Aging Adventurously with Lori Balue, FDN-P, A-CFHC

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Don't let the narrative of the negative aspects of midlife aging fool you. There is SO much to look forward to during the second stage of life!

Today's guest,  Lori Balue, shares her inspirational story of how she was able to transform the challenges she faced in life and create amazing health and wellness through cultivating sunshine, excitement, beauty and adventures out in nature to help herself - and now her clients, heal stress & burnout, and even let go of excess weight and physical pain.

She also shares about her approach with Ancestral health,  the ketogenic diet and intermittent fasting.

Get inspired to create your own adventures by visiting Lori's Instagram posts here.

You can also find out more about Lori on her website here.

Thanks for listening in! Please subscribe to this show to keep in touch and share it with someone who needs more adventure in life (hint: that's everyone!).

Transcript

Hello, and welcome to episode number 18 of lighten up ladies. And whether you are a regular listener or if you're brand new, I am always, always super honored that you decide to spend some time with me. And I am really excited about today's talk because you know how the right people show up at the right time in your life.

And you know, my husband and I, I had mentioned before in a previous episode, we're headed toward. Becoming empty nesters and so much transition in life. And we're beginning to think more and more about like, what do we want to do? What makes us happy? And it's going to be soon just about us again. And so today's guest is doing it right, because the message that she wants to share with the world is like idea of.

Aging. Adventurously. I just love that. Don't you? Because often when we think about the second stage of life, it's about middle age. If you look up middle age on Google, usually midlife midlife comes up the word crisis. It's hard to find something out there. That's promising about midlife. It's about aging losing function.

Feeling like you are not relevant anymore. Those are the kinds of vibes that you look at, or maybe like end of life stuff. And so it's so refreshing to have somebody who's talking about. What about the adventurous part? It's this time to really think about things that'll make you happy and really make you feel good about waking up in the morning.

My guest name is Lori blue. And let me tell you a little bit more about her before we dive in to our conversation. Uh, she is a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner. Yay. Who helps adventurous menopausal women use functional labs to help uncover hidden weight loss blocks to lose weight and stop pain.

Using a holistic ketogenic diet for a metabolic. For a, an active, fun and adventurous lifestyle. She is the creator of health adventure experience. Her signature holistic six month program of transformation by design. She offers a personalized one-on-one program that is unique to each person's needs.

Laurie has been featured speaker multiple times at the whole. Wheaty a natural food store and Lancaster, California, and she talks about ancestral health and ketogenic diets. And when she isn't geeking out about losing. Fat by living keto, you will find her hiking in the national parks. And her favorite one is the bright angel trail at south rim of the grand canyon and participating in half marathons, near national parks.

And I got introduced to Lori through Angela Brown, and I encourage you to listen to that episode, decoding your metabolism with minerals. And she introduced me to Lori and. Immediately hit it off and had so much to talk about, you know, funny thing about timing. I had just gotten back from a very rare vacation away.

My husband and I came back from Tahoe. So this was such a great talk to have afterwards because I had just experienced what she was talking about, getting out nature, savoring of vacation, coming up ahead and looking forward to it and using that as a way of just. Balancing your nervous system, and then also leveraging the amazing healing power of nature.

So let's dive into the show and I'll be back with some takeaway. Hi, Lori. I am so excited to have you on the show today. I was wondering if you could share with us a little bit about yourself and how you help others live adventurously I am super excited to be here. And, um, yeah, one of the things that I seem to be really good at one of my superpowers is that I can really inspire people because I'm so excited when I get outside, when I'm out in nature, when I'm having health adventures and just being in the garden, I just feel like.

I'm so I have so much more serotonin. I feel so much better in my body. And one of the things that people seem to really like is the fact that. This inspiration that I'm portraying is really helpful because I'm vibrant, you know, I'm, you know, encouraging other people to be vibrant, to age, more successfully to go out and get adventures.

And part of this inspiration seems to be what people are looking for, cuz they don't even know that they can get outside and have a better life. And so I just love just getting outside in the garden, creating a real and just putting nature out at, you know, and let people see it can happen. Yeah, I love that when we started talking you, you said, you know, one of the great things about building joy, happiness, and resilience is to, to plan ahead.

How did, how did it all start for you? Uh, how did you discover that love of adventure? Well, I must have had more, um, when I was younger with, you know, my kids, I. Three kids. So when my two younger kids were born, um, well, my dad was, um, sick and dying and we ended up going to Colorado. So we created a, um, vacation out of it and get together with my brother in Wyoming and just do some exploring while we were out and about in Colorado.

And I guess at that point it must have been very relaxing for me cuz I've been, I've been doing it ever since. So my son was UN months old and yeah,

Some place where I could get away from my stress at home and to really reset my body and to get into a place where I could kind of feel myself and do something that makes me happy. And so getting out, wandering, being in the car, seeing those big blue skies out, you know, in front of the car, I think that was one of the first things that really got me thinking that, you know,  I can go outside and get away from home and the stress falls away.

Can you talk about some of the benefits of. Doing that. I mean, part of the planning process and also why it's so great to be outdoors. Well, part of the part planning process I noticed in is that you actually get dopamine hits. Like I was kind of calling it oxytocin, but I think it might be, um, dopamine.

And it makes you feel good to actually think about what you're gonna do to actually have pictures. I would put pictures in a notebook and I would cut 'em out from magazines and I would plan my trip a year in advance and I would go into it. And I would find that so much as stimulating. Citing is the actual trip.

And so by the time I got there, it was almost like, yes, I'm doing this. This is what I've been planning. And this is so relaxing. It is just, it just hit the serotonin, a dopamine responses in my body. So it really just made me feel good on a regular basis. I noticed this the other day when I was kind of overwhelmed with something, I actually went and sat down and started pulling out my latest trip that I'm planning for December at the end of the.

It's a big bend national park and I just started going through it all and it started calming me down and I was like, wow, , you know, this stuff really works. Absolutely. I, I was recently certified as a neurolinguistic programming practitioner and one of the things they talk about is focusing on the future.

