If you really want to improve your health, metabolism, performance, and overall quality of life, listen up! Although each of my clients is unique, there are 6 Pillars that I focus on in my work because they have the most lasting impact.

1. Mindset - Your mind drives the bus, so your mindset needs to be your focus, not motivation.
2. Stress management - Improving your sleep is huge! Reduce your internal and external stressors as much as possible, set boundaries, and move your body.
3. Inflammation is simply your body’s response to attempting to heal or protect itself.Your diet plays a huge role here.
4. Detoxification - We work to support your body’s natural pathways of detoxification.
5. Physical activity - Find activities that you enjoy, and go for it.
6. Blood sugar regulation - Blood glucose that stays too high for too long or dip too low can cause all kinds of problems with cellular health.

Progress in each of these areas can have a positive snowball effect on other areas. 

Books I mentioned:

You Are a Badass and You Are a Badass At Making Money by Jen Sincero

If you’re looking for support in reaching your health goals, schedule a free 30-minute Coffee Talk here to see if we’re a good fit to work together.

Connect with me on Instagram @joliverwellness! DM me the words “Nutrition Edit” and I’ll add you to my close friends list, where I share exclusive content. You’ll be the first to know about upcoming programs and early access to my waitlist.

Music credit: Funk’d Up by Reaktor Productions

A Podcast Launch Bestie production

Hey there, and welcome back to the Nutrition Edit.

I'm so glad that you joined me today.

Today I am going to talk about the six steps to optimal wellness.

There are essentially six things to focus on if you really wanna improve

your health, your metabolism performance, and just your overall quality of life.

I call these my six pillars of practice because while each of my clients is

totally unique and different, these are the things that I address with every

single person because they have the most lasting impact on overall health

and and if these things are in check, your body can function more optimally.

You're gonna feel good, and you're gonna have a lot easier

time achieving your health goals.

So what are they mindset.

Stress management, inflammation, detoxification, physical activity,

and blood sugar regulation.

And a lot of these go hand in hand.

So I'm gonna touch on each one briefly today, starting with mindset.

So your brain is driving the bus, right?

Mindset always needs to be your number one.

Priority.

Before you start a diet, before you start an exercise program,

you've got to work on your mindset.

Now, that's not to say that it has to be perfect before you start anything.

Absolutely not.

I mean, just start , just go.

But you know, I don't want you relying on motivation.

Your mindset needs to be.

The focus, not motivation.

If I had a dollar for every person who walked into my office and said that

lack of motivation is what prevents them from reaching their goals, I would

be a very, very rich woman, and here's why You're focusing on the wrong thing.

Motivation is gonna ebb and flow.

Sometimes it's gonna be really strong and sometimes it will be absolutely

non-existent, and it may sound harsh, but if you're relying on feeling

motivated all the time to achieve whatever it is you wanna achieve, you

are setting yourself up for failure.

No one feels motivated all the time.

Even those of us who do this for a living.

I definitely don't feel motivated all the time.

In contrast, if your mindset is one of determination and you have the passion to

achieve something, coupled with the belief that you can and you will achieve it,

then you're probably gonna be successful.

We dive deeper into this in my episode with Dr.

Nikki Gimeno.

I believe it is episode eight.

So definitely go and check that out.

Cause we talk a lot about energetic healing, and, you know, moving past any

blocks that you have or hidden, hidden obstacles to achieving your goals.

If changing your mindset is new for you, and if you haven't read any of her books

yet, I also highly recommend reading.

You Are a Badass and you are a badass at Making Money by Jen Centro these

are really great books for helping you shift your inner dialogue and behavior

to just start creating that mindset and creating a persona, basically

your identity around creating this life that you envision for yourself.

So yes, that second book is about money, but the principles in it

are valid for nearly everything in life, including health and fitness.

And it's a really fun read.

It's also an audio book, so if you're like me and you just wanna listen when

walking or driving, That's a great option.

Limiting beliefs in inner dialogue are two really powerful aspects

of mindset and they can make or break you if you allow them to.

So for example, if you are always saying or thinking, I never stick to anything.

My metabolism is terrible.

