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Health & Fitness Redefined
Health and Fitness Redefined with Anthony Amen. Take a dive into the health world as we learn how to overcome adversity, depict fact vs fiction and see health & fitness in a whole new light.Fitness Is Medicine
Health & Fitness Redefined
Heather's Journey From Eastern To Western Diets
Discover how Heather, a remarkable health coach originally from China, transformed her life and now inspires others with her story. Struggling with weight gain and self-esteem issues after moving to the U.S., Heather faced a pivotal moment of self-realization that changed her trajectory. Hear how she overcame the challenges of hiding her eating habits, found self-acceptance, and embarked on a journey to health and empowerment that led her to become a successful health coach.
Explore the fascinating relationship between traditional Asian diets and Western influences, and learn how these dietary habits impact overall health. Uncover the misconceptions about carbohydrates and how simplicity and balance in past dietary patterns contributed to better health. We'll also discuss the role of mental well-being and stress, particularly for women balancing professional and personal lives, and how these factors can influence longevity and health.
Gain insights into the importance of protein, especially for women, and the cultural tendencies that lead to misunderstandings about dietary needs. We'll share personal anecdotes about mastering food measurement and maintaining consistent caloric intake for metabolic health. Plus, Heather shares her expert tips on boosting metabolism, offering practical advice and resources for those ready to ignite their health and fitness journey. Tune in to connect with Heather and learn how you can begin your journey towards a healthier, more balanced life.
Learn More at: www.Redefine-Fitness.com
Hello and welcome to Health and Fitness Redefined. I'm your host, anthony Amen. Welcome, guys, to today's episode. I got to give you really exciting news. It's weird to say pre-it happening, but it's exciting because after the show comes up, it will happen. I officially have my first kid. So my wife is currently and I was frightened, but by the time this comes out, we'll have a first kid. So, yeah, you're really excited about that. I thought I'd share that with you Without further ado, though let's welcome today's show, heather it's a pleasure to have you today.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you and congratulations on being a father.
Speaker 1:Are you having a boy or?
Speaker 2:girl, I'm a little boy. His name was going to be dustin. Congratulations, hopefully you get some sleep and, most importantly, your wife gets some sleep yeah, hence the recording this now for everybody.
Speaker 1:This is pre that, so we're like three weeks really away from her giving birth, but by the time this comes out she would definitely have given birth.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, that's amazing.
Speaker 1:Really exciting stuff. So, without further ado, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into that health and fitness world.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow. So, but before I share all about me and what I do if you're listening and watching this anywhere and making sure you give this show a five star review so that way we can spread the messages and that's how we help each other and be healthier and change the fitness and health world. But anyway, so really, anthony, like what you see, the women today that now I've coached thousands of women and having incredibly success, but that really wasn't the woman you see now a few years back. So just give you a background. I'm, you know, I'm Chinese, as you can see. It was born and raised in China, made in China, and so a hundred percent, but anyway. So if you hear me speaking Chinglish, that's why. But anyway, so I came here. If you know Chinese people, asian people, we are very petite, very thin, we eat tons of rice and carbs and all of that stuff. We never really have issues, right? If you just see the demographics of Asians and that's who we are.
Speaker 2:However, after I came to the US, within eight months, I blew up and gained 45 pounds, I remember, because I couldn't communicate with my family for very often, and so I sent a picture because I went to Disney World Disneyland. I think it was Disneyland in, but anyway. So I sent a photo paper photo back then to my parents and I got a letter back from my mom and she said what did you do? You are so fat. This is Asian parents are brutally honest. Let me tell you that. So, 45 pounds that statement haunted me. You got to understand. I hear from my parents about once a month and I talk to them on the phone for about 10 minutes every once a month at the time. So I'll stay sure. That message haunted me. So I went on a diet. So my diet really started from there and I was barely 17 at the time. So ever since then I was on this journey of gaining weight, losing weight, and it was. With each diet it got harder and harder and the effort that was required got more and more right. So now I'm in my 40s, but a few years back literally was just about six years ago I was so bloated, so big was still that same 45 pounds where I was.
