Wayward Wellness Coaching

The overlooked connection between inflammation, regulation...

...and why your body reacts harder than it used to.

↓ ↓ ↓

​
Hey Reader,

Welcome to Week 2 of “So you think you fell off the New Year’s resolution bandwagon, eh?”

Let me normalize something real quick:
Most people don’t fall off resolutions because they “lack discipline.”
They fall off because their body keeps receipts.

Case in point: me, this week.

I haven’t been drinking much lately... like at all, actually — not out of moral superiority, but because my back has been reminding me who’s in charge since surgery. Alcohol just hasn’t been helping my *inflammatory* cause.

I also had a little internal realization recently about how I trained my brain to believe alcohol = the only way I'm fun to be around. And because I’m apparently still competitive with myself, I wanted to prove I could be fun without it.
(That’s a different Weekly Recharge. Stay tuned.)

Anyway — this week I drank more than I have in a while.

The next morning?
​Sausage. Fingers.

Like, am I the Michelin Man? levels of swelling.

And that’s the thing about inflammation:
Your body can adapt for a while… until it doesn’t.
Then BAM — school bully energy, said in a *mafia man in the making* voice. “Hey. I noticed you forgot who you answer to. Give me that lunch money!”

It’s not just alcohol.

It’s:

• Cutting out processed food for a few weeks and thinking one meal won’t matter
• Gluten or sugar creeping back in “just this once”
• Or my personal kryptonite: Ruffles potato chips (👀 can't quit em)

And here’s the part most people miss:

Inflammation isn’t just physical

It messes with:

• Your nervous system
• Your mood
• Your hormones
• Your ability to regulate stress

Here’s why (plain English, no white lab coats):

When your body is inflamed, your nervous system reads that as threat.

Inflammatory foods can:

• Spike cortisol (your stress hormone)
• Disrupt insulin and blood sugar (hello energy crashes + irritability)
• Increase inflammatory cytokines that signal “something is wrong”
• Push your nervous system toward fight-or-flight instead of rest-and-repair
• All while destroying your gut-brain barrier

Translation:
You’re not “unmotivated.”
Your body is busy putting out fires. Forgettabout weight-loss... your brain is just trying to figure out how to not get unprovoked road rage just driving to school pick up.

And the nervous system doesn’t care whether that fire came from alcohol, food, lack of sleep, emotional stress, or overtraining.
Stress is stress.

Which brings me to the least sexy but most effective thing I do every single day:

Movement for lymphatic drainage

Your lymphatic system doesn’t have a pump like your heart.
It relies on movement.

So when inflammation shows up, I don’t punish my body with workouts — I help it clear the backlog, which ultimately helps boost the metabolism and get everything working properly again.

My daily non-negotiables:

• 300 seated hops
• 50 trunk crunches
• 50 body waves
• 50 trunk rotations
• 100 arm swings - up and down

Here's a video if you need help:

​

That’s it. No equipment. No sweat-dripping heroics.

This kind of movement:

• Helps clear inflammatory waste
• Signals safety to the nervous system
• Improves circulation and recovery
• Reduces that “puffy, heavy, off” feeling

And here’s the reframe I want to leave you with:

If your body reacts strongly now to things you used to tolerate…
That’s not failure.

That’s awareness.

Your system isn’t broken.
It’s communicating.

And once you learn to listen, you stop needing willpower to override it.

More on this next week — because inflammation is only one piece of the nervous system puzzle.

Until then, drink some water, move your body gently, and maybe don’t pick a fight with potato chips today.

OH And remember that free webinar training I mentioned?

Mark your calendars for February 15-17th (President's Day Weekend). I've got some exciting things planned — but for now, just wanted to drop the dates so you could keep it in the back of your mind ;)

You can also check out the latest Hustle Rebels Podcast episode here: Why Success Still Feels Empty: Hustle Culture, Burnout, and Alienation​

Or on Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hustle-rebels/id1865541846?i=1000746205931​

See you next Wednesday — and as always, if you liked this, forward it to a friend so they can join the fam and be regulated like you.

- Renae

Wayward Wellness Coaching
Hustle Rebels Podcast