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For today’s solo episode, I’m really excited to dive into the topic of circadian alignment using food, fasting, sleep, and light. As a backstory, I accidentally caused quite a stir on social media recently with a post that said, “Underrated health tip: stop eating when the sun goes down and watch your sleep transform.” And in that short post, I didn’t list all the exceptions to that. I also didn’t share my experience or what the research says about the benefits of circadian alignment. So I wanted to dive into that here because, apparently, it struck a nerve, and I wanted to provide more context for that statement.
I share my story about how I’ve found success with circadian alignment in case it’s helpful for anyone else. It was one of the tools on my journey of health and wellness that helped me develop a much healthier relationship with food. I learned about circadian fasting from Dr. Amy Shah, who I’ve had on this podcast before. She talks about this a lot, especially for women, and how it’s potentially the most beneficial form of fasting that women especially can do. In this episode, I share some of the research about it and how you can experiment with it to see if it’s a good fit for you.
I hope you enjoy learning more about circadian fasting and using the sun to help your sleep, hormones, mood, and more!
Child: Welcome to my Mommy’s podcast.
This episode is sponsored by Manukora Honey, and I don’t use a lot or pretty much any sweeteners in my house or in my life with the exception of honey. And so I have become quite the honey aficionado over the years, and I absolutely love this one in particular. This honey, this Manukora Honey is rich and creamy. It’s got a complexity of flavor that not a lot of other honeys have, and it has some extra health benefits. So aside from the honey I harvest from my parents’ backyard right by my house, this is the other only honey that I love to eat because of its taste and also the benefits that it has.
Now, I love honey actually in the morning first thing for a burst of energy after I get some protein or right before bed with a sprinkle of salt. This is a quick tip. It really helps my sleep. Of course, it’s also delicious to add to any beverage or food. And I find that the clean energy of honey is my favorite sweetener by far. But here’s what makes Manukora Honey different. It’s ethically produced by Master Beekeepers in the remote forest of New Zealand. And it’s a particular type of honey that contains powerful nutrients that specifically support immunity and gut health. The bees here collect their nectar from the Manuka tree in New Zealand. So the nectar is packed with bioactives and the honey that is produced has three times more antioxidants and prebiotics than the average honey. It also has a special antibacterial compound called MGO and it comes from the nectar of this tea tree as well. Manukora third-party tests every single harvest to make sure it contains MGO and makes these results available through their QR system so that you can see them as well.
So I love this, honey. It’s a game changer. And all you really need is a heaping teaspoon each morning to get the most out of the benefits. I especially love this just as an all-around support and immune support in the winter. So basically it’s honey with superpowers and incredible flavor, and you can try it easily, easier than ever. Head to manukora.com/wellnessmama to save 25% off their starter kit, which comes with an MGO 850 plus Manuka honey jar, five honey travel sticks, a wooden spoon, and a guidebook. That’s manukora.com/wellnessmama to save $25 on your starter kit.
This podcast is brought to you by NativePath. And I love this company. I actually get a lot of things from them, but today I wanna specifically talk about their collagen. You might know that collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies. And it’s essential for the health of our bones, our skin, our hair, our nails, joints, digestion, and more. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the benefits of collagen, which I’m so happy to see, but specifically the benefits of collagen are that they support the growth and repair of cartilage tissue. Collagen can help relieve joint inflammation and pain, can lead to more youthful looking skin, healthier nails, and noticeably thicker hair. I’ve noticed that myself. It can lead to improved gut health and decreased digestive discomfort, as well as easier weight loss and more appetite control. I love NativePath because their collagen has 10 grams of collagen per scoop, and it’s easy to add to almost anything. My go-to daily habit is to add this to coffee or tea in the morning or a smoothie if I make one.
