The Livy Method Podcast - Let's Talk Maximizing Your Health with Dr. Olinca Trejo, ND - Winter 2024

Episode Date: April 9, 2024

In this Guest Expert segment, Gina talks maximizing your health with Dr. Olinca Trejo. Dr. Olinca is a licensed, board-certified Naturopathic Doctor in the province of Ontario. She also holds an honours degree in Kinesiology and has achieved her certification and internship in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT).You can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2024Topics covered:What more can you do? with Dr. Olinca TrejoShifting your mindset around exercise and focusing on maximizing your movementBuilding movement into your life is about consistency, not intensity Look at the associations that you have with exercise; You CAN do versus have to do Building habits: to help your body get out of reserve mode What are the simplest things you can add to your walk to maximize your effortsGina discusses her 10-minute rule to help you create that habit without pressure Making movement part of your life versus putting movement in your lifeYour body adapts to routine, so continue to challenge yourself The impact that a sedentary life has on your cardiovascular health The importance of maintaining your muscle mass as you age and the impact on your hormonesYour metabolism and your muscle mass The scale is a great tool, but measurements can help you understand the body is changing its shapeGetting your heart rate up with cardio-style movement and the role of the hormone cortisolHow would you know if your digestion needs some support? Maximizing your digestionWhat is normal and what is not? Bloating doesn't have to be a bad thing!Excess bloating and low FODMAP diet  Are you scared to switch up your foods? Rotation helps to prevent food sensitivitiesMaximizing your food choices by getting in tune with what works for your bodyHow can you maximize your bowel movements? What to look for!Diarrhea and constipation: The ideal bowel movement While you are changing what you are eating, your bowel movements will change as well Consistency versus intensity and the importance of tracking your non-scale victoriesConnect with Dr. Olinca: [e-mail] 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. summer runs, or playoff season meditations. Whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you. We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca.

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. What more can you do to lose weight? I mean, my goodness. Here we are having this conversation, week 10 of the program. You've been showing up for 10 weeks, doing all the things, super mindful, maximizing. But is there more that you can do? So that's the conversation today with Dr. Alinka Trejo. She's back with us again. And I, well, first of all,

hi, hello. Hi, hello. Good morning. I was just reading over the notes for this conversation. And before I sat down, I was like, okay, like, what are we going to talk about here? I'm actually really excited. We're going to talk about maximizing your movement, maximizing your digestion, maximizing your sleep and maximizing your journey. Just when you think that you're doing all of the things, there's actually more that you can do. And I don't want to say that in a way that stresses people out. Like, I don't want them to be like, oh, great. More stuff to add to my to-do list because that's not what this conversation is about. I think it's going to be more getting the most out of the things that you are doing. about like, but then, so I'll try, I'll try to, we'll try to make it simple today. Give you some, some applicable things that you can take home today and start applying to maximize what you're

already doing. That's the focus of our conversation today. I love it. So let's get into it. So let's start with movement. And I'm glad that you picked this one because, you know, it's interesting. I was thinking about the program as we have another group coming up in the spring. And I'm thinking, what are some of the things I really want to focus on a bit more? And one of them is movement and the importance, especially with resistance training after the conversations that we've had with you, especially when it comes to hormones and whatnot. So let's talk about maximizing your movement. What do you mean by that? So I think that the first thing that I want people to understand is that, like, I just need you to change your mindset about what exercise or

movement means in your journey, right? The first question that you need to ask yourself is like, what gets what gets me moving? And what do I enjoy? Because I think that a lot of us, especially when you've been a yo-yo dieter, you have gone to Weight Watchers or you've done all of the programs that failed you. Exercise was almost a punishment rather than a way of living or part of your healthy lifestyle or part of the piece. And it's often the one piece that most of us struggle the most with, because to be honest, getting fit is hard because it's hard work, right?

I always say I was blessed with very many things, but athleticism was not one of them. And so for me, finding something that I really liked was really hard, but the more you like it, especially when it's in combination with other people, because I use this quote from a it's a John Jonathan Height. I think his name is. But he always says we're 90 percent chimp and 10 percent bee. And that's actually what we really love moving with other people.

And we love doing things with other people. And so I think that when we change our mindset and look at movement and not just exercise, but movement and what makes you or what gets you moving, you can focus also on like what your body can do versus what your body looks like. Right. Because there are two different things. Yes. Is that if you keep that mindset around movement positive and you say like, listen, I understand that I don't look like a Victoria's Secret model, but like I'm becoming more flexible or like I used to hustle up those stairs. I'm like, that's a little bit easier for me. That's enough often to keep you motivated and to keep you going, because the goal for movement, it's not I mean, it is part of weight loss and body composition, but it's also for reducing your risk of chronic disease, right, as we age. And I always go back to that concept with you, that there's a difference between your lifespan and how long you live for, and your health span with the quality of your life as you age depends so much more on on the well, on your cognitive abilities, for sure, but also on how much muscle mass you carry in your body because of, I'm going to do exercise because they go back often to that mentality that we're trying so hard to shift them out of with this program is like, okay, I'm going to do 30 minutes of cardio three times a week, two sessions of resistance training, and then I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this and I'm going to do this. And I think that

part of the reason as to why that doesn't work is a you're predisposing yourself to injury and with with movement especially at the beginning when you're trying to build it into your life it's consistency versus intensity I just need it in your life and you you don't even have to do a session of like 45 minutes you can do you know five different sessions of seven minutes if that's what works in in your in like your your time but it's it's those short bouts and like the the uh consistency through your day that builds that habit so that your brain takes it as like oh this is just what we do every morning because even in physics we say you know it's a ball that's stationary is so much harder to get moving than a ball that's

already in motion. Yeah. I love this. I have a 10 minute rule where, cause people do this, right? Like for, first of all, I find, well, there's a couple of things I want to talk about here. One is yes. Our association to exercise. And a lot of us, because we are having this conversation in a weight loss program, have used exercise to try to get skinny, used exercise to try to lose weight, not exercise to

try to make themselves strong, to maintain bone density, to maintain muscle mass, for mobility, for movement, none of those things. We've been using exercise to make us skinny, lose weight, or punish ourselves for the things that we ate. So there's one thing. So it really has to change your, we really have to change our mindset around this, which I think as soon as you start seeing it as something that you can do rather than you have to do, you know, it's a game changer. The other thing is, I was just reminded how and I'm I'm also I do this as well when I when I was a personal trainer and I would train you know men who were older and they can barely like walk touch their toes they have big bellies and they're like well when

