The Livy Method Podcast - Let's Talk Levelling Up Your Health with Dr. Paul Hrkal

Episode Date: June 18, 2024

In this segment, Gina chats with Dr. Paul Hrkal, ND, about some practical steps that can be taken to level up your health and wellness.If you are in the Spring/Summer 2024 Support Group, you can check out the full video here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodspringsummer2024Topics covered:Let's talk about levelling up our health from a variety of angles!Transitioning from the facts of our body to the mindsets we cultivate about healthy living. Making a change in health is not a one-and-done activity. Levelling up our health: Taking stock and identifying which of the 20 questions we struggle with most. Listening in on the impact of the stress messages. Time frame for change - Reframing our thinking to anticipate months or years. Dirty Fishbowl: why change needs to happen within. Understanding Stress: being mindful about what you are doing beyond your diet. Stress in the balance - reflecting on both the positive and negative in our busy lives. What brings you joy? A way to access what is positive in your life. Removing the unnecessary: It may take an epic move and cutthroat decisions to drop negative stress weight. Counter-cultural: The need for a simplified approach to managing anxiety and weight loss. Anxiety as a manifestation of stress. Coping Capacity: having a reservoir of flexibility can make a positive difference. How self-medicating through food and alcohol may be making stress worse in the body. Anxiety as the tip of the iceberg: There is so much going on below the surface. Obesity across cultures & countries: Differences in quality of food, movement/activity, stress. Impact of social media and Dr. Paul's description of "Comparison Cortisol" Is it good for you? Observing how you feel when you use social media. Happiness: Are you happy? By design, digital culture created a deficiency in being present and connected with ourselves and others. How purpose, satisfaction, and community are drivers of health and happiness. One thing is not going to make the difference: Dr. Paul's final words on levelling up your health. Making the shift to do the hard work: asking yourself how can I detox my life?www.paulhrkalnd.com@drpaulhrklTo 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,

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You're going to have this ability to now reframe. Allow yourself time throughout the day to stress the fuck out. The thoughts and the feelings and the behavior cycle can start changing. The Living Method is all about losing your weight or losing weight in a healthy and sustainable way, physically and mentally. But I always say in order to lose weight, you have to be healthy, which makes my guest today, we all know who he is, Dr. Paul Hercule. The perfect guest to talk about this. We are talking, I'm so excited, I can't even speak. We are talking about leveling up your health and wellness. You know, more than that, you are so familiar with the program. You see a lot of people come into your office who are doing the program. So I'm just going to ask you a million

questions today, but a variety of different things, supplements, exercise, sleep, stress, management, aging, all of it. So first of all, hi, hello. Hello, hello. This is my favorite session, Jean. I enjoy our first two because we really get to lay the foundation of what a lot of people are applying earlier on in the program. But truth be told, this is the session I really, really look forward to.

So I'm pumped. Well, this is about like, I know that I know, like me, you really want to help people, you want to see people succeed. Yeah, you want to see them actually make change. So I want this to be like, if you could tell us anything, what would it be like, where's your passion lie when it comes to health? I know everyone's different, and it's individual. But if there was like a blanket, do this to be healthy, or you want to shut it to the rooftops, what would it be? Well, you know what? Um, there's a lot of, a lot of things I can think about. One that really just jumps to my mind as soon as you ask that question, Gina, is that I really, really, really get empowered, inspired when I'm listening to people's stories. And it's especially evident for those people that have been in the program. And usually it's multiple

sessions. And when they come and see me and I can accompany them on this journey of where they started, and we talk about all the initial weight loss and the non-skill victories. And then sometimes that, that, that changes session to session, because as we know, people don't stick to the second and third session as well sometimes. But what I see is that there's this shift where people start shifting to a more mindful state of being rather than just focusing on the facts. Like what do I eat? When do I eat? Like the kind of like the what of, of the specific physical side. And when you transition into that mindset side where I can start see just by the way they're talking, I can start seeing that they're, that they're now almost able to just figure things out themselves.

And they're just using me as a sounding board where they're like, you know what, when this happens, Dr. Paul, I realize when I eat that, I don't feel this way that I like feeling. Or when I do this, I know that that is a really positive thing because all these other things happen. So they, instead of just kind of like going from meal to meal and day to day, they're starting to see the big pictures, almost like the clouds across their face. The dust settles and they're now having a more clear vision of their own health. They are literally becoming their own doctor in a sense. So to me, that's like my favorite, I really love seeing that. And

ultimately, I say this over and over, I'm going to keep saying it. The program done well, the Libby program done well is a mindset mindfulness based program. And you may not see it right off the bat. But that's really what the underlying challenges. And if you're listening to this and you don't feel like you're there yet, that's okay. It takes time. Sometimes it takes a whole session. You probably know better than others, Gina. Sometimes it takes four sessions. But there are things and benefits if you lean into each one that maybe the scale isn't moving the same way it did in a different session.

But there are so many profound health shifts that happen. Yeah, because it's like making changes in like any one thing that you're doing. And I would imagine as a health care provider, you like you don't have an hour or two hours to be sitting there and chatting with everybody, trying to explain the ins and outs and how it's all connected. And, and that's what I love about the program is like, it's a, it's a systematic way of doing that. And then you insert our amazing guests like yourself, who, when they are focused on what they're eating and when and doing the basic stuff, this is where I think they are able to see that it's so much more than that. And I love what you said about it's really people being in tune. Like people know their bodies best. I always say at this point in the program, you tell me why you're having a hard time,

right? Like if you're following and you're doing, doing all the things I want, I want people to be able to tell me, oh, well, maybe it's because I got, I'm not sleeping or I'm stressed or I got this going on or my, I don't feel great. Okay. So where do we go from here? Well, if I said to you, how do we level up our health and wellness in general? What is that?

