025: Mission Slimpossible: 10 Covert Operations to Outsmart Your Stubborn Fat Cells with Almarie Fernandez

“You cannot heal a body that you hate. The body's not broken. The body is just giving you signals that it's not in its right alignment. You have to love yourself in the healing process and love yourself enough.” —Almarie Fernandez

Have you ever wondered why some people seem to eat whatever they want and stay slim, while others struggle to lose weight despite their best efforts? What if the secret to effective weight management lies not in restrictive diets, but in understanding your body's unique biochemistry? Could the key to sustainable weight loss be hiding in plain sight within your daily habits and environment?

Almarie Fernandez is a renowned functional medicine practitioner and health coach with over a decade of experience in helping clients achieve optimal wellness. Almarie combines cutting-edge scientific research with holistic approaches to address the root causes of weight issues and chronic health conditions.

Tune in as Ann and Almarie unravel the complexities of weight management, covering topics such as insulin resistance, cortisol control, hypothyroidism, sex hormone imbalances, nutrient density, intermittent fasting, and the impact of environmental toxins on our bodies.

Connect with Ann on Social Media:  

Website: https://seednutrition.com/Annt/home 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008572834952 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annthemasterhealer/ 

Email: Tamingdiabetes@yahoo.com 

Episode Highlights: 

02:18 Understanding Weight Gain 

05:30 The Body’s Evolutionary Response to Weight Gain

12:15 Hormone-Mediated Weight Gain 

18:45 10 Basic Principles for Weight Loss 

25:30 The Importance of Nutrient Density

31:00 Insulin Resistance, Cortisol, and Stress 

43:15 Hypothyroidism and Sex Hormone Imbalances

48:45 Caloric Deficiency— The Right Way to Implement

54:00 The Effect of Environmental Toxins 

59:30 The Adrenal Glands and Weight       

Transcript

Ann LeMaster: Hi, welcome back to my Common Sense Living Podcast, a journey of conversations and stories that will surely inspire you. Are you ready? Grab your favorite beverage, sit back, get a pen, take some notes because we have a great guest today. I'm your host, Ann LeMaster. Let's get started with her introduction. 

She is Almarie Fernandez, and she was born in San Juan Puerto Rico. Graduated from Tufts University. After struggling with her own health, she decided to continue her studies to turn her health around, and earned her certification as an EMT, Emergency Medical Technician. However, Almarie felt called into the wellness area, and she researched until she came across the field of functional medicine. Almarie has been involved in coaching since 2013, and has been a functional medicine practitioner since 2019 with a special interest in autoimmunity, environmental toxins, insulin resistance, resistance training, and the mind, body connection. She currently resides in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and enjoys meeting folks from all walks of life who are open to exploring how a functional medicine approach can help better their lives. 

Welcome, Almarie.

Almarie Fernandez: Thank you for having me, Ann. This is a pleasure for me, because I'm going to talk about a theme that happens every new year, and it's very dear to some of us. Some of us have struggled with this, myself included, and it's the topic of weight gain, and how to lose those pesky pounds. I can say that part of regaining my health during my health struggles, there was weight gain involved. Significant weight gain. I personally gained up to 200 pounds three times. I definitely can relate with folks that have those New Year's resolutions. And you know how frustrating it can be to have that extra weight. As we know, just having that weight increases the chances of having certain chronic diseases, so we don't want that. We want to ensure that we are at an ideal body weight, and so to give the body less stress. So I want to talk about weight gain in the fundamental concept, the body ironically views weight gain as something good. Yes, it does. Because when there's stress involved, what happens is basically the organs in your body, they're doing what they can to keep up with it. And so if you look at our ancestors, they had food readily available. But when there was a time of famine or crisis, there was a fat store. Because basically, your body is gagging that it's in survival mode. So it stores body fat, so your body sees it as something good. Is an evolutionary concept, but also many toxins are stored in body fat. So that's the second reason why the body might see it as a good thing because the body is saying, hey, we need to protect you. We don't know where to put these toxins, so we're going to accumulate it in the adipose tissue. So you have to see that your body's always working for you. Especially after going through my health struggles, I don't believe that the body is inherently broken. Even when there's a health diagnosis, the body is doing what it can with the information that it's been given. 

