MRP Q & A with Dipa - Ways To Naturally Improve Sleep [Dec 6, 2024]

Happy Friday, everyone. Welcome. Welcome. Hope you're all having an amazing day so far. And as we're tuning in here, let me know what you're grateful for today. Welcome, jennifer. Welcome, michelle. Welcome farhana. Patty. Welcome. Welcome, patty. Welcome sangeeta. Know what you're grateful for and then we'll get started in just a few minutes. Welcome, Julie. Jennifer says I'm grateful for my good friend. Good friend who wants to join the program too. Amazing. Thank you. Thanks for your trust in us. Thank you. That says hi, Deepa and all. Sorry, I will be listening in today as I'm driving to an appointment. Okay, no worries. Yeah, it's kind of hard for people to not know what you're doing right when you do this program. There are a lot of questions have come your way. What are you doing? Okay, we'll wait just another minute here. I'm just going to put a quick reminder in our group as well. Patty says, grateful to have played tennis this morning and to begin this journey. Yeah, I'm so excited for you, Patty. Okay, so we will get started with. I always, as you all know, like to start with just a little bit of breathing or meditation. So we're gonna do a little bit of meditation before we get started. So of course, for those of you who are not driving and who can participate, always highly recommend you participate. This one here is just to kind of clear your mind, help you feel more calm and relaxed and just take a little pause in your day. Especially this time of year, it can get really busy. You know, there's a lot of holiday parties and social events and things that we all need to do. So highly recommend that you take a pause whenever you can just to kind of clear your mind. So I'm going to play the video. Give me a second here.

Begin by getting into a comfortable seated position. Take a moment to make any adjustments you need. And when you're ready, softly close your eyes. Begin to turn your awareness inwards, tuning into your breath and your body, Intentionally releasing any muscles you do not need to use right now. And allowing your belly to be soft so you can feel it expand as you breathe in and contract as you breathe out. And as you feel yourself dropping into your body connected to your breath, you begin to envision a clear blue sky above you, all around you, 360 degrees, as if you are seated in a flat plane and all that's around you is sky. Everywhere you look, clear and blue. And you feel yourself lifting up. So that you yourself are floating in the sky, Letting your body and mind Merge with the energy of the clear blue sky, Letting the clear, fresh energy pass through you, Feeling your mind open, clear. Your body free and clear. You yourself. Spend a few breaths relaxing in this energy.

Sam.

And begin to feel yourself lowering back down, Feeling anchored and grounded in this clear, fresh energy. Notice a lightness in your body.

Even.

Though it's still rooted firmly in this moment. And carry that feeling with you as you take a big, deep breath in. Stomach and ribcage, fully expanding, holding your breath at the top. And when you're ready, exhale with a sigh as you slowly begin to roll your shoulders, wiggle your fingers and toes. And when you're ready, open your eyes back to the world around you.

