The Livy Method Podcast - Sleep, Stress and Hormones with Dr. Olinca Trejo - Spring 2025

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

Continuing with our sleep week conversations, Gina and Naturopathic Doctor Olinca Trejo break down the real reason weight loss can feel so hard—and spoiler alert, it’s not a willpower issue. Dr. Olinca explains why understanding hormones is a game-changer for anyone on a health journey, not just those going through menopause. From how lack of sleep throws off your hunger cues to why your brain defaults to old habits when you’re tired, she connects the dots between rest, cravings, and fat storage. They also unpack the misunderstood role of cortisol, the stress hormone, and how it keeps you stuck in a cycle of exhaustion and snacking. Dr. Olinca shares how even one bad night’s sleep can mess with your hunger signals and why better sleep doesn’t just help you avoid the bad—it actually makes it easier to choose the good. The conversation wraps up with a powerful mindset shift: the Glimmer Challenge. Because sometimes, the smallest moment of joy can turn your whole day around.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 contact Dr. Olinca at [e-mail] find her on Instagram: @dr.olincaYou can find the full video hosted at:https://www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodspring2025 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. This is an opportunity to become curious. To learn some things. How do we help you feel less overwhelmed so you can continue on your journey? Keep believing in yourself and keep trusting the process. Just be patient.

It is a beautiful day here in St. Lucia. We are at the gorgeous Harbor Club. The sun is shining and it is the perfect day to talk about stress and hormones with the, I mean, stunning, just enlightening, wonderful, gorgeous Dr. Alinka Trejo. Hi. Hi. I mean, how do you follow that? Thank you.

Tell me more. It's so nice to be here. Honestly, the sun is finally partially I mean, partially shining in Hamilton, Ontario. And so I do feel like this is the perfect day to be talking about hormones with you. Yeah. And you know what, you're such a light when it comes to this conversation, because hormones can be a pretty heavy conversation. And you always have this really elegant way of helping us understand the complexity of hormones. Not an easy thing to do. So where do you want to start? We had

Dr. Beverly, as you know, Dr. Beverly David talk about what's happening when you're stressed and when you're not getting sleep, how that's affecting your brain, the choices that you're making, your thoughts, your feeling. Alana McGinn joined us yesterday. She gave us some great stress management tips on how to get a better quality sleep. Today we're talking about how this affects your body, especially when it comes to losing weight. Like give it to us. Give it to us.

Okay, so I think that the first thing that we need to understand is that we are a network of networks and the way that these networks actually chitter chatter back and forth to each other is through these chemical messengers that we call hormones, right? And the really interesting thing about this is that irregular or insufficient sleep will disturb a lot of their circadian rhythms of metabolism. And so hormones like cortisol, which we all know about, which is your stress hormone, insulin which is a hormone that regulates a lot of your blood sugar, your fat deposition,

at your hunger hormones and your satiety hormones so we'll talk about that. Sleep when sleep is insufficient or missed time because of shift work or because of chronic late nights or any of these things your rhythms actually just misalign and they lead to suboptimal timing of hormone release and a lot of metabolic dysregulation that then feeds into each other and not only impacts what you eat, when you eat, how much you eat, but it can also impact your weight loss journey

in the sense that it can dictate how you store food and how you actually burn fat or muscle right if we're doing it the wrong way. And so I really do think that it's important to understand the physiology behind it so that we can tie everything together and then make choices that maybe are a little bit more in line with our goals with with our weight loss journey because this is supposed to be about empowering to make small changes that have a profound impact right in your journey. Yeah foundational change and you know I think people really underestimate what's going on with their stress and their sleep and how it impacts their weight and everyone's just thinking

eat less exercise more it's all about the food. I love what you said about the circadian rhythm. Dr. Beverly said on Tuesday that sleep is by the brain, for the brain, and then this is sort of where is that mind-body connection. And your hormones are kind of like the chemical messengers. Your hormones are sort of dictating what goes where, what your body does with this, right? Yeah. 100%. And you know, it's I love a sleep scientist, his name is Dr. Matthew Walker, and he always says, sleep is the single tide that rises all of the other health boats.

