The Sugar Addiction Lie | Christine Trimpe

Christine Trimpe was morbidly obese, pre-diabetic, and couldn't walk a half-mile mountain trail. Ten years later, she's lost over 100 pounds, reversed fatty liver disease and sleep apnea, and coaches thousands of women through metabolic healing - all by quitting sugar.

In this episode, Christine shares her turning point moment on a Rocky Mountain trail, how discovering Dr. Jason Fung's work changed everything, why "everything in moderation" is the most dangerous dietary advice, and the surprising role that joy plays in metabolic recovery.

We also discuss:
- How sugar is a major hormone disruptor and the root cause of fatty liver disease
- Why sugar addiction has physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions
- The circadian rhythm hacks (morning sunlight, blue light blockers, early eating windows) that transformed her sleep
- Why keto gets a bad rap and what it actually looks like in practice
- The "everything in moderation" myth and why it leads to relapse
- Her take on GLP-1 agonists (Ozempic) for weight loss
- Real coaching success stories: 100+ pound weight loss, 5K runs, and life transformations
- What she'd do differently if she could restart her journey today
- Why midlife metabolism isn't doomed - she reached her healthy weight right before her 50th birthday

Website: ChristineTrimpe.com
Book: "Sugar Freed: Stop Losing the Weight Loss Battle, Start Gaining the Victory" - Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, independent bookstores, and your public library
Free Chapter: Available at ChristineTrimpe.com (top of homepage)

Mentioned in this episode:
- Dr. Jason Fung - "The Hunger Code" (new book)

Host: Dr. Robert Lufkin
Subscribe for new episodes every Tuesday.

#MetabolicHealth #SugarAddiction #WeightLoss #Keto #JasonFung #SugarFreed #ChristineTrimpe #Longevity #HealthLongevitySecrets

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Transcript

A Mountain Wake-Up Call

SPEAKER_00 0:01

No, we can't edit out if necessary. Hey, Christine, welcome to the program.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hey Rav, thank you so much for inviting me. I'm overjoyed to be here today.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

I I've I've followed your work for years on social media and everything. I love what you do, and I can't can't wait to you know introduce you to our podcast audience and and talk about everything you've done. Also, we're going to talk about your your your new book, Sugar Freed, Stop Losing the Weight Loss Battle, Start Gaining the Victory, which is out, it's available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, your independent bookstores, or your public library as needed. So uh maybe we should start off. Just tell us a little bit about your your your background, your journey, you, and how you how you came to this space.

SPEAKER_01 0:55

Well, thank you so much. Uh let me start like 10 years ago. I was on an anniversary trip with my husband in the Rocky Mountains at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado. Have you ever been there?

SPEAKER_00 1:08

I used to go every summer when I was a kid growing up. I love it there. Yeah.

