Ep 19 - Is Your Weight Loss Stalled? The Role Hormone, Thyroid and Digestive Health Play in Weight Loss

Are you doing all the right things to lose weight, but the scale won’t budge?  In this episode we discuss the “right” things to do for weight loss.  And what might be going on if you are doing all the right things but your weight still won’t budge.

Hormonal, thyroid, and digestive health can definitely play a role in weight loss.  Allison explains how she crashed her hormones in her 20s by undereating and overexercising and the journey she took to restore her hormonal health.  She also discusses metabolic adaptation, hormonal disruption, and other issues caused by undereating.   Among other things, she addresses:

-How cortisol dysregulation inhibits fat loss; 

-What insulin resistance is and how it interferes with weight loss;

-What the range for optimal thyroid function is; 

- How gut health impacts weight loss efforts

- And different ways to address these issues!

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:08

Welcome to the Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30 Podcast. I'm Joe. And I'm Alison and we're your co hosts and the founders of couture Fitness and Lifestyle coaching. We're on a quest to help women design lives they love and bodies they adore. We were fed up with the dieting industry and decided to create something different. We're starting a calories up revolution where women are nourished, their metabolisms are healed and their bodies and brains start working for them in the battle against weight loss. If you feel like your metabolism is wrecked, and you want to lose weight once and for all, you are in the right place. Hey, everyone, this is Alison, you've just gotten me here today. And I'm going to be recording both a webcast and a podcast at the same time. So if you're listening to this in the podcast form, don't worry, you're not going to miss anything. There's one picture that I've got that I will talk about. But I will do my best for all of you who are just listening to to describe that picture. So you won't be missing out on anything. So today, I'm going to be talking about what could be going on if you are doing all of the right things. And we'll talk about what all the right things actually means here in a minute. But maybe you're still not getting the results you want. And for most people, the result is just that they want is going to be weight loss and or a more strong and toned body. And so there are a couple of reasons why somebody, they might be doing all of these right things, and they're still not seeing results. And so we're going to talk about that today. Okay, so first I want to talk about my credentials, what I am and what I am not, I am not a functional medicine, doctor, a lot of the things I'm going to be talking about today, kind of border on functional medicine, I would say if somebody does have some of these issues, I would probably refer them to a true functional medicine doctor or a traditional doctor, but I am a certified sports nutritionist. I've also received training from the nutritional coaching institute, which is amazing on hormones, thyroid and gut health. So I'm going to be talking a lot about those three things today. And then our other couture fitness coaches have various other certifications. My business partner, Joe is a certified life coach, we've got a personal trainer, and crossfit coach and hormone specialists on our team. So we've got lots of different credentials, but none of us are functional medicine doctors, okay, so this is going to be, it's going to be a very high level overview just to help you troubleshoot when things maybe aren't working for you. So you maybe you can kind of have an idea of some things you can get tested or consider to help you get the results that you're wanting to get. I'm going to you know, just touch very briefly on a lot of these things. You could spend years getting diving into these. I mean, if you wanted to be a functional medicine doctor, you probably would spend years diving into some of these topics. But this is going to be just a high level overview of things to look for. And like I said, we want to talk about this is really for people who are truly truly doing the right things. And so I know I've talked about this before a lot of people who want to work with us, they say, Oh, well, I know what I'm supposed to be doing. I just need to do it. And when I asked them, What do you think you should be doing? A lot of people are, they've gotten a little bit wrong, what they often think they need to be doing is eating super low calorie, or cutting out food groups, or cutting out entire macronutrient groups that usually is carbs right now, because carbs have been, you know, in recent years, the demon macronutrients and then also usually means doing lots and lots of hip training and things that are going to cause them to sweat a lot and get their heart rate up really high. And so when I'm talking about people who are truly doing the right things, I don't mean that I mean, people who are really, truly doing all of the right things, maybe they're working with a good coach, and there are a lot of really good coaches out there. I know there's also bad coaches out there who who will push people further into things like metabolic adaptation and hormonal issues. But I think the the good are definitely starting to outnumber the bad. There are some really, really good coaches out there because of