And so if you're not sleeping, it doesn't matter what you're doing with exercise, it does not matter what you're doing with diet, it does not matter what you do with meditation, none of those health health boats can actually stay afloat because sleep is a foundation that carries them through. And I actually find the most interesting thing about this conversation is that we are the only mammals on earth that will legitimately choose to under sleep ourselves. Because in the wild legitimately the only reason why any other animal does not sleep or chooses not to sleep is in a state of starvation, right? And so you and I have this conversation

every time that we chat about hormones. And we say, you guys hormones are your friends and your body is just trying to help you survive. And so when you under sleep, you just go into starvation mode because your body is like, well, this is what we do in the wild. This so when you're under sleep, you just go into starvation mode because your body is like, well, this is what we do in the wild. This is what's supposed to happen, right?

So you and I've had the hormones and menopause conversation, right? And that's, we'll have that conversation again, but can you just sort of break it down while hormones are for everyone? It was interesting, cause I had someone in the last program be like, I love the program, but you just talked about menopause way too much. I'm like, we had one

conversation on it in the weight loss program and it occurred to me it was the hormones. And it's people assuming that the hormone conversation is only for menopause, perimenopause, postmenopause. And it it's not everybody has hormones and everyone needs to be mindful of these hormones when they're trying to lose weight correct for sure well your hormones actually don't just regulate your menstrual cycle they regulate your blood sugar control your blood pressure your growth your sex drive your metabolism your sleep is actually regulated by hormones. And you know, I will leave, I promise, I, you know, that I can turn anything into a menopause conversation. And

so I will leave menopause out of this. And we'll, we're going to focus, I think mainly on, you know, the hunger hormones, how that impacts your, your food choices, things like that. But I actually want to specifically talk about also the thyroid hormone and growth hormone and testosterone and all of the other things that people ask us about when it comes to weight loss and blood work and things like that, because I think it's so important that you understand how sleep can even change the labs

that you get from your doctor and why your doctor can be like, everything's normal. And you're like, I don't feel like this is normal. This can be down to sleep. Okay, let's go. Where do you wanna start? Hunger hormones. Just like a quick overview of hunger hormones.

Okay, so there really are two main hunger hormones that we talk about. There's going to be ghrelin. And ghrelin is the hormone that makes you hungry. And the other side of that, obviously, because your body always tries to keep homeostasis or balance, the other side is going to be another hormone

that's called leptin. And leptin is actually released by your fat cells and it gives your brain this signal, you know what, we're full, we've eaten enough, right? And so obviously in a balanced state, when you're asleep and when we're full, we've eaten enough, right? And so obviously in a balanced state, when you're sleeping, when you're healthy, when we are in complete homeostasis, there's an adequate amount of hunger

and a fullness that keeps that balance, right? Of caloric and taking caloric expenditure. And the really interesting thing is, is that when you're under slept, and if you've only under slept for one night and reducing your sleep, let's say five hours, so five hours or less, your ghrelin can increase by about 30%, which means that you are way hungrier and your leptin signal,

which is that fullness signal, right? Will decrease by about 20%. And so you're actually getting almost punished at both ends of that hunger equation because your hunger level increases by 30% and your satiety will actually decrease by 20%. Now the really fascinating thing about this is that the studies actually show over and over again that that results in a caloric intake that's about 300 calories extra the next day. And that doesn't actually sound like a lot, but if you think about chronic sleep deficit

for most of us, 300 calories extra every day amounts to about 70,000 calories every year, which is their minimum 10 to 20 pounds of waking, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so those hunger hormones that are being impacted by the lack of sleep are going to impact how much you eat. But yes, I just saying because it's it's beyond the calories. When people are trying to make change like this, it's where they think that I'm just

so hungry or why why why can I not, not eat that thing that they feel like they have no willpower. They feel like they're, they're out of control. So it's beyond just the calories. It's, I really want people to understand how it's affecting the choices that they're making. It's affecting their hunger levels and how they are feeling, right? A hundred percent. So, you know, from a hormonal standpoint, it's impacting your hunger cues and your satiety cues, but this is key and this is a perfect segue into this. It also impacts your prefrontal cortex and your amygdala. So how I want you

to think about these two centers in your brain is your brain needs sleep and your brain only recharges, resets, rebalances after you sleep and you get adequate amounts of deep sleep and REM sleep. And so your prefrontal cortex is your executive center in your brain that is kind of like the guy that keeps like impulse and control. It like drives decision-maker, the decision-making,

