The Livy Method Podcast - Let's Talk Calming Your Anxious Mind With Kyle Buchanan - Fall 2024

Episode Date: October 10, 2024

Gina talks anxiety, calming methods, gut health, and more with our guest expert, Kyle Buchanan. Kyle is a Certified Nutritional Practitioner, public speaker, and host of feelgoodery, a podcast for "anyone who has ever felt less-than" and "for those who want to feel a little GOODER".You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodfall2024Topics covered:A Quick Overwhelm: When things consume you more than they typically would.The seasonality of stress and anxiety.The intersection of weight loss and anxiety: Unknowns + Uncertainty + Past Diet History.  The "What-ifs" that rob us of being present in the moment.Anxiety as an outcome of our effort to try to control the uncontrollable.SSCC: Stop, Slowdown, Connect, Compassion - A strategy for your Anxiety Toolkit.Eye cupping and looking inward with a breath.Breathing techniques to help slow down and get present-minded. Try them out to find what works for you!Doing "all the things" and still finding time to microdose on breathing strategies to neutralize stress.Microbiome health and the connections to our mental health and ability to manage stress and anxiety.How eating a variety of foods and supplements can help improve gut health.The Vagus Nerve - the highway between the gut and brain.Kyle's favourite health & wellness topics and tips to share.How social media can create confusion and more doubt, even while being a forum for helping people.A way to cut out the noise of the (mis)information on social media and retain your power.Supporting circulation in the body using Creatine as a way to improve our energy and potentially our sex life.A community of people supporting each other is a powerful antidote to anxiety and feeling unhinged.Find Kyle online: Instagram: @itskyleb www.kylebuchanan.ca Podcast: feelgoodery To learn more about the Livy Method, visit www.ginalivy.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livy and welcome to the Livy Method podcast. This is where you'll have access to all of the live streams from my 91 day weight loss program. With a combination of daily lives, guest expert interviews and member stories, there is something new almost every day. Miss the morning live? Want to re-listen to one of our amazing guest experts? Well, this is the place. This podcast is hosted on Acast, but it's available on all podcast platforms, including the one you're listening to right now, Spotify, Apple,

and Amazon Music. This is an opportunity to become curious. To learn some things. How do we help you feel less overwhelmed so you can continue on your journey? Keep believing in yourself and keep trusting the process. Just be patient. How does anxiety affect someone's weight loss journey? That was a big aha moment the last time I spoke to today's guest. And now I want to get, I really want to get into that. Joining me today is Kyle Buchanan. He's a certified nutritional practitioner. If you head over to his Instagram account, it's Kyle B. You'll see happier guts, calmer minds, and occasional

nonsense. So we're kindred spirits, him and I, of course. He's also the host of the podcast, Feel Goodery, resident contributor to The Morning Show on Global. And now he's family here at Living Method. Hello. Hi, Gina. A few things. I'm always floored by the production quality of this. Full talk show, I love it. And second, I was saying this before we hopped on that it does feel like family with you because I'm feeling unhinged in a good way. Like, let's just get everything, which is what I like to do anyways. It's what I do in the podcast.

But like, truly, I think you just make me feel so comfortable. Everyone here. It's the most supportive group on Instagram that I've come across. Like the Libby losers, people comment, people respond. So I'm thrilled to be here i i i came across kyle a few years ago and i just fell in love with you instantly we i think we like we think the same we are in a mission to actually help people we're pretty practical about the information that you provide um i was on uh i went down a reddit rabbit hole like i don't know why i did that i googled my

name the other day we were having a big sale So I wanted to make sure everything was aligned. People could find us. And I, I, you did it yourself. That's a brave thing to do, right? It's a scary frigging place. I, okay, go ahead. But someone was talking about, Oh, has anyone done that? Gina Libby girls, weight loss program. And people are talking about it. And someone else is like, oh, I saw someone's comment. I don't know about lies. I don't think she lies because she actually cares, but she's, she is a little scattered brain. So there's a big conversation about me being scattered brain. So I love the unhingedness. I'm so unapologetic. Like it's messy, but you get my whole heart, all my passion, all my knowledge. Oh, we'll share it all. But it's messy. Scattered is my whole heart, all my passion, all my knowledge. I will share it all.

But it's messy. Scattered is good. Like scattered is refreshing. Scattered is not boring. You know, I'm especially, especially these past couple of weeks, and maybe we'll talk about it. A lot of people have been feeling a lot of things these past couple of weeks. Yeah.

And I used to think of like, I used to like lean away and like hide the scatterbrain a little bit of the unhingedness and really, at the end of the day, not being myself. Yeah. And it doesn't- Trying to look like you have your shit together. Yeah, exactly. I'm so tired of looking, trying to pretend that we have our stuff together.

Because at the end of the day, each one of us are just doing our frigging best. And if scattered gets you to where you're supposed to be go for it they're not your people but like the reddit thing like i i've been going down a little bit of a rabbit hole uh in the comment section myself lately because i discovered the instagram reel you can use it like tiktok where you just scroll up and down like and see new reels oh no i'm seeing like popular, popular, maybe not for the right reasons, Instagram story, Instagram Reels, right? And normally, when I see something, I was like, I really shouldn't be seeing this doesn't make sense. I look at the comments. It's because people are bullying the person. That's why it became popular. And that's why. Not that they bullied you and the scatterbrain.

Let's just take it as a compliment. But it's a lot to go and read through comments in general that have nothing to do with you. But when they're about you going on Reddit, I applaud you for that. But I'm, I'm, I'm just embracing the unhingedness, the, the, the scattered because otherwise it's not us. There's a lot going on in the world. There's a lot going on in the world. And this time of year, I find, so when you talk about the crazy energy last couple of weeks, what do,

what do you mean by that? Cause I, I, I talked about this actually my podcast that's out today is on the, the quick, I call it a quick rage and a quick overwhelm the past couple of weeks. I have just been, and I'm sure hopefully some people relate to this, uh, feeling things more deeply where maybe you get, and people don't like this word, but triggered more easily where something, and this is a loop into anxiety as well, something that maybe wouldn't have taken you down, like a comment or an email you got from a work colleague or something consumes you. And you ruminate and I call it going down the rabbit hole. And it just keeps you in this high feeling, whatever the feeling is. For me, it was a little bit of anger.

