Welcome back to The Weight Loss Collab! In this episode, co-hosts Dr. Betsy Dovec and Hannah Schuyler, RD are diving into one of the most important topics on everyone’s mind: how to live a longer, healthier life. They’ll break down what longevity really means, not just adding years to your life, but making sure those years are full of energy, good health, and happiness.

Get ready for practical tips rooted in science, as Dr. Dovec and Hannah discuss how your metabolic health, daily nutrition, physical activity, stress, sleep, and even social connections can have a huge impact on longevity. Whether it's demystifying “skinny fat,” busting myths about diet and exercise, sharing quick wins to improve your daily routine, or getting real about the role of community and mental health, this episode is packed with actionable advice.

If you’re looking to understand the small but powerful habits that can lead to more good years (not just more years), this conversation will leave you feeling inspired and empowered to start living younger, right now. So grab your coffee, take notes, and let’s unlock the secrets to a longer, healthier life together!

She's a doctor. Hi, I'm Dr. Dovec and she's a

dietitian. Hey, I'm Hannah Schuyler and together we are the

Weight Loss collab. Yes. And

welcome back. It's been a while since we have been together. I know

it's been very busy. There's been a lot going on. I

know it's December when we're recording this. I don't know when you're

listening to it out there, but it is the beginning of December and

it is a powerhouse month. Yes. It's just been

one thing after another. So we've been together, but we

just haven't had time to actually sit down and dedicate time to this,

which is very sad because we always have it on the list. It is, it

is. And we have some great ideas, and hopefully today's

episode will be one that is something that you are going

to find a lot of value in if you're listening out there. So we are

talking about how you can live longer.

Yeah. So we're going all in on what are the

things that you can do every day that impact your

longevity. Yes. Which, like, I don't think

we. Think about in a, like,

specific day to day way. I think it's kind of this idea, like, sure, we

want to live longer and everything, but, like, to actually be like, okay, what is,

what am I putting into practice to make that more of a

reality or to, to, like, set that as a goal.

Yeah. I mean, every single one of my, I guess,

personal or professional development books that I read,

everything in there has a section on

living like you're dying, realizing that you will one

day die, and how do you make the most of it? And in this case,

how do we expand the time for as long as

possible, too? So there are absolutely some things that are

going to be, I think maybe some somewhat new to some people, and some

of it is going to be like, yeah, I know that, but I just needed

to. To hear it again. And I need in this new year to really

put into practice and, you know, go there, run beyond, make it a

hack. Yeah, this really kind of does. I hadn't even got. My brain

can't function that far out. You're talking weeks out for two new years

that like, yeah, this is exactly. It's kind of like, how does this play into.

And like, you know, we talk about setting goals a lot and

having that why. Of why we do things. And I think sometimes, like,

this might be that perfect thing of like, okay, in the new year, you

know, Just use the. The. Oh, I want to exercise more. Okay. Well,

that's like on its head, not a great goal because it doesn't. But like, if

you can start to put some motivation behind it of, like. Because I want extend

my, like, not only my life, but my healthy life.

Yes. My, like, good. You know, we want more good years in our lives.

And I think that plays. All of these things play into having just like,

higher quality years as well. Yeah,

definitely. You have to. Yeah. It's not just like, oh, I'm

gonna live long, but I can't move. I. It's like,

just not. Not great. So we're. We're going to make

that happen for you. And all these things start now. Little,

little things. We're going to go in, we're going to tell our own personal stories

of how we're applying them or how we're going to apply them to our lives

and all the things we're going to do. So. So the first thing

is the biggest thing. I think it's no surprise, but when you're looking

at, okay, what is longevity really tied to? It's

tied to metabolic health. So we all have this. We have our

biological age, our chronological age, but we also have our

metabolic age. And met metabolic age is

directly tied to not how much

we weigh, but. But where we basically

carry our weights. And so it's all about visceral

fats. And visceral fat is that internal,

centrally located distribution to your weight that's on the inside.

That is just really what all of these other issues

kind of stem from. And it has to do with your body

composition. And everybody's a little different in that regard. So

some people carry their weights in their periphery or basically more in the

subcutaneous tissue, so their fat is more in their hips

and butts and arms. It's more of a female distribution

versus this visceral type of distribution where your abdominal

wall or your subcutaneous fat, the amount that's right underneath your

skin, that might be so, so thin. And that's because.

Whoa. I. Whenever I'm doing surgery, I put the trocar in and it's

barely in. I'm like, oh, that means that that is that

dangerous distribution we're talking about, right? Yeah, it's kind of like if

you're thinking of like a visual, it's like the apple versus

pear, like, shape. If we remember, you know, White

Cosmo or Vogue or Teen. Probably Teen Vogue, those kinds of

things. Like, how do you dress for your body shape? Like, this would be like,

the apple is going to be that central. So we're thinking

larger waist circumference and things like that

waist to hip ratio is bigger, things along those

lines versus that, like, pear or hourglass type

of shape where. And again, like you said, a lot of women have that kind

of lower. It's your hips, it's that lower

adiposity shape. Right.

And so some people, there's a phrase called skinny

fat where you look good. You know, you're like, I,

wow. They don't need surgery. They don't need a GLP1. They're, like,

conventionally quote thin, but, like, their

BMIs are in the 20s or low 30s, and they have diabetes, and it's

type 2 diabetes or insulin resistance or PCOS or like

some of these, like, metabolic conditions. And you're like, really? You have that.