But another thing that is important to note here is that they use type 1 and type 3 collagen. So there are actually 28 different types of collagen, but you only will find type 1 and type 3 in NativePath. And this is because these two types make up over 90% of the collagen found in our bodies. So it’s crucial to maintain levels of those two in particular. I also love that theirs is certified grass-fed to make sure that it’s from happy, healthy pasture-raised cows. And when you consume grass-fed beef as opposed to grain-fed beef, you’re getting the best nutritional profile that is also free of growth hormones. And so I love that their collagen is a single ingredient from grass-fed cows, flawless sourcing, and is also flavorless, odorless, and tasteless, so it mixes into anything. NativePath is offering a BOGO of free collagen jars on every option, plus a free gift and free shipping to our listeners. Check them out at wellnessmama.com/go/nativepath/ and try out their collagen.
Katie: ?Hello and welcome to the Wellness Mama podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com and this solo episode is going to go into the topic of circadian alignment using food, fasting, and sleep as well as light which is a massive cue. So kind of circadian fasting, living, and eating and why for me this has been so important.
So, as backstory for this podcast, I accidentally caused quite a stir on social media recently with a post that simply said, “underrated health tip: stop eating when the sun goes down and watch your sleep transform.” And in that short post, of course, I did not detail all of the kind of exceptions to that, the caveats, the like fine print essentially. And so I wanted to dive into that here because apparently it struck a nerve. I did in that post online get accused of having an eating disorder, being a bad mom, and a few other colorful things.
And the reason I wanted to do a deep dive episode on this is actually to provide more context for that statement to begin with and kind of illustrate, of course, that there are exceptions at times but also because this has been part of me developing actually a much healthier relationship with food.
And I don’t like when the eating disorder term is like tossed around as an insult. I think that is a disservice to people who are actually going through that, as well as I just think it gets used too callously and too casually in today’s world. I do think that’s something that is, can be very, very serious. And I’ve had close friends go through very difficult journeys with eating disorders. So I don’t like that word being thrown around casually.
And like I said, for me, this was actually part of my journey to a much healthier relationship with food. I’ve shared before how I now eat essentially double what I used to eat in the past when I was vastly under eating for a lot of years, and this has been a long journey for me.
So before we jump into too much of the caveat and detail, I feel like it’s helpful to at least just kind of define what we’re starting with about what is circadian alignment or circadian eating, also called circadian fasting. There’s a lot of terms for this and I feel like a really good voice on this topic if you’re interested is Dr. Amy Shah and I will link to a podcast with her in the show notes. She also has an amazing platform. I believe on Instagram she’s Fasting MD. She posts a lot of great information.
And she explains, I’m going to read it so I don’t mess this up, “Circadian rhythm fasting is a time restricted eating plan that aligns all food consumption with our internal body clocks. A circadian diet involves eating during daylight hours when our digestive system and metabolism are the most active. Eating stops after 7 p.m. because these internal processes slow down and become more dormant. A typical day involves eating large meals earlier in the day and consuming a small meal in the evening in order to avoid blood sugar spikes and weight gain. There should be no further eating until breakfast the next morning. Circadian rhythm fasting can do things like speed your metabolism, help you sleep better, improve your metabolic health and immunity, and reduce the risk of diabetes. It’s easy to practice because there are no strict changes. This system follows your natural bodily processes.” So again, that’s Dr. Amy Shah.
And I will say I got this part wrong for a lot of years and I’m still on the journey of really dialing this in for myself. But after a lot of experimentation, I’ve settled in to something that seems to be working for me. Before I detail what that is, I, of course, want to say also, this is just for information, inspiration, and it’s my opinion. This is never for comparison and nor is it an exact blueprint that can or will be applied to anybody else to have the same results. We are all very individual. I am strictly sharing what worked for me as inspiration for a framework in your own experimentation to figure out what works for you.