But for other people, it was like this extreme sadness, whatever it was. People just felt it more intensely and it kept them stuck. And I know that there was a big I don't follow this too closely, but I do believe in it. There was a big lunar eclipse last wednesday and the weekend prior to that and the following days after it that was kind of the most intensity and then it has been lifting but i think that has a little bit to do with it but of course the state of the world is a is a lot and um it was just that the feelings were felt more deeply and normally when i know i'm a little bit off course or, and it's just an awareness thing for myself.

If I typically get angry more quickly, that's my signal, my kind of canary in the coal mine to be like something to miss. Either you're off course or you need to take a little bit more time to care for yourself. No, we're really big on that, as you know, about really being in tune to your body's needs, like feeling your feels like in your intuition, it's a very real thing. You know how you're reacting, responding to things is a real message for you. Like, Hey, if you are finding yourself quick to feel overwhelmed, quick to feel ragey, whatever that is, you need to say, okay, whoa, what's going on? What do I, and more importantly, what do I need here in this moment? Do you find that? So people were doing this week, um, week four of the

program. This is actually people start what's called downsizing, which is trying to eat a little bit less. So still all this nutrient rich food, like all day long, but just less than what they were eating to feel satisfied. And it brings up a lot of fields because it's most like a diet. So it could be that, but also are there certain times a year where people are more anxious than others? I think so. Well, we definitely are ramping up to the, to the fall and the colder weather, and there's going to be seasonal effective stuff soon. Uh, I think generally the fall is one of the most stressful times for us because it is, well, if you think back way back when, this is when we were conditioned to go back to school,

right? The summer is over. We're getting back and we have to be in our A game. We have to study more. We have to do more. When we get into the business world, we have to make a profit in Q4. We have to do all these things and we're conditioned to ramp up in the fall, which we're in Canada here, or a lot of us are. I know it's all over the world, but in Canada, it's getting colder. The fall is here. And our bodies, if you think about it, this is the time animals are actually preparing to hibernate. They're actually preparing to slow down, eat more even as the weather gets colder, right? So there's this kind of inner storm we're experiencing between what kind of nature wants us to do and what reality has us doing. So I do think that fall is an especially anxious time.

Generally, the pressures are higher. If you're starting a new venture in whatever way that is, that just adds on to that already kind of rumble of pressure you have on you. So I do think this especially is a more anxious time of year for a lot of us. Talk about that pressure because you've had your own weight loss journey. We've talked about that on a previous episode with you before. There's a lot of pressure. People want this so badly. They've done all the things. they really are showing up now and, and really trying to lose their weight in a healthy way, not just physically, but also mentally, hence that anxiety piece. And there's a lot of pressure that they put on themselves.

Where do you think, like when you, where does anxiety fit into the weight loss conversation? I think, uh, first of all, my heart goes out to everyone just with that, the pressure that we put in ourselves and the feelings that come with done it before, it didn't go the way you wanted, there's that shame you feel or the maraud of emotions you might feel. Weight loss itself can bring uncertainty. It can bring the what ifs. And what does anxiety love? What does anxiety feed on? Uncertainty. So it's kind of like these two unknowns in a perfect storm, right?

Yeah. And it's so enmeshed with the history you bring with it. If you tend to be an anxious person anyways, you're stepping out of your comfort zone into this uncertainty, into this new routine and that can kind of skyrocket your anxiety even past your normal baseline because we human beings like our comfort zone whatever that comfort zone is whatever our normal is in our brains our bodies get used to it our anxiety little egos get used to it at any time even if it's good for us we push past that the sirens go off, the what ifs go in, and then you just feel that much more intensely as you're doing things to move you forward. It's, it can be sort of a perfect storm. Okay. How do you know? So you mentioned quick to feel

overwhelmed, quick to rage, you know, the what ifs start popping up, but are there any other telltale signs? Like, how do you know you're dealing with anxiety versus just kind of like had a bad day or struggling or dealing with some deep feels? Or is it all part of it? If you go down the stress, and I want to preface this saying I'm not a psychologist. I've just, anxiety is my oldest friend. I've done a lot of reading on this. It's very murky with fear, what fear is versus what anxiety is my oldest friend. I've done a lot of reading on this. It's very murky with fear, what fear is versus what anxiety is. Generally, fear is like the day of. If there's something you're actively doing, like you're getting stuck in an elevator, there's going to be fear. That's normal. If you had a bad day, you feel in the moment, that's normal. If it subsides pretty

quickly, that's generally like a safe zone. It's when you start ruminating about things that haven't happened. I wish, I'm not sure if it's mandatory watching in the group, but maybe Inside Out 2. Great movie. Have you seen it? No, not yet. So anxiety was a new character in Inside Out 2. And it's the perfect example of when your brain starts thinking about all the different scenarios that could go wrong, all the what ifs. And for me, it's when that starts taking over and robbing you of all of your present moments in your day. constantly thinking of the future and what could go wrong consistently, like more than a,

more than there to, and it starts kind of taking over everything. That's when I think anxiety is really making a presence in your life. And we all go through ebbs and flows. Like some people don't, they've never really had anxiety. My partner is one of them. It's infuriating. Some people know what it's like to live with anxiety other people haven't experienced and other people experience it later in life often brought on by a stressful event or a change that's completely changing the paradigm of how you live which i'm sure a lot of people are facing right now in the group um so that's kind of like whenever it's like you're casting a line always to the future and it tends to be the what-if scenario and a bad what-if scenario that's where i think anxiety like thrives and lives and that's where it's

good to know like oh yeah i i'm i'm dealing with some some anxiety but inside out too i cannot recommend it enough okay i i saw it on i saw it on some streaming service the other day i'll check it out um that was me later in life i was was like, cool as a cucumber. Like that's how my everyone would describe me. I'm like, whatever, it's fine. Go with the flow. And then the pandemic happens. And then I got really what I would call edgy in the pandemic. But then also I think at that time, the pandemic was hitting, I was going into like perimenopause, menopause. So I think there was that physical element. So you mentioned a psychologist. We love a good psychologist. We have Dr. Beverly David join us. She's a clinical psychologist. We love a good psychologist. We have Dr. Beverly David join us. She's a clinical psychologist.

