Weekly Living Light Metabolic Program Q & A July 21, 2023

Foreign. Friends. Happy Friday. How are you all doing? If you're able to, I'd love to see all your beautiful faces. Hi, Sheila. Hi, Ed. Hi, Annalisa. Hi, Beverly. Hi, Jen, Barb, Denise, Gail. Welcome, welcome. Hey, how's everyone doing? As we're tuning in here, let me know in the chat what you're grateful for today. What are you grateful for today? Jan says, everything okay? Friday is looking good. Who's excited for the weekend? Barb says, being taught a new posture in my Kigong class. Awesome. Ed says, got my energy back. Great. Nice to hear it. I'm thankful for my new vibrating massage eye mask. Oh, that sounds nice. Sounds very relaxing. Sheila says, having time with my eldest son. Awesome. Okay, so we'll start off with just a little bit of breathing and we're just going to keep it simple with six seconds on the inhale and six seconds on the exhale. Okay, so I'm gonna pull up my breathing app here so I can guide you guys. We'll do about three to five minutes and you can close your eyes if you wish, Play some nice music and then we'll get started. Let me share my sound. Give me a second. And then we'll also do our Q and A as always as well. Okay, so just get in a comfortable spot, get your feet on the ground, relax your shoulders, unclench your jaw, Relax your forehead. These are all areas that we carry tension sometimes. And we're going to start with an inhale pretty soon here. Just pay attention to your normal breath. And we're going to inhale. And exhale, Inhale. And exhale. Inhale. And exhale. In again. And exhale. Inhale, Exhale, Inhale, Exhale, Ex. Inhale. And exhale.

Inhale.

Exhale, Inhale, Exhale, Inhale, Exhale, Inhale, And exhale. Inhale. And exhale. And inhale. And exhale. And for the next minute here, I'm just gonna have you return to your normal breath. You can still stay with the 5 to sec. 6 second inhale and exhale. Focus on your breath. On the water. We pray for healing blessings on blessing. We pray for healing blessings on the river. They may flow in perfect harmony. And you're going to slowly bring your awareness back to the room. Open your eyes. If you had them closed, You can turn your cameras back on. Hey, how was that for everyone? You can type how you feel in the chat. And the ideal cadence for your breath is going to be around the five to six seconds on the inhale, five to six seconds on the exhale. Most of Us breathe too much. Okay. So when you have a moment, you know, if you're not on a call with clients, or if you're not, if you're doing something passive, then you know a great app to download. Download. I have a couple, but there's one called I Breathe. I'll put it in the chat. And it's good to just have in the background. It can, you can also have it ding. So that it reminds you when to inhale and exhale. And when we breathe in that five to six second cadence of inhale, exhale, that's when we're really activating our parasympathetic nervous system. So if you feel really stressed or overwhelmed, this cadence is really great for you to really activate that parasympathetic arm of the nervous system. Okay. Mandy says I joined in the middle, but it was nice to have a few minutes to just breathe. Yeah, exactly. Because a lot of us, it's something we take for granted. Right. And the reason why we have you do these breathing pack practices is because it really helps you to become more present. Right. Many of us are always thinking about the past or the future, all the things that we have to do. And breathing really helps us to ground ourselves in the present moment. When we're grounded in the present moment, we're in a more parasympathetic state. We're not as reactive, we're more responsive. We can make better decisions, better choices for ourselves, better choices for our health. So it doesn't take much. Right. Just a few minutes a day, ideally first thing in the morning, before bedtime, midday. But it's a practice for you to then implement in your day to day. Okay.

So.

Ed is asking, is it okay to inhale for eight seconds and exhale for 12 seconds? Yes. You can totally extend the exhale. When you extend the exhale, you activate that parasympathetic arm of the nervous system even more. There's different cadences. A normal breath should be about 5, 6 seconds. Inhale, exhale. But there's other breathing techniques that you can use for certain purposes. So extending the exhale can activate the parasympathetic even more. Okay, so I want to take a moment because Alice did a post yesterday in the Facebook group just asking people how much weight they've released to date on the program or maintained post program. And many of you responded to that post. And so I just wanted to really, you know, celebrate you all for putting in the work. Right. It's not always easy. And, you know, you've all, whether you're just starting out or whether you're midway through or on maintenance, like, you've all experienced some benefits. Right. So I really want to make sure I congratulate you all for all the hard work you've put in, for the results that you've gotten thus far on the program. And the key is, of course, really helping you with tools to help you maintain them. Right. Because, yes, the program can be challenging and it's work, but the maintenance is really what we want to have you adopt as a lifestyle. Hey, Jan says 16.5 and counting. Congratulations, Jan. That's amazing. Gail says 10 and counting. What day are you on, Gail? You can unmute.

You know what? I have to go back and count. Honestly, everything is so busy for me right now. We're trying to sell our house. There's just so much going on. I think I've been on. I think this is like second week, I think.

Okay, good. That's excellent. Really good. Day. 11.