And it is begin. Because they have really skinny arms, really

skinny legs, and the weight is just right there,

midsection. And that. That skinny

fat is just dangerous. It's really, really dangerous. And that's.

That's how we're going to make every change and every habit. Everything that we do

is really targeting that very specific type of fat

as. Well, which is really difficult to do. So, like, if you've

struggled with it, it's. It's sticky, it's hard, it's like

bare. And. And changing that composition is a challenge.

And you probably also won't move it from your stomach to your butt. So you

don't expect to, like, suddenly have like, a big booty or anything like that

either. I know. And that's. That's another thing, like with Irene,

with Dr. Tower, embodied by Beauty, her cosmetic practice, she says

that sometimes she'll have people come in and they're like, oh, my

abdomen. It makes me crazy. And she's like, there's nothing to lipo

because, again, the fat isn't there for her to be able to go right

underneath the skin and get it out. She's like, I don't. I don't

have enough to. To, like, I'm going to do anything for you.

Yeah, not going to do it. And that's also why lipo. Like,

people ask about that. They're like, why can't I just do, like, lipo and lose

the weight that way? And it's like, that's not pulling that dangerous,

that unhealthy fat out of your body. It's pulling that, you

know, kind of subcutaneous fat like you mentioned. Yeah,

absolutely. So here's the deal. Why is being skinny

fat or having that visceral distribution, why is it so dangerous? So

accelerates aging. So it basically it's

taking years off of your life. And it's not fair because it is genetics.

And so that's, I think a really just, you know, kind of your blueprint

that you're born with. It's kind of how you distribute your weight and it's just

not fair. It will also drive inflammation. So

we have a theory behind. A lot of our patients also have

autoimmune conditions. And I do think that there is also a relationship

between the amount of fat that you have, especially visceral or internal fat, with

the inflammatory markers that are kind of set off. So that kind of puts

your body in this state where it isn't an autoimmune or

basically it's attacking itself because of, because of the amount of

fat you have and where it is. So it makes you more inflamed. That

also increases cortisol, that also increases stress, which also

puts the weight on your abdomen, which also perpetuates emotional eating. So we're going to

go through all of that, but that's a lot of it. And so that is

something that it can again take years off of your life that we, we really

want to focus on. Yeah. So I guess then we,

what that takes us into is like, all right, so now we know, you know,

part of the, the issue when it comes to longevity and especially when it

regards to weight. Of course there's other things like we mentioned, like your genetics

are going to play a role in how long you live and different things like

that. But what can we start to, to do about

kind of working to lose or maintain if you

don't have a lot of it that, you know, lower kind of visceral fat?

Yeah. So let's dive in and let's start first with your area

of expertise. Let's eat for extra years, my friend. So

let's talk about the diet. I think a lot of you who are listening

know about the diet, but let's just refresh

what you feel like is the best diet and why we kind of feel like

it's the best one to recommend. Yeah, I mean, I think that

I always tell people that, you know, dietitians are really going to give the most

boring advice to you. But it's, it's sound and it's what kind of

consensus is. And it, it's being a moderate diet. It is

making sure you are getting adequate amounts of protein in the diet. I think from

a weight loss perspective, we know that that's huge, really protecting your

muscle mass and that as well, especially as you lose weight.

And that protein can come from plant and animal sources. So

I think that, you know, people talk about like the Mediterranean diet,

which has pros and cons to it in like a cultural context and all

sorts of things like that. But the concept of it is, you know, more plant

forward things like healthy fish, seafood, things along

those lines, limited processed or red meats.

You know, again, I don't think it's ever. It's great because it's not really ever

saying zero of a lot of those things, but really just

trying to get that good variety in your protein sources and having

that as part of it. And then also just, you know, I think

that the more plants in general that we add to our diet,

the better it is when it comes to weight,

our health, our longevity, things like that. So increasing

Nobody basically like 90%. I don't know the exact

figure, but somewhere between like 85 and 90 of people are not eating

enough fruits and vegetables in their diet day to day. And

so if you can increase that number up, you know, look at where you are.

Add an extra serving of a veggies per day, have a little

smoothie or something, you know, like a high protein smoothie. Get some extra fruit in

there, beans, lentils, nut seeds, like those

really high fiber foods. As we talk about, I keep saying

it, fiber is like having its moment. She's kind of becoming that girl.

She's not. She hasn't replaced protein yet. I don't know that

anything will ever replace protein in the nutritional cultural

zeitgeist. But fiber is like number two right now for sure

and helps with number two. But

you know, increasing that because that helps

with satiety. So you're going to feel fuller from your meals for

longer. It helps, you know, your GI

tract. So it's going to feed that good gut bacteria. It's going to help

with things like our cholesterol levels. It is going to help to

keep you regular. I mean, we're seeing things like colon cancer on the rise in

younger people and so like things like

that keep better GI habits, you

know. And fiber can really play a role in some of those things as well.

I love it. Fiber. She is that moment, is that girl.

Oh my God. She is that girl. She is this moment.

Oh my gosh. And just so you know, general recommendations are for women

to bid about 25 grams of fiber. That's women, I want to

say 20 to 65 and then over 65, I think it drops, but

don't quote me on that. And if you get more, it's fine. And then for

men it's over 30 grams a day I believe.

So I just got fiber. Most people are again, same with

the veggies, the fruits. People are not getting that fiber in

and you do have to really like work for it. It's not necessarily like an

easy thing to do. So and if you are a post bariatric patient,

it's really difficult just because your, your overall intake is so

much lower, your caloric intake is so much lower. So you know,

supplements are totally fine as well. Benefiber, metamucil,

whatever. Yeah, and that's, I couldn't agree more.