Basically it's like timeline therapy, right? If you're in a place right now, that's not so great. You can. Project forward and think about it and your buy your mind doesn't know the difference between what's happening in real time and what you're imagining and thinking about, especially in that kind of detail.

And I love that you talk about, and I've seen your posts, which are a lot of fun, and I encourage people to go in because it's all about fun adventures, sunshine, beauty, and scenic adventures. And. When you start thinking about those things in detail, then it, it does help you feel like you're there already.

So it's like a way to get into a time machine and go into a better space and finally get there. Like you're able to keep looking forward to it as a guidepost. So I think that's brilliant. Yeah. I was, um, I had planned a trip out to Texas last December and I spent probably a good year planning it. And by the time I got, um, to each national park, I was so excited on my, I could feel this.

Pressure bubbling up in, in my body. And I would just like run around the parking lot if I got, you know, just wanted to walk, hike, get out and just, I felt so much excitement by the time I got to it was, um, Guadalupe national park mountains, Guadalupe mountains, national park. By the time I was listening to Joza thinking about the hippocampus, what, you know, the fact that we're getting out and, and creating excitement in our brain and actually creating a new environment for our brain to grow.

I got to the Guadalupe mountains and I was just like putting in a real, I was doing alive and I was so excited. I'm like, I'm here. This feels awesome. I feel wonderful. I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm here. And it was just all of a sudden, all what I think about is like, my brain is growing. It's stimulating.

All of this excitement is good for our brain. If you don't do this, you shrink your hippocampus. And so I wanted to put that out and alive. And so that was one of the things I did when I got there just started working and I just getting that information out. It was so exciting. Yeah. That sounds really amazing.

And it's nice that you're sharing it with other people and encouraging them in real time by doing it and also just get that beautiful visual stimulation. And you brought up Joe Benza. I remember now we had a conversation about that. Mm-hmm  um, I just geeked out on a course of his and I was doing like a daily meditation.

It was the same thing. Um, they had, you do mind movie. Vision boards and then just imagination. So yeah, all of that is really amazing. So what are some of the favorite trips that you've been on? The last trip that I took was at the end of may, early June and, um, my mom lives out in Pinedale, Wyoming. So what I've been doing is kind of planning half marathons over in that area.

So I've been to the grand. Teton half marathon. I love planning these trips because I love being out in national parks and it gets me out of the house for a week or two. I can plan a trip around it, visit my mom at the same time if she's in that area and just be out outside all day in nature. I mean, that's the one thing that I look forward to.

So I went, I went out and did that, and that was just so much fun to just walk around a neighborhood that wasn't. See that there's a river running down, this, this, you know, down the middle of the park, in the neighborhood where my mom lives and every day I would go there and call it my office. And so it was, you know, something that I was just kind of like creating from the moment and living in there at the office as my just daily meditation and excitement zone.

It's like, you know, two. Getting out of my house here and into a different environment where I can actually work and travel as a health coach too, is pretty exciting for me. So I kind of turn it into work and travel at the same time. Sounds like work and then travel. And also just a way of. Kind of showing that you're walking the walk and so it kind of works out because you could probably write off all the business trips and everything, because it's part of how you're expressing what you're doing.

Yeah, that's right. That's part of the goal. So yeah, definitely part of the goal. That's super exciting. So it's one of the things I loved about it is that, um, I do my part-time job is an online, um, keto health coach. And so what I can do is actually work in the afternoon. So I just need to be in a place where I have internet and then I can work from there.

And then on the weekends I have my play time and what makes me happy. And so that helps me stay focused in joy and happiness and, uh, in, in the mentality of being optimistic for the brain and the body to be in a place where I can actually. Be less stressed so that I can maintain my weight loss because I've kept off like 90 pounds, not almost 95 pounds of weight loss and it's, so it's not always just what is the weight that you're losing, but what can you manage to keep off?

And so getting out in nature helps me keep the weight off as well as continue to lose it. So can you share with us a secret sauce? You mentioned keto, but what is the key to. Releasing excess weight in a healthy way. Well, one of the things that I think is critical is the grounding and getting sunlight.

One of the things that I did different in my life over six months ago was to switch out of a retail job that had the bright blue fluorescent lights inside, where there was also stress. You know, you had to get up in the morning to go to a job. I mean, I didn't like to be there. Seven 30 in the morning. I had to get up at five 30 to do that.

That was going against my circadian rhythm. And when I quit that job and came home in, on barefoot now on barefoot all the time, and I actually got barefoot and got in the car the other day and ended up at the gas station and I'm like, I don't have any shoes on . So I got a pair of sandals in the car now for those mistakes, but I think the biggest.

Thing that we really need to focus on is that stress reduction. Because if your stress is too high, you are not going to lose the weight no matter what diet you're on. Amen. Yeah. And so it's not just being on a diet. Yeah. It's not just being on a diet. It's your lifestyle. So the whole secret sauce is the lifestyle.

You know, with the grounding because you have to reduce that stress and it has to become part of a lifestyle management system. And that's how I use health adventures. I love that. I know people are always looking at the nutrition and they forget about the whole body chemistry, the biochemistry. And, um, I know we agree that.

Our physiology has not kept pace with all the technology and everything. We just don't fit into the modern day life anymore. And so we need to get back into our natural habitat, which is like, some people go around, they, their feet never touch the actual earth. And so I know how does that even help you?

Right. And so there's an entire body of science and awareness. Earthing and putting your feet on the earth and then how we need to coexist with nature. So can you explain how all of that works for you in your life, like a day in the life or how, how you incorporate that into your healthy lifestyle? Well, one of the things that I did, um, first thing in the morning, what I do is, you know, my window is open.

I live in a desert, so. The light comes in and I try to hide from it as long as I can. I got up at six o'clock, seven o'clock this morning, which was a little bit later, but I had gotten woken up. So I slept in a little longer, but that light hits my eyes right away. And then I go and I sit outside in the summertime without my eyeglasses sitting outside, you know, catching up on reading, doing whatever work I'm working on, putting a reel together.

You know, checking my aura score or whatever, sitting on the sofa outside without my eyeglasses on drinking a cup of coffee. And then what I'll do is I'll take that coffee on a little coffee walk . So I do put my shoes on for that, but what I do is I pop my eyeglasses on top of my head and I go for a mile walk to listen to the birds and to just breathe and relax.