11. That's even better. Less than two weeks. Thank you.

Congratulations. That's so amazing to hear.

And I feel better than I think I have in years. Like, and I. Except for last night, I've been sleeping better than I have, like, forever. And I sleep pretty much all night, which is, up till recently, was very rare for me.

Okay.

Because I had so much pain from my spinal problem, my discs and my stenosis and whatn that that I was. And I have osteoarthritis everywhere. But I mean, I was waking up. Like, we got a special bed and I would sit out here and I was. I mean, and I've been sleeping pretty much for about a. A week now, maybe more than a week. I've been sleeping. I go into bed. I sleep easier. I sleep almost, except for waking up to go to the bathroom maybe once. I sleep all night, I wake up. Fantastic. Last night, I think I just had too much going on in my head, you know? You can't shut it off.

Yeah.

Wish I could, but. But except for last night, it's been wonderful. So I'm a little bit. You know, I was up to like 3:30, I think so.

Oh, wow. Okay.

No, I just thinking about all kinds of. Not this.

Yeah. It seems like you have a lot going on. Right.

Things out and prior and, you know, get everything in the right order and it was just. Yeah. Anyway. No, but I mean, it's. I feel better than I have in years, to be honest. And I. I know a friend at the hospital had told me the. And I was like, really? And I Have to say she was. Yeah, you know, it was. I do. I feel amazing.

Okay, great. Excellent. I'm so happy to hear that. So, you know, there are periods of time when we may have a lot going on. Right. And sometimes, you know, the time that we start to ponder these things is right before bed because we're finally, like, we finally stopped doing things, and then our mind starts going right. Like, physically we've stopped, and then mentally our mind goes. So a good practice to have is I just keep, like, a little blank notebook beside my nightstand. And so before I go to bed, if there is a lot going on, like, I'm going to be leaving for a trip next week. And in my head, like, when I'm settling down in the evening, I'm like, okay, I have to remember to pack this and pack that. So I've just started, like, writing things down in my notebook. So then I'm not, like, going to bed thinking, like, I have to do this, this, this, this, this. Right. So just like a brain dump almost before you go to bed is super helpful to, you know, get those thoughts out, especially when you do have a lot going on. And then, as Ed said, like, a breathing practice can really help before bedtime just to kind of calm the mind down and stop it from spinning so much. So try a few of those things especially, you know, right now when you are in this busy period of your life, to kind of help you get to bed. Because sleep does play such an important role with your overall health and then also how you feel the next day. Of course, you feel more tired. When we don't sleep well, it can lead to more hunger and cravings. So really just making sure you're getting that good night's rest, at least minimum seven hours is what we want to aim for. Okay. Yeah. And Ed says left nostril breathing. So left nostril breathing activates the right side of the brain, which is going to be the side of the brain that kind of calms us down, whereas the other side, right nostril breathing, activates the left side of the brain, which is going to make us think a little more. Beverly says, when I have problems falling asleep, I count recite the days of the week, months in the year books of the Bible, pray Bible verses. I've learned. Yeah. So a lot of things we can do to kind of settle the mind. There's some great apps now as well that of course, you'd want to download. You know, you don't want to keep your wi fi or data on, but you can listen to, like a guided meditation. There's an app called Braintap, which is. Has been helpful for a lot of our clients as well. There's a lot of research around it, but basically there's different tracks. And let me just bring it up here. So the nice thing is there's different tracks and, you know, there's Brain Tap for weight loss, for example. There's Brain Tap for sleep. There's Brain Tap for anxiety. So there's different tracks that you can listen to to help with certain things that you might be struggling with. So something to look into. I'll put the link in the chat. Affirmations can be helpful as well. Yep. So Sheila says she does affirmations, so those can be helpful as well. Yeah, lots of different tools. So I'm glad everyone is kind of putting what works for them in the chat. Okay, this is the link for the brain tab. Okay. So Barb says sleep is the next goal. That pesky aura ring tells me things. Okay, so what specifically is it kind of giving you feedback on?

Well, my REM sleep is terrible. My deep sleep is terrible. Even though my restfulness score is fine. The REM and the deep sleep is terrible, and my latency is up and down.

Okay.

Deep sleep or what are shocking to me.

So basically, the restfulness is how much you toss and turn throughout the night and how much you're awake throughout the night as a result of that tossing and turning, the latency, depending on which spectrum. Right. It could be that you're falling asleep too fast or that you're taking too long to fall asleep. Okay, now for REM sleep and deep sleep, there are, you know, certain things that we can do to optimize them. Do you find? One thing to note if you do have the oura ring is looking at trends. So looking at how much REM sleep you were getting prior to starting the program versus how much you're getting now, I, you know, for most people, we see an increase. So it might still not be optimal, but you might have noticed an improvement. Same thing with deep sleep. So when you're in your app, what you can do is if you click on the three bars on the left hand side top. Sorry, on the top left hand corner, you can click on trends. And then when you go to sleep, you can click on REM sleep. And then you can see the weekly trend in terms of if you see the REM sleep increasing week by week since you've been wearing it. Okay. But in general, magnesium supplementation can really help with increasing rem sleep. I think you're taking some magnesium, if I'm not mistaken.