it is your willpower center that actually prevents you from making rash decisions, right? And your amygdala, totally. And then your amygdala is this like really primitive center in your brain that mostly drives a lot of like the emotional reward like system that's often associated with a lot of behaviors, but it can be associated with with eating as well. And so when you under sleep or you're not sleeping properly, because you know, you have sleep apnea or it's disrupted or whatever it is, what happens is that your prefrontal cortex, so that executive brain actually gets turned down and almost shut down. And that amygdala reward driven, like primitive, you know, emotional reward center actually gets turned up. And so essentially what sleep loss causes is that it causes this disconnect between

this like rational head and your emotional heart. And then it tips your decision making toward heart and then it tips your decision making toward instant gratification and away from this is what I want to do. I'm going to stay on my journey, right? And so what this leads to, and you know this perfectly well, this leads to increased cravings, right? This leads to impaired, to a lot of impulsivity, to you not being able to defer that gratification that you're like, you know what, I don't really need the sugar. This also is so interesting because an exhausted brain is always going to default to familiar habits, right? And so if you're somebody that says, I'm just not the person that snacks at night anymore. If that executive brain is out the window and that amygdala is turned up, guess what's gonna happen?

Your brain is gonna be like, girl, we're gonna snack at bedtime. That's what we're gonna do now. Oh my God. Okay, so first of all, one of the things I was talking, you're brilliant, this is why I love you. Let's talk about willpower, because even we have a social media post

that says weight loss isn't willpower. And I think we look at that like, it's not your fault, and there's more to it. It doesn't mean that you're weak or lazy, or don't know what you need to do. But I think when you said it's like, when you get sleep, it helps with your willpower. And if you're not getting sleep and you're stressed, I mean, you do have a and I hate the word,

you know, I hate the word control and moderation. It's all about being in tune. But at the same time, I think willpower does play a role. I think it's okay to say willpower does play a role in my willpower central command is messed up because of my stress, because of my sleep, because of those things. 100%. And you know what? And it's not that you don't choose

to have that willpower that day, is that part of your brain. You know, that's exactly what it is. It's not that you're like, oh, I just can't do it. It's legitimately that you're like, oh, I just can't do it. It's legitimately that you not sleeping turns off the part of your brain that says, we're gonna do this. We have made the decision to be healthy. We're going to eat greens instead of eating

or reaching for that pizza or that sugar or whatever. You know, the thing that you need to understand, not you, you understand this, but you guys need to understand too is that, You know, the thing that you need to understand, not you, you understand this, but you guys need to understand too, is that, you know, this is actually like a surprise to nobody here. You know what happens when you under sleep. Like I, you know, my husband and I really like traveling and sometimes we have to be at the airport at like four o'clock in the morning. I legitimately, I'm like, I think I'm going to have pizza for breakfast. Like things that I would never choose to do in my regular life.

And there's a lot of research that goes behind this, right? And we actually know that if you under sleep by literally one to two hours, your desire for obesogenic, really processed, sugary, like overly, I guess, like desirable foods that have been manufactured, right? To light up specific parts of your brain that again, activate that reward mechanism. Your desire for these foods will increase anywhere between 33 to 45%.

And so it's not that you don't have willpower, is that your brain is like, girl, like I just, again, I am starving, right? I need more of these heavy hitters, sugar, carbohydrate things that give me more energy, because I'm starving. And I need more energy. Well, and you are more likely like you said, to fall back into old habits. Why do I keep making that decision? Why can't I do

that? Why do I keep snacking? And I mean, anyone you're right, who, if you don't get a good night's sleep, or you're up all night, for whatever reason, you are so hungry the next day, you are just like, fuck it is your whole attitude, if you don't get a good night's sleep or you're up all night for whatever reason you are so hungry the next Day you are just like fuck it is your whole attitude like you can you can it's it's a hard time getting yourself to rally and when you're in that mindset and then it just Snowballs because we're used to when we're dieting. We've made a poor decision we've ruined everything and then it just keeps going and Okay All right. I know.

