The Bossticks - How Diets Fail Us & The Importance Of Proper Health, Sleep, & Nutrition Ft. JS Health Founder Jessica Sepel

Episode Date: October 28, 2022

#511: On today's episode we are joined by Jessica Sepel. Jessica is a 3x best selling author and the founder and creator of JS Health. Today Jessica joins the show to discuss how diets fail us and the importance of proper health, sleep, and nutrition. We also discuss which vitamins and minerals we are lacking the most and how supplementing properly can change our lives for the better.  To connect with Jessica Sepel click HERE To connect with JSHealth click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential. This episode is brought to you by JSHealth Nourish your health and confidence from the inside-out with formulas carefully crafted with care for you. Go to jshealthvitamins.com/discount/SKINNY for 15% off. Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to by J.S. Health. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Tuning into your body and works for you is like the next best way to live. of the healthy life, you know, and I think it's, we're not there yet. People are still listening to everyone else. People are still confused and overwhelmed and listening to every other trend. I also say there's a difference between being health conscious and weight conscious. And, you know, you really want to gear towards the health conscious because then everything else balances out anyway. You really want to eat to feel good, eat to be well. All right, you guys, this episode is really fun because I have been following Jessica since I started the Skinny Confidential years ago.

she has been so vulnerable and real with her own struggles on fab dieting. And she's really worked, and you've seen it on social media, to find balance and body love. What's so cool about her is she's a practitioner. So she owned her own private practice as a nutritionist. And she really was able to see the transformational impact and effect vitamins had firsthand on her clients. So she wanted to create her own. So she really started developing formulas that were targeting situations.

to common problems. I personally am a huge fan of her magnesium. I really like it at night to wind down. And I think it's one of the best magnesiums on the market. So definitely check that out. Anyway, we'll get to that. She also is very much into the thyroid. And I think that that is something that a lot of women don't talk about. I struggled with hypothyroid after Zaza. And I went to the hormone doctor and she told me, If I had literally starve myself and worked out every single day, I still would not be able to see weight loss because of the hypothyroid. So I was able to get that fixed. And what I love about Jessica is she's all about thyroid health, especially in women. And we talk about that in this episode.

Jessica launched the J.S. Health blog in January 2012. She spoke about her struggles with body image and bad dieting. In 2015, Jessica published her first book, The Healthy Life. She documented what she had learned in nutrition studies at university, and in 2017, she launched her own eight-week program, which teaches the undiating approach. She now has a massive vitamin company. It is so popular. It's all over the internet. And we're going to talk all things, body health, vitamins. We're going to talk about eating disorders, overcoming her struggles, and the thyroid. The thyroid is one of my favorite topics. Make sure you remember, we have a code for you at the end of this

episode and a giveaway with J.S. Health. On that note, let's welcome the owner, the founder of JS Health Vitamins, the JS Health App, and the JS Health 8-week program to the Skinny Confidential Show. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. I am so happy that you came all the way out here. Where are you coming from? I'm coming from Spain, Paris, San Diego. San Diego is where we grew up. Yeah, they're so proud of you over there. They're really. are. That's very nice. I think it depends who you ask, but... I think they all are very proud of you. No. It's very true. So your accent is so unique. It's one of the most beautiful accents I've ever heard. I want to go back to where you grew up,

because I know you've been everywhere. So start at the beginning. Okay, so I grew up in South Africa. Have you guys been? No, but we talked about this a little bit. We have to take the kids. We really wanted to go and it was like, we had this trip that was getting all planned and then the pandemic hit and it derailed everything and then we had kids and we're like, Cape Town and a Safari and Londa Losey, it's called The Best. Okay, so you were born there. Born there. So we really did immigrate because of the crime because it was just unsafe.

Like, you know, what people say is true. I don't know specifically, like, you like break it down for our audience if they're unfamiliar. You were born when there was a lot of crime there. It's just unsafe. Like my memories of getting home from schools, my mom's circling around the neighborhood because there were boom gates, like a gated community. And there would be security guards. And my mom would just circle around, circle around until she, like, there was no one on the street.

and she felt safe enough to open the gate. That's really, and alarms. And, like, if you go to sleep at night, there is, like, a separate door to the bedrooms, and that has to be locked. And if the alarm ever goes off, it's, like, really scary. I know, but, you know, when you're growing up in it, it doesn't feel that way,

because in so many ways, it's also really idyllic. It's a really affordable place to live. We grew up living the healthy life, actually. I had a holiday house on the beach. It's also a beautiful life, but it comes at a cost. It sounds like it's almost, it's, like, very beautiful and pretty, but then you're also having cortisol. Exactly. It's so much cortisol.

My mom, yeah, will tell you that being a mom, imagine, now that you're a mom. No, I can't imagine. Yeah, exactly. Was she just out of her mind? Yeah, out of her mind. To the point my dad didn't want to go, he had his own business. He had set up his career. But now, you know, thank God.

Was there like an incident? Was there something that happened or was it just like something happened to someone else? Or like, what triggered the fear? We were so lucky. I mean, my grandfather, for example, got held up laced every month or every few months. But we did never, we never did have anything happen to us, thank God. But, you know, all the people we knew always had. So she just was hearing all the stories and obviously had relations.

Close, you know, close relations or you just, the crime just is so triggering. And you can feel it in the energy. So when I've gone back to visit, I don't sleep. You know, it's just like it's the cortisol. It's literally just this feeling of unsafe. And it's sad because it's the most beautiful country and the most beautiful people and the most beautiful culture. like the soul you feel as you land. Like it's in going with your kids, you need to go.

It's the best. Are there a lot of animals there? Or is that like totally stare at work? Like what can you? But not in like your backyard. But not in your back yard. Oh my gosh. When you go on safari, you'll see everything.

Leopard, lions. We had a girl in the podcast tell us once that she was on safari. I don't know if it was there. And she fell off a zebra. And I'm just like, oh my God. Yeah. I need to go. I need to drink some more of that coffee drink.

I know, I need to go. What is the pink coffee drink? This is the Lauren Bostic drink. Oh, it's the old one I thought so, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So once you moved, what was life like then? Hard, actually harder, because I was 12, 13.