So now, we're going to talk about the topic of weight loss, and I hope that I can get everything covered because this is a lengthy topic. So women in particular, need to feel safe in their body. It's an evolutionary concept. In order to drop the weight, there has to be a sense of safety. And in order to convey that safety to the body, we need to make sure that if we're going to have weight loss as a permanent. Many people yo-yo diet, and they lose and they gain, and they lose and gain. What happens is that when there's insufficient calories, when there's chronic stress, the body's going to set a set point, and it's going to be higher and higher each time. So we have to make sure that we are collaborating with the body so that the body feels safe. I'll talk in detail. 95% of weight gain is hormone mediated. So it has to do a lot with your hormones, and it is driven by modern food, or crap food, toxins and stress. So what I want to preface is when we are dealing with weight loss, we want to make sure that we're not only implementing the steps so that it loses weight, but that the weight loss is final. Because 80% of people regain their weight within five years.

Ann LeMaster: Do we just go back to our habits and think we're okay now, and it creeps up again?

Almarie Fernandez: It's like a combination of habits, but it's an environmental factor. The body's just doing what it's being told. If there's a lot of toxins and stress, and there's a lot of mental, emotional stress and physiological stress, it's like a vicious cycle. Inflammation drives body fat, and body fat drives inflammation.

Ann LeMaster: They work together, so to speak.

Almarie Fernandez: It's the adipose tissue. It's sort of like its own organ. It has a mind of its own. It can produce estrogen on its own. And I'll talk more about estrogen dominance. But there's estrogen dominance coming from our environment, from the beauty products that we slather, from the food that's not organic, the food that's conventional, all the pesticides, all the herbicides. All these toxins that they're sending, they're increasing estrogen in the body in the form of estrogens, plastics, and so that's what's going into the receptors. And that's one of the factors that's driving belly fat. But the belly fat also produces its own estrogen. It's like a veterinary cycle. I want to make sure that this is going to be the last stop for you. I want to make sure that you start getting some real answers. I worked in the fitness industry. It was a pleasure to work for the fitness industry for a while, and that's how I started getting introduced into the concept of health. Like you mentioned, I studied functional medicine, and I'm going to throw out some information. But then I'll try to simplify it. So there are 10 Basic Principles that everyone wants to consider for weight loss. One is the calorie deficit. Number two is adequate protein intake. Number three is increasing fiber intake. Number four is regular exercise, especially strength training. Number five, proper hydration. 

Number six, sleep and recovery. Seven, stress management. Eight, mindful eating and portion control. Nine, consistency over perfection. And number 10, track progress and set realistic goals. I just want you to keep that in the back of everyone's mind while listening today. Those are the principles now. I think that the Eat Less, Move More initiative that was put forward in the Obama administration, I think that is an oversimplification. Because to restate what I said earlier, 95% of weight loss, or weight gain is hormone mediated. It's what you eat. It's driven by modern food toxins, stress. So there are four areas where people find their weight loss resistance. I want you to keep those principles in mind, because we're going to go back to them. But there are four basic areas why people are not seeing the progress they want. And this is where the Eat Less, Move More Campaign falls.

Ann LeMaster: I can eat less cookies, but it doesn't make me lose fat. But if I'm eating a salad, I can eat a lot of it.

Almarie Fernandez: This is all about nutrient density and quality food.

Ann LeMaster: I've been an advocate for that.

Almarie Fernandez: There's 100 calories of broccoli, and there's 100 calories of Oreos, but the body is able to use the broccoli for energy. The body's not really able to use the calories from the Oreos. It stores it as body fat. And more than that, it doesn't really know what to do with that. It has chemicals and toxins. I don't know if you saw on online like, you can burn an Oreo, and it doesn't burn down. That's a scary thought, isn't it? They did the experiment from a nanosecond up to 30 seconds. And they put fire on that thing, and it just doesn't burn.

Ann LeMaster: It's not good. Years ago, I could put three rows of Oreos down. I just mind us eating. And in nursing school, they asked us, this was like in the 80's, and there wasn't a lot of junk food at the time. And they said, what's more important, the brain? Or the gut? Well, we decided, if your brain did nothing, they knew then it was the gut, and that's what they disrupted with all that junk.

