Mood, Motivation & Metabolism: The Power of Brain Messengers

I can't hear anything.

Hey, I'm Sarah Blondin and I am the author of Heart.

Hey, Raj Paul, how are you?

Oh, you're in. Good morning, how are you?

Morning, I'm good. Just getting ready. Go ahead.

Yes. Did you do the— were you there since we did that, that first program, what he used to call it? Now we call this one Living Light Metabolic Coach. There was another one. You were there. I remember your face. How are you?

Yes.

I'm good. Thank you. How are you?

Good to see you.

Yeah. I've been with the Perfect Practice 3 years now.

Yes. Yes. So you had just joined or something when I did that, like, 2 years ago.

Yeah. So a year before that, I was the—

The Accelerator Program. That's what it was called.

Yes.

Correct. And I was there before that in the Perfect Practice Mentorship. I started with them as a health coach doing that and then moved into supporting and working with them.

Yes. I remember some of your testimonial or something like that.

Oh, thank you. Yeah. Well, I've always enjoyed So we'll just wait a few minutes for people to join.

Go ahead. I have to order medication. So you go ahead. I'm on this screen.

Okay. Can you hear the music playing?

No. That was one of the issues Satchin had on Wednesday.

Okay. Let me try.

People are asking, like, how to do that, blah, blah, blah. I made some notes, but Let me see if my— make sure my volume is good.

Yes.

Yes. I could hear something there.

Oh, you can? Okay. Great. Thank you. Alright. I'm gonna let a few others in, and then we'll get started with our program today.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Hi everyone, as you're joining in today, I want you to think about your weekly wins, what you're proud of for this week that you've accomplished. We'll wait a few minutes for others to join and then we're going to get started. We'll do the weekly wins, then we're going to do a meditation, and then we're going to walk through talking about the power of neurotransmitters. Because that's often an issue, especially as we get into maintenance and having difficulty with continuing on the program and doing the things that we know that will keep us successful. So why don't we get started? And as others come in, I'll just let them in. Rajpal, what would you say is your weekly win? I asked.

That's a tough one. I would say continual learning from not only from Sachin and all these wonderful people you have there, but from other webinars and so that I participate on it. It's like never ending. It's hard to keep up with the information. So I say that my win is continued accumulation of knowledge and listening to people in this space in functional medicine now, which is quite intriguing.

Yep. There's always something more to learn, isn't there?

Oh my God.

It's the wisdom of all these things, but it's also, I think, for whatever we're doing is putting that plan in place. What are the simple things we're gonna focus on to accomplish? I think that's the one thing that I learned from Sachin is when you choose to do something, finish it and then move on to the next thing. Because when we keep moving, moving, moving, we don't accomplish because we have so many open loops. And the goal is to close those loops to reduce the stress. Does that make sense?

It makes sense. Do you know that old saying, a rolling stone gathers no moss?

Yes. Yes. Yes. That's true. Um, Shel, how are you?

I am well. I am well. Thank you.

What's your weekly win?

I, you know what? I had the opportunity to do Sasha's, uh, breathwork on Saturday and oh my, did that open up and release a lot for me. So I've been in a way better space this week. The, the timing was impeccable. I needed it so much.

So Oh, I'm so happy for you. I did his— I wasn't available for the Saturday one, but I did his New Year's Day one.

Okay.

Oh, my goodness. I had a little help with that one and did the— oh, my gosh. It was amazing.

Just the release.

And I don't know if he did the where you go back in time and you—

Yes.

And then you do the emotional release and walk to the top of the mountain.

Yes.

Oh, my gosh. Fabulous. It was.

It was incredible. So very great.

Oh, congratulations.

That's exciting. Yes.

Um, all right, so, uh, great. Um, we'll continue on. I'm going to, uh, do our meditation for today. Uh, let me just share my screen and we'll go through that. Um, screen. This one is, uh, Sarah Blondin. Uh, I love her. I don't know if you've ever listened to any of hers in the past.

Love her too.