Like how, what? How many hours do you want? You know, that's a big open-ended question, Gina. You know, I think, I think the best way to answer that is, is a good piggyback on what you and I both just talked about, where it's like, well, what's it for you? Like, like when you say, what's, what should I do to level up my health? It isn't like, okay, take this resveratrol supplement. That's going to do it. Now we're going to go. No, no. If we're thinking about that, then I think we are getting lost in the weeds. What I think the question really needs to be is that if

you've gone through the program and you're getting the results that you've had, or if this is your third or fourth program and you're trying to lose that last 10 pounds, you know, really taking stock of where you're currently at and being honest with yourself and being like, what are those 20 questions? Which one, which couple are the ones that I'm still struggling with? And ultimately, a person that I think has gone to the point that they're able to observe their own sensations in their body, their own signs and symptoms, their own current state, they're going to be able to answer that question a lot better than you and I. Yeah. And sometimes it might be like, you know what, if I'm really being honest with myself, I had a patient yesterday that just comes to mind as soon as I say this, you know,

they're like, I just think I've just been having, I've been under a lot of stress and I haven't wanted, I haven't been willing to admit it. Yeah. They were, they were saying like, I'm doing all the things, but I'm not really losing the weight. Okay. So we started looking at all the options. We started doing, we were working on their gut. We're doing a lot of weed and feed their gut got better, but it's still, it still wasn't perfect. There's something there still, but she told me Gina by the end where it's like, you know what, Dr. Paul, like, you know, something, something is blocking this progress. And let me tell you, I think that I've been just denying the fact that I've been under

a lot of stress. And some people are not stressed and they're just anxious and bouncing off the roof like what we are being told stress should look like. A lot of times it's like, no, I'm like handling it. Yeah, you're handling your stuff. But your body is the shock absorber. My gut is constantly being on this roller coaster between different stressors and projects. You know, my aging parents are a problem.

My kids are, you know, so all these factors have an impact. And so, you know, we went down that path and then I started supporting her on helping reducing cortisol. There are ways that we can do that. We said, you know what? Now, Russian genome. And I know that this isn't a specific, but it really is super personalized on how do you level up your health? Every person has a different first step they need to do to really address that. I think it takes the body. I was talking about this in my live yesterday.

It takes the body. It seems like it takes forever for the body to recover from stress. Like what's a realistic timeline for that? If I was like, okay, I am super stressed. So now I'm going to start having baths and going for walks and reading books and deep breathing and doing my yoga and maybe, you know, seeing a naturopath and taking some stuff to help with my cortisol. Like what's the timeframe I'm looking at? Yeah. And that's an amazing question. That is the, the big money question. And for everyone's a little bit different. A lot of it has to do with how long has your body been under this stress and how decompensated is, are your adrenal system, your thyroid system? Is there a lot of inflammation that's still happening because of other processes?

So these are all potential confounding factors. But I find that, you know, we kind of have to be thinking about it in in terms of months and years. And that might sound Whoa, you know, Dr. Paul, that's like a big, that's a big timeline. That's, I think we have to consider that our stress coping system is kind of like a gas tank. It's constantly being used. If you're driving your car, you're constantly pulling on that resource. So if we're, if we're going to increase the trickle into the gas tank, cause it's really low. Well, if we're still using the car, which a lot of people are, then they are going to continue to have to, you know, like the flow in has got to be more than the flow out. So sometimes it's like my adrenal system is still going to be sensitive.

I'm always going to have to be kind of mindful of it while I'm still under this current state of stress. And maybe my symptoms will get better. For example, my sleep will get better. My digestive symptoms, my IBS symptoms, which is kind of like anxiety of the gut in many cases, that will get better. However, you might notice that if my stress gets past this point,

some symptoms might come back, like I'm really exhausted. My sleep starts coming up. My anxiety levels spike. I'll give you another example of a patient. First patient I saw yesterday, member of the program, and went through a really tough time with aging parents, with being a teacher, super stressful classroom, and had to take some time off. And when she took that time off, took that huge stress away, made massive gains, joined the Livvy program, lost all this

weight. So sometimes it takes like an epic move for a person's adrenal system to finally be like, okay, I'm off the mat. I can actually get up. And then now built up some levels, but then went back to teaching last September and the stressor started building up and she started saying that, you know what, I'm, I'm feeling it again. Okay. That's your body's stress coping system going to work. And you know what, we need to give it a little more support. So that's what we're working on. But the example of that is, is that, you know, if we're got, if we're at the point where we really feel like we've kind of like been in the state of exhaustion or depletion, we're all these little things we're doing proper sleep hygiene, good diet, being mindful. These

are now lifestyle things, Gina. It's not like if I do yoga 20 times, my adrenal system recovers. It's not like that. Unfortunately, if I take this adrenal supplement, this patient was on adrenal supplements from a previous ND for like four years, but they were really, really generic ones. They were kind of low dose ones. So we need to be more specific. So that's the type of nuance that it requires to really help our body's adrenal system recover. Well, I've been going through a lot of stress and I've had to like step back from work and actively take time, but I was like, okay, so I'm going to read. And then I bought all these self-help books, right?

Like I think sometimes we're like, and I'm like, no, that's not what I, that's not what I need to be reminded of the changes I need to make and the things I need to do. I call this the dirty fishbowl because people are like, well, I would love to take time from my job, but I can't, or I would love to go away on a vacation. And I say like, in theory, that's great. But it's like you, you're in this dirty fishbowl. You take yourself out by taking time off work or going on vacation. And then you feel like, I feel amazing. And this is great. And then you're back into the dirty fishbowl again. And then for a little while, you're like, okay, no, I'm okay. And then you're back into the dirty fishbowl again. And then for a little while you're like, okay, no, I'm okay. And then you start to feel it again. So you can't

just remove yourself. You, you have to, to your point, make these lifestyle changes. I can feel my stress now. Like I, once you're aware of it, I know exactly when it starts to pile. Like I can, I can, I can feel it. And this is where I need to calm down to the point where I can tie my scale into my body's reactiveness to my stress. When I'm really stressed, it goes up. And when I feel calm, my body feels like less poofy. It feels more relaxed. It's like there's – you feel it. You can feel the stress.