Okay? So whenever you're ready, you can open your eyes and come back to the room. Hey. So today we are going to talk about some ways to naturally improve sleep. Okay. This is such a huge topic. I find that most people who start with this program have some sort of issue with sleep. So we're going to try to address some natural ways that you can improve sleep. And so, you know, first of all, I think it's important for us to know. I'm sure many of you know, but why is sleep so important? We spend a third of our life sleeping. Our bodies restore themselves while sleeping, right? It's one of the main ways that our body shifts more into that parasympathetic state, which is where all the restoration, repair, healing, regeneration occurs. When we get a good night's sleep, we have better mental focus and function. Another important aspect of sleep is that it's the way that our brain gets rid of toxic byproducts that have accumulated throughout the day while we're sleeping. Okay? There's something called the glymphatic system, and it's responsible for getting rid of all that toxic waste that's accumulated in our brain. Okay? So for many of you who have brain fog, mental clarity, lack of mental clarity when you go through this program, that really improves sleep. Also helps with weight loss, right? Once again, one of the keys to weight loss is shifting more into that parasympathetic state. And when we get good, deep quality sleep and when we're in a parasympathetic state, it's going to make weight loss more effortless. Sleep also keeps our immune system strong, and it also keeps our hormones balanced. Okay, so these are just a few of the aspects of why sleep is so important. Other reasons that sleep is so important is that it's also going to help balance your blood sugars. Okay? For any of you who are diabetic in any way, you may notice that your morning blood sugar may be higher on days when you don't get good quality sleep. So a few sleep tips, some really basic things that I'm sure many of you know. But we really want to avoid all stimulants, you know, in a certain range before bedtime. So of course on the release phase you're not consuming any alcohol, but you really want to avoid alcohol within three hours of bedtime. It is going to help with perhaps faster sleep onset. But for most of you, if you do drink alcohol and reintroduce it back on maintenance phase, especially if you have an OURA ring, you'll notice how alcohol can really impact your deep sleep. Your REM sleep and overall quality of sleep is going to be poor when you consume alcohol. You also want to make sure that you avoid caffeine after 2pm of course, caffeine, you know, including coffee is a stimulant. So for many of you who, especially if you're more sensitive to caffeine, if you drink it after 2pm, it is definitely going to interrupt your sleep, most likely going to interrupt the ability to fall asleep. Other things that you may want to be aware of are some medications and supplements can be stimulating, so you want to make sure that they're timed correctly. Medications or supplements that are stimulating should be in earlier on in the day, preferably in the morning. And then exercise, especially aerobic exercise can be very stimulating as well. So try to complete most aerobic exercise before 6pm Other things to avoid before bedtime are nighttime tension before bed. So you really want to make sure you avoid anxiety provoking activities, avoid watching the news. I know some of you may maybe you know before you started this program, like to watch TV before bedtime, but you really want to make sure that you know, of course we'll talk a little bit about blue light, but you really want to make sure that if you are going to watch TV that you avoid watching something negative like the news. You want to avoid reading stimulating material, right? So something more calming is going to be more appropriate. Avoid paying bills before bedtime and avoid controversial topics or subjects with family members to avoid arguments before bedtime as well. Because all of these things can of course affect our ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. Other things you really want to focus on are quantity of sleep. So once again, if you have an OURA ring, it's an excellent way to know whether or not you're getting enough sleep. So you really want to make sure that you aim for seven hours or more of sleep each night. Anything less than 7 hours is considered sleep deprivation. So when we get less than seven hours of sleep, it's going to dysregulate our hunger and appetite hormones. So one of the hormones that gets dysregulated is ghrelin. Think of gremlin, okay? Gremlin increases when we don't get enough sleep. And gremlin, Gremlin, sorry, ghrelin is what's going to determine how hungry you are. So when ghrelin increases, it's going to make you feel more hungry. Another hormone that gets dysregulated is leptin. So when we don't get enough sleep, our leptin levels decrease. And when our leptin levels decrease, we're not going to feel satisfied even, even after eating. When we get enough sleep, which is seven or more hours, we're going to have lower levels of ghrelin, which is going to maintain a normal appetite, and leptin is going to be high, which is going to help us feel satiated after we eat. Okay? Another important thing to note is that three, if you get less than seven hours of sleep, you're going to consume on average approximately 300 calories more on that on that day. Even one night of sleep deprivation can lead to more calorie consumption. And of course, we all know that that calorie consumption is probably going to be sugary or salty foods, right? It's unlikely that if you're sleep deprived and craving something, some sort of food, it's going to be a carrot stick, okay? So sleep is super important with regulating our appetite. So when it comes to sleep, we really want to plan for good quality sleep. So we want to plan for getting at least eight to nine hours of sleep. So if you have to be up at 7:00am, for example, you want to make sure that you reverse engineer what time you should be going to bed by. Another important aspect of sleep planning is ensuring that you try to keep your sleep time and wake time as consistent as possible. So if you, you know, ideally you want to try to be in bed by 10 the latest, and you know, most people will require seven to eight hours. So anywhere from six, around 6am you might wake up. And if you are going to adjust that sleep time and wake time, you want to make sure it's no more than plus or minus 30 minutes. Okay? But really making sure you dial in a consistent sleep time and wake time is very important. What I tell some clients is to keep a Sleep alarm, right? Kind of how when you wake up, you have some people use an alarm to wake up. Same thing for when you go to bed, keep an alarm. Okay. You want to try to avoid getting to bed after midnight. So as you can see in this graph or this diagram here, around 6pm to 10pm is when you want to start to wind down and really dim lights. Especially as we're, you know, right now into the winter months, you want to make sure that you're dimming the lights kind of in conjunction with the sun. The sun, okay. So as the sun sets, that's when you want to start dimming down light. So in the summertime, you may dim lights a little later because the sun sets a little later. Now the other thing that this graph shows is that from 10am to 2am our body does the most physical repair, and then from 2am to 6am our body does the most psychological repair. So if you're going to bed at midnight, then you're missing out on 50% of that physical repair time.