Yeah, she's amazing. Um, so I'll just play this and then we'll get into our topic after. Uh, here we go.

Is also the most primitive reaction Sorry, sorry, sorry.

I just wanted to make sure— is this, uh— oh shoot, something happened here. Hang on, sorry, something happened to the— I don't know why it ended up going to a different one.

Hi, I'm Sarah Blondie.

Okay, apologize, let me restart that.

Okay, apologize.

Somehow it went to a different one.

Okay.

And I am the author of Heart Minded: How to Hold Yourself and Others in Love. Most of us have a kind of challenging relationship with our feelings, and we're most often kind of stuffing them down or ignoring them or letting them make all their noise and never really addressing them. And a really easy practice that I use for feelings— instead of getting caught in identifying with them, we're just going to learn to let them go. So we're just going to begin by bringing our eyes to a close and getting really comfortable in our bodies. Deep inhale, long exhale out the mouth. And I want you to see if you can blur the edges of your physical body and imagine turning into this great wide ocean. And there's ruby-colored coral in your sand. And there's fish all around. And everything is a deep peace. Feelings are not us. They are not who we are. They are trapped memories of hurt. There are trapped identities, old stories, habitual ways of thinking. But we are the ocean and we are alive. And I want you to imagine a bubble rising up from the shifting sand of the bottom of the ocean. And as the bubble rises, I want you to maybe name a feeling, even a thought or an old memory that is no longer serving you or that you'd like to let go of. And just watch that feeling rise to the surface of the ocean and watch it pop and enter back in the air.

Unknown calling.

And you can do this for as long or as little as you need, just naming any feelings that rise up within your water, maybe even bringing a soft smile to your face as you watch these things leave you. They are not you. They are but passing wind. They are but bursting bubbles of grace. Our feelings are not punitive. They're not meant to be wished away or to feel shameful about. They're there just to be let go of. You can open your eyes once your waters feel a little more calm. Thank you.

So just a little bit of meditation to get us started. You know, we don't often need to do a lot during our day if we can just take that moment. I love, um, Dr. Mercola made the comment of exercise snacks. So, during your day, even just lifestyle hacks, just a little snack here and there on different things that can accomplish. I know they were talking about from exercise snacks is just running up and down the stairs and that gets your heart rate up. And it's, it's something that you wouldn't normally do, but if you do do it, it helps get that heart rate going and get the body moving. And they've proven by research just doing those little few things, really helps the body accomplish good things. So let me move into our presentation for today. It is going to be on mood, motivation, and let me just bring this in.

There we go.

