The Livy Method Podcast - The 4 Main Reasons Why Your Weight Might Be Slower to Move Part 1 with Dr. Paul Hrkal - Spring 2025

Episode Date: May 27, 2025

In this episode, Gina and Naturopathic Doctor Paul Hrkal unpack what it means to feel stuck on the scale even when you're doing “everything right.” They explore how chronic, low-grade inflammation—triggered by stress, processed foods, disrupted sleep, or food sensitivities—might be silently sabotaging your progress. From feeling puffy or sluggish to navigating the sneaky impact of “healthy” packaged foods, they walk listeners through the subtle signals your body sends when it’s working through internal stress. Dr. Paul also highlights the importance of sticking to the basics before jumping to tests or supplements, and invites a real-talk reflection on alcohol—how it affects your sleep, stress, and fat loss more than you might think. Finally, a reminder to the community: mindfulness isn’t just about food, it’s about every choice you make. A must-listen for anyone needing a mindset reset or wondering what else might be going on behind the scenes.Where to find Dr. Paul:Instagram: @drpaulhrkalwww.paulhrkalnd.com If you are in the Spring 2025 Support Group, you can check out the full video here:www.facebook.com/groups/livymethodspring2025To learn more about The Livy Method, visit livymethod.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.

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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. Today is the ultimate conversation. Why isn't your scale moving? What you can do about it. We've had a lot of conversations up until this point

where week five of the program, we've talked stress, we've talked sleep, we've talked showing up, journaling, doing all the things, a lot of incredible conversations with our guest experts. Dr. Paul Herkel is in the house today. Hello, hi. Good morning, Gina. Let me ask you about this conversation

that we have every single time in the group. I was saying behind the scenes, it never gets old. And someone, we have a new member on our team and we're talking about how long Dr. Paul's been here. It seems like forever. So you know the ins and the outs of the program. You see people who do the program. They come to you when they're struggling.

What do you wanna say about this conversation before we get into it? You see people who do the program, they come to you when they're struggling. What do you wanna say about this conversation before we get into it? Well, firstly, I think it's my favorite conversation because I think we really get to the heart of the matter. And there's a number of people, I would say, that are going through the program. You fall into kind of one of three camps,

which is you have some dramatic weight loss. First sessions, you're all in, you're excited, you lost 20, 30 pounds. And those are the people that are like, they just keep this thing going. And then there's the group of people that are following the program and they feel better and they're losing a little bit of weight and it kind of comes up and down and up and down. But overall, I would say they're trending down. Again, this has been informed by over five years of seeing people that are through the program and understanding what I know from, you know,

15 years of naturopathic medicine. And then there's that third group, and I think this is where this conversation is so important and relevant, is that they're the ones that are showing up, doing all the things, and they're just frustrated that the scale is not budging. So there's like, you know, I kind of call it the

rules of three, I see it a lot in other different types of presentations. But in this case, those are the three groups. And so there's something today out of this conversation for everybody. So just because you've had success today, up to date up to now, don't tune out, we're gonna have a lot of I think details for everybody. But I think it's especially relevant to people that are feeling you know, I think it should be moving quicker.

Right. We talk a lot about what to eat and when how much water to drink. We've talked about supplements, which is interesting, because we get a lot of people saying the scale isn't moving, I'm eating all the things. And then I'll say, are you taking any supplements? They're like, No, I don't think I need them. When in reality, that might be what you need to do. So after you listen to this conversation, you might want to go back and listen to the first conversation we had on

supplements, although next week, we're going to introduce some secondary supplements, and we'll probably talk about some today. But it's not necessarily the supplements, there's lots of things that you can do to address these issues. Today, we're talking about inflammation, food sensitivities, gut dysbiosis, and hormonal health. Which one do you want to start with? I think we should probably start off with this inflammation because they actually, as

we realized over the years, they build on each other. And so they're not all mutually exclusive topics. They actually are really interconnected. So and when we talk about inflammation, Gina, everyone understands that it's associated with, you know, pain and dysfunction. But I think we should have to consider that it is really the process that is occurring in the body. That is the body trying to heal itself or

recover from something. It's reacting to something. Now it's important to also understand that inflammation is not bad. If you hurt yourself, your body creates inflammation to heal yourself, to heal that damage. However, the problem really becomes, and this is what's been really highlighted in almost all the published literature about chronic health issues, including being overweight and obese is that inflammation that is unresolving is the problem. So we want to mount an inflammatory response and then we want the body to resolve it and that resolution is often where people get stuck. So when you take something like ibuprofen or something like that class of medication, you block inflammation, you block pain, but you actually stunt the recovery