Diagnoses And The First Interventions

SPEAKER_01 1:12

I love mountains. Now I live in Michigan, not anywhere near mountains. So when I have the opportunity to go to the mountains, I take it. And I was born in the mountains, so I love the mountains. I love to climb mountains. I love to be in the mountains. And so my husband had this plan to climb up to Nymph Lake at the Bear Lake stop. And I looked at the trail marker and it said a half a mile, or and I thought, I can do it. I just walked a mile around Bear Lake, right? Which is pretty flat. And I thought, I can do that, right? Well, so we started up that trail and I got like halfway up that trail and I could not go another step. I was gasping for air, my knees were aching, and I just had this sense uh over me that I can't do this. Like I cannot do this. I was so exhausted. I should have been so excited, but instead I was exasperated. And I told my husband, I said, I just have to sit down. I can't do this. And I said, Go on without me. And he's like, Are you sure? And I'm like, yes, absolutely. Because really, Rob, I needed a moment by myself at that time. So I sat on a tree stump and I just I had dark sunglasses on, thank goodness. Because I just remember the tears welling in my eyes and thinking, What am I doing with my life? What am I doing? Like the reason I couldn't climb was because I was morbidly obese, more than 100 pounds overweight, chronic health issues were piling up. I was already pre-diabetic. I was soon to be diagnosed with fatty liver disease and sleep apnea, and my knees hurt, I was chronically exhausted. Every day when I woke up, I just wanted to crawl right back into bed. Um, so I had that moment on that side of that path where I call that my turning point moment because something shifted in my heart that day. And I knew when I got home from Colorado back to Michigan that I had to do something to take back control of my life. And that was 10 years ago, September 2015. And uh I did come back. And for the first time in my life, I took action that I'd never taken before. I scheduled a sleep study, which I had been putting off for probably at least 10 years. And my poor husband, he's a saint. His name's also Rob. So when I say Rob, then you'll know who I'm talking about. And um, so Rob encouraged me to go. He said, Your snoring has multiplied in the Colorado altitude. And I was like not surprised by that. So that was one of the reasons I did that first medical intervention. And let me tell you, I did not want to see pet machine, but that medical intervention was that first positive step that I needed to start getting better sleep, to feel more refreshed, and then to begin on this journey step by step. I see God's hand all over my journey, step by step. It wasn't all in one day, you're gonna do this on day one, and you're never gonna like eat sugar again on that day I was on the mountain. It was a slow progression to get to that point, but that was my turning point moment. That was my moment of I can't continue to do this. Like I needed a no plan B, uh, or I was not gonna have a no plan B any longer, and came home and really started doing something about that. And and now, fast forward 10 years, here I am talking to you about living the sugar-free lifestyle and uh how I'm just so passionate about helping women have the same story that I've had.

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Yeah, that that's a great journey. So you you got the motivation in the Rocky Mountains, and then you had the initial sleep study that sort of began you on the interventions. And yes, I mean you you you talk about um going from exhausted to energized, which is an interesting choice of words because that that speaks to metabolism and things that are going on. So, so like what was the exact moment your biology flipped that you know you realized you weren't going back to the old metabolic you when things actually started to change?

Discovering Fatty Liver And Sugar’s Role

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Well, I didn't even know what I was doing exactly, Rob, but uh when I uh about four weeks after I got home from that trip to Colorado, I had also some painful ovarian cysts. So my uh obstetrician, or I'm sorry, my gynecologist ordered an ultrasound and discovered yes, I did have some ovaries um cyst, and then but I also had fatty liver disease and I didn't expect that. And so I had really no idea about it. And she kind of poo-pooed it because she was my gynecologist, she was more worried about the ovarian cyst. So I did my own research and I just went down a bunch of rabbit holes. Like, why is my liver full of fat? And the things I learned like sugar is a major hormone disruptor. My liver's full of fat because of my diet. And it took me almost three months to get to the point where I'm like, okay, I'm gonna do it. I know I need to do it, I need to quit sugar. And so March 10th, 2016, that's the day I woke up and I said, that's it. I am starting my quitting sugar journey. I posted on Facebook a meme about coffee and said, I'm quitting coffee, cold turkey, because I used to drink a little bit of coffee with a whole lot of flavored creamer. Now, if you at that time I did not know that I was on a journey to improve my metabolic health, even though all the years that I was in diet programs, like the hospital program that I did one time, that I drank nothing but liquid protein shakes for 10 months, they said I had metabolic syndrome, but they didn't really explain it and I did not have the curiosity to really explore it on my own. So on that March 10th date, I quit the sugar. And then step by step, I would say within like four weeks, I stacked what I quit for sugar. Like, so I quit the coffee creamer and then I swore off candy in the office because I worked in an office full of women. We there was candy bowls everywhere, and then I swore off the pastries and cakes in the kitchen. I swore off any kind of junk food uh because it just like did the momentum just kept building. And I would say within three or four weeks, I finally realized I was no longer craving sugar. And I thought that was the weirdest thing because I never would have called myself a sugar addict at that time. But looking back, I could see that's exactly what happened and how that momentum kept going and how I was easily able to say no to that the foods high in sugar that were harming my metabolism. So that was like my step-by-step approach.