Speaker 2:Eight months after I arrived to the US and I was in the same boat. At that time we had I had spent gosh it has to be over $130,000 altogether on fitness, personal trainers, you name it, diet pills. I've been on drugs that I'm not proud of, right, trying to lose this weight, and anything I can get my hands on, you name it. I've done cool sculpting. Who can't free some fat cells away, right? So, and to the point, I was eating 1200 calories and I was fluffy, bloated and extremely frustrated, and I had that point. I can't even tell you how many diets I've been. I'm sure this is like every woman's story.
Speaker 2:So really, at one point, what's really turned turned like, made me turn around, was one day I was. I had just about 30 minutes. I had came home for a long day working, very stressful. I got home about 30. I had 30 minutes before I had to go pick up my kids and, and I just didn't even think about anything I grabbed a cookie, I grabbed a bag of chips, I crawled into bed, turned on my TV show and I start watching. I'm like God, 30 minutes, I got rest, right, I've worked hard.
Speaker 2:And then I heard the garage door open. My husband was home two hours early. He wasn't supposed to be home. Wasn't supposed to be home. So, without even thinking, I crumbled up my empty chip bag of chips like the back that is left under my pillow, threw away the half eaten cookie, as if I was doing something illegal in the house or just highly disappointing. Illegal in the house or highly disappointing. So I didn't even think about why I was doing that. And later that night I had forgotten about this.
Speaker 2:Later that night my husband was climbing to bed, I don't know doing stuff with the pillow, and he saw the bag and he looked at me with this disapproval look, just disappointed, I guess I would say. Because, simply because I can't tell you how many times I've told him oh my gosh, I need to lose this weight, I need to change my life, I can't stand this, I have no energy. And that moment I was so embarrassed, so ashamed. I started bawling Because I couldn't face him and I thought am I the woman now that I have to lie and hide about what I eat, you know to my husband, and it's really disappointing to see him disappointed in me. And so that's the moment I'm like, I'm done, I'm really done and so. But I didn't know what to do, because if you have, I guess for your audience, if you're out there listening a woman, I'm sure you can relate there. Sometimes it doesn't matter what you want to change, like how badly you want to change. You cannot. You don't know where to start. You don't know what to do, right.
Speaker 2:So I ended up hiring coach and the promise that he gave me was I will make you eat 2000 calories, drinking margaritas and still lose weight. I'm like that's some bullshit. I said I don't believe this because I've been in this. I feel like I've been in this fitness world for long enough. I've had personal trainers, I've had dietitians, I've had nutritionists, I've had doctors helping me and nobody dieticians. I've had nutritionists, I've had doctors helping me and nobody's ever, ever, ever, promised me that. And I thought to myself yeah, that's not physically possible, but little did I know what are my other choices right? So that was my last hope. I said, fine, I'll prove you wrong. That was my last hope. I said, fine, I'll prove you wrong.
Speaker 2:And in two months I went from eating 1200 calories to 2400 calories. No, increasing my activity level. I lost 10 pounds in the same time. I went. What the heck Did it just happen. And so that's how it really started.
Speaker 2:But after that I really begged him to teach me right and then teach me what you do. And he had thousands of clients at the time and he had very little time investing to each student. So it cost me an arm and leg to get coaching from him and taught me, and then from there I just I refined it and started coaching women, really just kind of like if every woman know what. I know how to control your metabolism, how to use food only I mean really just food without stepping into the gym. That's freedom. That's the freedom it took me 10 plus years and $130,000 to really get to and I achieved that in two months. I can help women to do that. That's true freedom. So that's how it really started. Now that's all I do every day to teach women how to raise their metabolism, have freedom, have that confidence. They don't have to hide cookies and bag of chips anymore from their husbands or loved ones.
Speaker 1:So I have so many questions. Yes, go for it. I don't want to dive too deep into it because this is health and fitness related. This is not a health and fitness question, but why did?
Speaker 2:you come over here at 17? Oh gosh, so I was. I was a very loud kid, okay. Now. Now people think I'm very introverted, now very much so I was very quiet. Now I don't like big gatherings, but when I was a kid I was very loud and my skin is darker colored compared to most Chinese people. Now, if you know Asians Asian, the fairer your skin, the lighter the color, the prettier you are. So I was considered the ugly duckling that nobody likes, right and and I so I was bullied a lot when I was growing up and I just wanted to escape. So to me, coming to the? U was a fresh start and plus, back then China is a communist country. China wasn't the country that we know now. 20 years ago, 25 years ago, before I left, we had nothing. We were 30 years behind economically technology, you know, with technology and everything else behind the US. And now we can. You know, we can compete. Let's just say that. So that's why I left.