I love a good MD. But what I love about you are you are about practicality and sharing with people real things that they can do. So physically, mentally, what are some strategies or what are some things that people can do if they are feeling anxious? So when anxiety is present, let's talk like short term, like when you're just feeling that anxiety, I suppose, because there are things you can do in the moment. And there are things you can do that really build your foundation up. So you have a calmer foundation off the bat, so you don't react as quickly. When you're anxious, you tend to be hyper reactive, hypersensitive, hyper self-sabotaging, because you're just trying to control the uncontrollable,

which is what anxiety is. Anxiety typically you're just trying to control the uncontrollable, which is what anxiety is. Anxiety typically happens when you try to control the uncontrollable. And what can we not control? The future. Yes. For the most part. So when it comes to short-term, what works for me, short-term anxiety and people that I work with, it's, I call it the SSCC.

So S is when you feel it in bubbling and taking over, just stop. Okay. So that's the first S. Second S is slow down, slow down your breathing, slow down your rate of speech, because this works for some people when you are anxious, you tend to talk a lot quicker i know i do but when you take time to slow your words down that kind of has a ripple effect so slow down in a way for you connect is a big one so stop slow down connect and you can connect in a bunch of different ways you can connect with your breath which is one of my favorite ones and i can go through a couple of my favorite ones in the moment uh You can connect with your breath, which is one of my favorite ones. And I can go through a couple of my favorite ones in the moment. You can connect through touch, touch your skin. Like sometimes when I'm feeling it, I place my hand under my shirt and onto my chest or place the

palms of your hands. These are called hands on your eyes and just breathe in. And you can also do it with sight. So what can you see right now? And you might've gone through like, what can you touch? What can you see? What can you smell? Get in touch with your senses and whatever that takes to connect. And the fourth thing, the SSCC is compassion. Take time to be compassionate with yourself because if you are running anxious, chances are you're being incredibly hard on yourself, more hard than you would be on other people. So that's when you show love to, and this is where I love a visual, any visual that works for you, the production value, anything that works for you. So for me, sometimes I visualize my inner child, because a lot of times when we're, we're freaking out, it's, it's the little

versions of us. So your higher self, the one that knows everything is going to be okay. The imagery of your higher self holding that little girl in you or a little boy in you and or sometimes i think of it as my ego which is the one telling me what i should be doing what i should where i should be at this point in time and i should have done more and why so that ego that screams at you i picture it as a little like deformed creature just crying and wailing if you've ever seen harry potter like the the the little thing of vo Voldemort at the end, sometimes a picture of that. I just watched Lord of the Rings last night. Gollum. So Gollum, like a little Gollum screaming at you and recognize that you're just aware that

this little anxiety creature in you is just trying to keep you safe and you just hold it and show compassion. So those kind of four things work for me. Stop, slow down, connect in a way that works for you, and compassion. And if you want, I can go through some of my, like, just briefly. You've probably gone through breathing exercises in the past. We haven't really. We haven't. We've touched on it slightly.

I love when you did this because don't we, when we're stressed, don't we just all do, like, oh, my God. We do. We literally, and if you think about it, like sometimes it's nice to, if you really want to have like a inner spa experience, and this is something we can do at any time. Like if you're driving, of course be, be responsible. Don't take everything I'm saying is you can do it everywhere.

Internet. Not, not you guys. You guys are lovely. I just always feel the need to preface it just in case someone takes my words out of context. Kyle, you can advise your eyes while driving yeah story of my life yes

right oh my gosh so i have to cover my bases but yeah the hands thing is great um because what you naturally do like you sometimes it's nice to warm up the palms and then just take them and just cup your eyes and as you do this yeah you could you can breathe deeply in a way that works for you or you can also do some of the exercises that maybe will walk us through. But what's also great about this and covering your eyes is that especially nowadays, especially with our lack of focus, because we're trained now with social media, with digital, with notifications to be everywhere all at once. Everything everywhere all at once. So we're scatterbrained and we're looking at a million different things within the course of even five minutes. So this takes you back to yourself.

And it blocks out the noise. the visuals can be, even if you're not kind of considering that your brain is taking in a lot, your brain is still taking in a lot. As you go from your computer to your phone, do you check an email to a task at hand? Your brain is processing that. And we process things a lot more frequently than our ancestors did. So our biology is still pretty old but our stimulus is growing by the day so this alone shutting out the world and looking inward is a great way so that physical because that also brings in two things it brings in touch and it brings in breath so for the breathing techniques like whatever like not everything i say or anyone says is going to connect with everyone. But what I like talking about is just exploring different things that you can kind of try on for size. And what's fun is experimenting

with yourself and finding what works for you. And then when you have something that works for you, you'll probably remember, but write it down. And I like to create kind of like a Zen or anxiety toolbox. So this collection of things that's unique to you, based on you trusting your intuition with what works for you, and drawing upon that and just learning about different tools along the way. Because when you have adequate resources, when you've, you've, you've supported yourself to take the time to learn these resources, you have the tools to take on anything, right? As opposed to feeling like you don't know what you're doing. And the sad thing is we all know what we're doing if we just take time to listen to the gut. So anyways, that's a tangent. Talk about the scatterbrain, right?

I love every, I love it all. Okay. I love it all. I want to ask you, I want to get into some, I see some people in the comments talking about they're stressing about Thanksgiving this weekend, right? That's a lot of fields. So we're seeing family, we're in social situations, people want to lose weight. So I want to talk to you about that in a second. But what are your thoughts? I love deep breathing exercises. Like it calms the vagus nerve, like when you're just, it really helps to calm your body down. But there's the box breathing, there's the breathing, there's the seven in, seven out breathing. I know you're going to say something different for everybody, but what is your preferred method?

