The Livy Method Podcast - Sleep, Stress, and Hormones with Dr. Olinca Trejo - Winter 2026

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

To wrap up sleep week, Gina is joined by Naturopath and hormone expert Dr. Olinca Trejo to unpack the connection between sleep and hormones, specifically how poor sleep habits can throw your body out of balance and make weight loss feel harder than it needs to be. They explore how your hormones act like an orchestra, with each one playing its part, and what happens when stress, lack of sleep, or extreme dieting throws that harmony out of tune. Dr. Trejo explains why your body is wired for survival, not jeans-size goals, and how things like insulin, cortisol, and melatonin react when your internal environment isn’t ideal. It's a real-talk breakdown of why eating less and exercising more might be working against you, and why working with your body starts by understanding what it needs most.Dr. Olinca is a licensed, board-certified Naturopathic Doctor in the province of Ontario. She also holds an honours degree in Kinesiology and has achieved her certification and internship in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).You can contact Dr. Olinca at [e-mail] find her on Instagram: @dr.olincaYou can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2026 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy and welcome to the Livy Method podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams for my 91 day weight loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the morning live? Want to re-listen to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place. This podcast is hosted on ACAST, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple, and Amazon music. We're focusing on sustainable habits, not quick-fixing.

Is it an opportunity to get curious? We're here to help people get to their health goals. One piece of time. You build and build and build. How is your sleep affecting your hormones? That is the topic of conversation today. And if there's one person on this planet that can make the hormone conversation sexy. It is Dr. Alinketrejo.

Hello. Hello, good morning. I don't know, I get excited about talking hormones with you because you just make it seem so simple and so, so important. I am obsessed with hormones. You know this. I can't turn any conversation. You literally can be like, my dog is having arthritis and I can be like, let's talk about hormones, girl. Like I can turn anything into hormones because your entire body depends on it, right?

And they're so important to every conversation about health. And I think that especially because there wasn't necessarily a focus in women's health, to be honest, and then a lot of other things in medicine, they were kind of like forgotten for a while. And then there was like a rebirth of them with menopause. And then people were like, oh, my gosh, hormones are part of the conversation. This is wild. And so I'm super excited to share how everything connects together.

Well, I was just going to say that because you were the OG of Hormos. hormones or queen of hormones or breaking down hormones in a way we can understand far beyond before the hormone the menopause hormone conversation we were talking about hormones and weight loss and everyone thinks when it comes to hormones and weight loss we're talking menopause and that's that's not really true it's true I mean you know I think that to boil it down what we always need to go back to is that hormones are chemical messengers right that just send signals to different parts of the body and like yes of course estrogen progesterone and testosterone are really important and they're a huge part of that conversation,

but they're actually only really important for maybe like a third of your lifetime at most, right? You have a bunch of other hormones or arguably even more important than those ones and they all talk to each other and they all work in tandem with each other. And I think that, you know, I always boil it down to your hormones will always respond to whatever environment you put them in, right? Even estrogen and progester. And so how all of this gets connected back into your health feeds into this conversation because if you're putting your hormones in a state

where it's like sleep deprived or starved or stressed or whatever, all of your hormones are going to respond. It's not just one, which is actually why this is a broad conversation. It's such a fun one. Well, when we talk about weight loss, so the oversimplification, calories in versus calories out, right? Like eat less, exercise more. sure, you'll force your body to burn fat, you will lose weight. The problem is you just gain it all back.

Healthy, sustainable weight loss is so much more. Yes, of course, what you eat is important, but where those calories come from, right, making sure you're getting that protein and fat that are feeding into your satiety hormones. And then it's the way your body processes and digest that food and what's going on with your hunger hormones. And when we used to talk about insulin, for example, we never talked about it as a hormone. We talk about melatonin. We don't talk about it as a hormone. And so where do you want to start with this conversation today? Like, so the most profound thing I think you've ever said was so simple in that your hormones are like an orchestra. And if one is off, like if the trombone player is like, whatever that is.