And that's why remember guys, especially right after surgery when you're just

taking in so little and you're just focused only on

protein, you get really constipated and we have whole episodes on

constipation, but it can be really painful and just really

uncomfortable. So yes, fiber is great

in all, all these situations. So the high level

overview, we're looking for a higher protein, lean proteins,

animal based proteins, plant proteins, lots of great ideas.

Then a lower carb, especially lower kind of refined carbs,

starchy carbs, and then little to no added sugar especially

try to avoid drinking your sugars. And I think that

that single tip in your diet changes if

you're doing everything else pretty much for the most part, pretty good. If you stop

drinking your sugar, stop drinking the sodas, stop drinking the

Starbucks runs with all the little syrups and. Which I know there,

there'll be dietitians out there who will be like don't demonize juice and whatever,

but it's gonna have a very similar impact on your body as drinking

any kind of sugar sweetened beverage that's sweetened, you know, with the added

sugar. Um, so you know, if it's something you have every so

often but like the orange juice every morning with breakfast,

you just, it's just not do it, have an orange instead, you know,

Cuz then you're gonna, you're gonna get less sugar, you're gonna get more fiber, you're

gonna get full from it, like make that easy swap, still get

the pleasure of having that citrus and it's good vitamin C and all of that

but like you know, make that, that switch.

Absolutely. I still have not given the baby juice and I'm very proud of that

fact. She will be two in January and. That is, I think she's had juice.

Somebody else gave it to her, but I Shut that down.

Absolutely. No, I, I think that's so good. And that's a whole

different thing about kids and what you do for them. And like society is

like, of course it's no juice. Look at just basic marketing. Yeah. Look at the

campaigns. Look at the, she likes Louie's drinking juice. You know, does she

eat basically unlimited amounts of fruit? Yeah. Ask my grocery

bill. Like, like, yes. This girl takes, she calls

it the big. You have to get her the big apple. And we cut the

peel off and she eats an entire apple. Wow. It's crazy.

But yeah, one other thing with kind of the diet recommendations is our

third macronutrient, which we tend to forget about sometimes. Let's talk about it. But

it's fat. And this is another one that's big in the media right now.

Big in, in the discourse and everything is that

saturated versus unsaturated fat. The research will continue to

tell us that replacing saturated fats with unsaturated fats

is a heart healthy option. And so when we're thinking about

longevity, we're thinking about heart health. That's a big one. So I know you're going

to start hearing things about using beef, you know, tallow

or you know, increasing animal fats and all of that.

That may even be coming in some of our nutrition recommendations. That is really truly

not following the science. People are afraid of seed oils,

which is kind of a made up term anyway. They are not unsafe, they're not

rancid, they're not. If, if your oil is rancid, you'll know

because it will smell and taste terrible. But you know,

definitely focusing more on those plant based types of,

of products and unsaturated fats. So any type of

olive oil, you can do canola, vegetable, whatever.

Especially if you are replacing something that's a saturated

fat like a butter or a lard or a beef tallow or

you know, these kind of highly saturated fats. So

just something to consider. Nuts and seeds. Again, another really great source of heart healthy

fats. Now things like a fish or something like

a fatty fish, like a salmon, that's going to give you those great Omega 3s,

so you can definitely get those as well. But

just thinking of how to, how to just keep that

balance in check. Absolutely. So

macros, if just to review, you got protein, which is the one we want you

to kind of go for the most, then you got fats and then you got

carbs. And carbs is what we really want to try to limit.

And then of course there's different types of fats, like you just said. So lots

of good tips. We're not going to drink our sugars anymore, and. Or we're going

to limit that as much as we can, and we're going to just really

focus kind of what we're doing. And then also eating three meals a day too.

And I. We talk about this all the time. When you skip a meal, you're

more likely to go off track because you're starving and you're hungry and your body

is in survival mode, and you're going to eat whatever the hell you want at

that time. And that is where things can go off,

you know, off plan. So you want to make sure you're on that. And something

else with that is, I have a lot of people who skip breakfast. Like, it's

a really common thing. And of course, then they're super hungry by, you know, by

the end of the day, and so they tend to overeat. But not only is

that, like, cause that problem, but you're actually more insulin sensitive in the

morning. And so actually eating in the morning

is like. It's a better metabolic response,

which was something I learned. Like, I guess there's just been more research coming out

about that. So. Yeah, skipping breakfast, not

great. Wow. I'm putting this all down here

for some really hot takes here. Eat breakfast. Get

your fiber. Let's I. There we go. Stop drinking

sugar. We got it. Those are the three big things. World problem solved. Yeah. You're

gonna live forever now. Great. That might contribute to a world

problem if we live forever. Awesome. Okay, now the

next one is basically the thought that sitting

is the new cigarettes. It's. Sitting is disease

is where we're all here at our computers, especially since

COVID where we're just typing away. We don't stand up.

Our watches are alerting us at all moments to get moving, and we're just not

doing. And it's actually, it's very

detrimental. I just saw that special in 60 minutes where that

researcher and physician was talking about the most important things are

your V2 max, how long you can hang on the bar,

like, your cardiovascular kind of fitness levels, how

fast can you run? How much can you lift? That

is important to stretch and move your body. So I'm

dying at 40, guys. I know. We do just

sit here. Yeah. I mean, the thing about exercise, we talk

about this a lot people when they come to see us. Let's say

you're really at the start of your weight loss journey and you're like,

oh, well, how Can I even do this? Because I can't exercise. I can't move

because my weight might make me. Has, like, an

injury. Like, I might actually get physically hurt from. From doing it.