So just imagine a teenager, everything going for me. You know, academically I was performing socially. I was so set. I, like, had my best friend, had a boyfriend. And then all of that got taken away from me. I was excited because I knew it was going to be an amazing life and be with my cousins. And it was also exciting. I don't think I realized just how traumatic it would be, immigrating at 12 or 13, the brink of

teenagehood. And that's really when my relationship with food and my body started suffering. I was actually really young. The more I think about it, there was no social media, but I discovered fair dieting at that point, I think as a way to control this changing environment in my life, immigrating, having to make new friends, having to find myself again at school, you know, academically. And I think latching onto fad diets was my way of controlling my, environment and also controlling my weight became this like obsession again a way to control so many

changes in my life and so immigration was tough I think it was just really difficult for me at the age of 12 or 13 and I think it stayed with me for life that sense of loss and yeah it was traumatic what was it like dealing with an eating disorder that young so young and like I don't think any of us really understood it for a couple of years but I was really restrictive and I always say like being, I was obsessed with being thin. And I just say that with honesty because that was my truth. And I, at 12 or 13, that's young, you know, and my, my, my, the numbers on the scale really did determine my self-worth, 100%. And this really went on for 10 years until I studied my Bachelor of Health and Nutrition, completely governed by the, but the number on the

scale, completely obsessed with fad dining, trying every single fad diet there is in the world. And, the problem with all of that is that you just develop this really sad and disconnected relationship with food and yourself. You stop listening to your own body. I was listening to everyone else. And I really just developed disordered eating, really negative body dysmorphia. Just the torturous cycle of fad dieting, binge eating, overeating, and then it all happens again. I feel like that's lonely too. Yeah. And none of my friends were struggling. I've always been the one who struggles with things first. You know, a little bit like an Ares,

often the first to do things. Oh, Aries. We got an ARIERI. I got a lot of struggles going on. Fiery Ares. But we sometimes are like the first to do things, a bit of the leaders in the astrology. Michael loves that.

But yeah, so I feel like what, just to summarize, I had developed a really disordered relationship with food and my body. It was suffering. The number on the scale was determining my self-worth and this obsession with being thin was absolutely taking over my life. And I could not even think of anything else.

And of course, obsessive exercising on the side. And really the sad part is that every single fad diet tells you something different. So by the end of it, you're actually afraid of all the foods because one bad diet says avoid carbs. The next one says avoid protein. The next one says avoid fats. No have high fats. And so by the end of it, I was just confused. I think people are still confused.

Right? And that's literally why I started my career. Like 15 years ago, Jay's Health began as literally just a blog. It was my diary. I was just saying, surely there's a better way to live a healthy life. I'm feeling confused. I'm studying health and nutrition. Come on, guys.

It has to be a better way to live a healthy life. And you know what? The thing is, through this time, I actually wasn't controlling my weight very well. I was yo-yoing in my weight. My mental health was suffering. My hair was falling out. My sleep was bad. My mood was bad.

So how come these bad diets aren't actually giving me the results that I'm hoping for? And that's really what led me on this journey and a pure passion project to help women find freedom with food in their bodies and really understand that fad diets fail us. We do not fail them. I can tell you now, like anyone else out there who's feeling like they're failing a diet, you are not failing. It's failing you. And diets aren't actually designed to be followed. The brain doesn't like to follow the restriction and deprivation associated with dieting. And that began the Jays Health community of just literally preaching there's a better way.

to live a healthy life and take care of your body. And I promise you, bad diets don't have to be in the mix at all. Do you remember the epiphany of when you started to see clearly through your eating disorder? Like, was there a moment that, or you saw something on TV and something clicked and changed in your brain? Or was it like a slow build? It was kind of slow, but also during my Bachelor of Health and Nutrition, I actually had panic attacks in my classes because I realized as a fad diet, how I was trashing my body.

because when you're learning about the power of nutrients and minerals through whole foods, which I had deprived myself of. Like I was petrified of avocado, petrified of olive oil, petrified of protein, petrified of carbohydrates. And then you're in nutrition school and you're learning the importance of these foods and how they literally keep your body and your brain functioning. I literally had panic attacks. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm living off cans of diet, coke, cans of tuna, artificial sweeteners, black coffee with artificial sweeteners, you know,

and then realizing, oh my gosh. This is raising my cortisol levels. This is not supporting my hormones. This is not supporting my serotonin and melatonin and dopamine. And I remember going up to my lectures at union just saying, oh my God, my God, this is what I've been doing. Am I going to be okay? Am I going to die?

Literally, just an epiphany of I need to take care of my body. And so slowly, and I do say that was the slow thing, that I would slowly add the whole foods back to my diet. I was in therapy on the side, looking after my relationship with food and my body in a very vulnerable way. My mom is also a therapist, so always encouraged us to be in therapy. And so I was taking care of the mental side as well as the physical side with adding back in the whole foods without too much fear. But also then what happened is I noticed how much better I felt.

You know, I was sleeping better, my hair wasn't falling out. My weight started stabilizing. Whilst letting go of the fat dieting and the restriction and the deprivation, my weight actually was better than ever. Because I wasn't restricting and depriving myself and my cortisol levels probably were coming down. Your mind was right too. My mind was right. I was sleeping better. My hormones were probably balancing out after so many years of just stressing them out.

It's probably like liberating relief. Totally. When you look at all the different ways that women are trying to lose weight now, and let me give you some examples. When I was in high school and still now like Adderall, everyone talks about Adderall for weight loss. Not talking about Adderall for ADD. Talking about Adderall for weight loss.

And also this new thing, I'm sure you've heard about this, this diabetes drug that people are trying. Yeah, metformin. Metformin. I don't know what you guys call it here. Zampin. It's the same thing, I think. When you hear all these extreme ways that women are trying to lose weight,

everything you've gone through and where you are now, what is your advice with that? They short term. So you will see results short term. You will. You'll see results for three months, maybe six months. But literally in the 15 years that I've been doing this, I'm yet to see someone who's been able to maintain the results on any,

short-term diet or medication. This is the problem though because most people and I hate to say it and what I try to caution everybody that listens to the show is like most people unfortunately are short-term thinkers. They're like, okay, I'm getting the results right now. I understand. Literally as a former fad dieter, I can tell you how bloody tempting it is. I used to sit and say I will do anything. I will try anything. I will take anything. I even took the weight loss medications. I would laxatives, everything I could get my hands on to get to be thin because being thin was my absolute end goal in life and that's it. End of story.