The calm, which is magnesium and calcium together.

Yes. Okay, so there's different forms of magnesium. Magnesium calm can definitely help. And then there's also magnesium three and eight that can be helpful. So magnesium three and eight crosses the blood brain barrier. Okay. I know obviously you're probably not doing this, especially after just finishing the program, but alcohol can really decrease REM sleep and deep sleep for people.

I don't drink ever.

Okay, that's what I thought. We gave you a lavender essential oil in your package, so if you have a diffuser, you could try diffusing the lavender essential oil. That really helps with calming you down before bedtime. Then another big thing with optimizing REM sleep is getting more light during the day. So first thing in the morning, getting outside for about five minutes. And then also, you know, if you can, midday is helpful, afternoon is helpful.

That's what surprised me because I was at the, at the lake for a couple of days. So I was pretty much outside all day.

Okay.

Active, that kind of stuff. And I, I thought I had a great sleep.

Okay.

Look at the mirroring. I'm like, oh my God.

Okay, okay. And then other things is, I know we talked a little bit about caffeine, but making sure you try to have your caffeine before 2pm, making sure that the room is cool wherever you're sleeping. So 60 to 68 Fahrenheit, then really making sure that you try to get to bed for around 10.

The ring tells me that my body temperature is optimal.

Yeah. So that's going to be your internal body temperature. But your sleep environment in terms of the room that you sleep in should be around 60 to 70 Fahrenheit.

Okay. Well, I don't have any air conditioning, so the open window and the fan, it is what it is.

Exactly. Open window and fan. Yep. Okay. And then for deep sleep, a couple things that can really help. So like I said, make sure you look at the trend because optimizing metabolic health can really improve deep sleep, which is obviously what you did with this program. Getting to bed earlier, getting more exercise, so, you know, going for at least a minimum of 20 minute walk each day. Having a sleep routine can really be helpful too. So an hour before bed, like maybe, you know, have a nice bath, maybe you read a little bit. But really having that relaxing evening routine can be helpful. Eating lots of fiber, which you've obviously done by being on the program. White noise for some people can be helpful. So it sounds like you have a fan on, which is some white noise. And then really making sure your room is dark. So an hour before bedtime, we really want to try to not just while we're sleeping, but even after sleep, we really want to make sure. Or even before sleep, we really want to make sure that once the sun goes down, that we're trying to minimize lighting as much as possible. So trying to put more lamps on versus having overhead lighting. Okay. And I know some of you are asking about links here, so Oura Ring, I'll put here. The topical magnesium magnesium oil can really be helpful. Mandy says it really worked wonders for her. And then there was the magnesium three and eight that we spoke about as well, which I can put a link here. And yes. So the topical magnesium. The magnesium oil, you put it at the bottom of your feet. Yep. So salt lamps can be very relaxing. Ideally, salt lamps are going to be a lot better than a regular bulb. But you can also, I recommend using red light bulbs, which is going to have absolutely no blue light. The salt lamp will still have a little bit of blue light. Of course, if you have a red light bulb that you put in the salt lamp, then that would work. But if you're not, then using a red light bulb can be really helpful as well. And that's more so an hour before bedtime, you want to use that red light bulb. Okay, so try a few of those tips. I know I kind of gave you a lot there, but start with a few things, right? One of the most important that I would say is really managing your lighting, right? So really making sure you're getting that morning sunlight, really making sure you're getting out during the day as much as possible. And then in the evening, really making sure that you are promoting darkness, because darkness is what's going to help you utilize melatonin for sleep. Okay, good. Barb, looks like you're optimizing your lighting in the evening. And then if you are on screens, is using the blue blockers. Okay, so it's our light bulbs plus, you know, if possible, avoiding screens an hour before bedtime at least. But if you have to be on a screen, then you want to make sure you're investing in a pair of blue blockers. Hey, what other questions do you all have? Yes, we like the Viva rays in your modules under the sleep section, there is a talk on lighting which I would highly recommend that you watch. It's very insightful. With the Viva rays, the ones that you would want to get specifically like, they have the three in ones. But I don't think that's. I don't think that's really necessary for everyone unless you're, you know, exposed to a lot of, like, LED lighting, especially if you work in an office environment. But the ones that I really recommend are the night sleepers. So it's one of these pairs here. They have a lot of different styles, but it would specifically be one of these here because. So if I click on this. Sorry. So this is a regular LED light bulb. And when you use the night sleeper lenses, it's as you can see, blocking all the green and blue. Right. So when you wear the night sleepers, you're getting a little bit of orange and yellow, perhaps from a screen or an LED bulb, but you're mostly just getting the red. Okay. So it takes out all the blue and the green. So blue and green you want to get during the day. So you don't want to wear these red glasses during the day, you want to wear them at night. And if you have glasses, then they do have an option for putting in your prescription. So you can get the lenses according to your prescription as well. Bon Charge is good, too. So either one of those would be acceptable. Bon Charge, if you wanted to order the red light bulbs from there, you can order the red light bulbs and the glasses all at once. So, you know, can save on shipping as well. So they have. Let me just pull up their website. I put the link for the Bon Charge ones there. Here. You would want to get these ones here. They're not as red as the Viva Rays, but they'll, you know, they'll still do a good job. So these ones are a little more orange, whereas the Viva rays is the difference between the. These ones. So this is red. And then Viva Rays also has an evening one. So the evening one is good during the winter, so as you can see, it's more orange. And then the daytime one is if you are exposed to a lot of LED lighting, like in an office setting with those, like, fluorescent panels that go in the ceiling, then you would probably want to wear these. And for your screen, when you are on screens during the day, what I recommend is downloading a software called Flux, which puts, like a little filter over your monitor. So like, right now, if you look at my monitor, the white is not like that bright white light. It's like, got a little bit of a yellowish tone to it, so it's softer on the eyes. So if you feel like you need all three, then they do have the clip and goes. You can get the two in one or the three in one. So it is a little more cost effective. Otherwise, if you feel like, you know, you don't need the yellow or orange, you can just get the red lens. So the daytime ones are going to be like, the lens looks like a little bit yellow. So as you can, you can't really tell here. Like when I put them on, maybe you can tell, but the lens is a little bit yellow. Okay. But like I said, the most cost effective thing is going to be just to avoid screens an hour before bedtime and use a red light bulb. And then you don't need the glasses. Okay.

