The Livy Method Podcast - Levelling Up Your Health with Dr. Paul Hrkal - Winter 2025

Episode Date: March 11, 2025

In this episode, Gina sits down with Dr. Paul Hrkal to dive into what it really takes to level up your health beyond just weight loss. Gina and Dr. Paul talk about the missing piece in most health conversations, what comes next after hitting your goal weight, and why frustration is actually part of the process. They break down how to identify what's holding you back and shift into a mindset of progress over perfection. They also get into the nitty-gritty: supplements, serotonin, protein needs, weight loss medications, and why creatine and collagen might be worth considering. This is a must-listen for anyone ready to take their health to the next level!Where to find Dr. Paul:Instagram: @drpaulhrkalwww.paulhrkalnd.com If you are in the Winter 2025 Support Group, you can check out the full video here:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodwinter2025To learn more about the Livy Method or sign up for the Spring 2025 Program, visit www.ginalivy.com. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm Gina Livi and welcome to the Livi 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 relisten 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. It is time to take a minute out to hear from our podcast sponsor today, which is another podcast actually, the new wellness podcast from Audible.

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That's right up our alley. Self-conscious with Chrissy Teigen, expand your self-awareness, gain valuable insights and become more self-conscious. You can go to audible.ca slash Chrissy, C-H-R-I-S-S-Y podcast or wherever you get your podcast from and start listening today. Here we are week nine of the program. Dr. Paul Herckel is back and joining us again. Man, we have had so many conversations, not just in the last few years, but just in the last few months. We've talked about, oh my goodness, reasons why your weight might be slower to move, inflammation, food sensitivities, gut issues, hormones. We've talked about, oh my goodness, reasons why your weight might be slower to move, inflammation, food sensitivities, gut issues, hormones.

We've talked about hormones. What more is there to talk about? That's what I wanna talk to Dr. Paul about today. Hello, hi, welcome. Hello, hello, good morning, everyone. Good morning, Gina. There's always more to talk about, Gina, because we always kind of get cut off

at the end of the conversation, because we're like, oh, there's like more to talk about Gina because we always kind of get cut off at the end of the conversation because we're like, oh, there's like a lot more. And so, you know, I find we've, especially this session, we've done a really good job of, I think, covering the basics. So we introduced the supplements, the foundational supplements, we touched on some of the secondary supplements,

but really I think the meat of the conversation was around some of those main obstacles to weight loss. I just recently posted something similar on Instagram where I detail kind of the top four reasons, which we go into a lot more detail on the podcast. And so I think there's so many other little tangential conversations to have around that that are just so valuable to people. You've asked me about insulin resistance. You asked me about cortisol. We've gotten into all of that. And then, you know, then, you know, this,

we have this session, I think, to kind of just tie it all together, answer any kind of hot button questions that you've been seeing and your group's been seeing on your app and on the questions that you're receiving, and then just get into some of the things you haven't had a chance to talk about.

So, you know, I love what we've talked about so far. Okay, so hot button things that I had was creatine, protein, how much do we really need? Yes. Having other health issues come up while you are losing weight, because I think a lot of times people sign up and they think I'm doing all these things, you know, and now my, you know, whatever my cholesterol levels are this or something's going on with that. I'm going to talk about aging, longevity, happiness. That's a big list. But what so you see so many people who are trying to make improvements in their health and wellness. So many people are trying to lose weight, even people who

have been doing the Libby method. What is one thing that we're missing from the conversation? What do you want to say? I'm gonna give myself a pat on the back and say that I don't think there's anything massive, but I liked what you brought up about obstacles and other health issues that come up. Because I can think of two or three conversations

just had yesterday, had a full day of patients, many of them going through the program. And people are limited by some of the external stressers they have, they're limited by some of the internal conversations that they're having with themselves, the emotional eating, the stress eating. You know, we're gonna kind of turn that all in the umbrella of stress.

And so that is outside of our control. But the reality is, is the pattern I keep seeing, Gina, is that people are so committed the first session that they do it. And they're like, oh yeah, I lost all this weight. I did all these things. And then I asked them, okay, so in subsequent sessions, what changed? Why are,

why did you not get the results that you had? And almost everyone will tell me, well, this came up, Dr. Paul, you know, I had all these parties and it was my 40th birthday or it was, and, and at the end of the day, if we really reflect on a lot of the stuff, it's kind of excuses. You know, that we've kind of just, we've, in the first session, you're so excited when you do something for the first time, it's kind of like going on the first date. You definitely don't want to screw up. You're kind of like, you know, every single piece of your, your being is focused on succeeding

at this. But then after that, you know, a couple of years of marriage, you're kinda like, yeah, whatever, I can go to the bathroom with a door open. It's not the biggest thing. Yeah. Yeah. And so that's the type of like analogy I use

where it's, we just kinda get complacent. Where the biggest takeaway that I really wanna share with everyone today, in terms of maybe what's been missing, is that I'm hoping everyone embraces some of the health changes that they've started making in their lives as kind of a long-term initiative in their life, a long-term just like switch. Like it's not, and I'll just say one last thing here

before I flip it back to you. That idea of just doing a program, a diet, that is so what people have done in the past where it's like, Oh yeah, I'm just like, I'm on a diet. That's only going to take you so far. That mentality because you've done that before that people have done it. They've gone on the program. They've lost the 50 pounds and they gained 70 back. That doesn't work.

So what we're trying to do, we're trying to make these more longer term changes so you can be healthy and lose weight longer, not just temporarily. You feel like people are resistant to that. Every time I talk about after you're done the program, you have to continue to be mindful. You have to continue to support the changes that you've made.

