I’m joined by Stephanie Graves, a Functional Medicine Nutritionist and Physician’s Assistant, to discuss what adrenal fatigue is, how to identify when you’re experiencing it, and modalities to help restore your sympathetic nervous system.
I’m joined by Stephanie Graves, a Functional Medicine Nutritionist, Physician’s Assistant, and founder of The Functional Healer, a virtual functional nutrition practice specializing in helping high-performing women with anxiety, chronic stress, and burnout so they can restore their vitality. I’ve spoken a little bit before about my experience with adrenal fatigue, but on today’s episode, Stephanie and I do a deep dive on the three stages of the condition and tools to overcome it.
So many women find themselves feeling like the weight of the world is on their shoulders. There’s often an overload of pressure to excel in your career while also being present in your home life. When Stephanie was struggling with chronic bloating and debilitating abdominal pain, she tried to brush it under the rug until she couldn’t anymore. When she finally gave her body and mind the rest that it was signaling for, she was able to repair her sympathetic nervous system and re-evaluate the direction of her life.
Stephanie explains the biological reasoning behind the ‘wired and tired’ phenomenon and lists several markers that suggest someone is experiencing adrenal fatigue. We discuss how to decode the clues the body is sending us when we’re in a state of chronic sympathetic activation and different treatment options. Listen in to learn more about adrenal fatigue and how to overcome it on today’s episode.
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[00:00:00] Dana Frost: Welcome to vitally you a podcast created to introduce you to the tools that will be your roadmap for feeling younger while growing older. I'm your host, Dana frost, a wellness expert, life coach and energy medicine practitioner. Here's what you can expect conversations about vitality from the inside, out with guest experts in the field of health, culture, and spirituality and solo episodes.
Along the way from me, where I do deep dives into the topics of aging, heart intelligence, energy medicine, and your. Capacity to heal. If you want to feel younger while growing older, this is the place for you.
Hello, mightly you community. I am Dana frost. Your host coming to you this week from Chi town. It's been an amazing week in Chicago book ended with Lollapalooza, my birthday. And as this episode goes live, I will be at the windy city smoke. Chicago's urban country music festival, that pairs country music with barbecue.
I am not missing that. I've been going to Wendy city smoke out since it started. And it's just such a great concert weekend. If you miss my birthday episode, it was a solo episode and I invite you to check it out. I received a lot of positive comments. This brings me to my request for you to let me know.
Do you prefer solo? Or do you like the guest episodes? And are there topics that you would like me to address, please? Just email me. Dana, Dana frost.com. Be sure to hit subscribe and download, help me rise above the podcast. Traffic and reviews are always deeply appreciated. So today we are joined this week by another one of my functional nutrition and lifestyle practitioners, Stephanie grave.
Stephanie left her physician assistant profession after 11 years due to burnout, working under the constraints and limitations of the conventional medical model here in the United States, in the pursuit of helping women get to the root cause of their health challenges. Stephanie founded the functional healer specializing in helping high performing women with anxiety, chronic stress and burnout.
So they can do what restore their vitality, if you've ever experienced burnout, adrenal fatigue, or chronic stress. This episode is for you. You are going to learn the stages of adrenal fatigue and that's helpful because the symptoms are clues about how depleted you are. So this is really golden information.
Stephanie, you have such an interesting story in that you were a physician's assistant for 11 years and you've switched course. We are colleagues together as functional nutrition and lifestyle practitioners. Could you share with us? I don't really know your story, but we would love to hear your story.
[00:03:09] Stephanie Graves: Yes, absolutely. So you're correct. Yes. My background is as a PA for 11 years. And there are two parts, really why I left my PA career. One of which I was beginning to struggle with my own health problems. And as a patient, I saw the crisis that our medical system is under firsthand as I was bounced from one specialist to the next to nutritionist, back to my primary.