So today we're really going to be exploring how your brain chemistry, specifically neurotransmitters, profoundly affects your metabolism, your mood, and your energy levels, and of course, your overall wellness. This foundational knowledge will empower you to take control of your health, especially as you're moving from release phase or into the maintenance phase or maintenance phase into lifestyle. These are going to be key to making sure that they are balanced so that you don't have issues as well. So, what are neurotransmitters? They're really chemical messengers that really communicate between the brain and the body. They're really focused on your mood, your motivation, your digestion, and really help with establishing and maintaining your metabolism. There are two types of neurotransmitters: exciter and excitatory, and inhibitory. So, your excitatory ones include things like dopamine that really energize and activate us, or your inhibitory ones are more like GABA and serotonin that help to calm the body down. So, why do neurotransmitters matter? Well, they're deeply involved how your body processes food, handles stress, and maintains your energy. When they're out of balance, you definitely will feel more tired. You can feel more anxious and just stuck in the cycles of emotional eating. And of course, as we go into lifestyle and we start adding things back in, start to notice if these things change for you. Maybe you're, you're having food cravings. Well, let's talk about what that is, or mood changes where your motivation levels drop, or maybe it's you're back into this blood sugar dysregulation. You know, Often we teach when you move from maintenance into lifestyle is to maintain what you've learned so that you continue to have balanced neurotransmitters. The also what's so important is the gut is like your second brain. It produces your neurotransmitters. In the past, they used to think that everything came from the brain. Now we know the gut is involved and it sends the signals to the brain through your vagus nerve. If you haven't done the activating your vagus nerve module, I highly recommend that you go ahead and do that because that's so key in our body shifting from that fight or flight into the rest and restore. And of course, a healthy gut supports that emotional balance and our metabolic function. And a lot of what you're doing with incorporating your fruits and vegetables is helping to reseed that gut in the process. And of course, 90% of our serotonin is produced in our gut. If the gut isn't working as it should, you will probably have effects, both your mood, your food cravings, and your inflammatory responses throughout the body. So it's going to be key to reset that gut-brain axis. So let's talk about 3 neurotransmitters today that are really kind of the key ones that you'll see a lot of people talking about. Each plays a distinct role, but together they orchestrate how you feel, eat and move throughout your day. So there's 3 here that we're going to go through. GABA is your calming, serotonin is your mood, and dopamine is your motivator. So let's talk about GABA. GABA is your body's natural calming agent, works like an internal brake pedal. It slows down the nervous system activity and promotes that sense of peace and control. GABA is— helps you relax. It helps you sleep deeply and it helps you to stabilize your blood sugar. When GABA is low, you may feel more wired but tired and struggle with cravings. Serotonin helps you feel good and full. Gut health is key here. If your digestion is off, your serotonin production can suffer and that will lead to that emotional eating and mood swings. Dopamine gives you drive. It's tied to your reward system, and we get so much dopamine. How many people, you know, you use your phone and ding, ding, ding, ding, and you're constantly hitting your dopamine. And when it's— what happens over time is you're constantly— same with someone who's doing drugs, their dopamine levels are so high, their sensitivity is low, and then they have difficulty boosting their dopamine to stay motivated and energized. So here's some symptoms that are kind of clues that can help you understand your brain chemistry if it's out of sync. And with the right strategies, you can rebalance your neurotransmitters and reclaim your vitality, which is what you're doing in the program. So here are some things I want you to just read through these and see, is there anything in these in the list that are coming up for you. You know, maybe do you still have fatigue or maybe low energy on certain times? Maybe you have anxiety. I know often we had a lady go through the program, by week 3 she stopped taking her anxiety medication because she was forgetting. She had a brain injury due to a car accident and the anxiety was always the trigger for her to take her medication because she had brain fog and it just went away and she stopped taking the medication. Medication. I don't know if that's the right thing to do, like suddenly, but for her it just helped her be able to manage. And in the process of what we taught her, she was able to lose 23 pounds in the program, which is amazing, to reset all of these things. Never feeling truly satisfied, or maybe you have low motivation to accomplish things, or mood swings, or irritability. Just jot down what are the things that you might be going through that are affecting your ability to function, and let's tie it back to our neurotransmitters. So here are some things you can do to reset, and a lot of this has been incorporated into the Living Light Metabolic Coach Metabolic Coach Metabolic Coach program that you're going through. Fasting or time-restricted eating resets the reward sensitivity to curb compulsive dopamine-seeking rewards. Deep sleep helps also to restore our dopamine receptor sensitivity. Cold exposure, great for thyroid. I do it at the end of my shower. Doing that cold exposure helps to spike your dopamine and your norepinephrine in a sustainable way. Meditation and, meditation and mindfulness will really help to reduce craving circuits and strengthen your prefrontal cortex. We often will use the emotional freedom technique in the Crush Technique when you're dealing with these kinds of cravings to help recircuit or rechange how we are perceiving what's coming up for us. Um, your reset program again has tools to support your neurotransmitter balances, and from food to sleep to mindset, each piece helps your brain and your body work in harmony. So there's all things that are incorporated to help you, especially as you You move into maintenance, focusing on doing some resistance training and HIIT. Even steady cardio can also help, and doing breathwork. There's a whole module in your program that helps with teaching you how to breathe. Sachin is a breathwork facilitator. If you've not gone through that, highly recommend it, especially if you have sleep disturbances and you're dealing maybe with sleep apnea, or maybe you snore. Walking through that module that he's put together can give you some direction and some guidelines of exercises to do and things to, from a sleep hygiene perspective, to put in place to help make sure that you're getting that deep sleep that is so critical for our body's restoration, is to have that deep sleep. And most of you probably have an Oura Ring. Monitoring your deep sleep on your Oura Ring to make sure you're getting at least an hour and a half of deep sleep is going to help with that restoration. It's going to help resetting the neurotransmitters. It's going to help with washing the brain and just getting your body ready to handle the next day. So that's the topic for today. If you have any questions related to neurotransmitters or any questions about the program, I'm happy to walk through those with you today.