Okay?

So you really want to try to shift that bedtime back as close to 10pm as possible. You also want to avoid late afternoon or evening naps, which is going to disrupt sleep onset. You also want to avoid large meals before bedtime because as I said, one of the main roles of sleep is to detoxify your brain. And if you eat too close to bedtime, then your body's going to be focused on digestion versus detoxifying your brain and shifting into that parasympathetic state. You also want to try to avoid drinking no more than 4 to 8 ounces of fluid before bedtime. And for some people, having some sort of relaxing routine, whether it's taking a hot bath before bedtime or reading a book, having some sort of bedtime routine is going to be super helpful. Whether it's light, stretching, whatever is going to help you kind of calm down and wind down. Some meditation, some breathing, gentle breathing exercises can really help with setting the right stage to kind of get you into that parasympathetic state to set you up for good sleep. So a few strategies that you can use, especially if you have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep. So if you have troubles with falling asleep or staying asleep, then a couple of these things can be really helpful. So reading a good neutral book with red lighting, right? Many of you received the red light bulb that we sent. If you don't have one, we can put a link. The red light bulb is, doesn't have any blue light in it. Blue light is very stimulating. Okay? Blue light is going to decrease melatonin production. So as much as possible, you want to have red light or very warm light. Okay? 2,700 Kelvin bulbs are very warm, and they're still going to have a little bit of blue light in them. You know, the red light bulb has zero blue light in them. But you want to make sure that you're decreasing blue light as much as possible. Specifically, the hour before bedtime, you want to make sure that you're using lamps as well. Okay? The direction of lighting is equally as important as the color temperature. So when light's shining on us from above, that tells our brain that it's daytime, because when we go outside, the sun shines on us from above. Our brain doesn't know the difference. So using lamps, even candlelight, I'll show you a graph later on that shows how much melatonin production is obstructed when we use certain types of lighting. But candlelight, fire, campfires, you know, these Himalayan salt lamps, red light bulbs, all of those are going to be more conducive to a better night's sleep. When you're trying to fall asleep, don't stay in your bed more than 20 to 30 minutes. Trying. If it's more than 30 minutes, you probably want to get up and go to a different room because you don't want to associate your bed with difficulty falling asleep.

Okay?

So if you are having a lot of difficulty falling asleep and it's been more than 30 minutes, go to another room and change the environment. If you awaken early because of light, this is more so in the summer when it can get really bright outside, or perhaps you don't have blackout shades, then wear an eye mask, okay? That's a very cost effective way to ensure that your room is completely dark when you're sleeping. Another important factor is bedroom air quality. You want to keep your bedroom air clean. When possible. It's very beneficial to even keep your window open, a tiny little crack to ventilate your space. Make sure you get your air vents cleaned every year. And if you see mold in your bedroom or even in the bathroom close to your bedroom, you want to have that tested and remediated. Make sure your nose is not blocked. So for some people, they may have a deviated septum or other issues with their nasal passage. And so if you do, a really helpful tip can be using a Breathe Right strip. A Breathe Right strip is going to open up the nasal passage and allow more air to pass through the nose. Other things that are really helpful for filtering your air in your room is air filtering plants. Okay. One that I know off the top of my head is the peace lily, the snake plant. Both of those are really effective with removing volatile organic compounds and other toxins from the air. And then another great investment. I know Christmas is coming up around the corner for those of you who celebrate and give gifts. I always like to give gifts that are useful for people that can benefit their health in some way. An air doctor, which is an air filter, is a great tool that is really going to help with improving air quality as well. So we have an air doctor in all the bedrooms. We have one in our living room. I have an air doctor in my office as well. So especially in the rooms that you spend a lot of time in, it is a great investment, Especially living somewhere where it's harder to have the windows open and have that ventilation, especially in the winter months. It's. It's a great tool that you can use to make sure your air is clean. Okay. If you don't open your windows enough, then it's been shown that your indoor home air is actually more toxic than the air outside. Okay. So when possible, open windows. And of course, if not, then you want to make sure you have something like an air doctor, another really important tool. I know we've talked about it before, but it's mouth tape. Okay. So mouth taping is a really non invasive and inexpensive way to really improve sleep quality and quantity. So it's just a small 2 1/2 or 2 inch piece that you put right down the middle of your mouth. The tape that we Recommend is called 3M Micro Pore Tape. You can get it at any pharmacy, shoppers, drug mart, Walmart, cvs. They'll all have micropore tape. It's a surgical type of tape. And this is going to ensure that your mouth stays closed when you're sleeping and that your nasal breathing, when you nasal breathe, it's going to shift your body more into that parasympathetic state versus mouth breathing shifts your body into a sympathetic fight or flight state. Nasal breathing is also going to prevent nighttime awakenings due to urination. So if you're someone who wakes up to go pee a lot at night, mouse taping is a very effective way to decrease and perhaps even eliminate nighttime awakenings due to urination. Because nasal breathing increases a hormone called vasopressin, which is an antidiuretic. Okay. When you first start mouth taping, for some people, it can cause a little bit of anxiety. It's all mental. Okay. Within a day or two, I promise you, you'll get used to it. You can even practice during the day if you're not used to it. So if you're on a meeting where you're not really required to be on camera or talk, if it's just something passive that you're doing, like cooking or cleaning, just try taping your mouth during the day for about 30 minutes or so so that you kind of get used to it. I promise you if you need to breathe, you can always rip it off. Your body will not allow you to not breathe. Okay? So it's, it's a great way to really improve sleep, especially if you have the oura ring. You'll probably notice a shift in your deep sleep, in your sleep efficiency. So give it a try. Lighting. So we did touch on this a little bit, but as I mentioned, you want to use lamps and not overhead lighting. Use red light bulbs or 2700 Kelvin bulbs. Specifically an hour or two before bedtime. Salt lamps or candles are great alternatives. Sleep with a blackout, blackout shades or an eye mask. If you are going to be on any screens. I know some of you may have to work or you know, if you need to be on your phone or if you're watching a movie with your family, you know, it's not all about. We don't want to like inhibit your social life in any way. But if you do need to be on a screen, then blue blocking glasses are something that I really recommend that you take advantage of specifically an hour before bedtime because the screens are going to emit a lot of blue light. So the blue blocking glasses are going to pretty much eliminate all the blue light from your screens.