And it didn't really seem like anyone really had the time. Nor really the bandwidth to help me and being the very driven person that I am. I was not going to just settle for being on prescription meds for the rest of my life. So I decided to embark on the solution and. That's what led me to functional nutrition, which radically changed the trajectory of my life and healing.
And I was able to come full circle with the challenges that I had been facing. And it was about the same time. I was also starting to become rather unsatisfied with my career as a PA again, having my personal experience. As a patient. And then just seeing on the other side, how people were so quickly being just brought through the system and being diverted to someone else.
And it just didn't really align with my true passion in helping people and providing medicine. And I know that looking. At help through a functional lens, requires a lot more time and looking at it through multiple lenses, something that can't be done in a 15 minute visit. And I was very fortunate in my last job.
I worked for dos. So doctors of osteopath, which they're kind of a little bit more on the same wavelength as us. But there still was some budding of heads. When it came to certain treatments, they were quite open and letting me practice functionally, but it got to a place where I just felt like I couldn't authentically practice medicine.
The way that I believe is most meaningful. So I had to make a big decision and left. My super stable career most recently, a few months ago and opened my own virtual functional nutrition practice. So now that I am providing medicine in a way, again, that I feel is most authentic and meaningful and what has helped me and can help so many others.
Mm-hmm
[00:05:34] Dana Frost: thank you for sharing that, Stephanie. Yeah, we would love to hear some of your symptoms.
[00:05:40] Stephanie Graves: Yeah, I was struggling with daily debilitating abdominal pain. Abdominal pain and bloating. At the time I had twin daughters, they were maybe like a year, a year and a half old. I was running marathons. I was working as a PA and behind the scenes, my husband was struggling with addiction.
So there was a lot happening. And, you know, I thought that I was eating clean and by running marathons, I was in peak physical condition, but really I. Stuffing away every emotion that had come up ever and just continued to press on. And, you know, my body was trying to send me signals and it got to a point where I just couldn't ignore them any longer that something had to be done because there was times and most days when I was in so much pain that I would just go to bed because I knew that the first few hours in the morning is when I would feel my best.
So I would just go to bed in hopes that I would feel better the next day.
[00:06:41] Dana Frost: Wow. Yeah. I wonder that's really curious because the body rejuvenates and resets at night, and so your body was probably very busy working to restore whatever was happening in your digestive system so that you could wake up and the symptoms would be, would not be present.
So. Wow. That is that's a lot. I just wanna pause as a mom of five. So I think because I read that you also homeschool a second grader. Yeah. I raised five kids. I had a health crisis. I just wanna say I see you and I hear you. And just like I see and hear other women who find themselves in a similar situation where.
you know, there's a lot going on personally, um, upholding jobs, some emotional stuff happening personally, you said your husband was a, had some addictive issues and you have a young family and you're juggling all of that. That story is not uncommon to so many women today. And so I just wanna say, I see you and I honor your story and thank you so much for sharing it.
Those stories are really sacred. It's like the sacred ingredients that allows us to go and see and practice in the gap. Like we wanna practice in the gap with other, with other people who are struggling. And, and I know just by, from reading about your work, that you are. You are actually working with women who are high achievers, who are working on all cylinders.
And yet they're tired. They're tired. I call, I had adrenal fatigue. So I read a book that was really excellent called tired and wired. So I know that you've, alchemized your personal situation so that you can share and guide other people along their health journeys. I love hearing the personal stories. So thank you.
[00:08:38] Stephanie Graves: Yeah, absolutely. And you know, I think it's important message to share too, cuz like you said so many women. Now find themselves in the same situation. And it's often hard also as a mom to say no to things. When you feel like the weight of the world is on your shoulders. That is
[00:08:58] Dana Frost: very true. And if I could count the number of conversations I have with people around this issue of burnout, adrenal fatigue, chronic dis disease in the system, we will not heal until we.