SPEAKER_00 7:46

Yeah, and before we get into the sugar, one thing I wanted to highlight about the, you know, uh the ovarian disease and then the fatty liver. And many people, I mean, myself included, until not that long ago, I used to think of these as separate diseases. You know, you you know, you have one problem with an ovaries and then another problem with your liver, and then maybe another problem with your joints with gout, or you know, another problem with your blood pressure. But these are all like separate things when in actuality, you know, as you discovered, they're really they're really it's one disease with many symptoms, and the disease is metabolic, metabolic dysfunction. So I mean, so and and then you lost uh a hundred pounds, you reversed decades of metabolic dysfunction, and most people hear that and they assume it's like it's like magic or you know, or mystery. What what's the one belief about weight loss that absolutely has to die before real healing can begin?

Quitting Sugar And Early Wins

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Oof. Well, let me fast forward from that March 10th date until then I did the quitting sugars thing, but Rob, I didn't know at the time that the bread I was still eating and the pasta I was still eating and the potatoes I was still eating, I did not know that those were my preferred sugars, right? Um, so my weight loss was really slow. I wasn't eating the sweet stuff, and I was very discouraged by that. So I had a conversation with a friend and she said, Hey, have you ever heard she's very much into hormones? She was always talking about hormones, and I never paid attention because I really didn't think that was me. Um, but now I know better. And she said, Hey, have you ever heard of this doctor, Jason Fung? He's in Toronto, he talks about fasting. Maybe you want to look him up. And I was like, hmm. And that was January 13th, 2017, which leads me to answer your question on what needs to die a painful death that healed me and that also helps so many women that I have the privilege to coach. Is I watched, I binged watched Dr. Fung videos on Diet Doctor that night until like way past my bedtime. And the one video that really struck me, um, he looked in the camera and he said, This is not your fault. And I was like, What? What do you mean this is not your fault? Like I have been told every time I go to the doctor, you need to lose some weight. Like, really, doctor, tell me something I don't know. Like, this is why I don't want to come and talk to you because you tell me the same thing over and over again. And I'm trying, I really, really am trying. So hearing him say that just like it just like poked my heart and just an explosion took place of hope. Like, oh my goodness, what do you mean this is not my fault? Like, and he went on to explain that I'd been given bad advice for so many years for someone like me who has metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance and prediabetes, and eventually I was gonna have type two diabetes. And that just gave me the hope. So the slow thing that has to die is the um just the belief that we have to do it one way or the highway. You know, here's the dietary standards, you need to find, you need to follow these, you need to eat less, move more, you need to count your calories. Oh, and then this is the one that always tripped me up, Rob. Everything in moderation, everything in moderation led me to relapse time and time and time again. So when I was hearing Dr. Fung say that this is not your fault, and I accepted that. Um, I do believe that even though it's not entirely my fault, it was my responsibility to start doing something to fix this situation, but all of the I was able to put behind me all those 30 years of dietary advice that never worked for me. So that's the slow death that has to happen, I think, to help women like help women and men like me who have this metabolic syndrome, metabolic dysfunction.

SPEAKER_00 11:49

Yeah, I mean, I love that quote, uh everything in moderation, and and you'll have moderately good health or moderately bad health, you know. Yeah, that's true. And and Jason Fung, uh, you just a shout out to he is such a force in this space, such a uh uh brilliant man. Um and actually he he has a new book coming out in January, um about about the time this podcast will drop. Uh it's called Interestingly, the Hunger Code. So it it you know it follows his obesity code and cancer code and uh really highly recommend it for everyone. So it's it's coming. So uh so sugar sugar addiction. Um what like what was the shift for you? Because we all face challenges with with sugar addiction. It's very real, it's a real thing, it's biochemically very similar to other addictions, you know. Even the you know, some of the drugs they use for low dose naltrexone for you know for opiate addiction is being applied in some cases with junk food addiction. And you get similar results and all. So why is why is quitting sugar so difficult, do you think? Or why is it why is it harder than people think?