some of the companies like that nutritional coaching institute that I mentioned, I've gotten some training from that are training coaches. And so I think things really are changing for the better. Okay. So before we really get into some of these other things like like hormones and gut health, I will say that a caloric deficit is still the number one thing we're going to be looking to do to produce fat loss in somebody and for 95 or so percent of our clients, this works amazing. So the way we do this is if somebody comes to us and is overeating, they can enter a fat loss phase right away, and their body should be in a good spot to lose body fat, we actually have probably more than 50% of our clients come to us not ready to enter a fat loss phase right away. And if you're not sure what we're talking about there, go back to episode two where we talk for the entire episode about how to prime your body for fat loss and how we know right You should know when your body is actually ready to enter a fat loss phase because not everyone is. And so if you I'll just very briefly touch on this, if you've been dieting or eating low calorie for months or years, you are not in any place to try to lose body fat, it's going to be really hard, it's going to be like running up against a brick wall, trust me, I have been there I've been in the spot, it's going to result in a lot of frustration, very little results, a lot of work and possibly just pushing your body over the edge into some of the territory that we're going to get into here, you can very well push yourself into having hormonal or thyroid issues by doing too much, especially if your body is not in a good spot. So before you can even think about starting a fat loss phase, you want to make sure that your metabolism has has been returned to homeostasis if you had been doing a lot of dieting, or maybe too much cardio, so for most people, just focusing on nutrition, strength training, having some really well calibrated macros specific to the individual. And just doing some light activities such as walking will work. In many cases. However, there are some people and I'm gonna say it's maybe 5% of what we have seen, that percentage might be higher or lower if you look at the whole population, but some people just don't respond the way we might expect. And they are, they're being compliant, they're doing all the right things, they have done some work to work on their metabolism, and maybe they're still just not getting the results that that they would expect or that and that we would expect to. And so there could be other factors that play here, definitely, there could be some hormonal imbalances, thyroid issues, or gut health issues. And these things can make it really hard to lose weight, even when you are truly doing all of the right things. And you don't usually know if you have any of these other issues until you have tried diet and exercise and just didn't respond well. Okay, so here's where I've got the picture. So if you're listening, I'm going to do my best to describe these pictures. So these pictures are both of me, one is me and my mid 20s. One is me now at nearly age 40. And so the picture of me and my 20s, I do not look as good as I did, as I do now I am much less lean, I'm about 10 to 15 pounds heavier. And so what was going on. And this is really why I'm so passionate about what we're what we're doing at couture fitness and helping to educate women, I was eating about 1600 calories a day, I had done that for many, many, many years, at least five years, I was doing lots of cardio, a lot of that was high intensity cardio, I was probably doing cardio, like five days a week, a lot of that was high intensity cardio, sometimes I would be doing cardio for an hour a day. And I was also lifting weights on top of this, I was doing a lot of activity, I should have been eating way more than the 1600 calories that I was. And what happened is, originally when I started doing this, I lost weight very, very quickly. But I didn't realize that I needed to you know, back off of some of what I was doing, get my food back up. And then what happened over the course of probably like five years or so I gained all of that weight back and I was still eating very little I was still working out. It's not that I just said okay, I you know, I'm done with my diet. Now I'm just gonna go do whatever I want. It was not that at all. And it was a very, very slow weight gain that happened over a period of many, many years. And eventually I got to the point where I lost my period. And I lost it for years, not just you know, a few irregular periods, I literally did not have one for years in anytime I would see a doctor like an OB GYN or any doctor, they would just say, well, let's just put you on birth control. And I was young I was in my early 20s. Of course, I'm just going to say Oh, well a doctor knows best. I'm just going to do what they say. Never Was there really a question of something's wrong, you're not having a period, let's try to figure out why it was just let's just put you on birth control. So that's basically what happened. You know, fast forward a few years, I decided I wanted to try to get pregnant. Well, of course, if you're not having a period, you're not ovulating and you are not going to be able to get pregnant. And so again, any doctor that I saw was like oh, well, we'll just you know, we'll do Clomid or we'll do injections. And it's not, you know, that's just what we're going