I don't know what the fuck is the trombone? Is it this one? What is that? I honestly, I have no idea. I was like, is that drums? No, right? I think that it's like a, so are you guys? I only know strings.

Okay. I was an island player. But yes. I think that is. I was a sack. So I'm like. Exactly. Because I was like beating my drums. Well, you know, I think that this is, I think that what you said is like a perfect

way to what I want to talk about because the weight loss and like all the things that you're talking about, it's it that is actually how your body's hardwired to move through the world. The only thing is that if you put it in a state where it's stressed out, it's going to respond by, you know, trying to survive. And I think that this is what, It's so hard to understand. Like your brain is not hardwired to feel happy. It's not hardwired to be like, oh, girl, you want to get into those size four pants? Like you haven't gotten into, like, since you were like in grade 12.

Like, no problem. I got you. No, your brain is hardwired for survival and for adaptation, right? And so as mammals, we're animals. Like we're the only species in the world that will willingly deprive ourselves of sleep. And when that happens, your brain, because it's very primal, right? Your brain goes into like, oh, my God, there's either a threat or there's starvation.

And so instead of your insulin and your cortisol and your melatonin and all of these hormones, again, playing that beautiful song in your orchestra, they all go into like, because they go into, we need to survive, right? And so then everything gets into just a right, because that's the message that you're sending your body. And your body is just going to adapt to that message and try to. to keep you alive. Yeah. Yeah, you're you're basically teaching your body. Like when it comes to, if your body is storing excess fat, it's because for some reason in the most simplest terms,

it feels like it needs it. And so every time you, you starve and deprive, you, you give your body no choice, but it's got to burn your emergency energy reserve, which instantaneously or simultaneously reinforces the need for it in the first place. Oh my goodness, we have to keep drawing on these fat reserves. So let's make sure we, store it all back plus more. And that's where your set point gets really high. And then every time we try to lose weight, our body just packs it back on again. Oh, here we go, plus more. And then we think that's where our body's happy. And your body's like, the fuck we are happy. We are not happy. You've given us no. We just start to sparrow here. We're trying to save your ass. Of that hardwired to

survive, that's interesting and not hardwired for happiness. You know, that's really interesting because you have to choose happiness. You have to be intentional about happiness where you're, your body's survival mechanism. So this is if you're so out of tune with your body, you are not eating when you're hungry, drinking when you're thirsty, sleeping when you are tired. It'll try to just like go on its own. Like you're like a zombie and your body's like, oh, okay, well, eat this. And you think, oh, I need sugar.

No, you're dehydrated. Oh, I'm, you know, I need carbs. No, you're tired. Girl, sleep. Like your body's just trying to get what it wants and you're falling around. And we just become so inefficient, right? we become so inefficient and that's actually what throws up your hormones. And I, you know, you and I have had this conversation so many times, but it like you and I know, even without

talking about hormones, like if you under-sleeved, if you're stressed out, if you have a baby that's been waking you up eight times a night, you don't wake up in the morning and be like, you know what I crave today? I crave cucumbers and celery and an apple. Like your food choices change. Your appetite changes because your body's like, Give me the crackers and the cereal and chocolate in the house. So I always like breaking down the core problem of hormones and sleep deprivation as it impacting things like your appetite, your food preferences, how you actually burn fuel, how you control your sugar, and also honestly, like, how your willpower, quote-unquote,

because you know that this is something that we don't say here, just completely goes out the window. Yeah. Yeah. This is why I love that. Well, someone's like, Gina, you're so animated today.