I have a slow metabolism, or I hate exercising, or I hate cooking, well,

Your body and the universe are going to actually work to bring those beliefs

or thoughts to fruition or to make sure that they actually stay true.

So if you sincerely wanna change your lifestyle and your health, you're gonna

have to start acting and thinking like somebody who is where you want to be.

Okay?

So instead of saying, Oh, I never do this or that, I have a

terrible metabolism start saying, I'm someone who follows through.

I have a healthy metabolism.

I love moving my body.

I enjoy cooking.

At first, this is not gonna feel truthful or authentic, but in this case, I

really believe that the old fake it till you make it adage is really helpful.

If you're struggling with limiting beliefs and you find it hard not to beat

yourself up inside of your head, I really encourage you as well to get support

to do the healing that you need to do.

Because a lot of that sort of, you know, self-flagellation

that we do is the result of.

You know, just dysfunctional childhoods who hasn't had one of

those, could be abuse, trauma, critical parents, whatever it might be.

There are different causes of that.

So you always wanna go back and, and kind of explore, what's behind that and how

you can heal and making these shifts.

Obviously it takes practice, it doesn't happen over.

But the first step to take is just to start by not speaking to yourself in a

way that you would never speak to others.

Be kind to yourself and build on that.

I always tell my clients, you know, speak to yourself in the way that

you would speak to a young person that you're mentoring, who you're

trying to encourage and build up.

You wouldn't berate them and tell them, Well, you fucked

that up, or You screwed this up.

Or, that was a bad choice.

Forget the rest of your day is out the window.

Like you wouldn't talk to them that way.

So don't talk to yourself that way.

Accept yourself where you're at right now, and then build on that.

All right, next.

Stress management.

This is a big one.

It's a really big topic, but it's also a really important one.

And you know, we obviously can't control all of the external stressors

in our lives, but we can control some things, So let's talk about what

those things are and what you can do to manage stress as much as possible.

first of all, let's discuss sleep.

Sleep is so huge, , and you know, if you've ever had a really

crappy night of sleep, you feel so much more stress reactive.

The next day.

Maybe you're more irritable or.

Just, you know, cranky, whatever it might be.

So prioritizing sleep is huge for a number of reasons.

But when we're talking about stress, it is the foundational big piece.

Try to get at least seven hours of sleep practice good sleep hygiene,

which just means, you know, don't be staring at backlit screens, before bed.

Try to.

Remove yourself from any kind of a back lit screen that you're

looking at, at least two, you know, one to two hours, two is better.

Uh, avoid caffeine after about noon or at least eight hours before bedtime.

Caffeine has a half life.

of like six or seven hours.

So you know, if you have a coffee at two or three, that could still

be in your system at 10:00 PM.

Minimize the caffeine and alcohol.

Gosh, sleep is such a, such a big thing.

I wanna have a whole episode on that in the future.

I've done a lot of talks on, on sleep and improving that.

So there are many things that are a factor there, but the

caffeine and alcohol is a big one.

The sleep hygiene, you know, like creating a sanctuary in your bedroom.

That's a big thing.

Don't work in your bedroom.

Leave your bedroom.

Reserved for sleep and sex only.

It should be sort of a sanctuary for you where you can go and really feel

like you can unwind sometimes if you're have a hard time falling asleep, doing

some deep breathing or stretching before bed could be really helpful.

Soak in a warm tub, read an actual physical book versus looking at a screen.

All of those things can be super helpful.

Okay next.

For stress management, good nutrition, like this is a given.

If, if your body is less stressed internally, you know you're eating

foods that support you, that are not inflammatory or stressful for your body

to digest or deal with, you can then better cope with external stressors.

Okay?

So food can either be a source of stress or a source of stress relief.

and you'll be much more resilient if you have a good diet.

So good nutrition.

What do I mean by that?

Nutrient dense diet.

You know, very nutritious food, Low inflammatory foods.

Low glycemic meaning you're not eating, you know, foods that are spiking

your blood sugar over the place.

those types of foods are gonna help you be a more resilient

person in every area of your life.

And I include gut health under this umbrella too.

