Reframing Setbacks- MIndset Tools to shift Your Perspective

Welcome, welcome everyone. Happy Friday. Welcome Tanya. Welcome Randy. Welcome Laura. We'll just wait a few more minutes for people to join in. Is my music too loud or is it okay? Can you guys hear my music? Can't hear anything. Okay, thought I shared the music. Okay, can you hear anything now? Okay, welcome Becca, welcome Madhu. If you can turn your camera on, I always love to see your beautiful faces. I know some of you are working or, you know, listening in the background, but if you can turn your camera on and as you're tuning in, let me know in the comments what you're grateful for. Just give people a few more minutes to join in. Tanya says grateful for trees. Okay, love that. Laura says she's grateful for her first Q&A session. Becca says, yes, I'm on the phone multitasking. I'm grateful for a full summer of lots of time outdoors. Yes, I love that. We had— I, I don't know, we in Toronto here, we had a really lovely summer. It was humid, but it was lovely. I like the heat, especially after our long cold winters. Randy says, my first run since an Achilles injury last year. Yeah, those take a while to heal. That's awesome. Glad you were able to get back out there. Madhukar says, progress and positivity around me. Lovely. Love to hear that. Hey, awesome. So we will get started. I thought just with into today's theme and some of the things that I'll be talking about, um, I thought it would be good for us to just kind of for a couple of minutes just close our eyes and get centered and present. So we'll just kind of get comfortable wherever we are in our seat. And get your feet on the ground so that you feel grounded. Perhaps put your hands on your lap, or if you feel comfortable, you can put your hand on your heart. Just become more present with your breath. Observe the inhale and the exhale without changing it. Observe your belly rise, perhaps. Maybe your chest is rising on your inhale. And then with a gentle sigh, just let it out through your mouth and just release any tension, any negative thoughts or feelings that are coming up. And take another inhale through the nose. Try to make this your deepest inhale of the day. And when you're ready, exhale again through the mouth with a sigh. Exhaling anything that's on your mind, any tension. Take another inhale through the nose. Nice big deep inhale. Hold it at the top if you can. For a couple seconds, and then let it out again through the mouth. Take another inhale. Just know that you're in the right place, the right time. You're here, you're present. And let it out again with another sigh. Make it an audible sigh. I feel like those really help with Just releasing and letting go of any thoughts that may not be serving you, any patterns that might not be serving you. Take another couple of inhales and exhales. Just go at your own pace now. Try to slow them down, inhaling through the nose for about 5 to 6 seconds. And you can continue to let that exhale out through the mouth, or you can switch to the nose. 5 to 6 seconds again on the exhale. You have your hand on your chest. Feel your heartbeat. It's nice to take this pause during the day. Maybe you've had a busy morning, so just give this gift to yourself right now. And then whenever you feel ready, you can open up your eyes. And as we spend this next 45 to 50 minutes together, just continue to Be present. Continue to pay attention to your exhale and your inhale, slowing them down, breathing through your nose, and just being here in this moment. Okay, how does everyone feel after that? Just let me know in the comments. Do you feel more relaxed? Do you feel more present? Were you able to settle in? Were your thoughts going? How did that feel for you? Laura says refreshed. Tanya says centered. Hardeep says calm and relaxed. Yeah. So it only takes a few minutes, right? We really— I think it was less than 5 minutes. I wasn't really keeping track of the time. Just taking that pause for yourself throughout the day can really help shift your nervous system into a more parasympathetic state, help you think more clearly, help you feel more calm and relaxed and grounded, especially if you've had a busy day. It's probably like the last thing that you think you can make time for, but really it's probably one of the most important things that you need to do if you've had a pretty, you know, busy day or an overwhelming day. And I think for most of us, you know, we have a lot on our plates, right? So if there's a moment or two that you can pause and come back to your breath, right? It doesn't even have to be with your eyes closed. Of course, that helps you get a little more centered, less distracted, but it's a great practice to have. And we'll be talking a little bit about that today as well. And I wanted to also share a great tool with you all. It's called a Moonbird. Has anyone heard of this little device here? So it's a great little device because you don't necessarily need an app to use it. You just hold it in the palm of your hand and you put your thumb on this little sensor here to kind of activate it. And what it will do is it'll eventually turn on once it senses my thumb here. And you're probably not even going to be able to see it, but it's literally expanding and