Pharmaphobic
Pharmaphobic is a bold and thought-provoking podcast that challenges the status quo of health and wellness in America. Hosted by Dan, a veteran-turned-fitness professional, and Janie, a physician assistant, this show dives into the deep-rooted issues within big pharma, big food, and the healthcare system. With a mission to uncover corruption and promote sustainable, long-term health solutions, Pharmaphobic is for those seeking better answers, curious minds ready to question the system, and anyone eager to take control of their well-being. Join Dan and Janie each week as they explore practical ways to thrive, share transformative health insights, and inspire change. Follow Pharmaphobic on your favorite podcast platform and be part of the movement toward real health and wellness.
Pharmaphobic
Ep. 69 - Are We Really Doing Everything Right?
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We keep hearing the same thing: “I’m doing everything right, but nothing is changing.” The more we talk to people, the more we realize that what feels right and what actually moves the needle are often two different things.
We get into the habits that quietly stall progress, from unrealistic goals and under-eating to sneaky snacks, weekend derailments, medications, poor recovery, and workouts that are either too much or not enough. Sometimes the answer isn’t more discipline. Sometimes it’s more information.
We keep coming back to the same question: if we’re truly doing all the right things, why are so many of us still stuck?
Contact Daniel and Janie:
Email: info@achievethelifestyle.com
Website: achievethelifestyle.com
Instagram: @achievethelifestyle
Contact Daniel and Janie:
Email: info@achievethelifestyle.com
Website: achievethelifestyle.com
Instagram: @achievethelifestyle
Pharmaphobic is powered by Achieve the Lifestyle, a company dedicated to helping you empower your health, redefine your lifestyle, and all for the health of it. You're listening to Pharmaphobic, where we challenge the state of health in America. I'm Janie, a physician assistant, and I've seen how healthcare keeps people dependent instead of truly healthy.
SPEAKER_00And I'm Dan, a veteran turned fitness pro here to uncover the truth and explore simple and sustainable health solutions. From big pharma to big food, we're exposing the conflicts of interest, keeping us sick, and finding better ways to take back our health.
SPEAKER_02No fluff, no gimmicks, just real talk, real solutions, and a little bit of fun along the way.
SPEAKER_00Hello there. Welcome to another episode of Pharmaphobic, brought to you by Achieve the Lifestyle, where we help you become the strongest, healthiest, and most capable version of yourself. I just now I'm laughing because. Lovely co-host of the show, the planner of the plans of our life, and special guest of the podcast, Miss Janie Brown. How are you doing today?
SPEAKER_03I still don't know how I'm a special guest, but I'm great. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00Because you special everywhere you go.
SPEAKER_03Thank you. Did we say this was the pharmaphobic podcast?
SPEAKER_00Yes, I already said all that.
SPEAKER_03All right, cool.
SPEAKER_00Um, guys, today we got a single issue for you. We're gonna get right into this because we've had, okay, multiple conversations over the past week, I would say, of about of the I'm doing everything right and my body's not changing. So we've been having, I mean, in multiple directions. Pow, pow, pow. We've been elbow dropping, boom, kicking knowledge, pow. In multiple directions of people that have asked the question. Oh, but I'm eating clean. Oh, but I'm lifting weights, but my body's not changing. Yeah. What's going on? So I must be doing something wrong or this isn't working, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_02A lot of times people they're like, I'm doing everything right. I'm doing everything right, but they they haven't had anybody from the outside look in, right? And it's hard to see the picture when you yourself are inside the frame. And so it's always great to have a coach or just a one-off consultation. Look what I'm doing, because I think I'm doing everything right, but I'm not getting the results that I want. So have somebody else take a look at it and see. And then when you do that, be willing to hear them.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And be willing to consider, all right, maybe I need to change some things. Just because you're doing everything right, it may not be wrong, but it may not be the thing that you need at that moment. So you may need to make adjustments.
SPEAKER_00So I think the first stop right off the bat is revisiting goals, right? And we gotta make sure that they are realistic for where you are at. And that it's just one goal. And that is exactly. It's not I want to run a 5k and do a bodybuilding, or I want to run a marathon and do a bodybuilding show in the same year type of thing. Um, or I am 40% body fat, I'm trying to get down to 5% type of thing.
SPEAKER_02Like, or I just want to be healthy and at 115 pounds when you know I weigh 190.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay.
SPEAKER_00Or I want to put on 30 pounds of muscle in a year. That's not that doesn't work like that. No. Um, or, you know, I want to drop 50 pounds to fit in this wedding dress type of thing. Like, we gotta make sure that these goals are realistic, that they're, you know, healthy. We gotta make sure that they're feasible for where you're at. And to do that, we gotta consider your background as well.
SPEAKER_02And also is it is it a true goal? So is your is the in-game you want to be, you lose 30 pounds? Is that absolutely your goal? But why do you want to lose 30 pounds if it's just to lose 30 pounds? No other reason, just want to lose 30 pounds, and that's your goal. Okay. But that's very rare that I want to lose 30 pounds because. What's the because?
SPEAKER_00A lot of people will say, you know, 99% of people that walk into a gym, that walk into, you know, talk to somebody about nutrition, their goal is gonna be to lose weight, right? And and what they have in mind, they don't they don't care, they're just looking at a number on the scale. But what they have in mind, why that weight? Oh, because that's what I weighed in high school, which was the last time I was quote unquote skinny. It's like, okay, you're 45 years old now, and you're talking about something that's almost 30 years in the past. I don't think that makes sense.
SPEAKER_02And a whole bunch of life has happened in between.
SPEAKER_00Now you got three kids, you got a job, you got bills, you know, like you you want to weigh the weight, same thing you weighed in high school. That doesn't make sense. Yeah, right. And who's to say you were in good shape in high school? I don't know, you know, but um that's one thing that we so we gotta go to the goals first. What are the goals? And then we gotta, we might have to tweak them, be like, hey, this isn't really feasible this year for where you're at right now, or you're pulling in a different direction. You're saying this is your goal, but everything you're doing doesn't match up with your goal.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Also, I've just been thinking about this a lot lately, that people, especially women, they're like, I want to look like I did at this one point of time. Maybe it was like a summer. Okay. So I'll just give an example. Um, this isn't exact, but it's like a loose example of me, you know, I put on the freshman 15, maybe 20 when I was in college, my freshman year of college, because I went into my freshman year of college fresh off of knee surgery. Um, I was not cleared to return to activity or running or anything. So I just didn't work out. I ate and drank, right? So yeah, I gained weight. So that summer after I went back home and I was working a few jobs. I was outside every day, I was being active, I wasn't eating as much because I was working so much. So it wasn't healthy. Okay. I just want to preface that. It was not healthy, but I lost a bunch of weight. But I was crashing down because I was working literally like two to three jobs. I was not eating consistently, and I probably wasn't sleeping, but my total caloric intake was much lower. And my activity was up because then I was, you know, cleared medically to um be active. And so I was crashing because I wasn't supporting my body, but on my spiral down, there was like a two, three month window where I looked great. Yeah, right. And so I think that's where a lot of people catch. I can also say that with jujitsu. When I started doing jujitsu, I was also doing field strong and I was in the midst of changing my body composition, and then I started jujitsu. So my activity boom increased, right? My caloric intake did not appropriately increase. I I know that. That was my fault. There was a good two, three month window. I was cut. And then I wasn't, right? And then my energy crashed. I put on some inflammation, like inflammation weight and all that stuff. So I think people they don't think about that. They just think, well, I lost weight, I looked good, and then I gained weight back.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. There's a honeymoon period. You starve yourself. We were having that conversation with somebody we love. Um, you starve yourself and drop your caloric intake to ridiculous levels, and you lose 15 pounds, and you're like, man, I look awesome. You're on your way to a train wreck.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And so what I say, what I say, why I'm saying this, let me say it again, okay? But those two examples I gave, where I quote unquote looked good, was cut, right? They weren't healthy, okay? And they weren't sustainable, right? So people think I want to go back to this time where I looked amazing, but why weren't you able to sustain it? We don't look at it that way. Why were you not able to sustain that look? Because it was not a healthy place to be.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, you're right.