One thing I want to call out again before we jump in is the few commenters on this post that mentioned that stopping eating at dark sounded like an eating disorder. And I wanted to speak to this for a moment again, because I think we throw that term around too lightly. And also because this is how humans have likely eaten for a lot of history, and I think we over kind of overused that term. I can understand this reaction, and I would certainly never belittle how difficult eating disorders can be. But I do see this growing trend of labeling any kind of alternative eating at all, or even people following just a more real food diet, or anyone who restricts any food group even from an allergy of labeling that as an eating disorder. And I don’t deny that we are seeing things like orthorexia happening. However, I don’t think that it’s helpful or productive to the conversation to label anything outside of the standard American diet as an eating disorder.
I will say, I used to skip breakfast and not eat until lunch at least as a form of intermittent fasting and with circadian eating, I have now, I just essentially flipped that where I eat more earlier in the day, especially protein and more throughout the day and then I just eat dinner earlier.
So, for me personally, I’m actually eating about double the calories I used to eating for more hours during the day than I used to when I was skipping breakfast and not eating until one or two. And I think as a large generalization, we would just have much more constructive conversations online and in real life if we approached other people’s opinions and choices with curiosity rather than judgment and maybe visited with their reality before assuming ours was correct. I’m still working on this too. That’s just the tone I would like to begin this conversation with.
So back to circadian alignment slash eating slash fasting. What is it? Why try it? And why was it so controversial? Well, for one, I get it. It gets dark depending on where you are right now at 4 or 5 p.m. Or in certain parts of the world, even at 11 a.m. or 2 or 3 p.m. depending on where we are. And some places it doesn’t get dark at all in the summer, or it’s only dark in the winter. So obviously what I shared on social media was meant to be a broad generalization, not a prescriptive rule by any means, and there are obvious exceptions.
I’m obviously not saying that everyone anywhere in the world at all times should only eat when the sun is out. Obviously, there are exceptions. But that statement is just a way to simplify for the majority of people in the world that a lot of us would have better sleep if we stopped eating a few hours before bed. And, again, in a lot of parts of the world, for at least most of the year, those things tend to line up. The sun goes down a few hours before we go to bed. This also takes into account and speaks to the seasonal differences and how as human animals, we were likely meant to get more sleep in the winter. Food was likely a little bit more scarce in the winter. We likely didn’t eat as much. Or as late in the winter, we were kind of bunkered down and cozy at night when it got dark really early.
Obviously populations throughout history didn’t have daylight savings time with, which is another variable that’s changing the natural light patterns and how we relate to those. But this was just a kind of a general rough rule that I have found that helps me. And this does mean that I’m eating in a shorter window in the winter and have a little bit more leeway in the summer.
And again, it’s what works for me. I tend to personally go to bed. earlier in the winter. I know a lot of other people do as well, and I tend to stay up later in the summer when it’s daylight, so this works out pretty well for me. I don’t live in Finland, where light patterns are much more drastically different at different times of year, and I don’t live at the equator, where they’re vastly different as well.
But I do think it’s worth noting that our bodies are different in different seasons, and I tend to look at winter as a more restorative, gentle time for lots of sleep and rest and healing and not as much eating. Whereas in the summer, with the abundance of light, with, for me at least, a lot more time outside, a lot more movement, I tend to end up eating more and sleeping a little bit less. And typically also don’t notice big fluctuations in my weight. I just notice differences in my energy levels, kind of in alignment with the light.
Again, historically, food would likely have been more scarce in the winter for human populations. In the modern world, it’s kind of the first time in history that we have so much access to food, any food, all the time, year round, that simply not eating all the time sounds like an eating disorder. And so I just wanted to call that into question.
This also does point to some interesting things that I feel like are worth diving into, and for a lot of people, worth experimenting with. Again, there are always exceptions. People who are recovering from many certain conditions don’t need to eat in any kind of restricted window. Pregnant and nursing women are not advised to eat in a restricted window, obviously. If you live in somewhere that only gets two hours of sunshine per day, obviously it would not be productive to only eat in that window at all times. There are obviously exceptions.