But.

It'S nice to have a pair just because, you know, most of us at some point we may not be on a screen every single night, but whether we're watching a movie occasionally, like, we'll be on screens. Right. So it's nice to just have a pair just for those times when you do need it. Okay. What other questions do you all have? Ed says, I also have found avoiding food three hours before sleep. Yeah. So that's a huge one as well, is making sure we don't eat too close to bedtime. Because when we eat too close to bedtime, then our body is focused on digestion rather than on optimizing sleep. Yes. So on the Rempho app, you can look at trends. One thing to note with a lot of this, they're called BIA scales. Is like, they're not like a hundred percent accurate, but it is helpful to see the trends. So bone density is going down. So Beverly, how much is it down by? Because sometimes a trend, like the way the app is, like, if it's gone down 0.1%, it'll like show like this, a rapid decline and, you know, it's not actually reflective of just visually of what's actually happening. So you, you'll see, like I said, you want to look at the trends, but it's, you know, most likely. I have to go find my phone. Okay. So Gail says someone had mentioned to try magnesium flakes. So are those orally? Gail? I've never had tried those or used those before. There's magnesium powder, there's magnesium oil. You know, so it just depends on the form of magnesium and work what works best for you. So you can definitely give it a try.

Yeah, no, I was just. Yeah. Like, I wouldn't even know how to use it. Like, what would you. I. I personally had a chance, so I don't know.

Yeah, I would. I personally would probably recommend the capsules or the Oil to start with.

Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that sounds a little bit better, I think. Can I do both? Can I do the. Take a capsule and then do the oil on my feet as well?

Yep.

Or a bit too much overkill.

You can do both. Magnesium. Most people are deficient, so most people tolerate it really well. Magnesium citrate, if you take too much, can cause loose bowels. But magnesium glycinate, you know the magnesium oil. I believe it's magnesium chloride. You know, it's very hard to, like, overdose on it.

Okay.

Yep.

Thank you.

You're welcome. I don't know if you can. Nope. You can't see that? No, it actually looks like it's going down. Okay. But it says 6.2. 6.2. 6.2. So I really. If you just screenshot and send it to me, then I can take a look at it. Okay.

Yep.

And how do I send it? Oh, I guess I can put it on the. You can put it in the app is better. Yep, exactly. Yeah. So for people who don't like swallowing capsules, then the oil is a great option because obviously you don't have to swallow anything. Hey, what other questions do you all have? Barb was saying something about maintenance. Do you wanna unmute?

Yeah, well, I got into such a routine with the release phase of having the meals, like, all measured, prepared. But then if I have long days and I'm doing things, sometimes, you know, I want to grab for something, advise against snacks. So some, you know, I'm just trying to figure out. I'm just trying to figure it out, really. Just trying to.

Yeah.

My life again. Yeah.

Yeah. So great, great question. So, you know, there are going to be times like that where we feel like we need something that's more convenient. So keeping things really simple in times of. Of, you know, periods when you are, you know, more busy and need to just grab something, maybe you didn't prepare. Right. Sometimes there are times where we're not going to be prepared. Right. So I know we had kind of briefly talked about smoothies. Right. So a smoothie is a great option. Like, I did that just prior to this call. Here's my cup here. Because I, you know, I'm going to be here, going to one, and I didn't have breakfast this morning, so I was feeling hungry. I'm like, let me just do a quick smoothie. Right? So a smoothie is a great option. You know, other things depending on if you're vegetarian or not. Vegetarian is basically, you know, if you're vegetarian, then a protein Source could be, like, just opening up a can of chickpeas and maybe putting some salt and lemon on them. Right. As your protein source. And then, you know, having some vegetables with that and a little bit of fruit. Right. Or if you do eat protein, then you could do, like, a can of fish. Right. So just keeping things, like, simple and easy in times where you are not prepared.