Speaker 1:That's what I assumed, but I didn't want to assume. Yeah, no I love that it's so intriguing because it's, I mean, that's the story in and of itself. Right, You're a 17-year-old and you're, like most people are free to go and move to the next town over. You went to a different country across the world's biggest ocean. So that's a huge, just life transformation. I was struggling when I was getting bullied going to a different school that was just right up the road. I was like that's a big change.
Speaker 2:And you're just like I went across. Oh my god, I can't imagine sending my kids overseas at age of 17, 16. It's I can't as a parent, I don't. I'm the only child. And for my parents to have that big of courage and guts to let me go a girl, their only child, their only child at 17, 16. I mean, hats off to them.
Speaker 1:Yes, seriously, what great parents, yeah, to have the foresight to be like she's going to do so much better over there. God bless them. But, kind of continuing to the health and fitness part, you mentioned a couple of really interesting things and I would love to know more about it, the first one being you are right, very like the Chinese culture. In a nutshell, if you look at, the average person is not overweight over in China. Right, right there it's a very, very thin, usually very low body fat. There are some cases of more of like higher blood pressure right now with them. But what do you think the biggest difference is? Is it the quality of food? Is it the quality of food? Is it the proportions Like? What in the Chinese culture is keeping them way healthier than what you're getting here?
Speaker 2:So, anthony, I don't. I think China now is very much like the culture in the US here now as far as food and diet goes. But so there are more and more people are overweight. Based on our physique, naturally, right, they're just overweight. I think the whole reasons now we have McDonald's there, we have all sorts of like Pizza Hut and processed food and Oreos, and we were just over there over the summer with my kids and all they had was they got Starbucks drinks and nothing really changed when we went to China for them. Really.
Speaker 2:So, but I really think the biggest difference is growing up, I didn't have processed food hardly any in my household, because we're it's not accessible to us. So if you think about it, my, the milk I drink in the morning, my mom had to go get it from the farm the day before and it's gonna go bad after two days. So that's, that tells you how fresh the food was. Right, we had no limitations on carbs, and this is what's crazy is that nowadays people think carbs is the enemy, especially women and men as well too. But at the same time, if you look at Asian food traditional, whether it's Korean, japanese, chinese, vietnamese and it's very carb heavy. We eat tons and tons of rice Rice I was going to say Right, which is awesome, love rice.
Speaker 2:And you and I, we both know, and if you know anything about food, a cup of rice, cooked rice is about what 20, 25 grams of carbs in there. So if you're on a low carb diet like keto gosh, that takes half of your intake, maybe even more. Oh my.
Speaker 1:God, I've been like I think it's more Thai cuisine the way they do this, but I've been cooking my rice in coconut milk. Oh gosh, oh my God, so good.
Speaker 2:But if you don't have that metabolism, your body's not you don't, you know, used to processing that amount of carbs. It will be carb overload on your system, on your metabolism, and so here's the thing it has my opinion on. That is like I looked at all of my chinese friends, my grandparents generation. It's not about the food. It really isn't. And it's not about the food it really isn't. And it's not about the amount either. It's really about how they live their lives without it's very simple life.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't know how many, you know your listeners and if you watch the show on Netflix, that is about the blue zones in the world, yeah, right. So, yes, their lifestyle is very different. Their food is very different. Yes, you can talk about it's their food and all of that, but if you look at the majority of the people there, their carb intake is a lot higher than what we usually think is good, right. Heartbeat intake is a lot higher than what we usually think is good, right. The biggest common denominator is their mentality. Their life is simple, finding happiness and having that low cortisol lifestyle is a common factor, and this is what we were talking about before the show is. I was hoping to bring a different perspective about health and really longevity and fitness into you. Know your audience, I'm not shocked at all.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's me. I've been doing this for a long time. I mean, cortisol has been linked to so many things and we can break this down right. So if you want to go for like a simplistic term, cortisol is great. 100%, you need cortisol. Let me explain why. If you're getting chased by a tiger and it wants to eat you, you need cortisol to get the out of there. Before that tiger eats your brains out. Yes, but once that event is gone usually what they ain't chasing you for more than like 20, 30 seconds and then done, yeah, and then you escape. In this situation, cortisol levels drop down. Yeah, it's the process of holding on to cortisol, getting constant cortisol level spikes. That helps, doesn't help. It doesn't help our bodies, uh, regulate food, yeah, digest food properly. So there's definitely relations to that. Yeah, I totally, I totally agree oh yes.