Okay.

And in the morning specifically, if you live in a area where it's hard to get sunlight exposure first thing in the morning, you can get half hour exposure to blue or a 10,000 lux bright light first thing in the morning. And this is more so if you're going to bed too late and want to shift to an earlier bedtime. So morning sun is really important to regulating that circadian rhythm. Whether you have difficulty with getting bed to bed too early or not. I still recommend that within the first hour of waking, you get some sort of outdoor light exposure. I know in the winter, you know, it may not be very bright outside, but it's still going to be way brighter outside on a cloudy day than it is indoors. Okay. There's a great app that you can download, it's called Circadian. And Circadian is going to tell you when the sun rises, when the sun sets. And you can also set up notifications to remind you to take a natural sunlight and movement break every 90 minutes. Okay. So it's not always what you're doing before bed. It's also equally important to be mindful of what you're doing during the day to ensure you're getting good quality sleep. Okay. So lighting plays a huge role in your ability to get good quality sleep both before bed and during the day. So this is the little infographic that I was referring to earlier. So it's basically showing that a light source, such as an LED light bulb, which is 6000 kelvin, is going to suppress your melatonin by about 80%. Okay. So if you have really bright white LEDs that you're using in your home, specifically before bedtime, they contain a lot of blue light and a lot of green light. And that's what's going to lead to the melatonin suppression. A fluorescent lamp. As you can see, fluorescent lamps, these are very frequently used in office settings. They're missing out on a lot of color spectrum. Right? There's these peaks in blue and green and just a little bit of orange. But if you look at this fluorescent lamp or bulb versus an incandescent bulb, which is what we used to use, look at the difference in red, the infrared spectrum. It's virtually non existent in a fluorescent lamp. And infrared is what's super important for regulating our circadian rhythm. So fluorescent lamps are used in schools that are used in office buildings. You're missing out on all this light spectrum, which is information for our brain and our body. Okay. So they're a big problem. And as you can see, they suppress melatonin suppression by about 80%. Okay. Incandescent bulbs typically are 2700 kelvin. As I said, these are the bulbs that we used to use growing up. These emit a lot of infrared. Infrared is what's, you know, it's not really a visible spectrum of light, but first thing in the morning when the sun sets, or, sorry, when the sun rises, and when the sun sets, there is a high amount of infrared. And so an incandescent bulb really mimics what a sunset or sunrise would look like. And as you can see, the melatonin suppression is a lot less. A candle only suppresses our melatonin by about 2%. Okay. And a candle light style LED is, you know, a little less than 2% as well. Okay. So. And if you look at the red light bulbs that we've given you, that's that's not on here. But if you're in the longevity or legacy program, you would have received a red light bulb that pretty much is going to be, you know, less than 2% as well, because there's no green or yellow. It's pretty much all red. Okay, so this is just kind of showing you what happens. Light travels through your eye to a part of your brain called the suprachiasmatic nucleus, which. The suprachiasmatic nucleus is our circadian clock. From there, it travels to the pineal gland. And the pineal gland is what's responsible for secreting melatonin. So light inhibits melatonin production and darkness stimulates melatonin production. So the more darkness that we're in, the more or the less blue light that we're exposed to, the more we're going to be able to secrete melatonin. And melatonin is not only important for sleep, but it's also important for antioxidation. Okay. Melatonin is one of the most important antioxidants, and it's also known as the anti cancer hormone. Okay, so we need melatonin for sleep and to help us get rid of oxidative stress. So screens, as I mentioned, avoid screens. One, two hour, one to two hours before bedtime. If you have to be on a screen, use your blue blocking glasses. You can also get a blue light filter on your computer. This is the website justgetflux.com I highly recommend that you use this software on your computer. Right now, my computer has a soft, kind of yellowish tint to it. If I turn my flux off, it's really white and really bright. Okay. So even during the day, we want to try to decrease our blue light exposure as much as possible. Like when you go out in the sun, there's an equal amount of blue, red, orange, green, all the colors. When we're exposed to our screens, it's primarily just blue. And blue light is going to decrease insulin sensitivity. Okay. So make sure you download. Just get flux on your computers, on your phones, like an iPhone, for example, I'll put the instructions to turn your phone red. But basically, if I press my power button three times, my phone will turn red. Okay, so I'll put the instructions for that. And then blue light, as I mentioned, suppresses melatonin. And if you're on Android, there are, I think Android has a function where you can turn the screen red. If not, you can download