The Therapy Edit - One Thing with Gabriela Peacock on beating stress and gaining happy hormones

Episode Date: October 13, 2023

In this Friday guest episode of The Therapy Edit, Anna chats to Gabriela Peacock, Nutritional Therapist about how to beat stress and boost happy hormones through nutrition, supplements and a few other clever hacks you might not know. Perfect as we head into the darkest time of the year.Gabriela Peacock qualified as a Nutritional Therapist with BSc (Hons) in Health Science from the University of Westminster and a diploma in Naturopathic Nutrition, going on to set up her first clinic in Belgravia in 2012.Gabriela is passionate about the impact that high-quality supplements can have in every area of our lives. Sleep, immunity, fertility, energy levels, wellness and of course healthy weight loss – good nutrition is always the foundation. Wanting to help more people than she could in her clinic alone she created GP Nutrition to revolutionise and simplify the way we shop for nutrients.You can buy Gabriela's range of supplements here.You can follow Gabriela on Instagram hereYou can buy Gabriela's best selling book, Two Weeks to a Younger You here

Hello and welcome to The Therapy Edit with me, psychotherapist, mum of three and author Anna Martha. Every Friday, I invite one guest to tell me the one thing they would most like to share with mums everywhere. So join with me as we hear this dose of wisdom. I hope you enjoy it. Hi, everyone. Welcome to today's guest episode of The Therapy Edit. Today, I have a real treat for you. I'm going to speak to Gabriela Peacock all about, well, I'm not going to tell you. I'm going to let her tell you that. But Gabriella is a nutritional

therapist who set up her first clinic in Valkravia back in 2012. She is passionate about the impact that high quality supplements can have in every area of our lives. And areas of our lives that we often don't think about maybe when thinking about nutrition. So we've got sleep, immunity, fertility, energy levels, wellness and also healthy weight loss, good nutrition. Gabriela says it is always the foundation. She is passionate about wanting to help more people than she could in her clinical own. So she generated GP nutrition to revolutionise. And I love this. Simplify because sometimes it's so overwhelming, isn't it, the choice, the way that we shop for nutrients. She's got two books, two weeks to feeling great. And I love the tag on

because seriously, who has the time? Yes, please. I love that approach. And her second that was out in May 2023 is called Two Weeks to a Younger You, Secrets to Living Longer and Feeling Fantastic. And I don't know anyone who wouldn't love a little bit more of that. So, Gabriella, hi. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. Well, it's great to have you. How are you doing today? We've both been sharing drop-off story morning. A bit of a kiddie stress, but no, all good, all good. think sometimes it can just go fairly smoothly and then some days I wake up hoping it well and it's just an absolute oh you know children are unpredictable they are and I love I love predictability and really they really scupper that that little need in me so I'm trying

to be a bit more flexible and just take it as it comes but goodness me but anyway I would love Gabriela, with all the amazing knowledge that you have with all things nutrition. I would love to hear the one thing that you want to share with all the moms listening. Well, I think given we talk about children and their unpredictability, and also this time of the year, which I think it's very relevant to, you know, going back to school, going back to kind of real life, really. It's stress and also, you know, how we deal with stress and perhaps how we can make ourselves happier with a boost.

of some happy neurotransmitters. Happy neurotransmitters. Amazing. I'd love to hear a little bit more. Because I'm just even as you talk about kind of that transition out of summer, I've just started noticing the evening's getting darker already. The clocks haven't even changed yet. And it's 8 o'clock and I'm looking outside and I realized quite how much the sunshine

gave me probably some of those, yeah, some of that energy. And so I'm super keen to hear about some of the ways that we can get a bit more of that. kind of happiness, even as these nights get darker. Absolutely. And it's really important, you know, actually, for me personally, I'm kind of welcoming changes of the changes of the kind of weather a bit. But actually, you know, winter, autumn and winter is quite long. And it's really, very important at some point, you know,

as you're getting less sunshine, as you're getting less daylight, to kind of focus on yourself and make sure you don't get, well, you don't get overstressed, but also look after your body. So it's able to produce all these amazing, happy neurotransmit. So for those kind of shouting back at their, you know, iPhones or their airports or whatever they're listening on going, yeah, I want less stress, but life feels like it's, you know, it's stepping up a notch. I saw, what did I see about Christmas the other day? Oh, it was I drove past a venue and they were advertising their kind of their Christmas dinners and stuff. And I was like,