So, for example, if you did that smoothie today.

Yep.

And is that. That's your lunch, or do you combine it with more of a. Some veggies later on? Or how do you.

Yep. So for me, like, right now, I'm doing three meals a day. I was doing fasting for a while, but because I am, like, a little bit more physically active, I'm doing three meals. So the smoothie is kind of like my late breakfast. And then after this call, I'll probably have, like, leftovers from yesterday. I made, like, a chickpea curry. So I'll probably have some of that with some veggies and a little bit of fruit.

And then you'll have another meal again.

Yeah. Add for dinner. Yeah.

And while we're on the topic of chickpeas, so I'm gonna try to make some homemade hummus.

Okay. Yes, I saw that you had posted that.

Yeah.

And I was reading about glyphate.

Glyphosate. Yep. So when it comes to any lentils or legumes, you always want to buy organic, because lentils, legumes, even your grains, like, many times they've been sprayed with glyphosate. So wheat, for example, is sprayed with glyphosate to increase yield. So sometimes people may not necessarily have an issue with the gluten. Right. Like, if they go to Italy, for example, they feel fine when they eat the gluten, whereas when they're here, they don't tolerate it well. And that's because they're. They don't use glyphosate. Right. So sometimes people have an issue with both. Many times it's both. But for some people, if they do feel like they do okay with gluten when they're in Europe, but not here, it's most likely due to the glyphosate. So buying organic, whether it's your beans, lentils, chickpeas, grains, is going to be important so that you avoid the glyphosate. So when I buy chickpeas, like, I'll. I do keep a few cans like, that are not lined with bpa, so you want to make sure it says BPA free. But then I Also keep just regular chickpeas, which I can cook in the instant pot as well.

So I was looking brands like Eden.

Something, even Eden Organics. It's probably the brand. Yep, that's a good brand because it has no BPA free lining.

Thank you.

You're welcome. Hey, what other questions do you all have? How's. For those of you who are on maintenance, how are you doing? Ed says, yeah, sure. How can we support you? Right. Because once again, we want it. We want this to be, you know, we want you to maintain the results. Right. So if you do feel like you're going off track, that's what we're here for. Right. Is to help kind of guide you back. Where do you feel. Let me unmute you. Where do you feel like you are struggling?

I don't really struggle. I just know I'm. I'm too smart for my own good. I know I can cheat every now and then, but if you look behind me in my. In my screen notice, there's a desk filled with all kinds of snacks.

Okay.

My table is filled with all kinds of snacks. That's because the rest of my family is not on this program, and they put all the snacks in this room to hide from themselves. So I'm tempted all day long to eat all this junk food that the rest of my family binges on every night. But I think I've only caved in twice in the last 10 weeks. So. Okay, I. I feel like I'm pretty disciplined. But what I do. What I did notice on the maintenance program, I think Beverly was just saying, or Barb was just saying, how it's hard to manage the meals. I noticed that I tend to go for high fat content foods. I don't. I'm not. I don't care. I don't have sugar cravings or that kind of thing, but seems like everything that I want to eat has a high fat content.

Can you give an example?

Oatmeal.

Okay.

But I make. I make the oatmeal with coconut milk and almond milk and walnuts.

Okay.

And so it's super high fat content. 10th. When I'm done making it, you know, it's probably 600 calories for a cup of oatmeal, and it's 70% fat. But what else? I made a dish the other day with hemp seeds, and I. You know, it was a nice alternative to rice, but then I realized there's a much higher fat content than rice as well. Oh, that's.

Do you feel like you tolerate the.

Fats well, yeah, I would say for the most part, I. Yeah, I would say I tolerate the fats. I haven't. I. Oh, and the other big miss is because I started with this was mixed nuts.

Okay.

A lot of mixed nuts. I would say a small serving for me is a half a cup.

Okay. So like anything, like, we want to make sure that we're having, you know, the right amount. Right. So if you do enjoy the fats, that's fine. Right. Some people, from a genetic standpoint, do better with fats than others. So you're probably someone who maybe you know intuitively, if you are gravitating to them, you probably do better with metabolizing fats. Some people, from a genetic, pre genetic standpoint have an association with having fat and then having weight gain. Right. But I know you've said that you're. You've been able to kind of maintain the weight loss plus or minus a few pounds, but, you know, it is quite taxing for your liver and gallbladder to metabolize all those fats and digest them. So I would still recommend, like.

And that's why I said confession time, because that's what I'm trying to cut down on.

Yes.