But you have to be aware. How do we, how do we make ourselves aware that we're stressed? Cause I find too, I talk to people and they're like, I'm not stressed. And then they're like, well, I'm, I'm in the middle of divorce. I'm selling my house. I'm going back to school. I've got three kids. I'm, I'm making lunches for, you know, kids at school, but I'm fine. It's fine. Well, part of that is like, you know, there's, there's two types of people. I think in my experience, there's ones that, you know, that everything is stressful. Like when you ask them like, how are you doing? Oh my gosh, I'm so busy. I'm like so free, you know, or the other ones are like, no, I'm good. I'm good. And then they downplay it. So there's both

of those. I think coping techniques are not the healthiest way. So to answer your question, how do we, you know, how do we kind of know that we're under stress? First thing is, is like, start being mindful in the little things that you're already starting to do. So I find people that are mindful with, you know, what are they eating, they're starting to be tuned in, just like you said, to other areas of their life. So like, even when I mentioned that initial example of when people are leveling up on the mindful side, I'm referring to things that are sometimes totally unrelated to diet. They're starting to look at relationships. They're starting to look at things that they're doing and, you know, you know, they'll make a decision.

You know what? I can't watch any TV at night anymore because that's keeping me up. That's the spike in my cortisol. So they start making changes changes gina in their lives that other people would be like what how the heck can they do that another big example is you know a lot of people are now saying like i'm not i'm not drinking at all anymore drinking alcohol so alcohol is a stressor and it's a it's it's fun in the moment but your body has to deal with that on a physical level like let's just call a spade a spade it's a toxin the brain and the body have to detoxify. Now, some people can handle that. Most people can handle that. And that's a good goal for us to, again, live in that moderation. However, if you're one of those people that you're living on

that edge of stress where you have all these things happening, your body is inflamed, your body can't lose weight, then you're going to have to do some more epic, more grand things that are going to really move the needle, Gina. And part of that is being mindful to realize that what things in your life can I remove? So I like to use the analogy, I like your fishbowl, that dirty water analogy, and I kind of add a bit of a scale. So a lot of times I look at, there's a negative side of the scale. So a lot of times I look at there's a negative side of the scale. So think of all your negative stressors and you put that on one side and then there's the positive side of scale. And everyone talks about this in their language, you know,

on my life side of balance, my work life balance. So we already know that we feel best when we're in balance and you'll never have an empty negative side of the scale. That's always going to have something there. If you're living in this world, you're going to have negative side of the scale. That's always going to have something there. If you're living in this world, you're going to have some stuff on that scale. However, when you get to the point where there's more and more negative weights being added to that side and you're starting to see this tip, what's the first thing that people do, Gina, usually? They start focusing on all those negative things and they start getting fixated on the fact like, look at all these stressors. And then what happens is then they start emotionally eating. They start staying up later. They start using quick fixes, which I understand that's like human nature.

But that unfortunately takes a little weight and puts it on the negative scale each time. So what I really, as a mindset exercise, ask people to think about is literally write this out. Put all the negative sides on one side of the paper, draw a scale, and then on the positive side, what are you putting? And a lot of people are like, I don't really know what to put there. But that's what you have to do in those times. Okay, so I'm going to take something that I can add to the positive instead of trying to really just fixate on the negative. The way you're going to balance that scale, Gina,

is to put more on the positive. And that's how you're going to balance. Give me some examples of positive. Give us some examples of positive. Because I'm sitting here thinking the same thing. I'm like, what are my, like, someone will be like, well, what do you like to do in your spare time? I'm like, I don't know. What do you do for yourself? I'm like, I don't know. I'm getting my hair done today. Like, but that's like not for myself. I need to get my hair done.

Like, so give me, give us me some examples. Yeah. So I think part of this is going to be a little bit different for everyone, but I'm going to use myself as an example if I can, Gina, because, you know, I can, and I have five kids, so I have lots of, you know, lots of stress going on, but there's also joy. So I actually would put my kids on the positive side and the negative side. So, um, let's just, uh, I love this question because I think this is going to be very helpful for people to look at. So first thing that you're going to do is be very, um, reflective about your current state in your life and then truly look at, you know, write this out. And on that negative side,

Gina, what actually can people take off? You know, if you're really getting to the nitty gritty on a goal hour by hour in your day, what are some negative things that I can take off? Well, you know what, uh, that visit to the coffee shop that I always get tempted to grab something that I shouldn't, that might need to be taken off. For example, you know what, me staying up and watching that extra episode of Netflix, like I happened to do last night, for example, that would be a negative thing. So then I ended up going to bed at 12. Well, you know, it felt good in the moment. But unfortunately, that is going to make your adrenal system, your stress system work a little harder, because you're not getting to sleep in that right time. And you're not going to have that length. So that's the first step. So really look at detoxing some of those

things. And then some positive things are, you know, what are some things that generally make you smile during the day? Like would genuinely bring you, bring you joy. A lot of people don't have the things that are going to have the opposite effect of stress in their lives. For me, it's being active. It's playing sports. So I said one day a week, even though I have five kids, one day a week, I'm playing soccer. And I love playing soccer. I love playing volleyball.

And even though that is a tiny thing, it's not an everyday thing, but it represents, Gina, something that I'm doing for myself. Yeah. So it represents Gina, something that I'm doing for myself. Yeah. So it represents something psychological. It does something physical, even though it is, um, it is an effort. It's an, it's an output of energy. Uh, then I'm starting to look at, you know, okay. So if I, you don't have time to exercise, everyone has time to go take a five minute walk in the morning, sun in your eyes, start setting the circadian rhythm, start your

day by moving your body and getting natural sunlight, 510 15 minutes, 30 minutes, that's a great way to start, you will be surprised how amazing the rest of your day is going to be by just putting something like that in. Of course, the typical things that you know, you know, yes, you know, do some yoga, if that's what you want to do, do some stretching, if you don't have time to go to a yoga class. So all the things you talk about in the program can be quantified as positive things. But the biggest thing is detox from things that are unnecessary. And if you're stressed, like you said, you have to downsize.