oh my gosh, it's only just my birthday in September. So I think, you know, there's something about autumn, isn't there, that starts kind of revving up towards Christmas. So for those being like, but Gabriela, things are stepping up a notch as well and the emails are coming in thick and fast, how can I find less stress as life picks up? Yes, that's a very, very good question. And one thing I need to say is stress is very real. A lot of my clients, a lot of my patients, they think, you know, they come to my, they come to my practice and feel, you know, it's just a feeling of being slightly overwhelmed or mindly anxious or it could even be kind of happy anxiety, you know, those butterflies in your tummy. This is actually a stress. There is a real chemical reaction happening

within your body. You know, the way we have been designed, a stress response is incredibly important. You know, you have that, what is it, fight or flight or flight or fight, which is absolutely essential for our survival. But the problem is when the stress becomes chronic, and we have this constant amount of chronic stress, which means your body will be pumping out all these stress hormones, you know, mainly cortisol. And we know that over the period of time of chronic stress, even if it's mild chronic stress, you will become nutrient depleted, you will become, you know, people start gaining weight as well, your energy levels were below, you won't sleep. I mean, it affects every part of your body, not just your emotional

and mental health, which, you know, we were going to talk about as well. So I think it's a first and foremost, we need to recognize that stress is real. Now, obviously, you have a tools, you know, it's very nice to say for me to, you know, de-stress and relax a bit more. You know, we know the obvious de-stressing, you know, more of an exercise, you know, exercise regularly, do some breathing exercises, do yoga, but really needs to kind of recognize the fact that the stress is there. So the way we deal with stress, okay, what could we do?

There's a breathing exercise, which I actually really, really like, which I use in a kind of periods of acute stress. You know, when you feel like you're a little bit freaking out, which is, what is it, it's 4, 7, 7, 8. So you inhale for 4, hold your breath for 7, breathe out for 8. I have to say, it really, really works. It overrides your nervous system, and it's just fantastic. So you do throughout of those, and you really calm yourself down. What else can we do with stress? we can definitely look at supplements.

You know, we have some nutrients such as adaptogens, which are, you know, they are the medicine and mushrooms such as Reiti, Reishi, Shitake, Maitake, cordyceps as well, Lions Main. And then we have herbs such as Ashvaganda, Rodiola. Again, they really make us resilient. So that's kind of a nice way of looking at reducing stress levels and actually really easy tool, which a lot of people underestimate the importance of it's balancing blood sugar levels.

You know, the way you be eating for the day will massively, massively influence how you feel for the day. So really making sure we have a nice and balanced meal. Meals, so you would have always carbohydrates, which is quite easy one, but always, always include protein as a part of kind of your meal composition. Really important because if you combine them together, your body will release the glucose, release the sugars,

really, really slowly so you're not going to experience spike, which means you're never going to experience dip, which again, it's very, very important for how we feel for your mental help as well. You feel awful when you have low levels of energy, right? Also, make sure you're eating regularly as well. Don't go through a period of extreme hunger. You should eat when you package. So when you eat, just eat regularly and really push a protein in every single of your meal, including a snack, which is important. And that's where people, but that's what most of my patients go wrong. They don't have a protein with snack mid-afternoon and then they get exhausted and then I have a huge dinner. So really kind of focus on how you're eating as well and

be gentle to your body with regards to kind of releasing that sugar and that energy into your bloodstream. So what could be a good example then for someone who's thinking, right, so I need some carb, I need some protein. What does that look like on my plate? What can I make sure I've got in my fridge? Okay. So if you have a breakfast, always make sure, basically a toast with myamite will not will not cut it. So you need always a protein. So think about if you're having a piece of bread, obviously as high fiber as possible. Being nutrition is really important because the fiber will further slow down the release of the sugars. So if you have high fiber, carbohydrate and protein, that's perfect match. So very good quality bread and think about X. X are incredible

for balancing your energy levels, but also balancing your blood sugar levels, but also for your energy levels as well, because they have B vitamins. Think about your live yogurts, great source of protein, you know, even piece of cheese, even some kind of cold meats, you know, leftovers you have home from the fridge. It doesn't have to be difficult. Porridge, always make sure you make your porridge with some type of milk. You don't have to have a dairy milk. You can have a nut milk. But again, really important to add some protein.

