedian that people should go back and, and, and watch his stuff. Usually I'm like on the Richard Pryor train, but I go back to Mel Brooks and, you know, some of their stuff and Blazing saddles and all that stuff.
Yeah. But I also love the Steve Martin. I like his movies even from back then. Yeah. And the Jerk, that was such a good, it's a jerk. Oh yeah. And what was it? Was it Roseanne? The one with the nose? Yeah, the nose. The nose one. Yep. Rox. Oh my gosh. Roxanne. Roxanne, Roxanne, Roxanne. So anyway, we'll, the, and we get to see Rick Marnis is coming back.
Yes. Baseball's too. Yes. He's coming outta retirement. Oh my gosh. I'm so glad that I'm old and I know all this stuff. And I'm glad that they're doing, they're bringing back movie, you know, the, the cast from the originals. That's what I don't like. I don't like it when they redo movies and they make.
They [00:03:00] put in new people. It's like, no, gimme the, gimme. The old guys, they were the funny they would do, they delivered the lines, right? Yeah. So anyway, today's episode is kind of welcome to the HBIC Pantry, and it's called HALT Feed Me, Seymour. And a HALT is an acronym and it stands for Hungry, angry, lonely, and Tired.
And I had a sponsor. As you know, I'm, I'm in recovery and have been for a while now, and one of my first sponsors was like, she would, she gave me this and to give you an idea about me, and if you haven't heard my podcast before, you may not know this, but if you have you, this is not gonna surprise you.
An example of kind of who I am. When I would call or dial into the tech people when I worked in corporate, especially at ey, I remember this, [00:04:00] literally, they would go, quit hitting the keyboard, quit hitting return, you know, stop, just stop. And because I'd, you know, I'd be messing with it. I'd be screwing with it.
I'd be ba. And so it's funny because that, that kind of sums me up. A lot of times it's like, just stop even if it's for a second. And so I wanted to give you this acronym as a, as a pantry item. And the way that I use it is there are times when I am. Going and I'm, and I'm, and I'm just riding and I'm cruising and I'm busting, and I feel the emotion and I'm angry, or I'm lonely, or I'm tired and I'm gonna get you, I'm gonna get me mine and I'm gonna give you yours.
Or somebody has pissed me off, or, you know, I'm just, it feels like all of my buttons are on the outside. All of my emotional buttons and all my emotional triggers are just [00:05:00] like all over me. It's like I broke out in zits. I broke out in, in triggers today, and and sometimes it'll last for a while and sometimes, you know, and sometimes it'll just hit me and.
What it was is that my first sponsor would just say, halt, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Just stop. And then she would ask me, are you hungry? Are you angry? Are you lonely? Are you tired? And one, it got me to stop. And it wasn't even so much all the time that I was on, you know, I was going 115. But it was, I could feel me ramping up or I was in that mental loop about something.
Or I just felt off. I call, you've heard me call it before the itchy sweater, you know? And so the, the question that I have for you when I say halt and you're just feeling irritable they also call [00:06:00] it restless, irritable, and discontent. Sometimes. And when you're feeling that. Ask yourself, when was the last time you ate?
Seriously? When was the last time you ate? Now I was doing this this morning and I was getting ready to come here, and I was late. I was late. I know, but I was late. I was late when I texted you, and I'm like, I'm gonna be late. You were late. I know. I was like, here you were here. I was like, what the hell? And I'm late.
What the hell? And but I was late. And, and what was funny is I, I, I had written all this up and I had not eaten. And now I had had my London fog, my lavender London fog, but I had not eaten. And so when was the last time you ate? When you get like that go, oh, stop. Am I, am I hungry? When did I eat? And typically I would for a while, I had to go.
I get to go, well, I'm not hungry, but then I had to change it to when was the last time I ate. And no, a double half calf latte does not count as eating. [00:07:00] I mean, I would have three of those in the morning and go for it. So no, think about that. And this is about, so what I did was I have this and I've been practicing that, but because I didn't wanna just come here and go do this, I wanted to see about how does it make sense from our physical standpoint to halt and how does hunger affect and trigger.