You have to continue to with the new habits you've created and not fall back into old ones. Do you think people are resistant? Do you think that every time I say it out loud, it seems hard, but it just becomes part of who you are. Um, Ruth Kane, as you know, who's been studying the living methods, studied the efficacy of it. So it works. People are losing a clinical amount of weight. She has spent the last year studying people in maintenance. And one of the things that she has found, which she got her poster accepted to the European obesity summit, which is really exciting. But what she realized was it is what

people are learning while they are losing weight that enables them to be able to maintain and sustain their weight in the end. But this seems daunting. Do you think people are resistant to that and why? Absolutely, they're resistant to it. And I think it's a reflection that we still have work to do on the mindset and mindfulness side of things. Because we're still approaching this as a short-term fix for a long-term problem. Like people come to the program,

they're like, I have a health loss goal, a health, sorry, weight loss goal, and they want to lose weight. And they may get there, they may not, they may go halfway. But then it's the changes that they've made during the program that they are resistant to maintain because they want to go back to what I call normal. And they'll even say, I want to go back to like normal. I'm kind of like tired of being on the diet. When I hear that a patient say that, I'm like, are you tired of being healthy? Yeah. Because that's what you're basically saying. Is that like, well, people are just tired of watching what they're eating. And you know, and I, and I understand that I'm, I'm coming from an empathetic perspective, because I see it every day with my patients is that

when we look at it, like, oh, this is work, then it's going to be hard all the time. But our hope, my hope for my patients and for everybody listening is that there's a mindset shift where it stopped being work and this is starts being this is who I am. I'm just a healthy person. I'm not just doing a short term program to lose weight so I can go back to my unhealthy habits. Think about that for a second. But that's something. Maybe this is resonating with some people.

Are you a healthy person? It's resonating with me. It's resonating, do I wanna be a healthy person or do I just wanna lose weight? That's huge. When people are actually allowing their space to reflect on that, I think that if you're getting all these benefits

in the first session, and then you're finding the subsequent programs difficult to adhere to, there is an off ramp at some point in this, Livy program experience and in your own health journey, where it stops being a program and you start incorporating the things that are really helping you to be healthy into your life and you ultimately are not going to go back to some of the things you were doing pre-program.

I think maybe it seems like work because we don't live a healthy lifestyle. We work long hours, we're high stress. You look at people in Europe, everything shuts down for a month in August. There's, you know, three o'clock in the afternoon, they're all like hanging out, like, you know, communing with friends, family, whatever, drinking wine, relaxing. They walk places like you go to Europe

and there's not a supplement store on every corner. You can't find a gym anywhere because people just live a healthy life where we live a very unhealthy lifestyle. So we have to work at being healthy. That's brilliant insight, Gina. You're absolutely right. That's a good example of the North American lifestyle versus European lifestyle. And it's like the decompressions built in, where we have to pay a yoga retreat center to do that decompression. So like we're losing our health making money and then we spend our money trying to get our health back.

How do we? I mean, obviously something like the conversations we have in here, I think people have so many resonating moments, so many aha moments, so many takeaways, but how do you wrap that up for somebody? How do you like? Well, I think to me, it's fairly straightforward. It starts with just realizing that if you're frustrated with not being able to stick to

the program, you're not be able to stick to something that you've proven to yourself that works for you, that's healthy. And I'm speaking to the people that have gone maybe through multiple programs, or maybe are you're just a little frustrated of being on the plan again. And thinking about, what am I, frustration and anxiety sets in when we are kind of not in the place we wanna be and we wanna be somewhere else.

So like, thinking about where do you actually wanna be and is that a healthy place? Cause at a lot of times we're probably wanting to go back to just not caring about what we eat. Like if we're just being honest, I just want to go back to just like, I'll eat whatever. Because I did that when I was in my 20s. I did that when I was in my 30s. And so now when I'm in my 40s and 50s, I can't do that.

I had a patient yesterday that she said she was like this, her whole like 20s and 30s, had kids and became like this, you know know very different body shape size and never had to work at it and now you have to and that little like that little voice inside our head is like this was so easy for me why the hell do I have to work at this now and that's not fair yeah I love that I just don't want to have to care about it. Think about it, work at it. For a lot, for some people, they really have to work at this.

And this is what I love. We're helping you figure it out. We're giving you the tools and the resources to figure out. And that just sucks. At the end of the day, when you have to work at it, but you have to, you have to figure out, you have to meet yourself where you're at, figure out what's going on with you. And I think a lot of people just don't want to face it. What's exhausting

is I think the program puts you in tune, makes you self-aware, and then that's exhausting. It's like you're aware of your shit, you know? Like you... Well, Gina, it's exhausting if you stay in that state because again, that's like, it's a journey. It's like a, it's a process. So if you're like oblivious when you come in the program and then you're all of a sudden in the program, especially first couple of sessions, you're queuing in to like, wow, I actually feel hungry.

I actually feel full. I never thought about this. I've been overriding all that stuff. All the previous programs I've done have have totally abolished all these cues before. If you stay in that state of just being aware of that, then yeah, that's super frustrating. But I don't think you're meant to stay in that state. You're meant to go from oblivious ignorance into awareness, and then into like acceptance and and working through that.

And I think if you're frustrated, you're stuck in that middle state. Yeah, what's that saying that you say if it's it's the hard things that you need to do? If something is really hard for you to do or you really don't want to do it, then that's probably where you need to focus your attention. That's probably where you need to focus. I, my kid has been,. My kid has been, she's had some mental health issues. She's come a long way. She used to have a lot of anxiety, couldn't leave the house. Now she's gone and got herself a job and she loves working.