Almarie Fernandez: Absolutely. The body needs to be in a state of homeostasis. In order to convey that safety, weight is a symptom that it's a reflection of other things happening in the body. If you eat Oreos and you know you can't eat just one, then the body doesn't know what to do with it, and you're bypassing the mechanisms of satiety, and the body just doesn't know what to do with it.

Ann LeMaster: We have another fat cell, and the fat cells don't really go away, do they? They just sit, shrink up, and go dormant.

Almarie Fernandez: The fat cells continue growing. There's a hypothesis of turning white fat into brown fat, which is easier to burn. But not all white fat will turn to brown fat. So there are specific foods that activate that path of turning white fat into brown fat. It's not the only factor, but it helps. Because when there's brown fat, it's easier for the body to let it go. But I want to talk about hormonal imbalances, which is, I think , the key why so many people are struggling with their weight. There are four hormone mediated drivers of disease, and that is insulin resistance, hypothyroidism, sex hormone imbalances and chronic stress. So those four. We talked earlier about the 10 principles that the fitness industry recognizes that take part in weight loss, but these are the four hormone imbalances that we see. In my experience, I do feel that if people focus specifically on insulin management and cortisol management, that really, really helps source the weight loss effort because they're in a hormone soup, but they're not isolated. They affect each other. If there's too much cortisol, then the thyroid production slows down. Cortisol raises insulin. Estrogen receptors affect the thyroid hormone. So they are all circulating, affecting each other. Your body is trying to communicate. Every organ is trying to communicate, and they're just doing what they're being told. And before diving into these hormone imbalances, I understand that people want to lose weight, and fast. But the reality is, for an event, to be in a wedding, they almost don't care about what's happening in the rest of the body. 

But if you don't pay attention to these four hormonal imbalances, then you're going to be repeating the same story. And the body, like I said, has a set point, or the weight gets higher, and higher, and higher. If you force the body to lose weight, you might lose weight. Losing weight is really hard. It's hard for some people, but it can be achieved. But if there is all this stuff happening that is sending the body into a spiral, you're going to get it back, and then stop. I want to talk specifically about insulin and cortisol. I want you to keep in mind that managing insulin and cortisol really remedies a lot of the problems. And I'm going to use the principles that we talked about, because some of the information overlaps. Crappy food is a big part of the problem. But I can say that when I struggle with weight, I can really empathize. Food was just part of the problem. 

I had to learn, of course, how to eat and not self medicate with food. That's something that people are doing. I forgot to mention that self medicating with food is something that a lot of people do. And I invite you, as you're taking this step to better health, because it's just better health. The steps that you're going to take for weight loss, but what you do to take the weight off is what you're going to need to do to keep the weight off. So self medicating with food. You have to get real and honest about the stress in your life, and the sources of stress, and what us health coaches call a primary food, which is what feeds your soul. Secondary foods are what's on your plate. Primary food is what feeds your soul, spirituality, and relationships. How is your life going? As you're doing the process, and you don't have to start with that. But if many people are self medicating with food because they're trying to feel a void for their life and nothing is going to fill that void, nothing is going to feel like, if you have a job that doesn't bring you joy, if something wrong with a relationship, something broken with spirituality, you're not going to be able to replace that with food. Food is enjoyable, but food is fuel. We want to see it as enjoyable fuel. But there are many people who are self medicating food.

Ann LeMaster: I do biometric screenings, and there was this situation and this guy. His numbers were horrible. Cholesterol is so high, sugar, everything. And a really good looking guy. I said to him, do you have a cool car? Yeah. I said, oh, I bet you. You wax and wash it, and it shines. It's beautiful. And I said, do you put the premium gas in? Oh, yeah. He's just beaming. I said, why don't you treat your car better than you do to you. Your numbers are horrible. That car is going to outlive you. It's just like I slapped him, but I made an impact. I made an impact, because it's true. We are just mindless with it. We didn't realize it, but I thought I gave that guy a wake up punk. And I don't see people again. I work for a company, I don't know whatever it came from, but I thought I had to. And I used to explain to people that the way bellies get fat is, oh, you keep eating junk. Keep eating junk. Now you have two. It doesn't have a baby, it just makes another one. And it stays full, and now the body has made another one, but I'm gonna end up having too much fat.