And what does that look like? Can you show us that? So in general, off the bat, if you don't like counting, if you don't like, like I do believe in, I'll go through the way you kind of briefly what you just talked about. But just as a general rule, when you make your exhales longer than your inhales that alone goes a long way it signals to your body you're safe it activates that parasympathetic nervous system which governs a relaxation response so simply by even if you you don't worry about breathing in if you just take a second first to if you can't like it doesn't matter just exhale slowly i like doing it through the mouth and the way to easily do that is just to close

your like make it a little like you're blowing up a little balloon like as you're as you're smoking a cigarette that's not it we're not smoking cigarettes i love a whiskey and cigarette like for comedy purposes not in reality but i one of my go-tos is like, yeah, just don't care. Like you're holding a whiskey and a cigarette and you're like, yeah, life's going to happen. Forget it. That's right, Kyle. I agree with you. As you're reading the Reddit.

Okay. Yeah. Okay. Thanks so much. Or even if, you know what, if it's a good mental visual, if you have any people giving you a hard time at Thanksgiving, use that mental visual. Okay. Okay.

Sure. Yeah. Okay. So just the exhales longer than your hands. So if you find yourself in a, in a state, just by yourself and no one has to know you're doing it just slower and breathe out as much as you can until you almost like deflating yourself. And what'll happen when you exhale all that air slowly is you'll naturally take a bigger inhale, you'll take a deeper inhale. Because when we're stressed out, and this is the thing, we tend to be very shallow breathers, right? We tend to breathe from our

chest. And the irony is, it just makes us feel worse. So exhale longer that your inhale at the very minimum will signal to your body that okay, I'm, I'm better than I think I am right now. It kind of gives you perspective. So that alone, um, the box breathing is great. I, the, the, you breathe in for four, you hold for a count of four, you breathe out for four and you hold for four. That's a great one. I like the four, seven, eight breath better, which you might've talked about on the show. This is where you breathe in for a count of four through your nose, ideally. You hold for a count of seven, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and breathe out through a kind of eight. Five, six, seven, eight. And you do that again. Because what I like about that is it incorporates the longer exhale than the inhale. And from my physiology, I just like that better. Now what you'll find is

that when you start to do this in the beginning, especially if you tend to be an anxious person or a stressed out person, you probably won't be able to hold your breath as long or exhale as long because you're used to breathing pretty shallowly, right? Yeah. So it takes practice. Yeah. You get that panic when you have to hold your breath because you're like. Even, yeah. Your body's like, you've been holding your breath your whole life.

You can do this. You're anxious, remember? You're a holder breather. My God. And now you're saying it's hard? You've been holding your breath for 37 years. Anyway. So that's one. What I really like, especially speaking of scatterbrained, when you're kind of all over the place, if you don't want to do the cover of the eyes things and you're not driving, what I like doing is whatever breathing exercise you like doing, take your finger, look at the tip of your finger, put all your energy and focus into that finger, breathe in through your nose.

And then as long as you can make the exhale while looking at that finger. I like counting to 10. So I can't do, but I can't count. So just you essentially. And sometimes that alone can a calm you down, but it's also very effective if you're stressed out, but you have to perform. So if you have a zoom meeting or uh something you have to talk because it helps bring your focus

back it calms your system but it helps you focus and if you're feeling scattered brain and you have to you have to talk uh it can be a little bit tricky so it's a good way to kind of like i call it's it's like a mental slap in the face. It's just like, okay, back to focus. Here we go. Singular focus or, you know, being in the moment, we hear this, like just be in the moment, just be in the moment. Like, right. So hard to be in the moment. How do we do that? And then a lot of times our choices are affected by just being distracted or just feeling our emotions or whatever. So this really gives you an opportunity before you're ready to quit the program. Fuck off,

Gina, shove your program up your butt. I'm done here. Take a minute, take a deep breath, focus on your fucking finger. Focus on your finger. I can't talk.

Gina told me to focus on my finger. I'm sorry. I'll call you back. Man. Cause the fields are, the fields are real. What would you say? I just,

I know how important deep breathing is, but people just think it's such a thing that's so simple. What would you say to someone who's like, this is horseshit? What's this going to do for me? What's it going to do? How is it going to help someone who's trying to lose weight? Well, if we're going to – it's breath. It's chemistry. It's biology.

It's not bullshit. But at the very – like let's just break it down. The more stressed you are, A, the more hard you're going to be on yourself, the harder it is going to be to lose weight. You calm your system down, you support your hormones, you support that reduction in cortisol, you support weight loss. Like it's a pretty easy thing. And I know it's very easy. And normally, it's because when there's resistance, partly it's resistance because when we see something more regularly, like people talking about breathing, ironically, even though there's a reason people are talking about it, the more we hear about something, the more we think, yeah, I know.

Yeah, I know. I know. Like I hear it. I discount it. But if someone on the internet says something you haven't heard yet and no one else is talking about it, it's like, oh, that's interesting. That might be. So I think it's very easy to discount things that are now stereotypes or cliches.

Yeah. But it's also, what harm is it to breathe deeply? It's free. There's no downside. Unless you hold your breath too long until you pass out, in which case, please don't. And don't say I told you to breathe until you pass out. But there is no downside. When you, at the crux of the matter, if you take steps to support a calmer foundation, everything, including your weight loss efforts, will be even a little bit easier because you'll also be more, when you take time to take a deep breath, you're going to get a little bit more perspective because your brain's getting more oxygen to think better. And with that, hopefully you'll have the most glimmer of a little bit more self-compassion towards yourself. And when you have a little bit more self-compassion, you're less likely to want to quit on yourself and blame someone else. And it's so easy, especially when we don't see results as quickly as we might like.

It's so easy to say, well, fuck it. I don't care anymore. Like, it's fine. Which is – it gives you that – it serves you in the moment a little bit because you have that like, oh, I don't have to care anymore. I can take that weight off the shoulder. It's fine. But long term, you owe it to the person who came in to this wanting to feel better, right? Sometimes it's so easy.