That's a massive amount of information.

So, we'll go into detail on that in a future episode.

But really, you know, optimizing your ability to digest and break down your

foods so that you can actually absorb nutrition and again, avoiding those

kind of insult foods that can be inflammatory and stressful for your.

All right, work.

work is a big one, and there are a lot of aspects of work that

can be stressful, which we don't necessarily have control over.

So the things that you can hopefully, you know, regulate a bit for yourself are

setting healthy boundaries, especially at the start, if you can, you know,

if you're in a new job, if you're in a new roller position, Set those

healthy boundaries for yourself from the get go and then keep a work curfew.

Have a certain time of the evening when you stop working and let your colleagues

know I am not available after x time.

They may not like it at first, but if you stick to your guns,

hopefully they'll respect it.

And ladies, I will say men have no problem doing this often

and no one questions it, but.

Women are really bad at saying like, Sorry, I'm not available at that time.

We tend to be apologetic.

We tend to really, you know, let go of our boundaries when it comes to

work because, you know, historically we have had to outperform our male

colleagues to get the same recognition.

Um, we still don't get the same pay.

You know, there are a lot of aspects to this that are still pretty

shitty, but that's the reality.

It's not worth sacrificing your health over.

That's the bottom line.

There's no company that's gonna thank you at the end of the day for

sacrificing your health for them.

So you know, if you're spending too much of your life at

work, you need to reign it in.

And no amount of money is going to make up for the fact that you know you're

missing out on time with either your family or your sacrificing your health.

So set a curfew, set healthy boundaries in the best way possible,

and then stick to your guns.

We spend far too many hours of our lives at work to hate what we're doing.

So if you need to make a change, if you're in a position that you hate and you're

miserable in, start taking steps towards what you really wanna do and believe that

that career that you love is out there waiting for you and start exploring.

Check it out.

So those are my tips around, around work and, Simple things like putting a do not

disturb on your phone at a certain hour can really help leaving your phone outside

the bedroom, whatever it takes for you to, you know, step away and transition out of

your workday and into your personal life.

Those are all really healthy ways to kind of reduce work stress.

Next step relationships.

So relationships are much like food.

They can either be a source of stress or they can be a source of stress relief.

If you have relationships that are unhealthy or that sap your

energy more than they fill you up.

It may be time to reexamine those, and see if those are people who are actually

people that you want in your life.

Do they bring something to the table?

Do they enhance your life at all or do you see them and then just leave

feeling completely depleted and drained?

and I'm not telling you to just ditch people in your life.

We don't have to do that.

You know, we can appreciate them for what they have to offer.

Some friends, as my mom loves to say, are, you know, Bronze, silver or gold friends.

Those gold friends are usually few and far between.

They're the people who would walk through fire for you that

are really your true blue, you know, chosen family, so to speak.

And then there are friends that are just maybe fun, but you wouldn't

rely on them in an emergency, et cetera, and everything in between.

So, Just kind of reexamine the relationships in your life and

make sure that they are healthy.

And you know, again, strong boundaries play a big role here.

But, do your best to extricate yourself from any, you know, harmful or abusive or

really stressful, negative relationships.

Forgiveness is another aspect of that.

I, if you're holding onto any kind of resentment or forgiveness.

Really work on forgiving those people who have harmed or hurt you because

you're not letting them off the hook.

You're actually letting yourself off the hook.

And by holding onto any of that resentment, really, you're the only

one that that's paying a price there.

And unforgiveness can actually really contribute to illness and a

lot of health problems physically.

So let it go.

Move on.

Release yourself from that.

Um, Next one, which is a big one for stress management is exercise.

Hey, surprise, surprise, . Your body is made to move.

So being sedentary is extremely stressful for your body and your mind.

That said, too much and or the wrong kind of exercise can also be stressful.

So if you're a very high strung type A person with a demanding life, for

example, you may find that while you're really drawn to super high energy

workouts, like high intensity to cardio or CrossFit, you may be drawn to

those things, but you would probably benefit from adding in more restorative

exercise like yoga, Pilates, and walking.

Since all of those reduce stress hormone production.