I love this conversation because nobody is having this conversation. It can be so complicated that nobody is trying to take the time to explain this conversation to you. And then once you get it, and we've had conversations with Dr. Link, because she's going to be back talking about hormones and weight loss in the program. Once you get it, you're like,

oh okay right like yeah and i think you know we especially this is your first time around or if it's your 10th time around honestly a lot of the times they can feel like oh my god i'm doing all the things do i have to do one more thing this is this is this conversation truly is meant to be like girl the only thing that you need to focus on is the basics in the basics is what your body needs in order to reset it's not a supplement it's like not this like crazy workout it's not something you saw on Instagram, it literally is implementing a lot of, you know, what Alana and Dr. Beverly and everybody's talking about, which is really just like pure basics, just like respect your biology, you know, feed into your circadian rhythms, give your body some TLC and it will

naturally get back in sync. And the reason why I got out of sync is not because you had a deficiency of the supplement that you saw on Instagram. It's because your body's circadian rhythm, how it's hardwired to survive is completely thrown off because again it feels like it's under threat or there's starvation right in the land all right where do you want to talk about um i have on my notes here sleep uh stress hunger cravings behavior where like but you know go what do where do you want to talk okay so i always like i know i always like breaking it down and too like why do you you know when you're not sleeping

properly and that can obviously be either it's too short it's broken up and you can't get back to sleep, it's poor quality or, you know, it's mismatched to your biology, right? Like, you're going to bed really, really late or your shift work or whatever. And like how that actually impacts your food choices, your hunger, all of these things. So when you're not sleeping, the first thing that your body does is that it will increase, again, because think about it as if you're not sleeping, your body feels like you're starving me or there's a big fat bear that's about to eat me, right? Yeah. Yeah. And so the first thing that it will do is that it's going to increase your hunger hormones.

And the research actually shows that those hunger hormones increased by about 30%. And your satiety hormone, uh-huh, that then tells your brain, like, girls, stop eating your fault will decrease by 20%. Okay. So you're actually getting hit at both ends of the spectrum, right? Okay. Stop it right there. So when you're not getting the sleep that you need, you are actually 30% hungrier.

and you are less sensitive to the hormone that tells you when you're satisfied. Exactly. So you are more likely to overeat and crave carbs and sugar when you are tired. And we're like, what's wrong with me? Exactly. Meanwhile, your hormones are like, hello, honey. We're just trying to like make it out here. Yeah.

Okay. So what that results in, it's about it's, it's you should eat, based on the research that we have available, even like sleep deprivation for like an hour or two, right? Which is just normal for most of us. That ends up resulting in about a 300 to 500 calories store plus in a day, which in a year, like it doesn't sound like a lot, but in a year, that's like 700,000 calories, right? Which equals about 10 to 12 pounds of waking only because of these two hormones being off because you under slept by about an hour to two every single night. That's wild. Okay. So let's say someone is thinking, well, but I just follow the food plan. I don't give into those extra calories that I'm having.

Still, your body processes what you are eating differently, yeah? Of course. And that actually happens again for two other reasons as to why under sleeping actually impacts your hormones. One is that it's actually going to impact your insulin, which is the hormone that regulates your blood sugar control and decides whether you use something for fuel or you store something as fat. And so throwing off that hormone will actually result in you eating the exact same calories, but storing more fat because your body feels like, again, I need to store anything that I can because there's a big fat bear that at any given point is going to start chasing me. So that's the first thing that happens, right? And then the second part is that,

that anything that actually helps you burn fat. So that's going to be your growth hormone. That's going to be your testosterone. And that's also going to be your thyroid. It's also going to be thrown off. And so then what happens is that if you're not sleeping properly, of course, because we talked about this with Dr. Beverly and Elena as well,

but your growth hormone will peak in your like slow way, that deep sleep that we so often crave that we never get enough of. And your testosterone will, actually peak in that like rapid eye movement sleep that also gets compromised when you're really stressed out and you're not sleeping for long enough, right? And so then what that results in is that your hormones end up not really peaking when they're supposed to because they don't have the time to. And so you actually start off your day, not just storing more fat because of insulin,

but not being able to actually burn the fat that you have because you haven't released these hormones the way that you were supposed to. Now, thyroid is really interesting because thyroid, everybody always thinks that is the thyroid. It can be for sure. But it's not really that your thyroid is the issue, is that you not sleeping properly impacts the way that your thyroid almost like activates receptors. And so your blood work can look completely fine. But your thyroid is actually not working properly because it's not almost like getting