It's so easy in the beginning because you have the the motivation you have everything but when you don't when the results or outcomes aren't as quick or as by the book as you might like it yeah um that's when it takes that inner that inner person that's like the the inner light like the light that never leaves just to keep going and just do the minimum to take a little bit of action that day. And sometimes the minimum is I took a few deep breaths today and that's enough. Yeah. Cause people will be like, I'm doing all the things right. And they're like eating the food, drinking the water. I'm like, okay, like, are you, are you exercising or you're trying to get better sleep or what are you doing to manage your stress? Oh, I had a bath. I had, I'm like, have you done deep breathing exercises?

They're like, no. I'm like, that's such a simple thing you could do every single day. Um, so I'm a big fan of it too. The last, the last thing I'll say just for deep breathing before we move on is a way to incorporate it. What I like doing is you don't have to, some people don't want to take a break to do it. Like they don't want to stop and what they're doing to do deep breaths. So micro dose it into your day in routines that are already existing. So like when I walk, I will use my steps as the counter. So as I'm walking, I will count step two, three, four, and hold two, three, as you're walking. And that's your rhythm. You're going to walk anyway, because you have to get there. You might as well make it worth your while. The other time I do it. So walking is the one I incorporate and pumping gas. I, whenever I pump gas, as long as it's not

a strong gas smell, but even if it is, you might have a little bit more fun in your day. No, I'm kidding. I love that gasoline smell. I actually, it's ridiculous. A little kid, like the things that we just find, like the tape, like when I was a kid, I used to like love the taste of brick, like licking a brick. Like it's just, you know, we each have our human kind of weird where it's like, I don't want to say it, but like brick ain't bad anyway. So, but like if you, if it doesn't smell like gas, literally as I'm pumping, every time I pump a gas, I take time to breathe in and do like some sort of breathing exercise.

I just randomly, because as you know, we have thousands of people joining us live right now, and I can see the comments coming up the same time. And this one stopped me because I think it's going to be right down your alley. My gut and anxiety are so closely related. Anxiety and depression were major with me during the last three groups. I had literally no weight loss. In fact, I found weight back. Now I'm on the road to feeling so much better. Thank goodness. Feels so good to me to get back. We just had a sleep series last week, talked the importance of like getting sleep, the psychology behind sleep, what's happening to your body physically, your hormones when you're not getting sleep. We also talked about stress as well. One thing we haven't touched on, I know you

are a big fan of the of the gut the microbiome um they're related is there supplements we can take what do we do um yeah the gut the health of your the little bacteria in your gut we're just finding out more and more about how connected it is but the composition of your gut micro gut microbiome can absolutely affect your brain and your anxiety levels and your stress, because there is that the vagus nerve, there's a two line highway, like the gut instinct. That is a very real thing. But sometimes gut instinct can be your bacteria fighting back. So if you're and this is one thing with weight loss, if you train your gut, you train, you feed your bacteria, right? One of two ways, you can feed the bad bacteria and make them grow and crowd out the good bacteria.

And primarily we do that through ultra processed foods, too much sugar, things like that. And, but on the other side, you can grow your good bacteria. You can give them the food to flourish and crowd out the bad bacteria. Because in our gut, we want everyone. There's good bacteria. There's neutral bacteria that's kind of neither here nor there, but they add good numbers. They're kind of like the extras in a movie, like very valuable. And then there's the bad bacteria. We'll always have

a balance of it. What's happening now is because of higher stress, because of our diets, because of some things we cannot control, it's becoming easier for that bad bacteria to grow. And when that balance shifts, that's when we can have this whole ripple effect of bad health outcomes, one of them being stress, anxiety, and mental health issues. So when you support your gut, you support everything, including your mood. So we, you know, we've, again, with social media, we hear so much about how to support the gut. So some of that is very true. You do that by cutting out the, or just limiting, limiting, because I like a life of balance, but there's

a time and a place to, you know, make a little bit more strict cuts. But you do that by cutting out, first of all, cutting out the stuff that's going to make you weaker and grow your bad bacteria. So you cut out the processed stuff, the sugars, we go through that. You increase the good bacteria by practicing stress management and by eating more foods that nourish your gut so that's where things like uh fermented foods some people there is can be a little bit of um a histamine issue and they can't do fermented foods because it'll make things worse but that's a very sub that's a subcategory but generally fermented foods and And if, if you tolerate fermented foods like yogurt or sauerkraut or, uh, kimchi or pickles that you buy in the refrigerated section, um, apple cider vinegar, even though it's

yeah, kind of a middle ground, but I love apple cider vinegar, fermented food that kind of is in the middle. Um, fermented foods is a big one. So even having like a fork full of sauerkraut, when you're eating something salty, like I know that is like your domain with the meal plan, but incorporating fermented foods is great. Things that nourish the lining of your gut. So that's where the broths come in. Probiotics can be, yeah, like bone broth. Of course, bone broth contains collagen, which is essentially incredible nutrients for your gut lining. And a big one with supporting the gut is variety. This is the big one. The more variety in terms of ideally plants you have in your diet, the greater diversification of your good bacteria. So the greater amount of different good bacteria, and that's what we want, the more diverse someone's microbiome is, the better the health outcomes, the happier the person. So the more this is where eating the rainbow makes a huge difference. With a I always like

highlighting red foods, if you can do red foods, red foods help to feed this certain kind of key it's called it's, it's a keystone bacteria, meaning like it's just a really important bacteria that we should have in our guts. And a lot of us don't, myself included, but like I did a gut test and it was a little bit low, which kind of made sense for me. Again, this is my scatterbrain. Anyways, when you eat more red foods, you support the growth of something called acromantia eucinophila. And this is something we're going to be hearing about more and more in the years to come. It be like it'll be a huge thing and there's going to be supplements that have this in but they're still finding their way but one way you help one way you help this grow is by

eating more red foods so cool okay i'm a beet fan things like that so red food stress water and exercise exercise also helps support the gut microbiome um now when the gut is an issue for someone where there's like ongoing things there are deeper protocols you can do to eradicate some of the bad like take bigger steps to get the bad bacteria under control and grow the good bacteria but on a basic level whole foods variety is key spices are also in there and including things like bone broth collagen if, if you're able. That goes a long way to supporting your gut health. And yeah, stimulating your vagus nerve is a way to calm that gut-brain connection too.

