What Supplements Can Support Stress Relief?

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Transcript: What Supplements Can Support Stress Relief?

Season 11, Episode 29  | November 11, 2025

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Welcome to Life Time Talks. I’m Jamie Martin.

And I’m David Freeman.

And in this episode, we are talking about something that affects all of us, stress. Stress is something that is normal in our lives, but yet it’s something that we often just don’t think about or deal with until it gets to be too much. And in this episode, we’re excited to have one of our favorite guests back with us again. Hey, Anika.

Hello. Thank you for having me.

Yeah, let’s give a little background on Anika Christ. She’s a registered dietician. She’s a Senior Director of Nutrition and Weight Loss at Life Time. She spent 15 years creating nutrition programs and solutions for both members and personal training clients. You might recognize her as Coach Anika from a member favorite program, such as Detox, Lean and Tone and The 60 Day Challenge. Welcome back.

Thank you. Happy to be here.

How are you? What’s new with you?

I’m good. Still keeping on keeping on. I feel like busy at work, busy with kids —

Yes.

—all things.

Life just keeps rolling on all the things. And as life keeps rolling on, sometimes things like stress start to accumulate. So let’s talk about stress. I mean, I want to start — because we all know stress is a normal part of being human. So let’s talk about why that is, why we’re built to handle stress, and then we’ll get into a little bit like when it becomes too much.

Yeah, and I would say, if I would have known how much I would be talking about stress when I was becoming a dietician, I would not have believed you. Like, literally, I always feel like that’s probably an opportunity with just school in general, is we learn so much about nutrition, but we don’t realize how that has such an impact on what we choose to eat, what’s going on in our body metabolically, physically, mentally, all the things.

But I will say, from my perspective, when I’m working and talking with clients, most people do understand that. And a lot of times, that’s why they don’t want to talk about stress. They’re like, well, my life is so much more stressful than so-and-so’s or the people that are in their lives, or they can always think of someone like that person has so much more on their plate.

So I do think as humans, we’re supposed to adapt to it. When we talk about exercise, that’s a good stress in our life. You want to put stress and pressure on your body in certain ways. That’s how we grow. That’s how we mentally grow as well, too. But I do think a lot of our lifestyles today have almost put too much on the plate for us so that our body’s really not able to be resilient against the stress.

And so what I will say, early in my career, I spotted this all the time, because I could see it with eating decisions, I could see it with people’s sleep routines. We go through a lot of lab tests at Life Time. We had really great kits that actually capture someone’s cortisol rhythm throughout the day. So I could see it. And I would have so much resistance to people still in that time of like, no, no, no, no, no, I’m not going to make changes there. Like, I’m fine. I’m not going to box breathe. I’m not going to do yoga. I’m going to do the things that they’ve heard that might not work for them anyway.

But fast forward, I would say like past the year of 2020, my inbox is flooded with people that are like, I am stressed, what can I do. What’s the magic button. What’s the thing I can take. So I do feel like people are recognizing it more, which I love. I don’t love that so many people, though, are feeling that, or feeling like it’s getting in the way of who they want to be, whether that’s how they look, how they feel, how they function. I think it’s become a really big problem, honestly.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

Yeah, I mean, so the thing that stood out there as far as the awareness piece, I think knowing is half the battle. So now when you’re speaking to stress, you talked about how sleep can obviously — if you’re not getting enough sleep, how that can create stress. You said the imposed stress that you put on your body, whether you’re working out and then you got food, that can create stress. So when stress now becomes chronic, let’s unpack that a little bit. What’s chronic stress?

Yeah, so a lot of times, people will find it in their symptoms. So I would say the most recognizable one when people talk about belly fat. And usually I will have clients that have said, I have gained weight or lost weight before, but I’ve never gained it here. And they’ll point it out and be like, what is this.

So when your body is producing cortisol, which it’s supposed to do, most sleep experts, most stress experts will talk about something called a circadian rhythm. And your cortisol should be highest in the morning when the sun rises, and then it kind of gradually falls throughout the day. When your body is overproducing cortisol, which happens when whether it’s feeling stressed or you have those physical stressors going on.

So again, it could be, I’ve experienced this in even my own journey of starving my sleep. So like I need to get stuff done. I’ll just not go to bed on time. Or I’ll have less sleep every single night. That becomes more of a physical stressor on the body. So cortisol is highly inflammatory. So when it’s high and not gradually reducing through the day, maybe your body’s overproducing it, it can actually increase your blood sugar, it can wreak havoc on your energy, it can cause weight gain, specifically in the midsection.

So a lot of times, people will feel that or see that, but then they’ll also feel like, oh, I have these cravings that just don’t go away. Even though I eat perfect macros, I got my workout in, I just want sugar. Early in my career, I always had this very specific persona that always found me as a coach that was like, I like grab out of my candy drawer at work when I’m stressed, and I’m like, OK, no more candy bars in the drawer then, right? People can feel that and know that, like oh my gosh, that’s me, if you’re like, oh, I need something sweet, that usually is a stress symptom.

The people that are wired at night. They’re like, I know I’m supposed to get good sleep, but I literally am wide awake. I could work on anything. I’m thinking about stuff. They call it wired and tired, because usually, you can only do that for so long. And you’re not going to run on adrenaline, you’re going to be pretty exhausted, pretty fatigued. So if people have a hard time really falling asleep, calming themselves down before bedtime, again, that cortisol rhythm should be gradually decreasing at night, because the sun’s going down. That’s a really big, I would say, signal from your body saying help, there’s something off, this isn’t right.