SPEAKER_02Because if it was, you wouldn't be back up. And I understand different life circumstances, maybe your story's different, but you need to find some place where you can be that you can be for the long term. A 1200 calorie diet is not something you can sustain for a long term. Endless amounts of activity with little calories is not something you can sustain long term. Because if you continue to do it, your body composition will not work out in your favor. You may put on some weight or become weight loss resistant, you're tired, your hair falls out, you're not pooping, you lose your period, your hormones are a mess, you're grouchy.
SPEAKER_00All these things. This is where I also, with exercise methodologies, where I give word of caution, because some people will adopt an exercise methodology thinking it's their best way to get down or change your body composition, and or they'll increase their volume of workouts crazy. You know, like I'm gonna add this many workouts a week because I want to get down to this right now. And that's not sustainable. And then once you end up, you know, you might go through a honeymoon period where you lose and you're like, oh, I look good, but you're you're like enjoying a scenic view on your way to a train wreck, right? Um, people, you know, when they get into like the crossfits and the high rockses and the hit everyday type modalities, and this is where I caution these people, you know, if you want to crossfit and you want to do high rocks and go ahead, go ahead. But I caution you, right? Like when you jump into that, you might go through a phase where your body changes very, you know, and you start looking a certain kind of way, but it might not be a sustainable place for you. And you're under recovering, and eventually, you know, that leads to injury, or you leave you get into a place where you start actually going backwards, right? Um, something, you know, it just doesn't fit with where you're at, right? So you'll see a honeymoon period in things. You'll see it in GLPs as well. There's a honeymoon period there, you know. So people that go vegan, right? Honeymoon period. We're like, oh man, I feel great. Okay, come back to me in a year. It's done, right?
SPEAKER_02So let's not, let's not look at these little like little periods of time. We want health for the long term. We want you to be comfortable in your body for the long term. We want you to be active for the long term, okay? And so stop going back to your like prom weekend body size when you're 18. Stop it. Okay. That's and get some help.
SPEAKER_01Yes, exactly.
SPEAKER_02Um, and so it were almost as like skydiving, right? You jump out of the plane and it's like a rush, you feel great. The view is amazing, but that landing, that landing's hard.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So you need to be careful.
SPEAKER_00Especially jumping out of a static line military aircraft. That landing is not fun. Um so we're gonna get into some stuff that we talked about the goal setting, right? That's where we want to start. But we're gonna get into some other things that other levers that you have to turn, right? Or that you might have to look at to make sure, you know, where you can assess and be like, hey, I need to look at this, need to look at this, and change some stuff in these departments that might help you bust through that issue, right? Um, there's also context. A lot of people say, I'm doing all the right stuff.
SPEAKER_02Are you though? We may have different definitions of right things.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like we gotta make sure that the right thing is actually the right thing, right?
SPEAKER_02Um because so I was filling out paperwork for um somebody, and I was doing their social history, and this person is doing all the right stuff, right? Vegetarian. Probably because somebody told him, like, get your cholesterol down, go vegetarian. So I'm doing the right stuff, right? So vegetarian um does not exercise at all, which that's not right, just across the board. Don't do that to your body. We're made to move, move your body. Uh everybody, move your body. And then um, agnostic, meaning you just have no belief. That's sad. So eat meat, lift some weights, no Jesus, just solved all your problems. We can just end the show.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Thank you for joining us for the pharmaphobic podcast.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, a lot of the, you know, hey, listen, you might disagree, you might not agree, but health, this health thing, there's a spiritual component to it, and y'all need to get on that. Don't don't miss out on that.
SPEAKER_02And if you're saying, you know, if you're like my brother who's like, God's not real, well, you actually just acknowledge that he is by saying he's not. So thank you.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, definitely get on that. Don't miss out on that part of your health. And a lot of the stuff that we talk about on the podcast, I've I feel it's a realignment with the design, right? We were created a certain way, and things were ordained for us a certain way. And the further we drift from that, the unhealthier you get in every sense of the word.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_00Oh, instead of eating the strawberries that were created and put in the in the fields and in these little bushes, and we go and pick them and you eat them, and you get all these vitamins and fiber and all this stuff, I'm gonna eat strawberry pop-tarts. Fake, man-made, strawberry-tasting type stuff. And what happens? Diabetes, my boy. Like, or cancer. Like, seriously. So the further we get away from the way it was designed, the worse it gets for us.
SPEAKER_03But never mind, I'm not gonna go into this. Never mind. Go ahead.
SPEAKER_00But anyway, coming back to it. Um, areas where we have to assess, be like, okay, you're stuck, you're in a plateau, you're in a rut, and you claim to be doing the right stuff. So let's take a look at the whole picture. First thing that I want to see, because a lot of people don't go here, blood work, baby. What's up with it? Get blood work. My guy, I can't. Your conventional doctor, nine times out of ten, is not gonna give you the blood work you need.
SPEAKER_03Agreed.
SPEAKER_00Nine out of ten. Some conventional doctors, some people surprise me when they show up with some really good panels. I'm like, wow, this doctor's with it. He's he's on it. So that's the first part, right? You might think you're doing the right stuff. Pull the blood work, you're pre-diabetic. We got an issue. Insulin readings, like your fasting insulin, your blood glucose levels are out of whack, your testosterone's in the gutter, your hormones are all over the place. TSA, all this stuff is all over the place.