Now she's trying to also juggle school because she's back at school and she feels bad about not working. She doesn't want to let anyone down. Her room is a disaster. Like, it's just like chaos. And I just just she's spiraling. And I said to her the other day, if you don't get your room clean, you're gonna have to quit your job because you obviously cannot handle all

these things. And what's more important is your school and your mental health. And there is no way you feel good in a room that is just cluttered and chaos. And quite frankly, disgusting. She was just you could tell it was representative of her mindset. So she spent the whole day, I mean, 24 hours cleaning her room, I walked in, it smelled good. It was light. It was airy. She usually is kind of dragging her ass around the house. Yesterday, she not only cleaned her room, she cleaned

the kitchen, she took the dogs for a walk. She's like, I got caught up on my schoolwork, her whole energy changed. And she's just like, I feel so good. And I'm like, yeah, because you did the thing that you didn't want to do that you have been putting off for months. And no doubt it was hard. She's like, it was exhausting. And she had to face her. She's like, it was gross mom. She had to face her disgustingness and her like all of that. She had to face it. And then once she got it cleaned up,

she was like a different person, like different person. That's a great analogy, great analogy for everybody listening to, to kind of look at, you know, what, you know, let's use the room as a metaphor, you know, what part of your life is that room? You know, what is, and that could be nutritional, so we've helped you do that, but there also are little doors that we don't wanna open, and you know, what needs to get cleaned up?

Because those little, those messes in our lives that we compartmentalize sometimes, they often stop you from achieving the goal that you have to be healthy. And I believe everyone has that goal, even though you may not even know it. May not even know how to get there. But I think that's part of the program

is that it's not a quick fix. Now, sometimes you do get some really great quick results, but for not for everybody. So what area, maybe one of the takeaways right from this combo is what area of your life do you need to clean that mess up? Because I'll tell you, and this is so great because you talked about what are some of the obstacles

that are limiting people is that I have this conversation so often now that I've just seen so many people is that, you know, it's not who can lose the most ways in the first program. You know, yes, we know that that's usually what happens, but it's about who's able to kind of maintain some of those positive changes and switch from just, I'm aware of some things that are happening to, I'm now moving past that, I'm accepting it,

I'm in a state of health rather than I'm doing a program and I'm unhealthy while I'm doing it. Now I'm healthy and I'm living this way. But it's the little emotional areas, it's the little pieces of our life that often come creeping back and that lead to, well, I'm emotionally eating again, or I've fallen off because of X. You know, I've said it before, but I'll just say it again, you know, right now, if you're listening to this, and you still have weight to lose, and you still feel like you're not there yet, make a list of some of the things that you think are holding you back. And that could be physical. Is it that is it that bad back that's kind of always kind of lurking there? Yeah, then you need to get that taken care of. So prioritize that. Is

it I had a patient that was part of the program that had a spending problem, you know, like a little bit of a hoarder kind of spending things. So is that something that you need to get under wraps? Just spending a lot of time searching online is do you have an addiction of some sort that needs to be looked at and get professional help. These are all just you know examples that I've seen in my practice but you know Gina these are the doors that these are the messes that we got to clean up behind some of these doors and that's going to allow us to go into our health goals without any sort of distractions without

any sort of obstacles to trip us up. We had a member last night who was saying, like I'm recognizing that I may not be binging on food anymore, but I'm shopping. And I'm like, yeah, that's coping. All you did is replace it with something else rather than get to what was causing that in the first place, the way that you manage stress. So now what can you do rather than shop?

It's that dopamine hit. It's that constant dopamine needing that payoff that I've had a stressful day. So I deserve this or you know, I'm feeling emotional. So I need that. Like, you know, it's it's it's your food is represented. I think how you diet is how you live your life. Like especially with that's deep. Let's unpack that. Hold on. How you diet. What do you mean by that, Jane? Let's talk about that. I think there's some real good gems in there.

How you diet. If you, for example, constantly you start and you need to be perfect and then you fail, you probably quit a lot of things in your life. The minute things get difficult, you probably quit. You are an all, you're all in, or you're not in at all. You're probably an all in person or if you're not all in and doing amazing, you're probably there's no middle ground. I'm a no middle ground person. I'm either this is going to

be hugely successful or this is going to be an epic fail. And Tony will be like, why does it have to be that? Why can't there be somewhere in between? You know, and so I also, I know this is like going really deep, but it was interesting when my husband was in his, my ex husband was in his final days in the hospital and he had always been a fighter because he was sick and he always would go in the hospital, be on his deathbed and he'd come out. That's what he did. He just fought it. And even in the hospital, when he asked,

like, I just, I need to go. Can you help me? I need to go, like I'm in so much pain. And we couldn't get things together in time for him. It was the weekend, whatever. But he just wouldn't go. I'm like, just go then, right? Like he was like so angry.

I'm just like, go. And the palliative care nurse said to me, usually in the way people pass is the way they lived their lives. They're like, what was he like when he was alive? I was like, he was stubborn and he was a fighter and he was confrontational. And she's like, and? I said, and he's being stubborn and he's fighting this and being confrontational, even though it's what he wanted. And so that really caused me to take a step back and I was like, ooh, how am I living in my life?

So I think how we do anything in life is representative of how we do anything in life. And I think the dieting is no different. Yeah, I'm totally right. I know that was probably too deep, but. No, no, I think, like I said, I think there's some gems there for people that are listening, that I have lots of patients that are super A types.

They're all or nothing type of end. And then those are the ones that they're like, they're going through the program, first three weeks, oh, amazing, great, birthday comes up. They have a couple of pieces of cake. And then it's like two weeks of like just eating whatever, you know, because they're like, yeah, you know what, I failed. And a lot of that is the perfectionism that probably from their parents that they've inherited. And this is like, you know, the little

kid inside of us that is still listening to some of those voices. Again, I know this isn't Dr. Beverly's realm, but because I just work with so many patients, these are just patterns and trends that I see over and over. Or it could be, you know, you get your laundry room cleaned up, you get all your laundry caught up. And then over the next couple of weeks, it just piles up. It's a huge mess. You know, it's chaotic. It's out of control. And then you're like, when you had enough, like you're back at it again, rather than just up keeping it like my mom says, I do a load of laundry every day. She might be a do a load of laundry person every day. I am not, I'm a like wait till it piles up

and it's a big mess. And then I'm like, fuck, I gotta do something about this. Or people are just so off, they see themselves spiraling and they're like, oh, how do I get back on track? I feel like I'm so far off. And it's like tackling the laundry room. You gotta get back. So what do we do about that?