Killing The “Moderation” Myth

SPEAKER_01 13:09

Oh, because you've got so many components of it, you've got the the physiology of it, you so the physical substance addiction that you have to it, and then emotionally you're addicted to it, or you're like, especially women, uh, we're coping with food, we're comforting ourselves with food, we're soothing with sugar, right? And then for me and the women that I coach, I coach women of faith, uh, we have we have this struggle with, I call it our spiritual stronghold. And these behaviors that we have, we're turning to substances instead of turning to our faith. And so we're trapped in this cycle, it's really hard to break free of. We carry a lot of shame. So we've got the the physical, the emotional, the spiritual all combined in it's just it can feel like such a heavy weight and so hard to break free from that addiction. But uh Jason Fong is definitely onto something with his new book, The Hunger Code, because once you get that hunger, uh you can treat the hunger and get it under control and not have to be hungry and hangry 24-7 hours, 24-7 hours a day, and that's where the freedom starts to take shape and you can really break free. And oh, it's just such a beautiful thing. So this can be overcome. Sugar addiction can be, you can live in recovery, you can live with food serenity, and you can heal your body metabolically, and it's just it can be done. It's hard work, yes, it was really hard work for me. It's hard work for the women I coach, but the freedom on the other side is worth every every single sacrifice and effort.

SPEAKER_00 14:48

So, so for you with with your sugar addiction, what was what was the the shift for you? The was it biochemical, psychological, or spiritual moment that that finally broke the sugar addiction for you?

SPEAKER_01 15:04

I think the thing that was most evident to me was the biological. After I saw those Dr. Fung videos, that was the last day I ate the bread, potato, and pasta because that was like the last missing piece of my journey that I needed. And I did a two-week challenge that Diet Doctor puts out, and I picked like four recipes that I repeated for two weeks. And just like I remember sitting at the dining room table and my husband Rob said, What is what's wrong with you? And I'm like, I don't know. I just feel this amazing energy. I feel like I can't stop. I feel like my brain fog has completely lifted. I have so much clarity. So it felt very physical to me. Uh, but then as I had to process, like that was kind of like an aha moment for my um physiology. But as I processed the emotions of everything that I had done for though all those decades of comforting and soothing with food and you know, being stuck in this sugar addiction, not even knowing, I wouldn't would not have called it an addiction at the time. Um, and then just surrendering this as a woman of faith to the proper way to steward my body. So it was the the physical first, and then the spiritual and emotional came along behind it. But um wrap them all up three, all three together were super important in my healing journey.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah, yeah. If if if someone listening right now is or or one of your one of your many patients that you coach is is trapped in the in the sugar, binge, guilt, shame, loop, what's the first domino to push to break that with them, do you think?

SPEAKER_01 16:45

Yeah, we've got yeah, we have to get the diet cleaned up first. And we, you know, I can't even imagine. I I I help women with some really, really difficult stories. Like it's it's heartbreaking to hear some of the traumatic things that these women have been through and how they have all these years turned to food and it turned into an addiction because of the psychoactive substance that they're eating. So just getting them to get the dietary changes right because that's something practical that you can grocery shop, you can meal plan, you can actually experience your cravings being crushed. And when you're choosing the proper food, I promise you, you're not gonna starve. I promise you, you're not gonna feel deprived. I promise you're gonna eat whole foods that I say whole foods from God's good smorgasboard. I mean it's there for us. So let's take advantage of it. And when we get that right, then we can start working on all the other aspects of it, the emotional eating, the coping, the soothing. And then why what have we been doing all these years that we have not been stewarding our health well?

SPEAKER_00 17:54

I I love that you use uh circadian rhythm. You use the light or the circadian alignment and morning sunlight to reset your biology. So, so what's the simplest circadian hack that gives the biggest ROI in 72 hours if somebody wants to pay attention to that aspect of their of their life right now?