an app called Twilight, which will also, you know, you'll be able to turn your screen Red noise can also impact sleep and our ability to fall asleep and stay asleep. So really make sure that you're decreasing irritating noises in your space. For some people, they need to sleep with earplugs or even a white noise generator. The nice thing about the Air doctor is it does, you know, have a little bit of a sound to it or fan type of sound to it, which is great for white noise. As I mentioned, the HEPA air filter, like the Air doctor will create white noise as well and then turn off appliances or clocks that make noise if you feel like they disrupt your sleep. Temperature is also super important. So sleep in a cool temperature no higher than 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Optimal temperature for sleep is between 60 to 68 Fahrenheit. There are also things like chili pads that are available for some people who really tend to overheat, which can really, you know, help with your ability to stay asleep, especially if you overheat at night. Especially for women who are kind of transitioning into that perimenopause menopause phase of life where we're experiencing night sweats or hot flashes, a something like a chili pad can really be beneficial. Environmental issues are really important as well. So you want to avoid sleeping near electric fields. One of the things I recommend is turning off your WI fi when you're sleeping. So you can purchase a timer switch from Home Depot or any hardware store. You can plug your router into that timer switch and then you can set it so that it turns off at, for example, 11:00pm or 10:00pm that would be ideal, would force you to go to sleep, and then you can set it so that it wakes. It turns back on at 6am EMFS can also disrupt melatonin production. This is another reason why we like the OURA ring. Because you can put it in airplane mode, so so that way you're not exposed to the EMFs. As we're on the topic of EMFs, I also highly recommend that you do not sleep with your phone in your bedroom. Keep your phone far away from you when you're sleeping, not only because of the EMFs, but also because if you have notifications and you have all these sounds, dinging at various times of the night, that's really disruptive to your sleep. Okay? So keep it in another room when you're sleeping. Bedding and pillows is also super important. So if you're a side sleeper, use a pillow under your neck when you're sleeping on your side. And perhaps you may also want to consider a knee pillow to keep your Spine aligned. You may also want to consider using a body pillow to hug to align your back and shoulders. And if you don't have organic pillows and sheets, the type of material that we recommend for bed sheets is linen sheets. Linen sheets don't have any static. Static really creates a positive charge. And for those of you who have restless legs, that can be a huge contributor to restless legs. So switching over to linen will really ensure that there's no static and no positive charge buildup which is going to help with restless legs. The type of pillow and mattress that we recommend is a latex mattress. So if you're in the market for a new mattress or new pillows, latex is a natural fiber and is not going to have any flame retardant sprayed on it. There's a few different brands which we can discuss later. If you're in the market for a new pillow or mattress, supplements can be helpful. I always like to recommend the lifestyle stuff first. Right? The temperature, the lighting, the air quality, all of that first. That can take some time. So if you are really struggling with sleep, then you may want to consider some supplements which would give you a little more immediate relief while the lifestyle factors kick in. Magnesium is great for promoting relaxation. You may want to consider taking some melatonin before bedtime. Calming herbs or tea, lemon balm, passion flower, valerian root can also be really helpful for inducing a more relaxed state to help you fall asleep a little quicker. Okay. As I said, what we do during the day is super important as well. So get sunlight exposure first thing in the morning, within an hour of waking, also at noon and in the afternoon. Natural sunlight helps regulate your circadian rhythm. Exercise earlier in the day. Exercise definitely helps you fall asleep and stay asleep longer and also helps reduce nighttime awakenings. So while you're on the release phase, you know you want to aim for about 20 to 30 minutes of walking at a minimum. Drink most of your liquids earlier in the day. So avoid liquids one to two hours before bedtime. And then I know we've talked about it quite extensively. Extensively. But an aura ring is also a great tool for tracking sleep. It really helps bring awareness into your sleep schedule and helps you shift your behaviors when you have that objective. Data measures resting heart rate, heart rate variability, measures deep sleep, light sleep, and REM sleep. And we do have a whole module that goes deeper into the OURA ring if you're interested in some of the metrics that it tracks and how it can improve your sleep. Okay, so we can take some questions now. Hope you found that Helpful. I'm sure there's a couple things that maybe you've forgotten about or you're not doing. So Dorinda was asking, how do you turn the iPhone screen red? Yeah. So this is how it will look once you set up the setting. I'll post it here in the chat. Oh.