Well, I think the first step is like, it's the mindset of like, you don't have to be perfect. It's, it's, it's about the progress that you're making. It's not about being perfect there. There was wrote any sort of journey. I there's going to be times where you're not going to feel great. You're going to feel sick. Like the typical obstacles that I see are like I already said, you know, like, oh, I like hurt myself. I twisted my ankle or like I hurt my knee. And because of that, it's like, okay, so like for two months, like my health just goes out the window

because you're back. No, that's the time you should be actually dialing in your health more, but we have the opposite response because again, there's that idea of like, no, things have to be perfect. So the first step is realizing you don't have to be perfect in everything. And so yes, you had that piece of cake on the weekend that did not screw your program over

that did not screw your journey over, you're going to now get back on track. And in instead, what I start seeing with patients is that the ones that are really I see them on that journey and making that progress, they're going to realize that you know what, that was a learning experience for me, because I haven't had wheat and gluten and sugar in the last two weeks and I was feeling really good. My gut was not off and now all of a sudden, for the next three, four days, my gut's way off. Okay, instead of being like,

oh my gosh, I'm beating myself up, it's more, wow, okay, well maybe I am sensitive to gluten or maybe sugar is really something that I didn't realize that until I cut it out, that it really doesn't serve me it's not healthy for me and that's those are those aha moments like when you're working with a psychologist I'll let you in a little secret they're not really telling you anything you don't really know what they're doing is they're just having conversations with you and and you come to the conclusions yourself after you they've just asked you the right questions and then you just have the oh I never I never thought about it that moment. That's the type of moments

that you have. That's like CBT in a nutshell, right? So, you know, you could do that yourself to a degree in these kind of smaller ways. Of course, there's bigger traumas and stuff that have to be dealt with. Absolutely. But we're talking about just like kind of getting yourself in the mindset, Gina, of I don't have to be perfect. And that's okay, because life is not perfect. And despite what you think, you're not perfect either. Well, you are, you're perfectly imperfect. But things don't have to be perfect. We get a lot of people at this point in the program that now we're looking back like, Oh, I could have totally done week five better. Should I go back?

I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. What you learned in that moment is so valuable. This is like, we know that the people who spend more time trying to lose weight in doing the program actually have an easier time when it comes to maintaining weight. So you can lose, do one program and to lose your weight. And then you have to spend a lot more time in maintenance, working through your issues and associations. Really, it's about solidifying that mindset.

And that's going from that weight loss mindset into that maintenance mindset into a move on and just live your life mindset. I wanna ask about supplements because do you have people where you suggest supplements and then they just aren't consistently taking them? They aren't or are sorry. They aren't. Um, it's rare. Um, we think they're there. They take them. We notice a difference and then we stop taking. Yeah. You know what? Like there are some, I would say that there are some supplements,

you know, like, you know, for example, vitamin D during the winter months. I think people understand that they're, they're trying to improve their immunity, but then they're, they can stop taking the summer if they're out in the sun and they're having some good healthy sun hygiene. You know, that's an example of a supplement. They can kind of, it can come and go there. They're, you know, probiotics might be another one of them where they're like, they're, they're feeling great where they're feeling great or they're not and then they're on the probiotics, they want to really improve their gut health. I think it's human nature whenever you're doing something to not be consistent about

it, but I think what I always emphasize is that if you're in maintenance mode, you've reached your goals, then you can afford to be in kind of like the, I'm taking it as I need it. But if you have a health goal, if you are seeing me and you're paying for your my time and you're spending money on these supplements, you should take it because we're trying to achieve step one, because then there's a step two, and then we can get into the, you know, everything in moderation state. But a lot of people start the program and they start working with someone like me and then they're like, can I still like do everything in moderation? That doesn't work. You kind of have to be like all in while you're trying to achieve something, because then you're going to get kind of like half-assed results when you are half-assing any

sort of program or treatment. Yeah, I saw this quote the other day that said if you're like good Monday through Thursday and they start going off Friday, Saturday, Sunday, you're only like showing up 50 57%. He said you get on the scale Monday and you're expecting like, you know, the magic to happen. Meanwhile, like 57%. Yeah, would you be happy if your kid got 57% on an exam? I mean, thinking about that way, like you'd be freaking out, right? So like, are you going to give yourself a 57% score on like, oh yeah, I was like good most

of the time? Well, no, it was just a weekend. But when you think about it, it's really three days out of seven. That's quite a bit. Well, I saw someone say the other day, they're like, yeah, I started the program. I got about four weeks and then I just I fell off. You know, I this, this, unfortunately, it didn't work for me and I failed and I was like, Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, like it didn't work for you or you didn't do the work that that's a big difference, right? Like, assuming something's not working for you. But meanwhile, it's because you fell off and you're a failure. I'm like that happened. So many people start something life gets in the way.

It doesn't mean that you can't pick it back up again and, and continue and keep going. Um, so yesterday, man, I was just so grumpy and a lot of other people were too. And I don't know if it's a time change. But it got me thinking about winter, the darkness, the time change. And I was like, is there something visceral? Is there something physical happening where we've just had enough?