So we're not saying that you should just run out today and just start,

like, going for it, but I think you should be cognizant of, like,

okay, like, what am I doing today? So.

Well, let's go. Let's go in here. So, Hannah, as you know,

it's. If you are moving around for 150

minutes of moderate exercise a week, which is a lot,

I mean, that's 30 minutes a day for five days in a week. Clearly

it will cut your risk of death by 20, 20 to 30%.

Wow. And, like, you're not going to really see much weight

loss with it, which I think, you know, when you. You want to be rewarded

for your good behavior and you want to see, like, oh, that number on the

scale go down, but you're really neutral. And so that's

tough. It is. And I have people tell me that all the time. They're like,

yeah, I exercise. I'm working out six days a week, and blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm not saying it. I'm like, ultimately, exercise is not the driver

of weight loss. Like, it really is the diet and metabolic

changes and things. But it's really important.

It's an important. Like, how we say, it's like a. It's like a partnership between

the diet and the exercise. And really, when we think about, especially from a weight

loss perspective, like, that maintenance is really where we see the exercise

being that key player in maintaining your weight loss.

Because especially, again, this is just. I think, luckily there's just more and

more research coming out about women's health and through perimenopause menopause stages,

like, they are just showing that women need to be lifting weights more often. And

we have for so long not been told that.

And it's been seen as kind of like men's exercise, and it's not.

And so I think that when we do that, when we add that resistance,

whatever it is, resistance training of any type, because you're going

to build that muscle, it's going to increase your metabolism, increase the amount of

calories that you burn at rest, and so you can maintain your weight a

lot easier at that point. Absolutely. That's important.

It's important for even your bones. And, you know, you get

osteoporosis or bone fractures as we age, and

just the changes in the estrogen as you just mentioned that has a

lot of impact. So it's important that you start these habits as soon as you

can pick something that you like and enjoy. So you'll stick with it. We talk

about that, but it might not be changing the number on the scale, but what

we have seen with exercise over and over is

that your blood pressure is going to go down. It helps with

your. If you're looking at your blood work, which I'm going to tell you, what

are the key labs that you should get checked every single year, and why.

But it will improve that overall lipid panel, which is looking at your total cholesterol,

your LDL or bad cholesterol, your HDL or great cholesterol,

and also your triglycerides, which triglycerides, in my opinion, are the

most important thing on a lipid panel. It's the most directly linked

to your kind of overall health, your overall diet and how much

carbs you're getting, I feel like is related to the triglycerides.

Second most important thing is hdl, which is the good cholesterol. You really

want that number to be higher, even you'd rather that number be

higher than the ldl, which is the bad cholesterol being lower.

I'd rather see good, good, good H levels. And

it's going to help with your overall mentality. It makes your mood better.

Whenever I am super stressed and I,

you know, for me, you know, it would be like those memes that you see

right now, people are, like, joking, like, oh, I just got to go for my

cigarette break. And then they're pretending like they have, like, the

Debbie's, like, Christmas tree thing that's up there with.

But for me, I literally. I have to go outside and I

just, like, built. You'll see me storming around my neighborhood. I talk about this all

the time. Stomping. I have to stomp and move. And then I'm like, okay,

I'm clear. I'm not as upset. I can think, like, I can make

this decision, not be so emotional about it. So I have to move.

I know Irene has to work out before she operates.

She has to. She works out seven days a week. She

just does it because it's like her natural antidepressant. Like,

she. She's taught very clearly that exercising has

truly changed her life, has saved her life in some of her kind of personal

sharings that she has of, you know, about. But it, it does

help your mental health so immensely. It helps. Again, like you were saying,

muscle and bone health. But another one we're going to talk about in its own

category is it helps you to sleep. It is true. I

sleep so much better. I have a sleep IQ on my bed that

I look at every day. I have to do my metrics. Like, how did I

sleep? Like, Aaron's like, how did you sleep? I'm like, oh, I don't know. Let

me check. He's like, but like, you can't just tell me how you. Yeah,

no, I have to know what. The beds are to say. What does the objective

tells me? Yeah, the bed tells me if it was good or not. I'm like,

damn it, my heart rate was up. That was not a good night's sleep. But

I will know that my heart rate will actually be lower.

And I have, like, so much longer REM sleep. And I'm so

much more restful. And I'm not moving or restless or getting up or

anything if I exercise, because of course it like, yeah,

you're tired after, like, moving more so. And that's.

It's. It's interesting too, though, because a lot of times, you know, I'll talk to

people and they'll say, yeah, I really haven't been able to start incorporating

exercise yet. Or I just. I get home from work and I'm so exhausted

that I just. I just can't do it. Or I, you know, I can't wake

up earlier to do it in the morning because I'm already up at, you know,

5 o' clock in the morning for work or whatever it might be. And I'm

like, it feels so counterintuitive sometimes, but

it will also improve your energy levels. Like, if you can get

out the door, put the shoes on and take the first step out of the

door, like, you will find that it does naturally, like, actually improve

your energy levels too. Like, ultimately, sure, it's gonna make you feel, like,

able to rest better, but I think that it also allows you

to, like, perk back up. Like,

in the words of Elle woods, it gives you endorphins. That's right. Which makes you

happy. And happy people just don't kill their husband. That's close,

you know, because that movie is scientific.