activated at the receptor sites. And so you literally are getting hit by. I'm storing everything and then I'm not burning anything at the other end. Plus, I'm like getting hungry and then I'm not giving it into those cues. And then that increases my cortisol, which is another hormone because it's a stress hormone. And then your body's like, oh, my God, there's there's starvation in the land and this woman is choosing not to eat. I'm just going to lock up this even more. that's why high stress lack of sleep long periods of time without eating is like a recipe for weight gain

especially for women how much less can you eat how much more can you work out and it's not budging and this is why like HRT MRT that's great but why are they why is that so beneficial because it addresses your symptoms and helps you sleep right this is why this conversation you got to pay attention to sleep. You want to lose your weight. You got to, not more sleep, just better quality sleep, which is really, you're already doing a lot of the things. We just want to really lock it down. We want to, like, drill at home. We really want you to understand how important it is. Yeah. And, you know, even down to the fact that if you're doing all of the things and things are not working, this is the thing that, you know, you're really working on that you try to, like, focus on,

you're just going to be a lot more effective at all of the things that you're trying, right? Because you're like, this is actually why I always talk about sleep as a foundation that helps all of the other health boats float. Even, you know, and I, um, for me, this was like a really hard thing to understand because for sure I have always love cardio and cardio is a great thing for sure, but I always, for a really long time, I was a runner and then I was a cyclist. and I was 100% under fueling. Like now that I know better, I'm like, oh, yeah.

Like maybe subconsciously I was under fueling. But what will happen when your body's under stress because your cortisol is really high, because you're starving in, because you're not sleeping properly because, you know, I was going through med school. It's also that you'll actually give up your muscle mass. Yeah. Right? Instead of your fat when you're trying to exercise and when you're trying to diet.

And so then what started happening to me, personally, it happens to a lot of athletes when they're not taking care of. of themselves the way that I wasn't taking care of myself, I started getting injured. And like, I would do all of these, like, training camps and like, like, run in my cycle and all these. And I was like, I don't know, well, I'm not getting stronger. I feel like I'm getting weaker. And I just felt like, maybe I'm just like meant to be a ballerina. Like, I don't know, maybe I'm not supposed to do this. Like, girl, it's just because I wasn't sleeping and I wasn't feeding myself properly. And so I couldn't actually grow the muscles that I was working so hard to do because I just wasn't

doing the very simple thing that my body was just trying. trying to like rebalance with, right? And that happens to all of us. And so this is why it's just about the simple strategies, you guys. It's not, it's not complicated. Well, this what just exactly what Dr. Link has said, those simple strategies, you definitely want to go back and rewind and just like sit back, grab a tea, coffee and let it soak in. But a couple comments here like Ashley. So basically I'm fucked then, right? Or Sandy. So when I'm postmenopause, I'm postmenopause. So testosterone is very low. I'm on thyroid meds for underactive thyroid. Is that delaying my weight loss? This conversation is about understanding, like, what, it's not your high stress. It's your inability to

calm down from your stress. That's one of the things we talked about. And people are like, I'm doing everything. Did you, have you taken any time today to do some deep breathing exercises? Yeah, probably haven't, right? Like, there's always something you can do. Same thing with stress. Oh, I'm a ship worker. I'm a new mom, whatever. Listen, you, you're preaching to the choir here because I thought I was doing everything. I was probably doing in my mind a lot of things. I wasn't really. I really needed to take my sleep very seriously. And there is so much you can do. If you are dealing with things like you're in any stage of menopause, you think, well, this fuck, it's not going to work. It's about understanding that this is probably, this is probably

why your body is not responding on demand the way maybe that it did when you were 20, right? Or if there's, if you are doing everything for your stress and your sleep or whatever, then this is where you've got to be kind and patient with yourself. It's not, it's not like it's not worth doing the things. The things are going to get you there. It just, you might understand, maybe it is happening a little slower if you can't get the sleep that you need or your stress is crazy, right? Like, put this in perspective for us. I'm just like, well, fuck, there we go. I'm going to be fat forever. And I'm never going to be able to lose this weight because that's a real feeling like fuck yeah i you know what and i i feel that so much because often when patients come into my office that's exactly how they feel and they're