process, you stunt the resolution process. So that's a temporary fix, where going after this, and what food are you eating that can be creating inflammation, which we're going to get into. This is why this all dovetailing, right? This is something that is now getting after eliminating one of the root daily influxes of inflammation in your body. So I think a lot of people listening to this in there, they probably are like, I have inflammation. It's important to think just because you have pain, does't mean you have the bona fide type of inflammation you

know there is autoimmune inflammation there is metabolic inflammation which is you know generally when you're overweight and you have type 2 diabetes this is like the the low grade smoldering type of inflammation when you're eating lots of sugar you know historically we can think when you're under stress your body actually becomes inflamed. There's research showing that within a couple minutes, even a couple hours of being, having a stressful event, your gut lining, which is the third thing we're going to be talking about becomes more permeable, Gina, and that creates more inflammation. So your body has this mechanism to try to heal itself.

But then when there's a dysfunction underneath, it doesn't really get into the resolution phase. Okay. And people, there are people who like, I have inflammation for sure. And then other people are like, how do I know if I have inflammation? I mean, carrying excess weight alone can cause inflammation in the body. But what, what, what other signs, what, what, how else would someone know? Yeah. So again, there's different types of inflammation, but let's go through some of the common

and cardinal signs. Number one is that if you have a lot of redness, swelling, and joint pain, that is one indication you have inflammation. If you have any sort of, not necessarily water retention necessarily, but I'm going to say puffiness. And it's kind of like this, if you know what I'm talking about, if you've like lost weight and you've cleaned up your diet, all of a sudden you're like, you know, people are saying

like, you know, you look thinner and you've kind of lost some of that kind of water retention. That's not like my ankles are swollen type of water retention, but it's more like this, this kind of low grade puffiness. So that's one kind of route, you can actually test for inflammation, you know, too. So we can we do a lot in our practice is that people come to me all the time, say, Dr. Paul, for sure, I heard you all the podcast, I'm inflamed. And then we kind of work through that and be like, Okay, do you have joint inflammation? Do you have autoimmune inflammation? For example, Hashimoto's, which is an autoimmune condition of your thyroid, which can make it more

sluggish is a type of inflammation. You don't feel your joints swollen when this happens, but your thyroid, which is important for your weight loss and your metabolic rate becomes sluggish. It's being attacked. It's being, it's under inflammation. So it's not just if I have pain in my joints. That is one sign, but it's only one. It doesn't mean automatically I have inflammation. Okay. So if you have thyroid issues, it doesn't automatically mean that you have inflammation. That's right. That's correct. Yes. So and that's why, you know, it is a catchall term, but it's also a little more nuanced. And that's where my, my rebuttal is like, okay, so let's figure out what type of inflation you have, what is inflamed, what processes are happening, because you can have

environmental allergies. And that's the type of inflammation you could have food allergies. And that's the type of inflammation you could have a chronic H. pylori infection which is a bacteria in your gut and that causes local gut inflammation. So you see what I'm saying is that inflammation is not a diagnosis. It is an identification of a process that is holding you back from being your optimal self. And that's where when we're going to get into talking about food sensitivities, because you can eat foods, and then that can cause inflammation. Yeah, so let's talk about food. I think that's a perfect segue. So I think there's inflammation that happens when you just eat what are called ultra processed foods. So there's lots of research on these foods. Like for example, let's look at something like chicken nuggets, for example, like chicken breast, no, the whole

food, chicken nuggets, more ultra processed. And why because there's all these additional ingredients. And what scientists have found is that when you add in all these preservatives and found is that when you add in all these preservatives and binders and gluten protein and cornstarch and all these other ingredients, they create low amounts but chronic levels of inflammation. Now think of years of eating this way. And you can look at things like granola bars, even quote unquote healthy things can be highly processed. So this is a type of inflammation, Gina, that is related to the type of macro ingredients in it.

Like, is it lots of sugars? Is it high carbs? Is there gluten? Because gluten can contain, cause inflammation independent of celiac disease or even allergies. And so this is kind of like this ultra-processed food inflammation. Then, we're talking about food sensitivities.