I was a football player I used to pump and lift whatever. So what, those are the exercises I got to do. I don't know why I'm talking like that, but I could press you when I was, yeah. Yeah. I'm like, but you're not a football, you're not a football player anymore. Like you can't go back. That is not going to work for you. And I think I, I used to be a personal trainer. I actually was, you know, I was a, I was a professional boxer. I was, you know, an aerobic instructor, but I can't go back to, I associate, well, when I exercise, I have to go back to doing those types of things, but no, that is not what I, honey, you just need to get your ass on your little walking pad for 10 minutes a day. How about we start with that? How about rather than signing up for 20 yoga

classes a week, you start with trying to touch your toes and do some stretches after you get off your walking pad. So I think we need to go back to what when we were fit and this is what worked for us before. And Oh my God, it's just torture. A hundred percent. And we were not saying that you may not get there if you want to, but it's just, don't start there. I literally had this conversation

with somebody who was like a competitive cyclist, a gentleman who was going to play his head quiz yesterday. And he was like, honestly, but if I go on my bike, I just go balls to the wall. And I'm like, then don't get on your bike and get on a treadmill instead, because your brain is going to be like, I'm a 20 year old super fit man. And you are a 51 year old, not fit man. And so I, it's, it, and then the problem is that then your brain, instead of being like those endorphins were amazing, your brain is going to be like, I almost died.

I don't want to do it. Right. And so this is actually why I always talk about the consistency, especially for the habit, right. To fulfill the habit, because there's a concept you and I have brought up before too. Your brain is inherently lazy and it will always choose the path of least recession this um resistance unless there's a little bit of dopamine that it's gonna get from it right and then unless at the end of it it's like oh that felt good and so the the the easiest thing for your brain to

feel like i'm gonna store these calories to stop because fat especially if you're in that stress mode right where we're in like constantly on the fight or flight your brain is going to try to sabotage you at every corner to try and get you to not move when you build a consistency even if it is 10 minutes a day now you've built it into a habit your brain doesn't fall back into like let's go back to the couch it just goes into like okay and now we move for 10 minutes just because you've learned it or built it into your routine. The other thing with exercise that I actually find really interesting, especially, you know, right around here, where people start feeling like, okay, I'm doing all the things I've been exercising, I'm doing my steps, I'm doing all

of these things, and these things don't work anymore. And the thing is, is that it goes back to, again, the simple survival mechanism of your body eventually will adapt to whatever it is that you're doing, because it doesn't end up to die, right? It doesn't mean that the steps that you're doing and the two yoga classes you were doing, and you know, the walks that you take with your girlfriend are not working, they are continuing to work for your kind of cardiometabolic health and decreasing your risk of disease. But maybe you're not necessarily seeing that anymore as a body composition change. So how do you maximize that? Right. How do you, because I don't,

you, this doesn't mean that you're going to get to the point where you have to exercise 24 hours a day in order to achieve your goals. That's not the conversation we're having. It's the, if you know that you really love something, especially if it's something that gives you that accountability because it's with somebody else or gets you outside, which is really great for your mood. One of the simplest things, and I know I sound like a spokesperson for these things, but one of the simplest things that you can actually add to your walks or to your hikes or to whatever it is, is actually a weighted vest.

And there's way cooler ones right now. I mean, the one that if you are in Hamilton and you ever see me walking around, I for sure look like I'm going to war. I like I have like my little weighted rods make me look like I'm going to throw a grenade at you at any point. And my husband refuses to walk with me with it. But now there's like really nice ones, you know, that you can get, but that the, we call it rucking, but adding that weighted vest, interestingly is now combining, right? What you were already doing, maximizing it because it's adding that resistance training. And especially for women who are post-menopausal

or pre-menopausal that have a history of osteoporosis in their family or have a lot of risk factors on their own for osteoporosis. It's one of the most amazing things they can do because it's one of the only things that has been shown to strengthen the bones around your pelvis that are actually the most likely to fracture when you have osteoporosis. And I don't know if you know this, but the minute that you break a hip, when you are osteoporotic, we give you like five years of life because the mortality rate, if you get surgery, because if you don't, the mortality risk, I think it's 70%. But if you make it out of the hospital, it's about five years that you have. Well, okay. What about, someone was asking about, what about ankle weights or, you know, wrist weights when you're walking? Yeah. So those are also amazing. Sometimes they're a little bit hard for people that, that have arthritis of sorts because they are really

small joints that, you know, if you're adding five or 10 pounds, sometimes they can get really sore. And then I don't want that to prevent you from obviously, you know, them doing your yoga class or whatever it is that you were doing before. So that's actually why I like the core weight a little bit more. And the reason why I like it even further is because it's balanced at the front and balanced at the back. It strains your back a little bit less than just doing like a weighted backpack, right? Because most of us, when you're just doing the backpack, you'll strain your back because naturally we'll do this

as we're carrying the weight. Whereas with this one, you have to really engage your core. But if the only thing you have access to is ankle and wrist weights, start there. So this is where I just want to kind of recap what you said here and bring it back to our members. So you know how, especially before you started the program, right? You have,

it's not that you don't want to exercise. It's not that you don't understand its benefits. It's not that you're lazy. It's just like Dr. Lincoln says your body is kind of wired in a way, especially when it's feeling a need to store fat, to make things easy for you and to keep you on reserve mode. So although mentally you want to do it mentally, you know, you need to do it. You understand the benefits. It's like that, that difference between actually doing it.