Almarie Fernandez: It just makes the problem worse. I was actually talking about that the other day in my stories. I'm glad that you mentioned it. It's very interesting that we humans, when we see something wrong with our bodies, we don't do anything, or we try to remedy it on our own. And if you had your car flash check the engine, you take it to the mechanic. And immediately, because without it, you cannot go to work. You cannot do anything. You cannot bring the dough home.

Ann LeMaster: It's going to be sitting in its garage bed like when you're sick. We treat our stuff better than we do ourselves.

Almarie Fernandez: I agree. Sometimes, you have to go through pain to change. I had to go through pain to change when I lost my health. Well, I knew that I had a colleague to help others, but I knew that I needed to take care of my body. Because if I don't take care of myself, then I can't take care of anyone, right? So going back to insulin and cortisol, it kind of overlaps with the 10 basic principles that we spoke earlier. But we're going to talk about the four. Again, the four four drivers of hormone imbalances of why people are complaining that they can't see weight loss. So for insulin, insulin exports glucose into the cells. But while insulin's job is to take the glucose out of the blood and into your cells, it's also a storage form. A fat storage form, which is why so many people are having problems losing weight, and then they develop insulin resistance. When the organs get tired and the pancreas starts secreting insulin, and the body becomes less insulin sensitive, and the pancreas is rushing, it produces more insulin. Produce more insulin, and then that glucose starts in the later stages, starts to elevate in the blood, and that's where we get insulin resistance. So what you want to do is a couple of steps. You want to, number one, consume adequate protein, like we talked earlier. I do think that .75 grams to 1 gram of protein per ideal body weight. So for instance, if you want to weigh 140 pounds, it's close to 140 grams of protein. But for the first stages if this is overwhelming, then you can start increasing protein. So make sure that you start today with protein, healthy fats and fiber. That's going to, number one, keep you sashay. And number two, you're going to stop storing all these calories as fat, so you want your food to be nutrient dense and quality food. I do promote a program. There's a program that I promote in my stories that's going to help people when they start losing weight. I have a referral link for that, but I just think it's a great program.

Ann LeMaster: So what do you recommend? What's the best? Everybody says, oh, don't eat that, whatever.

Almarie Fernandez: Yeah. So have healthy fats like nuts and seeds, and sources of Omega 3's. It can be chia seeds, flax seeds. Those are going to bring in not only fat, but they're going to bring in fiber, which is what we also want.

Ann LeMaster: Coconut oil.

Almarie Fernandez: Coconut oil, avocado oil. Put great efforts to cook most of your food at home and split as organic as possible. Because number one, they're using bad oils when you go out, and they're very inflammatory. It damages the cell membrane. And number two, you're gonna save on calories. When you go out, the calories can be high. And if that's fast food, then that's gonna make it worse. You're not gonna really be satiated. I think a lot of problems that people are having is that they're downing coke and cookies, and that sense of wrong hormonal output. It's telling the body the refined carbohydrates are gonna go through you. All that junk food, and then you're gonna be hungrier. If you notice at restaurants, they do chips, and that makes you hungrier. And if you have Coke, and if you have even Diet Coke, it is horrible if you have Diet Coke, Coke, chips and cookies instead of starting your plate with protein. And that's my next point. First of all, before leaving the topic of protein, you want to make sure that there's 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal three to four times a day because we're trying to control that insulin spice. So you're going to have a plate full of the healthy fats like we mentioned, extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, nuts, seeds, and then you're going to have that protein. 

And then the second point that I was going to say is that if you are going to have carbs, have them either with protein, fat and fiber, or you're going to have them last because we want to control that insulin spike. So I understand that people, they're not going to throw everything away, and they're just going to eat organic and everything. If they have a carb, they should eat it last because the protein, the fiber and the fat is what's going to protect and slow down the absorption of carbohydrate. We have to consider that even things like oatmeal and whole wheat grain, they're gonna spike your blood sugar, probably more than refined brain. So we're gonna try, I always recommend, especially if you're in the early stages of weight loss, to make sure that you have fruits with fiber. Not like a fruit juice, fruits with a fiber. And you have starchy vegetables, like a sweet potato that's going to satisfy that sweet craving. We all get sweet cravings. I get sweet cravings sometimes. 90-95% of the time, I'm good if I incorporate something that's natural, like a fruit with the fiber that's actually harder to eat, or a starchy vegetable.