SPEAKER_02And so fasting insulin is something that's not going to be routinely drawn. You have to ask for it, and you may be denied, even if you're like, I'll pay cash for it. Um, I really advocate for you to still ask for it. Uh, if not, you may need to go to an alternative uh lab facility or somebody to order, maybe different to order your blood work, but I would ask saying it's a predictor of diabetes 10 to 15 years out sooner than fasting glucose or A1C. Um, it can just show a lot and it's not overly expensive. Um, and then if there's still no no, no, no, then um a couple other things you can do is you can say, okay, well, then please document in my chart that you're unwilling to order a lab that could give me advanced notice of that I'm progressing to a chronic disease. Or they'll do a lipid panel and you can look at your relationship between your triglycerides and your HDL. And if the triglycerides are over twice or twice as high or over than your HDL, so say your HDL is 30 and your triglycerides are a hundred, then we have a problem. Okay. That doesn't always mean, but that could show us there might be some concerns for insulin resistance. Um we really want our HDL high, like above 50, right? So we want our HDL like 60s or 70s, and then we want our triglycerides like 60s or 70. They want them one to one, okay? Um so those are some things you can do. Thyroid, the most likely order of TSH and free T4. I want to see total T3, free T3, total T4, reverse T3, the thyroid antibodies. Um and then to oh, I just had a conversation with somebody who was in their tw late 20s. I said, I suggest you get your hormones checked or talk to your provider to get your hormones checked. Because even though you probably are at risk for low testosterone, you don't have any low testosterone symptoms. How great is it for us to get a snapshot of what your testosterone is now? So then when you're 50 years old, we can see how you've trended and hopefully you've done it in between then as well. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And the thing is, a lot of this stuff it can lead, if it's out of whack, can present as like issues with metabolism, right? If your testosterone's low, men tend to have blood sugar issues with when they're low testosterone, they don't sleep the same. There's a study out there, and I believe we've discussed it very far back, probably in episode 20s or something like that, where they're talking about men with low testosterone and they're presenting blood sugar issues, you know, they're try tended trending towards diabetes. They get hit with some little TRT, little testosterone therapy, and their blood sugars, without any other intervention, start coming down, right? So that that tells us that hey, testosterone's part of your metabolism, right? It's part of metabolizing sugars and that sort of thing and keeping things functioning. It also helps clean um increase lean muscle mass, which Yep, that too. So that there's the this is one big, beautiful machine that everything works together. And you know, if something's off here, it could throw off processes like changing body composition.
SPEAKER_02And then women too, you need to get your hormones checked, right? Hormones can show us a lot about ways to optimize our lifestyle because you have to remember men and women, hormones are a luxury to reproduce. You need to be safe, well-nourished to be able to reproduce. If the body does not feel safe, it's not getting enough nutrients, it's not getting enough food, you're asking too much of it and not allowing it to recover. It is not in an ideal state to reproduce. Therefore, it will, hormones will not be optimal. And we we want our hormones optimal. Okay. Now, don't get me wrong, crackheads have babies in bathrooms. So there is, you know, they're they're not optimal. So things can still happen, but we're trying to like feel great because we're putting effort into our day-to-day. So we should be able to feel like the effort we put into it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think hormones, you know, remember this for a lot of the readings. If they do run them on you, your your conventional doc. And here's something I was tell people it's like, hey, okay, if they if your doc gives you a really good blood panel, um, but they like, oh, you're good to go. I would take it to somebody who's more on the holistic side to kind of get a second opinion through like line by line and be like, hey, yes, this number is like, let's say testosterone. The ranges that they give are 300 to 1,000. I just found out that they lowered it to freaking 200. And that's the problem, right?
SPEAKER_02Because they may just depend on the lab because labs will have different reference reference ranges.
SPEAKER_00Well, they also do yearly averages, right? And the average that they see here are sick people. The average person in the US is sick. So when you throw that into the averages, the ranges that they're gonna give you are not great. I mean, if to now it used to be three to 300 to 1,000. Now we went down to 200 to 1,000. That that's so wide. Yeah, that's a huge margin of error.
SPEAKER_02That's a reference range. Whereas when I look at blood work results, I look at um an optimal or functional range, which tends to be a little bit tighter.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And like I've gone over some family members' blood work, and it's all green, right? But I'm looking at the values a little bit more closely. I'm like, all right, so this shows that you probably are trending towards, don't full-blown have, but are trending towards, you know, iron, B12, thiamine deficiencies. You need more protein intake. We need to increase your muscle mass. You're likely suboptimally hydrated. Like all these little things that why not get a little flag that something's going on? All right, let me just increase my red meat, my fruit and vegetable intake. Maybe I take a multivitamin. Cool. Guess what? It's I I'm better now. And I didn't have to wait until it was a full blown deficiency. And now I need iron infusions or something like that going on.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And and it when a reference range is that huge, and let's say, You know, it's 200 to 1,000. You show up in the case of men and you're at 201. Guess what? You're normal. You're normal. You're good to go. But 201, and every men are different. Like some dudes with at 600, they're taking over the world. Other dudes need to be closer to a thousand to feel really good, right? Um, so everybody's gonna have a different thing. But I'll tell you what, 200 is not great. Right. Because even though you're in quote unquote normal ranges.
SPEAKER_02Because if you think about it, a general practitioner, if they're really busy, they're seeing 20 to 30 patients a day and they have blood work. You know, like, I mean, I've seen people who have over like 50 to 100 lab values that they need to go through for patients, for 50 to 100 patients. And they don't have time to like look at each individual one. If it's green, you're good to go. Or if it's blue, you're good to go. This is why I've mentioned this before in this podcast. I challenged that medical, the CMO, about changing the blood, the A1C to include pre-diabetes and mark that red as abnormal so it gets flagged, so it gets a conversation starts about it. And he said, no, that's too much work. Meaning that up until 6.5, that A1C is flagged normal. And if you're only looking at greens to expedite your process of going through labs, you're telling people that they're fine, their blood sugar is normal, and it's sitting at 5.9, 6.0, 6.2. That's a problem.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So all that vitamin D is another one. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Uh conventional range is 30 to 100. Really, we want it north of 50, 70.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And that you could be at 30 and they'll tell you you're good to go. But here's the other one: a lot of typical panels that you'll get at conventionals, they won't even run a vitamin D.
SPEAKER_02Vitamin D is a more expensive lab where you think of like a CBC, BMP, CMP is like three to five dollars. A vitamin D is gonna be uh $20, $25. Why is vitamin D? I don't know. Why is that more expensive? I don't even know if it's because it's a cholesterol, so it's different on the lipid panel. I don't know.
SPEAKER_00And my vitamin D has so many relationships with so many functions in your body, metabolic functions, immune system functions. And the fact that we don't run it and talk about it as much or at all in medical offices is damn near criminal. Yeah. I mean, I I can't, it blows my mind when you start reading what vi the roles that vitamin D plays in your body, and the fact that the average person has never even heard of what they're at vitamin D level wise, is crazy to me, especially people with osteoporosis.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. And one thing with vitamin D, if you want it tested and you're supplementing it, share that you're taking a supplement or a multivitamin and say, hey, I'm supplementing this. So I want to make sure I'm not taking too much, right? Which you're probably not, but you can just say it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um Serrano talked about that. He's like, Yeah, they tell you to take this. I want you to take this other level.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And um, so something to think about. Anyway, all that to say, you need blood work. If you haven't gotten blood work and you're like in at the crossroads where you're like, man, I'm kind of stuck. You need to run a full, a really good panel. If you need help with that, I I know somebody. I know somebody that could run some blood work for you. And I know somebody that could give you a really good reading on your blood work. Danny, what do we know somebody?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, that's me.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So anyway, um the other thing that could be a showstopper that you should run as well, I think, and more and more every day, as I hear, you know, have conversations around nutrition and stuff, I know you're you're you're already on board with this. Gut testing, gut issues. Um, the amount of people with some form of you know gut distress at some point in the day is wild to me, especially I never thank you, Jesus, have had any sort of gut distress. So I it's it's an afterthought for me.