It is. Hey, we're still quoting it. This holding up

ammonium glycotide or whatever. Oh, my God,

I've watched that this weekend. Oh, yes. No, that is such

a great point. It does give you more energy. In fact,

yesterday, I know that you were out with your mom, so you're out of the

office yesterday. And normally on Thursdays, for those of you who really care.

Hannah and I work together. And that's when those are my. My favorite days

of all time. Because that's when we sit together, we create.

We kind of visualize what we want to do for our business and all that

good stuff. But so yesterday you weren't there on a Thursday.

So I was left to my own vices here. And

so I woke up and.

Long story, but I basically, I played tennis, which I

never would do because I'm like, oh, I don't have much, like, admin time to

get caught up. Anyway, I played tennis yesterday for an hour and a half session.

Wow. And then I have an issue with my forehand, so that the. The

coach was, like, explaining it to me for, like, another 20 minutes. I'm like, oh,

my God, you have two hours for this tennis thing. Oh, my God. I will

tell you what. I need to do it. I need to do it every time.

I was so, like, productive yesterday, and I did feel

very clear and I felt so good. I did. I

missed you. But, man, if I come back, tennis, I missed you a

lot. You know, I always said, damn, if I combine tennis. Next

time I'll drive down, we'll go to tennis together, and

then be so fun. I have not played tennis in

many moons. Many moons. And now I'm tennis getting

fairly pregnant, so that's true. What? We could also just take a walk, Hannah. We

could do something like that. Yeah, I just don't want to fall down. No, I'm

not. Tennis game. That sounds good. We could

just lightly hit the ball back and move and. Yeah, I love

a good volley. So as I was mentioning about the labs,

so I talked about the lipid panel. I think you should have a lipid panel

checked every year. I just had mine done finally.

Wait, I want to know my last ones. I'm going to look it up while

you talk. Yeah, I. I think that everybody should get that.

Also, another one that is not almost ever

ordered. It's not commonly ordered as a routine, is

fasting insulin. And I have been absolutely

fascinated by the results because throughout my career, I. I

never ordered that until I started body by bariatrics. So

that's a new one for me. So I haven't seen the trends for over a

decade, but I have seen them over the last two years. And what I can

tell you is it tells you basically how much

dietary sugar you're taking in. So that's up. And you're like,

no, my diet's perfect. I'm like, you gotta get with Hannah. Because it's

not. Maybe we should journal. Maybe we should reflect on what we're taking in. Because

it's just instead of lower that number,

just truly the better. You want it less than 20, 25. Some of

our patients have it as low as, like, single digits. So that's

absolutely fantastic. And another one

is looking at your liver functions. I like to get a complete metabolic panel,

a cmp. So I'm looking at an alt, and that is specifically.

Or AST as well. That will tell you that ALT is really high.

That's on par with fatty liver disease. Sometimes the ALT

and AST might go up a little bit right after surgery for some reason. I

don't know why, but they're not like skyrocketing. So those numbers are really high.

We might have some advanced or more severe disease.

And then finally, the last one that I think is really important is the

hemoglobin A1C. And I'm saying this one, even over your

glucose, which is also the CMP or the bmp, which is the basic metabolic

panel. And that is because the hemoglobin

A1c is a kind of a. It's not just that day or the day before.

It's more of a three month average of how your. Your blood

sugar kind of sits. So sometimes we have patients who have numbers that are

over 10. That's so scary. So scary. Yeah.

I think they get to the fours after surgery. I know if you look at

the charts of what that means, like what that translates to when you see an

A1C over 10, I want to say a 10. It means your. Your

average blood sugar is like a 270 or something and

normal. We want less than 100. Like, yeah, 80 to 100

or so is normal. Um, so I just

looked. I do need to work on my lipid panel a little bit. What is

it? Triglycerides. You're good. Sure. My HDL was

my triglycerides. Hold on, I have to go back to it.

So my triglycerides were 118 and 150 is the

normal. But my HDL, which you want higher over

50, mine was only 44. Okay. And my

LDL was right at reference was 100, so. Which is

like the cutoff. So just a little tweak. And now right now

I can't even retest because it's. Your lipids are all messed up in pregnancy.

Yeah. All your labs are just weird when you're pregnant. So it's like

I can't re recheck. So this Is from.

March. Perfect. So yeah, we,

I think to. So again, my favorite phrase of all

time. To improve yourself, you must first know yourself. And so you

need to, to know those levels. And so then after this next beautiful

baby girl comes, who is yet to be named, or at least I know of

when she comes after that. Okay, here's our, our

baseline. Let's see what we can do after this. Absolutely.

So excellent. So those are the, the labs. Okay. So we

talked about diet and exercise. Okay, great. But let's go into the more kind

of the nuance things that aren't talked about

in these very foundational pillars. And the next one is

do not worry yourself to death. And that is about chronic

stress. Are you stressed out at all? I'm

not. What would I be stressed out about right now?

Oh my gosh. So yeah, I mean, it makes you feel

horrible. It might give you anxiety, it might make you just feel out of

control, depressed, sad, angry, lonely,

isolated, all the things. But it's, it's messing with your

hormones that have to play into the way you eat,

your habits, when you eat, why you eat, your long term health.

So let's talk about even cortisol. We mentioned that earlier

how you have this dysregulated sympathetic nervous system.

Basically your stress response to things. Remember, it's,

you know, this whole fight or flight. It's that, hey, it's just

an email. It's okay. It's just an email. You're not getting

chased by a bear in the woods. But that is kind of how we're, we're

doing it. And then what does that trigger? It does trigger sometimes emotional eating.