contracting. And it's kind of using that 5 to 6-second cadence that we talk about. So when it expands, that's when it's going to prompt you to inhale. When it contracts, it's going to prompt you to exhale. So it's something that you can, you know, use passively. You know, like, for example, while I'm on this meeting, I'm not typing, right? I'm just going to be sitting here, and I could be holding this, and you won't even know it, right? Of course, when you're talking, it's a little more challenging to sync your breath, right? But if you're just sitting in on a meeting, or, you know, sitting watching TV, for example, doing something that's a little more passive, it's a great tool to help you regulate your breath. So I'll put a link in the comments for you all to learn a little bit more about it. But especially if you feel like stress, which I think we all kind of could do better with, is something that you struggle with, it's a great little tool that you can look into. Okay, so first thing before we get started with today's Q&A, I wanted to introduce one of our new health coaches, Laura. Laura is a master certified nutrition and wellness coach. She's really specialized in helping women in midlife thrive and creating lasting habits. And she's very knowledgeable with some of the hormonal changes and metabolic shifts that happen during this time of life. And, yeah, she's such a great asset to our team. We're super happy to have her here. So if you all can give her a warm welcome, you know, whether it's you're on camera or in the chat, we would love to, you know, just introduce her to our community. Laura, did you want to just say a few words? Thank you, Deepa. I am so excited to be joining your team and, uh, your amazing clients. I hope that I will be interacting with you all personally at some point, but just really, really excited to be here. Awesome. Thank you, Laura. Yeah, so, you know, she will be joining us on these Q&As. Of course, you know, she's going through some training at the moment, but then she'll be doing a lot of these Q&As and facilitating them moving forward. So yeah, if everyone can just give her a warm welcome, we would love that. And I'll be introducing her to our Facebook group today as well so that those who were not able to join the Q&A will get a little intro to her as well. So today we're going to be talking a little bit about how we can reframe, quote unquote, setbacks. Okay, so in terms of setbacks, like when in the program we have the loading phase, the release phase, and the maintenance phase, and With the release phase, you know, it's approximately 40 days, and it can be, you know, challenging at times to stick to, to everything perfectly for those full 40 days, right? And really, we don't expect perfection from you, right? We want perfection over progress. Of course, the more you stick to the release phase plan, the better the results you'll experience. But there might be a few occasions where you might have a little setback, right? And that's perfectly normal, right? It's not, um, you know, like I said, we don't expect that perfection, right? So whether it is a plateau or whether it's, you know, a little trip that you had to go on or a family event that you had to, you know, partake in, or if you had something stressful happen in your life that set you back a little bit, um, you know, we don't want those little setbacks to derail your entire progress, right? So it's, um, a normal part of the journey, and that's I really want to emphasize is that setbacks are normal, right? And there's a few things that we can do to kind of steer us back on track, right? I think building that muscle of getting back on track is what's most important, right? So for many people, maybe they have a setback and then they self-sabotage and they go down this whole spiral, right? And that's not what we want. We want to be kind to ourselves. We want to be gentle with ourselves. We want to build self-trust with ourselves, be compassionate with ourselves, and gently come back on track, right? So this is a topic that I think is very important because, ultimately, when it comes to long-term success, we have to be able to be more resilient. We have to be able to handle these setbacks and come back on track. Otherwise, we're going to set ourselves up for long-term failure. Okay, so, you know, a couple things that I really want to touch on when it comes to setbacks and reframing setbacks is, you know, first of all, you always want to acknowledge your feelings, right? If you're facing a challenge, it can sometimes bring on a bunch of different feelings. You might feel disappointed, you might feel frustrated, you might feel angry with yourself. And you really want to just give yourself permission to feel all those emotions, right? It's, uh, normal to feel that way if, if you do experience a setback. And so give yourself permission to feel those feelings, acknowledge those feelings. And then secondly, you know, practicing self-compassion, right? The reason why we sometimes start off these Q&As with some sort of mindfulness practice is because we really want to become more attentive and aware of the thoughts that go through our, our mind, right? Oftentimes we're our most— our worst inner critic, right? Especially when a