Now this is unique to you. So this is what food is your immune system reacting to. And this could be something as really pronounced as celiac, which is an autoimmune type of inflammation to gluten. But most often it's a low grade reaction to food proteins that we consume every day. I run food sensitivity tests. We do elimination retraction diets to figure out what type of sensitivities do you have? Cause Gina,

you have different sensitivities than I do and you might have very little. I might have a lot. These, There's a lot of individuality here. So it's not a one size fits all. So that's why I would never say everyone should avoid gluten, or everybody should avoid eggs, or everyone should avoid dairy products. These are three of the most common food sensitivities, but we need to personalize them. I believe that is the future of medicine, is precision medicine, is really understanding what's it for you rather than what's it for everybody. How often is it the gluten or the dairy? Like from people that you see, how often is it? Cause you know, I hate to tell someone that they got to get rid of their cheese or they

can't have their posses in their breads when they do have it. Their gluten is in a lot of things. How often is it that? Well, you see, you just said it there perfectly. You see the ultra processed food problem is that I would say 50 years ago, 100 years ago, there was really no such thing as all these sensitivities. So we have an epidemic of allergies and intolerances. So our immune system is overreacting. And I think you can just see by the rate of autoimmune conditions. And this is the body reacting to things that should not normally react to. And this is I think, a product of environment. This is

a product of the toxification of our bodies in tiny little amounts. You know, things like I was just doing a presentation about microplastics, looking at all these different little things that will add up into our body that is to do with how our food is processed, how our food is stored. It's not even the actual food. So my point is, is that our bodies are now

very, very sensitive and they're overloaded by a lot of the stuff. And I think that's why they're reacting to a lot of things. So that's just, I'm saying that just to set the background for we are more allergic and sensitive to things now than we did 50 years ago. Okay. So we're going to, yeah, go ahead. Azusa, we're going to get into more things that can cause inflammation and there's different types of inflammation. So I was going to ask you, can someone be dealing with different types of inflammation at the same time? I'm going to assume yes. Almost always that's the case because like if you have autoimmunity, Gina, you for sure have

some digestive issues. You probably have an imbalance, your microbiome, you definitely have some food sensitivities because all these things, Gina not contribute to your overall inflammation state in the literature? It's called The Inflamma zone which is kind of like the the term that describes all these influences creating inflammation So yes, we have inflammation. I feel it. I see it. I can measure it on blood testing yet What is the cause? I think that's the bigger thing is like, you know, what's driving this? yet what is the cause? I think that's the bigger thing is like, what's driving this? So, I keep like, I'm excited to talk about,

we all are like, there's one more thing. I'd even answer your question about why is there so many food sensitivities? Like, I'll just answer that. I think it's because these are the foods that are the most commonly found in ultra processed foods. So our body's immune system, Gina sees them not in like the, the state that is the natural form of dairy or the natural form of eggs.

It's egg, yolk protein and dairy protein and caseins and gluten are in so many different ultra processed foods that our body is just like, hold on here. Like, I think this is not actually healthy for me. In fact, it's a protective mechanism. It's trying to it's trying to look at this like something that's foreign that we shouldn't be actually consuming and so therefore what gets often caught in the crossfire is these big food groups, eggs, dairy and gluten are the top three

that I see a lot. OK, so I just want to take a hot second right here because people are listing they're probably like, oh my goodness I'm never gonna be able to lose weight. So first of all, this is the first of a two-part series And you are already doing so much just by following the program but this is also where you really want to take seriously things like your stress and Your sleep and listen to the conversation about hormones because you take this inflammation, you take these food sensitivities and you add stress to it, then you're not sleeping. And it's just like

one just big hot mess. I was recently away and for the last part of my trip, I went to this place called Baldy Holiday. I don't know if you've heard of it in St. Lucia, and there's no there's no TVs in the room. And yes, there's a bar and you can drink but you're more inclined to go drink some coconut water or some carrot juice. There's yoga and aqua fit and all your treatments are included. And man, I was only there for three days. And I felt like a different person. When I left that resort and got on the plane and had like the little whatever

snack box because it was really the only thing I can have. And then I got home and we ordered food and I had a little bit of this and then I had some chippies the next way. And then I had a little bit of that. Man, it only took a couple of days before I was so puffed up. I was achy. I was tired. Also, you add the stress of my life coming back in and my tummy's upset this week. And so my point to people,

and the reason why I'm sharing this is you know, you can feel it. Because if you are making all these changes with the Libby method and you don't feel fucking amazing. Something is going on. Something is going on. Yeah. It's worth taking a pause because I, I, I, I absolutely understand that some of the things

that I've already mentioned and I will mention is probably overwhelming for people that they're like, Oh my gosh, like, you know, understand that, you know, I'm seeing complex cases. We're talking right now to people that are listening from all three of those camps that I mentioned originally. So if you are, you know, new to the program, or you're seeing results in the program, you know, I always say, before we start hunting for food sensitivities and imbalances in your microbiome, you have to start with the basics. So that means all the things that are taught in the GeneLivy program, like right away,

like let's focus on eating whole foods. Let's focus on eliminating the obvious triggers. Sugar and alcohol are the biggest ones. Let's hydrate. Let's talk a little bit about stress mitigation and reduction. Let's talk about the influence of that on my health. Let's talk a little bit about stress mitigation and reduction. Let's talk about the influence of that on my health. Let's talk about sleep.