So usually I’m looking for that stuff. I tend to work on a lot of body composition goals with our members and my clients specifically. And I would say, still, the number one is like weight gain in the midsection, is like number one for me, especially if that’s never happened before and they’re like, what’s going on. I’m like, let’s see how your body is responding to stress. And that’s when those conversations start.

And again, they’re hard conversations, because as a coach, I can’t edit their life. It’s like, what are you willing to do and change. And sometimes people have really stressful jobs. And the answer isn’t going to be quit the job. I always talk about I’ve had clients that were 911 call operators. They work in the midst of the night. Think of the stress that they run into on a regular basis. A lot of clinical workers, the swing shift nurses, all those things. So they already have that physical stress going against them. So it’s almost working on the other side of their jobs to make sure, OK, are you sending all the right signals so that your body can actually respond to that better? Because the answer isn’t usually quit the job.

Have I had clients do that? Yes. I’ve definitely had clients say, that’s it. My body means everything. My health means everything. This is just too much for me right now. And that’s OK too. But it is something to think about. You have to think of the life that you’re choosing to live to say, what are all the things physically that are more demanding than most people that are happening to me.

Right. Well, I think what you’re alluding to is like when chronic stress comes to the point where it’s like burnout and it just becomes too much. You feel about adrenal fatigue and all of these things where it’s really are just in this really low area where it’s hard to function in a normal capacity.

Yes, some people get too far into it, for sure. And it’s hard to rebuild. And that’s where I’ve had customers and clients within that atmosphere too, and it takes over a year sometimes to actually breathe life into how their body is functioning and feeling. So that’s why we’ve always offered this test. We have a feel better test, that’s Stress and Resilience, and it’s actually measuring your cortisol rhythm throughout the day.

Some people are symptomatic and they’ll make changes based off of education and knowing that, hey, there’s things I can try that will help relieve some of these symptoms. Other people need to see it. They have to see it in their blood work. They have to see it we do it with saliva. So it’s a salivary cortisol, which is the golden rule to actually assess this rhythm. When people see that and can see how should it look and what does mine look like, that can really lead to OK, it’s time to change. I got to make some big efforts here.

But you’re right, if you overproduce and eventually your body can’t keep up with that, you tend to feel very flatline and very low energy. I could sleep all day. I could sleep 10 hours. I just can’t function and feel very good. And that, unfortunately, happens all the time.

So now when you break it down, you think of let’s say they took some biomarkers that now show that they’re elevated within their stress, or they took the Stress and Resilience. Now that they have this data, this has probably been accumulated over time, I know a lot of people are probably thinking, all right, now that I see that I’m in chronic stress, how can I now course correct? What would you say to that?

So there’s a few different ways that I’ll approach it. So I always from a nutritional mindset first. And so I’m always like when the body is going through this, you do have increased needs on certain nutrition. And so for some people, they can hear that. And I always say like my top supplement is actually it starts with protein. Because if I can balance their blood sugar, I can balance those cravings a little bit better. It’s not always perfect. So I have some people that are like, I will do 40 to 50 grams of protein and I still have cravings. Sometimes I want to help reduce those cravings though, too.

And so that’s where I always think in the holistic nutrition world, some people have different points of view here. I’m usually going to assess the client. I’m going to ask based off what they’re doing, what they’re willing to do, if they actually need relief. It’s that customer that’s like, I can’t stop opening that candy bar drawer, there are certain adaptogens that I’ll actually introduce first then to actually help reduce that stress response.

So the test is critical because it can actually show when that’s happening. We have a really great product we carry in LTH online store called Relora that actually helps reduce that stress response. I know through customers that they’re like that changes things for me so well. I feel so more at ease. So I know that’s a really great just like I don’t want to call it a quick fix, but it’s almost a band aid. It’s not fixing the root cause, but it’s helping provide relief so they can do the other things that I’m going to suggest.

But like I was saying before, protein, again, let’s talk about protein, because stress is really catabolic in the body. It helps break down that muscle tissue even further. We’re already losing muscle every day as we’re aging high cortisol not a great thing. With that already happening. So I will also introduce protein and specifically use a protein powder. That’s like almost a non-negotiable for me. Because I know it’s going to have such a high impact for them. It’s going to help nourish their body when it’s not doing well, but then it’s going to help regulate some of those other symptoms happening too, with blood sugar, cravings, et cetera. So that is definitely something.

I will also talk about, hey, let’s look at your other meals, because other nutrients that you’re going to need more of is antioxidants. Antioxidants are mostly found in plants, like fruits, berries are really great ones. Certain vegetables are high antioxidant load. Not everyone’s willing to do that yet, though, right? So that sounds really good, but then when it comes to meal prepping it, doing anything like that. That’s where it depends on where they’re at in their journey. So that’s what we want to get to.

But if I can hack it in there for them too, we have a great product called Greens. Nourish is also in there too, because that’s more of a multivitamin greens. It also is kind of a gut supplement. And one thing that tends to happen when cortisol is high, I always call it stress gut. If you’ve ever heard someone say, I have irritable bowel, or anything I eat hurts, or I have to run to the bathroom, those are my favorite clients, and usually they come into me through our food sensitivity testing, because they’re like, I think I’m having issues with certain foods. As long as stress is high, you will.