And that is one of the things that first thing in the morning that really stimulates me like today when I was just getting back to the house.  I just felt this calmness come over me and I just like, felt so good. And I'm like, oh my God, this is why I do this. I just felt, I felt that serotonin pulling in, but light in my eyes helps to create serotonin.

So if you're not getting light in your eyes, first thing in the morning and getting outside for 10 to 20 minutes. And then combining movement with it. I mean, that's just something that's, I've developed that works really well for me, but I think it can work for a lot of people and say, we don't need to sit down to drink our coffee, or we could take it on a coffee walk.

Yeah. Especially if we're out in nature. Yeah, I love that. I know that my mom and I, when she's here, she's a snowbird. So it's summer now she's in Michigan, but we like to go for a walk around the lagoon. And like you said, there's something about the morning sunshine. Can you explain to people who don't know what the circadian rhythm is, how that, why that's so important and how that's helpful for fighting stress and therefore helping with releasing.

Yeah. So sleep actually starts in the morning when our eyes get light in, when sun gets into our eyes. So you start your circadian rhythm. If you go outside and get sunlight. And that's also when you create melatonin for night, so melatonin will turn off for the morning. But what you're doing is you're stocking it or restocking it for the evening.

So that more often you are outside in the morning, you're creating a circadian reset for your body. And then that means you need to have sunlight in your eyes. So a lot of times people will go out with the first morning lights. You could get the red lights and I'm not as I haven't been getting up early enough to do that all the time, but if I could catch like red morning lights, that's the best time to help reset your body because that's what we used to do.

Normally as a species, we used to have that morning light to get up and to reset our circadian rhythms. And that's one of the best things to do to do that. I mean, once you, once you do that, You're not only resetting circadian rhythms for getting sleep, but you're reducing anxiety. You're reducing stress.

You're creating dopamine, you're creating serotonin. You're supporting all your happy hormones and you're getting greater alertness.  and so take that with a cup of Bulletproof coffee and I'm like, gosh, you know, that's the, that's the power day. Yeah, absolutely. And so when you get out in the sunshine, definitely it's something that reset your circadian rhythm, as you said, it decreases your stress levels.

And then that is something that's really helpful for weight, weight loss. And, and as you said, a lot of people are, and you're probably seeing it with your clients. They show up really stressed out. In addition to not getting sunshine, a lot of us are working with. You know, indoor lighting and, and blue light and that sort of thing.

So not getting the right kind of sunshine or light. Exactly. And then at nighttime, they're getting the wrong kind of light and then they're not getting any kind of earthing. So just getting outside, like you said, is able to address all of that and then to add on top of that movement. And yeah, I think hiking and walking is such a nice way, especially if you're overly.

Then you're you can't handle like high, highly intensive exercise and that's something that's perfect for everybody. Yeah. I mean, walking doesn't have to be a, um, power walk, unless just what you wanna do. It can be very meditative. And so just taking nice quiet walks for. I do in the morning. So there are days when I feel more like jogging and I'll go out for a jog.

But for the most part, I like to do a little quiet morning, meditative walks, and then in the afternoon I might, you know, plug in a podcast and go for another two mile walk. That's how I like to learn. And so getting out and planning a hike gets me outta my house. And helps me get into nature for longer periods of time.

So there's been studies shows that you need to get outta your house and into nature for at least five hours at a time. And we kind of need to reset our body with that for at least like every three weeks to every four weeks to get outside and for five hours at a time, be out in nature because that's what the studies are saying.

We need this. So it's pretty interesting. I am. Well, we have beautiful summer weather right now. How would you adapt it when the weather starts getting cold? Is there something else that you do to be able to still maintain that access and exposure and, uh, the sunlight? Well, I don't live in the Midwest or the east where it gets super cold.

So, um, what I just do here, when I wanna get outside, I'll just put on a. I don't like getting out in a lot of wind, but as long as it's, you know, cold without a lot of wind, I'll just put on a coat and go out. And the other thing I do is I live an hour. Hour and a half from different environments. So I could go down to the beach.

If it's too cold, I can go, um, to a different area down in Los Angeles basin. I could go out to San Diego. I could drive out to the coast and it's gonna be a different temperature, but it doesn't feel so cold. And so then I could get that five hour nature immersion and kind of put myself in another place.

But, um, yeah, so, I mean, if it does get too cold, um, you can still put on a coat and get outside and get that morning light in your eyes. So I've done that before. And catching catching light at any time. And you only need about minimum of five minutes to maybe 15 minutes a day. So just put on a coat and let the light in your eyes.

Yeah, I agree with you. Yeah. And then just try once, once a month to plan a, a trip out to an area that feels less, less cold. Yeah. Even if it's overcast, it's something that can help you just because you're still gonna be able to get some access to that light. Yeah. So, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

And it's part of getting that movement too. So the more you can get out and get that movement with any light, that's, what's really gonna keep you that extra bonus. Yeah, absolutely. And I know that with regards to stress, when you're walking, you're having that right. Left, right. Left, gentle movement. And so that rhythmic motion is something that is really soothing to your body.

And, and if you're using your eyes to kind of scan the terrain, it makes you feel like, or you're out of that fight flight mode. Yeah, it's a safe place. Like when your, when your eyes are going back and forth and looking at the blue sky and listening to the birds, and that's part of the relaxation, that's part of feeling safe because when you're looking at your cell phone, your eyes are going up and down, up and down, and you're in a state of sympathetic stress.

And so putting yourself back into a parasympathetic stress means you're. Putting yourself into a place where you can relax. And so the sunlight, the eye movement, and just gentle movement all does that for you. Yeah. And, and I told you that I just got back from south lake Tahoe and it was just so nice to be able to just get away.

But it's so interesting because you realize how addicted you are to technology. We were camping. So  well, I, I also. So we had to get to a place where there was wifi, but when it's not available, you feel like whoa. And so you gotta get your dopamine in another way.  so it's nice to able get out there and do that kind of thing.