So that's why I say confession time. By the way, I also made a mistake, not unwittingly. I thought I was eating gluten free cereal that was left over from before with almond milk.

Okay.

And I ended up eating an entire box of gluten free cereal in one day. And then I discovered afterwards that it was not gluten free. And I noticed for a day or day and a half that I experienced muscle and joint pain.

Okay.

And so I, I noticed an adverse reaction. So I. And I've always had a feeling that I had a problem with gluten.

Yep.

So now I know for sure. Yes.

Yep. So gluten basically affects five main areas of the body. Right. Most people think it just affects the digestive system, but affects the digestive system, the joints. Right. As Ed experienced joint pain, it affects the thyroid, affects the brain, and it affects the skin. Right. So sometimes we eat gluten and we're like, oh, it didn't really cause me any digestive upset. But then you might notice you've got like a headache, but you might not make the correlation. Right. But the. Those are the five main areas that gluten affects. So if you are on maintenance, if you are trying to introduce gluten back in and you're experiencing, you know, any of those type of reactions related to those five main areas, then it's most likely due to the gluten.

Yeah. So I'm, I'm going to cut back on the fat, just especially since I'm going to do another release phase. So. But that's probably the two big things that I've noticed I can eat. I haven't been able to gain much if any muscle back in the maintenance, but I've been eating, I've noticed, I've been eating. My caloric intake is well below what my base metabolic rate is. So I think it's going to be difficult to gain muscle mass if I'm not eating enough.

Yeah. So basically like you want to, then if you are going to be adding in more intense exercise and wanting to put on muscle and going to be doing some resistance training, you're going to want to increase your protein in that case.

Yeah. Well, I already, it's funny you say that because I'm drinking coffee here. I was going to mention this, but I thought I'd. I have two cups of coffee with one scoop of protein powder and a little almond milk and it's vanilla flavored protein powder.

Okay.

So. And I have two of those. So that's 50 grams of protein in addition to the excessive protein that I'm eating with my meals. But I'm still, it's still not helping either with the protein content in my, on my scale or in building muscle.

Are you doing any resistance training?

Oh yeah. Oh yeah.

Okay, so if you are doing some resistance training like the new guidelines now, I think it's a lot, but it's approximately about a gram of protein per pound, not kilogram of, of ideal body weight, of. So not your actual body weight, but of ideal. So 50 grams is probably still not enough.

No, no. That's in addition to what I was normally eating, which was around 50 or 60, but my ideal body weight is, you know, probably around 175 pounds.

Yeah. So I think that, I personally think that's too much.

That's a lot of protein.

Yeah, yeah. So I, I would, I would strive for like around 0.8 grams of protein.

Let's see, when you convert that into calories, that's where I think my problem is. I'm used to now eating a thousand.

Calories a day even with all that fat.

Well, when I eat the fat, then it goes way up, but it might go up to 1500 calories, but it's still not close to my metabolic rate because I'm burning 1800 calories a day without doing anything.

So are you, are you tracking your food with, like, my fitness pal or.

No, with your. With the app. With the.

With the Practice Better app.

Yeah. But I also track my exercise, so my, My calorie intake is below my base metabolic rate. And then on top of that, I'm burning calories through the exercise. So I'm, I'm. I'm always deficient by anywhere from 300 to 1,000 calories a day. Yeah.

So I would play around with it, like maybe adding. So how many ounces of protein are you having?

Oh, probably eating, say, 10 to 12, plus the protein powder on top of that, plus the nuts.

So 10 to 12 ounces. 10 to 12 ounces total for the day.

Plus. Plus 50 grams of protein powder. Wow.

Okay. That's a lot. So. And, but that should be. That would add up to more calories then.

No, the protein powder is. It's like 120 calories. That's. It's not that much.

Well, six ounces of beef is about 425 calories. So if you're eating that twice a day, that's about 850.

It doesn't come up that high on my. On the app.

Yeah. I don't know how lean it is, so it depends on that as well. Depending on how lean it is too. Right.

Yeah, I get the lean sirloin just like you recommended. Well, I don't mean to bore everyone on the call with this, so I.

But play around with it a little bit. Right. Just to. In terms of the quantities. And then, you know, it takes time. Right. Like, yeah. You know, resistance training to see really good results is going to be like six to 12 months of consistency.

Yes. It's showing that I had five ounces of steak yesterday. In the app, it's showing 344 calories.

Yeah. So I would try. Try a different app, like Try Chronometer or MyFitnessPal.

Okay.

Because it might give you a little bit more options in terms of, like, you know, the amount of how lean the meat is or the fat percentage.

But I. You said something, and I think Ann has said this before as well. Like two days ago or yesterday I was at 200 and today I'm at 198. So in one day I could go down two pounds. And all I did it yesterday versus the day before is I went back to like, your. The normal meal on the re on the release phase, and two pounds come off overnight. So it seems like my body's fairly sensitive to the excess calories and the excess fat.

Yes, yes.