And that’s always the chicken or the egg first. Because usually what’s happening, especially with food sensitivities, those people come into my arena and they’re like, I didn’t think we were going to talk about stress. I’m like, oh yeah, your gut’s not going to get better if you have high stress. And so sometimes they kind of work in tandem.

So again, if we’re starting with stress response, I also am mindful of hey, there’s certain foods that they might not be digesting and absorbing very well. And sometimes plants are harder to digest. They cause more irritation, if the gut’s irritated. So I will hack with protein powder. I will hack it with Life Greens or nourishment right there. Nourish, specifically, is really great. And then we’re going to talk about everything. We’re going to talk about what is your sleep routine. We’re going to talk about what are stress management things that you’ve tried before that work for you.

People constantly come in and they’re like, I do not need to be told to box breathe. And I’m like, OK, who are you — and that’s why I love the biohacker world. I really do. I find myself wanting to do all those fun things. But sometimes it’s overwhelming because people see, oh, is that what everybody does? That’s not going to work in my life.

The morning sunlight thing, I love it. I think it’s really smart. I think when we talk about that cortisol rhythm, if you’re never going outside and you’re going right to your garage and your car, too, and building, not seeing the sun, number one nutrient, right, oxygen and sun, is what I talk to first, I think that’s really hard for people to wrap their brain around it.

So it’s like, OK, well, let’s talk about your world. What are you willing to do? What are things that we can make sure — and this is why I feel like I always end up talking about personal trainers. You have the best job. Because you become that person’s stress management squad. They are going there to leave their life behind them. You go to work, you go home, you go to Life Time. At Life Time, you get to be in this place where you can only make healthy decisions. And you have all these great coaches around you. And so for some people, it’s like, how do we make exercise a non-negotiable for you.

Yeah.

Right? Because that is critical. And for a lot of people, they don’t have that time to not think about anything else, to really just be there, be present. So I’m usually looking at the whole lifestyle approach to say, what can we actually do to really create a less stressful routine for you. And I end up working with a lot of moms. And they’re like, I just — they basically forfeit that workout every day. And I’m like, no, let’s get your partner on board. He’s not going to let you or she’s not going to let you forfeit that. Let’s figure out how that happens for you. So you get time to yourself and refill your cup so that the rest can fall into place, too.

I want to talk for a little bit, even if there’s an example that you have of someone who’s like, I’m not going to do the box breathe, I’m not going to do some of those things. Like, what are some of the very beginner things that you’ll have someone do? Maybe they’re not ready to start working with a personal trainer yet. But hey, you are dealing with a ton of stress. We have to start somewhere. If you have an example, and obviously, you’re not going to name your client. But where do you start with someone like that who’s just coming to you for the first time saying, I’m so stressed out, I don’t know what to do, but I know I’m not going to breathe — like do the box breathing thing.

They’re not ready yet.

They’re not ready, yes.

Yeah, so it depends on the person. But I will say one that works really well, even just like a walk outside. And I always say set a timer. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to be a mile. It doesn’t have to be your running or anything like that. Just walk outside. Because there is something about nature. I will never be able to explain it. I’m sure everyone feels it. We’ve talked about grounding before. I didn’t even know it was called grounding. When I was doing it, it just felt good on my feet. So it’s like finding those things that feel really good.

And I do think there’s a lot of biohackers talking about that. And again, sometimes it’s off putting to a regular person that’s like, I’m not even doing half that stuff. But getting outside in nature has a huge impact on people. So that’s one. Second, I’ll tell them to read. I’d be like, you can read anything, I don’t care, 10 pages a day. Just read because you have — and if you can’t remember what you’re reading, you got to keep working on it, because that’s that brain that’s going around the world thinking about to do list, all the things I have to get done. Women are infamous for having 55 tabs open. We’re always trying to multitask. You need to find the thing that doesn’t let you multitask. So for some people, that could be folding laundry.

And I’m like the worst client. Like, I’ve had to learn this myself, because I don’t sit still. And I’ve gone through some adrenal struggles in the past, early in my 20s, and I always think that was probably really timely for me from the universe because I could learn so early on and help so many more people with it. But I tend to want to get so much done. I love it, I love life. And you kind of have to remind yourself to sit still. I’ve had so many clients do really well just booking a vacation. They might not even go on it. But the thought and then they do it and they’re like, oh my gosh, that feels so good.

There’s research backing that up. There’s research about when you have something on the horizon to look forward to, how good that is for your mental well-being.

Yes, I love that. So I will always unpack it, though, to say, tell me about your — let’s start with the morning. That’s the most important part of the day for a lot of people. Some people are time starved, some people have more time, kind of depends on what’s happening. I hate the extended 20 step morning routine that people show. I do think a lot of times people are like, I’m just not even going to watch this because it’s not happening. It doesn’t have to be extensive. It just has to be something really great for you.

So some people do really good with writing out to do list or how they want that day to go. Some people call it meditation, some people call it visualization. How do I want my day to go. What am I doing? What’s on my list? It’s really just taking a moment for yourself. If that’s you drinking coffee, which this year, I’ve had so many clients say, I guess you’re not supposed to have coffee first thing. And I’m like, OK, hold on. Is it working for you? Is that your time on the couch with your spouse? Is that your time to yourself? Don’t give up that because somebody said it’s wrong. Like do what works for you.