If you can cover those kind of five main pillars of health, then most of the time the dust settles and you're feeling way better. And a lot of these symptoms that might be, you know, related to, okay, I'm sensitive to certain foods or I'm inflamed, they actually really substantially improve. Because remember, the body's trying to resolve inflammation. If we just give it the tools, Gina, if we get out of the way, like when you went to this resort, what happened is that you let your body actually have a chance to do its job at cleaning up housekeeping. If you just fuel it and give it a chance to do its job at cleaning up, housekeeping.

If you just fuel it and give it a chance to not be saturated by stress, your body can get back to its equilibrium in homeostasis. So I hear it over and over again. I go to Europe, I'm feeling good, my stress is low, I can eat whatever I want, I feel great. And then I come back here to Canada or the US or your kind of your home. And oh my gosh, my gut is bloated. And it has a lot

to do with the combination of stress, influence on diet and the types of foods and choices that we eat. And that is what's going to culminate in, am I feeling inflamed or not? Am I feeling like sluggish or not? Am I feeling symptomatic? And so this concept, I think is important that we create a foundation and create a baseline. And once you've done that, really done that, like committed to it, then you see what's leftover.

What do I have to target? Okay, then you know what? Now I need to go and address that one issue because I have chronic back pain and that's it's causing me a lot of pain and you know, I need to now like it that address. But before you do all the things I just mentioned, you're feeling achy and stiff and you have hot flashes and you're puffy and your weight's not moving. Do the foundations, a lot of that stuff will just

kind of clean up and then you'll be left with okay, what's my real issues? Now I can go after those. Yeah, and that's what this is about. I mean, 93% of people lose weight within the first four weeks of the program. But you can be eating really well and then all of a sudden start to go into menopause. You can be eating really well and develop a sensitivity.

You can be eating really well and all of a sudden be under stress, right? So this is great information for everyone at any time. I wanna talk to you about wine or alcohol in a sec, but first I wanna bring it back to the inflammation. How exactly is it affecting someone trying to lose weight? Well, the simplest way to understand it and explain it, Gina, is that when your body is trying to repair something

or deal with an external stressor, let's consider it... Let's use a very obvious example, the flu, a viral infection. If your body is fighting a virus or fighting inflammation that is an external cause, which is what a virus or bacterial infection will cause, your body doesn't care about losing weight, doesn't care about, yes, you're not eating, and so that's a different story. My point is that it's worried about getting rid of this thing. And now what if that thing is not a virus? I am consuming it every single day. What if it's an autoimmune process that's with you there every day? So your body is metabolically focused on addressing that inflammation rather than getting efficient

and creating more mitochondrial energy and losing weight. It's about getting out of the body's way so your metabolism can properly function. That's probably the most, I think, productive way to think about it without getting stuck in the weeds of exactly what causes what. Yes, we could talk about that, but this conversation is not that time. Okay. What's your thoughts on alcohol? Yeah. I mean, I don't know if you're hearing this a lot, but I mean, I'm seeing a lot of news stories in, you know, even like big kind of publications talking about how detrimental alcohol is.

I think since COVID, we started hearing a lot of this. And what I'm also seeing in the medical literature is that for the first time, I think ever since I've been looking at it, you know, there's been a real concerted kind of evidence based approach to saying alcohol is actually really unhealthy for you, and especially women, Gina. And that I think has to do with the data that we're seeing on an increased rates of cancer, particularly in women. I just saw a recent paper showing, you know, why is there so many, um, gut issues in women, colon cancer, for example, uh, colitis. And the reason is, is that, um, it seems like alcohol has, and women particularly has to do with things like hormones and,

and generally body fat. Women have a slightly higher body fat than males and slightly different metabolism and a little bit of a smaller body mass in general. So they don't metabolize alcohol exactly the same as men. So my overall thought is this. If you are looking to be as diligent with the LIVI program as possible

and you're looking to remove inflammation and you're really looking to kind of move that scale, my suggestion is you do everything possible, sleep well, talk mindfulness, address stress, follow the diet. I would consider alcohol as one of those stressors. It's a metabolic stressor. Your body has to break it down and it is generally higher in sugar. It's generally going to be inflammatory because your body has to break it down and it is generally higher in sugar. It's generally going to be inflammatory because your body has to deal with that breakdown product of alcohol. So I would look at avoiding it. Now, if you are hit your maintenance weight, you know, you know, I am the first person to say I really love having a glass of wine as a social thing, as a culinary, you know, type of food pairing