And that was the only thing my brain cared for. They are, that you will see results with some of them, but as I say, it's short term. And unfortunately, the body just doesn't like to sustain it. It fights it. It rebels against it. It's not natural. And it's not natural. And unfortunately, also, firstly, from a diet perspective, you know, being on these

bad diets, after about six months from my time in this industry, people will just go back to their old ways after about their three to six month mark. And in terms of medications, the results are just short term. And sometimes, unfortunately, they short term and then they have a more long-term negative effect. So people actually, if they're taking those weight loss medications or caffeine or adderol, it stresses their body out, probably does raise their cortisol levels. It might affect their hormones. And it might put their body into stress response.

And then after stopping the medication actually can be harder to cause. control their weight. Well, here's the other thing, too. Like, I'm in my mid-30s now. And, you know, like when you get into 25, 30, like, that's when you got to, I think you got to start really kind of like watch what you're doing, what you're eating, how you're treating your body. And I think a lot of young people, and I'm calling out young people specifically just because they, they haven't got to the point yet where their body starts to just kind of like stabilize to what it will be in their adult life. And they're doing all these detrimental things at the young age. And when you become 25, 30, 35, it is so fucking hard to recover. And then you have a full life ahead of you where you're

going to have to deal with even worse problems. Yeah, I think it, I think it, I I think it has an actual long-term damage on the body, on your nervous system, on your brain, on the way that you hold onto fat. Honestly, on your metabolism, I think diets, and I think there's some really good research to support this now, how it affects your thyroid, which is your master of metabolism, and you and I both have a thyroid disorder. I have Hashimoto's, which is with the antibodies associated. Remember, last time I asked you to get your blood results.

Maybe you can get them for me. I need to get them for you. Because I want to see if you have antibodies. because people, it's going to be the next on the rising because people are being diagnosed with thyroid disorder or disease, like just hypothyroidism, but we need to go deeper because a lot of people are struggling with the antibodies, which causes inflammation in the body. And that is the first thing to address, not just the thyroid with thyroid medication, but actually the antibodies. Wait, so if I have antibodies from my thyroid condition, yes, then that means that I have to

address the antibodies first before the thyroid. Yeah, and taking medication, will support things. Because you've got to get the inflammation down is what you're saying first. Taking medication is important because you need to basically replace that T4, which is the thyroxine that converts into T3, that then converts into the hormones that help your metabolism. But on the other side, people can still not feel as good as they should with the antibodies rising. And so there are ways to reduce those antibodies.

So you sort of want to look up to them both at the same time. So you want to look up to the thyroid hormones with the thyroxine, which you take, and then taking care of the antibodies. but you might not have any antibodies. But what are the ways to help you want to get rid of them? But I'm seeing so many people diagnosed with thyroid disease. My sister just got diagnosed with it. And we got her bloods tested and she had Hashimoto's.

I'm just seeing a lot of thyroid disease, but more so associated with Hashimoto's. So if you're seeing all these thyroid issues, what do you think the correlation? Like, why do people have so many thyroid issues? I actually, I'm, so my obsession, it's so funny because I've obviously loved and followed Lauren forever. And I've been obsessed with cortisol the same way that you have. I actually believe stress is really causing a lot of these issues. And there's no signs to back me up here. It's my, I'm a very intuitive, I used to call myself an intuitive nutritionist,

an intuitive practitioner. I feel things and I feel the world is in a very stressed out state. It's really hard to have your nervous system come to a place of calm. Like, what do we have to do to get us feeling calm in this world? Like it's a lot. Like I say to people, I have this really strict morning and nighttime routine, which we can talk about. Yes.

To calm down my nervous system. But what I like to say to people is like, that's hard bloody work. You know, like I have to switch my phone off by APM. I have to have my Epsomacal bath. I have to put my eye mask on. I have to make sure I do not check my phone or emails after a certain time. Like all these things you have to do to calm down your nervous system in the world we're living in.

It's a lot. Let me ask you this though. Because I think about this stuff a lot. So I agree with you that everybody's running around way more stressed out than they need to be. But where my pushback and critique with this argument is it's not, to me, the world is not any more stressful now than it's been in the past. I mean, like, there has been famine, there's been war, there's been disease.

That's true. Maybe it's perceived stress. So that's what I'm asking. Yeah. You know, like there's mental stress. The world, you know, there's a book called factfulness. It has gotten actually better over time and more, you know,

you live longer, it's healthier and more resource, all these things. But I think people's perceived stress is way more out of control. I agree with that. That correlation is. No, I actually agree with that. I think it's just different stress.

I think social media, comparison, the world we're living in, for some reason, feels harder. Like, even when I grew up, and I know I would have been young and naive. But do you feel like when you guys grew up and I know we're similar age, do you feel the world was a bit of an easier place? I feel like it was maybe an easier place because you weren't.

So the world has gotten, well, it's very big, it's gotten very small. Because everybody can see everything real quick and real time. And so I think when you take that burden on and you're looking at everything that everyone else is doing and what the world, like, you know, something would happen on the other side of the world. You might not know about it for three months. It's called overconnection. Yes. And that is stressing out our nervous systems.

I think we're living in a world. I mean, we can see it in the stats. Mental health, depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD. My therapist is one of the head, you know, she's the specialist in OCD at the moment. And not at the moment, she's the specialist in OCD. And she has never seen, never seen people struggle to this extent. This is what I think it is. I think when you're staring at a device and there's no human connection and you're looking what everyone else is doing

and you're focusing on comparing your life to what everyone else is doing, and you don't have boundaries around the device, it's going to suck you down. It's not just the device. In 2018, Lorna and I made it just, we stopped. We don't have cable in the house anymore, and we don't even have a news channel. So, you know, like we'll see things online, but I think they're also, like, we're living in a time now where these channels are like constantly fearmongering, right? And people are watching it all day long.