Woo! All right. All right. Okay, so that's your hunger hormone. So now let's talk about like how your sleep, actually, and you know, and I will say this about sleep too, because I know that it's not just about calories and all of these things, but it is really important that we understand that the opposite,

like when you under sleep, obviously you eat more, you make better, worse choices, all of these things, but the opposite, like when you under sleep, obviously you eat more, you make worse choices, all of these things, but the opposite is also true. We have research that says that if you actually sleep appropriately, whether that is, you know, sufficient sleep or sufficient quality, you actually end up eating less and your food choices are better. So this is not just the like, okay, great. So if I sleep,, you know, if I if I sleep, I just don't make those choices is like, no, it actually makes it easier for your body to stay on your journey. Right? We don't say like, we don't fall off the wagon, we are still on the wagon. But it's

just easier for you to be like, why did I do that? Like, I'm not going to do that. Right? So I'm going to leave that on a positive note of like, we can do this, this gets better. Well, and for anyone who's just tuning in this week, you definitely want to go back, listen to the conversation with Dr. Beverly David. You want to also listen to the conversation with Alana yesterday. She gave us all sorts of great tips.

We also did a post about it yesterday too, right? So we're talking about the brain, we're talking about the body today, and Alana kind of gave us some great tips on how to manage your stress and how to get better sleep. So even after this week, even if you've seen all the three segments, I will go back and just kind of listen to it again and be like, okay, let me like, let me take it all in and really understand how this can impact your journey.

It's very exciting, I think, because it's not just the food. And it's understanding why you're making the changes, the choices that you're making, understanding why you're feeling the way that you're feeling, understanding why you're having the thoughts that you are thinking. Okay, now where do we go next? You know what, let's chat about how sleep impacts maybe fat and your metabolism and how you burn it and how you store it. And so I have to start the conversation by explaining very briefly what insulin is. Insulin is a hormone that's released by an organ that's called a pancreas. It's released in direct proportion to what you're eating and how much you're eating.

If you eat something, your body is going to break it down into tiny little sugar or glucose molecules. Then the minute that your body senses, oh my goodness, there's something in the land that tastes like sugar, your pancreas will release insulin. And insulin really truly just sends a message to your cells that says like, hey, I've got glucose, you gotta open up. And literally what happens is that there's little,

there's these little like straws that come out of muscle cells and liver cells that come out and then just suck up the glucose, right? Exactly. They're like, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme, gimme. And so then they open up, they suck up some of that glucose and they close up and then that causes that blood sugar to decrease, right? And your bloodstream, because as much as you love sugar, your body doesn't actually like

having really high sugar in your blood and it doesn't like having low sugar It has to keep again the homeostasis or that balance and so When you don't sleep properly what happens is that your pancreas actually doesn't release enough insulin for the amount of sugar that you're actually eating and then the other side of that is that your Sugar your it's almost like your cells become like really resistant to the message of sugar that you're actually eating. And then the other side of that is that your sugar, it's almost like your cells become like really resistant to the message. I always think about them as like, they feel really,

you know, when you don't sleep properly, you feel like really groggy, you're like, ah, that's pretty much what happens to your cells. And they don't actually take up as much glucose as they would from the bloodstream based on how much insulin has been released. And so what happens is, again, you're getting punished at both sides of the equation, right?

You're getting punished by you eat something, there's not enough insulin, so there's not enough of a strong message for your cells to say, open up, you need to take this up. The cells actually don't open up fully, they don't take up as much as they like would typically if you had slept for that amount of you know sugar and stuff And so what happens your body doesn't like that sugar being there and your body is like well I'm gonna get this out man. And so that extra sugar ends up turning into fat

Mostly around your liver and your abdomen, right? And you've probably heard this term before, which is called insulin resistance, which means that your body is resistant to the message of insulin. And this is actually a specific, I guess, like a window of time where it's the messaging and the signaling is wrong. And it's not that your insulin is actually too, too high. It's actually that your insulin is a little bit lower, but then your body's still not getting the message and it still causes that back pain.

And the interesting thing about this is that one week, just one week of sleep deprivation can actually reduce your sensitivity of insulin by almost half. It's almost 40%. And so we've actually shown in research that for just like normal, regular people that don't have any pre-diabetes or diabetes, reducing their sleep to five hours for one week will change their lives enough that they would be diagnosed as pre-diabetic.

Which is also why when people are following the Libby method with that routine and addressing things like their stress and their sleep and they're getting that sleep, they actually can go from the pre-diabetic range into the normal range. 100%. Game changer. Okay. It's a game changer. And so this actually then feeds into another one of our hormones that we always talk about, which is also like a fat building hormone and a burning hormone, which is a stress hormone, which is cortisol.