Make resting a priority. Mm-hmm and that's a hard, it's a hard one. It's a hard one when you're juggling a lot of things and it, it really is learning the art of saying no. And the art of. Uh, bringing, I had to bring my family into my healing journey so that they would give me, I needed an nap every afternoon.
And if I can do it, if you can do it, it can be done. Yeah. It, it can be done. So I think that's your good news for
[00:09:40] Stephanie Graves: us. Mm-hmm oh, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.
[00:09:43] Dana Frost: So there were so many different topics that we could approach Stephanie and I thought we would really, we would focus on this idea. Chronic sympathetic activation.
It's something I touch on a lot through the work of heart math and culturally the sympathetic pulse, the sympathetic heartbeat is like pulsing throughout our culture. And so let's just, let's talk a little bit about that. Tell me, you know, do you have a process or tell me what you've learned about the idea of chronic sympathetic activation.
[00:10:18] Stephanie Graves: Yeah, absolutely. So, I mean, my story is multi part, you know, multifaceted part was the chronic abdominal pain and bloating. That was kind of the, the initial, like flick of the domino. And then later came the adrenal fatigue. The abdominal pain was like the heightened state of the stress. I hadn't burned out yet, but then quickly, the years thereafter, after having a third child going through more infertility, moving across the country, losing a job like.
Then it's really started to decline. And I think that that's just a good place to start is what goes up. Must come down. So many, there's three phases of adrenal fatigue and sympathetic activation. I mean our fight or flight or the sympathetic response is actually a good thing. It gets us out of danger quickly in this response blood vessels go to the important organs that are going to save our lives, like our muscles and our heart.
Blood is diverted away from the gut so that we're not busy digesting food when we're supposed to be running away from that bear. So stress hormones like cortisol and epinephrine are also produced. So these are good again in a short term when needed, however, the body can't differentiate type of stress from.
Bear jumping outta the woods or you're stressed because again, you're raising young children, you lost a job. You're in an unhappy marriage. Even other things like undereating over exercising, poor sleep, poor diet, blood sugar, imbalances, poor relationships, all these things matter. And they cause chronic stress in the body.
So they cause a chronic activation of the sympathetic nervous system. So in the first stage, someone may present and they may not even be tired at all. They kind of the wired and tired, like you mentioned, they're more in the wired. So cortisol levels are elevated. Throughout the day they may dip in the afternoon.
This person may get tired in the afternoon, but basically they're adjusting pretty well. There's a new stressor in their life and they're just powering through, like they would.
[00:12:31] Dana Frost: Some people love that
[00:12:33] Stephanie Graves: feeling. Yeah. That, that actual adrenaline rush. Yeah. Yeah. I think
[00:12:37] Dana Frost: I was addicted to that feeling for
[00:12:39] Stephanie Graves: years.
Yeah, absolutely. And what that rush also comes increased blood sugar too. So that could be something curious to think about if people are addicted to. The blood sugar increase as well. The same, like you would be addicted to a piece of chocolate. So that's something curious to think about. So in the second stage, cortisol levels are either normal to low, uh, in the mornings usually.
And then in the afternoon you'll generally see a dip. So at this point they have a repeated stressor with loss of resilience. So this person will generally need a nap every day. I was there. You mentioned you were, I would take a nap in my car at work at, at lunch, like with no shame, be like, I need to go take a nap and other things can also happen at this stage.
So now not only the adrenals where which produce cortisol, this stress hormone that we've been talking about, adrenal glands also produce other hormones, aldosterone, which is important for water and salt balance testosterone, which is important for, you know, libido and fertility. So at this point, the adrenals are really taxed.
They've lost the resiliency. So you're gonna. Napping required throughout the day. And other things such as weight changes, cravings, allergies, blood sugar, and balances, infertility, depression, anxiety, salt, cravings. Low blood pressure, which is also something interesting to think about because I always used to kind of praise myself for having such a low blood pressure.