And when you disconnect from it and you, you, it's like, I talk to people, you know, like my dad or his friends, older guys that are still watching. all this stuff. During the pandemic, we didn't watch the news once. They think the world is like ending. Ending, sure. I'm like, hey, I've just been living fine. And I'm like, well, you can't do that. You're disconnected. You don't know, you're unaware. But I actually can't to protect my peace. I'm a big fan of protecting my piece. And I think that when I started not looking at my phone two hours in the morning and not going to bed with my phone, it changed my life.

I'm literally, that those are my two things. Do not wake up to scrolling on your phone and do not go to bed scrolling on your phone. And let me tell you. People are falling asleep with their phones near their head. Because they're scrolling and they're falling asleep while they're scrolling. I met three people this week in my personal life who told me that they fall asleep while scrolling. But also the effect on your relationships and the importance of your sleep, the deep sleep. Like you can say as a nutritious, like sleep, sleep, but eight hours of sleep, deep, restorative sleep. And back to why I think thyroid disease is on the rise. It's not just it's stress, it's cortisol, its nervous system.

Could be hormones. Cortisol has a huge impact on all of our hormones, estrogen, progester. own. But I think that feeling of unsafe and that feeling of fear is feeling intense at the moment in the world. Of course, after the pandemic could also be our food. People are not getting those essential minerals like iodine, selenium, zinc. These are minerals that literally keep our thyroid going and performing and our food can be lacking in these minerals. I know in Australia I used to do in my private practice, you do so many tests, blood tests, and I can't even, that's how I came up with heroin energy. I can't even tell you how low people's iodine, zinc, and selenium levels were,

and these are the three minerals that are critical for your thyroid to perform. It's also, you know, you were talking about, you know, living in places where there's real danger, right? And there's a lot of places. Like, I think sometimes people, especially in the U.S., they take for granted how safe a lot of, I mean, maybe not now. There's a lot of places that are not. But in other parts of the world, there's danger and it's abundant. It's always. And we live in this country here where you have this kind of false sense of security. You've had that false sense of security for everything's comfortable, everything's convenient, you feel like nothing bad can happen.

I think with the pandemic, it kind of stripped a lot of that away. And people like, wait a minute, I'm not as safe as I thought I was, and now I'm stressed about everything. It's like, no, it's always been this way. Yeah, I think our nervous systems are not responding the same way.

There's just so much fear in built in myself, in people that I meet. Like, there's this extra sense of fear attached to everything, which I think rattles our nervous system, which affects our cortisol levels, which then affects estrogen, progesterone, and thyroid hormones.

Like, we know, now, there's some science to show the link between cortisol and thyroid hormone. So that just shows how cortisol, which is our stress hormone, which is linked to our nervous system, how it affects so many different aspects. It can affect our blood sugar levels, which can then affect our energy levels, which then can affect our sleep. It's all linked. So I think really taking, I think the next big thing in the health industry is going to be taking care of our nervous system. And I think that it's actually a lot of it's going to be free advice. Go outside and get sunlight, get off your phone, put your feet in the ground. Ten minutes. Ten minutes in the morning. Ten minutes a night. Minerals and water. Supplement.

Simplifying. I noticed that my hair postpartum has gotten 20 times thicker than it was before. And yes, I'm supplementing, but I'm also eating a lot of meat. That's controversial. Well, iron is really important for hair grows. I'm eating a lot of grass-fed meat like every single day. And my hair, my eyebrows is just, it's so much thicker. Yeah. So I think it's exactly what you said. It's going back to the basics and simplifying everything. That makes me excited because I also started JAA's Health as a way to simplify the health industry. I felt very confused and very overwhelmed. And as Michael said, we're still confused and overwhelmed. How can we possibly be when we have come so far with the health industry? And I created the vitamins even to simplify the vitamin space. I think simplifying

is the next best thing we can do for our health. Exactly what you just said. You've like nailed it in the head. It's like when I talk about morning and nighttime routine, I'm talking like 10, 15 minutes. It can be. And switching your phone off and not scrolling, these are things that are like actually meant to be easy to do, going downstairs and having a calm, peaceful 10 minutes of making your lemon water and making your coffee and, you know, taking 10 deep belly breaths. Like that is, when you say to someone, I say to my clients, take 10 deep belly breaths morning and night. Do you know how hard that is for people to do? And that's the best way because we have our vagus nerve. The best way to calm down your nervous system immediately is by activating your vagus nerve,

which is through deep belly breathing. So just 10 morning and night is all you need to do to calm down your cortisol. You know, like, okay, you're obviously a business owner. You run a company. I run a company. Lauren runs a company. And I feel like one thing, like the biggest thing that I champion within the business is like not to overcomplicate things. Yeah. Right. Like everybody thinks that doing something like this or running a business or taking care of yourself is this overcomplicated equation that requires all of these things. I'm like, listen, start here. Let me know where you want to go. What are the three steps to get there? Do that. Right. Like people envelope all of these things and they think they have to have all these different formulas and all these different answers and all these. And all these.

these different procedures. And I'm like, you're just over-complicating and convoluting everything. I think the same thing happens in your health. 100%. If it sounds like it's this big hoop that you've got to jump through and it's all over in place, you probably don't need to do it. We didn't evolve this way. Literally. It's just very simple. A hundred percent. I think, again, I used to say in private practice, one to two changes a week. And they can be the tiniest, but you wouldn't believe the difference that they make. People who are drinking one or two coffees a day, really that can be affecting their cortisol

levels and their sleep. Come back to one coffee a day. before 10 or 11 a.m., their entire sleep and energy levels change, or their sleep patterns and energy levels change. Adding more water, another liter of water. What a novel idea. What's the biggest cause of fatigue? Probably being dehydrated, yeah. Yeah, of course. I never drink water at all. Yeah. Well, look at you. But literally, the number one cause of fatigue can be dehydration and people are feeling so tired these days. Being tired and low in energy is like a thing. So I think more water. two small changes a week, going to bed half an hour earlier. Yeah, I mean, if you think about it in the simplest terms, again, like, we didn't have access

to all of these complicated things in the past, right? So, like, yeah, like food, good food, good water, good sleep, getting some sun, like all of these things. We've just gotten so far away. And we live in these, I mean, no, all these lights for the podcast. But you know what I mean? We're in these, artificial boxes with all these artificial things thinking this is how we're going to be healthy. You look at so much blood work. Out of everyone's blood work, what's something that you you see that's a common denominator and which vitamin is a vitamin that you think, or mineral, that you think people are missing. And it's across the board and you can't believe it. And Taylor, take notes because Taylor hasn't had a vitamin since 1999. It's definitely, um, it was a limestone.