SPEAKER_01He does. When? When? You don't poop every day. Girl, that's stress. It's gut distress. Oh my god. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00That's because I'm always rushing somewhere. My body's like, nope, we we doing work right now.
SPEAKER_02It sounds like your gut is responding to your um increased stress, meaning it's distressed.
SPEAKER_00That's a tactical gut. That's a that's a well-trained tactical gut. It's like, hey, we're we're going somewhere, we're taking care of business.
SPEAKER_02You don't have to play army anymore. You're a civilian.
SPEAKER_00But I'm but I'm still taking care of business. So we take care of business, like, hey, shut it down. We're going somewhere, we got a stuff to do, we'll take care of this later. That's what happens there.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Not not great for your long-term health, but it is what it is. But I don't, I don't eat something and immediately like, oh, my stomach. It doesn't. I've never I could eat a rock and it just, I'm rolling, right? So when people start telling me, you know, when I hear it, like, oh, this, my gut, this, I ate that, oh, I don't feel great. I'm like, man, and the amount of people that are coming up, listen, there's a lot of garbage in the food. Y'all, y'all know this. If you listen to us, yeah. You gotta be careful. But testing your gut and finding out what's going on. Is it people contend with gut testing and say that is not accurate? Whatever, bro, get the gut test because it's gonna give you more information than not. And it could help you, you know, point you in a better direction. If you have gut issues and you can't eat properly or things are giving you this stress, you're not absorbing nutrients, that's a problem, right? Especially when it comes to body composition.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um, and if, you know, gut testing can be expensive. So if you're just like, hey, I hear you about the gut testing, but that's not in my reality right now to be able to do that. Cool, I understand. But I need everyone to acknowledge that gut health is important. And then, okay, well, what can I do that are just going that's going to blanketly help with my digestion? Okay, we can start by eating slower, chewing more. Not, and this is hard for me. So not eating, not multitasking, multitasking while eating. So I'm eating and also doing the dishes, doing work, you know, doing things that are bringing up my stress while I'm trying to do something that functions in a rest and digest setting. Okay. So we need to match your mind to what you're trying to do. You're trying to absorb nutrients and eat food. So bring it down, be present with your meal and eat slowly, chew more. That can reap huge benefits. Um, and then making sure you're getting enough hydration, you're taking some electrolytes, you're pooping every day. That's a good place to start.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00Another thing that could be interfering, medication. Figuring out if you're on medications, you could talk more about that. That could be doing something to your blood sugar or could be doing something to your insulin with like certain side effects of medications that could be.
SPEAKER_02And so I've talked about this before. There's technically no such thing as side effects. It's just effects, right? Because you take a medication and you can't say, like, when I take my proton pump inhibitor, please only work in my stomach. Just that's the only place you work. Affect nothing else. That's not how that works. And so it is going to cause other effects in the body. It's not what you're intending it to do, but that medication does not take orders from you. It is not a live thing. So it's not going to adhere to what you want it to do only. So most people think when they have uh effects of medications, it's instantaneous. And yes, true allergic reactions to medications usually are pretty rapid. Like if you've develop a rash after a medication, um, you know, God forbid anaphylaxis or angioedema with certain medications where your lips and your tongue swell. Um and so, or dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, stuff like that. There are other effects of medications that can occur down the line. We're talking weeks, months, maybe sometimes even years because of a medication. So just because you've been on a medication and nothing's changed recently doesn't mean we don't still need to look at it. Okay. Common example is statins. Sometimes people get those myalgias and joint pains right away. Sometimes it's a few months down the road. Okay. So we need to take a look at that. Two big ones recently that I've been talking to people with are proton pump inhibitors. Down the line, they can affect absorption of B12, magnesium, phosphorus, they can't affect kidney, it the kidney function, they can affect bone density, and they can affect um blood sugar because of all those other things. Beta blockers, something like mitoprolol, also, I forgot that I had read this years ago and it recently came back up. If you're on a beta blocker long term, it can have cause issues with insulin sensitivity. And so lean mean leading to insulin resistance, leading to increase in blood sugar, leading to diabetes. Uh, same thing with statins. Statins can lead to increase in blood sugar, increase to diabetes. It's not gonna happen within days of taking it. We're talking months, years. And so anything you put in your mouth, swallow that goes into your GI tract can affect your health. We know this with food, we know this with liquids, we know this with alcohol, medications. And it's not only doing what you hope it to do, it's doing other things too.
SPEAKER_00Yep. So that's another thing. So these are the things right off the rip that could interfere with your progress in your health journey that, okay, we need to like assess immediately, right? And and take a deeper look at it. And some people say, well, like I ran blood work. Yeah, but is it what'd you get? Yeah, you know, is it a full panel? Did you look at all this other stuff? Did they look at your vitamin D, look at your testosterone? They just told you about your cholesterol. Oh, great. They didn't tell you that your A1C is at 5'9 or you're at six or you're creeping up. All these things need to get looked at when you're reassessing like that, right? Or if you're just starting, really, this is where you should be looking at if you're really committed to changing your health. Another thing that I put on here, um not tracking food.
unknownOh gosh.
SPEAKER_00Listen to me, listen to me. I want you to listen to me right now. Let me mark this off on my little list. Look at my eyes, look at my face. If you're starting a health journey or if you're reassessing in your health journey and you don't go through a period of tracking your food, you're going nowhere. Okay? Okay. Now, when we recommend changes in lifestyle, the first thing that I want you to do is to change the way you're eating in the sense that you're gonna get the majority of your calories from simple and glute simple and simple ingredients from whole food-based uh sources. Okay. So we're gonna eat lean meats, we're gonna eat healthy fats, we're gonna eat mostly fruits and vegetables, okay? Simple grains, like some basmati, high-quality rice, sweet potatoes, that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_03Sourdough bread.
SPEAKER_00Sourdough bread. We're gonna go to that first. So we're gonna get rid of the chips, we're gonna get rid of the drive-thru BS, we're gonna get rid of the freaking everything comes in a box, everything's wrapped up in plastic. We're gonna get rid of that first. That's the first step, right? Now, once you conquer that step, you're gonna experience if you're starting from scratch, if you're coming off the couch, you're gonna experience some changes in your body. You're gonna feel better, your energy is gonna be different, you might even drop some weight and inflammation. Next step after that, we have to get into a period where we're measuring and weighing. We gotta make sure we're getting enough protein. We gotta make sure that our fats are not out of whack because it's easy to overeat the fat, right? And it's also easy to overeat the carbs because we are conditioned to put meals together with a carb source first. The average person thinks about their carbs first. We want to switch that to a protein first approach, right? So, and when you look at their eating and we start tracking, I'm looking at a disproportionate amount of carbohydrates. A lot of these carb sources that people are going on also come with a disproportionate amount of fat, right? And then a very low quality amount of protein or very low quantity and quality protein. Oh, this has protein in it, pea protein. Oh, this has protein on it, it's a vegan blend. You know, that that that stuff doesn't count. Okay. Another rule that I always give you guys if you are calling something a protein source, oh, this is my protein, and it has a high amount of carbohydrate or fat accompanying it that almost matches or surpasses the amount of protein that is no longer a viable, sustainable, good protein source. An example here protein bars. A lot of people know they have to eat more protein, so they start going to protein powders and protein bars before they think about eating more food. Okay. Your default setting can't be another supplement. Okay, it has to be food first. Let me get a lean source of protein because that's gonna be the most bang for your buck in terms of protein and controlling the fat and controlling BS ingredients. Okay. The second source, I we talk about yogurts and things like that. That's a good idea. They're after stuff that you chew and move your jaw on. Last source, I'm in a pinch, break in case of emergency. That's where your protein powders and your protein bars come in. The majority of protein bars, first of all, if we look at the market wide completely of protein bars, 99% of them are straight BS. Okay. Take them, put them in the trash. I don't care which one you uh, but it's a quest. It's trash. It's a protein cookie, trash. Oh, it's a trash, it's protein bread, trash, protein water, trash. Okay, you see, you see where I'm getting at right here, right? What?