Could even use some kind of protein powders if you wish as a drink if you're on a run, which I found it's very convenient for someone like me who runs around different schools in the morning. So good quality of vegan protein powder and nut milk, it's a really nice option. Then for lunch, I find that my patients, my clients, you know, we are quite good with lunches. We know that salad and some protein, it's quite good for it. us. So, you know, lunch is quite difficult to pick anywhere or make sure you have a salad with a good portion of protein, you know, some meat. You can have eggs. Again, you can have a piece of fish, you know, tuna nisois, things like that. Really, really easy. But what people tend to go

wrong with is that mid-afternoon. So, you know, you have your healthy lunch and you're at 3, 4 o'clock. You feel like your energy levels are lower, lower and then you go and you have three biscuits with no protein or you have a piece of cake because you're so hungry and coffee obviously because your body just need some energy. So what I always, always recommend before you get really hungry, when you have that kind of peckish feeling, force yourself and eat some protein because even though you will have something sweet maybe afterwards, you will have a bum biscuit, you're not going to have five or six.

So the protein will fill you up. So again, in the afternoon you can have, you know, nuts and seeds, fantastic. These days, as an age, you have all these amazing. nut bars or seeds or a handful of seeds, all the kind of different mixture, you can have all these seeds and nuts flavored as well. So, you know, some spicy seeds. And, you know, it can be quite interesting. You don't have to eat dry almonds, basically, basically all afternoon. You could also have, again, like some crackers and some hummus, crudity is really nice. You know, anything what contains protein. And that would mean that in the evening, you will then have light

dinner, which is what you're supposed to have. Because if you don't have a good quality snack, you're going to have a massive dinner, you're going to overeat and go to sleep with all these calories and gain wage. Yeah, because I tend to... I can end up eating quite late into the evening, especially because sometimes I don't want to eat with the kids and it's just total chaos and I'd rather eat later. But then by the time we've got the kids down, we're looking at kind of quarter to nine sometimes even and then having a big meal then and heading off to bed.

And you feel like you're only just kind of starting to digest. I guess it. I guess it's extra for your body to do, isn't it? Hard to always recommend for mums, because I do eat kids food as well. So I would, but don't think about it as food. I kind of cook for kids and then I pick on, you know, half of chicken schnitzel or something. But that's absolutely fine because think about it as your afternoon snack or late afternoon snack. I see a routine. But then what it means, and I love to sit down with my husband when all the kids, you know, go upstairs and at 8 o'clock and have a dinner as well. But by that point, you already had your sausage or your chicken schnezzer or some kind of protein. And if you're going to order takeaway, which, you know, I love all the kind of Asiany foods,

you're not going to have white rice with it. You're not going to have unhealthy huge amounts. You're perhaps going to have something much healthier because you don't feel starving. So can you see, you're kind of balancing your meal sizes. Absolutely, it's time to eat late afternoon, but then you will have a lighter dinner in the end. Yeah, so kind of pacing yourself a little bit more. No, I like that, kind of just giving yourself a mission to kind of add a little bit of extra something to the kids, to what you're cooking for the kids and seeing that as your, as your

afternoon snack and that might be a little bit more, it might keep you going a little bit more than just binging on some biscuits behind the fridge door. Definitely. I'm a big fan of snacking. I know snacks, snacking has such a bad, such a bad reputation, but snacks can be super, super healthy. By what I mean by snacking, it's kind of eating regularly, as I said, you're not supposed to be starving because by then you will eat everything. You know, if you're really hungry, you're going to order amazing takeaway with a massive pot of white rice and you're not going to think about maybe having a soup and brown rice or, you know, it's all about where your blood sugar levels are within your body and how

kind of far you can, you pushed it, I guess. Yeah, well, thank you. That's given us a lot to think about. So I would love to focus specifically on these happy hormones because as the days get shorter and as the Christmas chaos picks up, I'd love to know how I can get myself a little more of these happy hormones, these neurotransmitters you were talking about. So there are several of them. There actually are many, many, many, but I guess most famous one, once you would hear about is serotonin. Yeah. Probably endorphins as well. Because obviously that gets released. We you know, when you exercise, endorphins specifically, but serotonin I absolutely love. Serotonin is really, very interesting.

