
Gutsy Chick Podcast
You’re a high-performing woman—an athlete, an executive, or a leader in your field. But what happens when an injury, illness, or life-altering challenge knocks you off your game? Gutsy Chick Podcast is here to inspire and educate, sharing real stories of resilience from female athletes and high achievers who’ve faced setbacks and found a way forward.
Hosted by Amanda Smith, this show brings you expert insights on sports recovery, holistic healing, and mental toughness—alongside real stories from women who’ve navigated game-changing challenges and emerged stronger.
Whether you’re overcoming an injury, rethinking your career, or looking for the edge to sustain high performance, Gutsy Chick Podcast will give you the tools and inspiration to rise again.
Find more from Amanda at BodyWhisperHealing.com
Gutsy Chick Podcast
The Hormone Reset Every High-Achieving Woman Needs
In this episode of the Gutsy Chick podcast, we’re kicking off a brand-new series—and it all starts with three little letters that could change everything: SSS. Stress. Sugar. Sex. (Or in hormone speak: cortisol, insulin, and oxytocin.) These aren’t just buzzwords—they’re the foundation of your hormone health. I’ll break down how cortisol, insulin, and oxytocin are running the show behind the scenes, impacting everything from your energy and mood to your sleep and cycle.
If you’ve been feeling off and can’t quite figure out why, this is where we start. Tune in and let’s build the foundation your body’s been begging for.
In this Episode:
00:00 Introduction to the Three S's
01:01 Understanding Cortisol: The Stress Hormone
05:27 Exploring Insulin: The Blood Sugar Boss
08:17 The Role of Oxytocin: The Connection Regulator
12:24 The Interplay of the Three S's in Hormone Health
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Take the Gutsy Chick Quiz to find out how your type A, high achieving mindset might be holding you back from healing your chronic health issue: https://gutsychickquiz.com
Hormone roller coasters. Roller coaster, roller. Say what? Yeah. That's what we're covering on today's episode. I'm introducing you to the three S's. Hey, Gutsy Chick. Welcome back to the Gutsy Chick podcast. The show for powerhouse women who are strong willed, smart as hell, and ready to lead with intuition and fire. I'm your host Amanda Smith. am a former aerospace engineer who worked on a bunch of NASA projects and programs turned medical intuitive for high performing women who have health shit shows that the Western world has no clue how to help. Today is the three S's. I am so unbelievably excited to share these with you because they are things that women really need to know and understand because they're foundational. to your health, not just your hormone health, but your health. The three S's are stress. sugar and sex. In hormone speak that's cortisol, insulin and oxytocin. That last one is so ignored by women who are in their perimenopause and menopause years. I can't wait to have a solo show on that one in particular but you are now in a series of eight episodes where we are diving in with guest speakers as well as my own solo shows on each of these hormone issues. The thing about these is if you don't have the foundation set, all the rest of your hormones are going to go out of whack. And these are simple. They are simple in terms of how to fix them. They are quick in terms of how to fix them. And in each of the solo episodes, as well as the guest episodes, we're going to give you ways to fix them. So stick around for the next seven episodes. uh These three hormones are the operating system for your whole health. If they aren't supported, it's like trying to run a marathon or hike a mountain in heels. It's messy, it's painful, and it is not fun. So let's get them under control. Let's set a solid foundation no matter how old you are. And let's teach our younger generations how to help. themselves. So what in the world are these three things? If you've never heard of cortisol, insulin, or oxytocin, then you've probably heard of the three S's, stress, sugar, and sex. cortisol. It's the stress signal. Cortisol is your safety scanner. It's the thing that lets you know danger, danger, physically and emotionally. And when that danger spikes, our cortisol goes up. And when our cortisol goes up, it dysregulates all the rest of our hormones. It blocks ovulation. It throws off thyroid function. It messes with digestion, sleep, and energy. That's pretty much everything. If you're living in chronic stress, I've been there. I lived in chronic stress for a number of years, mostly when I was in the aerospace industry. And let's be honest, what high achieving woman is not chronically stressed? You can't expect balanced hormones if you're chronically stressed. Chronic means longer than a couple of weeks in a row, longer than a couple of months in a row. It doesn't take long to become chronic. Your body is prioritizing survival. If you're in chronic stress state, it's not focused on reproduction or thriving or digestion or sleep or energy. So I can't wait to talk about that one. But not in terms of the most common things that we hear about de-stressing. We're going to dive into newer things that take a snap to get you out of that chronic stress state and help rebalance cortisol, rebalance your sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. and rebalance, digestion, sleep, and energy. Those three are just huge. insulin. the blood sugar boss. There is a phenomenal episode with Amy Gallo who was on Spirit of an Athlete a while ago who is coming back to give the best analogy of what insulin is and she talks about it in terms of spacecraft and I am so freaking here for it. Tune into that one when we get there. It's coming soon. It's in this series. Insulin's about your body's way of handling sugar. That's why the second S is sugar. It's about how stable your energy is, how stable your moods are, and how stable your appetite is. Energy? Yeah, we already brought that one up in the cortisol. So here it is peeking its ugly hat again. So if you're struggling with energy, these two hormones probably need balancing your stress and your sugar. It's just not that easy, right? It's just not that