That breaking point where then finally the sun starts shining and the weather starts. So I got me searching serotonin. And I was like, what is happening? Do our serotonin levels start decreasing throughout the winter or is it our vitamin D we're jacked up in the summer, mid winter it's starting and it's leaving us just tired and grumpy and is that a real,

is there something going on there? No, there totally is no. I wrote a whole post on it. So I don't just, is it a thing? No, I do think it's a thing. I do think that our body and our brain, particularly Gina is governed by the sleep and wake cycles. And to a huge degree, light is so important

to regulate that. And so, all of us would agree that when I'm in the sun, I feel better. But there's, we don't really know why that's the case, but there's a hormonal and physiological reason for that. And so whenever you have a time change, your body, like I've noticed in this week, my sleep's been off, you know, like it's been just since the time change. That's because our body's still recalibrating. And the best thing to reset

that is on a day that's bright out, a light out, even if there isn't sun, you still want to try to get outside early in the morning to basically signal the pineal gland, the brain, the area of the brain that receives the light, that sets you up for that circadian pattern. And then that has influence on things like serotonin, has influenced things on adrenal function, like the catecholamines, which are like the adrenaline side, which is important for us to deal with certain things in life, cortisol, and then, you know, of course, serotonin as well. So I think that, you know, the light exposure is the way that our brain sets the mark of like, hey, this is the anchor of where I'm the rest of my days going on.

But if it's like dark and cold and, and, and absolutely it has a negative impact on the way we kind of like have our mood. Yeah. Okay. Um, can we talk about creatine and protein? Cause you know, let's do protein first because everyone's talking about, and I think that could be wrong. I think the reason why protein has become such a big conversation is one these glp one medications where you are losing muscle mass and they start talking about the importance of eating protein. Because traditionally when people do a diet, they just eat less, they

exercise more, they worry about calories and not the type of foods that they are consuming. So people will eat fish crackers and Tris kits, rather than making sure that they're getting the protein that they need. So on will eat fish crackers and Tris kits rather than making sure that they're getting the protein that they need. So on the living method, right now, especially for this week, we are prioritizing protein at breakfast.

We are adding protein with your morning snack, like fruit and some nut butter or something like that. Your lunch, we are prioritizing protein. Also getting our vegetables or leafy greens, healthy fats and all of that. Afternoon snack, there's protein in there, whether it's veggies and nuts and seeds or yogurt or all of that. Afternoon snack, there's protein in there, whether it's veggies and nuts and seeds or yogurt or something like that.

And then at dinner, we're prioritizing vegetables but adding in protein, leafy greens, all of that. So there's always this, am I getting enough protein? Am I getting enough protein without counting and weighing and measuring your protein? And then we add the menopause conversation on top of it where we're told we need to get X amount of protein. And then people are like, well, if I'm already feeling satisfied,

how do I know that I'm getting enough protein? Obviously there are foods that are higher in protein than others, but like how much protein do we really need? I fucking hate talking numbers, but I'm willing to talk numbers here. So what's your thought on protein? Yeah. Well, it's a conversation I have with every single patient, you know, it's, it's an area I would say that is a sore spot for people going through the program for the exact reasons you outlined, because it is, it's hard to do. And it's kind of confusing. So this is what I'll give everybody a sneaky. This is what I tell everybody. There's been

lots of research done. So this is very evidence-based, to look at the amount of protein you should be eating on a daily basis to build muscle mass. The maintenance of muscle mass is about 1 gram, like 0.8 to 1 grams of protein per kilogram of your body weight. Okay? So we're going to do a simple little formula. So that's maintenance. But if we're trying to like actually main, not just maintain our muscle, but grow our lean muscle mass and

decrease our fat mass, you have to get up to 1.5 grams of protein. Now that is that working out? Like that's not just someone living life, like going for walks. That's someone who's going to the gym. Well, it's the reason that that number increases, Gina, is because when you exercise, there's more stimulus, there's more anabolic stimulus going to your muscles to say, hey, build and repair what I'm breaking down. So the higher intensity exercise, like, you know, there's lots of research showing that athletes that are exercising at a much higher level than most people, they need over two grams

of protein. So I'm not even going to those areas yet. I'm talking about the person that's in this program that's exercising, you know, what we're recommending, you know, like ideally what I say is 30 minutes, six days a week or three hours a week of moderate intensity exercise is kind of like the baseline of, this is what's going to be healthy for you to decrease your all-cause mortality,

meaning all the causes of death. That's the bare minimum. You gotta move your body at least that amount. And that's where that 1.5 grams of protein comes in, is if you're doing that type of exercise, I'm not talking about I'm going for a little walk with my dog, I'm talking about you're doing that type of exercise, I'm not talking about I'm going for a little walk with my dog. I'm talking about you're trying to do Pilates.

You're trying to do some sort of like active yoga. You're doing some resistance training. Maybe you've taken the leap and we're going to a gym. This is that 1.5 grams. So the simple math is you take your weight in pounds, which most people look at in pounds and divide it by 2.2, which will get you kilograms. And then you're going to get that number and you're going to multiply that number by 1.5. Okay.

So I'll tell you, most of my patients, like I had a patient with just yesterday, first patient done the Levy program and we did the calculation, roughly the number comes out to usually anywhere between 90 to a 100 grams of protein per day. Yes. Right? Okay. Is that a jive with what you're hearing too, do you know? Yeah, I mean 30 grams I think is it, I mean it depends. You could be a tall person, you could be a small person, right?

Like there's a lot of variables to that. I love that you outline what you need for maintenance. Like if you're just going to walk in your dog three times a week, cause you don't have to exercise to lose weight, is a lot different in terms of what you need. Everyone's hearing, you need more, you need more. Like not everyone needs the same amount. These are like recommended, right? It's the same thing with supplements.