like you know it's just like it's even worth trying and i'm like okay first of all you wouldn't just like choose to be healthy and work on your lifestyle if it only resulted in weight loss right because it's like that's that's how you think that it's like i'm only going to feed myself properly and sleep better if it's going to result in weight loss like this is like a way bigger issue that we like we need to us like you deserve to be healthy your body only functions when you're healthy you're deserved to have energy right you deserve to be happy and so i i think that we only think about healthy when we're sick we i don't think people really give the emphasis they don't try as hard to be healthy as they try to lose weight i don't think yeah and i think that you know i heard this quote when i was in kin

actually university and one of my profs always said wellness is a state of action it doesn't just happen to you, right? Like, you have to work to be healthy because of the environment that we live in. Like, maybe when we were like, homo sapiens and we're just like, oh, my God, there's a threat. We run away from the threat. We make it to safety. We go back to chilling with your girlfriends. Like, that sounds lovely. But in like, 2026, that girl, that ain't going to happen. Like, you have to work at this. And so I think that this, the also mindset, which I know Dr. Paul talks about this a lot, but this mindset of like, oh, I'm just, you know, like nothing can be fixed. I'm just going to give into it.

This catastrophic mentality also is almost taking your power away from all of the things that you can actively do. Listen, I, if you only can get six hours of sleep because that's your lifestyle, no problem. Make it the best freaking six hours that you can get by actually choosing to improve your sleep hygiene and not do scroll and not like see, like watch the news and whatever our neighbors are doing. in the States and like what's happening with you know the Trump's America like it maybe like you know move your body a little bit more because you know that's going to help you sleep if this has been going on for a really really long time maybe don't just keep on going to the health food store trying a new supplement like maybe do cognitive behavioral therapy insomnia which is a program actually that dr beverly runs frequently which is actually the gold standard for insomnia right

or maybe just like really take a hard look to be like what is actually impacting my sleep? Is it stress? So in order to fix my stress, I need to maybe start doing that like micro-breathing or I need to be outsourcing some of the things that may be really stressed out. I need to be maybe not exercising for four hours a day because I take exercise as punishment rather than as like, this is something that I enjoy doing. Like there's so much cognitive reframing that can happen that can feel empowering in this conversation. And it's not, you know, and it's so hard as a clinician because you just, I just want to give everybody a hug and be like, girl, we're going to do this. And it's like, we can do this together. I just need you to like trust your body and trust the process

and take this as a signal that there's a fire somewhere and let's put the fire together. Yeah. Yeah. Let's be curious to me like what, okay, what is going on? Someone mentioned restless legs, which, you know, that is just like, it's so mad. It can affect sleep or your body temperature all over the place, right? This is where you might want to, you know, and go see someone and seek some help if that's an option for you and be like, okay, this, I've been dealing with restless legs. What can I do for that? That's going to be a game change.

Or someone's like, take your magnesium, like maybe move your body. Like, I don't know the answers to that. But you got to be investigative and intentional about what's going on in your body. And aware so that you're not like, what's wrong with me? Why isn't the scale moving? And your body's like, are you fucking shitting me right now? What's wrong with you? You know what I mean? I got, you got an hour. I can list off all the things, you know? Okay. So what, you know, for the sake of time here, I see we have about four, four or five minutes left. Where do you want to go with this conversation? I mean, we could talk, I know you, I know you could talk hormones for days. And we are going to have a more in-depth conversation about hormones and we know specifically, but just in and around sleep. Or what do you want women to know? Like, they're coming to see. you, they're trying to lose weight, they're trying to be healthier. Like, what do you want them to know since this is our kind of our first one-on-one and opportunity to talk to you? Yeah, I think, I mean, I always begin with the, we are a system that's connected, right?