Eating when you just don't even want to. You have to really just be

very, very mindful. We have obviously our Project Reset

and our small group therapy sessions with Laura every Monday where

she's really going into these things and understanding it and not just

identifying what we're doing, but also giving us some real cognitive

behavioral therapy strategies, solutions, being more mindful,

slowing it down. Now we're in the middle of the holiday season, so this is

very timely. So this is a even more seasonal kind of an issue

right now is stress and the economy and

money and gifts and having everything ready and prepared and perfect. Yeah.

You know, what should we do? What should we do here to help to

decrease the stress? Well, for the holidays, just don't do any of that.

Yeah, yeah. I'm like, my tree's not even up.

For you. We'll put it up. I just haven't had time.

No, I Think that it. It is kind of taking a step back and

looking at things in perspective. I think, again, this is another

know thyself. Like, I think some people do really well with, like,

journaling. And I'm like, that would make me more stressed, so I'm never going to

journal. But, you know, finding the outlet for you that works. Like, if it

is exercise, if it is meditation, if it's breath

work, if it's screaming into the void, if

you know, whatever it is that's going to allow you. And also, like,

then just saying no to things, like, I really do think that that's part of

it. I think sometimes, again, especially obviously, we know

women are our biggest audience and our biggest

market and everything. And so I think that women oftentimes, especially in this

season, are tasked with doing a lot of the things and

making the holiday magic and, you know, taking care of that. And

it's like, delegate it or say no or change

the tradition. Make it. Keep it simple for yourself on that.

You know, if it's something at work, make sure that you're advocating for yourself.

If there's too much on your plate, if they keep adding things to you, you

know, every time that you say yes, they're gonna add something else to it. So,

like, be. Be okay with saying no, or if there's plans that you don't really

wanna do. I mean, if it's something that's gonna bring you joy and we're gonna

talk about connection and things like that. So, like, it doesn't mean

to isolate yourself, but if there's something that you're like, this is just

causing more stress than it's worth, then. Then you're allowed to say

no to things. But I think just finding

what really works for you to. To kind of

bring yourself back down to that normal level is.

Is going to be really important. No, I love that. I love that.

Like, follow your guts and be spontaneous and

enjoy yourself. And like, oh, gosh, like,

we have another big club party

tomorrow night. And I'm just like, same vibe as last year. If I don't feel

like being there, I'm like, let's go. I'm gonna leave you. Yeah. Heck,

yeah. I'm going to be where I want to be, have the conversations I want

to have, and I love it. Be unapologetic. My favorite

word ever. Absolutely. Now, speaking of, you already talked

about this, but you know, the whole thing about community, and

you can't live long alone. And

we're. We're designed to be social creatures. We are Social

animals we are. Like, connection is

one that, yes, we talk about, you know, community

being so important, part of this whole kind of weight loss journey and that

sort of thing. But connection, even outside of that, is what keeps us

alive. Like, we. We depend on each other. We need each other.

Sadness, isolation, like I said, just feeling socially

isolated, I think is one of the ones that are

non traditional that you might not think of all the time. But there is so

much literature and evidence out there that it is one of the main

factors of early death. Yes. And I think as you get older.

Yes, you might have lost your spouse or your partner and your, you know, you

might be by yourself. And it's just like, I think that once that happens, why

does the other partner go downhill so quickly? So thereafter. Yeah,

yeah, I do agree with that. So, personal story for my family.

My grandparents actually ended up passing within six weeks of each other.

And my grandpa passed away, and then six

weeks later, my grandma. And it was because they lived in a community.

They lived, you know, somewhere like in an independent living or

assisted living type of place. But I think that they had just been

each other's support system for so long that it was like,

sky's gone. What am I gonna do now? You know, and she just very

quickly. I mean, I was this. I was in middle school or early high school.

Like, it's been a long time. And I think she just very rapidly

deteriorated from that point. Point. Absolutely. And it's. You hear that all

the time. It's like, wait, what? Yeah. And then it's hard on

you as the child. Like, if you lose both of your parents quickly.

Right. My parents are getting older. My mom's 82, my dad's almost

80, and I've thought a lot. I mean, they live in the north and it's

cold and rainy and snowy and horrible. And they have this house with

stairs and, you know, we have lifts there now and all that. But

I'm like, you know what? I think that if I were to move them out

of that very familiar environment into a

place where they don't know it and

I don't know, is this their friends that they've had versus you've lived there? There

are 80 years of, of all the things. Like, I know the

guy at the post office. I know, hey, there's so and so at the bank,

there's so and so at the Eden Park. Like all these things, you,

you remove that. I, I think that they would, it

would accelerate things. They would deteriorate very quickly. Yeah, I think if you've

built that community for yourself, then. Yeah, it's exactly. It's like you don't want to

remove that. That social system either. I know.

And we talk about this all the time. The statistic that, like, what is it,

95% of the world, even more than that, lives within 10 miles of where they

were born. You know, just something crazy like

that. Yeah, it's. You look it up. So I'm not misquoting it, but it's something

like the majority you. You. You live basically where you started

is where you end up. I mean, my parents is true for them. They live

in this little bubble. I'm like, what, Mom? Listen,

Florida's amazing and weather is incredible, and it's just like

no desire as they're like, powers out the

shoveling ice and snow and sleep with a credit card off the

thing. It's just like. I know my sister said this the

other day. They were iced in at their house in Connecticut.