Being hungry, angry, lonely and tired, or not, not hungry, but angry, lonely, and tired. So it's almost, and what I found was this is actually true. You know, halt is like your emergency break. It stops. And it's not because something's broken, but it's because your, your blood sugar might be off, which then makes it harder not to be hung, angry, lonely, and tired.
I'm not saying the person isn't annoying or the person didn't say something. It's kinda like right sizing, you know, I don't need to take a bazooka to him, you know, [00:08:00] maybe I shouldn't declare war. Maybe I should just set a boundary. But it's hard sometimes to, to do that when when I don't have the body chemistry acting in my, I mean, it's harder when I don't have the body chemistry.
Yeah. So one of the things that it's not just that. Hunger is something like I'm craving. Okay, it's a chemical hijack. That sets off the anger and the loneliness and the fatigue. And I think that's important. 'cause sometimes I don't feel hungry, you know? But if I don't think about what I've had that day and what that means, then I'm just.
Like my glucose drop. Okay, so my frontal cortex, my PPFC is what they call it goes offline. So it affects my, you know, ability to have clear thinking [00:09:00] and my good judgment. Okay, and guess who shows up my, oh shit. Chemical. Cortisol rises. All right, so why, what, why does that trigger it? Because my body sees food dep deprivation, like I'm hungry, like I haven't fucking, you haven't gimme the nutrients as a threat, so it rises it to compensate.
So then what happens? Then stress takes over. And we love it when an asshole's in front of us working with us and our stress like, and they're adding stress. So then our cortisol add stress makes for a great way to practice peace and love and happiness with them. I mean, it's, it's, it's one of those things where I don't think I realized, I mean, it was just an acronym that I used, but I didn't realize what happens in my body.
Remember those old Snickers commercials? That's what it makes me think. Oh gosh. Yeah. When the person would really angry and mad and it was played, the person was played by Danny DeVito mm-hmm. Or Betty White or something, and they just tackled somebody. [00:10:00] Yep. And then they eat a Snickers and then they turn back into the regular person.
Mm-hmm. They're like, oh, I feel better. Yeah. And we call it being hung hangry. Yeah. But it's actual a thing. It is actual a thing. So it's literally released by your adrenal Gs when your body perceives stress. It singles we're under attack. It raises your blood pressure, it spikes your sugar. I mean, then this suppresses the digestion, which is what you kind of need.
So literally the cortisol RA keeps you in that fight or flight mode. You are already being triggered by someone who's NAS or a situation that's stressful or whatever, but then you add on top of that. So you feel racing thoughts? I feel short tempers crying. I crying at commercials. And it's not because we're like emotional, like that's the [00:11:00] response I get.
But understand it's part of our body. Like it's not like we are just off our kilter. You know, and then I did this, and it, it didn't, and it was something that triggered me. I literally started yelling at, at Abby because she was breathing too loud. I was like, God, yeah. You know, I was like, wait a minute.
And she's just looking at me like, I'm just breathing. You know? Yeah. But how many, you know, so, so think about this, and that's just cortisol. And then you've got grillin, grillin spikes and grin. I call the gremlin hormone. Okay. Okay. Because what it does is it is, it's in your stomach. Okay? When it's empty.
So it's greeted into your stomach when it empty or thinks it's empty. That I didn't know, which is the difference. So the longer you go without food, the louder it screams. It literally is like, woo, bug, okay, we're dying here. But you're not. But your body doesn't know that. Okay? [00:12:00] So in women actually. And listen to this, this is, again, know your body in women growing ramps up faster and more intensely than men.
So think about this, all right? We're trying to hold our shit together, right? We've got a situation that's stressful, we haven't eaten, we're, you know, whatever. We, we missed it. Or we, we ate, we drank two lattes and we, you know, or. What I love is we're on the diet now because we gotta be skinny, you know, so we're not going to eat.