But you also see the behaviors of other people, and there's a lot of glamping in that kind of thing going on. So it's a lot of intention and mindfulness that you disconnect from those things and be able to just really be immersed in nature and enjoy being in. A place where there's like beautiful view and fresh air and trees and enjoy nice conversation.

Right. And, and so it's like in person, conversation is so treasured nowadays, especially. Yeah. One of the trips I'm planning for next year is, um, I haven't done a real big camping trip in a while, but I decided instead of getting a hotel, I'm just gonna set up my, um, tent for a week at the north room of the grand canyon campground.

Wow. And just to enjoy it and relax and do that, you know, disconnect. Just disconnect and reset and you know, that's one of the plans I have for next year. Yeah. That's fantastic. And, and dialing back, how did you get into the world of health and wellness? Um, what was the thing that was the tipping point? Do you have like your personal healing journey?

It sounds like is what kind of pu so my personal healing journey was pretty much a lot of it. Obesity and stress related. And mostly I've been looking for a weight to lose weight. My whole life. I've been on a weight loss journey my whole life. And so I have always been trying to fine tune that and figure out how I could get my body to lose weight.

So I started following more of the paleo movement. In the beginning and getting new cookbooks and getting kind of used to that lifestyle and, you know, going more into supplementation. I ended up working at a natural food store where I was able to focus more on supplementation, learn more about supplementations, and then I was in charge of the books.

And so I get to kind of focus on, you know, bringing in the books that I've read, you know, getting involved in more books. And so I am an avid reader. My mom taught me to read when I was younger. So it's maybe an advantage over other people because. I love to as, um, to inhale books. And so I read what I read, what I needed to read.

I picked up cookbooks, I read all the books that were available in the paleo movement. And I incorporated into my life and changed my life style. And so, but it wasn't enough. And so then I just kind of continued into that, looking for that one. Place that I needed to be. And that's how I ended up more on a ketogenic diet was because I went to a Bulletproof conference that was, um, a, you know, something I attended and found out that I was speaking to a brain scientist who was a body type scientist.

And he had survived brain cancer for 10 years. And so it's like, he kind of knows what he was talking about. So he told me, just don't eat fruit. You don't have the body type. And I'm like, okay. So I went keto that very day dropped 20 pounds. , but what it did for me was it dropped my depression, my anxiety, and turned my brain back on.

And for that reason alone, I was then able to heal. I wasn't able to heal before then. And so even though stress is important, the diet also needs to be tuned in cuz diet can be stress on your body. Mm-hmm . And so my healing journey has been pretty much trying to figure out how to lose weight, but it was interesting thing that I discovered was I had an addiction to sugar.

and so food addiction was what was causing me to stall out longer. And the paleo diet still had fruit, maple Feb, and honey, and I couldn't tolerate that much sugar in my body. And so I still had brain dysfunction. My eyes were wonky. My hair was getting thin and I was still 185 pounds. I couldn't lose weight on a paleo diet.

So I had to make that, um, other switch to go a little deeper. And once I did. I was able to turn my brain back on and then turning my brain back on. I went back, I went to adapt functional health coaching program, and I did that. And then I got super excited about functional diagnostic nutrition. So of course I had to jump into that.

And so , so that's pretty much where I went. And then just over the last seven years, I've just seen my body change. And so all of the challenges that I've had have all disappeared.  all of 'em and I was just like, wow, this is a super cool process. That's amazing. I love your story. Thank you so much for sharing.

It's that idea of like, you're looking at weight loss and you're looking at one thing and you're trying to figure it out. You're trying all these different things, but then you find something and you start healing and you're, and then when you heal your body, just sort of. Does what it needs to do to get back to its healthy form, whatever that is.

And so it's so true. Um, I came across keto because of, um, my husband has stage four cancer and I was looking for the right form of therapy and I followed one of my favorite, like, uh, Oncologist, but she's an integrative. Uh, her NA name is Dria winners. I ended up learning about MIS toe therapy, uh, from Chris beat cancer.

Chris work, uh, there was a person that he interviewed IISE I can't pronounce her name. IISE and she. Cured herself, almost exclusively with Visco album extract, which is missile toe. So I thought I need to learn about this therapy. And so the gut goddess, grace Lou, I was on her list and I was helping her with her conferences.

And she sent me a letter that somebody was going to teach how to take these injections for missile toe. So I went there and it was none other than Dr. Nisha winter. So I got certified with her. Right. Um, but her book is all about the ketogenic approach. And then I started filed back in, but it wasn't all of a.

Dominic Dino. And it was kind of like, is it, is it okay? I don't wanna harm him, but all of this research about, um, epilepsy, all this S about cancer. So then we tried the ketogenic diet and he's been doing that ever since. And just like you said, You get this boost of energy, his skin was glowing. People were asking him not me, what to do about their beauty regime and , um, but it's amazing, right?

Because what you put at the end of your fork can be completely life changing, not just for your health, but also your mood and your, your energy levels and everything. So. Yeah. So can you tell me about your ketogenic lifestyle and how you're able to incorporate it? Cuz people might say that's really difficult or you're traveling a lot.

So how do you incorporate it into your travel routine? Well, actually it could be pretty easy with traveling cuz you know, I do intermittent fasting as well. Since I am a fat burner, it's easy for me to go long. Between meals. So I don't need to eat breakfast. I just, you know, focus on having coffee or Bulletproof coffee for breakfast, and then I can take along, um, beef sticks or some nuts, and I could eat those actually traveling tomorrow to Austin for the keto con.

And I'm taking hard boiled eggs, and I'm gonna bake up some bacon and just take those. And that probably be lunch. I'm probably not even gonna eat till I get there, but I'll have lunch ready for myself, so I don't have to go and look for it and I could take it to the hotel. And I actually have beef sticks packed, and I have coffee packed, cuz I'd rather have organic coffee than non-organic coffee when I travel.

And then I also have college impact and I have my MCT oil packed, so everything I need and I don't need as much as I used to need. I used to pack more food because I was afraid of not having food available when I was out and we used to eat more protein bars. I eat less protein bars now and focus more on beef sticks.