I'm like, like, why the high is 83 today, so I know. It's

so nice. I don't know. I don't know her. You're in a little sweater because

that's a little chilly for you else. Yeah, right. No, I said we love it.

Dying in this. Well there

back on. Yeah, the air is on in December. I. I'll never get used to

it. But. So, yes, support a community. That's why there is these

communities. Like, you're saying, like, that you can live together, I think even

like something like a group fitness class. I mean, you're killing a lot of birds

with one stone on that, for sure. We have our virtual support groups, all that

stuff. And I think that, like, you bring up, like, the. The. The fitness

classic. That's another place where it's like finding what you enjoy,

and that's kind of how you can find community. It's like, great. If I

love dancing, let's go do it in community. If I love,

you know, crafting or whatever it might be, I'm gonna go find that

and do it. Sometimes it's even just sitting next to somebody and. And doing

something similar. Or people do book clubs for this reason or,

you know, whatever it might be, just finding that thing that. That. That

brings you something and you might connect with people who

you wouldn't expect. Or maybe you just stick with. You know, maybe you've had your

same friends for 30 years. You know, I still have a text

thread with my girlfriends from, gosh, spanning from

kindergarten to. To through high school.

Like, we still text Each other. And you know, we live all across the country

and stuff, so we don't actually. Somebody now lives in the Middle east, so like

we, we don't really see each other. I know she's a

geologist. She lives out there. But you know, it's

like there's still that connection of in community in it.

I, I, I, I love it. I agree. And, and then, you know,

with our specific thing. I always say the best thing to come out of struggling

with a disease like obesity is the shared

stories and shared struggles. And obviously the support groups. We have one on Facebook.

We have a virtual one that meets monthly. We do a walking club and

that group has gone, grown strong and mighty and

they show up. Some people had cosmetic surgery and then

another person from the walking club came and brought them food and like,

yeah, super cool. So yes, you can't

live long alone, my friends. So we're gonna go there. And then

another really big one, which again, we have a whole episode on

this and this one is so huge. It's sleep.

Sleep. A long life happens overnight. And

by sleep you need to get at least six, six and a half hours a

night, a minimum. I mean, ideally you want seven to eight hours. I know

how many getting these days.

She's, we're in, we're having some sleep issues in our house right now.

So at the moment it's not great. But normally, honestly I'm, I'm, it's

not somewhere that I really struggle. I tend to, to

get a decent amount of sleep because I, I enjoy it.

Absolutely. We all, we all better enjoy it between,

yeah. Pregnancy and a toddler. It's, it's a little

hit or miss right now. Well, I think that you're a little bit of an

outlier. Yeah. And I'm not a great example at this moment

for sleep hygiene. Well, we are. You're, that is

another goal. That's 20, 26 goals are making your resolutions, if that's your thing out

there. We, we have a whole episode on smart goals. But this, this is one

that you really should say. I need to get seven

hours of sleep at night. How am I going to reverse engineer that so that

I'm not doom scrolling at night? And therefore doom scrolling also probably equals

snacking at the same time, which also equals mindlessly having the TV on in the

background. So there's all these things that if you kind of put that into

play, maybe some of these other things will also be kind of knocked out of

your daily life too. Yeah, absolutely. I think that we can, you can kind

of like, like, like a habit stack almost

in that sense. Yeah. And so why is sleep so

important from a weight loss perspective? So we talk a lot about these

appetite regulating hormones, hunger hormones. So

if you are tired, if you're not sleeping

enough, over time, the more it becomes kind of inconsistent,

hit or miss, and the more sleep deprived you are, the more likely

you're going to have higher levels of ghrelin. Ghrelin and ghrelin again is

that hunger hormone that tells and signals your brain that you are hungry

and that you want to eat and, and you're just gonna never kind of be

satisfied with that as well. Leptin, which is the satiety or

satisfaction hormone that says yes, I've eaten enough, I'm full, let's go, we're

done. Leptin levels are gonna be low. So it's like I feel

like I get, I'm a bottomless pit and it's like, well, you might feel that

way because you don't have that turnoff signal. Same thing with Peptide

yy. This is another one that promotes fullness and that level will be

dampened or dim because if you're just not getting enough sleep,

so this, all this whole compilation of gin up, leptin and

Peptide YY down, these hormones are going to make you just be

overdrive to overeat. And, and

clearly we don't want that. That, that's a tough one right there.

Yeah. And when you get that, that kind of uncontrolled hunger, you're

also just the choices that you're going to make with that. So again it's another

one of those like snowball type of things of like, yeah, I'm

very hungry and I do feel like a bottomless pit. You're not going for like

a chicken breast and broccoli. You know, you're gonna go for the chips, you're gonna

go for the, the candies, the cookies, whatever. Ice cream

is a big one for people in the evenings. Like that's the things that you're

gonna turn towards and you know that's also not

gonna help with satiety factors and things like that. So you know, it

does, it really just leads to those different choices.

And then there's a lot of chicken or the egg phenomenon in that if you

don't, if you're eating later at night, it

makes you, you have to digest that. So that increases all the

things. And then when your basal metabolic rate is increased and

all the things that are happening, your body is going to get hotter

just because your heart's working a little harder to digest the food and all

of that. And if your temperature, your body temps up, guess what, you're not sleeping

as well either. Right. So you really have to, to

be mindful there. So go to sleep. And it will,

it'll just help with all those hormonal imbalances. Helps with your just

cardiometabolic health. The visceral fat, everything is, is diminished.