But one thing it to me does point toward is a recurring theme on this podcast of essentially nature deficit disorder. And a lot of guests have spoken to this in a lot of different ways, of that we are suffering from our divorce from nature, that we used to be almost entirely in alignment and in harmony and immersed in the natural rhythms of the world of light and darkness, of seasonal food, and now we have the ability not to be, and we can live in an artificially lit, artificial food, artificial everything environment, and that our bodies can suffer the consequences of that.
I personally feel like we were meant to live in alignment with nature and that as many guests have spoken to, a lot can be helped. We can support our body in a pretty profound way when we move into a little bit more alignment with nature, which is why I personally have gravitated more toward this kind of circadian alignment way of eating because two big cues for circadian health and that kind of help the body feel that rhythm with nature are light and food.
And these are also two that can very easily kind of get messed up in the modern world. I feel like many of us don’t optimize these things or we just kind of miss a chance to make little shifts, little subtle shifts, in timing of food or spending a little bit more time outside that can be profoundly supportive of our bodies. I feel like understanding this can really help support our bodies and our nervous systems.
And there is some data to back this up too. Again, in these solo episodes, I’m trying to really actually, um, answer a lot of questions related to what I do and why. So a lot of it is coming from my own understanding and opinion, but there, there are a lot of data that support this kind of circadian aligned way of eating in various capacities where it’s been researched. And so I wanted to just briefly touch on those because I do think it’s relevant to this conversation.
So some of the things that the data shows might come from eating in more alignment with light cues and with kind of seasonal light is what we’re talking about in this episode, would be things like improved metabolic health, especially enhanced insulin sensitivity. And this is something that I’ve paid attention to and kind of really try to get in alignment with as I’ve kind of gone through my healing journey over the last few years. But eating during daylight hours may improve insulin sensitivity, reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes. There are studies that show that glucose levels are lower after breakfast compared to dinner, indicating better metabolic responses earlier in the day. And that’s from a study from Dr. Robert Kiltz.
And that is, I’ve noticed that in myself too when I have worn a glucose monitor. That I can handle more volume of food, more protein with much less of a blood sugar spike in the morning. And so I tend to eat my bigger meals, kind of breakfast, and then a little bit smaller at lunch, and then smallest at the end of the day and stop eating by sunset.
There’s also data looking at this for weight management, which is one of the actual original reasons I tried it and not as much of a concern for me now. But aligning eating times with circadian rhythms can aid in weight loss because we’re eating less calories, but also because of that insulin factor, it can help encourage fat burning. Research indicates that individuals who eat earlier in the day tend to consume fewer calories and have a lower body mass index. And from personal experience, I can attest to this, that when I was skipping breakfast, I often wasn’t hungry in the morning, which I found out later is actually not a sign of a healthy metabolism. It’s typically, with exceptions, a sign of a healthy metabolism if you wake up hungry. But I would often not be hungry until afternoon and then all of a sudden I would be ravenously hungry and it became much more difficult to make healthy food choices and also I felt like I was more at the mercy of cravings than being in tune with my body. So this is one shift of just kind of shifting the bulk of our calories earlier in the day that one shift alone without even changing the amount of calories we’re eating for women, especially might make a big difference.
Now as I spoke to in the post online Another benefit that is actually backed by data is enhanced sleep quality, specifically, consuming meals during daylight hours supports the body’s natural sleep wake cycle. Molly Eastman talks a lot about this and I highly recommend following her work as well with Sleep as a Skill. But potentially this leads to better sleep quality and duration. Because eating late at night can disrupt circadian rhythms, negatively affecting sleep. And that’s again also from Dr. Robert Kiltz.
And I have noticed this personally. If I eat within a few hours of bedtime, I notice that and when I, my sleep data on average, my resting heart rate is higher that I don’t get as much deep restorative sleep and then I see some kind of changes in HRV often as well.