I actually can't get over the low iodine levels that I was seeing and I'm seeing. That's why I created hair and energy because people are always adding in these very interesting, the same boring, not boring, let me say that again, because I'm scared I'm going to get criticism. people are just adding in the biotin, the silica, the collagen into hair supplements, right? And what happened was I used to do people's blood work and saw that their iodine levels were really low. So I would prescribe them iodine through kelp. And I watched that their hair would grow like wildfire and their eyebrows. And I could just tell and I was like, let me look into the research.

And just side note, can you have, you want to have that when you have a thyroid like mine? Depends. Okay, go ahead, go ahead. Depends. But at a small amount like 150 to 200 micrograms, that's really nice and safe. So it was just an accident to how I discovered hair energy which is our best-selling

hair growth formulation which really does work which is interesting to me because people in the industry especially in the vitamin industry do go off trends again the silica, the biotin, the collagen

and what happened was I was prescribing kelp for the iodine levels because people's iodine levels were low and started seeing that the hair was growing so we looked into the research

and we actually saw that iodine has been proven to support hair growth hair strength and hair thickness that's the exact research claim and zinc has has been shown to support hair growth and help maintain healthy hair. Again, the research claim is exactly that. And so I was like, I'm going to create a hair formulation with these two minerals

because in the science, this is even stronger than what I'm seeing with biotin and silicon, collagen. And that's how we let, you know, it's literally looking into the research and seeing how these minerals can help support, have been proven to support various aspects. So when it comes to what I think people, people are often low in the minerals. I think people are low. It's hard to test, you know, essential fatty acids through the blood, but people are often low in essential fatty acids. People are often low in magnesium. Again, I call it the magic mineral because everyone, everyone feels better when they take magnesium. There are a couple of things. I like your magnesium at night. Magnesium at night, if I take your magnesium at night, I was traveling with it. It's just a way

to wind down. For some reason, it signals my body just wind down. Because magnesium glycinate is the one that has been proven to actually target the nervous system specifically. I notice it and also I notice it gets things moving, which who doesn't like that? Citrate. That's the citrate. It gets things moving. Magnesium is a good one. I got my blood work tested and I was really low on fish oil.

Yeah. And one of the things that if you're low on fish oil is you get easily inflamed. And as we know, with the products I've launched that I run puffy. So are you, you just mentioned that you're noticing that a lot. Can you talk about if you're low on fish oil, what you'll see happen? Well, dry skin is one. Really, that's fish oil. There are three supplements that I think people just feel much better when taking.

And I don't normally say this. I'm very careful with prescribing and I absolutely hate talking about my own products and I don't push them on anyone. But there are three things that people feel better at taking. A probiotic, magnesium and fish oil. They like the three standards. We actually call them the J.S. Health Foundations because people just feel better taking those three things. I mean, the research behind probiotics is pretty, it's probably the best there is in the health industry right now, the microbiome and the way.

I'm taking one on air. I'm taking one of your probiotics. Sorry, go ahead. I mean, and our strains of probiotics are so carefully selected and only, we will only use the strains that have been proven in the research to actually work. You can take one to two. Should I take one or two? You can take two. Just why not?

I'm trusting you. It's funny because I actually, you know, like I just know, I mean, the research is just so phenomenal at the moment. I've been taking out probiotics as well and I'm actually sleeping better. And I did some research and I saw that there is a link between our gut microbiome and sleep. I'm sure you guys have seen that as well. So if you're having trouble sleeping, you add a probiotic. Well, I mean, magnesium first.

But it's interesting because all these things, our microbiome, I think we're just at the start of how important it is for our overall health. And we know how important it is for dopamine and serotonin and our immune system already. But it's going to get, it's pretty incredible already. The research behind probiotics. And as I said, I started sleeping better since taking them. And I'm like, hmm, something's interesting. So I looked.

And there is a correlation between our microbiome and sleep, which is pretty phenomenal. I think fish oil is. You were saying that you were taking it for something. Oh, for inflammation? Yes. There are two things that are just so great at reducing inflammation. One, being fish oil at a really nice dose, about two grams. We have a triple-strength fish oil, so you can take one to two,

so you don't have to take like five caps. And you wanted to be a fish oil, though, that is really carefully sourced. That's the thing. You want it to be small fish. Macarole, sardines. You've got to be careful. And you want to know literally where that fish oil has been sourced from. You want to know it's sustainably sourced.

No, it's heavy metal tested. Luckily, now we have good fish oils, but how do you know if it's a bad fish oil supplement? Like, what do you look for? Firstly, okay. Well, I like to look at the dose. Firstly, if it's a low dose, I don't like that. Like, J.S. Health vitamins, the reason, again, why I created, I was like, come on, guys, we need hydros.

It's more expensive for us as a company. But I want you to take magnesium at 200 milligrams, which is our dose. And because I want you to sleep better, I want your bowels to move. I want your muscles to relax. You know, I want you to feel better. J.S. H.S.L. vitamins was created to be solution-focused vitamins for women in particular's main pain points. But the biggest difference with J-Salt vitamins and the reason why it's had success is

genuinely the little aspects like the dose. Those are like little mini eggs, those are big dose of things. They are triple strength. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful fish oil. What we did is we coded them in vanilla. I just going to ask you. Yeah, it's vanilla because we don't want people to have any fishy updates. Listen, being a practitioner has helped me because I saw what people liked about supplements and what people didn't like. I saw the confusion and overwhelmed people felt. And so we actually put the name on the supplement. We tell you how that supplement's going to help you. Back quickly to inflammation, fish oil and turmeric are the best ways to reduce inflammation. I've never, the research behind tumric and inflammation is brilliant. Brilliant.