setback happens, we may have a lot of blame and judgment, and that's going to just result in keeping us staying stuck. And so we really want to practice self-compassion, practice speaking to ourselves kindly, right? Just imagine if you spoke to yourself the way you did to your children, right? Or to your spouse, or to your loved ones, or to your friends or family members, right? We would never talk to our friends or family members that way. So we really want to make sure that we're, you know, really meeting ourselves where we're at and practicing self-compassion. And the more that we're able to do that, the more easily we're able to kind of bounce back from these setbacks, right? And really, one of the biggest things that we want to reflect on if we have had a setback is, you know, not viewing it as something negative, but really what can we learn from that setback? Right? So when something happens, if we go off course, if we, you know, go off plan, don't be so hard on yourself, right? Really try to see if you can reflect on what the lesson was, right? Maybe, you know, you went to a birthday party and you, you know, ate something that was, quote-unquote, "off plan." try to think in terms of, like, how did that food— how did it make you feel, right? Did it maybe cause any sort of symptom, right? Did it maybe cause some bloating or heartburn, or maybe it caused some headaches, or maybe you felt really gross afterwards, right? Like, that's a learning experience, right? We can learn from how a certain food perhaps made us feel. Right, and really try to have more awareness with how certain things make you feel. Because ultimately, long term, you know, we want you to be able to build that self-trust, right? We want you to be able to course correct and be more self-aware, right? And that's why certain tools like the Oura Ring can be helpful for helping you build that self-trust and self-awareness in terms of how certain habits or patterns make you feel. For example, yesterday, like yesterday night, my, my husband went to hang out with a friend. And so it was myself and my son at home. And, you know, I really enjoy like, you know, playing games with him and, you know, just getting off screens, right? I feel like we're all on screens way too much. So we decided to, you know, not just sit there and watch TV, we Not saying that we don't ever do that, but yesterday we turned off the TV, we turned off all our screens, and we played a few card games. We played a game called Monopoly Deal. We played Dominoes, which is a game that's very near and dear to me. I used to play that with my grandfather a lot. And this morning when I woke up, my HRV was 143. So 143. Right. Which is like, you know, when you look at numerology, that's like, you know, some people say that like it stands for I love you. So I don't know, I just thought that that was like really not strange, but really cool how like, you know, something that I really like doing. I love spending time with him. I like connecting with him. We were off screen, so there was no blue light. And, you know, I had a great HRV this morning. Right. And it was a cool number that showed up as well. So just really interesting. And so, you know, really setbacks are an opportunity for us to build resilience. They are an opportunity for us to foster self-reflection. They will help with pushing us out of our comfort zone. They can help spark creativity, improve problem solving, help us reevaluate our goals, and help develop a growth mindset. right? So instead of looking at them negatively, those are all the ways that we can look at setbacks. So I'm gonna share like a little workbook with you all, and in this workbook, it's gonna have some of the things that I've just shared. In addition, it's gonna have like a self-reflection exercise for you just to help you reframe the setback as a learning opportunity. So if you ever in that are in that type of position, you can use this workbook with this self-reflection exercise to, to ask yourself certain questions, right, when it comes to the setback. So, you know, some of these questions can be, what can I learn from this challenge? How might this setback help me grow as a person? What can I adjust or refine as I move forward? Okay. So I'll share that with you all in the chat in just a second here. And then another thing that I wanted to kind of tie in is kind of like the exercise that we did this morning is just tapping into a mindfulness practice, right? I don't know how many of you here practice mindfulness or some form of meditation or self-reflection. But I feel like it's really important for us to, especially for long-term change, because the more we know ourselves, the more we build that self-compassion, the more we build that self-trust, the more we're going to be successful long-term with maintaining our progress that we achieve through the program. So really, you know, as we did in the beginning, is centering yourself, closing your eyes for a few minutes. You know, some people like to use certain apps, whether it's, you know, the one I really like is called Insight Timer. I know there's the Calm app, there's the Headspace app, there's a bunch of stuff on YouTube that you can search. And sometimes it can just be very simple in terms of what we did