Speaker 2:So when my typical clients and when it comes to women, I always tell women if you have a weight issue, there is a diet issue, of course, but then there is the psychological, your neural issue as well. Because here's the thing In this day and age, we're just talking about the blue zones in the world. This reminds me so much about my childhood in China. Being a poor country, it has its advantages. Here's why Nobody's really rich, nobody was really poor. Everybody was the same. There was no competition, there was no going to school and like, okay, I'm wearing a more popular shoes than you are. Everybody was wearing the same blue pants. I don't even remember we didn't even have jeans back then. Jeans was not a thing until, gosh, I think I was 12. So everybody's the same. So there's no comparison, there's no competitiveness. We didn't play sports. Kids in China don't play sports. Most of them don't. So if you look at the lifestyle here, my kids play sports. My life is insanely busy, right, and now women most women nowadays wear different hats. They have their professional hats, they have their parenting hats, they have the being being a spouse. Here's the thing. What's crazy about cortisol is this Nowadays, women are professional.
Speaker 2:A lot of them have their own professions. When they're in the professional world, we have to pull out our masculine energy. We have to pull out our masculine energy. We have to especially if you're a leader, business owner, just any kind of leadership or even parenting your kids. Sometimes, when your husband is not home, you're like I got to pull this scary looking, you know face and scary voice to be authority. We have to pull out our muscular energy more often than ever on a constant basis.
Speaker 2:Now, if you have a nine to five job, that's eight hours of muscular energy constantly fixing you know, diffuse that threat. Because our job nowadays is threat. That's a threat to our brain. Our brain doesn't look at our job and say, oh, that's a job. Your daily tasks, deadlines, pressure from the top, above right, from corporate world, those are your bears that you have to get away or fight all day long. Then you get home dinner running kids to sports, all of those things. So right now we have 95% of time we're on high alert fight or flight. Then we get home when we're relaxed. This is cortisol decreases. Our body needs to produce serotonin and all those hormones and transmitter neurotransmitters, calm our bodies like a nervous system down. Guess what that happened? When that happens, our hunger kicks in right, and so your body needs mass amount of fast digesting calories for your body to utilize, and that's when we start eating mindlessly. So, in this day and age, losing weight for women is so hard, so hard.
Speaker 1:Which begs the question, right, because I don't disagree with anything you're saying so hard. Which begs the question, right, because I don't disagree with anything you're saying, but how right. So if you were to say yeah, you need to not stress it, and I couldn't agree more Women are doing more now than they've ever had before. Things are so expensive and people struggle even on a two household income right now and not to get political, but it's just the facts. It is how do you expect women to not have that same stress at work when they have to go to work and then they have to raise their kids because they can't afford getting a babysitter or anything like that? Like, how do you balance?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So there is come. When it comes to that, you don't have to give up your career. You don't have to think about I do? I mean, does that mean I, heather, I just need to quit my job and ship off my kids like your parents shipped you off? Right so, but anyway, so you kind of.
Speaker 2:So what I coach my clients to do is you have to tackle it from two sides. First of all, it's the physical side. You have to feel your body, the way your body is designed to do, right. So when, when people ask me this all the time so why is it you ask your clients to eat more food I said simply if you don't have the gas in the gas tank, your car won't run. So what comes first If you have that one focus, if you had just to do one thing that makes the difference and move the needle when you don't have time when it comes to your food is quantity. Forget about your quality of foods.
Speaker 2:A lot of people love talking about eating clean. I say eating clean is not going to get you fit. Fuel your body first. If you don't have that income, your body is going to stress out, it's going into debt. All of your organ function is going to go into debt. That's what's going to sacrifice your health first. Once you have a certain amount of food the adequate amount of food, because here's the thing when you don't have enough fuel to go inside your body, your body will go through physical stress. That's a stress on its own, but on the flip side.