thing. I love that. However, I realize that if I have a health goal, it's probably not serving me to continue to consume it. So I look at it like that. I look at it as like, you know, people that don't have sleep issues probably could watch a show before bed. If you have sleep problems, I'd say you cut screens off before you go to bed. So you have to identify what is your issue. If you have fatty liver, I would 100% avoid alcohol. If you have any sort of neurological or nerve issues that you're dealing with brain fog, you're dealing with, you know, any sort of brain, you want to improve your brain and

you want to protect it. Alcohol is definitely neuro problematic. It's neurotoxic. So if there's specific types of areas, I would really be ultra cautious with it. But if you, you know, it is, it is a poison, but if you do it in an appropriate level, I think that there's a place for it to do it safely. Yeah, because you are literally poisoning your brain, but my goodness, I love a good glass of wine or a nice old fashioned.

Oh, I'm gonna say that. Yeah, and that's part of living your life too, right? There are people in blue zones who live, are super healthy, live really long, and they enjoy a glass of wine every day, but they are also more active. They are not under the same kind of stress. They are not eating processed

foods. Like there's, there's, you know what I mean? There's, there's variables to that. So you have to consider, like for me, I just, I can't, I turn 52, I cannot drink wine anymore. As much as I love it, it just rips my tummy apart. I just, it takes me a week to recover from the smallest glass. I can get away with an old fashion every now and then for whatever reason. But it's not the alcohol. I mean, I know that it is the alcohol, but it messes with my sleep. That's another one. Yeah, it messes with my sleep. So like, if you have any, I forgot to say that, like if you have any sleep issues, if you have any mood issues, like anxiety or depression, like I would, those are, I would add that to the list of like I would alcohol would be a hard no, uh, in those situations. And so I think over the years

and definitely recently that list of, you know, I would really avoid alcohol kind of continues to grow as we understand things better. So let me ask you, Gina, let's flip the table here a little bit. You know, you've publicly said you're not drinking much anymore. What's your experience been with going from someone that, you know, really has enjoyed that to now you're not drinking much? What are what are what have the implications have been? How's that been for you? It was very hard in the beginning, especially going whenever I was out and being social, no one put pressure on me. No one's like, why aren't you drinking? What are you not drinking? I'm like, just, I thought for me, it's just like, it's so nice to have a glass of wine at dinner.

It's so nice to have a drink wherever you are at. But I think after I got a couple social situations under my belt, it got easier. I really focused on, I was miserable about it in the moment, probably for, for months, I said, I just, I want a glass of wine so bad. And I was kind of angry and miserable about it. But then what I would do is I would switch to how did I want to feel the next day? And then every time I was mad or about not being able to drink the next day, I really focused on how, Oh my goodness. Thank God. Imagine if I would have drank, I would have just felt like shit balls today. And then just, I really started to feel, well, I didn't notice a big difference

until about week six, week six, week nine. That's where I was like, Ooh, okay. Like I felt a lot leaner. I felt a lot less puffy. I started like feeling sleeping better, all of that, but it took a while, but I was pretty fucking miserable about it. And now because I experienced how good that felt, it took a while, but I was pretty fucking miserable about about it. And now because I experienced how good that felt, I still will have like I

make the rules. It's not like I can't drink. But I I'm more thoughtful about when I'm choosing to have a drink. Like I put a lot of thought into that. I'm just like, do I actually why do I want this? Am I stressed out? Yeah, that's probably not the time to drink. Or sometimes it is. Like the other day, you know, it was the kids, you know, death anniversary yesterday, man, I wanted to drink a whole bottle of wine starting at like nine o'clock in the morning. And then I said,

You know what, later on, if you want to drink, Gina, like have that or girlfriend, like, have a drink. And then it came to the evening. And I was like, No, I don don't wanna then feel like shit the next day. So it hasn't been easy. It's a constant struggle. Is it worth it? Absolutely. And it also makes when you choose to have a drink

more worth it as well. Because it's a conscious choice and I understand why I'm having that drink. I think you said so many incredibly powerful things that absolutely are in line with what my clinical experience is. So Nick, what you said so many incredibly powerful things that absolutely are in line with what my clinical experience is. So Nick, what you said, number one, is that you are being more mindful about it. Now the biggest thing, we're asking people to eat mindfully.