today, right? Closing your eyes and just paying attention to your inhale and exhale. Other tools that you can use are even the Oura Ring has like a You know, for those of you who have the Oura Ring, if you click the plus button in the bottom right-hand corner, you can log— it's called an unguided session. So if you're noticing like your daytime stress is really high, you can always, you know, use the Oura Ring app to do a little mindfulness practice. When you do your mindfulness practice, you can recite a positive affirmation if that helps. Right? Something like, I am resilient, I can overcome any obstacle. And you can repeat that affirmation a few times. I believe in myself, I trust my journey, I trust myself. Really, you know, installing a lot of those belief systems into our psyche is important. Okay, you can also do some sort of visualization exercise. So, you know, reflect back on all the positive things that have happened in your journey so far. Right? Maybe you have more energy. Maybe you're sleeping better. Maybe you've lost some weight. Whatever that positive shift that you've experienced through the program, reflect on that, right? And, you know, oftentimes just being human, we reflect a lot on the negative, but— and we don't take enough time to reflect on the positive things, right? So take some time to reflect on the positive things that are happening, not only with your health, but perhaps in your overall life. Okay, so those are a couple of things that you can do in terms of like mindfulness practice is either a visualization exercise, affirmation exercise, just focusing on your breath, whatever works for you. Okay, a couple other things is in the guide we do have You have like a little section for you to like, you know, do some exercises in terms of like journaling. So it's always good to, you know, come back to these exercises. You know, there's a section for you to do some positive affirmations, reflect on your why, right? One of the best ways to kind of reignite your motivation and get you back on track is remind yourself of why you set a goal in the first place, right? What are the deeper-rooted reasons you want to achieve it, right? So for many of us, it might be, "I want to lose, you know, 20 pounds." Well, why, right? Go deeper, right? There's always a deeper reason. Is it because it'll allow you to do more things? It will allow you to, you know, live longer? It'll allow you to have more energy, sleep better, right? Whatever those reasons are, right? You really want to go back to your why. And I would even recommend that you write your why out on a Post-it note, right? On a sticky note, put it in your bathroom mirror so you can see it every day. Maybe, you know, put it as your screensaver on your phone. Maybe have some positive affirmations as your screensaver. Whatever those things are, um, you know, uh, whatever your why is, whatever is going to help you, you know, cultivate that daily reminder, um, do that, right? Because it's really important for us to remember that. And then another thing that I would invite you to do is, um, if you haven't already done it, is I think it's like the third module in your Practice Better program modules. And let me just make sure I'm giving you the right information here and give you the exact name of the module. So it's Preparing Your Environment and Mindset for the Reset. It is the third module. There is something called an identity and paradigm exercise, and there's a YouTube video with it as well. It's, it's not a very long video, but I would highly, highly recommend that you do this identity and paradigm exercise. If you've already started your program and haven't done it, it's never too late. It's also a really great exercise to do even after you're done with the program, right? Because this is, this is the module here. So really taking some time to do this exercise. This is the, the, the video that goes along with it. And then there's a Google Doc that will help guide you through the exercise as well. And, you know, especially as you go through the program, at the end of the 6-week mark, you're going to be a different person, right? So that's a whole different identity. I know a few weeks ago, if you didn't attend that Q&A, Annalisa went through— what was the name of the topic? It was just about clothing and like, you know, revamping your closet, you know, especially for those of you who are, you know, losing weight on the program. Like, you don't really want to keep those just-in-case jeans, right? You want to get rid of those. We don't want to go back to that old identity, right? So I would invite you to watch that replay if you haven't already done so. It's a great one. But really, going back to doing this identity and paradigm exercise, if you haven't already done so, I would highly, highly recommend it. So with that, I am going to share the link for this document that you can refer to if you do experience a setback at any point along your journey. And it doesn't even have to just be on the program, right? Maybe it's a few months after you've completed the program, right? This is something that you can always come back to. So just really, really quickly, you know, start with self-compassion. If something like this does happen, look for the