It helps to diminish some of those inflammatory markers as well.

So lots of benefit to getting to sleep.

Sleep, my friends. Go to sleep, everybody. Elena. Listen up,

everybody. We're going to sleep. We are going to sleep.

So, so there's all these things, you know, and obviously

you're looking at your overall metabolic age, your biology matters. We know this. Your

genetics, your hormones, menopause status, emotional E

patterns. Just years of metabolic dysfunction can make it

really just impossible. And I think, you know, we,

obviously, this is what we do here. But if you want to be

younger from a metabolic standpoint, you, yes, you're going

to change your diet, your exercise, your habits, you're getting support, you're

diminishing stress, you're practicing mindfulness, you're going to sleep. Okay,

great. But if you still are struggling.

Yeah. This is where the GLP1s weight loss

meds come in. Bariatric surgery comes in. And

these things can help you in conjunction with the other thing to have. Again,

I love this as well. The synergy to actually get the results,

diminish some of these kind of more visceral fat and

live a longer, healthier, happier life. Yeah. And something just

going back to it because this popped in my head as you were talking about

it with, with weight loss surgery is another big thing is sleep apnea.

So, yeah, so many people out there who are having sleep

apnea, which is when you're actually stopping breathing at night and in

arrest, that's apnea. And so like, that's not good.

You don't, you don't want to be that. So the weight loss can really

help. And again, that's another big one when we see that central distribution of

fat. But it's definitely a big one in the longevity thing

too. Yeah, so true. Another

comorbidity or weight related issue which is going to be improved.

But then, yeah, again, all of this starts this cascade in the

right direction. You're going to start to snowball forward.

Insulin sensitivity improves, you're going to get rid of the sleep

apnea. When you sleep better, you get it, you get the whole point.

So, yeah, we, we want to, we want to go for it, right?

Absolutely. And I think that, you know, if all of this sounds really

overwhelming, you're like, oh my God, I have to change my entire life, top

to bottom, head to toe, every pick one thing, like,

yeah, take from this and be like, you know what would be. I

always, I tell this to patients all the time, like when we're talking about making

changes, especially when there's somebody who has like kind of a long lead up to

surgery, maybe they have a insurance requirement that makes them, you know, do

six months of visits or whatever. I'm like, you know what, let's start slow, let's

start easy. And I'm like, pick the low hanging fruit. Yes. You're

like, with that, you're like, you know what? Yeah, great. I can add a serving

of vegetables in a day. Start there, like choose

that and, and see. Or like you mentioned, if we can cut out that sugar

sweetened beverage. Cut it out first and do that for a

while and then move on to the next thing. Because if you do try

to approach this from an, from an everything all at once

standpoint, you're probably going to feel very overwhelmed. You're going to stress, you're

going to burn yourself out and then you're, it's not going to help you

with anything because you're just, you're going to get so frustrated and then just say,

that's it, I'm done and I'm giving up on all of this. So

I think pick one or two things that you're like, okay, that sounds like

something I can manage for, you know, for a period of time and make it

a habit and make it a routine. And then I'll add in, you

know, 10, 15 minutes of exercise a couple times a week and start there

and snowball that up. And so all of these things can really kind of build

on each other over time. It's not an overnight project.

Oh, such a good summary. Yes, absolutely. Pick one

thing and try to stick to it as best as you can.

Mine. I'm absolutely at mine's twofold. I'm going

to start moving even more. I know that I feel great,

like we talked about and I am going to get

more sleep. That's a big one. Because as you see, I text you in the

middle of the night, I'm sending you funny reels like, oh, you know, we should

do this. And like, and I'm like, oh, she's active now

too. It's like, oh, not Mickey. What are we doing? Just

nothing. Useful. Nothing useful. So we are

going to go to sleep more. Yeah. I mean, and then we're going to work

on my husband. Everything else fall into place. I think this morning even he said,

we're going to bed at 9 o' clock because it's the only way that we're

getting any sleep. I'm going to put the baby

down and then we're going to bed. He's right. We always

would say we were going to do that, but then it becomes a whole another

episode of like, well, but this my me time. It's the only time you

have during the day. Yeah, I totally. We definitely fall into that

trap of it. Yeah. Because, you know, we go from.

Everybody does. You go from work to your home responsibilities to

just everything. And then all of a sudden it's. Like, I just want to, like,

I know a little bit. And then feel like the minutes, three

hours a year. Yeah, I know. Why do that? Maybe I just need to set

a timer on my, my, my me time.

Exactly. So we're still having me time in 2026, but we

are focusing, making sure we do all these other things, too. Yeah, Just all of

these other things. Oh, just a couple of things. Okay, we got it. We're going

to be perfect and we're going to live forever. Got it. That's the conclusion. Nailed

it. Yeah. Immediately. I will do that with a

newborn, too. Perfect. Yeah. Good luck.

Yeah. Good luck out there. So. Well, yeah,

let's talk. How? How, Hannah, take us out here. Well, if you

want to find us, of course you can find us on Instagram @Doctor no, not

Dr. X. Dietitian. The weight loss collab. Wow. That was a throwback

at Dr. Dovik at Hannah Schuyler Do Rd. If you are

interested in any services with Body by bariatrics, you can find us at

bodybyberiatrics or bodybyberiatrics.com or send

us a text at

407-543-0971.

If you want to get started with us, we're happy to help out and we're

going to get this. Get this ball rolling for you. Yep.

Here's to a long, healthy life. Thanks for listening, everyone. We'll

see you next time. Talk to you later. Bye.