And you're going to have to be cutthroat on some things. Yeah. I just can't do this. My kid can't be in three different sports. I have lots of parents like that. Because why it's not healthy for anyone around us, probably not even for the kid. So I'm gonna have to get rid of that. So anyways, I know that that doesn't cover everything. But that's a good way for people to start thinking about how I think they should approach it.

No, I love that, especially, you know, I think we just become more and more and more stressed and we feel like we have to do more and more and more. Like even just, you know, for those of us who have businesses, having a social media account is like having a whole other job. Like there's a, there's a lot of things going on, a lot of things that we need to manage. Um, okay. I want to talk to you about antidepressants and anxiety. One, because I was reading this thing about exercise and how when you exercise and use your muscles, it actually releases this chemical reaction that has this antidepressant effect. And the reason why I'm bringing this up is because you guys know I've been sharing with my, I'm having a hard time. Life has been hella stressed for me and I'm trying to do all the things. And two weeks ago, you know, before

two weeks ago, my exercise was hit and miss, right? It's there. It's not there. It's there. It's not there. And then we did this team challenge last week where we, the company breaks up into teams and whoever gets the most minutes we donate the company matches that we donate to charity well it's a competition i was finding like two hours in my day three out like let me get into the boat let me wake up early and go swimming let me swim during my lunch let me do some weights after i was like what i have time and I would have told you, I don't got time. I am so busy. You're right. More than that, the effect on just my, not my physical health. Cause my, my body is sore and I'm a little tired, but my mental health has been, I want to shout it from the rooftops.

Like I want to let people know, like you got to, you, you have got to find time. You have to sometimes say no last year. Well, this year, actually in January. So I had signed on to do all of this stuff. Cause I, you know, I was like a woman of the year last year, Canada's most powerful women. So I'm like, I can do everything. And then I signed up to do this and do that and do, and then I just was like, what am I doing? I felt like crushed. And so I had to call up people. Actually, I sent text messages and emails. And I'm like, I'm sorry, I can't.

And there were some people who were so pissed at me. I can't believe you committed to this. And then you're like, what? And you're letting us down. But man, after a while, I probably would have had a heart attack if I hadn't said no to those things. So you've got to make those big moves sometimes. So I want to talk about exercise again, like the importance. And I want to talk about antidepressants

because I also want to talk about anxiety. So I had a guest on Friday, Kyle, and he talks a lot about, Kyle Buchanan, he talks a lot about anxiety. And never have we talked about anxiety and weight loss. We talk about stress, stress, stress, stress, stress, but where does anxiety fit in? I know that was a lot. That was like 15 different questions. Yeah, that was. I'm going to try and back that here a little bit. All right, let's, let's,

let's chunk it out. I think as we were talking, you know, the one thing that really kind of stuck out to me is that we need to simplify in many ways in in in both in our approach and i think that's why again we come back to the program the program is a simplification of food and eating less less complex less processed less ultra processed foods keep your food simple if you have to make a choice choose choose the least processed option. And then that translates also into a person's life is that once you start seeing the effects of changing your diet on your health and on your life and how good you feel, then you start looking at what other ways you can simplify. Like what you just said a couple of minutes ago, you said we are so much more stressed

now than we were. Like, just think about that statement, Gina. That's implying that what are we doing now? The most technologically advanced society of all time that we've ever been in history, but we're the most anxious. We're the most depressed. We're the most obese. We're the most unhappy. And a lot of it has to be that we have too much. We have to simplify. And that is a countercultural thing. It has to be, we have to say no to some things. And you went through this experience yourself. And this is what I counsel patients with, Gina, is that in order for you to have mental clarity, in order for you to have physical peace, mental, spiritual peace, you have

to have a simplified approach for most people, because we're generally doing too much. And when you're doing less, you're not going to be as stressed. So the solution ultimately, and this is hard to get to, but you can work towards it, and maybe a long term process, but you should be simplifying your life. So when we don't, when we have too many things going on, our body's perception of us being able to handle it goes up. And that perception, it goes to the point that I can't handle it. And that is the recipe for stress. And one of the manifestations of stress, Gina, is anxiety. neurochemical imbalance that results as a process of all these factors we just talked about and

manifests as feelings that our heart is racing. These are now the physical symptoms that our mind is foggy, unclear. We can't sleep. A lot of these physical symptoms come on because of that neurochemical imbalance. So there's this psychological and physical connection that happens with anxiety. And anxiety is a massive epidemic that's happening at this point. And so I think that it's very closely related to stress, you know, a lot of people have this anxiety, this low grade anxiety I'm talking about, because there's a there's a number of different anxieties, we should point out, there is something like what's called general anxiety disorder, which is, you know, I'm anxious about everything all the time, then there's situational anxiety,

then there's this kind of like, low grade anxiety that a person really wouldn't qualify to get a diagnosis from a psychiatrist or psychologist, but they would classify themselves as like, I'm always anxious, I'm so anxious, I'm so nervous. That is kind of what the bulk of people I think are experiencing, definitely in my practice. And that I think has more to related to do with being overwhelmed, stress, and they don't have enough coping capacity. When you feel out of control, Gina, you're going to perceive everything as being stressful. If you feel like I'm able to handle it, because you have the capacity to go up or down. I always say this. And the last point, you know, you're going to be in a good place that when something comes up unexpected,

you don't feel like my world falls apart and goes into shambles. You have this reservoir, you know, we talk financial literacy, I mean like, you know, have an emergency fund. You know, you have to have a little money so you can go up and down. The same thing with your body. So many people operate on this razor's edge where we max everything out and be like, I'm handling, I'm handling.