lesson. Remember your why. Celebrate your progress and then plan your next steps, right? Get back on track, right? It's, it's with your next meal, with your next, you know, whether you went to bed really late for a few days in a row, whatever that old habit may have been, just come back to what you've learned in the program. Come back to, you know, your daily practice, right, with your health. That's a really important part of the journey in terms of You know what? One of the things that we really wanna make sure that you take away is that you're learning lifestyle skills, right? When we teach you these skills, you have them lifelong, and you can come back to them at any time. Okay? So that's what I had for you today. I just noticed there's a little typo here on this. Form that I just sent to you all. So I'm just gonna update it because I did edit it. And if you have any questions, it doesn't have to just be about this topic, but whatever questions you have, we can open up the floor to questions. You can either unmute yourself or you can type them in the chat. Let me just go ahead and update this, and then We can move on to any questions. Give me one second. Okay, we have some questions coming in. So let's see here. Okay, when traveling during release phase, any best practices you can share others do? Okay, so when it comes to travel, a few things, right? Of course, Depends on where you're staying, right? If you're staying in a hotel, then it can be a little more challenging just because you're not going to have access to being able to make your own food. But I would definitely take your spray with you. I would also take your food scale with you. And if you are going to be in a hotel, then I would recommend visiting a grocery store. And getting some fruit. Usually most hotels, you know, will have like a little mini fridge so you can, you know, keep some fruit and vegetables on hand. But if you are going to be staying at a hotel, then of course, since you can't be cooking your food, you're, you're going to, you know, have to go out to eat. So the best, you know, the, the best recommendation I would give to you is the closer you can stick to the release phase plan, the better, right? It's obviously not going to be perfect because if you go to a restaurant, they're probably going to be cooking with oils. And, you know, you can maybe ask if they can cook without oils, but for the most part, it probably is going to be cooked with some oils. But just try your best to stick to, you know, the release phase plan as best as possible. You might have to eyeball For dessert, you might, you know, have to ask for fruit, you know, ask for maybe a salad with whatever protein you want. Madhukar, I know in your case you're vegetarian, so whether it's, you know, beans or tofu or tempeh, just try your best to stick to the release phase guidelines as best as you can. That's— and we do have some tips and some resources as well. We do have some stuff in the guide, so make sure you read that. If you're staying in like an Airbnb or, you know, one of those extended stay type of hotels that have like a little mini kitchen, it is a little bit easier because you can go to a grocery store and cook your own food as much as possible, right? I know, of course, if you're on— if you're traveling and on vacation, you're going to be out a lot of the time, so you may not have full control of all of your meals, but at least you can maybe cook a little bit. So refer, I would definitely say make sure you look at the guide so you can see some of the travel recommendations in there. And then I think we have, I think we have some stuff in the Facebook group too. And if we, you know, if I find something, then I'll tag you in it as well. We have a little on-the-go guide for meals, so I'll just take you in that. Okay, what other questions do you all have? Hey, Tanya, have you start— I was going to message you today. Have you started, uh, your program as of yet? I know we had chatted a little bit. Uh, I start tomorrow. Okay, awesome. Have you read the loading phase part of the, the manual? Okay. Any questions there? No, no, I've just got to make sure I'm all set up for that. So yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. So just make sure, you know, a few tips. And if anyone in the chat or anyone that's on here wants to offer some words of wisdom to Tanya for the loading phase. So the loading phase can can be one of the more challenging parts. Sometimes people are really like looking forward to it. But I would say, you know, for you, I would say you probably don't need to do more than like 3,500 to, you know, max 4,000. You definitely don't need to go to the 5,000 mark, but just go slow, graze throughout the day, start early. Someone, Randy, saying start early and remember that it's only 2 days. You know, make sure that you— if you haven't had any, like, gallbladder-related issues, then focus on higher fats because they're more calorically dense. And it is an opportunity for you to enjoy foods that, you know, you want to indulge in a little bit. Those foods are definitely going to get that calorie count a little higher, especially, you know, pizza, fries, all of that type of good stuff. So, you know, you can indulge in some of those foods as well on the loading