Ann LeMaster: I think sometimes people eat because, I see that if I have the carbs, the bad food, the junk food and my tongue feels coated, I don't taste so I keep eating. When I cut the junk food, because I learned too that it's not good for you. I thought, oh, my goodness, I can taste the food.

Almarie Fernandez: Taste buds adapt. I was gonna say another point. The next point is to lower your sugar intake. The less added sugars, the better. And just be mindful. This is not just for weight loss. What you use for weight loss is what you're gonna have to keep doing to ensure that you stay at a stable weight. So if you lower your sugar intake, you are retaining those taste buds, like you mentioned. I ordered a salad the other day and it had a couple of peaches. I liked it. I tasted the sweetness, you're able to savor the foods better. It satisfies you quicker than if you were to consume all that sugar and you're numb, your tea spots almost go numb, and it's not even enjoyable at the end.

Ann LeMaster: I'd like to say a tip that I used on myself. I like to play games as long as it's by my rules, right? So if I'm going to eat good food, that's a game I'm playing, because I am going to get away from that. I'm going to play my game of eating well and see if it doesn't work, then I'll go back.

Almarie Fernandez: I also mentioned increasing soluble fiber intake specifically. Now, I'm going to go into more detail. If you want to aim for 20 to 30 grams of fiber, things like veggies, what's going to increase the fiber? Chia seeds, flax seeds. I just found out about basil seeds, that it has a lot of fiber. You can get it online. It has a lot of fiber. It's not an extra process, it's just basically throwing the seeds in. If you do the flax seeds and you grind them, that's actually going to be good for your estrogen because it's going to bind to the receptor. If you're having a lot of fake extra estrogen in your body from beauty products and things, buy the flax seed, and then you grind it yourself, and then you put it in the fridge, you put two tablespoons of flaxseed so that has a double impact. Number one, it's going to increase your fiber. It's going to increase your healthy fat, and it's going to bind to the estrogen receptors.

Ann LeMaster: Years ago, they said that soy products were so good for estrogen.

Almarie Fernandez: I think that if you're going to do soy, it's good that you do it organic and that you do it non GMO. Especially if you get fermented, that can actually be good. I know that many people are not there.

Ann LeMaster: I did three packets of this soy stuff, and I started putting on weight. I think I threw the thing or whatever. I think it was too much for my body.

Almarie Fernandez: If you do ferment it, I think it's a different story. Fermented soy is a different story, but I can see how some people think soy is a good thing. And they do soy milk, and then do soy. They're like, I think of a good rule of thumb. Well, I recommend people that if they can go into a health food store, if they're in their grocery store, try shopping around the perimeter of the store because that's what you're going to get all the fresh food. Start looking at labels. Start becoming familiar with labels. If you're going to choose packaged food, choose wisely. I would say 90-95% of your food should come from the perimeter of the health food store. So we're talking about things that don't have a label. An apple, an orange, fresh veggies, and good protein. Good healthy proteins since you're gonna be eating 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal. And that should be a standard because that's what's going to control the insulin. That's what's going to control the insulin from spiking. Because if you think about it, you get Coke, you get chips, that's going to spike up your insulin. It's going to go higher than 30 points, and then it won't come down. And what we want is that the insulin doesn't go higher,it has to go less than 30 points, and then it goes down quickly. It goes down steadily, and it stabilizes. If a lot of people are doing something that I think is going to lead them to diabetes, even if they're thin, if they're doing pastries and coffee, especially first thing in the morning, you have to do protein, healthy fats, especially in the morning because that first meal sets the tone for the rest of the day.

Ann LeMaster: And I'm guilty. I had granola this morning with coconut, some flax seeds and nuts in it.