Tools in your toolbox? Yes, toolbox. Okay. So it's really my morning and nighttime routine. I know you go obsessed by that. But they are. That is. Like starting my day with the 20 minutes of calm, not checking my phone, not checking my emails. I actually, so I'm, I have gone extreme in this way because boundaries are my best way of taking care of myself at the moment. And so I delete Instagram and my emails from my phone the night before. So around, I have a time. So I set it at 8pm for me. And I always say to people, especially moms, you set a time that works for you, because I know moms sometimes have to work at night. So you have to set a time though, because if you set the time, you will commit to it. If you don't set a time, you will not commit to it. So mine is 8, 8.30.

that's my cut off time. No more social, no more email, no more... But I literally delete the app because I've counted and it takes eight seconds to re-download it the next day. If I don't... But I do have an obsessed... But they need to go log back in everything?

No, you can automatically log back in for you. So I delayed all my apps. I'm acting very lazy. I'm like, can't even put a password in, but... Yeah, passwords is so annoying. I agree. So my morning routine is 20 minutes. I don't have any apps on my phone.

So firstly, I'll have a workout of some sort. I'll have a workout. I'll work out in a way that I feel like, Again, tuning into your body and what works for you is the biggest thing. And I know you guys talk a lot about that, but that's why I started J-Salth. I'm like, I'm listening to what everyone else is doing, all the trending exercises, the trending foods, but I actually want to listen to what works for me. And running on a treadmill for two hours a day was actually not working for me.

I don't think it's working for anybody. Yeah, exactly. So Pilates, yoga, I go for a walking age of 20 minutes, have a coffee, take my vitamins. By that time, I also have not checked my phone, pretty much. I'll have my eye messages on if anything urgent, but I haven't scrolled. And I like to start my day in a calm note. I think how you start your day sets the tone for the day. And I know you're very into that.

I love that you say you read. That's something I really want to do one day. You're doing okay. You're good. So my morning routine and the nighttime routine. And then I have obviously the Jays helps like smoothie in the morning and power protein smoothie with my vitamins. Nighttime routine is the same thing.

20 minutes. It's called the wind down to me. It's just an Epsom salt bath, my magnesium. I take my PM Plus, which is a sleep vitamin with lavender oil extract, which is, again, incredible research behind calming down the mind. Because, again, people are saying just sleep. But how to put your brain to sleep. And sleep deeply is what I'm more interested in.

You can't just say sleep seven, eight hours. It's like, you need to calm down your nervous system and get that melatonin firing. Like people don't know that cortisol levels are meant to come down at 6 p.m. And then come back up, right? No, so melatonin is meant to take over at 6 p.m. To rise up. But in this day and age, I don't think it's happening very well. So people's cortisol levels actually rise up, and that is what causes adrenal fatigue often.

So people who are waking up tired, I like to rise up. I like to ask them how, like what is happening in that nighttime evening routine and how quickly, what time are you falling asleep and how much sleep are you getting? You're 100% right. I had an adrenal issue and I worked on it with my doctor and fixed it. But basically my issue was I think I was blasting him so hard to your point at night. And then in the morning when the cortisol is exposed to rise, it wasn't strong enough to be able to do so. And so he's like, hey, you need to actually boost the cortisol in your system because you're, you fuck yourself up.

You've depleted it for so long. Cortisol is so nice, nice, nice. And then it's like that thing that you, it will be, it will turn very quickly. So you want it in the perfect amounts and then it will, but the best, if anyone out there is wondering what adrenal fatigue is, the first sign is waking up tired and craving salty foods. And that's sort of when you, that's sort of when you like, hmm, something's going with adrenal's and we need to know what's happening with the melatonin cortisol cycle. And that's the thing that we need to address. And the minute you. Taylor wakes up tired, beeried and craves Doritos.

So Taylor, are your adrenal fatigue? I got these things in the gas station earlier. They're like, they look like little hot chitos. Wait, wasn't Taylor taking something? He's taking our collagen. Yeah, I was taking the, I was taking the collagen. I had the, what was it, the anti-stress, the one that was in the black bottle? Oh, no, you were taking the PM Plus.

Yes, that's what I'm. And then I had the shit, what was the other one? I was taking three of them. I can't recall what they are, but they were great. I, I took them all. No, remember you was sleeping better. That made me really happy. Yeah, definitely.

Because that's why, like, so magnesium glycenae citrate chelate with the lavender oil extract and camamamile and passion about. So again, these are ingredients that have been proven in the research to calm down the mind and the nervous system to enhance sleep. And so I say people who are not sleeping well, please just figure out it's not about just saying to yourself, I need to go to sleep for eight hours. It's like actually preparing the mind and the nervous system. How can you prepare your mind and your nervous system for sleep? Think about the pre-bed time. Rather than just saying, I need to go to bed, put my head down and sleep eight hours. Think about the pre-bed.

What is happening? What are you eating for dinner? people don't even know that protein, amino acids help to make triptophan, which helps to make melatonin. So people are not eating protein at dinner, a lot of vegans and plant-based people who I respect people who follow those diets for ethical reasons, but not getting those amino acids in can really affect their sleep and their skin as well. So, and their dopamine and serotonin. Do you want to know something that has been making me wake up with a pep in my step?

Mouth taping. I tape my mouth shut every night Well for people that have trouble So A lot of people don't have this trouble But if you're somebody that sleeps and breathes out of your mouth Instead of your nasal passage That's your

So what is it helping? Oh my God I swear to God Because it makes you breathe deeper No so you're using the oxygen out of your nose As opposed to your mouth so it's different But I think that also has I have a feeling that that it connects with the vagus nerve better

It's also better for your jaw and, you know, jaw structure. Well, you go do your doctor research and tell me, because I have been taping my mouth shut. It's not a big deal. I use the, it's blue off Amazon. It's like V102. And it's these strips. I posted a TikTok on it, you guys. It's also good for oral health, too.

Yeah. Oh, I thought you're going to say it's good for oral sex. I'm like, it's not good for all sex. You can't get your dick in my mouth with this mouth tape. It's completely shut. Once the mouth tape is on to, he knows, like, don't come near me, don't touch me. It's a great way, like, if you're just, like, done for the night, too, you put the mouth tape on. I love the mouth tape.