I thought I was really healthy. And now looking back, it's like, no, because of my adrenals were totally tanked. That's why I no blood pressure always. I'm like, oh, it's because I run marathons, but really it's it. Wasn't such a great
[00:14:29] Dana Frost: thing. Yeah. I think that's really important to note. I love that you're giving us lots.
Ideas to think about what are the symptoms that we are experiencing to know, like if we could place ourself in one of those phases. So thank you for all, for all those symptoms. Yeah. I think it's important as
[00:14:46] Stephanie Graves: markers. Yeah, absolutely. And my like a little bit back to my personal story before we go to the last phase.
so that abdominal pain I was experiencing was directly linked to my anxiety that I didn't even know that I had anxiety. So an anxiety is one of the symptoms too, of adrenal fatigue. So. My anxiety got worse as my fatigue progressed. And so did the pain. So it really does relate. So as you start to shift and heal, one area, other things have room and space to do so as well.
And then the third stage is this is when cortisol levels. Your stress hormone is just flatlined all day long. You have no energy, a nap won't suffice, a vacation won't even suffice. And at this, um, stage, it may even have mental status changes, cognition, brain fog. and at this stage, and I've been on the other side of this as the provider, I will happily write people, a leave of absence for work for two, three months, because that's what they really need at this point to get them back.
And the biggest thing too. And I don't know if you wanted to talk about some, uh, treatments, but really is removing the stressor from your. So if your stressor is work, then you need to take a step back from your work for a little bit or reevaluate things, because if you're just in it, in the mug with it, then really you're not going to be able to heal effectively.
[00:16:14] Dana Frost: I echo that sentiment. I think that's so important. And I actually had a woman who is a friend. She's not a client. She has been on my retreats in the past, but she did that during the pandemic. She work has been a significant stressor and she was able to take a leave of absence to just to restore her.
She was really beaten down and it made a huge impact. It gave her the space. It, it reminds me when I started my life coaching practice, Stephanie, I was living in Brazil. and I was actually working with the coach at the time and we had just adopted two children and we had three daughters who were older and she prescribed me in essence, you know, prescribed in terms of, you know, a coaching essence at 1 24 away from my family every month.
And I would go check myself into a hotel for 24 hours. Mm-hmm without needing to call home or having any responsibility. And that was the first time that it really dawned on me that as women we're managing so many different things, we really have to disconnect in order to restore ourselves, to fill our own love tank.
And I made that a practice and then I made that a practice for my clients too. Yeah. And that was a whole idea also of retreats that as women, we really do need to get away from our roles and responsibilities. in order to refuel ourselves. Yeah. It's hard to do it when you're in the thick of all the multiple tasking.
[00:17:51] Stephanie Graves: Yeah, absolutely. I love that. And I can see the value and that absolutely. Just recently I went to kind of like a mini women's retreat retreat, and I was only gone for eight hours cuz it was right down the road from me and just that half of a day without having to make someone breakfast or lunch or pick after them.
help someone use the bathroom or whatever was so restorative mm-hmm so, yeah, I love that so much.
[00:18:17] Dana Frost: Yeah, that's wonderful. Okay. So let's go to, to some modalities that can really help restore. I think you hit on one, which is really, we need to start there and that is sleep.
[00:18:30] Stephanie Graves: Absolutely. So as you know, in our training sleep is a non-negotiable.
So really starting establishing some healthy sleep practices. I mean, ideally to bed by, I mean, I would even say as early, like nine to 10, I personally am in bed at like 9, 9 30 mm-hmm . Um, we wanna catch our cortisol wave before that spikes back up again. So the natural pattern is that cortisol increases.
As the day goes on, it peaks around like 10:00 AM to give you your get up and go. And then it decreases throughout the rest of the day. However, if you're still up at night, it will con it will start to go back up. So it's really important to notice that time that you're tired and go to bed then. Yeah.