And so many ways to do that. Deep breathing. Even humming stimulates the vagus nerve or singing. So if you don't like meditating, like before i have again if i'm not doing a finger thing but i want to calm down and i have to be on i'll just do uh as i'm getting ready as i'm cleaning up or getting ready for a talk i'll just do a whole bunch of om like om and when you do the om om you kind of feel it. I always say swallow the OM, so you're feeling it here. Ah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

As you're, again, microdose, like put it in your day. As I'm doing the dishes, sometimes I'll OM. As I'm getting ready for a talk, supporting vagal tone and supporting your vagus nerve through humming, singing also long way, go a long way to also supporting gut health. Okay. I love that. So covered breathing, microbiome, um, all those foods that you listed, I just want to just remind all of our members, this is in our supplement post where we talk about probiotics, prebiotics, food sources of them, also collagen as well. You guys know we're big fans of within us and deep marine around here. So I love that with the, with the, yes, love that. Prebiotics are great. Um, prebiotics help feed your good bacteria. And if you are like with probiotics, it is about finding what works for you. There's so many, there's great ones out there and they can have great success, but if they're not

right for you, that's, that's not a fit. So it can be a little bit of a trial and error for some people. And I just want to recognize that. And it can be a little bit tricky because they're, they're not cheap. Right. Um, but I would say if you are on antibiotics, if you have been on antibiotics in the past year, you do want to at least focus your efforts on increasing prebiotic foods or, and, or ideally get on a solid probiotic. I want to ask you some questions specific to weight loss, what you think people should focus on, but I want to just quickly the vagus nerve. How would you describe the vagus nerve and the importance of it?

Because I know that people are like, we're going to Vegas? Is Gina planning a trip? What's going on here? You're telling me, right? The flight's this afternoon? Yeah. Great. Bags are packed.

Yeah, so the vagus nerve essentially um is this the biggest nerve in the body connects your gut to your brain and is essentially this highway that allows the gut and the brain to talk to one another and it's a two-way connection you know when you're you're feeling when you're feeling off or you're feeling um sick and all of a sudden you get anxiety maybe you're fighting something here but your brain's connecting on that because the vagus nerve and vice versa when you're anxious it sends signals to the gut so it's it's you can think of your vagus nerve i also like think of it as a muscle um i like thinking of it as muscle and the more you strengthen your vagus nerve and your essentially your calm response the happier and calmer you'll be and we live in

a stress house we're doing so many things to weaken our vagus nerve and our vagal tone like uh not sleeping enough too much alcohol too much processed foods too much stress uh and we're kind of going in the wrong direction uh so we have to take steps like we can't always control how things go in our lives but we have to do the things we can to make that vagus nerve stronger to increase that vagal tone because when you do that you'll be a calmer person to be around okay love that what are your favorite things to talk about health and wellness like what's uh what do you want like people to know like what do you what did you like what, what's the thing that gets you going? Um, oh, that's a good question.

I think, I think taking it, what I love about health and wellness is it's taking control of your biology. Like without going to, cause I, what I don't like about the health and wellness world is the superiority of it the judgment that is so rampant like the extreme extreme of and there's nothing wrong but if that's what they like doing but it's the judgment if you don't do all the billions of things you can do so when it comes to health and wellness the biggest thing is finding the tools within that sphere that work for you and your goals at a given time and use it as you need to pick a few of them and take control of your biology for that moment in time. And then, you

know, the next year or whenever you might, you might use some other tools. So at the end of the day, health and wellness, I do like learning about it. I do like exploring it essentially to take control of our biology, which sometimes we feel like we can't, and we feel like our bodies are betraying us. So health and wellness tools for an anxiety person, an anxiety leaning person. It's a way to take back control. You said something there when I think about, like I was thinking, how would I describe the health and wellness business industry or diet industry even, right? Like it should be this hopeful space. It should be like, wow, look at that.

Those are all things I could do. It should be like this wide eye conversation and should be like, whoa. And it's just, it's heavy. It's overwhelming. it's just it's heavy it's overwhelming yes it's heavy it's overwhelming it's full of it's so interesting to me it's just so full of judgment and quick quick judgment and and shaming and arguments and whatever it should be like guys we're just sharing information and it doesn't have to work for you. And sometimes it doesn't. Yeah.

If it doesn't work for you, that's OK. It does work for other people. Like it's it baffles me. And to be honest, sometimes I a lot I just think of like stepping outside and doing something else. Yeah. It's a lot. And I I never want to perceived as, and this is the people pleaser, but as someone who's like telling people what they should be doing exactly. And if they're not doing it, they're not taking care of their health and they're being irresponsible to their

families and all that, all that crap. Right. But at the end of the day, that's a disservice because I do think this can help people. And, and sometimes it's a matter of like and you might feel this too when I decide to like when I think about leaving I'm just it's not the thing um because the information is out there anyways like I'm not sharing I'm not breaking the mold I'm just sharing information so people will find that information elsewhere but sometimes I think well I knew that information too but it wasn't until I heard that one person that said it in a way that actually connected with me that I decided to take action so I'm like shit I guess guess I'm in for a little bit longer like I was I shared like that creatine thing on my

my post uh my Instagram talking about creatine because I did on the morning show most of the reactions were good but some of like and I I always do research and I make sure it's balanced and uh and and I would never recommend anything not safe like I would never maybe I would talk about experimental things in private depending on the person one-on-one it works for them like very more nuanced but I would never say anything generally that would be unsafe for the population. Right. But there was this one comment that I wish I did. I just, I was, again, this was last week, everyone, I was in my rage stage. No, this was like a couple of days ago. So I'm still in my rage states. It's, it's kind of, it's going away, but it's still, it popped right up. There was this post, everyone was more or