Now this could also line up with what data shows about the potential for reduced inflammation when it comes to eating in a circadian aligned window, specifically lowered systemic inflammation. So fasting during the night and eating during the day may reduce systemic inflammation, which is linked to various chronic diseases. That’s another recurring theme in this podcast. But a study found that participants who fasted from sunset to sunrise experienced lower blood pressure and inflammation levels. I believe that study was reported in Greatest and they have links there as well.
And this overlaps with potential cardiovascular benefits as well, specific to blood pressure and cholesterol. Now, cholesterol is its own topic and I will be doing a podcast on that eventually as well, but aligning our eating patterns with light cues and circadian patterns may lead to improvements in blood pressure and cholesterol profiles, which are linked often to cardiovascular health.
As a side note, I’ve already done a podcast on salt, but that was another factor for me in having a low resting heart rate and seemingly supporting my cortisol levels was actually getting enough salt.
Perhaps the biggest anecdotal benefit that I’ve personally noticed and that that also supports is enhanced cognitive function. Aligning our eating times with nature and our circadian rhythm may have a benefit to cognitive function, potentially enhancing memory and concentration. And that came from a study from the National Sleep Foundation.
I personally have found that when I pair that with things like choline supplements and really maximizing micronutrients and protein in that first meal of the day, I feel kind of just like unstoppable mentally that day.
Now I mentioned the weight loss already, but this is actually probably where some of the strongest data is, because individuals practicing circadian rhythm fasting often consume fewer calories, which can aid in weight loss. One study in particular found that participants unintentionally ate 20 percent fewer calories when kind of following this type of eating plan, which is great because unintentionally means they weren’t having to use willpower to restrict and hopefully were having a great relationship with nourishing their body at the same time.
And then the last two, improve digestion, because eating during daylight hours aligns with the body’s natural digestive rhythms and liver rhythms, potentially improving nutrient absorption and reducing digestive discomfort, also lets us not have as much food in our stomach while we’re sleeping, which for me, I’ve noticed contributes to more deep sleep when I’m on my Oura Ring.
And then potential longevity benefits. This one needs more research for sure, but some initial studies show that any kind of fasting, but specifically circadian aligned fasting can be linked to benefits like a longer lifespan. So again, more research needed on that.
I also feel like this conversation it would be remiss if we didn’t at least touch on light. I know we’re talking about food in this episode, but personally you’ve probably heard me say this before. I think light is actually a more important signaling cue, and this is one that I’m really, really intentional about. Whether it’s morning sunlight, whether it’s avoiding artificial light also after sunset. So for me, it’s not just no food after sunset, it’s no food or junk light after sunset.
But I think light is a very, very powerful cue that we can use to our advantage when we understand it. The oversimplification of this for me personally would be to get lots of natural light during the day as much as safely possible and avoid artificial light at night. This has also been a journey for me, but one I’ve tried to really like hone in more and more. And so, this means I get morning sunlight. If weather allows, I am outside as much as I can be during the day, especially in the summer. I will often spend hours outdoors. And then after sunset, I try to have very low light in my home with reddish hues or amber bulbs, avoiding blue lights and screens and kind of just living in alignment with that light.
Some of this goes back to the camping study, which I will link to in the show notes if I can find it, but it showed that many kind of circadian disruption and hormonal issues can resolve in the span of just one week of camping outdoors with no exposure to artificial light. So the good news is that we are very sensitive to light cues and that we can adapt back relatively quickly once we sort of get this piece figured out.
I feel like often, even though there’s a lot of now information about this, it’s still easy to ignore the light piece because we don’t necessarily immediately and drastically feel the difference, however, I’ve noticed when I consistently get this piece dialed in I do notice a drastic difference. I think it really comes from a perspective of looking at nature and what nature is doing and then considering we do live indoors and in houses looking at how can we replicate that as much as possible in our indoor environment to support our body and that harmony with nature.