So, , I talk about this ad nauseum, but more is not necessarily

better when it comes to exercise.

Frequency is really good.

but just pushing yourself harder and harder all the time

is not necessarily helpful.

It can just add to the stress on your body, in your mind.

Sometimes we need to reign it in and, you know, do something that kind of fills our

cup or is more restorative, so to speak.

That's exercise.

and that is really tied into sleep too, a lot.

Oftentimes if you know a client comes in and they're struggling

with sleep, they are also living a pretty sedentary lifestyle.

Because your body needs to, you know, expend energy.

Sometimes that energy can just be built up if you're not moving your body enough.

And that can translate into restless sleep, uh, that monkey mind kind

of thing where your mind can race and you just can't turn it off.

All those things.

And that can be really disruptive for sleep.

And then you don't get rest and then you're too tired to work out

and it's this awful vicious cycle.

and I have been there and I know a lot of you can relate to what I'm talking.

All right.

Next pillar is inflammation.

So inflammation is simply your body's response to, and its attempt to heal from

anything potentially harmful, such as toxins, allergens, infections, or injury.

If one of these causes damage to your cells, your body then releases chemicals

that signal your immune system to get to work, to come in, protect you, what

you eat can either be pro-inflammatory.

Anti-inflammatory were neutral, and I talked about inflammatory foods and

toxicity at length in episode two.

So if you haven't listened to that one yet, go back, give it a listen,

because I give you a lot of ways to avoid these foods and to minimize

your exposure to environmental toxins.

But for today's purposes, eating an anti-inflammatory diet basically

means avoiding highly processed foods, high sugar foods or high-glycemic

foods, and eating the cleanest, best quality foods that you can afford.

Getting lots of colorful vegetables and fruits, and then choosing proteins that

are ideally organic, pastes and fed their natural diet or wild caught for seafood.

Those are some of the key, points to eating an anti-inflammatory diet.

And I'll add that for seafood.

You want it to be lower on the food chain just to minimize the

content of heavy metals such as, mercury, cadmium, and lead.

So just go smaller, smaller fish and lower on the food chain.

You're gonna see higher concentration of those toxic metals in, larger

predator fish like halibut or predator species of tuna.

anyway.

Eating this way in an anti-inflammatory way, it's very supportive for your

immune system because it's providing all the nutrients and antioxidants

that your body needs to effectively fight off infection and other insults.

And that brings us to detoxification again, I went into this in more detail

in episode two, but in the context of the six pillars of practice here, this

means that we are working to support your body's natural detoxification process

by helping to improve your digest.

Overall gut health, opening your pathways of elimination and supporting

your organs of detoxification, which include your liver, kidneys,

lungs, lymph, skin, and colon.

Yes, your skin is an organ of detox.

So, those are all the things that we're gonna address on that level.

Skin is a big one.

I am excited to talk about this more with some skin experts in season two

because boy, it's a biggie and so many of us put just really toxic garbage and

synthetic fragrance and all these things all over our skin and hair and body.

And you know, here this is this massive organ that's supposed to.

Helping us eliminate toxins.

And when we're putting toxins on top of it, that gets absorbed

right into our bloodstream.

So keep that in mind when you're buying your, your cosmetics and, and

any kind of personal care products.

you know, liver, kidneys, lungs, lungs, you know, this is a big one.

Again, air pollution is one of those things that we don't have much control

over, but having a good quality air filter in your room, especially like in your

bedroom at night, that can be helpful.

Doing some deep breathing work, remembering to breathe full breaths

in and out throughout the day.

Often we're stressed and we'll take short little shallow breaths,

um, and liver and kidneys.

Look that, you know, that has a lot to do with obviously eating a

clean diet, high fiber, drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated

to keep this kidneys flushed.

And then li your lymph system is, a huge component in your.

Ability to detoxify.

It's kind of, think of it as, you know, taking out the garbage for your body.

Lymph is stimulated by movement and or massage, and that's it.

So if you're not moving your body, you know, your lymph can get kind of funky

and stagnant and you don't want that.

It's kinda like a stagnant pond.

You want fresh water running in and out.