Cuz I am trying to prioritize protein. I tend to be, um, with my ketogenic diet, I do focus on protein and fat, but also vegetables. And then as well as some extra fibers, I mean sometimes I'll make a chia putting with, um,  I'll do a chia pudding with flax, flax, and hemp and extra coconut, and mix that with coconut milk and then add some monk fruit.

And then you could top that with some keto granola. So I did that over a couple days of the past couple of days, but basically, I mean, it's just, um, focusing on eating eggs and prioritizing protein, getting your meat in because it's all about building muscle. And if you get, if you don't eat protein, you're not gonna pro you're not gonna build a muscle that we need to.

And so people are just not used to eating as much protein. So it sounds complicated because, you know, it's. You know, you have to stop off and get fast food, but maybe that's readily available and keto can still be purchased while on the road. You just wanna make sure you're not eating the breads with it.

So everything can comes in a bread or on a bun or in a tortillas. Just take it out of that and just eat it as a salad. I'll do a lot of hamburger salads. I've done that before and I do a lot of chef salads. And so those are easy to do on the go. I don't really have any problem like that at restaurants is pretty intuitive.

To me to just order a salad or meat and salad on the side. You know, I just got back from Florida and ate keto the whole time and basically just ordered off the menu, what I wanted to eat without any breading. Yeah, that sounds awesome. I know it, it's interesting that, um, women don't need enough protein, especially in midlife and beyond, and we need a certain amount to be able to get.

You know, that boost, that protein synthesis. And so, um, yeah, that's super important. So I'm really glad you shared that. And it's true. I mean, it's, I like to put everything on a mega salad  and that definitely is,

yeah. Just put everything on a salad works really well. Everything into a salad. And mm-hmm,  also, I was wondering if you can explain to people, I guess, uh, to people who don't understand what keto diet is, and also what is. Fat burner versus a sugar burner. Okay. So a keto diet is a kind of a newer, newer, modern term.

It used to just be called a low carb diet, but a ketogenic diet's been around for thousands of years. It's something that's like, you mentioned it treats epilepsy because they notice that, um, higher fat can enter the brain. And so. A keto diet is just like a low carb diet. The way the Atkins diet is you're basically focused on vegetables, fat, and protein, and you get your carbohydrates to under 50 grams a day, sometimes as low as 20 grams a day.

And so in the beginning, you might be able to go lower so that you can train your body to burn fat. So the more fat you eat, you're training your body to burn that fat. And so then what it can do is go into your body. And burn out all the stored sugar that's in the cells. So a lot of the times people have fatty liver.

And so there's, that's just the, you know, Dr. Jason Fung mentions, that's just too much sugar in the liver, so it needs to be burned through. And then, you know, the fat, um, the sugar we eat gets turned into fat and gets stored in fat cells. So all of that has to be burned. So once you are no longer eating sugar and you burn through all that, um, sugar that's stored in the body, you.

Fat burner. And so when you're a fat burner, you can tap into your stored fats for energy. I do all my half marathons in a fasted state and it works fine with me. I'll just do Bulletproof coffee and some collagen, but, uh, other than the collagen it's, I can, it's kind of a fasted state. I'm burning my body fat to tap in for energy.

And when you're a sugar burner, you have to eat every two hours to make, to get sugar glucose for your body to burn sugar. Most of people in the United States and other westernized societies, they're actually insulin resistant. And when you're insulin resistant, you can't get sugar into the brain. And so your brain starts to malfunction and you can't focus and think straight.

And so you're feel more tired. And so when you're getting better fat in your body and train your body to be a burn, a fat burner on a low carb keto diet, then what happens? You can tap into that body fat, burn it and use it for energy and keep your brain motivated and excited. Awesome. And that's just, you know, focused on fat vegetables, protein, you know, all your animal fat proteins, your, your organic dairies, nuts and seeds, olive avocados.

There's so many foods to eat. I never go hungry. Yeah. And you tend to be full longer just because, and that's part of what you were saying that, um, you're a fat burner. So basically that means that you, you're not hungry every half, hour, hour . Yeah. That's for one that's the best benefit. Um, the best benefit being on a low carb diet is it takes your appetite away.

You're able. Be in control of the food that you eat and you can then eat to live rather than live to eat because you have to, you know, eat food all the time. So I think that's a really important concept. And a lot of people who get into a low carb keto diet end up understanding that, you know, loving having the appetite turn off, being able to control the appetite, knowing you don't have to have sugar cravings and feeling that power empowers you to continue making lifestyle changes.

And so a keto diet and letting yourself burn your own body. Fat is awesome. Yeah, absolutely. And it, it you're right. It frees you up because when the hunger comes, it's more like, oh, you know what? I think I need to eat something. I think, um, I can wait, but I'm gonna go grab something. And you're making conscious decisions versus that reactive.

I gotta grab something. And if, if you're not prepared and you're out and about, you're gonna grab something super, you know, you're not gonna wait for that steam broccoli. You're gonna wait for that salmon cook, right? Yeah, exactly. You're grab something that's available. Yep. So.  um, that makes a lot of sense.

So then you have more control. That's why my airport bag is already packed for the weekend with beef sticks, nuts and coffee.  I know. It's so funny. That's what I have. I have some, you follow, I make some cookies and so I'm taking cookies. Oh, wow. So I make keto cookies and I'm gonna take those. So that's my treat.

Oh, that's awesome. It's never been easier to be able to have a healthy lifestyle. Isn't that true? Yeah, I think it's a lot easier. Now when I was at the airport coming out of Florida, they actually had some high key cookies with his Z keto snack. And so I bought one of those and ate the whole thing for dinner.

And so I'm like, Joe, I could buy something at the airport now that's pretty cool. But you know, you could always get the beef sticks too. And, um, You know, but when you're a fat burner, you can tap into body fat by doing intimate and fastness. So you don't need to eat as often as we think we are, sometimes we eat more from bit boredom, which the airport eating was probably what that was about.

I'm like, oh, cookie is sure. I'll eat them. Let's go get another cup of coffee. And you know, I've got a two hour wait before the next airplane goes out.  yeah. So. But you don't have to eat. You can intermittent fast because when we're in our fifties and menopause, we do need to shorten our circadian, you know, our eating window and do more of an intermittent lifestyle fast because our metabolism can slow down and we wanna work with inter metabolism.