Cause I know if I stay up until like 9 35, like I can't fall asleep, you know, if I need to get in bed in that 30 minute window.
[00:19:27] Dana Frost: Yeah. I think that's really, that's a piece of information and it gets back to tracking and really understanding because you can, I can feel. When that the cortisol peak is coming back up and it's really bringing, I find that, um, we're very resilient as people, if we just start bringing our consciousness to something, we really notice these patterns that the body is presenting.
And, you know, we think about. When we say nine 30 or 10, what we really wanna pay attention to when we think of the circadian rhythm is the light. So we all, you know, we've some of us live Northern Southern hemisphere, the different seasons and different light, you know, arcs of the daylight, turning into nighttime.
So. Your body wants to follow that natural light arc. And so when you think about a time, just conceptualize it as the sun is fading and the light is going down. The body wants to slow down. And so it's that timing is different for everybody, but it's something that is really important to pay attention to because you wanna work with the body instead of against it.
And I think what gets confused and tell me what you think about this, Stephanie, is that when we. Have adrenal fatigue or we are overactivated in the sympathetic mode. And even though I've talked about this a lot on the show, just as a reminder, sympathetic it's, if you visualize your foot is on the gas, parasympathetic is slowing down and your foot is on the break.
So when we overactivated the clues, the body is sending us. Sometimes they can get kind of confused because the body, those chemicals that are pulsating through the body, Are turned upside down and inside out. Would you agree with that? Yeah.
[00:21:18] Stephanie Graves: Yeah, absolutely. And
[00:21:19] Dana Frost: so there's like a, this part of it for me, I just had to call upon discipline initially when I was healing from an adrenal fatigue.
And I, I had to just like really focus in on a routine. I. when I was healing from adrenal fatigue, I had four out of the five kids at home and I would rest towards the end of the day before I headed in tonight. And so part of it is just this idea that initially if you're in phase two or phase three, you may have to put the routine in and you may just have to say no matter if I'm tired or.
I am going to, whether it's take a nap or I'm gonna go to bed at nine, I'm just gonna start reading a book. I'm gonna turn all my devices off. I'm gonna, you know, make my room nice and cozy and start slowing down at nine. And then just, you've gotta in essence sort of retrain. Your circadian rhythm. Do you agree with that?
[00:22:21] Stephanie Graves: Yes. Yeah. And there's a lot that goes to it and it is, I mean, healing, as you know, it's a journey and there's a lot that goes into it. Even just establishing a healthy sleep routine, a lot goes into it. But yeah, I mean, I at right after dinner, like I turn all the lights off. in our home, you know, and just getting the lights down, trying to have some quiet time before bed, like you said, reading, I think is great.
I mean, my kids are younger enough that we read together before bed, but if someone was older yeah, reading a book, ideally not on your phone before bed and the blue lights really. Interfere with melatonin production. Um, if you were to use a phone to read on, definitely make sure you have some blue light blocking glasses.
I find that those are really helpful. And honestly, one of the biggest things that's been helpful for me as far as sleep goes, because I was in a situation at one point where I was working 12 hour shifts, commuting an hour every day with three young kids at home. And I was generally so tired a night that I would just fall asleep.
But there were times when I was taking, say like melatonin to be helpful, but now I've gotten away from that. Like I said, and it takes a lot of work, but the biggest thing is when I get in bed, I just go to bed. I don't look at my phone. I don't check social media. I'm not checking my email. I'm not seeing who texted me.
I'm just going straight to bed. because I know so many people and I, for one of them was that too, that you just kind of get in bed and you think you're gonna unwind and search the internet or scroll social media in a half hour goes by, and now you're not tired anymore. And now your brain has stimulated and melatonin production has been decreased.
So that's one of been the biggest things for sure, for me is just putting it down, not even looking at it, closing my eyes and now I can generally fall asleep, like within a few minutes or. . I love
[00:24:12] Dana Frost: that bit of wisdom there. And we do. You mentioned melatonin when we're in along the healing journey. It can be complex, even though it's simple, it is complex and we do need props.