SPEAKER_02I mean, yes, but I'll go finish. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Gabage. Okay. So a lot of the protein bars are really high fat contents. A lot of artificial sweeteners, okay? Stuff that's just not gonna be good for you. And when you lay it out, they have a high amount of carbs, a very high amount of fat, usually from seed oils, and then they have your 16 grams of protein. Now, looking at the protein bars in the market that are better, prima comes to mind. Um Jacob. Jacobs, like these simple ingredient protein bars that are coming up right now that are tallow-based, honey-based, whey protein based, right? They are still pretty fatty. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, because they use tallow.
SPEAKER_00They use tallows, so it's still, or they use almond flour or whatever, and almonds are pretty fatty. So it's still, and then they put honey in it. You know, the carbs go up really high. So you might get 16 grams of whey protein, but you'll also get 15 grams of fat, right? So you gotta watch out for this stuff. It's a break-in-case of emergency type thing. Do not rely on protein bars and protein shakes to get your protein needs. Okay.
SPEAKER_02Now, with the whole like protein bread, protein tortillas, things like that, I'm in agreement with you. It's like eat real food. However, we talked about my our parents recently, right? My mom, I've been trying to be like, eat more protein, eat more protein, eat more protein. And she, for whatever reason, is like stuck on like anything more than ah egg is a lot, right? You know, so I'm like, eat like three or four, you know. But um, whatever. But she's like, okay, I'll have a couple eggs, or with like in a protein wrap or whatever. I'm okay with this, and this is good because it's having her starting to think about, let me get more protein, let me get more protein. I don't know about you, but I this was part of my evolution to where I am now in regards to protein. I went through the high protein bread, the stuff like that, just because I was trying to get more. And so I think, well, probably more with the PB fit, you know, stuff like that. And I think it's just it's it's a step towards, right? And so what I'm really just trying to get my mom because she is older, and we've talked about in that older population, they need more exposure to protein because they digest less of it. Um, they don't metabolize it as well. So just more exposure to it. I'm like, she's like, and I got the high protein bread. I'm like, that's great. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I you listen, we're meeting people where they're at, and obviously, it's it's just we they have to do what they can't.
SPEAKER_02But the thing that I'm just trying to do with my mom is get her on the that supplement combo of EAT. Just eat. Okay. Yeah. And that's what a lot of people need to do. It's like you don't need to worry about what supplement, you just need to eat food. Yeah, I this is where the whole tracking thing, I agree with them. I just had a conversation with somebody yesterday who just, you know, ran and jumped right down to a 1200 calorie diet and I hopefully saved her from it. But what were you eating before that? Not well. Okay, well, did you track to see how many calories you were eating before? No. Okay, do you have any idea of where you were at calorically before? No. Then why is 1250 or 1200 a destination? Because if you were eating 25,000 calories before, what if we just go to 2,000? You know, if you were eating 1,300 calories before, but it was just all in like weird things, you cut 50 calories. Like, no. And so I like Dan's approach first. And I've heard this from the Mind Pump guys, which is a huge podcast, and they're very well known in the fitness industry, and people have had huge success with them. If on your, you're like, okay, I need to improve my health, I need to lose weight. I eat a ton of processed food. I don't even care about calories. Let's just move to more natural foods, see what happens. Okay, I maybe lost some weight, but then it kind of plateaued after five, 10 pounds. I didn't lose anything. I feel better, but I didn't do anything. My body composition didn't change. Cool. Now let's track. Now let's see where you're at from a total caloric and macronutrient level. Now let's optimize that.
SPEAKER_00And really let's make sure when we take that food quality dive, like, fam, you're gonna have to cook if you're like talking to me. Well, I bought, I started buying these protein bars and this protein powder. And we're talking about still packaged stuff and that sort of thing. We didn't really move the needle that much and into the food quality realm. I'm talking about, and this might take a little bit, right? I'm not saying this is gonna be, I told you Friday and Monday you're eating like this. I'm this might take a month for you to implement the system. But I'm talking about going from everything's in a box or everything's, you know, this pre-packaged sort of thing to hey, I'm cooking every day. I'm making, you know, I'm eating eggs for breakfast or I'm eating this Greek yogurt. I'm making smoothies. Some people land there quickly with my older clients that tell me they're having smoothies for breakfast. I'm like, yes, have breakfast. Let's go. You know, down the road, I would like them to eat breakfast versus just drinking it. But anyway, we're we're moving in that direction, right? But then, and you're putting meals together, you know what a carb is, a fat is, and a protein source is, and you're putting meals that have all three together. Boom, now we're moving in that direction. Once we accomplish that, then I want to see where your caloric intake is at, right? And this is where the measuring and weighing comes in. You're gonna have to go through that at least for a period of time so that you create better awareness around your habits with the food. Now, something that I notice with a lot of people, and this is hard to believe for the laymans. People see people that are overweight and they assume that they're just pigging out every day. They're going hard on the calories every day. And that is not the case for a lot of people, especially women. It might be the case for men, but for women, you would be surprised at the amount of women that are carrying some excess weight, that their body composition isn't where they want it to be, that actually are eating very, very low calorie diet. Yes, the majority of the time. They're in this super diminished caloric state that is almost concerningly low, but then they have like one day a week where they can't take it anymore. And then they go hard. And let's say they're eating 12, 1100 calories a day, and then they have one day a week where they eat 1800. And to them, that's like a high calorie day. But they're these fluctuations, you know, you're you're down here hungry, hungry, hungry, hungry. I can't take it anymore.
SPEAKER_02I'm gonna eat, or it's just that means like 2000, 2200.
SPEAKER_002,000, 2200. You go out to dinner, you blow the calories that day, quote unquote. Maybe that's where you should be eating closer to that mostly, but your body's so depleted that it's just gonna hold on to everything. Right. And then this is the cycle that you're leaving, and it's this binge and purge, like you're living low calorie five, six days out of the week, and then you have this one day that you shoot the almost double your calories eating normally, and you're not even eating that crazy, or you went out to eat or something, and then you're living in the state where your metabolism isn't ready for those fluctuations.