And then I have a car accident. My mom passes away. My best friend gets cancer. Like all these life things happen and boom, everything just goes down. We need to have the ability to be a little flexible. We need metabolic flexibility.

We also need stress coping flexibility. When we don't have that, our body right away goes into stress mode because we are overwhelmed. If you're looking for flexible workouts, Peloton's got you covered. Summer runs or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We'll be right back. everything you need whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton.

Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Well, a lot of people are living, feeling like the shoe's going to drop any minute, and maybe they're just picking up on the fact that they don't have the capacity for more than that. I think so many people, they don't, they're anxious. I have anxiety, but not recognizing, but I'm not stressed. It's just the way I deal with things. I get anxious when I go in social situations or I get anxious when I do this, but that's not stress. They're two totally different things when in fact they're very connected. Let's talk anxiety and weight loss. How does anxiety or how would it affect someone's weight loss journey? Well, totally. I mean, just on a physical level,

when a person's anxious, think of anxiety as like a type of stress. Our nervous system is in a state of hyperstimulation, right? So that's what's manifesting all these physical symptoms. I mentioned a bunch of them. Heart, heart's racing. I'm getting a kind of sweats. I'm feeling uncomfortable. My, my, my, my actual breath rate might change, but a lot of, a lot of cognitive issues. People get a little tired. They get a little, they get brain foggy. They get, they can't sleep and that compounds things. Are we, are, do you think where people are making clear decisions at that point

about, you know, the food choices they're making? No, you know, they're going to be looking for ways to self medicate. So a lot of people that are feeling anxious, they'll come home and they'll crack a bottle of wine, and then they're going to start working their GABA receptor, which the alcohol starts has this calming, it's a depressant, has this calming effect. So we are self-medicating. There are many other ways that people do that. We know that when we eat, you've said this a thousand times, especially when you eat something that's going to spike insulin,

it's going to pull these amino acids into the brain. Think of sugary, carby type of feel-good foods. And that's going to temporarily make you feel good. Think of this as like a momentary antidepressant. And that's why people do that. So there's a physical reason we crave certain foods, sugars, carbs, chocolates. And that is we're trying to medicate our emotional state. And so we already say it.

We say, you know, I had a patient tell me, I know I emotionally eat. You hit the nail on the head. Anxiety is an emotional, mental, emotional dysfunction. So we're using food to remedy temporarily our anxious state. So I think it's dramatically connected. The other thing is anxiety is the tip of the iceberg, Gina. It's the symptoms that people are experiencing. But what's driving that underneath?

Well, a lot of that has to do with your HPA axis, hypothalamus pituitary adrenal axis. If you look at the literature, the, one of the underlying reasons for a lot of these nervous system dysfunctions, depression, anxiety is this dysregulated stress coping system. It's inflammation. Inflammation depression has now been directly linked in the research. So those are the underlying issues. So when I talk about things like stress and adrenal dysfunction, I'm usually talking about kind of like what's under the water. You can't see the iceberg. That's the bigger issue. And then what we're seeing, people's symptoms, are people would describe as I'm anxious.

I have insomnia. My nervous system is dysregulated. So stress maybe might describe this whole iceberg situation. However, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's specific to anxiety only or specific to adrenals. I think it's the overarching thing. But now I think we've done a better job of articulating anxiety symptoms, what we see, what people feel under the surface. It's the neurochemical imbalances, the situations with the adrenal system being dysfunctional, leading to a predisposition to anxiety. Is this a learned behavior or is it a habit?

Like I'm thinking, I'm reading some of the comments here and I even know for myself when the pandemic, before the pandemic, oh, Gina, she's so easy breezy. Everything just rolls off her shoulders. Now it could be hormones and heading into menopause, mind you, at the same time due to my age. But the pandemic left me with this level of anxiety, this like, like social interactions. And I've kind of like adapted to it. Is there something to be said that we've adapted to the stress we've learned to cope and now it's just who we are?

Well, again, anxiety requires a conversation for many hours to really fully understand it because I'm most likely oversimplifying a genome, right? But ultimately, you know, anxiety manifests in different ways. And the pandemic, using that as an example, you know, some people have a predisposition and there's many factors that lead to that. For example, there's a genetic predisposition to anxiety. So I think that people are born with a nervous system that is a little bit as a propensity to be a little bit more anxious. A lot of times when we start talking about anxiety, people will think back and again, be more reflective.

And they're like, you know what? I probably had this going on my whole life. I've probably had some issues throughout school, but you know what, I probably had this going on my whole life. I've probably had some issues throughout school, but you know what, I got by and now things instead of me improving that area, things generally, if you don't really pay attention to it, they generally become worse because we don't really deal with it. People often don't think about their mental health in the same way they think about their physical health. They think they take it for granted. They say, Oh yeah, my mental health, it is what it is, but they can look at a mirror and say, yeah, you know what? I need to really change my, my physical health. It's very

obvious because you can see it, but our society is so focused on physical and, but they don't think about the exercises and the work a person needs to do. If you need to tone up, get fit, lose weight, people know that they are going to have to move their bodies. People know that they're going to have to feed it differently. Your mental health is connected to both those things, Gina. If you are physically active, your mental health is much better because of the neurochemical changes that happen. When inflammation goes down, your weight and body composition improves. All those things improve mental health. Your food, your diet improves mental health. I'm sure people that are listening right now will tell you that if they? Well, there's a, I mentioned generic position,

but there's also an environmental consideration. Okay. So some people respond very well to those two things. So move your body and then eat, eat according to plan. And then thirdly, now we start thinking about some of the other environmental and mental emotional situations. You know, our environment when we were young plays a key role in setting us up for a predisposition to mood too. So there's another factor to that, Gina. Okay. Genetics play a big role. You know, 50%, I think I heard a stop that 50% of mood is related to our genes. So, you know, the affect of our parents, for example, the affect of our family. So if you have depression that runs in the family of anxiety that runs in the family, doesn't mean you will have anxiety. Just means you're, you have increased risk. It's the same as if you had increased risk for cancer, everyone can understand that. But again, when it comes to mental health, they're like, Oh,

well, I don't really get that. You know, I'm just anxious. Well, these are all these factors, Gina, that feed into this. Yeah, and there's a lot that you can do about it. I just was writing down Cindy's comment here. She says weight loss, like, really has so little to do with food. I mean, yeah, this is it. When you really get into it. Wow, that's deep. You're right.