And so we've kind of set the stage and our body's ramping up, right? It's almost like it's not anticipating a fight, but damn, we're ready. And so then we get a stressful situation, okay? So then we are more sensitive and more emotional. We have, you know, and have more emotional spirals than men. Like we're pre, like our body works that way.
And ladies, especially if you are in your thirties to fifties and and, and older and are dealing with your hormonal [00:13:00] fluctuation, PMS, perimenopause, and then we have menopause that is untreated. Look at what this does to us. It singles to your brain that's heavy. It increases our appetite. It we start to obsess about food.
This was the thing that with me, I did a lot and I didn't obsess about. It was really weird. I wouldn't obsess about, oh my God, I'm hungry. I need to eat. I would obsess about, I would like have food thoughts, and then I'd obsess about why am I thinking about food thoughts. It was the weirdest thing, and it was like, I, I just got in these loops and I would do it not just about food, but other things.
So it's also linked girl is also linked to your mood and anxiety, and it's being elevated too long. So the result is basically grin. I call it the gremlin. Because it escalates everything to obsession, and it could be anything. And this is where I did, we did the podcast in [00:14:00] rumination. This is where I get in rumination.
If and if, 'cause if I'm obsessing, usually it's not about something good. And, and, or I'm obsessed about something good that's in a bad way. But why this matters is it doesn't just gremlin doesn't just make you crave food. It influences my anxiety and depression and think about those three things.
Those three things are working against us. That's what hunger can do. And it's not just when I feel like I'm hungry. It is these little things that almost set us up to be pissed off. And to react. And I don't, I didn't know all that. Now, the person that told me this, I don't know if she knew that halt meant all these things.
I just found this out. I'm 54, gonna be 55, so I'm late to the party. And so if you knew that and you're in your thirties, forties, say, bless your heart to me and move on. But [00:15:00] think about this. Are you prepared for your day? You were talking about hitting up a couple of cappuccinos or espressos. Mm-hmm.
Before you eat too. I'm just curious. I typed it into Che GBT with, take it with a grain of salt. Cheche be still to wrong sometimes, but it says cortisol is strongly elevated by caffeine. Oh yes. But it does on the short term suppress gremlin production. Well, this is what, but what happens is once it starts, once it kicks in it short term, stre it, short term turns down gremlin, and then gremlin fucking comes back after.
You are gone with the, with, you're gone with the, the cortisol. Right. And so it's like, it's like they fricking do a tag team. It's like if you've ever watched the old, you know, tag team matches from WWF and Aw w you know, it's like the old stuff here. Gimme, you know, okay. Boom. So it's a temporary spike in cortisol and then when comes back, it comes back meaner than it would've the first time.
Oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. I gotcha. Yeah. [00:16:00] So, so what's amazing about this is. Hunger, halt influences, angry, lonely, and tiredness. And when I'm talking about angry, I'm not talking about, okay, think about this. Gremlin plus corsol, cortisol equals you're ready to fight. Your boss, your dog, your fridge, I mean, everything.
Everything. Boom. My emotional filters disappears. Okay, so where does that for me? It usually is anger and loneliness is not necessarily you know, like, oh my God, I'm lonely. It's not, but it could be isolation. I don't, it's that, it's that emotional. I'm separate from, I don't have, I did that the other day.
I was all, I was, I was literally like, Ugh. But then. It also affects, you [00:17:00] know, hungry and lonely. The gremlin affects both my appetite and the emotional bonding piece, which I didn't understand. And this is just so everybody knows, and Joe, I don't know if we do this, I don't know if it's there, but, these are studies and, and literally these are, these are taken from 2024 studies from Ackerman's a 2000, actually a 15 study from Appetite Journal. So these are from studies. I'm not just pulling this out of the air. Okay. This study actually on loneliness women who felt lonely after mills had significantly stronger hunger cues and reported emotional withdrawal even when fed. And so if you think about this, it affects both our appetite, our idea of appetite, and our emotional bonding, which is our loneliness, which which triggers our loneliness.