And so I know that this this week we've talked about cortisol and Dr. Beverly has talked about cortisol and you know, cortisol is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful hormone. You cannot survive without cortisol and it gets such a bad rep. And honestly, cortisol is amazing because cortisol is actually the hormone that regulates your circadian rhythm and that sleep and wake cycle that we have. But cortisol is your survival hormone, right? And so we all know when you're stressed out, the first thing that gets released is adrenaline so that you can run away from a bear. But your body cannot be releasing adrenaline 24-7 because you die of a heart attack, you guys. Everything would stop. And so your body, exactly, you're like, and so your body kind of like outsmarts it. And instead of releasing adrenaline that's not acute, I need to run away from it, where the it right now, it releases cortisol.

And cortisol is more the stress hormone that keeps you in that hypervigilant state of like, I'm just waiting for the bear to come, but like the bear is not actually coming. It's almost that stress hormone that keeps you in survival, but you're not running. Does that kind of make sense? Yes. It's not the like acute release, but like, I'm just waiting for something to happen. And so you can imagine that if you're waiting for something to happen. And so you can imagine that if you're waiting for something to happen and your body feels like the bear is not yet coming, but

it's going to come and your body wants to survive, what's it going to do? It's going to store fat. Because fat is your golden ticket to survival, right? Fat is stored fuel and stored energy that you can use when the big fat bear actually comes. And so cortisol, when it comes to weight loss, cortisol is anabolic to fat, which means that it grows fat and catabolic to muscle, which means that it actually breaks down muscle. Shoshana asked a question. She says, Is this why people who

don't drink alcohol get fatty liver? Yeah, this is the main driver behind fatty liver even in, you know, depending as to obviously like how much alcohol you drink, but in non alcoholic fatty liver disease, it is it is 100% driven by insulin. Well. In insulin resistance. Great question.

Oh, I love that. Yeah, I know. Yeah, totally. And so, okay. And so then with cortisol, what happens is that, so what we wanna remember with weight loss is that obviously, you know, because you're in the survival state, right?

Cortisol is going to store fat and instead of giving up the fat when you're losing weight, it's going to break down muscle. Now why is this important with sleep? It's important because cortisol is actually what dictates your circadian rhythm and cortisol is actually what has the break on melatonin for you to feel sleepy. And so when you're really stressed out instead of like, you know, having a really high cortisol in the morning that then lowers through the day, and then being like, okay, I'm ready for sleep, and then cortisol reducing, taking the break

off the pedal and increasing melatonin, cortisol is high all the time, all day long, all the time, all day long, all the time, all day long. Yeah. And that is that where you are fucking exhausted during the day and then you are wide awake, wide awake at night and this is where like even on like here when I'm away from my stress it's like well I'm using more energy throughout the day so So that's one thing. And then I, because my cortisol, I'm less stressed, or you go to the cottage, where you're not awake on your phones or whatever, you can actually get tired and you feel like falling asleep. This is also because the program itself, again, just bringing awareness, showing up and doing the things that you need to do

or doing a lot more to address your stress and sleep than you then you think people will start to notice that they actually get tired in the evening. They'll have break dinners during the day. They'll be like, what's wrong with me? I'm tired at night. I'm like, go to bed. That's a good thing.

Yeah. Try to be tired at night, go to bed. That is exactly what's supposed to happen. You know, but cortisol, how I like to describe it is that cortisol makes you often tired and wired. Tired and wired, yeah. Where you're just, and you know, and so then the hard thing about then when you're in this high cortisol state is that there's this vicious loop, right, that you get into because then you get that your brain, remember we talked about your brain rebalances, everything like recharges, refuels, rebalances at night. And so your brain actually can't break down

a lot of that cortisol. It can't clear all of the waste from your brain. And then that causes more of that anxiety, sleeplessness. We make poor choices with our diet and so we're increasing the sugar. We're drinking more caffeine, which we know has like a really long half life and most of the time we go to bed

and we still have caffeine in our system, we drink a little bit more alcohol because we end up being wired. Like we do all of the things that then keep you in this vicious loop. And then this is actually the vicious loop that promotes that abdominal fat and actually strips you away from that muscle,