to do, again, not even a hint of let's try to figure out what's going on and get your body back to a good place. And I really wish I had copies of any labs I had done at that point I was kind of starting and I'll talk about this in a second to try to figure out some stuff on my own because there was not a single doctor who even thought it was something we should dig into. And I wish I had my labs I'm sure what I would have seen and I don't know this for sure. I couldn't find any of my own labs. I did look the other night though, but I couldn't find any I'm sure what I would have seen is that I had a lot of things that may not have been outside of the normal range, but I bet I had some things that were not optimal. I'm guessing thyroid hormones clearly had hormonal issues going on, you know, maybe in a normal range, but not in an optimal range. You know, none of these doctors ever asked about, like my workout routine or my eating I don't even know if they would have known that 1600 calories and doing cardio five days a week was the problem I'm guessing probably not. And so what happened is I decided I needed when I wanted to get pregnant. I was like, I have to take this into my own hands. I'm going to do my own research and figure out what's going on. And I eventually self diagnosed myself with HPA Axis dysfunction, which basically, HPA axis is just your hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. And it is basically in charge of a lot of different functions in your body. And if you're not fueling your body enough, it's going to say, well, we need to shut some functions down to keep you alive. And so we need to prioritize all the few calories that you're that you're giving your body to staying alive and not starving to death. And so shut down things like menstruation, because my body knew it would not be able to sustain a pregnancy if I was doing that much activity and working out that much. And I think I would venture to say one of the reasons that the doctors didn't think about that is because it's not like I was underweight, I had done it for so long that I was kind of going in the other direction, where I just kept gaining more and more weight and didn't know why. And so the way I figured this out was completely by doing my own research online, I found some forums with other women who were in the same position as me, all of them, I should say, none of them were being helped by a doctor, they were all trying to figure it out on their own, just like me, most all of them had a similar story to me, where they had been restricting calories working out a lot. And we kind of were all just self diagnosing, and then trying to figure out how to get out of that bad spot. And for all of us in that group, it really meant eating more food and doing less high, you know, intense exercise. And I mean, I knew what I needed to do, but it was very scary to know, like, Okay, I'm not happy with my weight, but I know I need to eat more is a really, really scary thing. And so I probably kind of just fumbled around for a good year, like kind of getting my calories up. But then I know, I went through some periods where, you know, I would be like, Oh, the scale went up, I'm gonna bring my calories back down. And so I really just wish I would have had a good coach at that time, who would have said, This is what we're going to do, you're going to get your food up, just listen to me. And trust me, because I think I would have been able to fix things a lot quicker. But I did eventually, you know, figure things out on my own, I did have to use some injections, hormonal injections to get pregnant with my first baby. But I said, after that, I will never ever do this to myself again. And since that time, I have kept my food up and made sure that I have not gotten myself into that spot again. And the funny thing is, if I had kept this lifestyle up, I probably would have eventually been told by doctors, you know, I'm sure my hormones would have gone to being maybe suboptimal to even outside of the normal ranges, I'm sure I would have been on some sort of medicines purely to treat my symptoms, not addressing any root causes. And I'm sure I would have continued to be so frustrated with all of the working out and calorie restricting I was doing but yet my body was gaining weight and not losing weight. I mean, it's just, it was baffling to me at the time why this was happening. And I'm sure if I had continued down that path, I would probably weigh a whole lot more now than I actually do. And so for those of you who are listening again, I've got another picture of me, right now I'm eating in the picture, you say 2000 calories a day, it's been more or the last probably four months, it's been more like 21 2200 I do almost know what cardio now I definitely do almost no hit training, I would say I do hit maybe once every two weeks or so. And even then it's like 10 to 20 minutes, I mostly lift weights, I lift weights four days a week, I feel my body properly, and I get in my steps. So nothing high intensity, just mostly walking and playing doubles, tennis. And I look so much more fit now. And I have such an easier time controlling my weight because of that than I did in my 20s. So that's my story and how I experienced some of these issues that I'm going to talk about in a little bit myself. Okay, so what can cause what I'll call weight loss resistance. Obviously, if you've got some really unhealthy habits, and you're eating tons of