Now we should also ask them to drink mindfully too, right? Does that make sense? And when you actually think about it, you mentioned the blue zones. Yes, they have a glass of wine and that's's been studied in the mind diet, which is was studied by a rushed university saying a glass of wine, you know, a couple times a week is been okay, and actually is neuroprotective. However, are they drinking it because they've had a hard day at work? No, they're drinking it because it's part of their like, social fabric, they're having with with dinner. And it's like as if you were to have, you know, a mineral sparkling water with dinner.

So you are absolutely right, we don't do alcohol mindfully generally in this current culture. We do it as a self medication. So if you're doing it for that reason, that's good enough reason for you to cut it. That's number one. Number two, I think you hit it out of the park with like the immediate effects of not drinking are not always felt right away You have to see it through to that six to nine week mark Which is basically if you think about it two to three months So that's when the neurochemistry the effect of alcohol those those chemicals that regulate mood and energy and focus, they start actually rebalancing because they've been so used to getting constantly stimulated by alcohol.

That where I'm talking about dopamine. I'm talking about GABA, which is our calming neurotransmitter. Those receptors can be altered. Now this can happen even if you're not addicted to alcohol. If you're used to just having a bottle of wine on the weekend, especially if you're in from a female category, that I think can have a real detrimental effect. So I think you just hit two really important points there of, you know, on the gym diet, you can have whatever you want. It's just going to slow you down if you have certain things. Yeah, because if you can drink wine just fine and lose weight, have Adder. I love that for you.

Yeah, you're lucky. Count yourself blessed on that front. But at some point, you may end up in my office saying, okay, I wanna lose the last 10 pounds, why can't I? And I'm gonna say, okay, let's go through all the things and you're gonna say, I did all that, did all that. No, I can't give him my alcohol. Sorry, can't do it, can't do it.

And if you say, I can't do it, then that's an area that I usually kind of highlight and circle and saying, that's probably the area you need to work on. And it's not like you can never have it again, because it's all about helping the body get as healthy as possible. And that's why, you know, breads and pastas

don't cause you to gain weight, right? Alcohol not necessarily drinking itself causing you to gain weight, it's the effect on the body that it has. And minimizing or taking those things out can absolutely help you get a handle on losing weight, feeling your best, so at least your body has a fighting chance when you add those foods back in. But also, this is about reconnecting with foods. We talk about this, we use food for so many things, right? Survival, for love, to celebrate, to

console, whatever. So why are you eating that food that then makes you feel like shit physically and mentally after? Why are you then drinking that drink that then makes you feel like shit physically and mentally? It's probably your association or you're using it as a coping. So I never really thought about that. Never really thought about taking a look at being mindful about what we're drinking. Well, we're asking about water. We're asking about, you know, sugary beverages. You know, I think that we can absolutely think about that from an alcohol perspective that, you know, I'll just conclude in saying on this topic, there is a degree of thought that I want to have my cake and eat it too, where it's like, oh, the great part about this diet is I can

eat whatever I want. Gina said so. I hear it all the time, Gina. I'm just kind of parroting back what people tell me. Well, Gina has a glass of wine and this no longer is the case because you've changed. But in the past they were like, I don't want to give that up and and so by the way that people just want to follow Gina and they just want to do everything you do, but

anyways, the the point is is that you May have to really consider some of the things that you're unwilling to change because they're just so important to you that they may be the area that you actually have to do your work on. Now maybe this is a temporary thing. Like if you're trying to lose weight, you're trying to get to that goal. You can't act as if you were in maintenance mode as if you're still trying to when you're still trying to lose weight. And that's the key thing.

Like if you have a sleep problem, you can't be scrolling on your phone before bed. That doesn't mean you can never do that. But maybe once your sleep is found as balance and equilibrium, you can have some screens before bed. It's it's about having finding that current need, what do you currently need to do right now to get to your goal? And then you can get into the everything in moderation mode. You can't have everything in moderation and then also expect phenomenal results.

Because people have been taught that with diets, right? Ultimately you're starving and depriving yourself but you can have your cake and eat it too, or your muffin, get the low carb muffin and the low this, the low that and the whatever. That just keeps you stuck. And that's why people think you have to diet forever. Like this is a concentrated period of time

to focus on your body physically and your mind and then make change that's gonna support the change that you want to see. And so this is like, this is why you signed up, right? I know everyone signed up because they thought they were just gonna get a food plan and I was gonna tell them they'll eat chicken salad every Tuesday, but that's not the case.