Speaker 1:This is where I'll have a question to follow up with. I agree, 100, 100 people do not have enough food. It's always the conversation I'm having when I'm talking to people like looking to learn more. It's I eat 1200. I'm like, well, we're gonna get like 2000 and they look at me like I have 10 heads. But I will say your body does get a higher level of cortisol when it has foods that it's not meant to digest, since, such as ultra processed foods. Isn't that counterintuitive to say don't eat clean but yet you're going to go eat chips, cake, mcdonald's kind of deal?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so here is. It really depends on the where the person is at. Okay, so now, Anthony, for you you're probably eating really clean, right? And now you've haven't gotten to the habit of eating clean food. And now if you come to me and you said, hey, I am not eating enough, I can't lose this body fat, then I'm gonna. You already have those things. I said, hey, look, let's focus on the quality. But if some woman comes to me and I have, this client is really interesting to me. I've never seen a case like that.
Speaker 2:She was for a 53 years old. She came to me and I said track your food for seven days, let me see what you're eating. And she came in with 1400 calories on average for seven days. Give it a take, it's about around there. All she was getting was clean food, Like it was some apples. She got some cottage cheese. She eats some chicken breasts. She eats some like you can see all of that right. But her body, she had so little energy, she said.
Speaker 2:While we were doing a consultation call, she almost fell asleep on me. She said, Heather, I can't keep my eyes open. This is my day. I can't pull myself out of bed, I cannot focus. I can't carry a conversation for longer than 10 minutes without losing my focus. So I said you know what? I need you to do something different for me. So we got onto this plan. I told her to eat. She said I haven't touched sugar, chocolate or anything I liked for over 10 years. That was her lifestyle. So I said hey, look, let's change all of that. I want you to get so much calories in. We're going to slowly increase you because your body can't tolerate anything higher than 1400 right now. So we slowly increased her and I said I want you to do something for me. I want you to eat chocolate today, Like it's some kind of small amount of chocolate every single day, something you like, sugar, whatever it may be. And what's really amazing is that she started incorporating some sugar, some cakes, that she was so happy she was eating more. She followed my plan, though you can't just eat cake and you can't just eat. You know sugar and drinking soda all the time, but it's the amount of energy that went to her body. Within about a month and a half, she had enough energy to start going to the gym, which she hasn't done in five years.
Speaker 2:So if you're in that place where you have deprived yourself for so long. The first thing, because here's the thing every person can tell you without being certified, without being the knowledge that you and I have. They know working out is good, Eating clean is good, right. Getting more sleep is good. Lower your cortisol is good, but they Getting more sleep is good. Lower your cortisol is good, but they still have the same problem. But nobody can do all of those things at the same time, Of course, If you're a busy woman or busy anyone, right. So start with that one thing that what your body needs is that without that sufficient amount of food, your body is going to be depriving anyway, so the quality doesn't really matter. So if you have to do that's what I'm saying is if you have to do just one thing, that's what I would focus on.
Speaker 1:If you have been depriving, yeah, I'm not a fan of depriving whatsoever.
Speaker 2:Yes, Once you get there, then you can refine, say hey, let's focus on more quality.
Speaker 1:I will say the biggest issue I see with women, and just in general, is they don't eat enough meat. That's always case in point. Every single woman that walks in the office I ask the same question what did you eat yesterday? And yesterday was always a fluke day. That's my favorite part. Yesterday was a fluke day. It's like every single person says that. So you work through yesterday and there is literally like no protein in their diets, because women tend to be more vegan, vegetarian than men do. On top of that, when they are eating meats, it's a third of their portion or less. I'm a big believer of half your food should be protein, yeah, if not more, yeah. And they look at me like I have 10 heads and I'm like, no, I had someone today. She's like what do you eat? In the morning I was like, oh, 10 eggs, two pieces of cheese on two pieces of sourdough bread, yeah. And she's like one more time 10 eggs with two pieces of cheese and sourdough. I eat two eggs.
Speaker 2:So two eggs is 12 grams of protein, yes, six per that's it and and when I'm, the more people you talk to, the more you realize. I think our culture still don't understand food. No, not from the whole food, and so that's the thing is. This might be. I think your audience is either going to love me or hate me for saying this. I don't think anybody has.
Speaker 1:You should see the shit.