Yes. Anna-Lisa. So there are a couple of things. I really enjoyed the short presentation. Very succinct. Very nice.

Thank you.

So look, you started out with that. I just want to learn. I'll come back to the neurotransmitters. So just now with Sarah Blondin, like how you're playing that. So how we Are you guys going to share like some of these things after that? Like, you know, like how you start with that little meditation thing and so— because when we will be selling this program, if you will, to our patients, I would like to learn those little things, you know. And I love— I love that. I know Sachin does other ones and What's her name? Laura has done all that, and they're all nice.

Yeah, so just, can I answer that one for you?

Yeah.

So what I can do is talk to Natalie. So this call is for clients and just the issues clients are going through versus practitioners. But for what I'm teaching or going through each week, you have access to the weekly Q&As with a choreography and the script that will walk you through. The presentation I did today will be available. You'll have the link to the Sarah Blondin meditation and the music that I played at the beginning. All of those, since it's almost a year's worth of weekly Q&As, are actually put together for you specifically. So I can talk to Natalie about walking through how to set that up, and then I'll ask her to reach out to you to let you know when she's going to be doing that.

Okay, I already have a lot to do with Natalie. Anyhow, thank you. I appreciate it.

That's okay. But I'll send you— after I finish the call today, I'll send you the link to the weekly choreography. Do you have the health Health Coach Roadmap?

Where did I get that? When you go back to start, that is it there.

I'll send you the Health Coach Roadmap because it has the process and the steps, and then I'll highlight the weekly Q&A choreography that's available for you.

You're the best. Thank you so much.

Could you send that to me as well?

Yeah, for sure.

Okay, wonderful.

Thank you.

Yeah, it's—

So my other question is, You know, we're talking about these neurotransmitters and their role in how it affects our lives. Do you— because I'm a neurologist, I'm not showing off. And I do a lot of— see a lot of patients with, you know, dementia and that type of thing. And one of my panels that I would use is measuring their neurotransmitters. And it's, it's one thing like, in my opinion, telling patients, okay, your dopamine may be low or your serotonin may be low or your GABA may be low, why you're not sleeping. And so, so in this program, is Sachin, are you guys recommending that that be measured or that's totally up to the practitioner?

That's totally up to the practitioner. Every, every practitioner has a different area of focus. And so specifically because that's your area, you'll go down that. We have another practitioner that does mold.

Mold.

And so her, her program and everything is adapted around handling and supporting mold. We have another practitioner who's doing— runs a sleep wellness clinic, and they're focused in there. So everybody has their expertise, and then we'll go down that path. The reason why I shared what I shared today is often with our clients that are going through the program, they don't even know what dopamine is or GABA or serotonin yet. They have no clue. And then they, they have the symptoms though of maybe food cravings as they to move into lifestyle and start adding things back in and then wondering why they feel hungry even though they've eaten right. There are certain things. And I was just trying to give some key steps or key things, lifestyle hacks that they could do that would help them to be able to address those. And of course, there's also supplements that they can incorporate to help as well. I didn't go into that, but there definitely are things that they can do.