There are times when we may need supplementation. We might need to have a special diet. I know for me, with adrenal fatigue, And I think this is widely accepted. We need really good clean protein and a lot of it. And we need our, our vegetables, um, lower carb from, in terms of grains and things like that.
Yeah. Okay. So we've touched on sleep. Yeah. Let's talk about another strategy for healing from adrenal
[00:24:51] Stephanie Graves: fatigue. . Yeah. And I think you just mentioned it really was diet. So having a clean whole foods, diet, and being really careful about sugar, for sure. So in adrenal fatigue, there's already a blood sugar dysregulation.
Most cases since cortisol increases blood sugar levels in times of stress. So blood sugar is generally already elevated or is just kind of all over the. So if you're eating foods that are high in sugar, whether that be a refined sugar or even a good sugar like grains, you said, or fruits, it can be problematic.
So again, this doesn't have to be a forever thing, but it may be something that you wanna consider out of the gate to go really hard at is really well clean up the diet, no matter what, but really refining and limiting the sugars. As much as possible during this time. And then another thing too is really popular, intermittent fasting.
That may also not be a good idea for someone who's recovering from adrenal fatigue. So it does put some stress on the body. So maybe something to consider too. It might not be a good fit again. You might be able to revisit it. I know I bounced in and out of it during my healing and I'm okay with it during some points.
But it, it can cause more harm than good. And if that's just something to consider.
[00:26:20] Dana Frost: Yeah. I think that it's really important to note a lot of the trendy diets out there. They don't really work when you're trying to heal. I mean, you really have to, this is where, you know, you mentioned being in conventional medicine, being a physician's assistant and not having the.
Allotted, you know, to really give the proper care to your patients. And I think that you've gotta dial into your unique individuality and what your system needs at any given time. And if you're having a lot of fatigue in an over sympathetic mode is not gonna be helpful to follow a trend. That's not gonna be enough.
It's not gonna be enough to go onto Instagram and look at recipes. You know, you really need to dial into what's going on with yourself and, and to figure out what is a plan. That's gonna work for me. That's gonna heal my system. Yeah.
[00:27:15] Stephanie Graves: Yeah. An individualized approach is absolutely necessary. Mm-hmm .
[00:27:20] Dana Frost: Yeah. So with food, I love everything that we said.
Those are all really great recommendations. I think that one thing I wanted to add in when we're talking about over sympathetic activation and adrenal fatigue, cause we're kind of nearing the end of our time and this is something I've talked a lot about on the podcast is heart math. And really, I don't know if you're familiar with heart
[00:27:44] Stephanie Graves: math.
I've heard of the term, but I'm not super familiar.
[00:27:48] Dana Frost: Well, it's a research Institute in California and they've, they've made the correlation between the nervous system and heart rate variability and coherence and resiliency. And, you know, something happens in life. We have an emotional reaction and then the body releases.
The necessary chemicals to accommodate the trigger, the emotional reaction. And then we know that event is finishes and yet the chemicals are still pulsing through the body mm-hmm . And so heart math, they have. Researched breathing tools, techniques that bring the heart rate variability back to a coherence and build in resilience in the system by very simple breathing techniques.
Mm. The very most basic one and most people on the podcast would know is just inhaling and exhaling from the heart center. It's a visualization where you visualize the inhale and exhale to flow to. And from the heart center. You can just feel, even when I just speak that, what that does. Mm-hmm, that idea of calling upon the energy of the heart to begin to moderate the breathing pattern and the emotional state.