SPEAKER_02Now, I do want to preface there's a difference between because you said binge and purge. So binge, so binge eating disorder, bulimia, where they technically binge, they eat a ton of food, and then they because bulimia is usually there's like a lot of restriction, and then they binge and then they throw up. That's eating disordered. Okay. We're not talking about that. That's in a different class that needs a higher level of care than I'm qualified to give, and that honestly I would want to give because that's that's very difficult to unravel. We're talking about disordered eating patterns, where it's like, let's change your patterns and it's adjusted and it's corrected. You can't do that with an eating disorder. You can't just tell a person with an eating disorder, you know, eat three meals a day and it'll fix it up. You know, that's not how that works. And so we're talking about disordered eating patterns. And Dan's right. A lot of people, they'll restrict, restrict, binge, restrict, restrict, binge. And when they do maybe it's even just throughout the course of a day, where it's like I skip breakfast, I have a salad for lunch, and then I can't I can't keep myself out of the pantry at dinner. And so your total caloric intake is a lot higher than you think because you're not counting your snacks, you're not counting your wine, you're not counting. Um, you know, when I used to nanny, I would make the kids lunch and you're picking at it.
SPEAKER_00Yep. Yeah. I put that on here. I put sneaky snacks. Sneaky snacks. Sneaky snacks when you're just grabbing a handful of this and, oh, but all I had was a handful of nuts. Uh, congratulations. That's 400 calories and nuts that you ate. Yeah. I'm not worried about the caloric count, but that's a whole lot of fat. Or you're eating nuts thinking that it's protein, but it's actually higher fat content. Yeah. And then next thing you know, it's like, oh, you just ate 300 calories of fat right there. Yeah, that's gonna throw your little thing off, right? So sneaky snacks. You gotta watch for that. People gotta hold themselves accountable on the sneaky snacks. Listen, we recently started putting a little bit of that, or that noli granoli. You know what I'm talking about? You know what that noli granoli is? That purely Elizabeth, the original blend, because it's got the clean ingredients. Start putting down a little bit of Greek yogurt with some blueberries. That's my little snacky snack after I work out. Um, and what happens when you open the bag to put 30 grams of noli granoli on your little sneaky snack, on your little snack that you're gonna take to work the next day? Some falls in your mouth. Some falls start granola just starts falling in your mouth, and you're just like, how'd that get in there? Just crunching away and then you pour it into your little thing, make sure you get the little 30 grams, seal it up, and then the granola bag is still in your hand, and you keep crunching away on some granola. Next thing you know, you had a couple hundred calories worth of sneaky granola snacks, you know? Yeah, so it's it happens to everybody.
SPEAKER_02Now what happens is I make Dan's snack and I make it after dinner when I'm well fed, and then the bag goes right back in the pantry.
SPEAKER_00And I started accounting for sneaky granola snacks on my little day. I'm like, okay, I'm gonna have about 15 grams of granola, sneaky granola snacks. So I'm gonna count that in, you know, I'm gonna plan for that ahead. But you know, 15 grams, 40 grams, I don't know. It's just counting, just put it in my face. But it's something, you know, these sneaky snacks could be throwing you off as well. So again, measuring and weighing becomes really important. Um, for and when people ask about what they should be eating, I always tell them, I show me a week, a fully documented week of what you're eating. There's multiple ways to do this. Now, we I like my fitness pal because I've been using it for so long. It's easy for me to get in there and look at your stuff. But there's these AI freaking systems now that you take a picture and I don't know how it does it. I don't know how accurate it is. I'm I want to run a comparison of what I get from AI pictures, because I have one person right now that is gonna use that. I want to get a comparison on what I get from that to what I get on on my fitness pal from what the AI is telling me and see what the caloric load and the macro breakdown ends up coming. But taking a picture of your food and this thing telling you what you're eating is wild, bro.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So do it. Track your food. I usually ask for a week, a full week of eating so that I can determine the patterns where you're landing at.
SPEAKER_02You can also see what um you're doing on the weekends too. Cause a lot of people they're they abandon their structure on the weekends. Yep.
SPEAKER_00We don't, I mean, I used to come off the rails Friday night to Sunday evening. I was off the rails. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And so one thing that Tyler Minton said was, you know, really focusing on hitting your protein requirements or getting close to earlier in the day, because it's hard to make it up in the evening. And so I always tell people, I need to start your day with like a robust amount of protein at breakfast. Okay. Good, good, good amount of protein at lunch. And then when dinner runs a rolls around, we almost always have protein at dinner. Right. So that's not hard. That's kind of always built in, but putting the effort into the breakfast and lunch is where you're gonna see a lot of success.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Now, a lot of people, like Dan said, are under-eating, under consuming on a regular basis. And so it's identifying that and correcting it. Now, I'm not gonna tell you if you're eating 1100 calories, you need to jump up to 2,000 tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay. Exactly.
SPEAKER_02It's especially if you're metabolically adjusted and you're living low calorically, we need to start backing our way out of there. All right. And that's working with a dietitian, a nutritionist, somebody to help guide you through that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, uh some cases are a little bit more complex, and we'll outsource that all day to somebody who's more in the weeds on nutrition stuff. Cause it, it you have to reverse yourself out of it. And you can't just, if you've been living on a thousand calories a day, which is atrocious, and we need to get you out of there, but it can't be you go from a thousand to two thousand the next day. Yeah. Your stomach, your gut might not be able to handle that. Everything's downregulated to a point where you're not gonna feel good.
SPEAKER_02And I recommend you don't look at the scale during this time because when you start to introduce move more food, you can put on some weight. It's transitory. Okay. Um, it could be water weight, or it could, you know, we just need to wait for things to catch up. But what I notice a lot of people have told me in the past is like, I have more energy. I'm sleeping better.
SPEAKER_04Yep.
SPEAKER_02My mood's better, you know. So my hair is not falling out. These are all things that are equally as important or more important than the number on the scale. So let's keep tabs on those.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And what another thing that I recommend if you're doing one of those is slightly slight, listen to my words now. Listen to my face. Slight increases in activity levels. Okay. Not more workouts necessarily, but more non-exercise activity thermogenesis.
SPEAKER_03Oh, that's neat.
SPEAKER_00That's look at this girl. Look at this girl. So, yes, it is neat. That's what it's called. But I say, you know, you're gonna increase your calories because you're reversing yourself out of a depleted state. So increase your activities as well. You're gonna have more fuel for it. So, little by little, this is where we look at step count. A lot of people are not getting the amount of steps that they think they are. Even people that are getting into the stand-up desks, they're still stationary the majority of the day. Is that better than sitting? Yes, it is, but it's still not enough sometimes, right? And when you start tracking step counts, you're still at 5,000 steps a day. Like that's pretty low, man. You know, 6,000 for if you're that's pretty low. If you're, you know, in your 30s, 40s, even 50s, 5,000 steps is not a lot. That's not good.
SPEAKER_02And so eating more or eating a sufficient amount, you will notice more spontaneous activity. When you eat at a significant, significant deficit for a prolonged period of time, your spontaneous movement decreases. And so sometimes we don't realize that readily. You can kind of like review yourself and see, am I sitting around most of the day? Do I get up when I could? Like I noticed that when I um when I so this year has been rough for us, right? I've mentioned it on a previous podcast, some struggles we've been going through. I've gone a little bit more, I've gone a little bit autonomous, like not autonomous, but on autopilot and just doing things. My caloric intake is not where it needs to be. I'm bringing it back up currently. Okay. I'm not at a 1200 calorie, thank God. But I'm a pretty active person. I need to pay more attention to this, right? And I'm looking back and I'm like, yeah, I've kind of feeled felt just like throughout the day, I haven't moved as much as I usually do. I'm increasing. I'm in the middle of this, you know, slow increase back up. And I notice like I don't shoot like a little Teams message to my coworker. I get up and go talk to them, like more spontaneous movement. So sometimes it's just reviewing yourself closely and just.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I definitely, as you're reversing yourself out of this, I would definitely be looking at increasing. And even if you're not in that super depleted state, I would be looking at that low-hanging fruit movement to increase your activity levels as you manage your intake and your food.