Okay. Um, and again, you're going to have to listen to this two part series cause Dr. Paul's going to hit us up with tomorrow. What do we do about this? We are highlighting the conversation right now. So we've talked about inflammation. We've talked about food sensitivities. You can test inflammation. You can test food sensitivities. What's the difference between food sensitivities and gut can test inflammation, you can test food sensitivities. What's the difference between food sensitivities and gut dysbiosis? Yeah, so food sensitivities are reactions, just like as if you're reacting to pollen that you're consuming or breathing in. It's reactions to a protein found in food.

Do allergies you think affect people trying to lose weight? Yeah, they can. For sure. Yeah, they're Yeah, so let me break it down here one further. Food sensitivities, food intolerances, and food allergies are sometimes all wrapped into one, but they're actually three different things. So they're ultimately an immune reaction to something that you're consuming. An allergy is a type of immune system that's immediate.

It's like you're like, I have hives, my tongue's swelling up Like you can have a weak allergy, but usually it's like, you know, right away. So these are the things that your allergist will do like the skin prick on. So they'll like actually do the little like wheels. That's an immune reaction. And then there's the food sensitivities, which are a slower immune reaction. They're modulated through something called an IgG immune system. And that's a blood test. That is not something that you do a skin prick for. I don't know, that's not accurate. And that is a low grade, slow onset inflammation,

but also can take days and even weeks to resolve. So this is a lot harder to pick up. And this is what most people have. And then there's that third category, which isn't a typical allergy at all. It's an intolerance. So this is like a lactose intolerance, meaning you can't break down that food.

And I would put into that category, things like you've heard of the FODMAPS food, like FODMAPS, these are the things that are fermented by your guts that create gas and loading. If anybody has IBS, maybe you've heard about this, but you avoid this group of foods and it's a huge list. Now, you know, on there are things like onions and garlic and cabbage and all these foods

that can cause gas and bloating. That is not an immune reaction, but you could eat something and feel like garbage. So there is three different categories for us to understand here. Okay, what about like allergies real quick to like your cat allergies to like grass, like the outside allergies? Would that be considered the environmental that you talked about earlier?

It's environmental. Yeah. All that's environmental. And in my experience, that has less of an impact on weight, but I do think it still contributes to your overall inflammatory load. Like your body still has to process it, deal with it. Remember, every piece of inflammation that your body creates is produced by the liver and your immune cells. So your liver is constantly producing proteins, which are part of your immune response. So if your liver

is sluggish and you are overwhelmed by lots of inflammation, whether it's allergies and environmental food, and then you, then you have some gut issues, all that has to be processed by the liver. And so that's why when, you know, naturopaths will say, well, you know, you've got to do a liver detox. They're not totally wrong. It's, it's not done by doing a laxative, which is what you find on the shelf. No. It is done by strategically saying, okay, let's help the liver do its job better by avoiding the things that are going to make it sluggish and then maybe being strategic by giving it the nutrients. And this is where supplements come in, Gina,

the nutrients for it to properly do its job. What is that? B vitamins, magnesium, all the core things we talk about. Look, I love that. I don't know if I actually made that connection on this podcast before, but it's like literally full circle is that it really sets the stage for your body's metabolism to do it a little bit better

than when you are not taking supplements. Well, I mean, that's the takeaway, right? These conversations are meant to help you understand it so much more than just what you're eating and when, although that is really important, but not in the ways that you actually think. It's not meant to overwhelm you, it's meant to inform you. We're gonna continue this conversation on Thursday.

You're gonna be back. So the last two topics that we have the, the gut dysbiosis and the hormonal health. So gut dysbiosis, would that be IBS, Crohn's, SIBU, SIBO? Like, is that what we're talking about there? Yeah. So those are conditions that have aspects of an imbalance in your microbiome. And that's what dysbiosis means. Like we've all heard of probiotics,

right? So what probiotics do is that they're live bacteria taken in the form of a capsule and they temporarily modify your gut. Well, why would we need to modify our gut? Because it's in balance and you want to kind of bring it back into balance, right? If you eat a bad piece of sushi and you get food poisoning, that dramatically changes the balance of your gut temporarily. And usually we just kind of feel off for a couple days. And then it recalibrates and rebalances itself. But there are certain situations like the conditions you mentioned where the body's own ability to rebalance itself, its gut microbiome has been impaired or limited in some way. And that now creates a more permanent imbalance in your microbiome and that can cause a whole host of issues. So it absolutely is connected to inflammation. It's connected to food sensitivities. It's

connected to leaky gut, which by the way is now a really known medical literature thing. Years ago, people, you know, doctors laugh like leaky gut, ha ha ha. No, there's like a ton of lead research on intestinal hyperpermeability. And then finally, the thing that regulates that is your gut bacteria. We have trillions of bacteria in our gut, way more than we have cells in our body. So we have a symbiotic relationship with these bugs. They produce neurotransmitters, they produce fuel for not just the gut, but for our nerve cells, our muscle cells, and there's products from the gut in all parts of our body. So it's a real, real important aspect that we've already kind of been talking about if you talk about prebiotics and probiotics,