So I spend a lot of time just helping people navigate that. And I think people feel really good with people. Community will never go out of style. Real in-person connection. I was joking because I have girlfriends and we were talking about our spouses, how men do this. I shouldn’t stereotype, but my husband does this. They’ll just pick up the phone and call somebody. They might not have talked to them in months, but it’s like, hey, I got to talk to you about this garage door opener or whatever. And women do this. I’m like, I haven’t called her. I don’t even know if I can call her. And it’s like, we should just start calling people again, because —

Overthinking it before we just do it, yeah.

Yes, yes, it’s always text or let me text her first or whatever. Just like talking to someone on the phone. Again, you can’t multitask there. You’re like talking to somebody. You have to be in that moment. So I think that’s critical. But I think the easiest things that have worked the best is like a quick loop around your neighborhood first thing, walking on a walking pad if you don’t want to go outside in your neighborhood, the things like figuring it out so that you can just have that moment to think and be with yourself. I think that’s number one for a lot of people.

Well, you alluded to something there, and you didn’t use this word, but it’s the idea of ritual. So even OK, whatever the research right now is around coffee consumption, and it’s changing all the time.

All the time.

But if that’s the thing that gets you to sit and take a few deep breaths in the morning, or whatever that is for you, whatever that ritual is for you that gets you to take a moment of pause and maybe just be present for a few minutes, that’s good for our stress, like to help deal with our stress. But rituals are really important in our daily lives. Even if it’s not the healthiest habit, and I’m quoting this, if you’re not watching this, because it’s still good for our mindset or it’s good for how we connect with people.

The nervous system.

Yes.

Yeah, like the brain and the nervous system, we don’t really talk a lot about, enough about probably. And again, everyone’s a little bit different, if you have young kids, if you have adult children, what’s your life right now. Like that’s almost who the health professional you need to follow. Because they’re in it. They’re doing it. And I think sometimes we get advice and you’re like, well, that guy doesn’t even have kids first thing screaming for mom when I run down the stairs in the morning. So you put up your white flag, like I can’t do this then, I guess. And it’s like, no, hold on.

We’re also our worst critics. You have to have that person around you, again, back to the coaches, that kind of are tough on you a little bit, like honest. And I tend to have that in my home because my husband is a coach. But if anytime I try to give up my workout, he’s like, uh-uh, nope, I’ll take the kids. Get down in the gym right now. You need those people that are like, no, we know what you need to. You’re not going to give that up so that you can get everybody else’s needs met. I think that’s super important, too.

Yep.

Yeah, I want to go back to you speaking to community. It is such a big deal. And I think it’s sometimes just it’s remiss amongst all of us as far as how to really activate it. So the dope part that you said is, one, the awareness. And I talk about this all the time to coaches and to athletes, speaking to understanding that hour that you have with these individuals, whether they’re coming to a class or a one-on-one session, understand the instrumental impact that you have that goes beyond that hour, those other 23 hours with that individual. So when you start to unpack that that much more, that experience that they’re having, the education that you’re empowering them with, now how they take that into their day and how it can be contagious to any and everybody else that they come in contact with.

So I go back to what you said. I think awareness within community, but the community can bring the awareness.

Yes.

They can now call out those things. And then it goes back to intentionality. Because you can have all the books, you can hear all the podcasts, you can read, all these different things, still the intentionality to create the action behind it is what’s key. And when we break down, let’s say, these are the great supplements to help curb this and help this, getting the sleep, you now know the things, but applying it is where the game change happens.

So I think if we break it down to a little acronym, you know my acronyms, you got —

I was going to ask if there was one.

Let’s go with AIA. I mean, I’m going to go with awareness, intentionality, and action. Now that you’re aware, let’s be intentional with what it is that we do and that we act upon it.

Well, and I think some people shy away from community because they think it’s not for them. And I always try to tell people, give it a try. You’d be surprised. I’m that person too. I’m such a extrovert introvert. I feel like I flip all the time. A little bit of a Gemini, so I flip all the time. But like I’m so extroverted in my job. I’m talking to people all day. And I used to do this when I was a telephonic coach. It was like back to back to back with people, and you have to give 100%. It’s like trainers. They’re so good at it, that sometimes you’re like, I’m going to go roll in the mud now by myself. Please don’t talk to me. I need to shut off that part.

But so then you start to think like, oh no, I’m very self-disciplined. I like to be by myself. And I have to stretch myself to do stuff like that. And then you’re there and you’re like, there’s so much magic happening. You didn’t realize it. You can’t bottle it up. You have to experience it. So I think sometimes it’s good to get out of your comfort zone. That’s a good stress. We’re talking about the good stresses to like, you know what? Do something you wouldn’t do. Join an alpha class. Do something like that.

Because I always think like it’s amazing to be around other people trying to do the same thing, which is bettering themselves, bettering their health. No one cares about what you’re trying to do, really. And that’s a thing we try to work through all the time with people, like, I don’t know if I belong at a club like that. You do. We all do. It’s great. But then to have a really great coach that can assess, give you specificity.