sabotaging your weight loss, right? And so the hard thing about cortisol is that cortisol is not just impacted by light, which is why, you know, Alana talks a lot about light, and I know Dr. Bev also talks about light and CBT and all of these things, but we want to be, again, with our sleep hygiene. It's, I always tell my patients,

it's about like landing a plane rather than turning off a switch. There's a reason why we need bedtime routines and relaxation and no light and no any of these. It's actually because of the cortisol piece. And if your cortisol is really high until nine o'clock, then do you think that your brain is really high until nine o'clock, do you think that your brain is gonna be like,

great, the bear didn't come today? No, you need like the wind down for your body to be like, oh, great, maybe like the bear will come tomorrow. Yeah, cause I'm like, I'm like, oh, gotta get up. All right, I'm up, I'm up. And then it's like, okay, gotta go to bed. Why can't I fucking sleep? Okay, go to sleep, go to sleep, go to sleep.

Yeah, it's like, What is wrong with us? It's like, you know, and you never do that. Like when you have little kids, you know this, everybody knows this. It's like, you can't just be like, okay, bedtime, okay, bye. You know, they have the bath. Get up, off you go. And so I just don't understand why we think that we're different just because we're adults. don't understand why we think that we're different just because we're adults. And so I do, you know, I always think about like, your sleep hygiene and all of these things

are your foundation. Obviously, if this is chronic, you need to address it with CBTI or other stuff, but don't underestimate the power of the basics. And so with cortisol, I think that there's two things that we need to talk about at specifically when it comes to weight loss journeys, because I think that most people who are listening today have probably gone through a period of either under eating or over exercising to lose weight, right? Most of us have done both. Yeah. And at the same time. And at the same time. I know, exactly.

Okay, so cortisol will increase with light, it will increase with stress, but it will also increase with exercise. And this is actually, and I want to clear the air about this because I think that there's a lot of social media talk about how if you're stressed out, if your cortisol is high, don't exercise. That is not true. You need to move your body. Just don't over train. Don't start running for a marathon. But you need to move your body because movement is the most effective way to get your body from, is a bear coming? Is a bear coming? Is a bear coming? To like, the bear's here and you run and

you run and you run and you run and then the cycle ends and then you feel free, right? And you get to safety. And so the thing about really intense exercise without adequate recovery, so that's actually where sleep comes in, right? This is also where meditation and relaxation and proper fuel and all of these things come in. Overtraining, especially in the setting of under fueling and under fueling in a sense

of too little food intake or not enough carbohydrates, right? Because carbohydrates is what's giving you the energy. What that's going to cause is that it's going to throw your body even further down that starvation, stressed out, increased cortisol pathway that we're actually trying to break up. And so what happens is that when your body is stressed out and when your body is starved in a way that feels like, but I need to hold on to the fuel in case the bear comes and I need to run, it's going to give up your muscle mass and it's going to hold onto your fat.

And that's often why, again, your body is meant to survive. And this is actually what will happen where people get stuck or people start doing all these crazy things. The weight doesn't move or they get skinny fat. Yeah, skinny fat. I'm still the worst. So, yeah, because if you are,

think about all the messages that your body is receiving if you are starving, if you are running for your life and over exercising and you are not sleeping, it's constantly in a state of stress and it just totally feels like it needs the fat. And you're almost teaching the body that it needs the fat. You know, when I used to work in personal clients, I dealt with a lot of runners.

People would be running, running, running, running, running, running, and then trying to lose weight at the same time. I'm like, this is not it. Like you want to run, that's great, but you got to fuel your body properly. And they'll just be like, I don't know what's going on. I keep gaining weight. I'm like, this is not it. Like you want to run, that's great, but you got to fuel your body properly. And they'll just be like, I don't know what's going on. I keep gaining weight. I'm like, you got to eat. You're not eating enough to sustain what you are doing. And I think people see those long distance runners and they're lean and they're like, whatever they probably eat, like crazy. 100%. And often, how often do you hear on this program? I'm eating more than I've ever eaten before

and I'm finally losing weight. Why? Because we're getting your body out of starvation mode. And one of the statistics that I love throwing into this is that when your cortisol is high, because you're not sleeping because you're stressed out because of whatever reason, 60% of the weight that you lose will come from muscle