It's just like, at night comes around. I'm like, good, just shut the fuck out. And then my daughter, and when I wake up in the morning, she like rips it off my face. She wants it off my face. But it does work. And it's, you got to get the right one, though, because there's different brands. And, like, especially if you're like. Does heroin have them?

I'm sure. I'm sure everyone has a lot. It's nice. We have a little ritual at like 5.30 p.m. I pull out the mouth tape and I put it over her mouth. And I'm like, that's it's it for you today. Let me tell you something. I wake up with so much more energy because of my magnesium.

Yeah, magnesium really helps with energy in the morning. People do not know that. Can we just talk about that? Yes. Because people are worried that magnesium will make them feel tired. Magnesium actually is involved in 300 different biochemical pathways in the body. You can imagine just how much it helps with energy production. And actually, because I look into the research so much, magnesium has a research claim that helps to support energy production.

That is literally the research claim. Supports energy production. So magnesium is so brilliant because it works on calming down the nervous system, calming down the muscle relaxation, but also energy production. Can you distinguish real quick on the magnesium from the magnesium glycinate versus citrate? Yes, I'm obsessed. I actually like both. I like glycate or do you take them at different times? So ours has all three. The three favorite forms of magnesium, magnesium, and chelite. They have different functions. L3 and 8. Magnet. Is that not something? No, I don't like orotate that much. I don't like oxide that much.

Which one is yours? Maybe it's an American. No, no, no, keep going. Keep going. Yeah. So magnesium, we like, you want to have the most buy-available forms of magnesium. Now, let me tell you, they're also much more expensive. If you're seeing a supplement with magnesium glycinate, this is a very good sign. Magnesium glycinate in our vitamin industry is an expensive ingredient, but it's the best when it comes to calming down the nervous system. And key, light and citrate are really good for bowel, bowel movement and muscle relaxation. But it's okay to take citrate at night, even with the bowel stuff? Yes, absolutely. And also, it really helps people in the morning. That's why I like it. The thing about magnesium is not very instantaneous when it comes to the bowel movement. It takes time because you know what it does. It relaxes the muscles, the bowel muscles, but also draws water into the bowels to help.

For some reason I thought, and maybe I was just ignorant, it probably was, that I knew the glycinate was great for night, but I thought the citrate was like if you wanted to eat it or take it in the day and then like go have a workout. It can because it's really good for your muscles and energy. But this is what I say about magnesium. It's a mineral that's so beautiful because it doesn't. It doesn't have, it's not intense in the body. It really just supports it. So it's not going to be instantaneous energy.

It's not going to be instantaneous bowel movement. It's not going to be instantaneous muscle relaxation. That's why you want to take it probably on a regular basis for most. I can't prescribe and I'm careful with prescribing. But you also want to take magnesium at a good dose. So it's okay if you take it at night because you're getting enough in that night for the next day. People take our magnesium in our PM Plus that has the three different forms, magnesium citrate, glycinate and chelite and they sleep better.

But the best thing about magnesium is you sleep better, but you also wake up more energized. And I think it also has a nice effect on the adrenal glands. It really does feed the adrenal glands. But it also helps how hormones magnesium, when people used to come and see me with any sort of hormonal imbalances, my three favorites were magnesium, B6 and fish oil. The three together, like gives me chills when I talk about vitamins because I just have seen the way that they help so many.

Anyone out there struggling with hormonal imbalances, magnesium, fish oil and B6 for a nice chunk period of time. And as I say, doses matter in vitamins. So the thing is you all go through the, aisles of Whole Foods or heroin, you'll see a magnesium. But if you look at the back and it has 50 milligrams of magnesium, that's just not enough. That's not a therapeutic effect. So you want to find a company that is interested in investing in therapeutic doses and forms of the ingredient. So is it magnesium orotate or is a magnesium glycinate? And is it at 50 milligrams or is that

200 milligrams? Therapeutic dose is what you want because that's how you're going to take a supplement and actually notice a benefit or a result. What should our children be taking? Listen, we have a nice kids multi, but I love kids to get their nutrition through food. Yeah. I think we keep it, again, like simplifying. And I know you guys, I'm sure, feed your kids really wholesome food. And modeling off the parents, you guys eat healthy. She's the other day for breakfast, though.

Like, I'm not going to pretend to be like, listen, I do what I can do. Exactly. I mean, my mom let us have McDonald's twice a week growing up. You know, it's like, it really is. And it's boring to say this in the health industry at this point, but the 80-20 approach. It's like, I really aim to eat. well 80% of the time. Why? Just because I want to feel good. I want to wake up, energize. I want to sleep well. But I absolutely want to have my rosé at lunch today.

I absolutely have my truffle pasta at Il-Pastayo. I absolutely want to have my gelato on a Saturday night. I want to go, you know, it's like that it really is. And I think the body likes that, though, in terms of honest weight management, it's so fascinating because I used to, I had the book, my books and my eight-week program. And it was all about letting go of bad dining, stopping to weigh yourself. Like, literally part of my philosophy was people have have to throw out the scale for three months. Throw out the scale. Stop fat dieting.

Stop restricting. And I used to actually say to people, you have to go out on Saturday night and indulge in something you're craving. Wine, gelato, pasta. And the fascinating thing to me was that people started balancing out their weight by being more relaxed, by being kinder to themselves, by being more flexible, by calming down that nervous system

and having a better relationship with food, people's weight started balancing out. I know you know that and talk about that. I could not lose weight with my first baby because I was so stressed out every single. single day. And your relationship with food, like were you restricting and depriving yourself? Do you think?