So it just depends on your body type as to whether or not you need to do intermittent fasting. If you need to have one or two meals a day, but you play with that. Easy to do once you become a fat burner, because like you said, you don't have to eat as often and it's not hung. And when you do get hungry, it's not hangry.

Your insulin levels are turned down. They're not turned on. So as a fat burner, you've got those insulin levels turned on. You've got your metabolism working for you, and you're just working with your body for that homeostasis. And it's gonna work for you for weight loss after that, but you just don't need to eat as much as we think we.

Once you get it all dialed in. Yeah. So for people who have not tried intermittent fasting, how do you explain how you prepare for it and, and get into it? How do you work with client? Who's interested in trying but never, well, the, the first thing to do is just to realize, you know, eating, not eating overnight.

So cutting off, um, closing the kit, the kitchen at a specific time at night, seven, eight o'clock at night, and then you don't eat again until eight o'clock the next day. That's a 12 hour. Okay. And so then what you do when you're feeling comfortable, did you wanna build up your fasting muscle? So if you push it back an hour every week, so if you're doing 12 hours and then let's do 13 hours, if you're already doing 13 hours, let's do a 14 hours.

And then that's where MCT oil can come in and even better in the coffee because that doesn't break a fast. So you could whip up MCT oil, C eight MCT oil, and some gear or butter in the blender make Bulletproof coffee. And that turned your hunger off. And so you can actually. Push back your fast, longer, and then do a lot of people like to do a 16, eight, which is you start lunch at eight or it's at 12 o'clock and you don't eat again till eight.

And so that's kinda like an eight hour window. And when you do that, you are actually letting your body be more in ketosis to burn body fat more naturally. And you could do this on a daily basis, or just try it a couple di days a week. Do you feel like everybody should be on a keto diet? It depends on your metabolism.

I am a protein based. Diet, um, type diet type. I took a Metabo metabolic typing diet, and I am protein based. My mom noticed this when I was younger, that I do better on amino acids. I need to have a lot of protein and I do really good burning fat. So there are some countries that. Do more vegetarian type diet.

So if that's your ancestry, you may be more balanced or more carbohydrate balanced. And so you could take a test called the metabolic typing diet to see where you land. However, if you're obese and need to reset your metabolism and you have a. Weight to lose. So over, you know, 30, 40, 50 pounds of weight to lose everybody benefits from a low carb diet, cuz it's gonna reset your metabolism and help you burn off that fat and get your body kind of back into a reset.

So I call it like a reboot for your metabolism and um, basically nobody needs to eat refined carbohydrates. So at that point, everybody can benefit from a low carb diet cuz if you're eating crap, if you're eating refined carbohydrates with sugar and processed flowers and food. And thinking this is food for your body.

You're basically eating kibble and, um, processed food and it doesn't give you health. And so as long as you have, you know, you're sick and you're overweight. You do not need those foods and a low carb diet will benefit you. So it's, it's all about working with your metabolism. Yeah. So do you have a certain kind of person that you like to work with?

Yeah. Somebody who's ready for action. I can't help anybody. Who's not ready for action. So you kind of have to be somebody who's already thinking of adventure and really wanting to get outside and live life adventurously because, you know, um, I can. Work with somebody. I can't really work with somebody who isn't ready for action.

You have to choose the fact that you need to reduce the sugar in your diet. You might need to go gluten free, or you need to go gluten free. If you wanna lose weight and reset to metabolism because you need to correct your gut health. And so I run five functional. Diagnostic labs to help get that hidden weight block, you know, the hidden information for your weight and health.

And, um, you need to be able to invest in your health. You treat it as self care because if you're not ready for self care, if you're not ready to get, if you're not ready to look for the results. And have results. You won't get results. So I just started a new client. She is, you know, late fifties just took all five labs and getting started with her right now.

And she's just ready. She's just fed up. She's ready. And she doesn't wanna live the way she's living anymore. She wants her stomach down. She wants to go back to work and feel pretty and wear. In a suit and doesn't feel like she's in a place now that she can do all that. So she has hope again to actually find the, you know, we're finding information with the labs and she can actually, she's feeling more empowered.

She's ready to take the supplements. And you know, now she's understanding why she shouldn't eat gluten, but before she didn't understand why she should drop it, you know, why, what matters if you have a bite here or there? Well, if a bite can set you back three months to six months with IgG. You know, immune reaction in your body, then yes.

It's gonna matter. Yeah, because it can stay in your body for that long. And people think that, oh, of having exposure, but if you have one or two exposures in a year, you probably have the entire year because it takes that long to clear it out. So can you go over for the listeners? Um, what labs you run and how they're helpful?

So I run a, a Dutch test, which is a urine test that, um, tests for your hormones as well as your cortisol. So it's also gonna check to see what your stress looks like. You know, what your melatonin is looking like, where all your hormones are at and how your detoxification pathway to go. Init even shows some vitamins that are, um, lower high.

And so this is some really good information to help with that hormone levels in your body, in your, in basically the. The stress, the cortisol levels. And then the other one is, um, a, a gut GI map test to map out the body's stomach from the stomach all the way through the intestines to see what your, your dysbiotic bacteria is, whether you've got leaky gut, whether there's H pylori in your stomach, you know, it's gonna, um, help you determine if you have digestive dysfunction, how much, you know, where your detoxification issues are needed.

And. Really kind of just show the way to, to correct the gut. Cuz if we don't correct the gut, then we're not gonna have that weight loss that we need. And then one of 'em that's super important that one of my clients thought was really powerful is the MRT and just seeing what he was allergic, you know, not, not allergic but sensitive to was an eye opener for him because basically.

He was eating everything he was sensitive to. And once he took it out, he could reduce the inflammation in his body. So getting a food sensitivity test helps you reduce the inflammation. So you can then get your gut in less in flame so that when you are trying to heal and seal the gut with supplementation, what happens, you know, you're not.

Keeping it inflamed. You're actually able to get to a better healing place. So all these tests go in, go together, because what they're doing is showing you the stress so that you can reduce stress, cuz stress could also cause gut dysfunction. So then you have the food sensitivities reduce the food sensitivities.