Yeah. I mean, this is why obesity rates keep climbing and climbing and climbing. There's more diets out there than ever. Like diets are so accessible, you know, eat this, do that, whatever. But it's so much more than that, especially when you're talking about losing it in a healthy way, not just physically, mentally. And then both of those lead into your ability to be able to sustain and maintain your weight. You have to make some real changes in your life to, to, to make change. Okay. Um, I want to actually, if you don't mind, I wouldn't mind just asking you something. I just got back from, from Spain last month and we've all heard of the obesity epidemic. Now we know that it's like, you know, one in three kids below, you know, 12 are obese. Like it's, it's insane with that. Why do you think that in Europe, you don't have the rates of obesity versus in the North American, especially in America, there is massive rates of obesity. What are your thoughts on that? Well, back in the day, remember they used to like, they used to have diet books, like the Paris woman diet, right?

That was the whole thing. European women were so thin, even though they're eating bread and they're drinking wine. So I think there's a couple of things. I think that the quality of food is different. You eat pasta over there versus pasta over here, and it's just, it's different. I don't know what they're adding to our foods. I don't want to like go down the crazy route and all of that. I also think it's lifestyle. You know, when I was a child and I'm sure similar to you, like my mom was like, out you go. And I was walking like 15,000

miles or riding my bike or climbing trees and making forts or swimming, or I was not connected to a phone and playing video games or I was running around the neighborhood playing laser tag or whatever I was doing right um capture the flag like all of those things so I think that kids today are not spending the time just being active I'm not talking exercise because I know there's kids who like when I whenever I've talked to, like, adults, some of them who have issues when they were younger, they're like, well, I played a lot of sports. But they came from a generation where you'd play hardcore sports, you'd be hungry, and your parents are like, well, dinner's in three hours, so you'll have to wait. Right? And then I also think our junk food is different than the junk food that they have today.

And my parents, we would, we would never go out to a restaurant. We would maybe get Kentucky fried chicken, a bucket of chicken every now and then, you know, if we walk to the, if we went to the store, we'd walk to the store, ride our bikes to the store and we get the little penny candy. I'm now I'm showing my age, right? Or we get the chips in the brown bag. I think it's, I think it's a massive lifestyle thing. Plus we didn't have the stress. I think kids today are really stressed. They are measuring themselves up to everybody on the internet, rather than our little cohorts of friends where we knew where we stood. Now there is all this pressure out there from

the outside world. I think it's stress. I think it's quality of food, lack of movement and stress. And it's just hitting our kids younger. That's what I think. I don't know. What do you think? No, I think, I think you hit a lot of the big highlights. Uh, I think the, like when you're over there, it's very obvious that you see a lot of people smoking. They're eating, you know, typical bread. So it's like diet wise, the big difference is, is that in, I think in North America, everything is, will survive on a shelf for two weeks, three weeks. Ultra process where over there, it's, it's still the same type of foodstuffs, except it's like fresh.

So that's the bit, one big difference. It was very obvious to me there. It's like people don't drive cars here. It's that was very obvious to me. There, it's like people don't drive cars. Here, it's so sprawled out. Now they walk, they move. I think you said that perfectly. They probably have similar social media influences, but the fact that they can go walk anywhere,

they can go and spend time together in a park. You see everybody there. They're less apt to be on their phone, in their basement, playing video games or doing something. So I think the sedentary lifestyle is really, really magnified here in North America. And ultimately, you know, why, you know, why are we more stressed? And we can use the kids as an example in this in this particular thing we're talking about. And most likely, it's like this like the schooling has been easier. Everything's been dumbed down to make it like,

you know, everyone passes. So like before it was much more strict. I think the stress in a lot of ways, Gina is self-imposed by the access to things and comparisons on technology that we never had before. And we have to really think about that from our perspective. What we're talking about here in weight is we can't fall into the same traps. We are adults. We have a little bit more reason, but we still are humans and are going to be predisposed to

the same type of stressful emotion that happens. Every time I go on social media, because I'm someone that is a bit more mindful, I can right away feel my cortisol and my stress, stress go up. That's why I don't use it anymore. It really comes down to that because I know it's the way a lot of people learn about it. A lot of what I do on my business and advertising is, is, has been really connected to that. However, part of that has to be, you know, I think that's driving a lot of people and especially kids. And I know people that are listening right now, we are also susceptible to it, even though we may not like stay up from like 2am to 9am playing Fortnite, but because we have to work the next day, we still have that drip, drip, drip of comparative cortisol

that continues to pour into our lives. Oh my gosh. I went through my Instagram like last week and I was following people I thought were inspiring to me, but when I'm me and I'm like, do more, do more, do more inspiring, just triggers my brain to be like all the things I need to do in order to get that and get that done. It's comparative cortisol. I'm telling you, that's the term. It's like, you don't even realize, but we are constantly comparing. So being spending 60 seconds on Instagram for someone that, you know, I pride myself on having a pretty balance right away.