days. There is also a clean loading, loading phase, like meal plan recommendation, which is going to get you about 3,600. So if you feel like that's something for you that might be easier for you to follow, then I would recommend referring to that meal plan because it's clean. You might not feel as gross after the loading phase. I mean, with that much food, no matter what you eat, for a lot of people, they feel kind of gross after. So it's good to do it when you know you can be home, when you know you can rest a little bit and consume that amount of food. And like Randy said, is take your time and start early. Okay. A few other questions have come into the chat. Okay, so Madhu says, when should we be drinking our pea protein shake since we're not supposed to drink liquids with our meals? Great question. So for vegetarians, one of the things that we recommend is that they include a scoop of pea protein with their meals. So typically it's gonna be with your meals and you only wanna mix it in about 4 to 6 ounces or 4 to 8 ounces. You can have up to 8 ounces of water of liquid with your meal, but I would say no more than that. So, you know, if you're having the pea protein with that 4 to 8 ounces of liquid, then that should be fine to have with your meal. So yeah, you definitely want to have it with the meal with that same sitting. Okay. Angela is saying, I was wondering about going gluten-free. What are people doing for grab-and-go things if you can't eat at home? Purchasing gluten-free bread or pasta or mostly choosing whole food alternatives, wondering if I'm making it more complicated than I need to as a person that isn't affected by celiac or not an acute tolerance to it. I just don't purchase gluten-free breads, not always as tasty or seems kind of overprocessed when I'd prefer to stick to whole food. So great question, Angela. Yeah, so, you know, when With gluten, this is a very nuanced topic. I would say, I would say most people that I encounter don't tolerate gluten very well. There is, of course, you know, some people that feel like they don't really have an issue with it. And so if you are going to choose like a bread, for example, and you feel like you don't have a gluten intolerance or gluten sensitivity, then I would say that like an organic whole wheat sourdough bread is probably the best option versus, you know, if you got like a gluten-free bread from Costco, I would say the organic whole wheat sourdough is probably way cleaner in terms of ingredients and probably once again, if you don't struggle with gluten, gluten intolerance, better for you. If you struggle with gluten intolerance, then of course, you know, you do want to perhaps look for like a gluten-free alternative. And, you know, some of the ones that are on the market are going to have a few of those quote-unquote not-so-great ingredients. Some of the gluten-free breads that I've come across, like I just started last Sunday, actually made my very first gluten-free sourdough bread, homemade from scratch. But some of the other brands I like— Aidan's, there's a brand called Promise. Once again, the ingredients are not perfect in the store-bought ones. That's why I'm trying to learn my own way of making bread. And then, you know, just really, like, if you're on the go, I know you're kind of asking about things on the go. So like, if you're out for the whole day, like some good snacks that you can, you know, have on hand if you feel like you're going to get get hungry is maybe some fruit, nuts, you know, hummus with vegetables if you tolerate legumes. You know, sometimes a little bar. Like, I'm not a huge bar fan because, once again, they can be really processed at times. But one thing that, you know, I've been buying a little bit for my son is a Midday Square. You know, those are a little better, I would say. But really trying to stay as whole food as possible. And if you guys have any other suggestions for snacks on the go, then please type those in the chat too. I would love to hear what you are trying. Yeah, but I agree with you, Angela, is like, you know, some of those gluten-free things, just because it's gluten-free doesn't mean it's healthy, right? A lot of them are very processed. So just be mindful of that as well. Okay, Madhu Kaur is giving Tanya some words of wisdom here. So things for me felt a tad overwhelming the first few days, and then the program just became a routine and part of my daily life and quite easy. So if you do feel overwhelmed at first, know that for others it gets a lot easier. Yes, correct. It's, you know, just getting things all set up, getting the groceries, is, you know, squared away. But then once you kind of find that flow and rhythm, it's— it just becomes a lot more effortless, effortless, I would say. And not saying that it's always easy, but for sure a lot more effortless. Okay, Randy's saying, what do you think about coffee enemas during the release phase? I think they're fine. You know, they're a good, good way to, quote unquote, detox. So yeah, you, if you do them weekly or, you know, monthly, then you can certainly continue with those on the release phase. That's not a problem. Okay, so great suggestion, Madhu. As you guys continue to grow and evolve, one thing that would be very helpful is glossary