Why Sugar Addiction Runs Deep

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Yeah, if you've been following me on social media lately, you'll see I've been talking about this a lot. Um, ladies who are in post-menopause like me, you know, the sleep was terrible. I live in chronic stress. I've had a really stressful seven years, and particularly this year has been super stressful. I realized that I was living in HPA access burnout, and maybe you can explain that more from a medical um perspective. But I was I was burned out. I had my hormones checked, I had my blood work checked. Sure enough, I knew the results were gonna be that my my hormones were like completely stressed out again. But the simple things that I started doing was uh getting outside, even here in Michigan when it's 12 degrees this morning, I was outside at first daylight for 12 minutes. And another thing I did is I bought myself some blue light blackers for the evening. So if I am watching television or reading on my Kindle, I have that blue light is being blocked. And another thing I did is which was kind of unusual for me, is I moved my eating window up to earlier in the day. So I used to eat my meals at like I would get hungry first around 11:30, and then I would have my second meal of the day around 5:30. Well, now I do more like a nine o'clock and a two o'clock. And so I'm done eating by 2, 2:30. And I I'm sleeping so much better, Rob. I I don't have long nighttime awakenings anymore. And I'm getting, I'm really working hard on getting better deep sleep. Uh, but my sleep is improving, and so I'm really I love this circadian fasting rhythm.

SPEAKER_00 19:52

Yeah, yeah. I mean that that that whole morning sunlight hack, I've started doing that where I literally I get out. For an hour in the morning and walk when the sun rises and get the sunlight, uh, that first morning light. And we don't realize that you know, so much of our light in interior light is from LEDs, which is a different wavelength than we used to get from incandescent light, you know. And some people are even calling LED light or the usual indoor light junk light, you know, from fluorescence and LEDs and you know, uh so and so the light the the blue light blockers, that's a great idea too for the evening.

SPEAKER_01 20:34

Um and I've swapped out my light bulbs too.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

Oh, you did? Uh-huh. Yeah. To incandescence.

SPEAKER_01 20:41

Yes, yep, yeah. So whatever when you're not sleeping well, whatever hack you can implement, I've stacked a ton of new habits to uh to get better sleep for sure.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

Yeah, yeah. And and most people try and fix their metabolism with willpower, but you've you fixed yours with with energy in a lot of ways. You talk about that. So what's what's an what are some energy mistakes people are making with chronic fatigue or other problems? What what how do they apply that to their lives?

SPEAKER_01 21:16

Yeah, so so many of the women that come to me that are still eating a standard American diet and wondering why they're chronically exhausted all the time. I get the opportunity to share with them how sugar a diet high in sugar and junky carbohydrates are robbing their energy. And, you know, explain to them and present like a situation to them, like, well, what did you eat for lunch? And like, oh, I went to lunch with my friends and I had a bowl of pasta and um garlic bread. And then I'm like, well, let's look at what that does to your blood sugar and what happens when your blood sugar is crashing and you want to take that nap at two o'clock in the afternoon. And when you just sit down and explain it to them like that, they're like, oh, yeah, like I feel like that all the time after lunch at work, you know. And I'm like, well, that's exactly why. And I'm like, I didn't know that for decades either. You know, I thought I was eating a healthy meal if I was eating a bowl of spaghetti with a side salad, you know. So yeah, it just makes sense. It's it's it's not common sense because we're not taught that when we're signing up for all the dietary programs that we've done over the years.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Yeah, and in you in your in your coaching program, you've helped literally thousands of people um through through keto. You talk about, but but your version of keto isn't the dogmatic internet version of keto that we that we hear so many times. So, what's the misunderstood biochemical mechanism behind keto that that most people overlook? Or that what's the thing that actually does the healing, do you think?

The Biological Flip: Ditching Grains And Starches

SPEAKER_01 22:49

Well, it drives me crazy that keto gets such a bad rap when you are literally eating whole foods from the perimeter of the grocery store. It's like, okay, I am not, okay, people think they must think that we're eating a stick of butter. Like we're just snacking on a stick of butter or something like that. That's that's not what is happening. That's not the way I approached keto. And I I find that I have a very, I've had a very balanced approach. There will be seasons in my life where I will lean more toward carnivore and maybe just have, you know, some avocado and some pickles and olives, things like that. And then there's other times of life where I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna, I am gonna eat some cauliflower rice, I'm gonna eat some broccoli. Um, so you have to figure out what works for you. And I found like going full carnivore for me is uh that's not a good solution because I actually do like avocados, and so that's why I choose to do that. But just finding a balance. When you shop the perimeter of the grocery store, you have so many options. You don't like in the in the perimeter, the grocery store are the foods that God provides us, and that should not get a bad rap at all, if you ask me. That's my honest opinion.