Almarie Fernandez: That's okay if you can make protein first. I want to say that I understand that people are sometimes looking for information. For some reason, they have something bad. Try to have that protein and fiber. That's why I insist on having that protein, fiber and fat, trying to bump it up first. Because then, even if you have a pastry or something, then the insulin spike is not as bad. It's not ideal. But if someone is used to their donut and everything, have it as dessert, or have it last so that we give insulin that break. I also want to talk about something, the fifth point in controlling insulin is to consider intermittent fasting and avoid snacking. So what we want is to shorten that eating window and eat within eight to 10 hours, maximum 12 hours, so that you give the body around 12 to 14, up to 16 hours of break. I think that's the most reasonable fasting for most people. If they want to have breakfast early in the day, or if they want to start at noon and eat with their family at night, having a specific eating window and then not eating for 12 to 14 hours is going to give their body a break. The body is going to start to tap into its fat scores, because a lot of people are in sugar burn. They're burning off glucose, and they never get fat loss.

Ann LeMaster: The first time I did that, I started intermittent fasting. I said, oh, my god, I'm starving. I can't make it. Now, I can go till 1:00 o'clock. I don't eat that much anymore, but I do try to get my protein in.

Almarie Fernandez: A lot of people don't realize how to manage insulin. And then I'll talk about cortisol a little bit, but it's a lot about timing. It's about first choosing nutrient dense, high quality foods as much as possible. And then we're gonna bring, try to eat earlier in the day or have a shorter eating window so that we're able to give a good 12, 14 hours of break to the body. And then also, the 6th point that I want to talk about insulin is that you want to incorporate physical activity. So after you eat, if you can do a 10, 15 minute walk, or try to walk as much as possible during the day, I'm going to talk about that with cortisol, but it actually releases a lot of the stress hormones. Walking is great. I have a mentor that used to say protein and produce, walking in weight. Protein and produce, walking and weight. And that's really what you want to keep. That's like the cheat sheet that you want to keep in mind when you're losing weight.

Ann LeMaster: What is that again?

Almarie Fernandez: Protein and produce, walking and weight. Double P, double W. It carried me on through on the bad days. I was like, okay, I just have to do protein and produce, walking and weights, and you're gonna find a lot of the effort. They're very repetitive, and they might seem boring. But these boring concepts are what gonna really get you that lasting weight loss.

Ann LeMaster: If you make it a game, then you can play it. It makes it easy.

Almarie Fernandez: When we're eating, we adopt the habits of the five people closest to us so we want to make sure, especially people out there, that if they're engaging in this healthy eating, they need to have community support. They need to see people that are eating healthy. They're on the same journey because people tend to imitate the people that are next. So if they're half relatives that are eating junk food, they're probably going to eat junk food.

Ann LeMaster: Back when I was single, I had a couple of friends. And on Friday night, hey, let's go out for dinner. And I said, I want to get my walk first. Oh, we'll eat first, and then we'll walk. No, do your walk first. They were not real friends, it turned out. They were saboteurs. They were both heavy, and I was slender. I worked in the factory. I came home and I worked, so I had plenty of exercise. And they were always sipping on diet coke. Diet coke is the worst thing. People are listening to the marketing, and they don't listen to you. They don't because--

Almarie Fernandez: We're not that popular, Ann.

Ann LeMaster:  But we're healthier, we're going to outlive.

Almarie Fernandez: Health takes effort. Whoever says that you're gonna, all that propaganda, all the media out there that says, do this, do that, bring coke, be cool. That doesn't happen. That's the point. We both know that that's driving people to disease, right?

Ann LeMaster: And why do we want to drive them to disease? Because we have a pill, a shot, whatever. It's easy for us because we're dumbed it down, because our body isn't fed to be able to think, so we go along with this. Oh, it's like a cloudy day, your body's in a cloudiness. And when you eat, the sun is shining. It's just like on a rainy day, you feel kind of down, and that's the junk food feel.

Almarie Fernandez: I always say to try to add as much, if you're not able to subtract, to take away, try adding because this is a very concept that a lot of coaches do. If you add the good stuff, then you're not gonna have as much space for the bad stuff. It's a way to organically, so you can add chia seeds to Greek yogurt, or you can add basil seeds or flax seeds. Adding that protein, adding that veggie is going to naturally crowd out the bad stuff. To continue talking about insulin, because I do want to go through the hormones. There are tricks like adding raw apple cider vinegar, one tablespoon to water, adding cinnamon, adding green tea, and adding some supplements like Berberine for a short time can help with insulin. That's number 7. Number 8, talk to your doctor.If you're on certain drugs like olanzapine, gabapentin, people that have insulin shots, they are heavy because of the insulin alone. 