less supportive and people are sharing it. But there was this one guy being like, what a load. He's like, what a load of shit. Follow the money people. I'm like, I'm not, I'm not paid by big creatine. Like I don't have any thing. Like I don't understand. And he's like, this is unproven. This is the science debunks this. And I'm like, science does not debunk that. And he's like, the only people that should be taking it are Olympic weightlifters. So I deleted it. Is creatine one of the most studied supplements in the world? The most. But all it takes is like one comment out of that 99 good ones where I'm like, hang on. And this is my inner saboteur being like, this is my anxiety being like, oh, I should focus on this

guy. Not all the good that's coming, not all the good that's been from, I should focus on this guy. So I wish I had just responded K, but instead I deleted it. But it is one of those things. And that's what frustrates me about the wellness and people are so quick to discount supplements or discount things that people could try on for size to make them feel better. So I wanted to say to him, what do you have people do? Just continue just feeling like, man, because there's a chance that that might not work for them. So why not even try one of the safest studied supplements that I, you know, I just talked to a leading sex expert and it's what he recommends to people just for brain health, not even sex. Yeah. And that's what bothers me about people that like to nitpick the health and wellness

thing apart. They, there, there's something that's so generally regarded about people that like to nitpick the health and wellness thing apart. There's something that's so generally regarded as safe and a lot of people have found success with and they look, they're like, well, what about like the side effects? Like what, like I've heard like it's not, the side effects are really not great. I'm like, you mean the 0.05%? Like look at medications that people are totally, and I'm not anti- anti medications, but traditional pharmaceuticals have way more side effects than supplements. And it bothers me when when and it's part of this is not everyone's fault. We're conditioned, right? We are conditioned to like pharmaceuticals are good. Eating well is eating well, yeah, exercise, eat well pharmaceuticals if you need it, but then supplements, a lot of people like,

I don't, is there, what about the fillers? The fillers, there's a filler in that. And I was like, you just went out last weekend and drank a bottle of tequila, but it's the fillers. It's the, you know what? You're right. Best not to do it, sir. Don't, don't even try. Don't even like, that's what gets me. Like, don't it, people that take people's choice away by negating anything that possibly could that, that grinds my gears. You know, I love that. I love that. I love all of that. I'm here for it. Um, because you and I are one of the good ones. We, we honestly care. We try, we are passionate and like, we just, we really want people to be successful. In fact, you, you've got to go over, uh, to Kyle's Instagram account. It's Kyle B and you can watch his,

his watch his segments on global. Well, he always shares great tips, but it's hard for us, right? Like I, same thing last week, I felt like I couldn't win. I was just getting, people were ripping me new assholes left. We said this and you did that and you're this and you're that. And I'm just like, oh man, you know, like I, I've tried to explain weight loss and I have a 500 page book and I literally could write 10 more. Like it's so hard to say all the things that people need to know and hear and do. There's a lot of it. How do people cut through the bullshit of it and stay in their lane and focus on what's right for them? Because I think what people say, I want to sit on here and talk to you for five hours because I want to talk to you about a Zen pick, but we'll have you back.

But for our members today, how do they cut out the noise? How do they stay focused on themselves? What would you say to someone who's like, oh man,, like, I don't, I'm so unsure. I'm frustrated. The skill, I'm doing the things, I think the skills not moving. I'm trying to figure it all out. But it just seems so loud and noisy. That's a really, there's a really great question. And especially when there's just so much noise out there, right? Yeah. And I would say, if you are one to get easily overwhelmed, and there's just too much out there, put a timer for social media and don't go on all those different pages because everyone will have a thousand things to say. This is where I really think sometimes all you can do is go inwards and slow down and trust your gut. Chances are when you see something and you, you see someone or you connect with someone,

there's a reason for that. So when people see Gina and they connect and you're not shoving anything back, like you're not selling weight loss teas, you're not doing anything, but people are like, Oh, I feel seen. I think I, I think I trust this person. that with with of course common sense in mind but in general our guts know and sometimes we can't see the whole picture and sometimes when we can't see the whole picture and we can't predict the future it is so frustrating and easy to think especially when you're not seeing your results it's so easy to give up and try something new right away instead of taking it step by step, action by action, be like, well, I know, like, like, I know that fiber is good. And I know that this whole food will be good. So if nothing else, I know eating a vegetable will support my system. So I'm just going to start

there. And then I know that going for a walk later will make me feel a little bit better. Sometimes you just have to put your horse blinders on and trust that the actions will snowball. And listen to your gut when you see someone. Chances are you can read, we all can read people pretty well. Sometimes the algorithm is making it harder because we're only seeing a very curated thing. But that's even more reason to connect with our intuition because it's just going to get noisier out there. It's going to get louder. It's going to get maybe more divisive. The only thing we can control is ourselves, right? And I think it's easy to give over your power to other people and think that, oh, they know better.

They always know better. Yes, you can have people guide you, but it's so easy to give over power because we don't believe in ourselves and intuition. So it is about slowing down, connecting with yourself, and then take actions one step at a time. I love it. That's why you're the perfect guest today, because that's what it's all about. Being in tune, recognizing the feelings, honoring yourself, honoring where you're at, figuring out what you need. The comments are going off. If I take creatine, do I have better sex? What? Wait. Oh, the sex act. Okay. So I had to buy in bulk. Does it come with a man to bulk? I'm buying it by the truckload. Beep, beep,

back that fucker in the driveway. I love this family. It's great. No. So essentially I, for the podcast, I talked to this urologist and we were just talking in general and he's like, you know, there's two supplements I recommend. And it wasn't to do with, it was to do with sex, like indirectly from like an energy perspective. Cause essentially like your body uses energy and it uses energy in the form of something called atp and it uses it when it goes from atp uh it uses it and it loses something it goes to something called adp essentially your body can't use adp so what creatine does is it gives it the fuel to come back to atp pretty quick um or uh it replenishes things because we our bodies do make creatine so yes if you have more energy

you will have better sex um but he was talking about it just as an overall thing the first thing he suggested was a nitric oxide produced uh uh nitric oxide booster and nitric oxide helps to support circulation because when you support circulation everything gets um better um beats are a great way to support circulation but the the other thing he said was creatine because of that energy factor, because of the brain health factor. Like when you're thinking a lot, adding and you're like studying and you're going through exam, especially if you've slept poorly the night before, creatine can really be beneficial. But yeah, so sex, yeah, indirectly, yeah, creatine can help. And I don't know if it comes with a man. It might.