SPEAKER_02And so this can be a way to do this is go for like a five to 10 minute walk after each meal. One, let's eat three meals a day, right? And then, or however many meals, and then put some movement after that meal. That's great for digestion as well. Now you're getting more activity in. Or if you're like, well, I have too much to do. I, you know, I can't go out for a walk. I've had this sometimes where it's like, I need to do this stuff, not go for a walk. But what's the stuff I need to do? Oh, I need to vacuum the house. So let me time that after I eat. Guess what? I'm moving around vacuuming my house. So it's movement, right? So you can do things like that.
SPEAKER_00Yep. And then finally, we get into the workout part considerations of this right now. I have two notes on working out because if you're I've seen this a lot, I've seen both ends. Not doing enough, doing too much. Okay. So oh DTMing. You're DTMing. And I I've seen both, right? Oh, I only do these two workouts a week and they're kind of you're not working hard enough, right? But I've also seen people that are working way too much, really freaking hard, and their their body composition isn't changing either, right? Because they're just over stressing the system. On this hand, you have somebody who isn't giving it enough to get that thing to tip over. And then on this hand, you have somebody who's just beating it to a pulp. So the body's like, I ain't going nowhere. Yeah. Right. So I we assess in both ways. Let me see your workout program that you're currently doing if you're not working out with me or one of my programs. Because my programs, listen, we don't play, but they're they're right. Like, ah, where are you at? Are you sleeping enough? Okay, right on the money. Hey, listen, three days a week, give me the rest of the days walking. No, you can handle four days a week and then give me this many days walking. No, you're two days a week and then you're gonna give me this many days of uh of cardio and whatever. So it's something that you have to assess for. Doing too much can be just as bad or worse as doing too little, right? Because I can always ramp up your physical activity. If you're doing too little, be like, oh man, those workouts kind of suck. You need to work a little bit harder here and maybe add this one workout over here. That's easy. Yeah, but bringing you back down when you're like, bruh, I did two workouts yesterday, I went to three classes, I did those types of people, reeling them back in and telling them, like, listen, you need to chill, my boy. Yeah, you need to chill. That's really hard. And knowing that you're doing all this exercise and connecting with, I'm doing too much. I sound like somebody that knows somebody that we had to have these conversations.
SPEAKER_03I mean me, I was doing too much. Yeah, I'm Janie, and I was doing too much.
SPEAKER_00And you you know where where Dan Brown got the conversation from that she was doing too much? Because I was doing too much. Your boy was doing five CrossFit workouts a week and five hard competition classes for jujitsu. Insane, insane, ridiculous. Now, granted, I was ripped.
SPEAKER_03I was like, Yeah, see you you were on that that way down.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I was like you were looking great on that way down. I mean, I like I pull up a picture from Dallas. I was, I mean, I'm ripped now because I live like that.
SPEAKER_02But he also had jujitsu legs.
SPEAKER_00I but I was waistky, so I was 10 pounds lighter. Yeah, I was 10, I was lean, but I was 10 pounds lighter than I am now, lean, nowhere near as strong as I am now. And I'm what, almost 10 years older?
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So something to say that there was a whole transformation there where I went up in weight a lot and I had to eat more and figure a lot of things out to kind of heal from that. But I figured that out and then I passed that on to her, like, hey, doing too much, right? And that's tough when you're used to that much activity. You think you're doing the right thing and reeling back from that and be like, no, you need more recovery days, you need more low-level days, you actually need to improve the quality of your sessions and then do less sessions. That's a tough spot to be at, but that's something to assess for. Your workout program might be too much, right? I'm doing six workouts a week and I'm not seeing any changes. Might be doing too much. Might be doing too much.
SPEAKER_02I see this a lot in the retired community. They're like, I work out seven days a week, and I'm like, When do you rest?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and you're 70 years old.
SPEAKER_02When do you recover? When are your muscles allowed to repair and rebuild? Never.
SPEAKER_00And nah, man, with older people, it's crazy.
SPEAKER_02Cause well, and then he told me, um, because I was this, I was specifically talking to this gentleman, he's like, I work, I lift weights seven days a week. I'm like, how's that working out for you? And I'm like, are you progressing in weight? Like bumping up in weight seven, seven days a week, you must be getting strong. No, every time I increase in weight, I get hurt. I'm like, huh, wonder why.
SPEAKER_00That's another valid point. Are you progressing? Are you challenging to the point where you're, you know, hey, I could do five reps with this last week. Now I'm doing seven. You know, my push-ups went up, that sort of thing. Or are you just doing stuff? Oh, it says do 10 reps. I do 10 reps and then I move on. And the 10 reps are like super easy. Yeah. You're not going to change anything that. So you could be doing a lot of activity, but the quality of your activity is terrible.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, if your workouts are really comfortable and you're like, I like to do this because it's easy and it feels good, you probably need better workouts.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. Something to consider there. So matching up where you're at and what your goals are with the program that you're doing that has the right amount of challenge, not too much, not too little, to get you and making sure that you're progressing. Yes, what's the best metric for get it for progress in your workouts? You want to jump in on that one, Jenny? What's the best metric?
SPEAKER_03I don't know. I don't know where you're going with this. Getting strong. Oh, yeah. Increase in weight. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So usually the best metric is making sure that you are getting stronger. You can do more reps with the same weight or of the same movement, or you can use more weight in a certain movement.
SPEAKER_02Or if you've been weightlifting a long time, like us, you can really appreciate where it's like, oh, this weight this week feels so much easier than last week.
SPEAKER_00My technique is cleaner on this, that sort of thing. But making sure that you are progressing, having a metric for progress that isn't, I did seven workouts this week. That is necessary.
SPEAKER_02Because when you have been lifting as long as we have, like a two and a half, five pound PR is a big deal, right? And it's usually, and I don't know what it is, especially with upper body movements, two and a half pounds to five pounds feels like a hundred pounds. Like all of a sudden that dumbbell or whatever just does not move like it did five pounds less. And but I still got it up, right? Which is great. My job isn't or my goal is not just to okay, let's increase further the next week. Let's do that same weight that was a little sketchy. Let's clean it up, let's make it efficient. And so, you know, that's something I look to. But yeah, so you're yes, getting stronger. It's definitely a metric to follow. Um, anything else?
SPEAKER_00Uh no, that is what I had. There's obviously case by case, we might find other stuff that other levels to turn, but these are usually going to be the places to look at.