So that also supports the gut. And then with the gut test, finding out what's going on in there, all of these things, digestion, detoxification, immune, and nervous system, you know, all the energy levels, all of this works together. To. A healthier body once you know what to target. Exactly. And so with supplementation, you don't have to waste your time and your money.

You know what to, you know, we're gonna get it, get to the kinda like collapsing time, you know, find out what's wrong, you target exactly what's wrong. And then you get to the bottom of it by working with lifestyle and supplementation. I do run a couple of other metabolic panels and a permeability panel.

That's going to show you your Zolin levels, which are your leaky. Indicator in the body. And if that's bright red, then you're definitely gonna you're reacting to gluten in the body and, you know, acting to anti Gladin in the body. So all of those things we want to reduce in the body and seeing that in black and white makes a big difference, but it, all those tests they're all important in, in certain degrees.

But one of the things my client said was, um, he mentioned what we ate as children. Was all wrong. And that was a big eye opener for him to make the changes that he needed to change. Cuz you know, he, he reversed his diabetes and got off all medications and just running the, those first three labs I mentioned was what he needed to make the lifestyle changes.

Uh, Yeah, that's fantastic. I know there are a lot of people who really need to look at the data and, and that's, what's so powerful about being in a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, because you can actually show it to them because just being told isn't enough, they need to see it. And as you said, when you take a food sensitivity test, like the MRT.

They're able to see, you know, it's written out for them. This is causing inflammation. And a lot of times it's foods that are considered generally healthy for people. When we did it for my husband, it was carrots and apples. Guess that that was the gin protocol. He had eaten a lot of it. Um, and so of course that was causing inflammation and all kinds of issues.

And we. It was a healing program. And so I had to make sure it's customized for sure. So that's fantastic. So you help people with finding adventures, getting out in nature, and then you help them with all of these labs to be able to help them get back into balance. Yeah. So I call it like health adventures and menopause and, you know, really encouraging people to get out and create a health adventure while they're working with me and to promote outside activities.

But also at the same time, running all the labs, finding out what's going on and then creating the lifestyle around that and see, like you said, seeing that in paper and, you know, knowing that this is what's going on inside their body is very powerful to help people make those changes, to want the changes.

Yeah, that's amazing. Well, I really love that you came on and explained to us. I love the approach of looking at something in the future, planning, something that makes you really happy and letting that be your guidepost. So if you're having some bad day or whatever, think about the thing that's making you happy.

You can immediately reset that fight and fear and go into like traveling time into something. Happy. Exactly. I do that with the grand that's the grand canyon is kind of like my place to go. In my head, as well as I plan trips there every like once a year or every two years, mm-hmm , I'll plan a trip. So I'm going hiking there in September, but I'm always thinking about it, thinking about being there and it just lights my soul on fire.

And it's been a healing journey for me because every time when I first started my hiking into the grand canyon, I had sore knees. I had excruciating pain walking down into the grand canyon to the river and, um, but I wanted to be there. So I put up with it. When I went back after changing my diet, I didn't have as much pain.

My knee didn't hurt anymore. Wow. And so every time I go back, I'm stronger. I have less knee pain and I just feel so good in my body. So it's almost like I've been growing up there and it's something that keeps calling me back and it's been kind of like a healing journey for me to see how my body's changing and from all the weight that I had into the weight that I've lost and to just be real excited to be able to, um, next year walk rim to rim.

A 24 mile across the canyon. I'm super excited to plan that trip, but it makes me really happy. That's amazing. So, Lori, what do you have to say though? The ladies out there that are afraid of aging and they feel like it's the end and that there's nothing but decline from there. You have the choice to choose health, but you also have to get out and have movement.

You have to get out and have sunlight. You have to figure out what stresses you out and how to get away from your stress. We can't always get away from stress, but we can kind of postpone it during the day a couple times by finding things that we're content with. What makes us happy? What brings. Joy. So we could turn off the stress response on and off and learn how to breathe.

And so getting out there and just doing like a 4, 7, 8 breathing practice is what I did on my walk this morning, too, is when you do that throughout the day, that turns off the stress. So even though we have stress, we can learn to control it. And then. We just have to plan a health adventure once a year, get out and have this mega health adventure for a week or two weeks and get outside and reset your body.

Just get excited. But, and then, you know, don't be afraid to change your diet. Just do one tweak a week. One action plan a week. I'm working with someone right now and just giving, you know, 20 minute calls a week just to help her with accountability, to help her make some changes. She was drinking soda. Now she doesn't want to anymore.

She's super excited. She does not drink soda. That's a big one. I mean, one step at a time.  and then you can adjust your diet as you go. So, I mean, if you don't wanna do something cold Turkey, you don't have to, but you wanna also get, maybe get information to educate yourself. A lot of it is there's not the education's not out there, but if you, um, hang out with somebody who has that knowledge has that education so that you can feel empowered and.

Fired and know that you can do it too, because I'm not special. I just had to go through all my lifestyle changes. I had to make all the actions and find what turns me on what makes me excited and lowers my stress response and getting out in nature does that for me. So I think it's super powerful, but you know, you gotta look at food as an addiction.

Food is an addiction. It's a chemical response in the brain and it can create dopamine, dopamine response. And, you know, they've done lots of studies with rats who would rather eat rats that are addicted to cocaine and sugar would rather eat sugar. And so these are what you're fighting. You're fighting chemical addictions and brain addictions.

Even though you may not realize it it's happening. So the more often we eat the refined carbohydrates, the refined sugars, the more you're setting that off. And so one of the easiest things to do to get off sugar is just start eating more fruit. And then eventually you can limit fruit more towards the evening, but less during the day.

But adding then the fat and the protein satiates, the body, we're not eating enough food as women. We're not eating. Protein to create neurotransmitters in our brain. So if you don't eat protein, you're gonna have more anxiety and depression you'll have to eat the protein and the fat is satiating. So don't be afraid of the fat.