You want circulation happening there.

Moving your body is great for your lymphatic system.

And then massage is wonderful for it as well.

And then colon, I mentioned obviously that's part of your,

your digestion and, and your gut.

Again, high fiber food, lots of antioxidants, colorful

veggies, things like that.

As much variety as possible and boosting your digestion so you're actually

breaking down your food and it's not sitting there fermenting in your gut.

Like those things are great ways to support your colon and also

staying hydrated, that's huge.

Dehydration number one cause of constipation.

So get your water in people.

Okay, next physical activity.

Adding onto what I mentioned before about exercise.

You know your body is designed to move, so the key here is

finding an activity or activities that you enjoy and going for it.

I mean, I think that we sort of live under this false pretense that we have

to go running or we have to become a gym rat in order to be fit or get

the benefits of exercise that is non.

No, just move your body and find something that you like to do.

And like I mentioned before, frequency is more important than duration.

So if you're.

You know, a weekend warrior, so to speak, try to break that down a little bit

because you're much better off doing like three to five shorter workouts each week.

20, 30 minutes maybe.

Geez, 15 if you can get it in.

I don't care.

But you're better off doing those short workouts more frequently than

you are by doing like one or two hour long workouts in, in a week total.

So frequency of moving your body is more important than less frequent, but higher.

Um, coming up in episode 11, we're gonna talk a lot about how to get

started if you're new to exercise.

But like I say, really when you're getting started, finding something that you enjoy.

When you, you're starting or you're just trying to create a

new routine and be consistent.

Like, if you don't like what you're doing, you're not going to stick with it.

So maybe Zumba is fun for you because you love to dance.

Or maybe you take a hip hop fitness class or maybe you're like me and

you love to be out on the water.

By a kayak.

Get out paddling.

Do something that you look forward to because if you don't enjoy it,

you know, as busy as our lives are, if you're gonna spend time out of

your day, your time is precious.

You want it to be something that feels like, Hey, this is me time.

I enjoy this.

I look forward to it.

And then change it up as often as you need to so that you don't get bored.

You don't have to like choose one thing and then do it forever.

Okay.

So just start to create that positive sort of feedback loop in your brain

with exercise so that it becomes, you know, a rewarding and fun

activity that you look forward to.

And no, you're not gonna feel like doing it every single day, even if it's

an activity that you do love, you're gonna have days when you wake up and

you're gonna be like, Screw it, I am beat, I'm tired, I don't wanna do it.

I know for me there are genuinely times when I need to listen to my

body and really rest and take it easy or maybe just do active rest that

day, like take a walk or something.

But more often than not, I just need to start.

And if I can just fool myself by saying, Hey, just do five minutes

, then I end up actually getting a whole workout in and I enjoy myself

and I'm so glad that I did it.

It's the getting started part.

That's hard.

So don't overthink it.

Just put your shoes on.

Go for.

All right.

And finally, blood sugar regulation.

This is so important and I'm really thrilled that we're hearing so much more

about this in the science world and media lately, if I had my way, all of my clients

would wear a continuous glucose monitor for at least a month so that they can

see exactly how different foods affect their blood glucose levels and how.

Their blood sugar is sort of fluctuating on a day to day basis.

I could talk for hours about the importance of blood glucose management,

but the bottom line here is that you, what you don't want is to see like big

peaks and valleys with your blood sugars spiking way up and then dipping way down.

It should elevate a bit when you eat, but then it should also come back down

to baseline before too long when our blood glucose or blood sugar is elevated.

For too long, too high and too long.

It causes cellular damage called G lation.

some people refer to this as rusting of our cells.

Just kind of a good way to describe it.

And also, if our blood glucose is elevated too much, too often,

it leads to insulin resistance.

and that eventually can cause type two diabetes and even

Alzheimer's and dementia.

In fact, experts are calling Alzheimer's disease type three diabetes now because

it's so closely tied to dysregulated blood sugar and insulin resistance.

insulin resistance.

The quickest way I can describe what that is, is, you know, your cells can

only uptake so much glucose so quickly.

And insulin acts as a shuttle to get that glucose into your cell.