So tired. That's kind of easy. [00:18:00] No fuel, no food equals no fuel equals emotional burnout. When I get into a no fuel situation, my brain, our brain, my brain prioritizes survival, not nuance or, or joy. And believe you, me, when I am hungry, angry, lily and tired, I'm not looking for nuance and I am not worried about joy.
I am usually going in on a, you know. On a mission and not, you know, like on a dirty dozen mission. Speaking of old movies, but think about this. And, and women, if you're listening to this, I've kind of done this in a couple categories, and, and this is, you know, the, the perimenopause, you know, that's the other thing we've got going on here.
So. Our, our hormones are doing different things like between 30 and 45 [00:19:00] perimenopause. And, and again, you can be at, at different ages for when you're, when you're hitting perimenopause, but estrogen supports serotonin, serotonin, happy drug, happy drug, happy hormone, you know but skipping mood, skipping meals, increases your mood, swings your irritability, and you, your sugar crashes.
And that's, again, a study that was done on specifically perimenopause women and that, and in Women's Journal of Health. And it found that the calor, the caloric restriction, amplified anxiety and emotional reactivity in women under 45. Now, I wanna show, I wanna tell you something. When I read this, I was like, oh.
And then I read it again. They found that the caloric restriction amplified anxiety and emotional reactivity in women under 45. And what I caught about this was wi what age of women are targeted the [00:20:00] most to be on a diet, to look good, to get a man to be. All of those things. It's that age group. So look good.
Get on a diet, restricts your calorie. Like, like don't eat fast. You know, all of these things and they're, I'm not saying don't do them. I'm saying understand what you're doing to your body and how it affects with your hormones. And I just thought that was really interesting that at that time where when you do this, it has, you know, skipping meals.
Mid swings, irritability, and shoot, shoot crashes. Listen to me. Food crash, sugar crashes. We're literally surrounded by information that tells us to be thin, to be this, to be that. That doesn't support. Hey, go ha, go eat. Go eat. Maybe you're hungry. [00:21:00] So think about, think about it. Think about when you choose your diet, when you choose what you're doing.
How does that work? Not just with your body, like I'm working out and I look good, but how does it work with your hormones? Because it's gonna be affecting them. And then maybe when it's all played together and it goes in this balance, your reaction. I'm not saying you don't have a reaction. I'm not saying you're getting pissed.
I ain't, I'm not saying you're never gonna get lonely. I'm not saying we're gonna get tired. But I'm saying you don't have all this extra baggage preventing you from reacting and showing up in the way that you want to. [00:22:00] So then we get the, the per the peri, you know, the postmenopausal and menopausal stage and all that fun stuff.
The 45 and nope. Estrogen drops, blood sugar level control awakens. Skipping meals actually increases hot flashes. Emotional chaos and insomnia. And this was done off of an NIH study working group study. Reported that skipping meals, worsened cognitive complaints, mood swings, and sleep disruption in perimenopausal women and in menopausal women.
And this was done on the study of nutrition and the [00:23:00] menopausal transition. And so again, I'm just telling you this, to know where you're at, be aware of where you're at. I mean, I was not, I, I was so not aware of what was going on with me hormonally, so I had no idea how my eating, how am I non eating? How, I mean, I remember.
Literally going in with, I would go to Starbucks and I would get two vente soy lattes th you know, three Splendas each. And I would go have them, and that was my breakfast. And I would sometimes not get lunch, and then I'd get a little lunch, maybe around two, and then I'd, you know, and just I think about that and I think about how much better I could have had my day.
I was a little bit more regulated in my body and my body was able to show up to [00:24:00] help me and not to light my ass on fire because I was putting out enough fires in work, in family, in whatever. And I'm just saying this because I'm being honest. I didn't know. And so put it in your pantry, you know, think about it.
And I, I used to just think about how I ate from a body perspective of is it healthy? Is it this, is it that I didn't think about it, of how does it help with my hormones? What does it do? Can I tell you a story that happened to my daughter who has pots? Yeah. So I, because this is, this is interesting. I, this is the first time you've shared about that.
