Why Toxic Stress Is Making Ambitious Women Sick
By Louise Rumball, Integrative Health Practitioner
Today, ambitious women are trying to do it all. Build a career, maintain a relationship, work out, hit our 10k steps, keep a social life, eat well, meditate (hard fail for most of us), heal childhood wounds, listen to therapy podcasts, post on Instagram, and maybe squeeze in a facial because…. anti-aging, am I right? This is without the reality of laundry, life admin, creating and raising children, and so much more.
The truth? As the ultimate Type A ambitious overachiever, while I LOVE the pace of life and how exciting every day is (your whole life can change in one micro moment), I learned the hard way we were never designed to live at this pace.
And even if your body can hold it for a while, the adrenaline, cortisol, and chemical byproducts of your nervous system being constantly "on" eventually become toxic. And because of the pace of life, most of us are carrying a chronic load of stress hormones our bodies were never built to handle. This state (what I call 'toxic stress') slowly chips away at your health, hormones, and happiness, creating an internal environment that is inflamed, dysregulated, and out of balance. It's not leaving you feeling like the hot, happy, healthy version of you that you're sprinting towards.
And the worst part? We push through with caffeine, cortisol & willpower, which only exacerbate the problem. (Stay to the end of the blog post for the solution!). Society never teaches us the signs or the damage this pace causes. Instead, we're told to suppress it, smile through it, and keep achieving until it's too late. Burnout. Saturdays on the sofa. Hormonal chaos.
Signs might be living in the fast lane and toxic stress:
Always thinking "next week will be quieter" (it never is)
Never slowing down, even on weekends
Over-scheduling yourself to the minute
Measuring your worth by productivity or external validation
Comparing yourself endlessly to others
Avoiding rest because there’s “always more to do"
Never actually resting, always scrolling or staying productive (saving TikToks, researching, planning)
The Domino Effect of Toxic Stress
When cortisol stays elevated for weeks, months, or years, here's what happens, layer by layer:
Your nervous system lives in permanent overdrive. You exist in fight-or-flight mode from the sheer speed of life, never allowing your nervous system to return to baseline.
Vagus nerve dysregulation. Your body forgets how to feel safe and calm. Stillness feels uncomfortable. Speed becomes normal.
Cortisol steals from sex hormones. PMS, PMDD, acne, and low libido become regular visitors.
Detoxification slows down. Your liver struggles to process the metabolic byproducts of stress, leading to brain fog, low energy, and estrogen dominance (hello, cellulite and skin issues).
Gut issues emerge. Chronic stress throws off your microbiome, leading to bloating, inflammation, and digestive chaos.
Neurotransmitters deplete. Consistently high cortisol causes serotonin and dopamine to tank, bringing anxiety, overthinking, and burnout. Some days you won't have the energy to keep going, even if you LOVE your life on the good days.
Thyroid, adrenal, and metabolic dysfunction. Weight changes (it becomes harder to lose weight), temperature sensitivity, sluggishness, and your hair starts to fall out. For many, PCOS symptoms worsen.
Until one day the body says ‘no’ and there is some sort of crash.
My Best Advice for the Ambitious Woman
This was me. I lived with a 20 year chronic pain disorder as I chased after my goals, and the more that I started to learn about toxic stress, fake energy vs. real energy, the downstream impacts of ‘being always on’, I realized that I didn’t have to abandon my ambition, slow down to a crawl, or give up the parts of life you love, but I needed to build in daily, non-negotiable rituals that helped your body process the stress hormones, regulate my nervous system, and generate real, cellular energy (not caffeine, cortisol and willpower!.
Sound familiar?
You wake up tired, grab for coffee, and push through. You're excited for what you "can" build, so you sacrifice the "now" for a moment in the "future" where you'll put yourself first. You keep saying "next week will be quieter," this is for you.
The Morning Rally™ Walk is your solution.
I engineered this walk for you and me. It’s a 23-minute supercharged walking ritual that becomes your daily on switch. No meditation. No sitting still. Just 23 minutes of movement that delivers real energy (not borrowed caffeine energy) before your first call of the day.
In less than 25 minutes, you'll:
✔️ Get up, and get out and together we speed up and speed down
✔️ Walking to the beat of the music, you’ll experience real dopamine and endorphins (an epic way to start the day)
✔️ You’ll move stress OUT of your body (supporting your detoxification system + reducing downstream hormonal issues)
✔️ Energize your nervous system for lasting energy all day
✔️ Prime yourself for a great day, every day
The more I walk, the more success flows to me, and the less I burn out.
I’m beyond excited for you to try this.