It's basically neurotransmitter, it's just kind of really fancy way of calling, they're called brain chemicals and neurotransmitters generally induce the feelings of happiness and kind of optimism and, you know, all kind of content. So they've really, really reduced anxiety, but they also increase the feelings of happiness. So essentially, you want as many neurotransmitters within your brain. body as possible. What can happen when your, you know, your neurotransmitters, as everything within the body, they can get disturbed by bad diet, massively disturbed by stress. Can you see? That's why I was leading with stress, because if you stress, everything within the body will get,

will get really, very disturbed. So it's really, really important to make sure you have a good substrate, you know, from your diet coming into your body, so your body can actually produce these guys. So you need a good amount of protein, again. I'm going back to my protein. Yeah. Protein is really important. And don't think, by the way, when I say protein, I'm asking you to eat a lot of red meat.

I don't. There are a lot of different types of proteins. You have obviously your vegetarian sources of proteins as well. So again, nuts seeds, soy, tofu, what else? Oh, pulses and beans, obviously. So all your lentils or your chickpeas or your humus is. Amazing and great source of proteins as well. Proteins are building blocks of almost everything within a body.

So really important to give those building blocks to your system. So, yes, so that's serotonin. And serotonin is quite interesting because it gets made from a protein from amino acid called tryptophan. And triptophan is actually found in mainly in animal foods, actually, but mainly in dairy, specifically in dairy. so it's really, really nice to boost your body, you know, boost your levels of serotonin with something like, you know, you can have like slices of chicken, slices of turkey.

Cottage cheese have really, very, very high levels of triptophan. Oh, I haven't bought that in ages. I'm going to add that to my shop. Yeah, thank you. It's really, very good. And obviously, live you're good because it's there. We would have really nice sources of tryptophan. And what also triptophan does, which I think it's really interesting, it also induces a feeling of

relaxation and sleepiness as well. So going to bed, and especially if you, you know, if you have quite active mind and if you, you know, yeah, if you can't go to sleep and if you have problems with sleeping, it's really, really nice. Having a bit of a dairy before you go to bed's time. So a few spoons full of cottage cheese or little yogurt. You know, that's why our moms or grandmothers recommend milk before you go to bed. It's true. I didn't know that. It's connecting the door. It's brilliant. It is. It is. So, yeah, so, so, so, definitely food high and tryptophan day would help you can also take serotonin supplement which i found very helpful i think if you have enough sunshine you don't really need

serotonin supplement but obviously with a season effective disorder you know when again when it's just too dark and your body your body struggles a little bit serotonin supplements are very very nice and are quite gentle you will have to take them in a form of five htp because that's a precursor of serotonin. You cannot supplement serotonin. So 5HTP, it's fantastic. You can take between 30 to 50 milligrams per day. And I would not take it longer than three to four months. Again, just really choose your time of the year when you need it and then you give your body a bit of a break. You don't want your body to get used to it, to get used to it, which it wouldn't if you don't, you know, if you don't continue all year long. Then also when we're thinking about brain

function and those neurotransmitters, don't underestimate, people can tend to forget about good fats. And actually, you know, around 60% of your brain, it's made of fatty acids, incredibly important for, I mean, for everything, for mood, for inflammation, you know, we know that inflammation is the best, biggest no-no with regards to health. So omega-3s are really strongly anti-inflammatory. They're really responsible for your hormonal balance as well. also very relevant for women, all ages, really.

So really, really important to really push them up in your diet. So they are called essential fatty acids, all the omega-3, six and nine, essentially because your body cannot produce them itself. You need to get them into your body by diet. So what would you have to eat? So specifically for omega-3, which is the one most of the patients, most of the people are deficient because we just don't eat enough fish. So Omega 3, really, really important.

So at least three to four portions of oily fish per week. And when I'm talking about portion, you know, I'm not thinking kind of two slices of sash or, you know, two slices of sushi with a lot, a lot of rice. I'm talking about palm of your hand. Wow, I don't get this quota at all. Really important. If you're not getting enough fish, again, let's go back to other seats and nuts because they're really, really high in Omega 3, 2, specifically oily.

seeds such as hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds, flak seeds as well, really nice source of omega-3. So, you know, those in combination, fantastic. What I do find, however, that most of my clients are deficient in omega-3. So you do need to, you know, you do need to supplement a bit, especially if you feel like your body needs a bit of a boost. I actually prescribe omega-3 to 90% of my patients. I really. I do a lot of better.