But I Don't seem to go beyond that 200 pound cap, which it was, which is great for me because it used to be 224, 227.

So.

But once I get to 200, I stop gaining weight.

Okay, so that's good. Yeah. And on this program, like for most people after the release phase, like the goal is that your body has established a new metabolic set point. So for most people, their weight is going to stay the same plus or minus two to three pounds as long as, you know, they don't go completely off the deep end and start eating like McDonald's every day. Yeah, but, and for some people on the maintenance phase, which is the four weeks after the release phase, people will still continue to lose a little bit of weight. That's sometimes the more uncommon scenario. But sometimes people will lose up to like, you know, 8 to 10 pounds on the maintenance phase as well. But for most people it's going to be around the same plus or minus two to three pounds. And then if you did want to lose more weight, you could do another round after that.

Someone asked on the question, where do you find your metabolic rate? It's on the Renfo app, bmr, it's called base metabolic rate. That tells you how many calories you're burning per day without any activity.

Renfo. And then like sometimes, you know, there's, you know, wearable technology like Garmin for example, which is going to take into, take your activity into account as well. So there's those wearables as well that can kind of give you some of that data too.

Yeah, so I've, I've, I've, I'm three weeks into the maintenance now, so I have. Today is the first day of the last week or I, no, I guess the second day of the last week now because, but anyway, I fluctuated a maximum of four plus or minus four pounds. I've, I haven't really gone down since I went on maintenance, but I've gone up as much as four and then back down and then back up and back down. But it's definitely a four pound range.

Yeah. Yeah.

So I think that's huge for anyone on the program, if you can. I went down more than 10% in body weight, 15% in body weight to fluctuate within a four pound range. It's great.

Yeah, for sure. So, you know, the results are sustainable as long as you stick to something similar to the release phase.

By the way, while we were on this program today, sorry, I'm probably oversharing, but I made my top 10 list of things I like about your program. Okay, program. And it actually turned out to be 11 things.

Okay.

But the intermittent fasting is huge. And the reasoning, and I'm just listing this out, but it's actually the reasoning behind all of them. And the meal plan while you're on the release phase and even on the maintenance phase, the reset spray, the parasympathetic, getting into the parasympathetic state, the breathing exercises, the avoiding fat detox concept, mushrooms, sleep, the body scale, body composition scale, the food scale. And I almost forgot the big one for me chewing because I never used to my food. But there's probably more. But I think they all come into play to make things work the way they work. And there's probably other things. But just sitting here listening to everyone talk and the questions I came up with 11. I think these are 11 big things. And there's probably more.

Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, if you could share that list with me, that would be great. I think you hit on spot. Hit all of the points. Pretty much like spot on, so.

Oh, I can add one more. I would highly recommend to everyone, and I know a lot of this stuff from prior things in my life, but I would highly recommend to everyone that they watch and go through all the modules. I still haven't finished all of them. I have four or five left. But even things that I thought I knew, I learned a lot from the videos. Yep, it's been very helpful. Knowing why you're doing it and why it works is very helpful.

Yeah, absolutely right. So does everyone here know how to access the modules? If you don't type me in the chat and I can walk you through it. Okay. So Jan, sorry, Sheila says there's one recipe where there was apple added to the meal. So most of the time you want to add the fruit at the end, but occasionally if you do put like some strawberries in your salad or apple in your salad, then that's okay. But as a general rule of thumb, majority of the time you want to have it at the end. Okay. So for those of you who are not familiar with how to access the program modules, I'm going to show you on desktop how to do it. So let me share my screen. So this is the URL to log in. So you're going to log in with the email that you signed up with us and then you're going to put in your password and hit sign in.

Hey, Deepa.

Yep.

I would recommend on that screen right there to. To save it. You know, hit your star button and save it. So you have a, you have a quick link to it and you don't lose it later on.

Yep, I'll share the link in the chat for you all if you don't have it. But basically when you log in you can add, you can do your journals from the desktop version as well. But you should see under my programs, that's where you should see your program. So when you click on this, you'll see all the information here that Ed was referring to. Okay. And they're going to be locked but as soon as you complete a module it will unlock the next one. So it's self paced but basically when you. Let's just say I'm for demonstration purposes. This one here is the program overview. So you have to mark it as complete, mark completed and then hit confirm. And then here you can see the next module is unlocked. So loading phase tip. See how it has a lock that's unlocked. So now I can go to that module. Okay. And then once that's done, once again you mark it as complete and then you can go on to the next module. Some of the modules are just written information and some of them are going to be, you know, like the program overview one, for example, there's a video. Okay. So there's some that's written only and some that are written plus video. Okay. So I'll share this link here so that you have easy access to be able to sign in.

I added number 13, blood work statistics and it's in one of those modules. That's a, that's huge. Because your doctor never tells you about that stuff.

Exactly. And like, you know, generally speaking like the normal ranges that show up on blood work are going to be comparing you to the average population which as you can see, you know, is not that healthy anymore. So the ranges that we've given you in that module are going to be the optimal ranges.