I feel like I'm not good enough. Me. Yeah. Right away. And you too. Exactly. We're in the same boat. So think about you now,

everyone that's listening to this, please. I hope that you listen to this is if we want to graduate to the point where we talked about right at the beginning of this conversation, being simplifying, being more mindful, observe the way you feel when you do things like social media, when you watch certain things, what do you feel? Do you feel number one, because you do want to feel set. But then after you do feel what do you feel and is not positive. That's the simplification. That's what I think Jean and I are asking you to think about right now. Because all these things we talked about that that example of why are kids so fat these days? Why are they overweight? It has to do with all these stressors

that I think are unnecessary. Yeah, I agree. I love this concept of simplifying it. I love that you're attaching it to social media because we think we're mindlessly scrolling and we are really not. You know, I love learning, right? Like I love if someone's like giving me some information

or something like that's a little different. But yeah, like the even like the, like all of it, I just find so much of it, although it's I thought was inspiring me, it was actually stressing me, I you and I had a conversation, I'm cognizant of time about happiness. Yeah, we did. Not too long ago. And there was this like like are you are you happy and i think about like i was saying yesterday i want to move to i wanted to move to maui or i want to also live in europe i want it's not the place it's the lifestyle it's that you know you just think about walking through europe right you're just like you're relaxed and you're walking and people are all sitting on their phones as much.

Or I went away in April, Tony and I went to Mexico and I'm lying around the pool and everybody's on their phone. And I'm thinking, there's no feeling, there's no doubt, there's no absorbed, there's no like, there's no like distressing. You have to be present. I think that's what you're trying to say is that, you know, we have a lack of presence and we have a deficiency in being present. And so much, so many times where, you know, even if we take our kids.

Deficiency in being present. Yeah. Deficiency in being present. Deficiency in being present. We're always living in someone else's life. In Instagram, Instagram is designed or Facebook's designed to transport us into some other space. And that other space almost all the time makes us feel like our space is shitty. Our space is not good enough.

And that right there, that little difference is the recipe for stress. Is the recipe for I'm not good enough. I'm inadequate. And anybody, the richest person, the most successful person. So when I was when you're talking about happiness, why I pointed to my head is like happiness is not a place. It's a state of mind. It's a state of heart. It's a state of spirit. And that, you know, the happiest people in the world, the research shows this are the ones that have often the least in terms of materialism. But it really comes down to what's your mindset, Gina? What's your heart set?

Where are you at when it comes to those important pieces? Because when you know where you're at in this world, other things around you don't really rock your boat. A lot of times during COVID, you mentioned COVID, people were very fearful. The reason anxiety spiked is because people's fear spiked, uncertainty spiked, aka the recipe for stress. When things are uncertain, people's perceived control, people's perceived sense of control goes down and it's impacted. And so that translates into every aspect of our lives. So part of that is, you know, not, you know, Maui would be nice. It's beautiful.

But, you know, even when you are there, you can be living in Maui. There's just here's the crazy part. You can be living in Europe, living in all the dream places that you can think of, and you can still be very unhappy. How do we, because people are like, well, find your joy. You know, what makes you happy? And this is a conversation. And I was just like, am I, am I, I shared with you, um, Tony and I were having a conversation

about a friend. Um, I said, well, are they happy? And he's like, well, yeah, I mean, they seem happy. They're this or that, whatever. And then he was like, are you happy? And I was like, oh, I love him. I have a great marriage. I have four kids.

Mine, they're stressful, but that's what teenagers are. You know, everyone in my life is alive and healthy. I love my job. And I've done a lot of work to be happier. I've done a lot of work. I can say I'm happier now than when I had that conversation with you, but it shook me. It shook me. And so I ask everyone listening today, are you happy? And then Dr. Paul and I went into the, the like, what is happiness? And then how do you like when someone says, well, do things that make you happy? What, what does that mean? What does that mean? Yeah. I mean, happiness is generally associated with what happens to people. Like, so for example,

when I would ask you, you know, what is happiness to you or anybody that's listening, a lot of people will say, you know, associated with a feeling. So like when I'm together with my family at Thanksgiving, but those things come and go. That's a, that's a, that's a transient thing. Happiness is made up of, you know, three ingredients. You know, one of the biggest ones is purpose, you know, so doing something that gives you purpose and purpose doesn't come out of I'm making money or I'm, I'm achieving certain fame that those are necessary needs that are required for us to live in this current world and culture. But purpose really comes down to, you know, am I using the gifts that I have, the skills

that I have to the best of my ability? Am I serving other people? There's lots of different ingredients that go into that, but that is ultimately one of the key things. The other thing is satisfaction. And satisfaction is by definition is that, you know, it's going to it's not going to last. You know, satisfaction, if we attach satisfaction to things that are going to have a very fast effect, but then disappear quickly. Like for example, scrolling through Instagram back to that, those are that gives you momentary satisfaction,

because it's a dopamine hit, it makes you feel good, it makes your brain chemistry, just like eating that, you know, donut, or that cookie is going to make you feel temporarily good. But in the in the long term, it's going to be very unsatisfying. So there are ways of making what we do more satisfying when we, for example, you've heard of these little cliche adages, when we like give something away where we help somebody else. Now you have much deeper satisfaction that's more lasting. That's the type of um uh that's the type of mentality that's the type of shift so i think that you know when you look at the recipe for for happiness it's it's much uh it's much more than just what happens to us it has to come from a

bigger and deeper place and i think one of the big recipes when we look at the people that are the happiest people that live the longest these blue zones that you and I have talked about, one of the big things that people keep coming back is that it's community, it's people around you. So it's not just your immediate family. I think even though that's a big piece, that there's meaning based on other people. Meaning, if your meaning is what things I have,

you're gonna be unhappy all the time. You're going to be unsatisfied because that's not going to give you that purpose. And the other big thing that really jumps out at me is that people, I mentioned this earlier, people know their place in the world. And what does that mean? People have some sort of spiritual connection to their world and to the bigger questions in life. And that can't be, a lot of people are like, well, I don't believe in that. But that is the recipe that research keeps coming back to

is that there needs to be, you need to know where you are in this meta universe. And so part of that is happy people have a spiritual practice. And so whatever that might be for you, for me, it's Christianity. For other people, it might be different. That's important for you to be happy. And the happiest people have a very strong connection because part of that comes community. Part of that comes

support. Part of that is not materialistic. Part of that is answering life's big questions. It actually is like the anti-anxiety recipe in many ways, Gina, because it helps us give us a state of meaning. And I think that's one of the biggest reasons why historically people have just been happier with less is because they knew where they kind of, where they fit in this world. They knew where they fit in this community. Now, how do I, how do I fit in Instagram? I'm not a, you know, like a rock star or, you know, and so always you're going to feel like you don't fit. That's the, that's the, that's the lie that unfortunately social media has given so many of these kids and not just our kids to us too, Gina. I think this is the full circle moment in this conversation because we talked about the mindset and mindfulness piece.