Remember, we talked about that insulin. It's a fat storage hormone so you want to talk to your doctor about alternatives. Get yourself tested, get a fasting insulin test, test your HbA1C, your fasting glucose. But that fasting insulin that a lot of doctors don't run, you have to advocate for yourself. If it's above five, you are in trouble. So all the habits that we talked about is what's going to lower that insulin. I want to go over cortisol too. We talked about hypothyroidism insulin resistance, we talked about the sex hormone imbalance, and we talked about chronic stress. Those are the four reasons that people are seeing weight loss resistance. But I really wanted to talk about the insulin first and the cortisol, which is very well related to stress. Cortisol is a hormone that goes up to make us flee from danger. We talk about our ancestors and how they evolved. They would see danger, and they would move. And the problem with us is that we're not moving, and we're seeing everything as a danger and stranger. Your body doesn't know the difference from running from a tigress from a work stressor. Cortisol is good. We do need it. But when it's high for too long, then it can create havoc in the body. And similarly, when there's burnout, there's low court, there can be low cortisol. We don't want that either. We want to be able to have a certain spiking cortisol and be steady. The cortisol spikes in the morning, and then it keeps steady, and then it lowers throughout the day. So you want to be able to get the right amount of sleep. Don't skimp on sleep, 7 to 8 hours, keep the room cool and dark. A lot of people struggle with that. 

We mentioned regular exercise, walking, especially after meals. It's very beneficial. You want to be able to reduce stress any way that you can. We're not able to eliminate stress, but we can do yoga, tai chi, meditation. You're going to eat a nutritious diet with a lot of healthy fats, like we mentioned that some of the points overlap. Very important. You want to love yourself. A lot of people are talking negatively about their body, and that negative chatter is very, very hurtful. You cannot heal a body that you hate. The body's not broken. The body is just giving you signals that it's the right alignment, and that you have to love yourself into the healing process, and love yourself enough. Yeah, you can take certain supplements like quality fish oil and ashwagandha. Check with your healthcare specialist first. You want to talk to your doctor if there's any drugs like prednisone that are raising cortisol. And also, lastly, if you have fatigue and weakness, which is going to go into my third point, one of the main drivers of weight loss resistance, if you have hypothyroidism, or if you have issues with your cortisol, you want to get checked. Well, you can go to an endocrinologist, but they might not be able to run all the tests. So if you do something like, if you look into functional medicine, they have a different view. But I always recommend it to the endocrinologist, because that's their specialty. 

You have hypothyroidism, which brings me to my next point, hypothyroidism. If you are dealing with a sluggish thyroid, everything is luggage. So what someone wants to do is that they're gonna have a full assessment of a full thyroid panel. And it's not just TSH. A lot of doctors are just running TSH. TSH is produced by the pituitary gland in the brain. That is not enough. You need TSH, T3T, 3t4. Sometimes, if they're able to do it, that would be good reverse T3 and thyroid antibodies, TPO and T gap. Because what you want to know when someone sees an endocrinologist, and I would recommend looking at functional medicine, which is my specialty. What they want to know is, if there's anything that's autoimmune related, or that's a nutrient deficiency that the T4 is not able to convert to T3, if it's stress related, or if it's inflammation related. So the thyroid is the master hormone that controls their thyroid receptors all throughout your body. People need to understand, and I'll get to the concept of the 10 basic principles of calorie deficit. But people need to understand that, yes, you can probably do a calorie deficit and get your body to lose weight. But if you don't do it right, you're going to yoyo diet, and it's not going to last. And if you really run too low on calories, you are stressing that fire and hormone out too. Your body is very smart. If someone's probably smoking cigarettes or drinking a lot, the body prioritizes detoxing the alcohol. The body prioritizes like, hey,there's an alarm. She's smoking cigarettes. I'm not gonna give her a cycle this month or something because the body is trying to keep up with you, and trying to keep you alive. I've worked before with an RD, and I do believe that caloric deficit can be done, and you can be successful. 