processed food, you're eating tons of calories, you're not exercising, you're probably not going to be losing weight, I would not call that weight loss resistance, I would call the head habits that you need to change. So I'm not talking about that at all here. If you're doing that, I think you know what you need to do. You need to focus on healthy foods and moving your body more. Okay, so metabolic adaptation, we talked about this a lot. It's on our website. If you want to learn more, you can download from couture fitness coaching.com. We've got some videos about the metabolism and how it works and how it adapts and how you can make it work for you instead of against you. So if you have been doing any sort of restrictive dieting or lots of cardio, the way I was your metabolism is going to adapt and that can be a huge contributor to weight loss resistance. Definitely number one above all of these other things I'm going to talk about so you've got to get that fixed first. But beyond that, let's say you you have done the work to fix those sorts of adaptations. Some of the other factors that can interfere with weight loss include too much stress, not getting enough sleep heavy metals or toxins in your body, various GI issues, liver dysfunction, and then hormonal imbalances and thyroid issues. Okay, so let's talk about under eating. I think we all know overeating causes lots of problems, especially if You're over eating just pure processed crap. But how does under eating customer these issues so dieting is actually a huge stressor on your body, your metabolism will adapt very quickly to a diet and also to cardio because of the fact that it is a huge stress on your body. It also increases your cortisol levels off into unhealthy levels, it can cause hormonal imbalances, just like what happened to me, it can cause HPA Axis issues, that is definitely what my problem was. It can interfere with glucose and insulin regulation. And basically, the more diets that you have tried and the more extreme those diets have been, the harder time you will have losing weight. And so you need to work on just getting your body back to homeostasis. If you ever want to have a shot at weight loss, you can't force it. Okay, so we're going to touch on a lot of those things that I just said. So let's start with cortisol. So cortisol is known as the stress hormone, it triggers a flood of glucose to be released into your bloodstream. And that release of glucose is what gives your body immediate energy to deal with whatever it is you need to deal with. So like if somebody's chasing you, you're going to get that cortisol rush. So you have that energy to like, run away from you know, something that's chasing you. That's, that's one example probably not doesn't happen in most people's everyday lives. But that's what our that's how our bodies will perceive that cortisol rush, it also inhibits the release of insulin so that the glucose won't be stored and it will be available for use of cortisol levels, they're naturally higher in the morning unless you've got a cortisol regulation issue going on. But they're typically higher in the morning, they can also be elevated during exercise, and in times of stress, which makes sense because you want to make sure you've got energy during those times you need energy when you exercise. So cortisol is going to go up, but excess cortisol can inhibit fat loss. And so here I've got this point about carbs, they're actually best eaten later in the day, carbs also actually help bring your cortisol levels down. So some other ways that you can manage high cortisol levels, obviously reducing stress, that's so easy to say and a lot harder to do. But just doing what you can trying to say no more, don't stress yourself out by taking on too many things, exercising at an appropriate level. So if you're somebody who has not been exercising at all, obviously, you will want to add some activity into your life. But if you've been doing too much, especially too much high intensity exercise, you're going to need to back that down getting enough sleep. And in addition to that trying to go to bed and wake up around the same time is really going to help and if all else fails, there are some supplements you can take that will help magnesium ashwagandha can both help with cortisol, okay, insulin, and this is a big one. Insulin is the hormone that gets released from the pancreas into the bloodstream to regulate the amount of glucose in the blood by moving it to the cells to be used as energy, or to be stored in the liver, fat and muscle tissues. So when you eat foods that contain sugar, insulin will go to work and you don't want insulin to work against you, you can time your food a little bit to make it work for you and not have these big insulin spikes. Something called insulin resistance can really really inhibit fat loss. If your body produces too much, or insulin resistance, I'll describe it first. It's when your body is producing too much insulin over time. And eventually the cells of the pancreas are no longer able to keep up with the body's increased demand resulting in prolonged elevated blood glucose levels. And this can eventually lead even to type two diabetes. Basically, the more glucose you have in your bloodstream, the more insulin is pumped out. And if you are not burning that glucose for fuel, you are just storing it as fat optimal glucose levels are going to be less than 100. fasted. So if you took your levels, you know, first