It's like your body is keeping you in that reserve mode. And what I like about where we're at in the program is as you've been giving the body what it needs, so it no longer feels the need to store fat. That's why so many of you are starting to feel like, Oh, a little bit jiggity. Like, well, I feel like doing something. I feel like going out and moving my body. And especially with the time of year, that's also really happening. Body pulling it out of that winter hibernation mode. You have that spring in your step. Herein lies the problem then that the minute we start thinking about doing some movement, we put all this pressure on ourselves to do the, I'm going to work out every day for an hour. I'm going to ride my bike 59,000 miles or whatever. Right. And that's where I like the

start with 10 minutes. If after 10 minutes, you don't want to keep going, you can quit. And then, you know, the next day, all I got to do is 10 minutes, but nine times out of 10, if you just start some form of exercise or movement after 10 minutes, you're going to be like, okay, this is, this is good. And, and keep, and keep doing it. The other thing is, is like the habit you're talking about. And that's the great way to start the habit, right? Like if you're going to get up every morning and start exercise, just focus on getting up, get up, have a tea, get dressed, you know, go walk around the block. Next day, you might walk two blocks.

Next day, you might walk three blocks, but don't put that pressure on yourself. The other thing, and lastly, I want to talk about is we're constantly trying to put movement into our life rather than making it part of our lives. And more and more and more, you're going to hear about the detriment of being sedentary, sitting at our desks all day, not doing anything like it's, you know, even when you do put 10 minutes, half an hour, an hour, it's really still not enough. It's not enough. What is more beneficial is moving your body more often. So you really have to think about rather than this movement fitting into your life,

you have to prioritize movement and fit in the work and the other things that you need to do almost around that if you truly want to live a long, healthy life. Because man, if you can't touch your toes when you're 40, when you're 50, you know, if you're kind of hobbling around, it's only going to get worse unless you do something about it. Lastly, I want to talk about the routine, the routine. So when, like you said, when people are doing their exercises and it feels like it's no longer working for them anymore, as much as your body loves routine, this is where, when it comes to exercise, your body adapts to the routine, which is great. It means that you're creating a habit. It means like it's incorporating into your lifestyle. And it also means it, you could probably challenge your body a bit more. So use the weights, use the vest, you know,

switch up your routine a little bit. You increase the incline, you increase the speed, you, you know, go for an extra, I don't know, 2000 steps. Like it's not, and it doesn't have to be massive. Like you don't have to become a boxer in order to do that. Yeah. But I, I do, I do think that it's important then for people to understand that they're different exercises also bring different things into your life. Right? And so I want to go back to the point that you made, and I would love to make exercise part of your life. And Dr. Hemerman talks about this a lot, because we now call like a sedentary lifestyle, the new smoking, because of the impact that it can actually have on your cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health. And there's, and I don't

remember the quote perfectly, but I think it's something like if you sit for longer than four hours a day, you almost negate completely the movement that you've done in the day, unless you actually add a little bit of movement in those four hours. And so to your point, like, it's great that you go and you do an exercise in the morning for half an hour or a walk or whatever but for the rest of the day you're just sitting at a desk like it might not actually be that much more beneficial in a sense it will because it you know it made you feel great and it had a number of uh benefits but from a cardiovascular standpoint from a health standpoint it might actually be better to to do the 10, three times a day during your day, then it would be to

just do it in that really big chunk of time. If your life is just sedentary and you don't have movement in your day. Yeah. I, one of the comments here is like the best exercise is the one that I do. Yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent. Absolutely. Absolutely. You know, we don't want to over complicate things here. So that's where, you know, if you've been exercising for a while and feel like you're not getting much out of it, try switching it up slightly, challenge the body a little bit more, right? If you are, can't find time in your day to fit in a half hour, hour workout, there's a huge benefit in doing like 10 little 10 minute bits of movement throughout the day. You know, that's like, you have to figure out what works for you. You have to figure out what you're going to actually do. So really, you know,

taking a look at your mindset, how do you even think of exercise? If you have a hard time thinking of exercise because you have association with it, think of it as movement, right? And if you're not motivated to move to help you lose weight, maybe you're motivated to help you lose so that you don't break a hip when you're older or, you know, even hormones. I love the, I love the conversation we've been having about hormones. Everyone wants to know about what to do with the hormones. Hormones are making me fat. They're causing my body to store belly fat. But one of the most important things that you can do, especially if you've spent any time dieting, because there's a big difference between weight loss and fat loss, right? Weight loss, you know, you're starving, you're depriving, you're restricting and you are

losing weight. Yes. But it's water weight. It's fat. Yes. And also a considerable amount of muscle. And so maintaining your muscle mass is so important, especially as you get older, when it comes to your hormones. Can we just talk about the benefit of that real quick? I know we could probably talk on it for an hour. Yeah, so as you age, you are going, I mean, in your 30s, you're going to achieve your peak muscle mass, right? We know that. And then after that, really, unless you're doing something about it, you're going to lose about 0.2 to about like one percent of your muscle mass every year unless you're doing something about it a lot of the times obviously through um fad diets but your body the first thing that it like goes let's go off is protein especially because a lot of the fad diets that we follow historically have been really really low in

protein and because they've told you, you must do a lot of cardio. What happens when your body's in that stress mode, right? Because your cortisol is really, really high because you're like, you're starving me. And then you are over exercising, which then makes your body go into you're starving me. And now we're running away from a bear like what the fuck is happening to me right now? What it will do is that it will try to store as much fat as it can as a survival mechanism so that then it can tap into those fat stores when everything else is gone. And it's almost like this will keep me safe. And you can look at a muffin and you're going to gain weight because your