So if there is tons of glucose, the insulin is high, your cells are taking

up glucose, you know, pretty rapidly.

Like at some point they're gonna be like, Nope, we're shutting.

The door can't take anymore in, and over time that can get worse.

Where more and more of your cells are like, Nope, we're not answering

the door for insulin anymore.

And that's what we call insulin resistance.

The cell is actually resistant to this insulin and it doesn't open up and

allow that insulin and that glucose, so then the glucose remains high and

circulating in the bloodstream causing that damage that we talked about.

So, Here are a few hacks that you can use to help prevent

these big blood glucose spikes.

First, eat your non-starchy vegetables, first at your meals, or start with a

salad, then move on to your proteins and fats and save any starchy carbs, fruit.

Dessert and even alcohol for last.

The reason being that the fiber in the veggies acts is sort of this

filter that will slow the uptake of that sugar into your bloodstream and

it prevents that big glucose spike.

So that's number one.

That's a biggie.

That to me is the most important step that you can take.

Number two, move around or do some exercises for a few minutes

after meals whenever possible.

They used to say, you know, 10 minutes and now they're saying no,

That even a few minutes of movement after meals can be really effective

for helping lower blood sugar.

The reason being is that your muscle cells are incredibly, active

metabolic cells and as they move.

They will uptake that glucose pretty rapidly.

They're gonna use it for fuel, right?

So if you're moving, you're giving that.

That sugar, that blood sugar essentially someplace to go versus just allowing

it to continue circulating in your blood and then eventually being

sorted as fat, et cetera, et cetera.

So move around a little bit, even if it's just, Hey, I get up after dinner.

It'd be wonderful if you can take a walk after meals, that's fabulous.

But even if you can go and do household chores, do some laundry, um, you know,

do a little cleaning up, do the dishes, whatever it might be, all of that

movement after meals is really helpful.

Third tip, avoid sugar and starchy carbs.

On days when you haven't had good sleep.

Some of you are like, Yeah, screw you, Jeanie.

That's not happening , because when we are.

Overtired or under slept fatigued, your brain and body will

actually crave those foods more.

So it's sort of a cruel irony because we crave those foods, we want those more.

It's kind of quick, you know, hit of energy when we're lacking real

cellular energy for lack of rest.

But we are more insulin resistant when we haven't had sufficient sleep.

So avoiding those things or really minimizing them or being really strict

with, you know, doing your veggies first than proteins, than your carbs

on days when you're under slept can really, really help with this.

And you might find actually that you'll sleep better than night following

when your, when your blood sugar has been well regulated during the day.

So if you have a starch at meals, I recommend skipping the alcohol

and dessert and vice versa.

So choose only one of those things.

Either an alcoholic drink, a starch, or a sweet, but not more than one.

So special occasions here are the exception.

I'm not talking about that.

I'm not talking about the, Hey, we had this amazing anniversary dinner and we

had wine and we had, you know, appetizers and entrees and fabulous dessert.

Like those are not the days I'm talking about.

I'm talking about your every day, most of the time meals.

So this can make a really, really big difference if you're practicing

this on a more regular basis.

I'm not talking about those, you know, times when strategic indulgence, as

I call it, is absolutely appropriate.

And then finally, here's an interesting trick that we're actually seeing

more, Support from, from studies on recently, but try drinking one

tablespoon of raw organic apple cider vinegar or lemon juice diluted in water

about 10 or 15 minutes before meals.

I know this seems strange, but I think it's the ascetic acid, if I remember

correctly, that can actually help, keep your blood sugar a little more even keel

when you have that apple cider vinegar or lemon juice shortly before a meal.

You wanna dilute it for a couple reason.

A, those are really, really sour on their own and it's a pretty intense taste.

But second, it can be hard in your tooth enamel, so diluted a little bit.

and then I even after I've drank that, you know, will kind of swish my mouth

out with some more water afterwards just to get that off of my teeth.

I actually don't recommend brushing your teeth right after this, cuz

that can be problematic as well.

just diluted a little bit.

Have your meal and then you can always brush after.