Yeah, well, coincidentally, you just seem to hit something, a nail on his head. I see. So I'm in Orlando, Florida, but spent 33 years of my life up in New York. And you'll be amazed at how many mold patients who have mold toxicity that I see. And I really follow Dr. Andrew Campbell's protocol. And he has a lot of YouTube videos. So, and now we have become friends. Every time he is in the Tampa area, in Lakeland, every time he comes to Orlando, he's actually Lebanese in origin and he loves to go to this Bosphorus restaurant, which is like a Turkish restaurant.

Oh, nice.

So, so yes, I see a lot of mold patients across the 50 states. And so there are specific protocols. And so that we— so very nice. Okay. Thank you so much. Much appreciated.

You're absolutely welcome. And I'll find that link I can share with both of you for the roadmap.

So what about just in terms of like GABA, serotonin, and dopamine? Would you have like even a PDF that would have foods that one could consume to help increase or address those deficiencies?

I don't, but that would be awesome. Yeah, I love that. Something I can work on and then I'll share. Okay. Let me add that to my notes.

Yeah. Well, coincidentally, if I may butt in here.

Sure.

I was on a, you know, I, I've done my genetic testing with SelfDecode. I did SNP Neutrogenics. And then yesterday, there was one from something that's called the DNA Company. And so, and, and then there was another presenter, co-presenter. And so, and this is just like amazing, mind-blowing. So to answer your questions on that food list, and so when they do some of these genetic panels, and I'm I'm pretty sure. I don't know, you know, whether Mark's gen that Sachin was recommended has it. But anyhow, they're going back to show us that it's not just knowing these weak genes that you have, you know, these SNPs and so on, but you have to look at these patients' body type and so on and look at their early upbringing. So if you grew up eating carbs, and pumpkin or spinach, and you are supposed to eat, let's say, cereal and potato. I'm just using some broad categories here. Really, you have to look at that whole genetic with that mindset. So all those neurotransmitters and so it's not just easy to peg it. Yeah, they may have foods that are calming foods, foods that are, you know, high in histamine and so on, may trigger a mast cell activation syndrome. And so, but really, that is where it goes back. It's really hard to get food just specific for neurotransmitter. So it will go back to their epigenetics, it will go back to their cultural roots, it will go to their early childhood upbringing. And it will go back to also circadian rhythm plays a lot in the food you eat at what time of the year. Very complex. I'm no expert. I'm only listening and learning myself.

Appreciative. I love when, when you guys come on and you're able to share your expertise. It's awesome. Makes a huge difference in the what we experience and understand. And just like everybody says, it's, um, and I think Sachin says it, uh, DNA, we have our DNA, but it's the epigenetics, it's our environment that pulls the trigger. So we either turn it on or turn it off by what we do.

Yeah.

So yeah, to that point then, could that change? Like, let's say you grew And let's do the reverse. Let's say you grew up with, you know, let's say a standard American diet.

Right. And well, would your neurotransmitters change? But the caveat in all this is that still you don't want to be eating junk. Yeah. And then you have to look at things that have food additives and highly processed. They're definitely not good. Even assume you were raised in humble beginnings and that's what your parents gave you, they were busy working themselves and they would hand you a bowl of cereal and with some Froot Loops and it's colored and all these colorings and so on, and they're really not healthy for us. I don't think that your gut necessarily will be asking for that continued bad stuff. So if you could replace that, but I'm talking about otherwise healthy type of food based on your culture, whether you agree Italian, Indian, whatever your origin was, you see, because lots of us, based on our cultural background, we tend to eat the foods that our ancestors or grandparents, mothers and fathers raised us on. Although we moved to America, we have become Americanized. To use that term. There is still a place to eat clean, eat healthy, but you could be eating spinach, and which cuts across a number of cultures, or broccoli and that type of thing. But if you didn't grow up with a culture necessarily eating broccoli and potato, but you grew up eating, like I said, spinach and some Indian roti or something eating. Believe you me, that's the food that is calming to your nervous system.

Yes.