I will also put some links in the show notes at wellnessmama. com to ways I’m doing this in my home with lighting, with taking the Wifi down at night, some other nighttime habits and rituals that can be helpful as well. I’ll also link, I’ve done a podcast on this before, you’ve heard me talk about it probably are tired of it by now, but getting morning sunlight before food and also I love to eat breakfast outdoors when possible kind of to reinforce that light cue as well. But as much as possible, really stacking light, nutrients, micronutrients, protein, calories, all of that in the morning, which is a massive safety signal we can send to the body, that resources are abundant, light is abundant, that light exposure supports our circadian health and begins the clock for melatonin production at night, as well as supports our mitochondrial function in cells throughout the body.
And then I like to get little sunlight snacks throughout the day. So as an example, I’m recording podcasts today. I’m in my podcast studio quite a lot, but in between each episode I will go outside, even if it’s just for 10 minutes and it’s raining today, I’ll still go outside and get little snacks of natural light just by being outside. For me, it’s, I found the more sun, the better, obviously without sunburn or skin damage. And so in summer, especially I will spend as much time outside as I safely can.
Now, so we’ve talked about the light piece of this. I feel like, like I said, light is actually more important than food. But from the food perspective, food is also a massive circadian signal to our body. And so I shifted from skipping breakfast, like I talked about, which is, at least for me, a stress signal to my body. My body did not handle that very well, to eating an early dinner, not even skipping dinner, just eating an early dinner, which is time restricted eating as well, but in alignment with nature.
And this, I have found, sends a safety signal to my body as kind of reflected by higher HRV when I do this consistently, better sleep, and lowing, lower resting heart rate at night, especially when I’m getting enough minerals. I make sure that my breakfast especially hits all the targets of protein, healthy fats, micronutrients, and that I’m really focused on nourishing my body as much as possible.
From a practical perspective, if you are looking for ideas for this, I, some examples of things I eat for breakfast, a lot of them are unconventional. I will often eat a couple of cans of sardines with some eggs, or leftover meat with eggs, some soups, I love actually having soups for breakfast. Fermented foods, avocado, olive oil, cottage cheese, I take the majority of my supplements this meal as well, so my body is really getting an influx of nutrients, macronutrients, micronutrients, calories, and kind of everything in that morning meal.
I also wait, and if I am going to drink coffee, which I don’t do every day, but a lot of days I will, I do that after this breakfast meal, which I feel like also signals safety to my body. I don’t think coffee is problematic, at least for me it’s, it’s not been, but I do feel my body response better when I just simply wait on the coffee until after this morning meal.
And speaking of signaling safety, I feel like obviously everything in the body works in harmony. We’ve talked about food cues and light cues, but some other ways that we can signal safety in the body throughout the day would be also things like breathing, which is another massive cue. I would put it almost up there with light and food as well. Becoming aware of our breath. Becoming aware of like full conscious inhales and exhales, longer breaths versus short nasal breaths. There’s a lot of resources on this. I’m by no means an expert on breath work, but simply curating our breath a little bit can make a massive nervous system difference.
Another small tip I do is at night I’ll often lay with my feet straight up against a wall, at 90 degrees for about 10 minutes, which seems to help me relax and downshift into parasympathetic. And this seems to be really helpful for sleep.
Movement is secondary, but another massive cue when it comes to our circadian rhythm and to health in general. I love that we’re seeing so much talk of getting enough steps per day. I don’t think there’s anything necessarily magic about the number 10, 000. I just think humans were meant to move more, and so if 10, 000 steps a day is a great target for you, then that’s awesome. But just getting more movement in throughout the day. I think there was actually data showing that a few 10 minute walks after each meal cumulatively was more beneficial over time than one longer walk. But also whatever works for you and is sustainable is going to be the best one for you. So I feel like this is very much a personal experimentation area.
And then, for me also, part of signaling safety is eating as nourishing of meals as possible and avoiding nutrient devoid snacks. So, most days I eat three high protein meals spaced about four to five hours apart really focusing on upping the nutrients of those meals as much as possible. This has been a big switch for me because I used to try to limit calories in an attempt to lose weight.