We are a bunch of like connections of connections. And so all of these things are going to be connected and feed into each other. And again, like I said, at the beginning, like I said, at the beginning, your hormones will always adapt to whatever environment you put them in. However, your body's reaction to anything you put it in is going to be, how do I survive this, right? It's not like, how do I make you happy and make you feel a balance? And it can do that if you just give you the tools because that's what it wants to do,

but it's hardwired for something else. And so I think that, you know, doing, like breaking it down to, sometimes, which I know sounds so cliche, but sometimes doing less rather than trying to do more. That's my model for 2026. Oh, I didn't know that. Yes. My whole thing for 2026 is I'm going to do less, which interestingly enough has actually led to like more productivity, but for things that are bringing me joy. This concept of do less is just kind of lifted.

And I'm just like, what is really important? What isn't? What is just noise or chasing or at first when I heard do less, I was like, fuck off. What the fucking do less. Are you fucking shitting me right now? Okay, well, if I do less, like if everyone does less, then that means like I'm doing more.

If my kids do less, my husband does less, I'm doing more. You try doing less. But strangely enough, the doing less has been like, I don't know. like a game changer. It's a little bit freying, no? It is. Yeah. What is it by do less? Yeah. I mean, when it comes to this health conversation, it's the, you probably don't need to take the 25 supplements that you're taking. You probably need to focus on your sleep hygiene, your movement, your deep breathing, fueling yourself properly, and undoing and undoing and learning all the shit that you thought that you knew about your body and weight loss and health over the last 52 years, right?

because the messaging that we've given people has been so mixed and so wrong. And honestly, that doesn't come from, you know, a supplement that you saw on social media. That comes from taking care of your body in a very basic basic way. And I think that this is why I always talk about this program as a lifestyle program. This isn't like a 91-D-Fix. Like we don't, you know, we don't talk about that. It's like, you do it for 99-year-fix and then bye. this is a this is a rich style this is exactly this is like and this is this is meant to

to help you fix all of the things that are broken so that we can put you back together and so if you are not losing weight to me that's a piece of the puzzle that's not the puzzle the puzzle like that's not yeah that's like a piece of the puzzle like oh this is like a signal this is not a malfunction of your body this is like a smoke alarm that's going off I'm not just going to be like oh it's going to turn off that smoke alarm and let the whole the house be on fire. No, I'm going to look for the fire because I really love this house. And honestly, this is the only house I got. Yeah. And so if there's a smoke alarm, we look for the fire, you guys. And so I, I want you to just think of that. If my weight is not moving or if I got here with this weight

and this, you know, Canadian tiger that's on my belly that I can't lose, that's a symptom or a signal that something else is off. This, if you hear the smoke alarm, look for the fire. Like, we want to give you the information so that you know why you're, you tell me why your weight isn't moving. Like really, like, take a minute and be like, why do you think? What have you been through? What have you done? How did you get here? And you tell us, like, that's, that's where we want to get you to. And you, of course, we're just like week three of the program. If you're new to the program, you know, this is, this is what it is empowering you to be self-aware and know, right? Like, what, what, what is going on with you? This is your road.

map, you know, we are giving you the map. It's up to you to drive the roads, though. Can't do it for you. Is that our, that's our time. We got to go. I hear that. I hear that. It's like the Oscars. You know, I want to think my mom. I want to thank Gina. I want to thank God. I do want to say you're not opposed to supplements, though. No, I love, I love, I, so that probably sound like that. No, absolutely not. I love supplements. Supplements are supposed to be adjuncts, though. Yes. You're supposed to be. like a supplement to something is not the foundation.

Foundation is lifestyle, you guys. All right. You can reach out to Dr. Alinka. Follow her on Instagram. Not that she posts anything, really, but she's still worth a follow at Dr. Doctor. To just see the repost that Gina does, 100%.

Like 2026 is going to be a little more active, I promise. Even if I did one post in 2020. You can also reach out to her at info at dr.linka. dot CA. She's going to be offering up some masterclasses and whatnot. Don't worry. She's going to be back. We're going to tell you all about that. In fact, she just did one the other day. My team was raving about it. Thanks, everyone who is joining us live listening up for the fact. And as always, Dr. Linketrejo. I adore you. I just, I cannot wait for our next conversation. I'll see you then.

Bye, everyone. Bye.