somewhere of ingredients we see on labels and what they are and what they mean. It's overwhelming and confusing to understand what we're buying. Yes, it's true. There's so many things out here. So general rules of thumb is when you're going grocery shopping, try your best to stay in the perimeter of the grocery store. When you go into the aisles, that's when you're going to see a lot of the more processed foods. And then secondly is, you know, of course, occasionally you are going to find, you know, buy foods. So So when we talk about processed foods, there's ultra-processed foods and then there's minimally processed foods, right? So ultra-processed food is something like a Dorito, right? Or like a Cheetos cheese puff. Like, it's so far removed from, like, its original state, right? Whereas something like oil, right? Cooking oil, that's minimal. It's still processed, right? Because you're extracting the oil from, you know, whether it's olives or avocados. It's still processed, but it's minimally processed, right? It's not as far gone from its original state, right? So you kind of want to distinguish between those two. So ultra-processed foods, I always recommend trying to stay away from. Minimally processed foods, of course, we're all going to have a little bit of those in our diet, right? And so when it comes to reading labels, One rule of thumb I always have is like, if I can't pronounce the ingredient or I don't know what the heck it is, I try to stay away from it. Right? So if it's like, I don't know, I don't even eat this kind of foods anymore, but let's just look at Doritos ingredients. See here. So monosodium glutamate, right? That's MSG. Um, has a whole bunch of food dyes— yellow 6, yellow 5, red 40, uh, disodium inosinate, disodium guanylate. Like, what is that, right? So, so like those type of foods, like, you know, the more, uh, You know, this is an example of an ultra-processed food, right? So in general, like, those type of foods, stay away from, and stay away from foods with, like, ingredients that you can't really recognize or you don't know what it is. Okay, Laura gave a great tip here. I find it's easiest to avoid them altogether. Once you get used to not having bread, pasta, you really don't miss it that much. Otherwise, generally, the gluten-free store-bought products in the freezer section are often less processed than those on the shelves. Yes, because, you know, they probably need some sort of refrigeration, otherwise they'd go moldy, right? And then like, you know, some alternatives, like, you know, if you did want to— I was, I was sharing this with a client just the other day, but like, if you did want to enjoy like a pizza, right, then you can do something like I was showing him this almond flour. Simple Mills is the brand. And You know, in the US there's way more options than there are here in Canada, but it's an almond flour baking mix. It's very simple. Like, you pretty much just have to add a little bit of water, oil, apple cider vinegar, and it's, you know, when you look at the ingredients, it's almond flour, arrowroot, flax meal, cauliflower, baking soda, organic oregano, cream of tartar, organic garlic. So very clean. Right? This is an example of a minimally processed food. Okay, if you are looking for a pasta alternative, there's something called skinny pasta. So this here is, you know, made from— I don't know, I never know how to say this— konjac, konjac, I don't know, konjac, konjac, shirataki. Noodles, so very minimally processed as well. Konjac powder, oat powder, water, calcium hydroxide, which is probably some sort of preservative, but it's low carb and a better alternative if you were having like a, you know, wanted to have some pasta. But you can also do zucchini noodles, right? You can do, you can you know, especially on the release phase, like you'll learn how to be more creative. Palm— heart of palm noodles are also an option. So, you know, those are some other options for some of those like carb type of foods. In Canada, we have a brand called Unbun. So for Unbun, like they have these Tortillas that are grain-free. So if you look at the ingredients, it's almond flour, pumpkin seed protein, coconut flour, psyllium husk, olive oil, coconut milk, ground chia, ground flax, apple cider vinegar, sea salt. So once again, like very clean ingredients and You know, this is kind of what you would consider a minimally processed food. Okay, they're grain-free and they have different— oh, I guess they sell them in the US too. Okay, so that's good. They, you know, they have different products here. So tortillas, they have— I've never tried their bread. So they have bread here. Once again, looks like pretty clean ingredients. They have, you know, pizza crust. So yeah, so just some alternatives that you can resort to when you're obviously in the maintenance phase. Okay, so bedtime teas. So, oh, thanks Laura for responding. So chamomile, lavender, valerian root generally. Yep, those are all good. Yogi Tea is a good brand. Yep, Traditional Medicines. That's the one I was gonna recommend as well. Yeah. So those, Laura gave a great answer there. Perfect. Yeah, those are all good bedtime teas to have if you want some relaxation. Okay, what other questions? Becca, are organic corn tortillas minimally