thing in the morning before you ate anything, you want them to be less than 100. You want those to be less than 140. When you test two hours after eating, if you're over 200, that's definitely not good. And your levels might be even lower just before meals. And you can measure this I mean, obviously you can go get a fasting glucose test done at a doctor's office, but you can get your own glucose meter and just check your own levels. If you want to. I would recommend if you're going to do this checking first thing in the morning, maybe before your meals and then two hours post meal. But if you've got insulin issues going on, it's going to be really hard to lose weight. Even if you are in a caloric deficit. How do you promote healthy insulin and glucose levels? I think a lot of people immediately jump to Well, I need to cut out carbs and I need to do the keto diet. And that's not true. I would say do not be afraid of carbs. When you cut out carbs, you can create a whole host of other issues too. The thyroid loves carbs to keep it healthy. Cortisol, we just talked about this eating carbs will help bring your cortisol levels down. So I would not say if you have high insulin or glucose levels to cut out carbs completely, I would just say choose more whole unprocessed types of carbs. And remember that every single time you eat you cause an insulin response. So you may want to eat less frequently. Maybe you just want to eat three meals a day and try not to snack in between and then a huge thing is going to be getting enough fiber. So the foods that spike insulin would be sugar basically anything that contains sugar or refined flours or anything that contains is a refined flour like bread, muffins, bagels, pasta hamburger and hot dog buns, pizza dough fruits actually do cause an insulin spike. But if you eat some, if you eat whole fruits, raw fruits, all the fiber in there is really going to help slow that insulin response down. So I wouldn't say avoid fruit either fiber like I just talked about, it really slows the digestion process, which also slows the release of glucose into the bloodstream, and that all affects your insulin levels. So try to get fiber in every one of your meals. Some really good sources of fiber include unprocessed grains, like wild rice, whole oats, beans, sweet potatoes, raw fruit, so you know, not like juice, but like raw fruits that contain all of the fiber, green veggies, and then cruciferous vegetables are all really good sources of fiber. Another good way to balance your insulin levels, you want to try to balance all of your meals with proteins, fats, and carbs. And make sure that your carbs contain some fiber, that's really going to help keep your insulin levels much more level throughout the day. Exercise helps a lot, but you don't want to exercise excessively. And then there are some supplements that you can take if needed, if just you know diet and exercise is not getting you to help the levels you're trying to get to. There are some supplements, you can take omega threes will help flaxseed will help Berberine is actually a great supplements. And there's some others too, but supplements can help if you can't get there just from diet and exercise. Okay, the thyroid, the thyroid also plays a huge role in weight management. And if you are not in what I would call an optimal range, not just a normal range, but an optimal range for various thyroid markers, you may not feel your best, and you might have problems losing fat. So keep in mind that not all blood tests if your doctors like okay, we're gonna, you know, just do some general blood tests and see if your markers are all in healthy levels, they might not test that many different thyroid markers, some of them will just test like TSH and maybe total T for total T three. If you want to really make sure that your thyroid is functioning optimally, you want to make sure you are at the very least testing your TSH total T three and T four but also free T three and free T four. That's actually what is the usable form of T three and T four in your body. You also want to test your thyroid antibodies, and that's going to be a big indicator of whether or not you have Hashimotos. Which brings me to my next point. So Hashimotos is actually the cause of I put 90% of thyroid issues. I think that's true for developed countries. I don't think that's actually true for the undeveloped world. But that is true in countries like the United States. Most thyroid issues are caused by Hashimotos, which is actually an autoimmune disease that attacks the thyroid. And so if you do have Hashimotos often, but not always you will show up as having thyroid antibodies on a blood test. And probably if you have Hashimotos, you're going to have a few trigger foods that you are going to want to avoid at least for a period of time. The most common culprits are sadly gluten and dairy. And I know those are in so many different things. But if you have suspected Hashimotos avoiding gluten and dairy can definitely help your symptoms. If you do think that you may have some thyroid issues, obviously you want to get tested, you want to work on any hormonal issues that could be contributing to your thyroid problems, make sure you don't have any HPA Axis issues like I did, or any gut issues all of those can impact the thyroid, I would recommend trying to naturally boost your thyroid first through diet, exercise, lifestyle, maybe some supplements and if all else fails, you may