SPEAKER_02If you're not progressing and you feel like you're stuck, we didn't talk about two big things that we don't need to go into detail because we've talked about them in other podcasts uh recently. But sleep is one thing if you're not sleeping, and that that is intertwined with if you're not eating enough, that could disrupt your sleep. If you're over-exercising, that could disrupt disrupt your sleep, right? So paying attention to your sleep, trying to optimize your sleep if you can. We've talked about that a ton. Um, and then uh stress management, right? If I've just seen, we've interacted with some people recently who are they identify with their trauma. They are stuck in their trauma. And like I mentioned on the lap last episode with our friend Katie, who um had her lower leg amputated, very traumatic event, right? This didn't happen to me, it happened for me. That can be hard, especially if there was like uh abuse or you know, an accident or something like that. You can can't always see how is there good in this, but there is, right? Because you're here, you're alive. How wonderful is it that you have the ability to continue to grow older, right? What are you doing with that time? All right, and you got through that event, that traumatic event, that time, that abuse, whatever, for a reason. What is that reason? How are you how are you trying to optimize the life that you still have because you got through that? And so letting go of the event that happened, you can't change that. Okay, I'm gonna move forward, I'm gonna heal myself, and I'm gonna use this as fuel to be optimal, better, to kick butt at life and just to continue to progress. And so some of the best athletes, especially in MMA, have wicked traumatic events in their past. It's fuel for them. Okay. It happened for them to be able to move forward. So I encourage everybody address stress, address trauma. And it can be a powerful thing to help move you forward, or you could be stuck fighting it. Both require energy. Which one's going to benefit you?
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Sometimes people come with uh the word, you know, you you have, I want to say baggage, but you kind of you're carrying something, right? And when you come into a situation and before you can tackle the situation, in this case, getting healthier, you almost have to figure out what you're what you're gonna do with what you're carrying, what you're the the tail you're dragging, the baggage you have, before, because it's gonna hinder you being able to tackle the next thing, right? So you have to fight this little monster you got on you and you know, figure how to live with it or deal with it or get him off your back so that then you can go on to do the next thing better, right? Um, you know, examples that I'll use, like people that you want to see, they want to join the military really bad, but they're 50 pounds overweight, and the recruiter tells them, You need to lose that weight before I can put you in, right? Or you need to get to this weight before we can take you in. That happens a lot, especially nowadays. So these guys have to stay out and figure out how to lose that weight and meet the requirement, right? So that they can go to basic training. So, similar to that, you come, you say you want to get healthier, but you're carrying trauma and it's your that trauma leads you to certain behaviors. Maybe you're drinking too much. Maybe you're, you know, you're on all sorts of medications that are hindering other bodily processes, that sort of thing. And you have to come off of that. Deal with that, right? Face it head on. Deal with it because it's keeping you from other stuff. So maybe we're not talking about freaking weights and macros yet, and you're talking about, hey, I have this that I'm carrying, and I'm gonna go deal with that. And it takes me a couple of weeks, it takes me a month, it takes me to find a strategy that I can live with it so that then I can move on, right? So that's always a good idea, addressing trauma. And we talked about it in a previous episode. Oh, that's part of the health journey, right? Um, another thing that I just thought about, you know, when I saw this with the sneaky snacks, you know what the what else is a sneaky snack?
SPEAKER_03Alcohol.
SPEAKER_00Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. She read my mind. Yes, alcohol use. People are, oh, I'm gonna lose any weight. I'm eating this perfectly clean diet. And then on Friday, I'm having the 12-pack. Yeah, boom, there's your sneaky snacks.
SPEAKER_02You cope with stress by having alcohol, wine, beer, whatever.
SPEAKER_00Every night with dinner.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And so and your clean dinner, you know, you made this beautiful meat with like you put an egg on it. It's all I got sweet potatoes, bro. Look at my meal. And you have a couple beers with it. Yeah, and you have a couple beers with it. Like, come on now, come on now, bro. Yeah, so something to think about there, address that alcohol intake as well. Yep. Um, which I always tell people, give me 30 days. 30 days, guys. 30 days. No alcohol. Yeah, 90 is a better idea, but 30, no alcohol, zero alcohol, only whole food, simple, ingredient-based diet. Tell me how you feel after that.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Anyway, we're done. Anything you want to say?
SPEAKER_02Nope. Um, you can reach us at achievedlifestyle.com. That's our website. Um, info at achievedlifestyle.com is our email address, and you can always shoot us a DM, which is probably the most easiest at Achieve the Lifestyle on Instagram. Now, one thing I want to say in closing, um, I'll post this on Instagram as well. We want to be helpful. We've talked about that. We try to, you know, promote information on how you can start to change your lifestyle for the better if needed. Now, I am very quick to point out the faults of conventional medicine. I realize that I want to help provide solutions. So I want to start a series that I'll post on Instagram about ways for you to advocate yourself within conventional medicine. Because I get it. I want everyone to work with us or people like us to help optimize your health. But you pay for insurance. You pay a lot for insurance. I was just having a conversation with a friend who has five kids. She can't not have health insurance, right? And they pay for it. So she wants to utilize what's in network for her. And I get that. I understand that. So, how can you advocate for yourself within primary care? I would like to help with that. So, if you think of any ideas of I hate when I go to the doctor and this or this or this, or how do I get this, or how do I ask for this? How do I, I don't understand why this happens, let me know. You're probably not the only one with that question. I will try to share my experience with it, my solutions, or I'll have a huge resource of people who work in conventional medicine or used to who are now out of it, that I can gather this information for you and share it. So that's something I want to start doing.
SPEAKER_00And me, I am, I have a propensity. I've been told that I'm a tinfoil hatter of sorts. I don't believe them. But anyway, I tend to focus on, you know, and I I want to create awareness. That's part of this show. We got to create awareness so that we can create change, right? So we want to give you tips to change, to get better, to get healthier. I want to give you strategies, all that stuff. But I also want to point to stuff that's going out there in the ether that is working against us, all of us, right? So that we can create awareness and people can see how dire, how necessary it is that you take your health seriously, right? So, but we want to focus on the positives. So this is not all doom and gloom. We got we got stuff for you to do so that you can actually fight these demons that are trying to take your health. Anyway, that's it. Guys, if you need blood work, gut testing, I may know somebody who can help you with that.
SPEAKER_02Exercise recommendations, regardless of your health status. He's got you. And I can maybe give him some pointers if you have significant chronic health issues, but he's got you.
SPEAKER_00Listen, we may know some people that can help you with exercise, with nutrition, with lifestyle habits, with if you need blood work and gut testing, which everybody should be getting. We may know some people that can help you with that, okay?
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They're called Dan and Jamie.
unknownOkay.
SPEAKER_00Well, till the next one, guys.
SPEAKER_02Thanks for joining us.
SPEAKER_00Don't get stuck. Okay. Assess, reassess, and keep moving on. I'm gonna need you to pay attention to your sneaky snacks and stay pharma-free. Thanks for listening to the pharmaphobic podcast. If you found this conversation interesting, which I know you did, make sure to follow us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. And also make sure to check us out on Instagram at Achieve the Lifestyle. And if you're interested in pursuing a stronger, healthier, more capable version of yourself, check out our website at achievethlifestyle.com.
SPEAKER_02The pharmaphobic podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. The views expressed are those of the hosts and guests and do not constitute medical, legal, or professional advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare provider before making any medical or wellness decisions. While we discuss pharmaceutical, holistic, and alternative health topics, our content is not a substitute for professional medical guidance.