body just looks at this. Like you will help me when the bear is really close about to eat me. Right. And so through that time, what will happen is that you will become skinny fat that is the easiest way to think about it you will give up all of your muscle mass you will get smaller but not smaller in the right way and then then what happens is that you get into the cycle of yo-yoing um and it because you're aging you're still continuing to lose muscle mass, right? For women, this is particularly hard because around like in the year, probably four to six years that straddle that last menstrual period,

estrogen will kind of have an indirect impact in your muscle mass and also a direct one through other hormones, mainly your growth hormone. With that slow decline in muscle mass will become really quick like really really really quick so now you have the fact that you're aging and also you have the fact that your estrogen is like all over the place and now you're losing muscle mass as a result of that in that if you put on top of that that that is usually one of the most stressful periods in any woman's lives, because you know, we're in that stress sandwich, your cortisol is even higher. You've been yo-yo dieting all your life, like all of these things, you know, are combining. And what's going to happen is that

you're losing again without estrogen, not just the muscle mass, but you're losing the direction of where your fat should go. Because we know that estrogen guides fat to anti-inflammatory areas, which are going to be your breast, your glutes, your hips. And now you're losing that estrogen. And now without the direction, your fat is going to go to your abdomen and get around your organs, which is actually what we call the visceral fat. And fat is an endocrine organ right it produces things and visceral fat is especially bad because visceral fat um promotes a lot of inflammatory cytokines and these inflammatory cytokines just perseverate the cycle that you're in that then increase your risk for cardiovascular disease and stroke and high blood pressure and things like that. And so then the challenge is that, you know, the, the, what I, and I see this a lot in my practice where like,

we panic and perimenopause, and then we're like, oh shit. Okay. Well, what happened? What worked before? Uh, mid-watchers worked before, right? Or like, no, the ideal protein would die work before. No, Bernstein. I'm just going to do Bernstein because it's just like, need to get these pounds off. And then you start doing step classes again. Yeah. I'm going to do spin classes like 18 times a day. And then, and so that just, again, like feeds that cortisol pathway that then choose up your muscle mass that builds more of that fat. And so it's so hard to get out of that. And so I, the, the tricky thing is, is that your metabolism is almost 100% dependent on how much muscle mass you have in your body. And so if you don't have that movement

piece in your life, that's actually helping you maintain that muscle mass. It, the weight that you're seeing on the scale is also going to stall because eventually your body is like girl like i this is just my metabolism like i can't really go anywhere else with this and if you then on the gene and living program or elsewhere decide like oh it's not moving i'm gonna take away that one snack or like maybe i'm just gonna reduce the fat or like maybe if that is the worst thing take away take away take away just makes it the whole thing worse a hundred percent because now what happens is now your goal your body goes into like it's happening again she's starting me she's

starting me let's store all the fat give up the muscle and then you end up in the exact same vicious cycle that didn't work that led you here and now we're we're like breaking it so i so that's actually where the movement is so important because it's the only way that we can actually build muscle mass or at least maintain the muscle mass that we have um to be able to maximize our metabolism and continue eating exactly what we're eating and the beautiful things that we're eating and continue losing that fat mass, right? And so, and this is the other thing that I want to touch on, because I think that the scale, and I love that you put so much emphasis on this, but the scale is only a tool guys. And I really can't stress that enough

because your scale, when you get to almost that point where you're like i feel like i'm stuck and i don't i don't really know what i'm doing wrong i i would love for you to also consider doing like waist and hip measurements or other things that will allow you to understand that not because your scale isn't moving the way that you think should be moving there aren't other changes that are happening in your body, like losing that visceral fat mass that your program is so good at, right? Because people don't see that. They're like, but it's the number on the scale, because that's what Weight Watchers told them or whatever other diet they tell them. It is just part of your journey. And so just to move that number on the scale, it is not worth it to give up your muscle mass. Yeah. I mean, this is why, you know, typically

they would say, you know, even without changing anything you eat, you gain weight year over year over year. And this is why doctors will be like, well, that's just the way that it is. I mean, you can just settle for that and understand that as you lose muscle mass and you just continue to eat how you're eating, chances are if you don't have the muscle as a place for your body, your insulin to tell to store some in your muscle and you don't have the muscle for that, it's got no choice but to store more in your fat. And if you want to be like, okay, that's just how it is. Great.

But you actually have control over this by not just maintaining your muscle mass, but also increasing your muscle mass. So if you don't want to keep putting on weight year over year over year, which can typically happen, you know, there's a lot that you can do about that. And especially when it comes to, you know, resistance training weights, it has to be a weight bearing exercise. Like you can do a lot with resistance training, like doing a pushup or body using your own body's resistance, especially if you're new to adding resistance. But if you've been doing a resistance training workout and you're not really seeing your, like your muscles aren't feeling a little bit taxed,

you're not really seeing your body change much. That's where you might not want to step it up, get yourself some heavier hand weights, get yourself a walking vest. You know, it's not like you have to all of a sudden become a bodybuilder. It's not about becoming a bodybuilder. It's just about, you know, it's about just, you know, it's about maintaining or trying to increase

a little bit more your muscle mass. 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 know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations.

