Episode 650: Your Body Loves a Rhythm

0:00Your body is not asking for a perfect schedule. It's asking for predictability. There's a difference. And understanding that difference is a really practical health shift for an awful lot of people. Welcome to your daily hit of Grace and Grit, your quick dose of inspiration to kickstart your day. I'm Courtney Townley and here is today's hit. When I talk about rhythm, I don't mean a rigid military style schedule where every minute is accounted for. I'm talking about the kind of predictable pattern that your body can orient around. The same general window for waking up, a consistent signal around eating, a regular pattern for movement and winding down. Think about it for a minute. The human brain, I think we all know, does not really love uncertainty.

1:02I know so many women who will prevent themselves from going after the things they really want from their life because they're afraid of the uncertainty. Well, your body also doesn't love uncertainty. It makes your body very hyper vigilant. There's a level of stress that comes from uncertainty. The body runs on a circadian rhythm. There are an approximately 24 hour internal clock that regulates almost every physiological process. From hormone release to immune function, to metabolism, to sleep cycles. And that clock is synchronized by external cues. Light, temperature, meal timing, activity. When those cues are consistent, the body knows what to expect and when.

2:03And it can do its work efficiently. When those things are all over the place, the system has to constantly recalibrate and that costs a lot of energy. The research on circadian rhythm is robust and well documented. Disrupted circadian rhythms are associated with metabolic dysfunction, increased inflammation, worse sleep quality, and mood dysregulation. So we pay a really steep price for not building rhythm into our life around the basic biological needs of the human body. And here's a really concrete illustration that I know of, of how trainable the body's rhythms actually are.

3:09I've worked with countless women over the years who tell me they're not hungry in the morning. I mean, I hear this so often. They don't eat breakfast, so they wait until 11 or noon to have their first meal. And no, it's not because they're intermittent fasting, okay? That's a totally different conversation. They just genuinely cannot imagine why anyone would want to eat earlier because they never have hunger signals earlier. What they don't realize is that the metabolism is highly trainable, just like every system in the human body is highly trainable. When you consistently delay your first meal, your body learns not to expect food until later. The hunger signals calibrate to the pattern. You stop feeling hungry at 7am when you get up because you've trained your body not to be. And the really cool thing is the reverse is also true.

4:10When a woman shifts her eating to within an hour of waking, with it a few weeks, she finds that she's ravenously hungry first thing in the morning. The same woman who was saying that she was never hungry in the morning. The metabolism has recalibrated. It has been given a new cue and it has adapted. The body is far more responsive than people give it credit for. And I've noticed this in my own life very clearly. When my sleep patterns, eating patterns, movement patterns are consistent, everything feels easier. My body knows what's coming and it's prepared for it. Falling asleep is easier, waking up is easier. My energy across the day is more predictable. When those patterns are inconsistent, when travel or stress or a busy season disrupts the rhythm, everything gets harder.

5:18Consistency itself becomes difficult, not because of willpower or lack of commitment, but because my body is not oriented. It does not have the cues it needs to function efficiently. And I think this is really worth calling out because a lot of women blame themselves when consistency feels hard. They think it's a character flaw. But more often than not, it's simply a rhythm issue. The foundation has not been laid. That's all it is. So again, we're not talking perfect schedules here. I don't even know what that would mean. Like what is a perfect schedule? I'm just encouraging you to build a consistent enough rhythm with basic measures that your body needs, that your body can predict what is coming and prepare for it.

6:22And again, like everything I suggest in this podcast, you could just start with one anchor. Pick one of the foundational elements to start with. Water, movement. You're waking up or going to bedtime. And just pick a place to begin, right? A consistent wake up is often the most powerful place to begin, if you're looking for a place to begin, if you're not sure where to start, because it sets the tone for everything that follows. Where in your day is the rhythm most disrupted right now? Is it with sleep, your meals, your movement, your winding down? Pick one. And reestablish a pattern this week. Your body will respond faster than you think. My book, The Consistency Code, is full of this kind of foundational work. If you want to grab a free chapter, just head on over to GraysonGrit.com, forward slash free chapter,

7:27and start building the framework that your body has been begging for. If this stirred something inside of you, imagine what a whole book of clarity and courage could ignite. The Consistency Code, a midlife woman's guide to deep health and happiness, goes even deeper into the mindset and practices that create real, meaningful change at midlife. Grab your copy today over at The ConsistencyCode.com and keep the momentum alive.