By the way, could I, could I share a story with everyone? I think this give you give everyone a little perspective on why I'm so gung ho.

Yeah.

So about five years ago I visited Living Proof to go on a Jared Siegler. Yep. I had long story, but I had met him, I was trying to sell him on a brain health product that my company made and he convinced me through his seminar that I should actually become a patient. It wasn't even a one on one thing, but the short version of that is I had been diagnosed and I would say misdiagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol for over 20 years because my father died from high blood pressure in his 30s. And so Jared gave me six different tests over a period of a couple weeks. And cross tabulated, I'm sure you're familiar with this depot, but cross tabulated all the results of the test. They have a binder that's over an inch thick with all the test results showing what was wrong with me and how it all linked together. And it was in an effort to find what the real underlying cause of my issues were. And it turns out I had an imbalance in my digestive system and is being aggravated by gluten and dairy, lactose intolerance and gluten intolerance. And he had me get off of those two things, lactose and gluten, for eight weeks while we ran this program. Not this program, but another Living Proof program. And after eight weeks, my cholesterol, my blood sugar, and my blood pressure are all down 40 points. And my other doctor that Jared works with on this stuff was able to take me from six medications down to three medications. And they were threatening to put me on a seventh medication for diabetes. And that never happened. And since that time, the medications that I remained on have been reduced. So I'm a big fan of Living Proof and what they're doing. And that's just for everyone else. Why? There's a lot more to Living Proof than just this program is what I'm trying to say.

Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. Awesome. Yeah, that's like most people don't want to be on medication. Right. So anytime we can reduce it or get rid of it. And the thing with medic medication is you. You go on one and then you experience a side effect, so they put you on another one. Right. It's like this.

Well, my, my other company, we made a brain health product. And by the way, he was giving a seminar on diet and brain health. That's how we got connected. But we made a brain health product that sold through doctors and pharmacies to counteract the negative side effects of prescription medications. And it turns out that 70% of the prescription medications have an adverse side effect that affects your negative affects brain health. And I was taking three of them, or at the time, six of them. So I was especially concerned because I knew the dangers. And so we were trying to fix the symptom with our product. And Living Proof was fixing the underlying costs.

Yeah.

So anyway, that's, that's how I met Garrett and Living Proof. And it's been a very, very good experience for Me.

Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing that. Yeah, it's. We, we've been so honored to have you part of this journey and share your experience and transform your life. Yeah.

Don't have all the way there, but we're getting close.

Yeah, we're getting real close. Awesome.

Okay.

Anyone else have any other questions? Comments? Thanks for sharing, Ed. We love you too. Yeah. That's why, like, I'm traditionally trained as a pharmacist and my license renewal is every March, and this March I decided not to renew my license because I'm getting people off medication and not on. And I'm like, I don't want to be under the scrutiny of the board because I'm not practicing traditional pharmacy. So I didn't renew my license this year.

I looked at buying a pharmacy company this morning and I thought, boy, that's counterintuitive.

Yeah.

I don't like anything that they do, but I'm thinking about buying them because they make so much money. Yeah.

And it's, you know, like, I was licensed as a pharmacist, but I was never. I mean, for how many years now? Like nine years. I haven't worked in an actual pharmacy because I just couldn't anymore because it just didn't align with my values anymore. So I kept my license, but I could not work in a traditional pharmacy setting anymore. So there's a time and a place. Like, I'm not gonna, you know, there's a time and a place for sure where we may need the, you know, the conventional system acutely, but it's really not set up for chronic health related issues. Right. Most chronic health related issues are due to poor lifestyle and nutrition. So that's. It takes work, of course. Right. It's not as easy as just popping a pill, but it's worth it in the end.

I think this has been the easiest program I've ever come across. Awesome.

I'm glad.

Far easier than anything I've ever done.

Yeah. And that's how we want to make you feel. Right. That with the guidance and the support, we want to make it easy for you. Right. It's. It's easier to live this way and have a healthy life and, you know, follow a healthy nutrition plan than to have a chronic health condition. Barb says, you make me want to cry. I love your commitment to your alignment. Thanks, Barb. Yeah. It's a team effort. Right. And Lisa, Alice, we have such a great team. So we love you all. We're glad you're all getting amazing benefits and transformations. Keep up the amazing work, everyone. Thanks so much for sharing, Ed. Yeah. And we love hearing stories like this, right? So if any of you ever want to share, we, we love, you know, it's inspiring. Right. To others, too. I'm sure many of you are inspired by what Ed shared, right? So I can talk and talk and talk, but hearing real stories from real people is what's going to keep you motivated and inspired. So we love hearing stories. So if you feel called to share your story, please, please feel free to do so on the coming Q&As. Okay, everyone. Well, I'll let you enjoy the rest of your Friday. For those of you who need to eat lunch, I'll let you eat lunch. Big hugs to to you all. Love you all.

Take care.

Take care, everyone. Bye.