And I think people are always looking out there to fix it. Well, give me some adaptogens, you know, give me some this. Let me do that. Let me exercise it. I mean, not that that isn't, you know, it's a great thing to move your body, but that's just, again, that's something that you're doing when that mindset piece is such a big part of it. Like, do you have purpose?

Are you spiritually connected? Do you have a sense of community? You know, like, are you satisfied? Do you have that sense of satisfaction? Are you focused on those things? Because always when I'm ever talking to someone who is having a hard time moving the dial on the scale, I mean, on the surface, it's people who are, you know, you do get people who it's what they're eating or when, but it's never that. It's always so much more than that. And a lot of times people are just not aware. And so I really hope that this conversation, I know it did, brought that

sense of awareness that sometimes you think you're struggling and you think it's, what can I, what more can I eat? What can I take? And it's none of those things. It's none of those things. Okay. Um, I want to, can you summarize this conversation? Uh, you know, people are trying to lose weight. You know, we're talking about leveling up your health in, in, I think in ways that people did not expect this conversation to go, which is what I love about it. I know. I'm going to give you the final word to our community today. One thing I want to leave people off on being very positive and, and,

and inspired because everything we've talked about so far, I think if you're feeling frustrated by this conversation and you were hoping to find that little nugget, you know, I want everyone that's feeling that way to just sit with that emotion. Maybe think about it at a quiet time at some point later today or later this week and think about why did it frustrate you that, you know, you weren't given a thing. There isn't, I think the message that we're trying to share with everyone today is that one extra fact, one extra food is not going to be the difference between you losing weight and not you being your healthiest and not. And I think that is, when you when you recognize that, I hope that the shift from a mindset perspective is that going to be, it's not a matter of, you know what to do now, you've gone through the program, you know the

what, but now it's about finding your why. And when people find their why, aka their purpose, when you're going to get a sense of mindfulness and a sense of satisfaction that you've never had before. And that's hard work. That's deep work. That takes simplification. That takes quiet time. And the world that we live, the culture we live is directly competing with that now more than ever in the industry. So the challenge for people listening to this is less is going to be your new watchword. Simplification is going to be your new mantra. And that is going to allow you the space

to think of this way. And ultimately, Gina, grow. And that's what we're challenging everyone to do. I want people to grow in this way of thinking about their weight, thinking about their health. Sometimes we want it so bad that we just, you were like, just give me that thing. Give me Ozempic. I'm going to, I need it, you know? And those things are shortcuts, Gina. And ultimately, whenever we take a shortcut, sooner or later, we're going to have a negative impact that's going to happen that is that we don't even fully see um you know like the ozempic thing you lose muscle mass unfortunately and that

as you get older big problem um so my point is is that i hope we leave with this being inspired and positive i know this sometimes can feel overwhelming where people are like i'm not there yet dr paul i'm not there yet gina i I don't know what that means. First step, just sit back and reflect on what we maybe listen to this conversation again, while you have a time to actually think about it, make a couple notes. How can I detox? How can I simplify? What are some positive things I can add back in? Exercise is not a luxury. It's not good to know, good to do. We found out, Gina. It is like a requirement as part of our human nature.

Yeah. I had a patient last week saying, I feel guilty when I exercise because I don't want get like addicted to it because it's like, it's good. It really helps. It's the only thing that helps my anxiety. And I was like, this is, this is who you are. This is what you need. This is not like a, it's gotten to the point that it's like, you know, if you exercise, you got to be some sort of like self business owner. Cause you have no, you have more time on your hands and all this. We have to change that mindset. Eating healthy, eating, moving your body is what your body needs.

And that's the foundation for you to now take this to the next level. So hopefully that was what helpful. I love this conversation. I'm glad we had it. I love it too. And again, same with exercise, same with food. Just because you're eating a salad, some leafy greens doesn't mean like you're on like a, some like crazy diet. That's just the right way of eating. That's just, exactly. And that's the shift when a lot of people

are like, no, I just eat this way. Like I'm not on the program. I'm just eating this way. Cause it's the right way to eat. Full stop. Well, and that goes well for is Ozempic, right? Like this is like, you know, if you are taking Ozempic, you need to do a program like this because, okay, like that this, that mindfulness, the mindset. I love this conversation too. I don't, don't want it to end, but I know we're out of time. I like pushed it right to the very end. As I do with you, I like to get every single second. Just squeeze it out. Well, it was, it was great. Great talking to you, Gina. Thank you everybody for listening.

I hope you take this conversation and really find it helpful. Yeah. And, you know, again, health and wellness is so much more than just the supplements or the medication or the this or the that. This is all part of it, too. Thank you so much. Dr. Paul Herkulendi, P-A-U-L-H-R-K-A-L-N-D.com. If you want to reach out to Dr. Paul and his team, if you are ready for that conversation,

you got to be ready for that conversation. That's where you can find him. Thank you so much. I know that just a heads up, Dr. Paul and I are working on just some things where we're going to be able to go down the rabbit hole of these conversations. There is so much more to talk about than what we can actually cover in the group. So keep your eye out for that because you and I need to talk. We got some

fun stuff that we're working on. Thanks, Gina. See everyone. Bye everyone. Thank you.