So I learned something from her doctor that mm-hmm. I didn't realize was a thing. Like I knew this like Uhhuh and I think a lot of people might. Have never thought about how different they are, but like, sometimes we call people who are acting emotionally hormonal, but emotions are different than hormone responses.
They're, they're a different set of things. That's why they have their own names. [00:25:00] They, they do different things. But anyways, what pots can do to my daughter and why her pot symptoms got better from anxiety medication. So she has anxiety. Mm-hmm. Like emotional anxiety, the kind that is triggered by external.
Things in life. Stimuli. Stimuli, thank you. And but what POTS does is can mess with your hormones in a way that spikes your. Just the right amount of hormones that makes your body think that it's anxious. Yeah. When there's no anxiety, and this has a name and I didn't know had a name, but it's called interceptive prediction error.
Your brain fills in the blanks. Say we got these chemicals. This is going on in your life, and then you start to feel as if it's going on in your. And I think that really lines up with what you're talking about. If you think, oh, it's no big deal, you don't just tell an angry lady to eat a sandwich. Of course you don't do that.
But not unless you wanna get smacked. Yes, that's a great way to get smacked, but you can, [00:26:00] understanding the fact that you're, what's going on in your brain might be making you feel a. That you're trying to diagnose a problem that you don't have right then, or, or, I'm gonna tell you that it, it's, it is telling you it's a five along fire and it's a two, it's, it's just, yeah, it's just a little flame.
It could, or it's your brain kind of filling in the blanks in a way that you could. Circumvent in a very useful way. Yeah. To be like, oh, I'm feeling super anxious, but if I ate a sandwich, it would, if I fed me well, and this is what I want, I want, I wanna be very clear. I'm not saying that you don't, that you're not dealing with something that's triggering you.
Right. I'm not saying that. Like I'm saying, yeah, there's an asshole at work and he's fucking with you. Okay, well then prepare for it. Like you don't need, that's hard enough. You don't need to have these other things in your brain. Your brain going, yeah, he is, he is the [00:27:00] evil empire. You know, like, right. And also what I've realized too with this is, like you were saying, you just mentioned it, is that it, it literally cuts off your ability to problem solve in a way that's not in fight or flight.
And we have so many more options than two. We have so many more options than just fighting, throwing down, or getting the fuck outta there. And if I am not able to, because my body's not able to assist in that, then my options become very limited, which then escalates the situation. So I'm not, I wanna be very clear.
I'm not saying it ain't a fire, right. I'm just saying there might be ways to put it out. And you might not be able to see those ways to put it out because your body hasn't been fed. And so it's giving you either less of the chemicals or more of the [00:28:00] chemicals that are putting you into fight or flight mode.
Is that right? Yeah. And if you stop and check in, what might be happening is sometimes you're not overreacting, it's just your hormones are like freelancing as drama writers. Yeah. You know, your brain's filling in all these gaps and you're, you're creating. Your brain is creating a scenario that may not be what's matching your, what's actually happening externally.
And I wanna be clear, this also happens in guys. Sure. The difference, one of the difference when it comes to halt is that these, it kicks in more with women, especially the gremlin hormone. It just does it. We have a higher level, so. Again, don't tell, don't tell me to fucking calm down. You know, I'll calm you down.
But I, I typically, now I do have things around me. I do have snacks and things like that, and it may sound silly, but I don't [00:29:00] care. I'd rather be silly than psychotic. I, and, and I don't like, especially if I think you're an asshole. I don't like apologizing. So I try to not do things that make me have to apologize to people.
You know, I don't always do it because I have a good heart. I have to do it because I don't like you and I don't wanna have to come back. So the whole idea of this little pantry is, you know, halt is your daily snack back. You know, it's usable. Stop, halt. Am I hungry? Am I angry? Am I lonely? Am I tired?