SPEAKER_00 24:02

Yeah, I love I love the quote about uh that we'd all be a lot healthier if we stopped eating any foods that were invented in the last 150 years, yeah, which is probably true, but it begs the question what does that say about our our food system if most of the food makes us sick, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:23

I was I was just laughing about that this morning because I was reading Luke chapter nine, and it's uh have you heard of the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 with the loaves of bread, five loaves of bread and two fish? And I just had to giggle to myself because I was laughing, thinking all those 5,000 men that were sitting there, just imagine people raising their hands saying, Well, do you have a gluten-free basket for this? Like, what have we done to our food supply? You know, like there's no gluten-free baskets in the gospel of Luke, you know. It's bread and fish. So you make a good point there.

SPEAKER_00 25:03

Yeah, the other thing you talk about, I love when you you say that that joy plays a metabolic role in our life. And this isn't something that we think of. You know, we think of maybe keto or diet or sleep or exercise or even morning sunlight, but but joy and and and so what what what happens? How does this how does this help our metabolism? What's going on there?

SPEAKER_01 25:31

I might have to write a book about this, you know, to give a full explanation. I haven't fully explored this yet. All I know is that it is what happened to me. It's almost like the miracle of what happened to me that day that my husband asked me at the dining room table what's going on. I if I had to pick one word, it would be like new, a joy, like a joy that I've never experienced in my life. Um, because it just felt like freedom, a freedom that I never had. And, you know, when I was metabolically unwell, my friends and family would have told you, like, yeah, she's a happy person. But there has definitely been a significant shift between happiness and this new joy. And I think eating healthy and well and taking care of your body um definitely impacts your mood and your emotional health. There's definitely an aspect to that. And the joy that I experience now from my healthy food behaviors and my, you know, the way I I set out to take care of my health and steward my health well every single day, is that this joy, even I I mentioned I've had a really difficult year. And this joy can carry me through that and it can help me sustain my healthy habits. And it doesn't, I don't sink under, I don't I don't turn to food. Now let me tell you, it has not been perfection because there have been nights when I've been sitting watching PBS on TV and I'm making myself cheese snacks, and I I never used to snack at night. So this year's been a bit of a battle, and that's real life, but it's still like like 99% of the time, I'm still habit stacking to have health wins, not losses. So yeah, this joy is uh unexplainable, unspeakable, like unspeakable joy. I can't even really truly describe it in in the full term, but I mean I've got my joy plaque up here, right here. Like anybody watching on YouTube, uh joy is just my life. Joy is my jam now. Joy is is it's completely changed my life.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

Yeah, that's I I love that. Well, let's let's talk about your coaching program. As we say before, it's it's you don't have to go to Michigan to do it. Anywhere anywhere in the US or the world, really. So you reach so many people. What what what's maybe one of the more dramatic metabolic reversals you've seen from a uh client, the kind kind that would maybe even shock seasoned clinicians.