It's if you're taller, you have a hundred pounds to lose. What you would need would be different than someone who is shorter and has 10 pounds to lose what you would need if you are really active and hit in the gym five times a week and lift and heavy weights would be different than someone's walking their dog. This is why it's like science, but it's also not exact science when it comes to amounts. So when you see Mary Claire Haver or whoever

out there telling you, you need to get 30 grams of protein in at breakfast, in at lunch, in at dinner, and y'all are stressing out because you're like, but I'm full. In order to eat more protein, I'd have to eat past beyond what I'm feeling satisfied. Chances are you're probably getting enough just by prioritizing it. Well, Gina, I would, I would kind of disagree on a couple points, especially when you brought up the ozempic piece, right? And so there are a couple examples and exceptions to that where people really do need to get up to those higher levels. So one of them I would argue is metapause because you need more and after 40, you're losing muscle mass a lot more than pre 40.

So if you're kind of like average activity active then I think that's okay but just we know there's lots of data showing that anybody doing a weight loss program is going to lose lean muscle mass as well as fat mass regardless this is this is over and above the ozempic piece so that we've known this for a long time and so in orderic piece. So that we've known this for a long time. And so in order like the whole idea that we're trying to do here is we're trying to, let's maintain this lean muscle mass. Yes. And not and just lose fat. You know, I, I don't know, I've never had this conversation with you, but maybe now's a good time. I don't like the term weight loss. Yeah, fat loss, fat loss. Exactly. But we've got away from that because everyone's like, you know,

conscious about, you know, the negative stereotype of just using the word fat. But what we really want is fat loss. We don't want weight loss. We want fat loss. We want to maintain our lean muscle because that's going to keep us strong. That's going to keep us our metabolism active. That's going to allow us to maintain the fat loss that we're doing on the program. So again, calling a spade a spade, that's what we're looking for. So when we're trying to do that, and we're upping our exercise, then I do think we have to push that protein level a little higher. And so what that means, Gina is that, you know, we may need to go away from the Greek yogurt and berries and oatmeal in the morning, because

that's only going to get 10 grams of protein. And we may need to flip that and go more European style where we're having kind of a savory breakfast. And like I do, like sometimes I'll just have a chicken breast stuffed over, I'll cut it up, I'll make a little onions and zucchinis and mushrooms. And that's my morning hash, so to speak. And I'm getting 30 grams of protein. And I challenge people, anyone that's like, Oh, I don't know if I can do that. Do that type like increase the protein with breakfast specifically to 30 grams, roughly, plus or minus. And I bet you that week, you're going to feel way more satisfied. And the rest of the day, Gina,

you're gonna feel fuller and you're gonna feel better. Yeah, well, we did this last week of splitting up meals and snacks. And we suggested people separate the protein from the carbs to understand how protein hits differently. And so as we've made these slight suggestions that people are bumping up the protein and fat, also minimizing the times that they're eating this week,

people are always like, well, I'm too full. I'm like, well, that's because you're feeling more satisfied. Protein and fat hits different, feeds into your satiety hormones, gives you that more sustaining energy. But I love what you just said there. It's not about eating more of something that's lower in protein.

It's about going as high protein as possible. So yes, if oatmeal is not gonna give you the same amount of protein that eggs are going to give you. What do you feel about protein shakes? And I think at this point, I'm not a fan in the beginning because I think people need to chew their food. It helps you feel more satisfied.

It's hard to gauge satisfaction. Liquid nutrients hit different. People tend to use way too much fruit, not enough fat. But with where we're at in the program, protein shakes can be a benefit for people, especially if you feel like you're not getting enough. You don't have to load them up and make them a smoothie, a chocolate raspberry smoothie.

You just hit it up protein. What are your thoughts on protein powder? And if you are a pro protein powder, what do people look for? Yeah, oh, Gina, I love that you asked this question. You know what? You know, you and I have never had this conversation of all these years, by the way,

so we're getting some amazing questions because I am a fan of protein powder to augment the program, not to replace the program. And I say this to people all the time. I say, listen, I'm gonna recommend a protein powder to you right now, and I know Gina doesn't recommend it. And they're like, but Gina says no. And then I explain, I say, listen, I'm gonna recommend a protein powder to you right now, and I know Gina doesn't recommend it. And they're like, but Gina says no.

And then I explain, I say, people, you have to understand. You're coming into this program, probably from a history of trying all sorts of crazy diets that are centered around cakes and smoothies and these magic powders. That is totally different than what we're talking about here. We're talking about augmenting your full whole food diet with some extra protein. So I'm also not a fan of putting

four cups of banana and fruit in a smoothie, blending it, and then just drinking that and replacing your meals. That's a lazy way out. That's an emergency breakfast, to be honest. But if you're having, let's say you're having a couple eggs, so that's 10 grams of protein, each egg's about five grams, let's say, and you're like, okay, that's pretty good, but I'm still half, I'm still a third of the way out of that Dr. Paul and Gina just talked about.

Well, now I'm gonna go over, I'm gonna make myself a coffee, I'm gonna take a scoop of chocolate protein powder. I'm going to put a scoop, a little squirt of MCT oil in there. I'm going to blend it. No sugar, nose, no sweeteners, no fruit. Blend it. You can put your collagen in there, blend it. And I have that along with my eggs and avocado.

So right there, boom, 30 grams easy. We got it there. And it's really to help boost people that need the extra protein. The patient I was talking about yesterday, she was on Ozempic. And so I gave her kind of six or seven points that I've kind of customized of things that you have to be thinking about if you're on Ozempic. And one of them is your protein has to be into that higher end of the category because you don't want to get the negative effects of that. So I know. Yeah, go ahead. No, I was just going to say, I mean, that's, that's my stance on protein.