Speaker 2:I say no, I don't think anybody has just kind of stayed mutual, like, okay, this is good or that and that. So this is what my biggest I think it's the biggest skill set everyone should have and the reason why I realized that is this was five years ago, no, six years ago. So my kids were little and I was going through this weight loss thing and I was, you know, going counting my macros and all of that and I did not know what the heck the macro is like, what I never counted calories. Up to that point, I never counted my macros. I did not want no, anything in my food at all. I was eating just blindly and I thought I was eating a salad, that it was healthy. Little did I know. There was like 25 grams of fat in there in one little cup of dressing, right. So, but I was going through that transformation for myself and one day my husband you know he was, he was in the restaurant industry for 20 years, so he knows his portion sizes when it comes to meat, how many ounces If you get a cut. He knows roughly exactly how much that is, and every like cut he has is like he knows, right. So that's a skill set.
Speaker 2:So one day we were sitting in our kitchen I was making breakfast. I was making my breakfast tacos with eggs and avocados and all that good stuff and I was like I said I need, I need about 79 grams and avocados and all that good stuff. And I was like I said I need I need about 79 grams of avocados. And he looked at me. He goes, yeah, I said. He said he said, well, are you not going to use the scale? I was like, well, I'm getting so good at this because I do it so often, because I love avocados, right. And I said I bet I can cut this avocado and I can tell you exactly how much it weighs. And he goes, no way. I'm like, yeah, so I said I need a 79. And he gave me like two avocados, one a little larger than the other. He goes, pick one. I'm like I just grabbed one and I had cut three slices and I said this is roughly about 76. He goes, I don't know.
Speaker 2:So we got a food scale out. I put in the in the on the scale, food scale out. I put it on the scale. I think I was two grams off. It's pretty good, pretty good. And that's the moment it hit me and I thought to myself I'm like, I'm a genius. I was so proud of myself, I was about jumping up and down because that's kind of like a milestone.
Speaker 2:And then, immediately it hit me, I said, since when I don't use much scale very often anymore and I just stopped asking my husband. I said, hey, the last time we went to a restaurant, like what we had, and I said, hey, let's break that down and that's what we had and put in my fitness pal or any food tracker we were using my fitness pal. I was like that's break that down and that's what we had and put in my fitness pal or any food tracker we're using my fitness pal. I was like, that's how much the macros are, let me take a guess. So we went into I believe it was Texas Roadhouse, very popular here in Texas, and so we went over there. I ordered ribeye, I ordered, you know, their I ate their rolls and I had their green beans and all that stuff and I was not very far off on my calories and the proteins and all the macros.
Speaker 2:And that's when it really hit me. I'm finally free from measuring my food, because I measured so often, I have mastered it Right. And so if you, if you ever paid attention about 1400 calories or 15 or 16, and sometimes even 700. And sometimes I'm thinking, how are you not sick and you know, and laying in bed and not having getting up with 700? That's crazy. So they don't know. And until they truly track and that's the first seven days I asked my clients to do is to track. So here's for anybody's listening if you want true freedom, you've got to study your body and study your food. In this culture, our culture, we don't know our food at all.
Speaker 1:At all. Ask me how many calories a day I eat culture.
Speaker 2:we don't know our food at all At all. Ask me, how many calories a day? I eat how many calories in a day do you eat At least 3,500. Yeah, that's for men.
Speaker 1:That's very normal, especially if you have good amount of muscles.
Speaker 2:I ate a half of Chuck roast with homemade beer and dog roast today.
Speaker 1:I didn't say like a half of a.
Speaker 2:That amount of food make any women go ooh, I don't know, I can't eat that. Yeah, so, but, and quite frankly, a lot of women don't believe that they can eat a lot of food, simply because of this dieting culture that we have.
Speaker 1:It's a combination of everything. It's all societal, and I can go on a three-hour rant about how the government is poisoning us and not the direct method, as in they're actually putting poison in our food. It would be very clear before someone says, look what I just said. As far as in they're actually putting poison in our food.
Speaker 2:Yeah, very clear before someone says, look what he said Right, as far as what they promote, yeah, if, if you'll look at TV. Why don't you ever see a commercial about broccolis or green beans or just natural?
Speaker 1:meat. Whatever happened to the got milk commercials? I was thinking about this the other day. That was all like every other ad, and then all of a sudden, just poof it's gone.