I think of all the clients that show up to trainers, and the trainers can see that they are like overstressed, overworked, and they choose to not kick the butt that day. Because they’re like, you know what? You need probably a stretch session, or recovery session. We have the best experts in the clubs at Life Time. But that’s important too, because going back to when you’re overstressed, or even on the fatigue side, you got to watch how you’re doing the right — different workout styles actually might be more impactful for you right now. And I think a really great coach can help address that, modify that, so that you’re learning to listen to your cues and your body. And if you’re not recovering, if you’re overexhausted, we got to really fine tune.

And that’s where I get into with clientele. I’m like, I want you to try yoga. I know you think it’s not for you. I want you to try it again. And I want you to force yourself to do it a little bit, because it’s going to send a different signal to your body. Even if you don’t think you enjoy it, even if you think you don’t belong there, it is going to send a signal. That’s what we’re trying to do, is send those signals to right now. You have the best job, Dave. So jealous.

Yeah. I think we all do, though. Because it’s all like branches. Yeah, I mean —

Kind of intertwine.

Yeah.

We all —

Yeah, yeah, it’s important to call it out, for sure.

Absolutely. OK, so let’s get into the supplementation side, because we really wanted to talk about obviously stress is something we’re dealing with. There’s a lot of different ways we can do it. But supplements do play a role. So talk a little bit about that general role. And then what are a few of the ones that you like to recommend people start with to if they’re dealing with stress and are ready to go the supplementation route.

Yeah, so they play a role in the beginning crucially because they’re hacks. They’re really going to send specific signals and target certain things happening in your body right now, such as a disregular cortisol rhythm. So there might be things that I introduce that help dampen a stress response. There might be things I do to help elevate what’s happening in the body, because maybe it’s so burned to the ground. I hate to call it that way, but. Or there’s certain things I’m going to say that actually support the health of your adrenal function in your body.

So specifically, we were talking about the protein and the antioxidants. Those are kind of non-negotiables for me. Because I’m like, you need nourishment. Not that I don’t trust their eating, but I’m like, we’re not eating great right now. Let’s hack it in there with supplements. But the long game is to get the nutrition right. And that’s with no matter what is going on with someone, that’s how I use supplements specifically.

One really critical supplement that’s always missing is magnesium. When your body is under stress, you are depleting even more. We’re already not intaking enough. We’ve talked about that on other episodes. Like our food just doesn’t contain it. When your body’s under stress, you’re depleting even more. The problem with that, it’s a critical mineral in your body. It does over 400 different reactions in the body. Some people will get restless legs syndrome, tennis elbow, twitching eye, and a lot of times it’s a magnesium deficiency, but it’s caused by stress.

So it’s like you got to get the magnesium in. And that’s usually what I’ll start people with too. I’m like, if you’re not willing to do everything, at least do magnesium. Because I bet you’ll relax. I bet you’ll be able to have a little bit more restful sleep. So sometimes I can just get away with that and get people sleep routine in. Not always, but sometimes.

But a supplement that supports sleep that ultimately, again, it’s all interconnected —

Yes.

—supports the stress response.

Yeah, it’s almost foundational one.

Yep.

Now let’s say they’re doing those things, our eating improvement, and they’re like, OK, we’re talking about Relora. Like I can’t stop the sugar. That is the number one inbox intake I get to today. Even if someone doesn’t know they’re stressed, they’ll be like, how do I quit the cravings, Coach Anika? And I’m like, oh my gosh, 15 years later, we’re still answering that question. It happens. And I think what happens is some people don’t deal with it ever in their adult life. And all of a sudden, it’s right there in front of them. They’re like, I don’t know what to do with this.

So that’s where the Relora can help dampen that stress response. I’ve had people use theanine, which is an amino acid. We have a really great product in our kids line called Calm, and it’s just straight theanine. And we introduced it because we have a lot of children experiencing stress. And that can be, again, the root cause has to be defined by the parents or the coach. I would say a lot of the kids I deal with are overcommitted. They’re in school all day, they have sports every day, they’re really wired at night. So theanine before bed has been very helpful for people.

If you’re feeling anxious, theanine is really helpful for people. So adults or kids. I recommend it all the time for people flying, that get nervous flying. I’m like a couple drops of Calm before the flight, that will help just relax that nervous system a little bit better. So that’s a really great one.

Then I’m going to talk about sleep, because if magnesium isn’t enough to support their sleep, which I have several people that are like, I’m doing that, I’m still — my brain, or I’m waking up. So there’s a couple things. So we have a great supplement called Relax, which has little theanine. It has Gaba in there. It has HTP, things that really calm down that brain. That is our sleeper supplement. If you ask any DPT at Life Time, they’re all like I’m on Relax. Love it.

And trainers, we didn’t even talk about that, they’re probably my number one customer for this, honestly. And I think of them, I have the biggest hearts for them, because they literally give it all. They are on all day. And this happens all the time. Fitness professionals that get their eating right, their workouts right, and then all of a sudden, they’re like Anika, I have belly fat. And I’m like, OK, let’s talk about are you sleeping. And they’re like, I’m not sleeping, and I’m like, burning out. And there’s so many trainers that fall into that. And I always think of nurses as a profession, too, fall into that. They give all. They give it all.

And [INAUDIBLE] for people.

Yeah, and that’s a tough job. You get minimal breaks, you’re back to back, you’re on 100% caring for somebody else. So they end up being really great customers of mine and clients because they love that sleep supplement. If that’s not enough, that’s where melatonin comes in. And melatonin is something — it’s not just for sleep, it’s a really powerful antioxidant. There’s so many — I always think of the memes out there that like, you think it’s just for sleep, but it does all these other things.