I don't know what stores you're going to. But if someone sees like, you can get this too. If it depends what, I don't know. I want to go down the rabbit hole. Anyways, but creatine is very beneficial. And what I will say about creatine is it is great if you haven't had a poor sleep the night before. It can help you perform better under stress if you are sleep deprived.

So it's, it's become a standard for me. And I, I was actually weary of creatine for a while because I didn't know the research of it. I was scared I was going to lose my hair and I was going to, I was scared that I was going to get bloated. Um, and both of those are not a thing. Oh, the, the, the bloat in the beginning can be real, but it subsides like the body finds its way.

So there is an adjustment period. If you are loading creatine, if you're're which is like you take a higher dose for the first couple weeks. And typically, people will do that if they're really training or whatever. They're under a personal trainer. But in general, you can just do like a maintenance dose daily and your body will the levels will increase naturally, maybe a little bit slower, but it's like five grams per scoop. So to summarize, it will help you perform better in bed. Yeah. Got it.

We're going to have you back. Man, come join us. Please, please join us more often. I'm sure we could talk for hours on supplements, your favorite ones, but Kyle gives a lot of this away over, again, over on his Instagram account. It's Kyle B. He also has a website as well. It's Kyle B.

There's the Instagram. He is the host of Feel Goodery Podcast, available on all podcast platforms. I was actually a guest on his podcast not too long ago. People loved you. Of course they did. of course they did of course they did um and and i was on my podcast that you can find on the way of china podcast as well um you have a website too kylebuchanan.ca yeah thanks for having me this is exactly what i needed this week and i'm if i'm too unhinged I'm sorry. It's just, I'm tired of like, we all do this.

Like we're tired of trying to be this person we think other people want of us. And generally when you are unhinged to yourself, you just feel better. So me talking about intuition, if you feel better being this person and you're not hurting anyone, God, we're hurting ourselves.

Anyways, it's been such a pleasure god we're hurting ourselves anyways thank it's been a pleasure to talk to you no i you know it's a it's about your authentic self you know as you know my business has been growing and growing in fact we're gonna be on the dragon's den tonight um i'm so nervous i'm so nervous i'm freaking out i actually thought it was last night so i was like i was excited to come on and like talk about it but i'm excited to watch and i like i've hosted tv shows i've been in front of people. Like I am so nervous because I think it's like that business side of me, but I, you know, there's a lot of responsibility and I've been through a lot of change and a lot of stress

and trying to be the perfect Gina, you know, Gina swears too much. She does this, she does that, she does whatever. And it really messed with my whole being and, and my love for what I do in terms of showing up. So it's been a bit of a rough couple of years. At the beginning of this program, I was like, you know what? I'm just going to sit down in this chair. I'm just going to be me. Like it used to be, I'm going to be, my intention was I'm going to help and I'm going to motivate it. I'm going to whatever. But I was coming from this not me place and I'm like, fuck that shit. Like, fuck that shit. I'm just going to be me. I'm just going to be me. I'm just going to be me. And I think you get a better me maybe with more F-bombs and, you know,

God, we're ridiculous human beings. No, we decided that word's bad guys. That's like the word that someone just made up one day. That's a bad word. That's, that's not good. We're still, I love you for being you. I love you for being you too. And you're actually like a beacon for me. Like you're like, it's, it's, it's a testament for, and a lesson for all of us. Like Gina has just stepped into herself and being more of herself and success is coming with that. And you're helping more people with that. So for me, that's kind of like, it's always good that we have our own like light posts or things to, especially in the mess. So I'm grateful that you are one of mine

oh you're too kind okay kyle and i could love each other up all morning long we got to go we have things to do i have to go i love you guys like i'm just so thrilled for yeah i keep going everyone like you're doing the best community do not and you're doing you're standing up for yourself and you're being brave and you're stepping out of community. And you're doing, you're standing up for yourself and you're being brave and you're stepping out of your comfort zone. And you know how many people just don't do that. Yeah. So good for you. Yeah. We had the best, we have the best community. They're trying really, and this is what we love about our guests like you who really have mad respect for our members that are, that are really trying really hard. They're, they're back, even

though they feel the way they feel after years of trying to lose weight, they're working through hard things. They're stepping out of their comfort zone. They want to do better. They want to be better. They want to love themselves also just the way they are, which is one of the hardest things to do. There's a lot that people are working on. So I love, uh, that you have so much respect for our guests. Of course. And Thanksgiving weekend, just hold onto your light. You don't need need you don't owe people explanations you don't you know you can just be in as people like decide to share their opinions just be interested be like oh interesting great that's great for you yeah did you remember that i brought that up and forgot to talk about it me too i love it though because it's like thanksgiving it's all the family members, everything. It's a lot of pressure.

And just a big part of that is having community. So know when you feel like lonely or your Uncle Ron's going to say things, you have a community of people behind your back. And you can laugh about it later. Like anything that triggers you, be like, I'm going to laugh about this later. I'm not going to take your bait, but I'm going to laugh about this later. I'm not going to, I'm not going to, I'm not going to take your bait, but I'm going to laugh about this later. You sweet one. Yeah. And you're going to sit there with your fake whiskey and your fake, you know, cigarette or your real cigarette and your real whiskey. And you're going to be like, okay. Okay. Thanks so much. Got it. Thank you. All right. Kyle Buchanan. Thank you so much for everyone joining us live. Thank you so much. Uh, remember you can also download and listen to our podcast later on. If you want to watch it again, it'll

be stored in the guides in the Facebook support group. Thanks, everyone. Have a great day. Have a great long weekend. Thanks, Kyle. Thanks.