Okay.

Okay. Diana saying Deepa, do you have recommendations for a device that turns the WI fi router off? Yes. So basically if you go to, you can even probably get obviously on Amazon, it has everything these days but timer switch. One second. Let me see if I can find one here. Okay, here's one. They're kind of like those Christmas light timers that you, you might have had in the past. But I'll put a link here. Hey Michelle, you have a question, you can go ahead and unmute.

Thanks Deepa. I had two questions. One was unrelated from today and another one's related to today with respect to avoiding certain similants at bed. So for example, watching news and especially the books, the reason I ask is, is it for everybody? It could be a negative stimulant. For me and the type of work I do, it's actually not. So I actually enjoy watching the news before I go to bed. And sometimes with my books, it's a lot of suspense or serial killer books and stuff like that. And I know it's because of my nature of my work. It, it doesn't phase me. So I don't know if it's. For some people it could have a negative impact but for others it's fine.

So you know, it may not consciously create any like, negative like emotions but subconsciously it's, you know, any type of negativity is, is not the best for your cells, so to speak. Right. Energetically speaking, even though you may not have a conscious, you know, response, I think subconsciously it's probably not the best. So I would recommend, if you are going to watch something, watch something more light hearted. If you're going to read something, maybe read something a little more light hearted. And then if you do have AA ring, you can measure and see the difference. Right. I don't know if a night will make a huge difference, but over time as you shift to things that are more relaxing or lighter in nature, you may see a difference in your sleep. Okay, perfect.

And my second question, which was a random question, it was pertaining to vegetables.

I know when I'd ask you during.

The maintenance phase you indicated that we can eat 6 ounces of vegetables. I probably was overthinking because I know all the vegetables are combined. Is it that you could eat 6 ounces of limited vegetables and the unlimited still remains the same? Unlimited?

Basically, yeah. So like just to make it less complicated, I usually just say 6 ounces in general, but the free vegetables are like very, you know, water based. So those I would say are still unlimited.

Okay. So we're basically increasing 4 ounces to 6 ounces with our vegetables. If I, if I want to treat it like that, like in terms of the limited vegetables.