All right. So you have to go back to some, some of those. And this lecture was very, very interesting. And then this other lady, she's come up with her own, with her books, with 25 body types. They're showing you what's called a thyroid body type. They're going in on the big ones yesterday, the adrenal body type. And they're showing you your body, habitus. Like, is your fat up at the top? Is it in your midsection? Is it around your hip and thighs? And so, and this was so mind-boggling. And really, really, I think I'm going to get some of her stuff.

What was her name?

What's her name? Yeah, she was a doctor. Mine, let me see if I made notes. I have it right there. Because Hang on.

What's your nationality, Raj Paul, from past?

I was born in Guyana, in South America. Yes. Yeah, but my ancestors came from India.

Yes.

So I have that Indian name. And then I married a now Cuban, and that's all the blood is so mixed up. Our daughter-in-law is Japanese. One is Colombian. So we have a mixture going on, my friend. I don't know what to tell you.

So my dad was Guyanese. That's why I was asking. I could hear the accent. So my family originally from Guyana. My dad was from Guyana. My mom was from Barbados. I was born in Trinidad. And then they— we came to Canada and my son was— or my brother was born here. So we have a mix. But when you were talking about foods, I'm thinking plantain and like all the West Indian food. Yeah.

I'm gonna get that thing. Oh my God. Yeah, I mean, this was the DNA. I must have had it on some other—

Yeah, if you don't, if you don't find, just post it in the Facebook group. We'll get it or in the WhatsApp.

Okay, good.

Okay, just post there and then we'll be able to get it and be able to follow up.

Really interesting for all of you guys to go on that and her courses. Like, not the DNA company. She was obviously, you know, wanting to sell her DNA kit, which is good. I mean, it's sure, everybody's good marketing, nothing but her stuff was good. She was very authentic. She wasn't telling you to go and grab her DNA kit or so. But the other lady, it's a Chinese lady and doctor. She's a naturopath. And she came up with this thing, like $25, $50, to go through each one of these body types, which paid into her course, buy her books. And so it's very important that I get that out to you guys. I mean, it will blow your mind. I kid you not.

So do you— have you gone through the body type that we do with the— when we do our calls?

I have done that in Accelerate, and I saw it on the program, the 4 types that he has. Even did that. He did personality type and all of that.

Yes.

Yes, I've seen that.

Okay, awesome. So any questions about the program? What stage?

I am still a little lost with that, with this program, where it's going. And let's say, for instance, you shared this morning on mood and motivation and energy and so on. So are we getting that? And is that what— so I sell this package for $2,500 to somebody. Is that what we're allowed to share or no?

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Let me— I'll give you guys the— actually, I think what I'll do, I don't want to share it here in the chat because I'm not sure if the chat goes to—

You could send it to my email.

Yeah.

Let's do that separately.

Yeah. I mean, I'll text you my email, put it in the chat, and you can do a— me too. Shelly or Shelley?

It's Shelley. I don't know what happened with my Zoom. It changed my name.

If you go to, I think it's your title.

Oh, is that what you change it?

You can also change it in the participant.

Let me put it in participant.

If you change it in participant, it only changes it for this session. It doesn't change it fully.

So title, Shelley O'Connor. I never noticed that before. I'll have to have a look at that.

Yeah, it'll be probably in your—

under more—

in your settings, your Zoom settings.

Okay, I'll have to check that. I don't see it on here, but I'll go into Zoom meetings because I have my own account. Maybe that's where it's at. Yes, that's correct.

Okay, because for these sessions, if you go into participants and there's a— like it says mute and then there's a dot dot dot. If you click the dot dot dot, You can rename it, say rename, but again, that will only do it for this. You have to go into your settings for Zoom and make that change.

So, all right.

So any other questions for today? I'll send you guys the, I'll send you both roadmaps that we have for doing discovery calls and the health coach.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. I'm good to go. And I do have a lot to accomplish before my Friday is done.

Yeah.

I do. I have a call coming up at 1. Yeah.

I have a 1 and a 2 o'clock, so I have to be ready for both.

Yes. Enjoy your afternoons. Thank you.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thank you, Annalisa.

You're welcome.

Take care, guys.

Have a great day.

Bye-bye.