What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. Okay, let's move on to digestion. Okay. No, wait, stop. I do want to talk about cardio real quick, because everyone's talking about exercise, right? Who knew we were going to talk about exercise so much? So many people are afraid to do cardio and are not doing cardio because their doctor's like, well, or whoever

is like, well, it's going to, you have, your stress levels are too high already. And you know, you don't want to make it worse. What they're talking about is the old 80s, 90s style aerobics classes. When they say be mindful of cardio, what they mean is don't trash your body by doing 90 minutes of cardio where you can't breathe and feel like you're going to puke at the end. What they're not talking about is maybe getting your heart rate up for 30 seconds a minute here or there while you're walking uphill during your walk or while you're on your treadmill, taxing your heart rate, or do maybe doing a 45 minute low impact class. What, what they're talking about when they're telling you not to do cardio because it makes your

cortisol levels worse. They're talking about pounding the crap out of your body and you know, where you're huffing and puffing and dying. So there's nothing wrong with getting your heart rate up. In fact, it's great for your heart. There's nothing wrong with the endurance training, these long walks that you're doing. So do you have anything to add to that? Because I hear that all the time. Well, I, my doctor told me not to do cardio. I'm like, what? It makes no sense. I know. Um, okay. So listen, cardio undoubtedly has a greater benefit for your cardio respiratory fitness than resistance does. Nobody is going to argue that. The thing is, is that we usually for your cortisol to get triggered and elevated, you're we're talking about like longer bouts of cardio, right?

We're talking about like over 40 minutes or so. And there's the best way that you can actually start cardio is by getting like an Apple watch or like something that actually monitors your heart rate. And rather than just doing it because you're like, this is what I think I'm supposed to be doing and how I'm feeling. Monitor your heart rate. Figure out what your maximum heart rate is, which is a simple calculation of 220 minus your age and your target should be to be anywhere between that like 70 to maximum 80 percent of your heart rate um for some period of time at the beginning that might feel uncomfortable and that might be only one minute and then we bring it back down and then we go up one minute by doing things like incline or like you know a little bit of my husband more of a hustle during your walk or whatever it is but actually those short bouts that you're talking about,

which is called the high intensity interval training or the HIIT training, that you can do while walking. Like you don't have to be doing a super intense routine. Actually have a greater impact on your metabolism after you stop doing the exercise. It's something that's called EPOC, where literally after the exercise, you're sitting on your chair and you're just burning way more calories without even doing anything. And so it's a really nice way to introduce cardio.

The thing about cardio and resistance is that they go really nicely together, right? But it doesn't have to be like a, it's again, the consistency versus the intensity. The ideal would be that you have a little bit of yoga for flexibility and mindfulness and all of that in your life, a little bit of cardio to keep your muscle, literally your heart muscle healthy and your lungs really, really healthy. And then some resistance training for that muscle mass. But when you, if you were only to do cardio, we actually know from a meta-analysis that looked

at, I think it was 11 studies in almost 400,000 people, cardio will reduce your all risk mortality by about 21%. When you combine it with resistance training, that goes to 40%. Wow. Okay. I love that. Which is amazing. And so what we're trying to say to you too, is that like, you know, start somewhere. And then once you are there and you're like, okay, I think that I can do a little bit more than we maximize that. And then we slowly maximize that, right? Like we just constantly change because we're changing these and you're going to get fitter. And don't wait until you buy a watch to start going out for a walk, right? So what you can do with that is, I mean, that's great. And to invest in your health, especially if you are concerned and you've gone to a doctor and cortisol are an issues, but what you want to do is walk and then

to where you, you can still talk talk but it's a little bit labored right where you can like if you're walking with a friend can you have a conversation with them you might be like oh okay this is a bit of a workout and then if you want for a few like 30 seconds one minute get up to a point where you're like it's hard to talk that's where you know you're kind of starting to tax your heart rate a little bit, you know, but what you don't need to do is go on a 90 minute run and start running 10 K 20 K any, any of that. Right. So, so don't wait until you go buy your fancy watch, you know, when your heart rate's getting up, you can tell. That's fair. You guys, yeah, a hundred percent start. And then if you think that you want one, then buy one after that. I don't want anyone to say, well, I'm waiting

until my watch gets delivered from Amazon. So I think we're moving, 100%. You know, what I always tell patients is you should be able to talk but not sing. Like, we're not being sing. Yes, talk but not sing. Oh, I love that. That's a good one. That's great.

Yeah. Okay. Let's get into it. So maximizing your movement. I love this conversation. It's very timely with where we're at in the program. It's very timely with spring. So I love, I love this.

Okay. Maximizing your digestion. So at this point in the program, people are starting to know, cause I see the things you want to talk about. Um, if you feel like you're always bloated, food sensitivities, why rotation is key, different types of enzymes and probiotics, because at this point in the program, people are so self-aware. A lot of people are journaling, they're obviously tracking the components that they're lot of people are journaling. They're obviously tracking the components that they're having. They're journaling how they're feeling. And you know, before when someone starts the program, they probably just felt like shit all the time that they couldn't

tell what was making them feel good and what was making them not feel good. Following the program 10 weeks in, you probably get a sense of feeling really good. You know, when you feel good. And so then when you start having foods that you're starting to notice, Oh, every time I eat this, I don't feel so great. So I love that people are in tune to their choices and how they are feeling. You know, some people are taking the probiotics, prebiotics, some people digestive bitters, some people are just trying to, but if you, how would someone know 10 weeks in things just aren't where they should be or where they could be. So how would someone assess if their digestion needs maximizing? That's a great question.

I mean, bloating is a symptom that I hear all the time, you know, and I think that there is a very common concern for people. They just feel like I eat anything and I feel bloated or I feel great otherwise but I get really really bloated and it's normal to produce up to up to three liters of gas every day which is like a lot of heavily like it's a lot of gas right in a day and so I just want to get that right like right away because I think that people assume that bloating is a bad thing and bloating can actually be that you are feeding your gut health, like your gut flora and your flora are loving it.