Circadian Rhythm, Light, And Sleep

SPEAKER_01 28:07

Yeah, I've had quite a few clients now reach over 100-pound weight loss milestones. And I've had um people reverse chronic disease. And I'm so excited about one of the one of the stories of the woman that lost, she's at 112-pound weight loss now. When she first came to me, she was immobile and she was a retired school teacher, and she wanted to serve at her church more. She wanted to serve the children through children's programs, and she just couldn't do it because she couldn't even get up and down out of a chair barely. And you know, kids are active. And now she's like, that's all she does. She comes to our group coaching um sessions every week and just talks about what she did at church with the kids and just like seeing the joy on her face with that, too. Um, and then another young mom that reached that 100-pound weight loss, she just ran a 5K. And I was like, what? So, and it was been really fun watching her story too, because she had two little kids and she wanted to, she wanted to change the legacy of her family with her kids being at such a young age. And so just just seeing these little victories, and it's not all about in my community, the weight loss is wonderful. It's a beautiful gift, and we celebrate it, we thank God for it all the time. But the true stories are the heart transformations and the showing up and serving where we've been called. We we all have a purpose in life. I believe 100% God created each of us for a reason, for a purpose, and just seeing these women show up and fully enjoy that with more energy, more joy, more passion. Like that is just a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

Women are so often told that their metabolism is doomed after age 40. You you not only reversed yours, you you optimized it. So, what's the real story about midlife metabolism that the medical system isn't telling women?

SPEAKER_01 30:09

Yeah, this all goes back to what I learned from Dr. Fung in in his books when I and Diet Doctor, when I started reading their website, is like, first of all, my weight loss was all about the hormones. Nobody told me that until I discovered Diet Doctor and Dr. Fung. So it it seemed hopeless. You know, when I did that um protein shake diet for 10 months, Rob, I lost about 65 pounds. But as soon as they put me back on, and this was right about the age of 40 that I did this. As soon as they put me back on a whole food diet and reintroduced things like whole wheat pasta, whole wheat bread, you know, half a baked potato, my weight started going up again and I lost hope and I just I gained way more than the 65 pounds that I lost. But they're not getting the full story, they're not telling women the full story. That when I was sitting on the side of that mountain in Colorado, I was 48, almost 49, and I got to my healthy weight um after I discovered Dr. Fong. I got to my healthy weight about a year after I discovered him, and that was right before my 50th birthday. So it is possible to take ownership and take back control of your health. Now I will say that the caveat is now that I am post-menopausal, it's a battle. Like I'm battling harder now than I did when I was 48, but it's still a battle worth fighting and worth showing up for. And it's it's possible to stay metabolically healthy.

SPEAKER_00 31:37

So so looking looking towards the future, where where do you see metabolic healing going in the next next five years? What do you think the the what's the next frontier that most people haven't heard about, in your opinion?

SPEAKER_01 31:52

Uh I am very excited about the future because uh the conversation about metabolic health is making it's becoming more mainstream, right? And good doctors like you and Dr. Fung and Dr. Enfeld and Dr. Berry, all the doctors that are Dr. Lustig that are out there spreading the news and getting like I see you guys on videos and podcasts and getting millions of views sometimes. I'm like, yes, you know, like people and people just have to start listening and paying attention. And now I have conversations with people and they're aware of the toxicity of sugar, and they're aware of, you know, junky carbohydrates ruining their health or damaging their health. And I always tell women when I first connect with them, like sugar drives disease. And I will say that, I will stand on that mountaintop and say it until the day I die. Uh because that's a simple thing that they can remember, and it can really change a life. So we just need to keep showing up and spreading the news. I I have I'm very optimistic about it.

Energy Crashes And Food Choices

SPEAKER_00 32:55

Yeah. Well, um, the thing I forgot to ask was uh what what's your take? And this is this is almost a litmus test for different people have very strong opinions on this. It's not meant to be political, it's not a political question, but uh about GLP1 agonists for weight loss control. I mean, obviously they're in the news a lot, and a lot of people are taking those.

SPEAKER_01 33:18

Um I would rather, I would rather they not take it, uh, you know, just because now that I know what I know what I know, what I did, what my women are doing that are not taking it, that we can control that hunger with diet, um, which is the same thing that the GLP1s are supposedly doing. And um it was interesting. In fact, I'm working with a functional medicine right uh practitioner right now because of my burned-out hormones, uh, HPA access. And she meant we were just having a conversation about it because she doesn't put anybody on it, but she said, you know, somebody my age with my um history, she said, I would never put you on something like that. And I'm like, yeah. And then she was talking about bone health and like all these things that women they just want the quick fix. And so they're not thinking about like the deteriorating bone health and things that that can do to them. So I just I don't think that people are getting the full story. I know it has its place, and and you're a doctor, you could probably speak to this more, but I know it might have its place for somebody who is super morbidly obese to get a jump start, but I I would rather not. Like I would, I don't want to see my I don't I my none of my coaching clients are on that on GL products.