And maybe there's people just don't realize that it's the sugar that causes us to gain fat. And they think it's the fat that causes us to gain fat. It's not, it's the sugar, it's, there's too much sugar in the body and your body has to store it as fat. And it does the same with alcohol. And so when we satiate our body get fat and protein, then we can make the changes.

and so it's a lifestyle change and it's not something that's done in a day. You just start making action changes, you know, one, one at a time, get outside and ground and get that sunlight that makes it easier. Cuz if your serotonin's working, then you're able to, and you're more energized. Then you're able to make changes more in a more excited place.

Fantastic. So Lori, if people wanna find out more about what you do and follow you, how can they find you? I am on Instagram. It'll probably more than I need to be, but I am there every day as Lori below. So check me out there. Um, I just posted a couple of videos that I was excited about today and. You can also find me on Facebook at Laurie blue aging adventurously and that's basically what I love to talk about is, you know, we don't have to settle for being old and menopause.

We don't have to settle for weight gain. We can lose weight and menopause. I am doing it. And, um, we can age adventurously and successfully we can be graceful. We don't have to settle for aging, but you have to make action plans and change your lifestyle and let nature help you. Thank you so much for joining me, that was such a fun talk.

And I know that people will find it super helpful and valuable and very inspirational. Yeah, I loved it. Thank you for inviting me. This was a lot of fun to be able to talk about, you know, this is my passion. I love helping women, especially women in menopause, cuz that's where I'm at. I'll be 60 next year.

This is why I wanna do the rim to rim mm-hmm this is my challenge. Wow. Amazing. Well, I'm gonna be watching and cheering you. Thank you. Okay. I hope that conversation really sparked some inspiration. So what are some adventures that you want to have up ahead? Because if you don't plan it, it's not going to happen.

Everything begins with a thought and, and that's how that Tahoe trip started. Uh, Martin. And I were talking about like what we would like to do, what would make us happy? We should have an adventure. Where would we wanna go? And he loves being outdoors. And we thought, well, why don't we go to Tahoe? There are so many things to do.

And since then we've gone paras settling with the family. It just kind of snowballed into a lot of different things. We've gone parasailing that led to skydiving, which is for the next episode. And we ended up jet skiing and, you know, paddle boarding. We just ended up thinking about things that would make us.

And just following through on it all. And it all started with just the idea of like, what would make us happy, what would be super exciting that we want to get involved in and do more on a regular basis. And, you know, along the lines of becoming an FD nester, I'm obsessed with the idea of creating memories for the kiddos, so that when you think about us, they'll remember these things because we can give them things we can give 'em an education, but the thing that'll warm, their hearts and really help them remember us.

The, we wanna be remembered is through. Time together and adventures. And so I encourage you to start thinking about those kinds of things, because that's, what's up ahead. If, if you plan for it, then it's more likely to happen for sure. And the other things that Lori shared were just a. Beauty of nature and how that is one of the best ways to reset your circadian rhythm.

Your circadian rhythm is supposed to just start off high on cortisol in the daytime, and then slowly slope down towards the end of the day. But that's your adaptive reserve, the amount of energy and resilience you have at the beginning of each day. And it happens to be something that we look at our labs, the Dutch tests that she mentioned.

It's one of the biggest indicators of your longevity and quality of life. So it's so amazing to be able to get out into the sunshine. It's something that all of us can do and to make it a part of our ritual and routine. The other thing that I love about what she talks is about is Joe Dispenza. And yeah, that's another level, but it's about the mind body connection and the whole law of attraction.

And, you know, you can heal yourself if you believe you can. Um, those kinds of things. We're woo woo. He ties into the whole YOIC philosophy and belief systems and technology, and he modernizes it. If that's a word and he puts the science to it. And so I would highly recommend that you look into Joe Dispenza.

I remember the first time I talked to Lori and when we started geeking out about it was like, yeah, she's my people. And then she also talks about the, she mentions. As ketogenic and I call it ketogenic. So either way, um, she's gotten me saying ketogenic, it sounds a little bit more sophisticated for some reason, but that is something that is super helpful, especially in midlife.

Now there's no one size fits all and I highly encourage you to work with a practitioner, especially when you're starting out, because there's so much. Not good information out there. And also you wanna see how you are metabolizing your macronutrients and make sure that you're able to actually absorb and break down the proteins and fats, uh, because some people cannot and you need to be able to support that.

Uh, but anyways, it's just, there's so much healing opportunities when you. Cut the carbs, decrease your sugar. That's something that's good for pretty much everybody. And then there's just more nuance. And also she introduces the idea of intermittent fasting, which is super powerful. And actually, when you think about it, I mean, this idea that we have to constantly be snacking or that's really dangerous to skip meals, that's something that we did in the state of nature.

That's the way that we used to live our physiology. Going back to the. Theme is to be out in nature. Um, breathing in the fresh air, being under the sunlight, that's our natural habitat. And part of being our natural habitat is also sometimes having a feast or famine moment. We didn't have in the state of nature, grocery stores, where we can just run out there and grab a bunch of stuff.

It used to be that if you wanted to eat something, you had to go run and you had to hunt for it, or you had to harvest it. And then it took time to prepare it and, uh, do all kinds of things to be able to actually eat it. And. Actually in the state of nature and how we're designed sometimes skipping a meal is part of how we were supposed to be in life and.

Going back to that is basically living in our alignment with our physiology. So that was something else. And with her amazing story, her personal journey, don't you love those. I just love, love, love, hearing people's personal stories so that we can understand why they do what they do and why they have the passion that they have.

If you'd like to learn more about Lori, visit her on Instagram, if you want a dose. Beauty and nature. She shares a lot of that in her post. She's always in some beautiful setting somewhere. And she inspires me to think more and more about how to get out into nature and to have fun and enjoy life. And I love that idea of when you have something to look forward to whether your jam is having an adventure outdoors or whatever it is some goal that you have in life.

That's the thing that's going to be your north star, your guidepost to carry you through some challenging times, because it's always gonna be something that you. Forward to in life, if everything else is not going right, there's something that you can create that you can look forward to. And that is powerful.

So what is it that you want to do? How are you going to navigate through your next adventure? So my challenge to use is to think about that and make it happen. And until then, thank you so much for listening and lighten up ladies.