easy. And then if your mood is all over the place, well, that might be because you can't sleep. It might be because your energy is low. It might be because your sugar is not balanced. And I would say in the United States, especially we are having a sugar crisis. Every food that is coming out of our grocery stores is targeted at sugar. It's targeted at addiction. And we'll get into that too. Actually, we address that with Amy Gallo in the Spirit of an Athlete episode. go check that out if you want to know what I'm talking about when it comes to our food supply and addiction. And then appetite. That one's the most obvious when it comes to sugar because it's sugar. It's something we consume. It's something we eat. So yes, of course, appetite's going to be affected. The other two aren't as pointed as appetite. So the roller coaster ride with our blood sugar impacts cravings. It creates PMS. also makes PMS worse. m creates anxiety, something that a lot of high performing women are dealing with. And of course, here we are, it creates issues with sleep. So both cortisol and insulin affect energy and sleep. Crazy, right? Unstable insulin also fuels inflammation. It can lead to estrogen dominance. Your body can't regulate your sex hormones if it's constantly dealing with metabolic chaos. It just can't. Oxytocin. This is one of my favorite ones because if you fix oxytocin, it actually takes care of the other two very easily because oxytocin is pleasure. That's why I called it sex. When we get to the episodes on oxytocin, parents watch or listen to those episodes before you allow your kids to listen, to watch. And yes, you can watch on YouTube. You can listen on all the major podcast platforms, Apple, Spotify, on and on. So oxytocin is the connection regulator. Oxytocin. is the hormone of bonding, of love, and emotional safety. If you look at Maslow's hierarchy and you believe that Maslow's hierarchy is kind of right, safety? It's number two or number three. It's number two, there we go. Oxytocin is flowing. cortisol goes down, digestion improves, your nervous system relaxes. If you breastfed your children, you know what an oxytocin release feels like. It's that right before letdown. That is one of the best examples for me to be able to explain to you. But another example of an oxytocin release would be when you had an amazing moment at work or on the field and you had a moment after to really digest, really be in the moment of experiencing what just happened. That produces oxytocin. This is your body's we're safe now signal. Without oxytocin, especially in times of stress or disconnection, your body stays tense. You become guarded and you're hormonally imbalanced. Your system needs to feel connection to feel safe. That's how we were designed. These bodies, these brains were meant to connect. If you've listened to the telepathy tapes. then you know that even non-speakers are connecting to others. Non-speakers. And if you haven't checked out the telepathy tapes, I cannot advocate for that podcast enough. I will have one of my autistic, proudly autistic, high functioning, high achieving women on the show, Alina Piesis, to talk with us about the telepathy tapes. Because her and I are geeking out over them. Oxytocin helps you heal. Plain and simple. That is the one that helps you heal. So more sex, please. That can be with yourself or with a partner. doesn't matter. Okay, so here's the big picture. Cortisol tells your body whether you're in danger or not. Insulin tells your body whether you're stable. And oxytocin tells your body whether you're supported, connected. happy and in love. Together they shape the entire environment of your other hormones. They are the foundation. So here's the thing to ask yourself. If you notice that you're having a fertility issue or you have a lot of PMS and a lot of PMS symptoms or you're fatigued or your appetite is way out of whack or you just can't freaking sleep. One of the most common problems my high achieving clients have. Ask yourself, is my body safe? Am I stable? Do I feel supported? Those three questions get you to whether it's stress, sugar, or sex. If your body is not prioritizing hormone balance, well, you're in survival mode and survival mode sucks. Sucks the energy out of you, disrupts your sleep, takes you out of your game. And you can keep chasing symptoms instead of addressing the root, or you can look at the three S's. So we've got seven more episodes on this topic. Each episode is going to break down the three S's one by one. I have guests coming on to really dive in. am so excited for you to hear about those. In fact, the next episode is with Dr. Erica Schultz, who is my doctor. And we are going over HRT. So if you have even started down the path of hormone replacement therapy, or you're on progesterone, because that's not considered hormone replacement therapy. Check into this episode. We talk deeply about that and about perimenopause and menopause and how to heal symptoms because we weren't meant to have these crazy symptoms. Over the next seven episodes, we're diving into how stress cortisol hijacks your hormones and how to reset it. How blood sugar insulin is affecting your energy mood and metabolism. How connection oxytocin is the hidden key of healing, especially if you're burned out. And I'm giving you some very doable, quick, easy ways to support each of these. with simple life skills, not extreme protocols. Let me leave you with this. Hormone balance doesn't start with your period. It starts with your foundation. Once you're supported, everything else works better. Your cycle, your sleep, your energy, your libido, they all work better. And who doesn't want that? If this resonated with you, if you're thinking, wait, this is what I've been missing. You are not alone. You are so not alone. This is the starting point that I wish every woman was taught. This right here, the three S's. So share this with a friend, hop on socials, find me and DM me. I love Instagram. Tag me in a post with your biggest takeaway from this episode and I'll be sure to address it in a future episode. And then. Subscribe so you can listen or watch the next seven episodes that break down the set, the three S's until next time. Stay gutsy.