And they're producing a little bit of gas because flora are meant to ferment things and fermentation causes bubbles. And it doesn't mean that it's pathological. Thank you. That is really, that's probably the most important thing people are going to take away all day because you are bombarded on the internet and on social media by take this pill, take this powder, got that gas, got that below. There are certain foods that if you eat them are going to make you feel gassy. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have a sensitivity to them. Maybe it

could mean that you, in some cases, your digestive system could use some attention, you know, but we are bombarded by this like fear mongering of, you know, just because you fart more than once a day, all of a sudden you have like bugs in your guts. I mean, we all have bugs in our guts, but you know what I mean? You've got a parasite and candida and you got this and you got that. So what's normal, what's not then? Yeah. So the other point that I will make with that, being married to an infectious diseases doctor, I can tell you that a lot of the things that you see online where it's like, you must do this candida cleanse. Candida doesn't really live in your large intestine, right? Like if somebody goes in with a bowel perforation at a trauma center, they don't actually give them anti-Candida things because they're not

worried about Candida taking over. Candida really only lives in like your stomach and up. And so part of the reason as to why I think it's so important is that the internet is an amazing thing, but it's also a very scary thing when it comes to medicine, because you can find whatever it is that you want. And so people see that like, okay, but I'm doing the Levy program. I'm feeling great, but I have like digestion or maybe my bowel, my bowel movements are not as perfect as it should be or whatever. And they're like, I must have parasites. And they say, yes, you for sure have parasites because we all have them, whether or not we are working against you, it's a completely different thing. And you thinking

that you have something or like, you know, the bloating and you think like, oh, bloating means parasites. I'm going to do a parasite cleanse. Sometimes what happens is that you take a cleanse from the health food store without proper guidance from a doctor that has told you like, yep, you have this because we've done these tests. And all of the work that you've done with the Libby program with healing your gut and feeding your flora, you can erase in an instant because microbiome, like natural antimicrobials like oregano, or, you know, a lot of the things that you will buy in these products, they're broad spectrum antibiotics, which means that

they go in and they kill everything in their path. They're not like, are you a good guy? Okay. Yeah. Move out of the way. Cause I'm just here for the bad guys. Like they just kill everything in their path. Right. And so then what happens is that even if you feel momentarily better, because maybe you're not producing as much gas because you killed a bunch of your, like a bunch of bacteria. And then for like two, three weeks, maybe there's just not as many bacteria to like feed off of all the beautiful things that you're feeding yourself through the ability program. At the end of those three weeks, there was a hole in that, you know, like there's, there's a lot of homes that got broken down and there's a lot of homes that are going to get rebuilt in those three weeks. And some of those homes that get rebuilt are like bad guys that come in. And so then you end up with worse symptoms than you started with.

Have you not actually done that cleanse in the box that you did? So many people, I hear that. Well, I think I'm going to do a cleanse. I'm like, oh, well, yeah. And then people think, well, I'm doing all this stuff to be healthy. So if I do more things to be healthy, that's actually going to help me. Yeah. And it doesn't often. And it doesn't mean that it can't. I do think that there is a time and a place for them. And with medical

supervision, I think it's really, really great. But I would say that if there is something that you feel like needs to be maximized with your digestion. And it hasn't been addressed by you changing your diet, we probably need to look into it a little bit further, right? So for example, with bloating, when there's an excess of bloating, we look at things like there's a there's a very famous diet that's called the low FODMAP diet, that's actually it almost like an elimination diet, right for people with IBS, where we take out certain carbohydrates for a short period of time, it's an elimination diet, but it's not forever. But to try and identify like, okay, if I take out these carbohydrates that usually cause a lot of fermentation for some people, maybe not for everybody, but for some people, do you feel less bloated? Yes, great. And

then as we introduce them, then we can figure out like, oh, you know what, it's the garlic, or it's actually the garlic when I pair with the onion, when I pair with the asparagus. And then you understand that there's nothing wrong with you. It's just that, you know, you probably shouldn't put those three together. So I think that that's where like the journaling comes in and it's really, really beautiful. But the other thing that I want to talk about, too, that I often see is that when you have something that's working, often you're really afraid to change it. Right. And you get stuck with the, like, okay, my breakfast that I know works for me is like, like two eggs and half an avocado. And the fruit that I know that works for me is like the banana. And then the, this is the lunch that works for me. And the, I think that that is, that is great. But the thing is is that all of the beautiful things that we introduced with

this diet are rich and high in so many different things. Right. And so when you get stuck eating the same 10 things, you're missing out on the other 300 that we're trying to get you to eat. And so this is actually where rotation is so important, right? Because almonds are great, but so are walnuts. And so are pecans, and so are cashews, and so are seeds. And so I would love for you to rotate stuff because that's also what leads to food sensitivities, right? Because your body is not meant to see the exact same thing every single day for 10 years in a row. It's just not.

Yeah. And so by rotation, you're not only expanding your nutrition profile, but you're also decreasing the likelihood that you're going to react to these things. And so when you're journaling and you're realizing like, oh, man, I think I am sensitive to gluten or I am sensitive to dairy. I am sensitive to this. I think that it's great that you try to take them out. But then there should be a point in your life where you're like, you know, I'm going to, I gave my body enough of a break. What if I reintroduce it in small amounts and see how I feel? Because sometimes that's all your body needs, right? It just needs a little bit of a break. And gluten isn't inherently bad for everybody. Dairy is not inherently bad for everybody. The only way to figure out if it's bad for you is for you to take it out and reintroduce it and see how you feel.

Right. I want to talk about the routine because there is something to be said about the body loving routine. And this is why we're constantly with the food plan. It addresses the body's needs. And so, you know, there's nothing wrong with if you'd like to have eggs for breakfast or whatever. It's not like you have to go and constantly switch things up. This is also the benefit of the food plan in the small little changes that we are making is for you to really, really understand what works well for you, what doesn't, how certain foods break down and process in your body. So it's not that you can't have your fruit for a snack every morning. It's just that, you know, rather than just going with whatever you apples you keep buying, you know, you could, and it's not like

you also want to just constantly switch up the rainbow. I think with the program, you can go deeper than that. Like for example, if you have the luxury of having more than one fruit in your house. So right now I can go upstairs and open my fridge and I know that I will probably have raspberries, blueberries. I saw there's bananas on my counter today and maybe one old orange from last week. So what I'm going to do is be like, what do I feel like? So I'm going to have some fruit for a snack. Do I want the berries? Do I want the orange or the banana? Strangely enough, even as I'm saying it, that old orange is appealing to me right now.