SPEAKER_00 34:39

Yeah, yeah, and I yeah, I I don't think anyone would um would disagree with that that if you can control it with lifestyle and these other factors, it's it's it's probably uh more optimal than than going to the drugs. And you know, and they're they're there if you know if if people really need them, but it's it's it's nuanced, it's it's not clear cut. I don't think they're not for everybody and all right. So if we we're almost at the end of our our time here. Look looking back, if we could rewind time like 10 years and you had access to all the biohacks that you know now and you were starting your journey all over again, what would you have done first?

SPEAKER_01 35:27

I would have cut all sugar. Like I would have been very appreciative to know that the potatoes and the pasta and the bread, which by the way, those are my trigger sugars. Like I was really not a person who would sit down and eat a sleeve of Oreos or a half a gallon of ice cream. My preferred sugar was salty potato chips, French fries, bread, warm bread out of the oven, right? So if I had known then, I could have like I could have cut off a year and I could have started that massive healing a little bit sooner. But I know I know that God's hand was all over this, and I probably would have been overwhelmed had on one day he said, okay, now all sugars are gonna have to go. And by the way, bread, potato, pasta, those are all sugars too. And I'm I'm Irish. I used to eat potatoes at every single meal. Like I love, I loved potatoes. So that was kind of hard. That was a sacrifice to give up potatoes, but I do not miss them because you like once you taste and see the difference in this these dietary choices, like there's no going back.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Yeah, well, well, well, um, is there is there anything we haven't covered in this uh in this time that you'd like to like to talk about?

Keto Without Dogma

SPEAKER_01 36:44

You know, I often talk about cravings and the the the diet, the way of eating, the keto lifestyle, carnivore lifestyle, low carb lifestyle can really quiet those cravings and can help us control those cravings. Because a lot of times our cravings lead us down a path that we don't want to go down. So, and we have like cravings are caused, are triggered by cues, and we're surrounded by cues all day, every day. We have to make a million decisions a day. Um, so if we have a way to control those cravings so that we're not making a bad choice, uh, that is something definitely that we should work on and pursue and you know be able to overcome. We we can learn to, I always say we can learn to crave well, right? We can learn to crave well so that we're nourishing our body well. And for me, the root of all of this, I discovered was like the original title of my book, Sugar Freed, was called Craving a Heart of Joy. Because all of those years I was craving the wrong things. I was craving food for comfort, I was craving junk food, uh, soothing myself with carbohydrates, um, savory carbohydrates and salty things. And all along I knew I was craving like this heart of joy because there was something missing in my life, something so deep missing. My heart was so misaligned. Um, so it was joy all this time. And like my lifestyle brings me so much joy. And I'm when you have joy in your heart, you have to share it. It it overflows, you can't keep it to yourself. So that's um that's what I love to talk about too. Like we have a way to control our cravings and get to the root of it.

SPEAKER_00 38:23

Well, that's a that's a perfect spot to end the message of joy. Thank you so much, Christine. We're gonna put we'll put your social media links in the in the show notes and how to sign up for your program and and the book. Go ahead. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

I have a free chapter as a as a free resource, and the chapter from my book that I give away is called Craving All the Wrong Things. So it goes back to those cravings. Yeah, it's on the top of my website. If you go to the very top of my website, ChristineTrimp.com, up in the top corner it says start with a free chapter sample or something like that.

SPEAKER_00 39:02

So oh, that's it's so great. Uh this is Christine Trimp. The book is sugar freed. Stop losing the weight loss battle, start gaining the victory. I love it. Thank you so much, Christine, for all the work you're doing and sharing time with us this hour.

SPEAKER_01 39:19

Thank you, Rob.