It's meant to augment and using a high quality grass fed way. If you can handle dairy, some people are vegetarian or vegan, so they can go more plant-based. There's some good brands. There are some poor tasting brands too, that generally the hierarchy is like whey is the highest in terms of bioavailability and stimulating anabolism. Then there's like a hydrolyzed beef protein,

which is a hypoallergenic option for people that can't handle dairy. That's a newer one on the market. And then there's the plant-based options. Those are the three options and any one of those three can augment. But if you get stuck into drinking your meals, then that's, you and I are on the same page about that. But I think at this stage, it can really be helpful to augment if you're like, you know what, I just, I can't get my head around eating steak in the morning. Okay. That's fine. You know, you can now do your high protein and add the fat too. Don't be afraid to add the fat too. That's super important for just general satiety and decreasing that leptin, which is the kind of, uh, or increase leptin that feel, feel full hormone.

It's really, really dependent on fat. Yeah. I love that you brought up MCT oil. Um, this, I want to also ask you about creatine and then taking collagen at night before bed. And, but I, before I do that, you brought up with Zempic and so Zempic doesn't necessarily work for everybody. So I do want to preface that obviously as, that's a side effects, all of that.

I'm actually not not a fan. I think it can be a game changer for people. I think the Libby Method is exactly the program that you need to be following while taking. But, and I know you can't name names or you can't share because there's confidentiality piece, but I can only imagine if someone combined taking GLP-1s because their doctor has suggest with the program that people are seeing

pretty good results there. Yeah, no, I would agree with that. There are some but it's like it's you're totally right. It's not a one size fits all everyone should be on a Zempik. It's it's a like I've had some patients have pretty substantial side effects, Gina. I've had some patients that, you know, people don't think about this a lot. But you know, there's, there's a third of the patients again, you know, again, this is just rough numbers, but third of them, they kind of have minimal side effects or no side effects. And it actually, you know, helps decrease their,

their satiety. But I also think it does a little bit more than that. It's not just about feeling full. It's also that there is some other mechanism that's going on that's helping people lose weight. So there's that happening. Then there's some people that, you know, have on this side over here, they have a lot of side effects. And, you know, again, think about down the line,

like what's the off ramp? And some people like look totally different. It makes them lose subcutaneous fat. It's like they age 10, 15 years in a couple, in a couple of months because of some of the weight loss. So there's, there's, that's the not so good side. So, and then there's the people in the middle that, you know, it's helping with their diabetes and, and, you know, kind of gives them a little bump, but you know, they're still not losing weight in the way that they want. And that's pretty normal with every medication, Gina. So just like, you know,

uh, 30 years ago, when antidepressants came out, everyone was like, Oh, my gosh, these are a game changer. You know, there's a it's a tool for people to use in the right time. And I really think it can be the side effects can be minimized or least reduced if you follow a really, really good nutritional and supplemental approach, protein, creatine, amino acids, a gut support for moving and compensating for that slowing down of the intestines, these are the things I talk about with my patients.

So it's a tool. It's a tool and we need to treat it with respect and we have to realize that there's risks with this tool too. It's not the easy way out. It's not necessarily the easy way out. You mentioned creatine. Let's talk about creatine. We've got a couple of minutes left. So I want to talk about creatine. Should we add that to our first set of supplements or secondary supplements? Or should it just be like as needed, what's your thoughts on creatine? Everyone's going crazy for creatine.

They are, yeah. And I think that a lot of this has to do with some of the more recent research that's come out in like menopausal women and women that are experiencing some of those hormonal shifts with the muscle loss. Creatine has always been in our food. We have to remember this. So it's been in our food. We have to remember this. So it's been in

you know in animal meats. So if you are eating adequate levels of good quality steak and primarily red meat is where you get natural stores of creatine, you can get you know two and a half grams off a serving of that like throughout the day between two and five grams. The research kind of shows that you can get up to you know 10, 15, even 20 grams. I think it really shines if you're exercising as well. And I think finally creatine is kind of getting its day in the light because it's been studied for so long, Gina, it's really just been relegated to sports nutrition.

I think there's just more application to it. So I would think it can be part of maybe the secondary supplement list. I think that's a very reasonable place to put it. And I think it can be part of maybe the secondary supplement list. I think that's a very reasonable place to put it. And I think it can definitely augment. And I've had some patients that tell me, you know, it helps with their brain function. And because it is kind of like a quick fuel for the brain and is another alternative fuel source to and so people will say I'm more focused, I have less brain fog. So in general, I would say I'm a fan.

Okay. What about collagen at night? Someone, I was reading an article about if you're like hungry in the evening, you don't want to actually eat real food because it stimulates your digestive system. So having some collagen with that non-essential protein can be beneficial. I don't know. Did they steal that from me? Because I've been saying that. I don't know. It was you. It was you. I know you're a fan of collagen, but I don't know. Did they steal that from me? Cause I've been saying that. I don't know. It was you. It was you. I know you're a fan of collagen, but I don't know if we talked about the ideal time to take it. And I was like, that's really interesting because especially we find that people get hungry in the evening right before their weight is about to drop. And obviously right before your weight is about to drop is when you want to get the best sleep possible. And then eating after dinner or late in the evening messes with

your sleep. So I was like, be a good option for people to have their collagen in the evening. Why? Why? Well, the main reason that I recommend it is for what you said. So yeah, the main reason I recommend it is because yeah, there it could be a way of getting some amino acids and amino acids are helpful for making neurotransmitters and neurotransmitters help us calm, uh, you know, calm our brain, get us into a good deep sleep. So that's number one and one particular amino acid gene is called glycine and collagen is very rich in glycine. And so glycine has this really unique effect of, of having a calming effect on your, on your nerve cells. And so if you think about it, you've heard of glycine, magnesium glycinate.