You know, and usually hungry is ramping up. You know, it's like, it's like the little instigator, you know, angry, lonely, and tired. So just check in. Stop, stop right there and, and just go, okay, what did I eat? Not, what did I just drink? What did I eat? Okay? Angry. Okay. [00:30:00] Is halt affecting that? Am I pissed off?
What am I pissed off about? You know, and anger is, I think for me as a woman, I wouldn't let me be angry until I just blew my fuse and that was the only anger I recognized. Anger to me, right? When I recognize it now, is it's, it's, it's in my body. I like literally be like, well, what the fuck? Like every time I say, what the fuck, it's a little bit of anger.
It's a little bit, and it's not, and for me, anger and I don't have. A I still, I still am angry about my anger. I don't have a very, I'm still coming to know anger and being okay with it. But what is it? What is making me, you know, how angry am I? Am I, and should I declare war? Or should I set a just a boundary?
You know, maybe the other person needs to fricking eat. Maybe that's why they're an asshole. And, and I, you've heard me say this before. [00:31:00] Life's a contact sport, put on your pads and play. And sometimes when I go, Ooh, I'm pissed. It's like, okay, Christine, put on your pads, get your buttons, and put 'em on the inside so people stop bumping around with them.
Am I lonely? And this is one that I actually have a lot of experience with, and it is, do I feel apart from, is another way. Do I feel apart from, is it harder for when I pick up the phone and call my friend and I'm in a good mood? I just pick up the phone and call her When I am lonely, I pick up the phone.
I go, ah, I wonder if she's busy. It starts to creep in, like, ah, I don't wanna bother them. Ah, I wonder what they'll think. You know? And, and I will tell you this, the phone never gets any lighter. It only gets heavier with time. So make the call be around people. And for me, when I'm lonely, [00:32:00] sometimes I just need to be around energy.
So I will put myself around energy that's inviting, go to the dog park, I'll go do these things because I, I live by myself, you know, and sometimes my friends are all busy and it's just me. Friday night was a big example. I I went and got my, you know, because I knew I'd had a rough week, so I went and got my nails done.
Then I went to a grocery store that in my old neighborhood where I knew the people that worked on Friday night and we'd always, like, I'd always come in there and for ice cream, actually ice cream sandwiches. And so I went in and there, there was energy. I, they said hi to me and I talked to 'em and you know, I just, when I'm like that, think about that, and then tired, just stop.
I was told this not last week, but the week before, 'cause I was really having a rough time and I was, I was burning the candle. And I [00:33:00] do that and someone said, Christine, just shut down. You're this, this isn't gonna hurt your business for like, for you to quit and stop for the rest of the day. You know, I mean.
Very few times, if I am really honest, am I that important that I can't just stop and shut down for a second and pause, and it may not even be take a nap, but it means disengage literally. And I've started to do this. I, I used to just always bring my phone when I was with the pups and when I take 'em out and let 'em run, and I just take 'em out now sometimes, and I don't even have my phone.
And I just, I just, just enjoy. I'm tired, but I just enjoy and I'm just, and I breathe. So, oh, stop, stop touching the keyboard. Stop amping it up. And I'm not, [00:34:00] again, I'm not saying the asshole ain't in front of you, but just stop. Because typically when I don't stop, I, I, I do a lot of damage. It's a bitch cleaning that stuff up, whether it be in my professional life or my personal life.
So what do I do? I do have snacks. I do because like I said, I, I was glad that you were late 'cause I went and ate, you know, got some protein, I got some fat, you know, so my goal here, for me anyway, is normalizing, fueling myself. Okay. I try to make it, you know, atomic habits, make it easy, make it something that you're gonna do, put it around you.
So it's easy to do. And I make them realistic habits. Like, I don't go through and go, I'm going to eat this work plan for this day, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But some easy snacks that I, that I do I don't, I don't, you know, I've tried [00:35:00] cleanses, and I'm not saying those things don't work, but understand how it's gonna affect your hormones.
Okay. I do snacking a lot. And I, and I've got some other things that I'll, that I'll tell you about. But the snacks that I do are, I do a lot of chomps sticks. I'll do beef jerky a ton. I do cheese, I do the little cheese things because it's protein and fat and it stabilizes my mood pretty quickly.