I always keep it on hand, no matter what, especially if anyone has run down, under the weather, that I tell people, take melatonin those first few nights of sleep, for sure. Some people overuse it. And that’s where people get a little bit concerned, because they’re like, if you overuse it, is it going to impact your natural stores? I haven’t seen anything personally through clientele that that’s happened with, but I always am like, let’s not just band aid it. Let’s figure out what’s happening.

So you can’t be on screens all day. That’s going to lower your melatonin naturally and they make, well, I’ll just take melatonin now. So that’s where it kind of depends on someone’s readiness to change and where they’re at. But I use melatonin and recommend it all the time. I’ve had people under really high stress, chronic, maybe they experienced an accident, maybe they lost a loved one, and melatonin has really helped them just function, because they can get a night’s rest and really go to bed.

I see a lot of parents using it with kids. And I’m like, I get it. I’d rather them sleep than not sleep. So I think you have to weigh that risk and benefit. But I would also look at, OK, well, let’s talk about why do we think kids aren’t sleeping, right? Like we grew up. I remember always sleeping. I don’t remember having anxiousness or irritableness. So again, there’s other things we probably have to address. But I really like theanine, magnesium, Gaba, and melatonin for sleeping.

And I think if you’ve tried something before, reconsider it. Because I’ve had people say, I don’t feel great on melatonin. And I’m like, how much did you take? Because you should start low. A lot of people start maybe too high or not enough. So they give up on it. Or they’ve tried other things. They’re like, yeah, this just doesn’t work for me. So then that’s where you get into, OK, what’s the light in your bedroom at night? What are those other environmental things. And I think I’ve just seen a lot of frustration from people. And there’s a 15 step checklist for bed now. And I’m like, well, a lot of us don’t even think about it. We’re just naturally doing it. But it’s like, keep it dark, do those things too. But supplements specifically, I think those can be game changers for people. And people really respond well, which is what I want them to do. I want them to feel recovered.

Yeah.

Now if you’re getting 7 to 8 hours restful sleep and you’re still waking up the next day with low energy, we got to look at other things then too. We got to look at are we overdoing caffeine. I love caffeine. Caffeine is like melatonin to me. It’s not just to get me going. There’s so many other benefits. It’s a powerful antioxidant too. It’s actually our highest intake in America of antioxidants come from coffee beans. That’s our number one.

But if you’re drinking it all day, you’re not eating food, you’re crashing your energy, that’s where I’m like, OK, let’s take a peeksie here. Especially if you’re burned out, I want you probably to do a little bit less. And I want to make sure you know how much you’re taking in, because most people aren’t just drinking a little cup of coffee. Coffee gets blasted. And I’m like, what about all these energy drinks? We don’t even know what’s in them half the time. And there’s a lot of that too. So those are things that I’ll look at to say, are we overdoing it, and do we need to eat more, more frequently to actually create energy for people too?

Yeah, I’m a big fan of the Relax. And you mentioned a lot of ingredients that are in Relax, but I ended up — I think it was Sam that referenced it.

I bet Sam loves Relax.

When I jumped on it, and it was a game changer as far as my sleep. And I’m not talking about just normal sleep, I’m talking about I was getting into some deep sleep.

Good.

And you probably can unpack a little bit about what the benefits are as far as sleep is great, but then when you’re getting deep sleep —

Yeah, your brain’s turning off.

Yeah, so allowing the brain to actually turn off and recover so you do feel like you’re ready to rock and roll the next day, so.

And people have talked about it on this show too, how many calories your brain burns. Like most of your body, like a lot of it’s coming from what your brain needs and requires. And brain health is such a cool — I mean, you could go hours on brain health. We all need brain health, in general, but that product specifically is just it is a game changer for most people. It’s also why we’re coming out with Dream. Because Dream’s a little bit of that formula, but then more different forms of magnesium.

I think it’s going to help a lot of people because it is a drinkable. And I think people are wanting that ritual at night. It’s just like the coffee in the morning, people are really interested in — again, when I started my career, I swear every client of mine was winding down with wine. That’s what they would do, like wind down time. And they wanted that little beverage. And I understood the ritual of it.

Yeah.

It was just more like, oh, this is probably interfering with your hormones and your goals and your sleep. Alcohol’s not great for sleep. So again, having something that you can sit, relax, still have a conversation like wind down with, Dream, a really great product for trainers, their clients really just to hit a few different things. Because sometimes you need a couple of those things. It’s not just the one thing. It’s like melatonin, restful sleep, but how do I wind down my brain. That’s what Relax does. So some people need a combination of a couple things. And I think Dream will hit a lot of things for a lot of people.

What will be in the Dream? I think whoever’s listening, what —

Yeah, so I know we’ve talked about before, there’s three different forms of magnesium. There’s one specifically called Magtein.

OK.

Paul is the formula producer behind it. So he created this with himself of what works with Relax. There’s a little Gaba, there’s a little theanine. So there’s more Relax adaptogens in there too. But it’s the different forms of magnesium that actually help you relax. A lot of magnesium supplements, there’s 12 to 13 different forms of magnesium. They all do different things. We are really specific about just supplement your intake first. It might not be the form that matters as much. These forms are specifically for the brain and relaxation. So it’s really specific to sleep. So you wouldn’t take Dream in the morning to supplement magnesium. You would take our pill form. So that’s a good one.