Also, it's just confirmed that basically we are all deficient, so we all need to take. We all need to take them and they create such a difference onto your general well-being. As I said before, really important anti-inflammatory, hormone imbalance, brain massively. Skin and hair, really important. I mean, the reason why people have a glowing skin is basically omega-3 and you don't have a glowing skin if you're deficient. So really important, a good quality supplement as well. Amazing.

Well, thank you. so many, so many ideas and ways. I'm definitely going to be adding some oily fish to my, because I don't get, I can't even think the last time I ate oily fish, but I do take omega three supplements. So, you know, I think it's good to, it's probably good to add some extra bits into your diet, isn't it? In the end of the day, and I need to kind of point out, you know, you do need to be realistic. I'm now talking about a lot of food with you. And actually, my ethos is very much, it just needs to work for you. It really needs to work for you.

So if you're busy, if you don't have time to eat, you know, all your fish or your fish per week. If you don't have time to eat, you know, what I've mentioned, what adaptogens and cottage cheeses or anything, it's fine, just take supplements. And this is, you know, this is why I love supplements because to me I have a biochemical degree, that quick alteration of your body biochemistry.

So yes, obviously, focus on food. But we need to live, you know, we live in the reality. We live in the real world. And if you feel like you need extra boost, oh my gosh, I love supplements. They change your biochemistry so quickly. And, you know, whilst you're improving your food as well, then it's absolutely fine to take, you know, adaptogen supplements is one of mine in my line as well. I have omega-3 as well.

It's really important to give people a break and, you know, make sure you're giving them realistic plans. So do your best, but don't worry if you don't because if you feel guilty, you're increasing your stress levels and you're making yourself feel like I with a girl and just find simple and I think this is this is kind of woven throughout all of your approach really isn't it it's about finding those really implementable ways and just taking the pressure off and I you know I go back to that the subtitle of your first book which is you know two weeks are feeling great because seriously who has the time and it's just these little changes and just also just the awareness and the

knowledge that encourages us to make different decisions when we do have those opportunities so I encourage everyone to go and find you on Instagram, Gabriela Peacock, and follow along and just start learning and getting a bit more insight and exploring your books and your range of supplements. But I have a couple of quick fire questions to finish off. Gabriela, what is a motherhood high for you, something you love at the moment? Cuddles. Oh, yes. Please.

And my children are growing, well, they're not growing up. but the boy just stopped cuddling me outside his school last year. Oh, no, and they start becoming aware. He doesn't want to meet in front of his friends. My oldest is his eight, nearly nine, and I can feel his hand loosening on mine outside school, like that, that kind of like I'm holding your hand because I want to hold your hand, but at the same time I kind of don't.

Also, I don't want to hurt your feelings. So I'm kind of, I'm hoping that you don't notice that I'm loosening. I know. So I'll take all the cuddles. I'm with you. They make me happy. And besides all things food and nutrition related, what's one thing that makes you feel good? Ooh, good happy or good? Any kind of good. Any kind of good. Oh, gosh, there will be probably combination of things. I love my friends. I love, I love lovely Saturday lunch with my friends and our kids running around in a garden, in the countryside. eating really, really good food, and maybe having a glass of light red wine. Ooh, lovely. What a combo. Thank you for the insight that you've given us in how to just support ourselves and to be the kind of the happiest, healthiest versions of ourselves that we

do. And do remember that all the little steps you will do towards your wellbeing when put together will create a huge difference. So every little step counts. I'm all about those little things, the little implementable thing. So thank you so much, Gabriela. Thank you so much. Lovely talking to it. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of The Therapy Edit. If you have enjoyed it, don't forget to subscribe and review for me. Also, if you need any resources at all, I have lots of videos and courses on everything from health anxiety to driving anxiety and people pleasing nail all on my website at anamatha.com. And also, don't forget my brand new

book Raising a Happier Mother is out now for you to enjoy and benefit from. It's all about how to find balance, feel good and see your children flourish as a result. Speak to you soon.