Yeah. So, you know, this is where you want to like actually get in tune with what your body works for your body rather than being robotic. And now sometimes obviously we want to buy our groceries on what's seasonal and, you know, what's affordable and those types of things. But when it comes to maximizing, this is where you can be even maximizing your food choices by not being super routine about it, but by taking to the next level and being even more in tune about it. Totally. But I think that the key there that you said, which is maybe what I didn't get

across as effectively is that there's a difference between routine and robotic. Right? Like you, the, the, I, the three meals a day, the two snacks and the fruit and the vegetable, the nut, like it is, it is magic and it works, but it is also the, like, if you're like, you know what, I have tried all of the breakfast and like eggs are the only thing that works for me. Amazing. Have your eggs, but like, you know, one day try it have tried all of the breakfast and like eggs are the only thing that works for me amazing have your eggs but like you know one day try with a little bit of spinach and the other i added like maybe like a corn avocado see if you like it and see how you feel or like a little bit of tomato or a little bit of this or a little bit of that like i do i do think that there is a point to the routine but it's just that instead of taking away things

it's like how can you add things while still keeping that routine? And how can you switch things up while still keeping that routine? If that's where you feel like you're at, and it's not like every day you have to eat something different. It's just that if you've eaten the exact same thing for four months, like we probably have to be like, we need to like look at, we need to tweak things, you know, which is exactly what you're leading into, I guess, when you're personalizing the program as well. Yeah, we're going to be heading, we're getting ahead in that direction. I know that we had maximizing your sleep, still talk about maximizing your journey, but for the sake of time, because we'll remind people that we had that great sleep week, I definitely will go back.

Sleep is so important. I mean, we could talk forever on sleep, but I want to finish up talking about bowel movements when it comes to maximizing specifically. You know, obviously people are following the program. They're making good, healthy choices. What is there? Is there is there a way to maximize your bowel movements? Is there because when people are doing the program, I find they can have bouts of constipation, which is normal. It changes in their diet can affect that stress levels or sorts of things. And then loose bowel movements, obviously normal in a sense that when you're when the scale is normal. It changes in their diet. It can affect that stress levels or sorts of things. And then loose bowel movements, obviously normal in a sense that when you're, when the scale is

moving and your body's releasing fat, it can be quite normal to have bouts of diarrhea, although it shouldn't make you feel exhausted and tired. And obviously, you know, there's, we need to be mindful in those situations, but what, what would we look for when it comes to bowel movements? Are we trying to maximize those? Like, it seems really important. Food goes in. It should come out. A hundred percent. I do. I do hear a lot of people panicking when they're like, but then I got constipated and then I got diarrhea and it is all part of the process. And it is all part of your body learning what works for it what

doesn't for sure honestly it is and so I don't want you to get freaked out about it um I I uh I do think that the uh the basics of did I drink enough water is a very you know even in my in my patients where they're doing the uh your program they'll come in and like I got constipated and I'm like let's talk about your water they're like oh yeah yeah I probably went back to like only drinking six cups of water and I'm like right and you now are used to eating 40 to 50 grams of fiber because of all of the changes that you've made to your diet and so fiber without water equals constipation right so sometimes it's like very simple things sometimes it's things like um you're you know especially if you're coming into this program uh from a standard american diet that maybe did not have as much fiber or maybe was not

as rich in um prebiotics or probiotics or have you, there is a little bit of a transition time that happens. And we see that even with plant-based diets, like we see that. And so I do think that you having a little bit of compassion for your body with where it's at and be like, things are happening and like changes happening and that being okay without you panicking is also great. Bowel movements are so interesting because I want to just plug the fact that women and men are different and we're created different.

And this is a very research thing. Women often have an extra loop in their bowel, which actually makes their transit time a little bit longer, right? Because it will make things move through a piece of the puzzle longer than men. In medicine, believe it or not, constipation is defined as having less than one bowel movement in a week, which is wild. And so for us, ideally, we try to get you to,

you know, one bowel movement a week or even one every other bowel movement a week, because sometimes for some people that is their normal. The thing about bowel movements is that we try to get you to a bowel movement that is in the Bristol stool chart, which is you can look it up, but it's like how we rate bowel movements. We want bowel movements that are ideally soft, but formed and like a little sausage like piece. And we also want bowel movements where you're not straining and they're not super urgent. And also that when you go to the bathroom, you have the sensation of complete emptying. That's a good bowel movement, right? When you get a lot of the diarrhea, you continue to have a lot of the diarrhea. One of the things that I always talk about too is like, okay, how much natural calm are you guys

having? Because magnesium, as you know, sometimes can be an asthmatic, which adds a little bit too much water. And so sometimes we just suggest that dose and it's, you know, enough for that period where you're at in the program. Sometimes it is not. If you are constipated often and you're like, okay, I'm hitting my water. I'm hitting my movement because movement is also very important, right? For your bowels, because your bowels are a muscle and they contract when your legs also move. And so I'm hitting my movement. I am eating all of my snacks. I'm eating to satisfaction. We can actually, with the journaling that you to satisfaction, we can actually with the journaling that you're doing, you can actually see like, okay, have I maybe is it that I ate maybe something