You mentioned adaptogens, and I want to make sure we talk a little bit. I know some of these are in the Nourish blend that we have. But like ashwagandha has been known. What’s interesting about adaptogens and how they work is like they kind of just work with your body naturally.

Yeah, that’s the best part. And that’s probably the most known one too. It hasn’t gone away. So I remember I would always tell clients, like, especially when we were reading their cortisol results and we’d be like, OK, here’s our six month program to help your body respond better to stress. Now, if they were that person, that they were a mom, they had a really high stress job, those things that weren’t going to change, I’d be like, for the long game, I want you to take ashwagandha, morning and night, on a regular basis, just to always help remedy your stress response.

I consider it almost like a multivitamin for your adrenals. It really is. It’s helping your body just build resiliency. It’s not something that you always need. But I would say if you’re like, yeah, this is my life. I think of my husband. He travels a lot internationally now. He’s on ashwagandha again. So it’s like, you know what? Let’s just like — you’re jumping time zones all the time. There’s a lot more on your plate right now. That’s something that can be a really helpful preventative in that stress response as well too. So there’s certain adaptogens in Nourish specifically. That’s why I consider that one as a gut supplement, a stress supplement, but a multi-tool.

Yeah.

So if you hit that person where you’re like, yeah, I just always have a lot on my plate. I’m not retired. I’m not doing a lot of hobbies. Like adaptogens such as that are really great just to do for the long game, for sure. And we do carry a few more that are in our online store that are more like adrenal cortexes or adaptogens just to support the adrenal gland health overall. But it will absolutely be introduced if you’re on a stress response protocol. But then also it’s the long game, like a multi-hour fish oil. It’s a good everyday for that person.

Right.

All right, so we hit on nutrition, different ways that we can help as far as manage stress, and then lifestyle factors. I want to unpack a little bit with exercise. Because I feel like a lot of individuals, if they have poor sleep, they’re not missing their routine exercise. They’re adding that. And that is a form of stress too. So can you share with our listeners and viewers that now, if you did not get a good night’s rest and you are having the belly fat and you’re stressed and all these other things, exercise is great, but can it sometimes work against you as well?

Depends. So it depends on your heart rate, your intensity, and your recovery. So those are follow up questions. And trainers are really good at that too. I always feel like when listen — I’m not creeping on one on one sessions, but I hear it all the time, like, how’d you sleep? How’s your recovery? How long were you sore? Those are really great questions. And that’s them. They want to make sure you’re taken care of.

So most of the time, what’s been funny is I usually am like you need to strength train more to these people. So usually they’re just changing what they’re doing. And what happens is I tend — and again, I don’t know — you could say on certain points maybe this is causing of the stress response to go haywire, but chronic cardio becomes a really big problem. Now I think in the last five years, people are opting to way more strength training —

Yeah.

—cardio. You see it at Life Time every day. There’s just a different thing happening, which is great. But I usually am like, OK, how many hours, or how much time are you’re crushing in cardio, and high intensity cardio? And some people are really intuitive. They feel it already. They’re like, I’m burning out. I can’t get through these classes anymore that used to be so easy. And so I want you to actually strength train four days a week now, because they don’t have enough of that and they have too much of the other thing.

I’m a really big fan of walking. I just am. If you can do it outside, even better. If you can do it at Life Time, I love an incline walk for people. I love that I see more women doing the weighted vests in the club. Love that. I think that’s great because that’s adding resilience on top of a really good fat burning cardio session. But I will always just look at how high is your heart rate getting, how long duration is that happening, and then are you not actually recovering.

And there’s a lot of people that don’t realize they’re not recovering. And then you talk to them about it and they’re like, oh, yeah, it’s not normal to be sore for three days? And I’m like, no, you want to — that’s where the results come from. And like the good stress is the strength training. And then you and your recovery time, that’s where you have growth, that’s where you have change, that’s why you need to sleep. And so sometimes I’ve had clients that they do a lot of ultra endurance events. Yeah, but how much sleep are you getting? Five, six — I’m like, you need like nine. Like you’re not —

More than you think.

Yeah, I was like, I’m doing 7 to 8. You need 9. I’m not doing that. Like hold on. You need a lot more recovery time. So it kind of depends on the person. I think one on one strength training coaches, personal trainers are really good at it because usually they are all about strength training. And so I always say, especially to hold on to that muscle, we got high cortisol that’s going to help break it down even faster. We don’t like that. So it’s like protein strength training. And then really looking at, hey, can you get outside? Can you have an active recovery day? And that’s where yoga can be great. Other things can fall into that where it’s not as stressful to the body. And again, if you can do it in a community, even better, because there’s so many other elements that come with that too.

So it just depends. And I’m not an all or nothing. I’m like, if you really like that class, great, but let’s talk about the other six days of the week then.

What are you doing [INAUDIBLE].

Yes. And sometimes we all do this, we really like something, so we’re like, I’m going to do that all the time. And then you’re like, too much of a good thing right now. But I always try to lay that expectation down, especially at the beginning of a program with someone, is like, this is just the next six months. We’re going to talk about the next six months. This isn’t a forever thing. And I was that person.