It calms everything down. So without going to, you know, deep into it, I found heart math to be. An extraordinary tool for me in terms of healing, adrenal fatigue. So I just put that out there for our listeners. Yeah. You mentioned also that you were a marathoner and at the height of my health crisis, I was doing a bootcamp, but like five o'clock in the morning, I find that we've confused what healthy is in terms of the workout mm-hmm and we think it's that the marathon, whether it's the marathon.
or boot camp. Those are just two examples. They are sympathetic ways of moving the body. Yeah. So they activate the sympathetic nervous system. Yeah. And when you are already tired, you might have a, a quick burst of energy and, and feeling of euphoria from that, but then you're gonna crash. And so what I like to encourage people to do is pay attention.
If you, when you exercise, if you feel you finished the exercise, this was me and I felt great. And then I crashed an hour later when the type of exercise that you're engaged in aligns with where you are today with, with your mind body system, you're movement is gonna sustain you and give you energy for a long period of time.
and when you are overdoing it in exercise, you're gonna have a crash. Have you, did you experience that at all? Stephanie,
[00:30:44] Stephanie Graves: when I was specifically running marathons, I think I was definitely still in phase one. So I didn't really generally have that much of the fatigue. And I always ran early in the morning again when I felt my best, but I did have to start scaling back on my exercise and I went from running marathons to then I was lifting weights and I was still doing that probably in.
You know, working with a trainer. And that's when I that's, when I did start to notice the fatigue, that that was the, when it was the most profound. So I just kind of switched my exercise intensity from one to another. And I was literally just using exercise to avoid feeling discomfort emotionally.
[00:31:26] Dana Frost: And we don't wanna quickly go beyond what you just said, cuz that's a really important point.
[00:31:32] Stephanie Graves: Yeah. I mean, when I ran marathons, I was literally running away from my problems. I'd like go for a run for two hours to not have to deal with whatever was happening, you know? I do know. Yeah. So, and now I go on hikes and I do yoga mm-hmm and I feel great and it feels good to feel good in my body and do the things that I can do now with my flexibility.
I don't miss running. If I had to run for my life, I could, but it got to a point where I just kept getting injured and I wasn't recovering. And then one day at the gym, some, a man who's older than me said, oh, you'll be 40 and have a hip replacement jokingly. Cuz I was. Kinesiology tape all over me. It was like one of my hacks for running marathons and it really landed with me.
And I was like, wow, that's not that far off. You know, so maybe I should just like, what's the point? Why am I, why am I doing this? And just scale it back. And I haven't been injured in, you know, over two years and I feel great.
[00:32:33] Dana Frost: Well, I think that's just an amazing testimony. And we're going to wrap up our conversation on that note because that really, that's not that much time two years.
I mean, you can make a big difference in your health when you start shifting, you know, one thing. You shift one thing, one month, you shift another thing and the energy starts flowing towards health and wellness and it's, you know, it's E gets easier to make these shifts in your lifestyle. Yeah. And your body repays you by feeling better.
[00:33:04] Stephanie Graves: Yeah. And it's almost like once you start getting that momentum going, you can't ignore it, you know? And if you do fall off the wagon, You're much more aware and it's a great reminder of what life used to be like, so it's not really worth it. Mm-hmm exactly.
[00:33:19] Dana Frost: That's my idea. Exactly. So, Stephanie, what does feeling younger while growing older mean to you?
[00:33:24] Stephanie Graves: I would say that it means not necessarily feeling older. I guess I'm increasing in years, but I don't want to be limited or feel like I can't play with my kids or go jump off a cliff because I'm getting older. Mm-hmm I still wanna be able to do the same sort of things and feel great doing it regardless of
[00:33:43] Dana Frost: age.
That's awesome. I love that. Well, Stephanie, it's been such a pleasure to have you on the vitally you podcast. Thank you so much. Thank you so much
[00:33:50] Stephanie Graves: for having
[00:33:51] Dana Frost: me. Thank you for joining me on the vital U podcast. If you are enjoying these episodes, hit subscribe, download, share it with friends. These offerings of gratitude.
Make my heart sing until next week. I am streaming love from my heart to yours.