rather than fat. 60%. Yeah. And so this is why also I really love how our conversation has really transitioned to this isn't just about the scale numbers, this is about body composition. And body composition is about getting strong, not getting skinny. Yeah. And that's why it's still normal for some people to not see any movement on the scale. Your body's taking out the resources you are consuming that doesn't have much food, preparing, rebuilding, regenerating, rejuvenating, addressing it. You keep looking for the food and people like pull back, eat less, keep asking less and your stress is out of control and you are not sleeping or you are not, maybe you're moving your body but you're not doing resistance training and after

years of dieting and losing that fat, sorry, that muscle rather than that fat or you're aging or going through menopause, that's just a recipe for if not, yeah, it's just a recipe and that's why the living method is so different than any other diet. And it's hard to believe in that because you're so used to eat less, exercise more, you'll sleep when you're dead, you know, stress has nothing to do with it. All right. Okay. And so I do think it's, it's so important also, for us to understand that this is something that hasn't happened overnight.

And for a lot of us, it's not also going to change overnight. Right. What is possible, though, you see people like when they actually make the push to make real change, how quickly can they see? Because everyone's like, OK, I'm never going to lose weight. I'm stressed out. I'm not sleeping. I'm this. I'm that. Not true, by the way. Not true. And I know sometimes the truth hurts or it hits the nerve.

This is for us to be like, okay, I have to take my sleep seriously. I have got to do something about my stress. I've got to do more than just walk my dog a couple of times a week. I gotta find time, I gotta make time, I gotta do those things. And how quickly can we turn this around?

Honestly, it depends on so many things. It depends on your genetics. It depends on how much you're putting into it. It depends on how long we've also been in the starvation mode for. Right. I actually, I have a girlfriend doing at your program right now that I love and she has been postpartum for as long as I've known her because she had two babies back to back. And she said to me, this morning actually, she said to me, you know, this is finally the first thing that's ever worked for me because I've constantly been just running on sugar and caffeine and overtraining and under eating.

And this, you know, we're weak, week five? I always work over the prep week, but she's down seven pounds with just the first program, right, and it's the first thing that she changed. I have patients who have done the program, you know, and the first program they lose two to three pounds, and the second program they don't lose any, and the third program they don't lose any,

and the fourth program they're like, I'm 45 pounds down, and I have not changed anything. And I'm like, I know. But this is also, you have, you grew up in the seventies, the eighties and the nineties, which made you afraid of carbs and then made you afraid of fat and then told you that aerobics was a way to eat. And then you had like all of the stress and you went through menopause and it's like, it doesn't, for some people, it can happen overnight and that's beautiful. We're so happy for them. And like, I would love to know what it's like to be God's favorite child. And there's people that, you know, it takes a little bit longer,

and that's okay, because it's all also about the journey. And I think that that's a beautiful thing about your message that we are trying to help you understand that it's about loving this journey, and learning through this journey, and unlearning through this journey. And the side effect that you'll get is weight loss, but all of the non-skill victories to me, at least as a practitioner, are so much more powerful, empowering. And that's actually what matters. That's what gives you like the quality of life and the longevity and the strength and all of the amazing things that you're here for. It's not the number on the scale. Like, a smaller size of pants, it's not going to bring you happiness, happiness.

You know, it might be like, yay, but it's not long lasting happiness. Speaking of before you go, I want to talk to you about something you shared with me. But listen, everyone, this is, we're only week three. You got a lot of time left to make a lot of change. And this is about bringing awareness. It's about bringing certain conversations to light that make you go, oh, okay, like I got the eating part. Maybe it is something else or, you know, oh, I do this

or I feel like that. And it's to give you, it's to help bring awareness and help give you some tools and some skills to help you make change. And it's not gonna happen overnight. But that's what this conversation is all about. Go back and listen to it all from the beginning. And Dr. Lincoln, is she gonna be back?

And we're gonna talk more about hormones because there's so many other hormones. There is so many other hormones. But you were sharing with me something that you started, I hope you don't mind me sharing, something you started doing lately and looking for glimmers and taking a photo of the best part of your day. I think we should do that here.