like too much dairy? Or could it be gluten? Or maybe like, was this the day that like, I forgot to pack my extra vegetables or what it is, right? Because bowel movements also get impacted, not just by what you ate that day, but probably for the last like two to three days. Yeah. I was just going to say like this, because people used to be like, well, I'm eating healthy and I should have that S shape, Dr. Oz, Oprah poop. And I'm like, yeah, but not while you're focused on making change in your body, not while we are changing what you are doing. Cause people notice a change when they first start the program and then we start, we keep changing things in the program. So if you're changing what you're eating slightly, you should be noticing changes happening in your bowel

movements as well, being reflected in that. And yes, if you have loose bowel movements, check, obviously make sure you're not overdoing the calm, but also if the scale is moving at the same time, that could be why, right? So that Chris, that whole healthy bowel movement, you know, we, what we, we see that a lot in people when they've lost their weight and they're working on maintaining their weight. Right. So, so it's good to know what we're striving for, but also, you know, I think don't stress yourself out by seeing that perfect bowel movement now while you're making all these changes. But I will say, honestly, the easiest thing is, I mean, I would rather you have loose

bowel movements than constipation for sure, because nobody likes hemorrhoids. But if, if, if you are at that point where you're like, you know what, I'm like struggling and it's really, really hard. Actually, one of the quickest fix was, which I know it's like not, uh, it's not long-term and you are drinking your water and you are moving and you are eating all the things that you're supposed to be eating. And it is just that adjustment period. You can also increase that magnesium calm ever so slightly, and that should help soften the stool. So that it's not as hard to pass. Yeah. And then the next week, pardon? or split it up during the day oh yeah that's another one that you can do for sure

if you don't like it all at once and then the next week that you're like oh now i'm releasing fat and you see that change in your own movements you can just bring it back because it's not it's just a band-aid solution so that you don't end up with a hemorrhoid while fully understanding this is just part of it right because your body is just getting adjusted to this beautiful new life that you're creating for yourself and your your digestive system from top to bottom is about nine meters long there's a lot of things that happen in there and a lot of things get that get impacted by it and also not sleeping stress all of you the things that are way beyond and above what you're drinking and what you're eating and how much you're moving have an impact on your bowels, right? So this is actually

where the journaling can become so important so that you can reflect back on and be like, oh, okay. Yeah. When I look at the entire picture, I understand why my bowels were only a part of it. And, you know, in Chinese medicine, this is the only thing that I will say in Chinese medicine, we look at the body in a very different way and your intestines have to do with this emotion of like letting go. And so sometimes as your body is letting go of fat, letting go of emotions, because you're doing all the emotional work, letting go of your bad habits, letting go of all of the things that you are here to let go of so that you can vibe and thrive. You will see changes in your bowel movements and that is completely normal.

And it is absolutely nothing to worry about. I love it. And I love you and I adore you. I can't believe a whole hour has just flown by. A lot of great takeaways in this. I love that we focused on the exercise. I love that we focused on digestion, because I think those are the two key areas when it comes to maximizing, you know, they kind of go hand in hand. Of course, sleep is really key. Stress is really key. I highly suggest if you're listening, go back and rewatch those segments that we did during our sleep week, the importance of sleep, the importance of managing your stress, the importance of all of it. Okay. Final takeaway for today. So people are, we rolling through week 10, they have a couple

weeks left. They really want to get the most out of what they're doing right to the very end. I mean, most people have to continue their journey, right? But final words for people in terms of like, how do you, to make sure you're getting the most out of what you are doing? I think, you know, for me, I always think consistency versus intensity has always in every aspect of my life

given me the most impact. I think my favorite quote that you always say is the progress over perfection. And like, this isn't, this isn't a video game, right? You don't just like, make it to the next phase and keep going. Like, this is actually why this is a journey for you. And this is why I really, especially right where you're at right now, the number on the scale is only is such a small picture of what you're trying to change. And this is where I always tell patients like you have to continue focusing every day on the non-skill victories because your weight is important. But the weight on the scale doesn't also talk to you about visceral fat. It doesn't talk to you about the energy that you feel. It doesn't talk to you about how much your sleep has improved and how happy

you are in all of the ways in which you've transformed over the course of the, of the program. And so I think that often maximizing at this point where you're at is you are doing everything great. And just because that skill is not moving doesn't mean that you're failing or that you're a failure. It means sometimes that your body is like, okay, girl, like, I get where you're going. Like, I was going to sit here for a little bit because there's like a lot of things that I'm trying to process. And then it kicks in again and you're just like okay I'm ready to run which is actually why always you know you have those uh you have a lot of Instagram pros that I love

um that uh that look at like what progress looks like and progress is not linear and maximizing your journey is also not linear and if you feel like you know this is uh this is really really working for me but a b or c like we can try to focus maybe on you know, this is really, really working for me, but A, B, or C, like we can try to focus maybe on, you know, I think that I could work a little bit more in my sleep or I could work a little bit more in my stress or like I'm already doing the walking, but like I'm going to try the weighted vest or I'm going to do an incline or whatever it is. This is when you start changing things up.

Not because what you're doing is not working, but just because you can, because you've gotten to this place and your body is like, girl, I'm ready. What are you going to throw at me? I love it. Yeah. I love it. What a great conversation for where we at. Um, Dr.

Olenka Trejo, where can people find you? Uh, I always say just email me info at dr. Olenka.com is the easiest. Um, if I don't respond to it, my assistant will. It's always so nice to hear from all of you. So thank you so much for listening and watching. Yeah. So this, I think this is the last time we're going to see you in this group, but I know you're going to be back with us next group. So I'm already excited about the conversations that we have. I also know you're coming into the maintenance group on Monday. On Monday. We're going to do a fun,

ask you anything. Okay. Thank you so much. Thanks to everyone who joined us live today, uh, in participated in the conversation. We, we see you chatting. We see you chatting in the comments and thanks to everyone who is listening after the fact, have an amazing rest of your day. Go forth and maximize. Bye everyone.