And when I'm, when I'm craving, you know, I, the protein helps. I do I do apples and, and almond butter or peanut butter. I love peanut butter, but I don't do it as much anymore. My dogs eat all my peanut butter. Actually, it's dog peanut butter. But I do that, it's fiber and fat, and that gives me energy.
I, I love Greek yogurt and berries, and I put a little honey on that. But it's like real authentic Greek yogurt. 'cause I, that's just what I love. 'cause [00:36:00] I went over there for actually on our honeymoon and I fell in love with actual Greek yogurt and honey. But I do a little berries and that, that gives me my, my boost for the brain and the gut love.
So I do you. Protein shakes sometimes. And, but I, again, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not selling any of those things here. But look at it, see what it needs, see what your body needs, and then make sure it gives you what you need. This is what, this is one thing that I started and and I didn't even know that it was actually actually good, but I do hard boiled eggs.
I do hard boiled eggs and hot sauce. Hardball eggs, hot socks. With a pickle spear. I know it sounds weird. It sounds like I'm pregnant, but I'm not. But that is, it's, it's, it's, it's usually fast and easy. And it's satisfying. One of the things that I came across was suv.[00:37:00]
And if you dunno what cvid is, basically it, it cooks, it's a thing of water, and it cooks it at a certain temperature and you just leave it, you set it, forget it, and, and you're good. And it's really fricking easy. It sounds really ladi da, but it's really fricking easy. And I came across this literally by accident.
I was looking for sous V bags. That's all I was looking for. Like the, and what I came across was sous V once a week. Once a week and it's it's street smart kitchen.com and I watched a video and this lady did this meal prep all through Ed. She veed once a week for the whole week and did this meal plan.
So I was looking into it and I'm like, yeah, whatever, whatever, whatever. But then what I really liked, I mean, she gives you everything. Like she literally tells you, this is so cool. She would give you, you pick out, you know, your recipes, and then she would say, okay, this [00:38:00] you, you have a day. You go buy all this crap.
And then crap. And then on the day you, she would give, you, set it at this temperature, prep this while that setting, and then put it in and, and let it go. And then you prep the next thing. So it's literally like, it's, it's a, it's an assembly line, you know, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. And then the next you do that for four hours and you're done.
And the great thing about it was, of course, me, I don't ever follow anything, you know, I may follow the rules once but then I would do it. On days that I worked at home, I would put it in for 45 minutes or an hour, whatever it was, and I'd, you know, cook that. But it actually worked. And then I was, you've heard me talk about my registered dietician.
I ran the min menu by her and, and she's like, no, this is a great menu. It gives you all those things. And so I learned how to so eat her bowled eggs. But literally what I walked away from when I got done is I would have, I think. Three [00:39:00] proteins. Okay. And you so eat 'em. So they're all, I did 'em in individual packs.
So I had three proteins for all week long, you know, di different amounts. And then I had four different types of vegetable or sides, and then I had some sauces and stuff like that. So the way this would work is I'd do it all in one day. I had put it in the fridge and then I remember one time. One of the first times it was like Magic.
David called my my ex, and he, he, and of course I was working, so I wasn't thinking about it. And I was like, oh shit, you know, I gotta make dinner. And it's like four 30. And I was like, oh, I have this. And he called and he was on his way home and I think he was in. South Carolina for something. And he was coming back and he's like, I'm gonna be there around this.
And I was like, I literally said, what do you want? Pork chops, chicken steak, you know, blah, blah, blah. And he said, I want, I want, I want this. And I said, okay, what vegetables do you want? Do you want, and, [00:40:00] and I think that night it was, you know, that week it was brussel sprouts sweet potatoes, asparagus, or something else.
He's like, I want this. And I said, okay. Then I went down and I was like, okay, I want, I want pork chops and I want Brussels sprouts. And I took them out of the fridge 'cause they were in individual packages. I put 'em in a little hot water, warmed 'em up. And then right when he came home, I opened them up, put 'em in the pan, you know, browned them up, put it, put the Brussels sprouts and the asparagus in little, you know, things, and put them in the brail, you know, the oven.