And the irony is I actually find that my body is equalizing to a healthy weight much more easily when I focus on the nourishment aspect of food rather than the restriction. And when I look at how micronutrients, protein, healthy fats in any given meal that I’m eating, and I feel like this is actually really important as well, and most joy and pleasure and enjoyment while eating that meal. And I’ve learned through time and listening to my body to really, really like decadently enjoy things like avocado or fresh berries or whatever’s in season or fermented foods or simply like really high-quality sea salt and spices on food. Just really tuning into that and it having that joy and pleasure aspect makes a huge difference. I think also going into meals in a state of gratitude makes a drastic difference of how our body receives them as well.
This is a much broader category and perhaps a future podcast topic as well, but, signaling safety by avoiding foods and environmental factors that signal stress to the body. It’s obviously very nuanced and for each of us might be a little bit different. But for me that means largely, with exception, avoiding processed foods, avoiding processed junk light as much as possible, avoiding artificial fragrances or chemicals in cleaning products or personal care products. There’s a lot to understand there, but most importantly also avoiding fear of those things. I think fear is actually one of the most harmful things we can put in our body.
And then lastly, of course, a huge one is getting enough sleep to signal safety to the body because even minor disruption in sleep can make a drastic difference on our stress levels.
So, to wrap up, some action steps related to if you want to move toward more circadian alignment with light, with food and test this out for yourself and see if it’s something that will work for you. I would say first and foremost, try to get just a few minutes of morning sunlight each morning. I’ve talked about this a lot, but that’s a massive signal to your body, to your nervous system, to your circadian alignment, and this begins the clock ticking for melatonin production at night.
Another action step I would give you is try to eat breakfast outside when possible, or if you’re really ambitious, try to eat every meal outside whenever possible because that’ll give you the light and the food cues together, and it’ll give you a reminder to go outside at least a few times a day.
Instead of deprivation, I recommend, and what I personally do, is really focusing on lots of protein, lots of micronutrients, and lots of healthy fats. Especially in that first meal of the day and really focusing on nourishment. Then I find I’m not as hungry later on, and I can move to a smaller meal in the evening and then stop eating around sunset. Again, just what I do personally, not prescriptive ever. For me, breakfast and lunch are the largest meals of the day with dinner being a lot smaller.
And then, kind of all of that points to the whole intent of that social media post to begin with, which was to just simply stop eating a few hours before bed, switch to hydration with water with minerals or herbal teas, just give the body time to digest and to not be in that active digestion when we go to sleep, which I feel has really helped my sleep quality.
And also, as I said in the beginning, I feel like I have a much healthier relationship with food, with nourishment, with my body. This has only been one puzzle piece of my life that equation for me, but I feel like one that has really helped both with having a healthier weight and body fat percentage and also really improving my sleep as well.
I certainly wasn’t intending to create controversy by that post, and of course there are exceptions. And, of course, the biggest thing to focus on and remember is, for each of us, that we are all different. This is what worked for me. This is not a prescription or a blueprint that will work exactly the same for anyone else in the world. It’s just simply meant to be a story that could be a starting point for your own experimentation.
And on that note, if you, I would love to hear from you what you’ve experimented with and what the biggest things that have been helpful to you are. I do read every comment on these podcast posts, so please leave a comment or DM me on Instagram with any feedback with what’s worked for you and with any future topics that you would like me to cover.
But for today and for this episode, I am so grateful for your time. Thank you for listening to the Wellness Mama podcast, especially to these little short episodes where I just get to share a conversation with you. I’m so grateful that you’re here. I’m so grateful for your time and your attention and your energy and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode.