but now we're just kind of naming it and saying, some people, if they have chronic gut issues, if chronic inflammation, they may have dysbiosis. Okay, I wanna build on that. First of all, so many things have changed in the years that you and I started talking. We were like, we came in hot during like the pseudo science prime,

where, you know, like that's insulin resistance. That's not a thing and this isn't a thing and that's a thing and science is science until science changes. And of course we science a lot around here. We always tend to be a little bit ahead of the science. That's what happens when you're just in tune and what makes sense with what's going on the body. But anyway, I

digress. I want to talk more on gut dysbiosis tomorrow. I'm going to pick pick it up there. Also the topic of hormones. But before I go, the hormone conversation, how is it different than the menopause conversation? Because people think hormones, it's just a conversation for women. And it doesn't include everybody. So how is that conversation different? I mean, it's gonna be the same, but different tomorrow. What can we expect from that hormone conversation tomorrow?

I would say probably out of all the conversations we're gonna have in terms of these kind of four topics you just brought up as obstacles to weight loss, I would say hormonal imbalance is probably the one that most people resonate with because they are feeling some of the hormonal changes. So it absolutely is compatible and builds on the conversation around menopause that Dr. Olenkas had already or will have in the future. And I think what we are going

to talk about is the changes that happen to weight because of menopause, which I know you've already mentioned. So that is specifically estrogen progesterone and even testosterone in both men and women. Often guys get the short end of the stick. But I know there's a lot of guys listening. testosterone is a really important aspect of lean muscle mass, you know, for both men and women. It's not just a libido thing it's a it's a it's a cognitive thing it's a mood thing and it really does influence your lean muscle mass so

that those three hormones are the ones that are going to overlap with dr olinca's conversation but we are also going to mention the adrenal system which i think is one of the most overlooked hormonally relevant systems. And that influences everything. And ultimately can be summarized as your stress resilience system. So if you are listening to this and you've had chronic stress in your life or you feel overwhelmed, you feel exhausted

or you feel burned out, your adrenal system has been working over time. And that can means it can be either high or low. And then I've already mentioned thyroid genus. So I think your thyroid is absolutely a key aspect, but we often don't talk about it that much because it's generally fairly well evaluated by providers.

And so they can at least identify, is it low or high and then can be corrected. And so that's why, you know, it's important that we include it in the conversation. And I will when we talk about it Thursday. Okay. Yeah. And we're going to talk about what you can do to address your inflammation and food sensitivities and gut issues and hormonal health as well on Thursday. It's a big, robust conversation. I love how you break it down for us. Okay. I mean, those are great final words of wisdom. But before we go, what do you want to leave our members with today? I hope today has got people interested. I hope that everybody tuned in at whatever their walk is in through the program. I

think it's this is my favorite conversation because it comes at a time in the program where people are either off and running and they're seeing some results, but I think especially relevant is the people that are frustrated. And, you know, one of my passions, and this is a passion honestly, that's been kind of like, that's started out of just working with people in the in the Libby program is every time a new patient comes in, I'm excited to kind of unpack and unwrap the underlying things that are that are limiting this person. And it's, there is something that everyone has to deal with that is holding them back. And I really hope that people walk away from this conversation with saying, okay, you know what? Now I'm motivated to look at that rather than just saying, oh, forget about it. I'm going on a Zempik or, or again, that's a whole nother conversation. We'll talk about that, but there is definitely things that we can look at that are going

to help you get to where you want to go. And hopefully we started that conversation today. Yeah. Cause the reality is that even if you're taking some of those weight loss medications, it's not gonna address the things that you need to address, the things that you aren't doing that you need to do. Brilliant conversation today.

Thank you so much everyone who joined us live. I know you got some good tidbits and takeaways. We will get into the what to do about it. But first we're having that informative conversation. Then we'll get into the what to do. So join us Thursday. Of course you can't join us live. We'll always repost the segment in the guides

also in the app and the guest expert. Okay, my brain is done. The guest expert section of the app. There you go. You can please follow Dr. Paul over on Instagram at Dr. Paul Herkel, H-R-K-A-L. You can also reach out to him or his team at paulherkelnd.com.

Oh man, I still gotta ask you about protein and working out. Oh, we'll talk solutions tomorrow. We have some more, we have some more time. All right, amazing call, Regina. Thanks everybody. Thank you. Music