And, and warmed 'em up and crisped 'em up and boom, it was there. It was so easy and it was so great because we could have different things and I didn't have to make something on Monday and go, I'm gonna eat this on Monday. It's like I, I had a menu and I, I eat like that. Again, it was one of those things.
So I started doing that for my lunches. Like I, like you can have it for as much as you want. [00:41:00] And I started doing that so I could, oh, I don't have time to run downstairs and cook a lunch, or, I don't know what I feel like for lunch. But I would go down and I would have this kind of menu of stuff to pull from.
And it would be in single serving sizes. And the great thing about it was I would get to like Wednesday and I'd be like, yeah, I don't think we're going to eat this or we're going to eat out, you know, tomorrow night. And I'd go throw it in the freezer and it was just awesome. The other thing I'm gonna say about this, this lady is she went from, the way this started was she went from a huge Kitchen Inn.
Texas, Dallas, Texas, if I remember right, to living over in Japan, working full time, had a child in a kitchen that had no oven, and you know, just trying to make it work like we all do, we're all trying to make it work. And then she came up with this, and it was really wonderful for me, and I [00:42:00] hope it helps you.
But the, the thing that I'm trying to tell you and e explain is not tell you as in go do it, but for me. I had to learn what was helping me and what was hurting me when I was trying to show up and interact with the world. And so what helps me is when I can go halt and see when have I eaten? Am I angry?
Am I lonely? Am I tired? And how is not eating? Making me want to, you know? Throat punch you and kick your ass. Like how is that or how is it making me go? I only have two options when there's 24 options. How is it that I can't seem to, you know, let it go? You know? Why am I still pissed off at the driver who cut me off?
He's gone. He took the exit [00:43:00] and so many times I thought you were saying this, Joe. You know, it's emotional and there must be something wrong with me that I have to work through. And we're pro, I think we're programmed to, to just always work on ourselves and always eat less, be less deny, you know, just, just be nice little girls.
And it's not that sometimes it's just my body egging me on in the wrong direction. So I hope that halt will give you a couple things. I hope it's in your pantry and you go, wow, have I eaten? And it makes you realize that you are not freaking crazy. Your body may be going, woohoo. You know, you may be dealing with an asshole, but tell your, you know, give your body what it needs so you can deal with them.
The other thing is that I hope it gives you is it gives you an opportunity to learn about your body and to really honor [00:44:00] the fact that you have these amazing hormones and understand what they do for you. Because as a woman, that is our gift. It isn't our enemy. That is our gift. What we can do is we can learn about it and figure out how to use it and how to, you know, it is wielding that sword, you know?
And so when you're about ready to smack somebody, and they may well deserve it, but it may not be in your best interest to do it. Halt. Am I hungry? When's the last time I ate? Like, seriously. Am I angry? Am I lonely and am I tired? And if I am those three things or those four things, or any of them, see how [00:45:00] it's interacting with any of the others.
See how hunger is, you know, being an instigator. And just give your body what it needs. We always say that we're our, our bodies are our temples. Why shortchange it, you know, bring everything you've got to support you in your effort to deal with life. So put it in your pantries, lady, ladies, gentlemen, and everybody in between.
And check out. Check and smart. You know, street Smart Kitchen does not even know that I'm mentioning their name. So go to it, street smarts kitchen.com and, and it's, it's a six days a week thing, maximum two hours hand prep. And once a week you, you cook. So do it. See if it works for you, see what works for you, and then tinker with it [00:46:00] like it's your cake.
You get to write your recipe. You can figure out what works for you. And again, that is the joy of our journey is. As we talked about earlier, Joe, we didn't tape this, but as we talked about earlier, it is being in the hallway. It is being in the learning zone. So go learn about yourself, go figure it out.
But when you get like that halt, until next time, ladies, tubs.
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