need to just go on medicine. And that's fine to make sure if you get tests done, you're you're within an optimal range. And not just the standard range, the standard ranges for most blood tests or any test that just blood tests are just based on the general population. It's just the average of the general population. And as we know most of our population is not considered healthy. And so you want to really make sure you're in an optimal range versus just a standard range. We also want to make sure your liver is functioning optimally most of the T four T three conversion and T three is really what your body uses. It's done in the liver. So you want to make sure your liver is healthy lifestyle changes such as if you were over training and under eating, you can definitely hurt your thyroid. I know I was in that spot. And then there's some also some natural supplements you can take to support the thyroid such as ashwagandha, Selenium forskolin. And then obviously, if lifestyle changes aren't helping, you can certainly get on various types of thyroid medicine and obviously that should be done under the direction of a doctor. Okay, other hormonal imbalances just because your thyroid and maybe your insulin is fine. There could be other things going on. So other key hormones that impact weight loss include testosterone, estrogen, progesterone, pregnenolone, melatonin, leptin, ghrelin, DHEA and then there's also a nutrient deficiencies that can that can play a part too. So how do you know if you have some of these? I would say lab testing plus looking at your symptoms. So if you have some suspected hormonal imbalances or known hormonal imbalances, I would always He's recommend trying to fix them just through lifestyle changes first, such as diet and exercise. But if you're not responding after a few months of that, you know, you can obviously consider then getting tested. If you have a doctor who doesn't want to order all of the labs that you would like to have done, you can always see a naturopathic doctor, or you can just order them yourself. That's the beauty of the internet. There are so many tests now that you don't need a doctor's note for you can literally just go online and say I want this test done. And you can order it completely on your own, you will be paying out of pocket which you can get pretty much any test that you want to have done. The Dutch test is a really complete test that looks at so many different things, you can order it online, it's just a urine test, you do it at home on your own, that's a great test. There's some other good ones out there too. When if you have problems, like I said, you can try to treat with lifestyle changes, maybe taking out certain foods, maybe adding in more of some healthy foods that maybe you were not eating enough of before looking at some supplements. And then obviously, if that doesn't work, you might need to take some prescribed medicine or hormone replacement therapy. Okay? Finally, gut issues. This is another big one. If you can't break down and absorb nutrients, eating lots of healthy food is just not going to be doing much for you. I've got a quote here, I did not make this up. This was in the training that I took on gut health a while back, but it's we are what we digest. It's not we are what we eat, it's we are what we digest, if you're not able to digest and absorb the nutrients from all the healthy food, it's not really doing you as much good as if you were able to digest and absorb the nutrients from that food. So some common digestive issues include leaky gut, which is just intestinal permeability, which really just means that there are things getting into your bloodstream through your gut that really should not be in there. And this can cause so many different issues. This can cause autoimmune issues, which can turn into thyroid problems. So it's all very, very related. dysbiosis is another common issue. It's just a bacterial overgrowth in your gut, just inefficient digestion. If you do not have efficient digestion, you're probably not absorbing that many nutrients. And then you can also have different infections such as Candida or parasites, the root cause behind a lot of these digestive issues include inflammation in the body, that's a huge one, blood sugar dysregulation and then really just the standard American diet can cause so many gut issues. Many Americans are not eating enough fruits and vegetables and getting enough nutrients of the standard American diet is just often really high in refined carbohydrates. A lot of it is packaged convenience food, and it's causing so so many issues. So how can you heal your gut if you know maybe you've got some of these issues, or you suspect that you have some of these issues, you can confirm also, by seeing a doctor and getting some tests done, they can do tests to confirm a lot of these issues that I talked about. But if you want to try and cure some of these problems, or improve them, the first step I would say is you will probably need to make some diet and lifestyle changes. And that may include going on some sort of elimination diet where you cut out a lot of different foods and then you will gradually test adding them back in you will want to make sure you are aiding in your digestion with things like digestive enzymes or extra stomach acid if needed, promoting healthy gut flora by taking probiotics, healing the gut from infections, this this may be able to be done naturally. But it may require antibiotics if you do have an actual infection repairing the gut lining by supplementing with soluble and insoluble fiber. And then eventually the idea is that you will be able to wean off some of the supplements you may have taken to heal your gut. And then lastly, trying to add back in some foods, there may be some foods you you're never able to completely add back in. But hopefully you don't have to stick to a very strict elimination diet forever. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about the standard American diet and a lot of American habits standard American diet. Like I said, it's loaded with processed carbs, unhealthy fats, many Americans are not getting in enough general activity. Those who are exercising tend to prioritize cardio over strength training, a lot of people are yo yo dieting, which is a huge stressor to our body, but it's also hurting our metabolism. Many people are not sleeping enough and a lot of people's lives are just very stressful. And so all of these things may be contributing to some of the problems with hormones, thyroid gut health that I talked about. So how can you fix these issues? I've touched on this a little bit. Obviously, if you think you've developed some of these problems, because you've just been eating a lot of processed crap and not exercising enough your solution is pretty easy. You want to eat more whole, minimally processed foods and you want to move more. However, a lot of the people who we work with, they know that they're not in that situation, they often fall on the other end of the spectrum where they're eating way too little. And often not always but often exercising too much as well. And so the cure here is going to be possibly to eat more keeping that mostly to healthy, whole, minimally processed foods. Do not overdoing the exercise focusing on strength training instead of cardio strength training is really going to help especially if you have insulin issues that is going to help tremendously with insulin resistance walking in yoga for getting in your cardio and also for stress relief is going to help trying to get eight hours of sleep at night. Ideally, I know this is not always possible, but trying to go to bed and wake up around the same time each day, we've talked about stress, trying to minimize stress while you can't where you can, I know it's not possible to get all the stress out of your life, but doing your best there. And if lifestyle changes alone don't work, and you've given them a really good effort for several months, definitely consider supplementation, maybe even working with a naturopathic doctor. And then finally, you may need to take some prescribed medicine in some cases, and you may not need it forever, just because somebody goes on something like thyroid medicine does not mean that they're necessarily have to take that forever, they may and that's fine. But just because you go on a miss, and you may be able to get off of it with lifestyle changes. Okay, so I want to end with talking about our programs and how we can help with this, when you work with us, you will get a very customized program specific for you, like I talked about, some people need to eat less and exercise more, some people need to do the exact opposite. So you're gonna get a very detailed questionnaire. And we will use that to build a program just for you. It will include nutrition, it will include workouts, cardio, all of that will be in there. And you will check in weekly with your personal coach, we also have bi weekly or two times per week zoom meetings where that Joe leads, sometimes I lead them, some of them are created content around practical nutrition or workout topics. Some of them are a lot of them are around mindset, because without your mindset being right, you can have all the information in the world. But without your mind being on board, you're not going to be able to implement it and put it into your lifestyle. And then we also do a once a week call, that's just an open q&a where you can, you know, ask any questions that you have. So that's what you get with our programs. And through all of that, we'll be looking for some things to indicate, you know, if we think you might have some of these issues that I talked about today, maybe recommending that you get testing done or see a functional doctor to work on some of these issues. And right now it is April, this will probably be released, maybe in May, we have filled up our last session we do all of our programs on the quarter. So the next time you'll be able to work with us would be in July. If you're listening to this, you know, way after it's been aired. Just know that we currently you're running all of our programs to start on the quarter. So we start January 1, April 1, July 1 and October 1, but you can always join our waitlist. If you're interested in working with us. Just go to our website couture fitness coaching.com And you can get signed up there. So that's all I have for you today. Thanks, everyone. That's what we've got for you today about how you can invest in your metabolism and start losing weight by eating more and exercising less. Trust us you aren't too old and it's never too late. If you want to learn more about this topic, head over to our Facebook group, Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30. You can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook at Couture Fitness Coaching. And if you want to work with us, join us for our next 12 weeks session.