I actually know on RD that says that the three main things that you need to do are really focusing on that protein, which I really stand by. Because if you don't give the body the protein that it needs daily, then your body's going to pull it from its muscles. Your body doesn't have any stores for protein. It doesn't store protein. It doesn't stop store micronutrients so you have to give it to the body daily. Because otherwise, it's a lot of stress so you want to have the protein intake you want to have the fiber intake. And a lot of people advocate for a caloric deficit. I think it can work as long as you work with someone. I have a program that goes into that. Because of the caloric deficit, you don't want to go to just any calculator. It has to be the highest caloric deficit with the highest calorie intake that your body can handle. Just giving it a little bit of stress so that it releases, that it goes into the fat stores. I do have a program that I'm affiliated with, I put a referral link. I only ask that they put my referral link in, and it's actually run by an RD. It's seven weeks. She talks about all these concepts, and she talks about this ad nausea. We talked about toxins, and the sex hormone imbalance. And going back to the diet, it would be ideal if people would eat organic if they can, or as much as possible. Shop the perimeter of the grocery store or the health food store.

Ann LeMaster: It's so expensive. No, it's not. Because you eat less, because your body is being fed. You eat junk, and you're always hungry because your body is hungry because you don't feed it. It's working hard to get rid of what you're putting in because it's all toxic.

Almarie Fernandez: We have to consider also that the body's going to prioritize if there's an imbalance, if there's an infection, if there's a blockage, if there's a pathogen, if there's a microbial imbalance, if there's a viral infection, bacterial infection, that's what's the body going to prioritize. So going back to that concept of safety, we want to keep the body. We want to convey to the body that it's safe to lose weight, that it's safe to release it. And how do we do it? We lower the toxin overload. Really putting attention on what we put in our body. Those body creams, there's a lot of endocrine disruptors in the women's hygiene products. All these products, the body doesn't really know what to do with that. You have to understand that the adrenal glands, we're keeping the body stress to the max. We're not sleeping, we're not moving every time we feel stressed. When you feel stressed, walk, because they're designed to move. Even if it's a 10, 15 minute walk. Let's say you just got stressed by a work email. After that work email, you walk 10, 15 minutes because we need to convey a sense of safety in the body. The only way that the weight loss is going to be lasting is if we take care of the mental, emotional, physiological stress, and we remove the inflammation and whatever brings that information.

Ann LeMaster: Last words, because we're running out of time.

Almarie Fernandez: I think I said it all. I'm glad. I think we wouldn't be able to fit it all.

Ann LeMaster: We may need to do this on a monthly basis because you've got some awesome information. Do you have a link or something that people can reach you with?

Almarie Fernandez: Instagram. My Instagram handle @almariefernandezhealth, A-L-M-A-R-I-E-F-E-R-N-A-N-D-E-Z health. I actually have a link for my first podcast with John, and I actually have a link of how you can work with me. And in my stories, I talk in further detail about the program that I am referring to people to. It's a 7 week program by an RD. I think she does fantastic work. I refer people to her because she does fantastic work. I do have a referral link. I get a small commission at no extra cost to you. I do think the program is amazing. For seven weeks, it does an amazing job. and then once you're able to get into the program, then she simplifies things for you. I do think that a lot of people are struggling with making that change from junk food to Whole Foods, from releasing stress. So she does a lot of work with that, and I do have tips on my page as well.

Ann LeMaster: Well, any parting words?

Almarie Fernandez: No, I just want to say that weight gain is a sign that your body is not working the way it's supposed to just to keep steady. don't over stress, but keep steady on those principles. The body's going to get the message. The body is meant to be in balance, and you got to do all of these little steps to keep the body in bounds.

Ann LeMaster: I think we're going to do this on a monthly basis. I want to thank you for being on the show. I knew a lot of what you said, but I still learned more. I want to thank the audience, everybody for listening. Contact Almarie because she's got a wealth of information, and she will make you healthier. I would like you to leave a kind review. And perhaps, join and subscribe. And I want to close with an advertisement for a company I am working with, it's called Avini Health. I've been using Silver for diarrhea that I've had for months, and they don't know what to do. So I started using NANO Silver, and I don't have diarrhea anymore. And it's only four days. So anyway, my link for that is www.avinihealth.com/annlemaster8084. I'll get in touch with you when we do it next month.

Almarie Fernandez: Okay, sounds good. Looking forward to it.