Speaker 2:The reason why is nobody. Nobody profits from advertising natural food Nobody.
Speaker 1:That's why they don't, I'll lay an interesting stat on you. So most of the ultra processed food companies like your Frito-Lays and those big name brands are actually subsidiaries. Subsidiaries, I can say that word. Of tobacco companies, yes. So the big tobacco companies all bought them out and made them what they are today. So tell me they're not making the food addictive.
Speaker 2:Yes, they are, and it's very sad, but you know talking about. You know we were talking about earlier, so we talk about how to tackle this. Being busy for anyone, right? So from food we're talking about, just start with one thing making sure you have the right amount first, so that way, all of your organs and everything like it's I will even argue an even easier way that requires less measuring.
Speaker 1:To start first, I do think you need to get there Just meal prep. Even if you don't measure and you meal prep, I guarantee you'll be 10 times healthier than you were the day before.
Speaker 2:Right, so, but here's the thing to me, that's the first step. That's the first step to get you healthier. Just do that one thing. Like you said meal prep, because every day you're eating very consistently, right, the calorie income is coming in very consistently. It's really funny you said that, because I cannot stress how important it is for you to have very steady, consistent amount of calories going inside your body on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:I'm going to put a paraphrase on that because I just had a thought in my head. Sorry, no, worries Meal prep, but no, it doesn't count. If you went to the frozen food section of the grocery store and reheated the food and say that you home cooked. Yes, you know who I'm talking to. I know you're listening. Just going, I don't do that. And you went to Costco, you put into the freezer aisle, it said lasagna on it, you threw it in the oven and now it's home cooked.
Speaker 2:No, no, it doesn't so. But here is the thing is the consistency. You know I'm going off track here, but I will get back to the second side of the, you know, the stress hormone side of the cortisol side of things, but before I go there. So this consistency if you want to think about your metabolic, I'm talking about calorie burn, calorie in and out, if that's what everybody's thinking about losing weight. I'm not talking about calorie burn, calorie in and out, if that's what everybody's thinking about losing weight. I'm not talking about your overall health. I'm not talking about your qualities, of your organ functions, I'm just talking about working right. So, for weight loss purposes only, I love to compare caloric intake to your income. So here's the thing the more consistent every single month, if you have a job that has consistent income, how easy it is for you to budget, for you to know exactly when to pay your bills, when to pay your credit card, how much you need to save, what kind of house you need to buy, what kind of budget you need to go under right. However, if one month this this lot of business owners will understand this it's one month you have a higher income. Next month you got nothing. Next month is higher, next month is lower. It's the inconsistency makes budgeting, making financial decisions, a lot harder.
Speaker 2:So when your body taking on very inconsistent amount of calories, protein, carbs and fats and all those different macros every single day, your body doesn't understand what to process, when to process. How much to process? How much do I store? How much do I burn? Do I need to restore that for future uses as an energy source? When you starve for me next day, right, and when I'm? When you eat, feed me a lot more today, holy moly, I need to process the sugar in my bloodstream so you don't have diabetes. You don't pee that sugar out and imagine how much that overload on calories, carbs and all of those even though I don't think carbs is your enemy but you're literally driving your body crazy. So that's what I think being consistent on a daily basis. I'm not saying you can't have a whack day, right, but most of the time, treat your body to treat your body.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, so, but let's get back to you know, on the mental side of things. So how do you, how do you lower your cortisol? What do you do without shipping your kids off, without quitting your job, without divorce your spouse? Because, gosh, I'm being dramatic here but at the same time, I teach my women to do some very simple, simple mental exercises to keep your cortisol down. So the biggest thing is nowadays. So the biggest thing is nowadays we have a lot of our neuroplasticity. For most women, most people, is non-existent. There's no plasticity and they're very little. So I'll give you examples.
Speaker 2:So my kid, my younger one, she's 10 now. A year ago she came to me. She goes Mom, I can't focus in school, I can't. I will daydream, I can't focus. I have to sit next to my teacher at her desk so I could ask questions, I could focus, and that was very alarming to me. And she can't stop moving, has ADD or ADHD. I think you need to go get her checked out and see a psychiatrist. And I said, no, I don't think so.