We should challenge people to do this. I think I'm gonna start doing this. Can you, do you mind sharing a little bit? Yeah, so I, you know, I have an amazing, amazing, amazing husband. And at the end of the day, I started catching myself just like dumping on him. Like he would be like, hey, babe,

like how was your day when we were both, and he has a very stressful job too. And I would, you know, he would get home and I would just dump on him and be like, oh my God, do you believe this happened? And then she said this and this person texted me and then I got this email. And I, I I really he actually

said to me you know I feel like everything you share with me is like really negative and like this is not you and I just don't really know how to like help you like change your mindset because he's actually a very positive person and he I think it was him that he shared a little clip of something that he had seen from a neuropsychologist actually, who said, you know, our brains are hardwired to pick up mostly negative things, right? Because those negative stimulus actually help us to an extent with our survival. And so 80% of our thoughts, and you may not be aware of them, but we have hundreds of thousands of thoughts every day, 80% of our thoughts are negative, and 95% of them are repeating. And so often it's so easy to pick up all of that negativity through your day, because that's all your brain is hardwired to do. And so what she said was, you know, what I would love for you to start doing is start taking a picture or just take a picture of the best part of your day and have that picture as a visual that when you come home

and your partner asks you, hey, how was your day? You can be like, this was the best part of my day and you go back and you kind of talk about, you know, why that was the best part of your day, like, and you focus on that. And so the shift that's happened in my life is that now instead of looking for the negative or the text or the email that I got or whatever it is, I keep on searching for the, is this the best part of my day?

Is this the best part of my day? Like, should I take a picture of that tree? Like, oh my God, that bird, should I take, I don't know, there's probably gonna be a better part of my day. And so now I'm hardwiring my brain to constantly look for those little glimmers that give me that happiness.

And it's changed the dynamic in my house in a very beautiful way. Because legitimately when my husband comes home, I just cannot wait to share with him, like, oh my God, you won't believe what happened today. And then I'll share, you know, like legitimately sometimes it's like a bird or sometimes it's like a conversation that I have with patients, but I like, you know, block out their faces. Or it might be like a lab test that I'm like, I figured out that's how I'm going to see Leac,

and like we figured this out. And it's a moment where we celebrate and we bond in a positive way. And it I do think that, you know, the the mindset component that actually Dr. Paul talks so much about and Dr. Beverly talks so much about is so important in this journey, because even when it comes to weight loss, it is so easy for us to only pick up the things that you're not doing or how you failed or how the scale is not moving or how you didn't drink your water or how whatever it is. Right. And, and sometimes that's actually what I will catch my patients who are in your program coming and be like, well, I didn't do this or I didn't do this or like this.

And I'm like, but let's talk about what you did do and let's celebrate those little victories. And I, you guys, like, for me in three weeks, it's brought me the best vibes in this house. And I really hope that it can for you too. Well, I was just going to be like, you're the best part of my day, but I'm old school. I almost went like this.

I know. I know. Like, will I take a picture of it? Yeah. It's amazing. Amazing. Thank you so much. You know, I know that people will get a lot out of this conversation. Again, our intention is not to overwhelm, it's to enlighten, it's to bring awareness,

it's to let you know there's so much you can do. And sometimes it's the things that we're just so used to doing over and over, we get stuck on. And sometimes it's the things that you are resistant to doing or the change that you are resistant to making, which is the very thing and the very change that you need to make. And it's not always an easy thing. This is why it's always about progress over perfection and really understanding that it's

the little things that you do each day that can make a difference. And I love this shift. Just looking for like, I'm going to do this today. What is the best? Well, I'm already can check it off. I've already had the best part of my day. But it's like oh maybe this is even better and that is better and I can just feel the energy of that making a difference. And so I'm going to challenge all of our members to take a photo of the best part of your day today and maybe if you're not

sharing it with your husband or your friend maybe post it in the check-in video tomorrow or at the end of the day reflections today and I can see um this is something that I'm going to start through. I love you, I adore you, thank you. I love you too. I'm so, I'm so happy for you that you're uh in a sunny beautiful destination because you deserve it all and that you sent us some sunshine this way too because it's only since you got there that we've gotten sunshine so thank you very much. Well it has been raining a lot but when the sun comes out St. Lucia honestly it is it is magic and for anyone who missed it that's where I am I'm at the beautiful harbour club we are we are site checking a potential retreat space bringing our members together I already

sent Dr. Alinka her invite she already got got her bags packed. We'll share some more details if anyone is interested. Have a fantastic day everyone. Take those phones out. Catch the most beautiful part of your day and have a good one. Thank you Dr. Alinka.