So those are a few practices for keeping your blood sugar more even keel, more

well regulated with your food choices.

But here's the kicker, it's not just food that can spike our blood sugar.

Stress does it too.

great example of this.

I have a client who wears a continuous glucose monitor, and when he first

started wearing it, he kept seeing.

Crazy spikes at random times throughout the day that were between meals.

They weren't even at meal times.

And when he looked back at his schedule, he realized that

those spikes were happening.

Whenever he had a stressful work call or a meeting that he was dreading or that

was just, you know, intense or stressful, his blood sugar would spike up and.

This makes perfect sense.

I mean, I know, another doctor who mentioned how she was wearing her

CGM driving and she had kind of a near miss, almost had an accident in

her car when she was driving and it caused this massive blood sugar spike.

So, That's part of your body is fight or flight, sort of stress response.

It's a way of your body kind of, you know, heightening all your senses, um,

increasing blood sugar to send fuel to your big muscles so that you can run

and escape from, you know, whatever that threat is that your body is perceiving

in that moment of fight or flight.

So this is one of the reasons why.

Managing our stress.

Trying to avoid chronic stress as much as possible is so crucial because it can

completely throw off your blood sugar.

And I've seen people who have an extremely low glycemic diet, They are super fit,

you know, they're essentially doing everything right, but because they're

under such chronic stress, their blood sugar can be elevated all the time,

even into the pre-diabetic range.

Again, all of these things are sort of intertwined, right?

Our body systems are all connected.

We can't look at these things in a vacuum.

So, managing stress is really important because, you know, if it's throwing

your blood sugar outta whack off and on all throughout the day, then

that's gonna have these knock on effects for, for the rest of your.

and using tools like deep breathing, that's one of my favorite ones because

that can make a huge difference in those moments when we feel that

stress or that tension coming on or we're startled, whatever it might be.

and doing deep breathing, you know, it doesn't have to

be like a loud yoga breath.

It's something that you can do when you're driving in a meeting.

You can do it with your eyes open.

People won't necessarily even know that you're doing it, but just kind

of focusing and filling yourself.

Breathe deeply into your, you know, your belly and filling your

whole lungs and then exhaling it slowly, um, can really, really help

to reduce stress in the moment.

I think I mentioned before in another episode, the 4 78

breathing exercise from Dr.

Wile.

That's super helpful.

But basically just try to take, Twice as long an exhale as you do your inhale.

So if you inhale for four counts, exhale for eight.

you know, if you can hold it for that second seven seconds in between, great.

But sometimes I find that holding my breath if I'm really stressed is hard.

so those are my kind of tips and tools for, for blood sugar regulation.

And then, stress management kind of in the moment when you're

experiencing acute stress.

So wrapping up, you know, a big part of my mission is just to help

you be your own advocate and feel empowered when it comes to your health

and fitness and overall wellbeing.

So I really wanted to share these pillars with you because these are the

things that get my clients' results.

Each of these areas can have a really positive snowball effect, meaning

when you support your body in any one of these areas, then other areas

are gonna benefit and improve as.

and you know, if you come across these quick fix solutions or you

see some practitioner or social media influencer promising big

results in a short time, these are really good points to refer back to.

Did these people focus on these things?

Are these things addressed with whoever this practitioner or this guru is?

Those are good things to really pay attention to.

And you know, it does take commitment.

It takes commitment and consistency and knowing where to focus your energy.

So if you try to skip over these core components, you may get limited

results in the short term, but they're not gonna last and you can end up

worse off than when you started.

So, It takes patience.

Sure.

But really, if you can stick to these things and be consistent, more often

than not, life will truly get easier and more enjoyable because you're

building that strong foundation of health versus just trying to

skip the foundation of the house.

And, you know, throw up this rickety structure, right?

trying to build from the top down instead of the bottom up.

So it does pay off in the long run.

I'm a walking, living example of this.

And, I am here to help you if you need help.

So whether it's me, whether it's someone else, definitely get support

with these things because trying to do it on our own is, it's, Too much.

It's too much.

It's too much information.

So that is all for today.

I love you and I hope that you are taking good care of yourself and staying