Remember I told you like I had adrenal issues like early, mid 20s. I had just started at Life Time. So it was like a year into working at Life Time. I was doing boot camp every day, which is high intensity. Loved it though. Loved plyometrics, loved sports. Not sleeping. Like sleeping 4 to 5 hours. Serving my clients at 5:00 AM because I was like, oh, they want to work with me at 5:00 AM, I’ll do it, and not go to bed. And there’s all these things that happen. It’s like, that was just all too much altogether. So how can I create a better response program for me right now.

And then sometimes I’ll work it back in. But I have never gone back to the chronic cardio. I feel like most people are so comfortable there. And it feeds adrenaline. You feel good. But then after feeling like crap for over a year, it took me over a year to really get it back, I was like, I can’t do that again. I won’t. There’s no way. I’m a mom now too, so it’s like, I can’t do that. I can’t fit in.

Well, I can speak to that. Like last year, I trained for my first marathon. And leading up to that, strength training was my primary form of exercise. But I kind of had this shift because I’m busy. So I had to get all of my runs in. And that was really all I was doing.

Yeah.

And I actually realized that I was more stressed and had kind of opposite results of what I thought I would have like training for a marathon and running. Because it just felt like I was missing out on some of the things. I was adding so much more stress physically to my body with the amount of running I was doing. And I’m training for a shorter race right now. I’m working with a trainer doing this.

Nice.

But it’s a balance. When we were talking about it, I was like, I need that strength in there too. Because I completely let that go last year and I could feel the effects. Like there was more stress on my body as a result of that, and I wasn’t recovering appropriately or any of those things. And so that was a really hard time coming off of that. I’m like, I have to retrain myself again to go the other direction. If I’m going to do this again, I’ve learned my lesson. I need a balance of these things.

And muscle does bounce back. That’s the best part. So you just have to go back to making those deposits, or however you want to say it. But personal trainers really have done it right for decades. I’m always like everything I’ve learned I feel like I learned from the original trainers I worked with in Arizona. I’m like, gosh, they are so smart. Because none of them were running or doing cardio. And you make fun of them. They’re like doing the stair climber, like slow intensity strength training, eating protein bowls. And I’m like, wow, those guys had it right. Like pay attention. They were doing so good. But it’s right. It is right. It’s finding a balance, for sure.

Oh, yeah. OK, Anika, we are almost out of time. So we want to make sure, did we miss anything? Anything you want to leave our listeners with before David gets to his surprise question?

Well, I would say like I hope they were able to take away some nuggets. But I would say if you feel like you know what, I need to assess, we do carry a test in our online source. So if you go to LTH.shop, there’s all sorts of the supplements we were talking about, but we do have a great test called Feel Better Stress and Resilience. And that way, you can measure your cortisol rhythm. It is a salivary test. So there’s four times a day you’re going to collect your own saliva. And we’re going to measure what is that cortisol doing? Is it normal? Is it a normal rhythm? Are there certain times of the day that you are over producing cortisol, which would interfere with the results?

We also test DHEA, which is your anti-aging hormone. It’s supposed to go down a little bit over as you get older, but sometimes it’s going down too fast. And that’s another signal to say, hey, we need to do some things. We need to redirect the ship. So that would be a great starting point too.

Awesome. All right, David.

Here we go. Mic drop moment. So —

You ready. You’re always ready. You’re always singing, you know this, as far as our voice notes.

[LAUGHTER]

What would be your go to — yeah, we go back and forth with it. But —

Audio text.

—what would be your go to de-stresser song?

Oh, gosh. So there, this is really — I literally — I don’t have a specific playlist, but I will go to Spotify, because that’s where my music lives. And I will sometimes just Google Spa. And so they have different playlists of what they play in a medi spa or to get a massage. And literally I’ll play that. So I am the weirdo. I have a sauna in my basement. I do that all the time. I have an 11-year-old and she gives me a facial every Sunday. And we put that on.

And there’s [INAUDIBLE] or something too that’s within that. I’m totally misquoting what that is. But it’s just relaxing sounds. And she will ice roll my face. I just relax and breathe. It feels amazing. I do it to her. We love it. So always that, actually. I won’t audio you that because there’s no lyrics. But it’s like if you went to a massage, what they’re playing. Every time you get a massage, I’m like, I should just listen to this.

Oh yeah.

It’s so calming. It’s so calming. Otherwise, if I’m cooking, because that’s really therapeutic for me too.

Are you singing while you cook?

Yes, always. And I’ll do like the Righteous Brothers, like real old school, like what my parents played as a kid, and I love it. Like, (SINGING) build me up, buttercup, stuff like that.

I was waiting to get it out, yeah.

Always. But Unchained Melody by Righteous Brothers, I love.

Exactly.

I love to cook to that. So that’s the best.

That’s amazing. Also, I’m going to make my daughters listen to the end of this episode and introduce Sunday facials as my new ritual.

Yes.

That is the best. It’s the best.

All right, Anika, we love having you on every single time. If our listeners and viewers want to follow you, they can find you at Coach Anika on Instagram. You have tons of articles at experiencelife.lifeteime.life. And obviously you mentioned a lot of products. Those are all available on LTH.shop if people want more. Anywhere else? Did I miss anything?

That’s perfect. Thank you for having me.

Thanks for being back.

Be good.

[MUSIC PLAYING]