I mean, a lot of people after the release phase will stop weighing, which is why I kind of will say like half your plate and veggies. So yeah, so if you want to increase your non free veggies to about 6 ounces, then you can. But just really making sure that you're getting, you know, that same amount of veggie intake because that's something that can start to decrease over time for people. So really making sure you're getting a good amount of veggies is important. Okay, thank you. Very welcome. Anyone else have a question? Comment? Okay, why don't we share if no one else has any questions or comments. What has been your biggest win this past week? Type it in the chat. Let me know what your biggest win has been this past week. Type it in the chat. Or you can unmute. Raise your hand and unmute. Dorinda says, I just started last week and I'm down £5. £5 and feeling much better. Congratulations. Awesome. It's great to hear. Patty, when do you plan on starting? Still up in the air, but I was thinking, thinking maybe this weekend. Okay. Okay. Awesome. Yeah, weekends are great. Especially you know, for the loading days. As you probably saw, you have to eat a lot of food. So if you're busy during the weekdays with meetings and, you know, work, then it can be harder to consume all that food. So weekends are always great to start. Okay. DA says hubby is also down eight pounds. Jennifer says biggest win. Getting back to the program basics after finishing the program and then a week of vacation. Hope you enjoyed your vacation. DN says meal prepping to stay on track in this busy holiday season. Yeah, meal prep is super important to ensure your success. And remember, it doesn't have to be complicated. Right. Keeping things simple is, is definitely welcomed and recommended. Patty says the cough I have leftover from bronchitis is less frequent and yeah, I can hear that in your voice. I'm glad it's getting better.

Good.

Excellent. Hey, any other questions, comments, anything? It doesn't have to be just regards to sleep. What was One thing that you took away from, from that presentation, what's one thing that you're gonna start to implement? Let me know in the chat. Or you can unmute. I love the diagram on the different colors with different light sources. Yeah. Really puts things into perspective. Right. In terms of how much blue light we're exposed to if we're using those type of light sources. So, you know, what our ancestors and probably grandparents used to do is candlelight for the wind. Right. And one thing I forgot to mention, if you are going to use candlelight.

Use.

You know, soy based candles or, you know, you don't want to start using candles and then use these like really chemical based scented candles. That's probably not going to be the best thing to do. Deanne says consistent bedtime and changing my settings on my phone. Okay, good. Farhana, go ahead and unmute.

Oh, can you hear me now?

Yep, I can hear you.

Okay, great. I actually have an unrelated question. Not to sleep. Is that okay?

Yep, that's totally fine.

So my doctor has been tracking my cholesterol levels for quite a while and now recommending statins. And I'm wondering if there's any other more natural way to deal with high cholesterol. She's saying that this is a strong recommendation that she has.

Okay.

But I thought I heard a webinar that you all posted about other ways of cholesterol management that are more natural.

So I guess it depends on. Because when we talk about cholesterol, there's total cholesterol, there's ldl, there's hdl, there's triglycerides. So from your blood work, I don't know what is, you know, what, what's high or what needs improvement. So that would be helpful for me to kind of guide the discussion further.

If, you know, I do know those details. So I'll gather them up though. But it's not just that I know the difference at ratio, but the ratio is bad even with the good cholesterol. So, um, I will, I'll get the details though before I speak more about it.

Okay. Yeah. And then there is. Because sometimes a lot of doctors will want to put clients on statins.

Yeah.

And it's typically due to high LDLs.

Yeah.

The thing with high LDL is there's, there's different types of LDL particles and so there's small density particles and then there's large buoyant particles. And if your LDL is primarily composed of the small dense particles, that's when it's problematic. But a regular Blood test is not really going to show us the particles size or type. And so if your LDL is high, but it's primarily large buoyant particles, then that's not really a problem when it comes to cholesterol. The two, the two things that I really focus on with clients is HDL and triglycerides. So if hdl, we want to have it, you know, not too, too high, but we want to have it higher. And triglycerides, we ideal, ideally want them. If you live in the US it's less than 70, less than 100 is good, but optimal is less than 70. And then of course, like I said, with LDL, it's more. It's going to be more important to look at the particle size to really determine if you truly need the statin. And there is a test, like your doctor can run the test for the particle size. Some of them won't. But there is a test that we offer as well that can look at these lipid markers in a little more detail. You can go ahead and unmute now.

Okay, thank you. I appreciate all of that. I don't know why every time I mute, then I get the error message saying the host is not allowing you to unmute. But that's what's going on.

I had it set. That's how I had it set. So, yeah.

Okay, thanks.

Okay, no worries. Okay. Any other questions, comments? Okay, amazing. Well, thank you all for being here today and we'll see you next Friday. Enjoy your weekends. Bye, everyone. Bye.