Speaker 2:So what we did? I went on a whim, I did a really quick research. We decided to get off devices, screen times all together for 60 days. Both my kids and the results were amazing. So I'm getting to that point, hang on. So she, after two months, her focus improved. She was outside more, she's sleeping better, less panicking, more confidence, her grades went up and she was just overall happier. She was more engaged, it was more. She was more creative in everything that she did. So here's the thing. If I ask you, here's a mental exercise you can do tonight and just to see how distracted and short of attention span that you have nowadays is, before you go to bed tonight, lie down and think backwards, recall every single event that happened to you today Before you. You know you were brushing your teeth and before that, what were you doing before that? What were you doing? Can you recall any of the details? Most people can't.
Speaker 1:They'll just say like maybe my name down, but today my name was Anthony.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the reason why this exercise is really, really beneficial is that we go through the motions so fast that we're no longer present to our conscious mind or subconscious mind. You can still work, but how many of you guys working through a project and remember what you ate for lunch and yesterday, right or the day before? If I ask you, hey, what did you conversation you had to talk with your kid? What did you guys talk about? Oh, I remember the topic. Details don't remember. So we're no longer present.
Speaker 2:So the best thing you can do during the day is to be present. Being present and having that focus is really the key to lower your cortisol level down. Believe it or not, the mental focus is incredibly important. Oh yeah, and there are so many exercises that you can do, but just to test see where you are, you can go back. Can you go back all the way to you wake up in the morning? Can you recall every details, every conversations, every, even thoughts or emotions? Most people can't, because we're connected to our devices all the time. And better yet, if you can do a dopamine detox right, get rid of your screens for one week, you will have better sleep, you have better mood, you have better energy, you will actually find more pleasure in life than you've experienced, probably in the past month.
Speaker 1:I mean, I don't disagree with you whatsoever, but, heather, I do want to ask you the final two questions. I ask everybody because I think that's a great way to kind of end that People do need to learn to be more in the moment as opposed to thinking what's next on Instagram. So the final question is if you were to summarize this episode in one or two sentences, what would be your take-home message? To summarize?
Speaker 2:this episode in one or two sentences. What would be your take home message? The message is really for anyone you know my clients are just females but if you are a man, it's the same thing that when you focus about health, focus on not just how you look and how, what percentage of body fat you want get to, and focus on everything you do, being present in everything you do. Now, everything has to be intentional, because the really the goal is what is your marginal health the last 10 years of your life? What is the quality of your health and life at that point?
Speaker 2:So forget about the quick fixes, forget about the extreme diets, forget about going to the gym for six months so you can look like Hulk and then by the time you're 60, you're so stiff and you fall and your health declines. So be intentional. No matter what your goal is, be intentional and having that really start building the skillset that's needed. Those are tedious, those are the most boring things, but those are the most important skills that you need to have. So that's the message that I really want to tell your audience out there, and also making sure you pay attention to your mental health, pay attention to being present every day to lower that cortisol level. You don't have to quit your job.
Speaker 1:I love it, heather. Thank you, and this final question is how can people find me and get ahold of you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's really simple. I'm most active on Instagram, um, so, but before I share with you, like, how to get ahold of me, I've got a, a special something for your audience. Um, if that's okay, if I deliver, okay, all right. So, because everybody's listened hopefully you're listening to the end of the episode and you stayed I want to give you guys a special gift that I typically give out to my paying clients. This is what I call, you know, our fire metabolism essential kit. So what this does is what included in here is macro plans for women to increase your metabolism by at least 500 calories in 60 days, a special method I use.
Speaker 2:I will break down how your metabolism works. I'll break down how the system works. I will also include my best brain exercises you can use on a daily basis. That only takes you about 10 minutes before you go to bed. You can start seeing your body change right now, and so, yeah, so this is, I'm going to give that to you. And so how do you get that? So you can get ahold of me on my Instagram at Heather Diba. It's spelled D-E-B-A, so it's Heather Deba, d-e-b-a, and if you DM me the keyword fire, I will send that to you. Let's fire up your metabolism, get you healthier, and burning calories faster makes your health journey a lot easier.
Speaker 1:I love it. Heather, thank you so much and thank you for joining us in this week's episode of health and fitness redefined. Don't forget, hit that subscribe button and join us next week as we dive deeper into this ever-changing field. And remember fitness is medicine. Until next time I'm out Outro Music.