I was, I was intermittent fasting. I was exhausting my adrenals. I was complaining about it. I looked back on that time and it was just like I was just, it was, I was taxing on my nervous system, whereas this time I've taken the approach of like, let's weight lift, let's take walks. It sounds to me like you're tuning into your body and actually listening to it. Like the problem in the world we're living in is we're listening to everyone else

where we stop listening to ourselves and what works for me. What works for me is very different to what works for you guys. guys. Well, Lauren and I both have the same blood type and that blood type, you know, if you go through it, like our blood type does very well with red meat. It just does, right? And we do, and we're both the same. And I've, you know, my dad is almost 80 and he's been a big meat eater, almost no vegetables in entire life. And really healthy. Yeah, and very healthy, like cholesterol for all these things. And I'm like, listen, you have to kind of actually go into your point, your blood work, your genetics, you would work. You can't just go and say like, this person does it this way. So I'm going to do it that way and

I'm not going to. And can I be honest, like even if you don't do the blood work and stuff, if you give yourself some time to tune into your body, you will figure out quite soon what works for you. Because if you start eating meat and starting to feel good and energize and sleeping better and all of that, you will figure out yourself that, wow, that works for me. Right. You know what I'm saying is that sometimes,

I think it scares people when you have to say, go get the blood work, go get the hormone test, go get the stool test, it's overwhelming. But actually, if people could have the freedom to go and eat what they're craving and not feel so much fear around food and start realizing, wow, I'm actually feeling really good, that works for me.

giving yourself the permission and the freedom to say, yay, that works me. Sometimes I won't have a vegetable for like four days straight and have like literally eight servings of meat. And then you feel good. Yeah, but you have to be careful of that because you get under eyebags if you don't have enough vegetables. No, but that since when? I don't know, but I wanted to tell Jessica that you did the stool sample test where you shit in the bag. Can you break that down for everyone who wants to know about that? I don't know if we needed to go.

I did it. If there's an episode we did with Dr. Darrell. You know, Dr. Darrell where we go through all that. I don't need to put people through that again. He shit in a bag and sent it on. say. So this was interesting. So I did all my, I'll do this quick for people that have listened for a while. My blood work came back, I'm not going to lie, pretty stellar, honestly. It was like pretty great. I'm sure. And it was like, I was a little low on zinc like borderline. So I bumped that up. I was a little low on like,

had more oysters. A. So like bump that up. But so the reason I say this is that the blood work and I had been working. I was sober. I was doing all of these things to like really take care of supplementing, you know, taking care of myself. So I was like, that looks good. I was like, let's take it a step further and do the gut work. And then the gut work's like, okay, there's. some candida, like some inflammation. I'm like, I would have never caught it if I just did that. So then I did some things and I got on this, like gut protocol with him and now I feel way better. But I think this is why people need to kind of look at both things, right? Totally. And also like just to give yourself permission to say, that works for me.

Right. You know, like I used to feel so scared to be like, I love to eat meat too. And I love rice. And I love foods that make me feel good. So like, but that might not work for someone else. I just think tuning into your body and works for you is like the next best. way to live the healthy life, you know, and I think it's, we're not there yet. People are still listening to everyone else. People are still confused and overwhelmed and listening to every other

trend out there and following influences or, you know, following trends, which I appreciate because I used to be one of those people who loved it and would do anything to achieve, you know, a better looking body. And I also say there's a difference between being health conscious and weight conscious. And, you know, you really want to gear towards the health conscious because then everything else balances out anyway. You really want to eat to feel good. eat to be well. And then you start figuring out which foods suit your body and your body type. You talked a little bit off air about mental health. What are some vitamins that you use to support mental health? And what have you gone through? I'm pretty obsessed with vitamins at the

moment to support mental health because of saffron. The research has 22 plus clinical trials right now to show the effects of saffron on anxiety, depression, and sleep. It has blown my mind. Like, I'm literally happy to send you guys the research. I actually haven't seen research this solid in the industry for a vitamin when it comes to mental health and well-being. Saffron at a really nice dose. We actually use afron, which is the extract that the studies have been conducted on itself. Like we use the standardised extract. Saffron with fish oil, magnesium.

And we have an anxiety plus stress formulation, which is a combination of very calming herbs, but also adapt-dating herbs, which I know you love, adapt-getting herbs like Ramania, ginseng. I love our anxiety and plus stress vitamin because it has the yin and the yang. calms you down but also really feeds the adrenal glands. Romani had a really good. Romani is one of my favorite adaptogenic herbs because it really does just juice up the adrenal glands and people feel much more energized when they take it in Siberian ginseng as well and then passion now. So if you are feeling like you're struggling with anxiety and sleep and your mood, really look at saffron, fish oil, magnesium and then we also have a formulation called anxiety plus stress that has a combination of

herbs and minerals that can really support your mental health and well-being. Can we do a JS health giveaway for the audience? Yes, of course. You tell me what you want to do. Whatever. We give away, like, what can we give away? Can we give away like a bundle? Yeah, we can give it like one of every product. Oh my God, you guys. That's so major. Definitely have to include the magnesium that I like. I'm a big fit for magnesium at night. If you have not implemented magnesium into your routine at night, I do it every single night. I did it in my whole pregnancy. I did it. I did it. I do it now. It's helped postpartum. It helps me sleep. It's part of my routine. Yeah. So let's give away that. Let's definitely include the magnesium. All you have to do is follow at JAS Health Vitamins.

JAS Health Vitamins on Instagram. And then do you want to do a code for the audience? Yes. What do we do? Let's do code skinny and tell them the exact magnesium I like if they want to go check it out. It's called magnesium plus. JIS Health Vitamins, magnesium plus. Easy. Double strength. I think that what you're doing for this industry is incredible. Your product. are amazing. I am such a fan. Thank you for coming on. Pimp yourself out. Where can people find you? I've been following you for so long. You were one of the first bloggers I think I followed. Oh, I'm so glad. Me too. I'm just so proud of you. I walked into the office today and I'm like, go Lauren and Michael. I'm so proud of you. I'm so proud of both of you. Honestly, it's unbelievable.

J.S. Health is my Instagram, my personal Instagram, and Js Health Vitamins is our products. And to win the giveaway, all you have to do is comment on my latest Instagram at Lauren Bostic, your favorite part of this podcast and follow at JS Health Vitamins on Instagram. Thank you for coming on. Thank you for doing this. Thank you for making the trip. Your accents lulling me to sleep with the magnesium. Oh my gosh, I know. This episode was brought to you by JS. Health. Be sure to use code skinny at jshealth vitamins.com. And if you want to win the giveaway, all you have to do is follow at JS. Health and tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram. I hope you guys learned as much as I did.

I definitely am about that thyroid.