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This episode is sponsored by Manukora Honey, and I don’t use a lot or pretty much any sweeteners in my house or in my life with the exception of honey. And so I have become quite the honey aficionado over the years, and I absolutely love this one in particular. This honey, this Manukora Honey is rich and creamy. It’s got a complexity of flavor that not a lot of other honeys have, and it has some extra health benefits. So aside from the honey I harvest from my parents’ backyard right by my house, this is the other only honey that I love to eat because of its taste and also the benefits that it has.
Now, I love honey actually in the morning first thing for a burst of energy after I get some protein or right before bed with a sprinkle of salt. This is a quick tip. It really helps my sleep. Of course, it’s also delicious to add to any beverage or food. And I find that the clean energy of honey is my favorite sweetener by far. But here’s what makes Manukora Honey different. It’s ethically produced by Master Beekeepers in the remote forest of New Zealand. And it’s a particular type of honey that contains powerful nutrients that specifically support immunity and gut health. The bees here collect their nectar from the Manuka tree in New Zealand. So the nectar is packed with bioactives and the honey that is produced has three times more antioxidants and prebiotics than the average honey. It also has a special antibacterial compound called MGO and it comes from the nectar of this tea tree as well. Manukora third-party tests every single harvest to make sure it contains MGO and makes these results available through their QR system so that you can see them as well.
So I love this, honey. It’s a game changer. And all you really need is a heaping teaspoon each morning to get the most out of the benefits. I especially love this just as an all-around support and immune support in the winter. So basically it’s honey with superpowers and incredible flavor, and you can try it easily, easier than ever. Head to manukora.com/wellnessmama to save 25% off their starter kit, which comes with an MGO 850 plus Manuka honey jar, five honey travel sticks, a wooden spoon, and a guidebook. That’s manukora.com/wellnessmama to save $25 on your starter kit.
This podcast is brought to you by NativePath. And I love this company. I actually get a lot of things from them, but today I wanna specifically talk about their collagen. You might know that collagen is the most abundant protein in our bodies. And it’s essential for the health of our bones, our skin, our hair, our nails, joints, digestion, and more. I know there’s been a lot of talk about the benefits of collagen, which I’m so happy to see, but specifically the benefits of collagen are that they support the growth and repair of cartilage tissue. Collagen can help relieve joint inflammation and pain, can lead to more youthful looking skin, healthier nails, and noticeably thicker hair. I’ve noticed that myself. It can lead to improved gut health and decreased digestive discomfort, as well as easier weight loss and more appetite control. I love NativePath because their collagen has 10 grams of collagen per scoop, and it’s easy to add to almost anything. My go-to daily habit is to add this to coffee or tea in the morning or a smoothie if I make one.
But another thing that is important to note here is that they use type 1 and type 3 collagen. So there are actually 28 different types of collagen, but you only will find type 1 and type 3 in NativePath. And this is because these two types make up over 90% of the collagen found in our bodies. So it’s crucial to maintain levels of those two in particular. I also love that theirs is certified grass-fed to make sure that it’s from happy, healthy pasture-raised cows. And when you consume grass-fed beef as opposed to grain-fed beef, you’re getting the best nutritional profile that is also free of growth hormones. And so I love that their collagen is a single ingredient from grass-fed cows, flawless sourcing, and is also flavorless, odorless, and tasteless, so it mixes into anything. NativePath is offering a BOGO of free collagen jars on every option, plus a free gift and free shipping to our listeners. NativePath is offering a BOGO of free collagen jars on every option, plus a free gift and free shipping to our listeners. Check them out here.
Katie Wells, CTNC, MCHC, Founder of Wellness Mama and Co-founder of Wellnesse, has a background in research, journalism, and nutrition. As a mom of six, she turned to research and took health into her own hands to find answers to her health problems. WellnessMama.com is the culmination of her thousands of hours of research and all posts are medically reviewed and verified by the Wellness Mama research team. Katie is also the author of the bestselling books The Wellness Mama Cookbook and The Wellness Mama 5-Step Lifestyle Detox.
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