It's the amino acid that's bound to magnesium. And that's why it's been so popular is because you're not only getting the benefits of magnesium, you're getting the benefits of glycine. So now instead of doing collagen in the morning, you can do it in the evening, maybe even mix it with your magnesium if you'd want, because the taste is pretty benign. And you're getting the benefit of having a

little bit of this extra glycine, you know, a couple grams, which might seem like a lot, but it's you know, it's still, you know, it's still very moderate dose of glycine. So I think that's the benefits, you're getting a little bit of that satiety piece, you're getting a little bit of that overall neurotransmitter support, and then you're getting the glycine, which has this like, anti anxiety and calming effect. So that's the three kind of reasons I recommended at night.

So magnesium glycinate and then some collagen before you go to bed be a great combo. I mean, if you really wanted to up your glycine, yeah, totally. Like I have I've used products that have glycine extra in it to actually get up to like those three or four grams for people that are really kind of like anxious and their minds racing, because it has that calming effect.

But if you wanted to add the mag and the collagen, you're getting kind of like optimizing the glycine levels. Hello, are we back? I'm back. We're back. We're back. Well, okay. That's it. That's time to go, I guess. That's universe telling us, but want to add the magnesium glycinate to our first set of supplements to you know, I love the site right because it is absorbed really well. It helps

especially with bowel movements because people but what changes in their diet but I think it'd be a good ad to add that other option although people really there's so many different types of people you know, ideally go see someone like yourself and figure out exactly what you need. Uh, before we go, are you back with us or is that it? This program? That's it. Ah, you're gonna be back with us and the next program. And you know, it's really interesting because our conversations evolve.

I mean, we always hit the basics, but you and I have never had the same conversation twice and we've had so many conversations in the last five years. Parting words of wisdoms for our dear members who are week nine of the program. They're of course freaking out because there's only a month left and is there going to be enough time and they got to continue their journey and all of that. Final words of wisdom from them. Then we had a great conversation with those people. If you're listening to this and you're freaking out

that you haven't seen the results and you haven't seen the progress that you really wanted, I hope that you go back and re-listen to this because I hope that what we talked about especially early on about the process rather than the results, I think you're going to realize that this is a journey that you have to embrace. And if you're looking at this in the same way that you've been looking at other previous quick fix weight loss programs, that's where I think the frustration sets in

because there's two parts of our brain. One of them is like, I don't care, just I wanna lose weight. Get me there as quickly as possible. And there's another part that's like, I really want to do this the right way. And a lot of people want to do both. And sometimes those both don't line up.

You often have to do the hard work, the stuff that we talked about of going to the, going to the messy places in your life, going to the messy places in your mind and the areas that are uncomfortable to work through that, to release some of the pitfalls that continue to trip you up to get good success. The big takeaway, Gina, that I think we hit out of the park at the beginning part of our combo especially, is I really want people to think about, do they want to lose weight or do they want to be healthy?

And when you're healthy, your weight is gonna optimize. Yeah, you have to be healthy to lose weight. One more thing for the people, what's the advice for the people doing really well? The people who are just crushing it? What is the advice for them? I want to leave off on a positive note. I want to make sure that people that are listening today are not like, oh, wow, Dr. Paul was pretty like truth serum this morning. Uh, you know, we, we, I think we have real conversations, Gina.

And, and I think hopefully everyone listening to this, uh, is going to reflect on the, uh, the, maybe the takeaways, if you feel frustrated by this, if you feel a little angry, then just sit with that. Don't look at, oh wow, you know, Gina and Dr. Paul are insensitive. My challenge to everyone today is, whatever emotion you're feeling, I want you to sit with it and think about what chord did it strike in me to make me feel this way. Yes. And take your time with that and reflect on it this week. It's a great week to do it.

And if you're like nodding your head while you're listening to this and you're like, yep, absolutely, if this resonates with you, that amazing. But if it doesn't, I hope that you just sit with that and just think about why. don't think about what did Dr. Paul or Gina say that pissed me off. Say, why is this such? Why am I frustrated by this? Nothing that we said today is, I think unscientific or unreasonable. So I think

just just sit with it. And so if you're listening to this on the flip side, and you're like, I'm killing it, I'm doing amazing. First of all, I want to say. I'm doing amazing. First of all, I want to say, I'm so happy for you, but also understand that there's some good times in this process. And there also are going to be some times that we are going to be a little more difficult. And so I want those people when things are going amazing to start thinking about putting that in their bank their mental bank and pulling on that feeling the way you feel right now when you feel like things are a little down because I hope that you transition into, this is just, I'm a healthy person, not doing a program by wanting to go back to being unhealthy.

Yes, owning that you've made change and you are a healthy person. And this is why, you know, when you are proud of the things that you are doing, you're more likely to continue those things. I don't want it to end, but it is time to go. I just wanna thank you for always just showing up and sharing so freely, sharing all of your knowledge

with us, people do not get access to this, to have someone sit with us for an hour and be honest and share in the hopes of actually truly helping people. I know that people can make appointments, they can go see you. Dr. Paul is a very busy man. Make sure you are ready if you are going to take your time to go see him because he don't mess around.

He don't mess around. Dr. Paul Herkel on Instagram is where you can find him and follow me to give some great tips freely, again, sharing their tips that we love about all of our guests. Do we have a website for Dr. Paul as well? They have some great tips freely again, sharing their tips that we love about all of our guests. Do we have a website for Dr. Paul as well? Guys, paul, her call, that's P-A-U-L-H-R-K-A-L-N-D.com. Thanks for everyone who's watching today. I know there's some good takeaways there.

And of course, thank you, Dr. Paul. Always a pleasure. You're welcome, Gina. Thank you so much. Everyone that's listening, it's been a pleasure to be with you guys this program. Look forward to the next one if you're there. Yep. See you then.