processed and okay food on maintenance? So yep, those would be minimally processed as well. And for this food, it's really dependent on the person, right? I think a great tool that you can perhaps use to determine how you react to certain foods is a continuous blood glucose monitor. So the main concern with a lot of these starchier foods are like the breads, the pastas, the tortillas, is the blood sugar, right? So I know there's some hacks to help blunt the blood glucose response from foods like this. Not that you may never have them, but I always say, like, for foods like this, it's maybe a treat that you have once in a while, but, you know, something that you probably wouldn't want to have ongoing. So a continuous blood glucose monitor can measure what your response to certain food is going to be, right? So for some people, maybe they don't have as high of a glucose spike after they eat, you know, some of these types of foods, whereas for other people they may, right? I know Sakshin a few weeks ago talked a little bit about the genomic testing. And so the genomic testing is also really insightful because it's going to tell us how, you know, how you, from a genetic standpoint, are able to tolerate carbohydrates. Right? So some of us from a genetic standpoint are not going to be able to tolerate them as well, right? We're going to be more carb sensitive. So there's this marker here. I'll just share my screen on the Genomic Test. Carbohydrate sensitivity refers to how well an individual can metabolize and tolerate carbohydrates. Genes play a role in glucose metabolism and insulin sensitivity, impacting how the body responds to carbohydrate intake. So for this person, this is just a sample report. It says you are likely mildly sensitive to carbohydrates. Consider limiting your intake, especially simple carbohydrates. So a corn tortilla would be more like a simple carbohydrate, whereas something like beans or legumes or lentils are complex carbohydrates. Those are going to be much more better for you, right? Because they have a lot of fiber in them to offset the glucose response. Right. Some other tricks that you can use or, you know, tips that can help minimize the glucose spike from some of these foods are trying to eat the carbohydrate or the sugary food like towards the end of your meal. So eating the proteins and the vegetables first, right? The protein and the fiber can help stabilize the blood sugar. Going for a walk after your meal. Can help having a little bit of apple cider vinegar. So, or any, you know, I won't say any, but apple cider vinegar, let's just say about a tablespoon in about, you know, 4 ounces of water. Drink that before your meal. That can help blunt the glucose response as well. So, you know, these are some tools that you can use if you are going to have you know, food like that less frequently. So in terms of CGMs, so, yep. So in Canada we have the Freestyle Libre, which doesn't need a prescription. It's kind of the opposite. I always find like the US is way more lenient with certain things, but for blood glucose monitor, for whatever reason in Canada we can get them over the counter, but in the US you require a prescription. So there is this website, Becca, I know you live in the US. So there's this website here that you can maybe try to get it through without a prescription. I'll put it in the chat. I don't know if it requires a visit or not, but there's also certain you know, companies that, like Levels, for example. Levels, there's, I think it's called Stilo. There's like a few different companies that Levels, so you can get a CGM through Levels here. Let me just see. Find it. So you can get a CGM through them. But then I think, I think when you get it through a company like Levels, you have to get some sort of subscription, I think, because it gives some further insights. Yeah, it has AI-powered habit tracking. So I think it's like a monthly subscription type of thing. I usually will just recommend it for like 2 weeks just for you to get more awareness in terms of how certain foods impact you, right? And remember that blood glucose is not always about food, right? It can be if you mouth breathe, if you have a poor night's sleep, if you have a lot of stress. These are all factors that can contribute to elevated blood glucose. So, you know, just being mindful of that as well is that it's, you know, multifactorial and this is not always just food. Is sauna okay during the release? Yes, you can totally sauna, you know, especially as for those of you who are, you know, releasing weight while on the program, as you you know, let go of fat cells, they can release a lot of toxins. So sauna is a great way to get rid of those toxins. Laura, yeah, the Steelo blood glucose biosensor is an add-on available through Aura. Yes, exactly. So If you do live in the US, you can— the Steelo brand integrates with the Oura Ring app, so could give you a little more insight in terms of how certain foods are perhaps impacting your, your HRV and your daytime stress as well. Okay, well, we are at the top of the hour. Any other questions, comments? No? Okay, awesome. Well, I hope you found that insightful and have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and we will see you next Friday. Bye, everyone.