Weekly Living Light MRP Q and A [Sept 15, 2023]

This is.

Good afternoon, friends. Happy Friday. So great to see you all today. It's been a little while since I've been on here. So great to see you here today. And as you're tuning in, let me know what you're grateful for in the chat. Beautiful sunny day here. Spring. Sorry, not spring. Fall is very. It's, it's, it's here. Like I, I'm sure the leaves are going to start changing color like any minute now. So it's a beautiful time of year. It's a great time of year for us to, as the trees do. Right. Let go. Let go of what's no longer serving us. Welcome, Beverly. Beverly says she's grateful for this program. Amazing. Thanks for sharing that. We have Elisa here. Lisa's new. Welcome, Elisa. Have Val here. Welcome, Val. And of course we have Alice and Annalisa. Welcome, welcome. So as you're tuning in, let me know what you're grateful for in the chat. So Val says, thankful it's not 100 degrees. Okay, so it looks like you're getting a bit of cooler weather. And I'm just going to put a reminder in our Facebook group as well that we've started. And I'm gonna make Alice co host just in case something happens. Welcome, Denise. Welcome, Ol.

So.

I did want to start with just a short little breathing exercise just to kind of reset our nervous systems because, you know, that is such an important part of this program is really learning how to regulate our nervous system and really making sure that we're, you know, trying to, if we're not already trying to really manage our perception of stress. Right. Because we all have stress these days, Right. And some of us manage that better than others. And a lot of that has to do with our upbringing, Right? So from the ages of 0 to 8 is when we learn how to respond to stress. Right. And what you may notice as you get older and older and older is that, wow, I sound a lot like my mom or I sound a lot like my dad. And that's because that's who we emulate in terms of how we respond to certain situations. And the key thing that we want to make sure is that are we being reactive or are we being responsive? Right. So when we're stressed, it can be really easy for us to be reactive and to, you know, get triggered or snap at our family members. But what we really want to learn to do is be more responsive. And so breathing exercises or mindfulness or meditation, whatever you want to call it, really helps us practice that skill. Right. It Helps us practice the skill of being able to take a pause, being able to be more responsive rather than reactive. Okay. And it doesn't really need a lot of time, right? Of course, the more you do, the better. But even three minutes a day, five minutes a day, 10 minutes a day, whatever you have time for is beneficial. Okay. For me, I like to do it first thing in the morning because I feel like once my day gets started, it's harder to take a pause. So you can do it first thing in the morning, you can do it before you go to bed, you can do it during your lunch break. It's a great, you know, practice to even implement before you eat, especially if you feel like you're always eating on the go and always eating in a more stressed out state. It's a great practice to implement before meals as well, to really help get you into that parasympathetic state so that you digest your food better. Okay. So I'm just going to play something off of YouTube today. So the nice thing about YouTube is that you can find anything on YouTube, right? So I literally just put three minute meditation and there's like, you know, hundreds of search results that have come up. And I think I'm going to do a body scan meditation. Because one of the things that many of you also acknowledge through going through this program is you have more awareness around your body, right? Around what you're feeling. Right. And how you're feeling. And you know, what, you know, just a simple example is what foods make you feel? How foods, certain foods make you feel. Right? Once you're done the program and you, let's say you wanted to introduce gluten back. Well, how does that make you feel? How does it make your body feel? Do some of your symptoms come back? Right? So really helping you increase your awareness around your body. Because most of us are so disconnected from that, right? Some of us, we ask, like, how does this make you feel or that make you feel? And you don't know. Right. And it's not your fault because you've never really been taught to tune into that. Okay, so give me a second and I am going to share my audio so that you can hear the meditation. And, you know, if you're driving, of course, don't do this, but you could listen. But if you're at home, then, you know, just find a comfortable seat and you can close your eyes. I find that closing your eyes really helps to. Helps you to focus on your breath, whereas if you have your eyes open, there's a lot More stimulus around you, right. So it's harder to focus. So give me a second and let me share the computer audio. And Alice, once I start playing it, if you can just give me a thumbs up in terms of whether or not you can hear, that would be great.

Hi.

What we're going to do now is we're going to practice a body scan. This is a brief body scan between three and five minutes. So you can practice it sitting in your house or if you want to do this before you go to sleep, you can practice it lying down. So begin. We're going to bring our attention to our body. You can close your eyes if that's more comfortable for you. And let's just take a couple of those deep breaths we talked about. So in through the nose, out through.

The mouth.

And begin to notice your body, seated or lying down, feeling the weight of your body on the chair, on the floor, on your bed. And again, take a few deep breaths. And as you take a deep breath, bring in more oxygen, livening the body. And as you exhale, have a sense of relaxing more deeply. Notice your feet, where they're touching the floor or the surface. Notice any sensation in your feet. Notice the weight and the pressure, any vibration they feel hot or cold. Notice your legs against the surface. Again, feeling the pressure of your legs, feeling that they're heavy. Feel if you have any tension. Now notice your back against this chair or against the bed. Again, feeling heaviness. Noticing tension. And bring your attention to your stomach area. Notice as it rises, when you inhale and lowers as you exhale. And again take a couple breaths. Notice your hands, are they tense? Are they tight? Can you allow them to soften? Notice your arms, wherever they're touching, wherever they're lying. Feel your shoulders, see if you can soften them, let them sink to the ground. Notice your neck, your throat, soften your jaw. Let your face, your facial muscles, nice and soft. Now sense your whole body, from your head to your toes. Take one more breath. Notice that whole body sinking down. Keep breathing. When you're ready, you can open your eyes and come back into the room and notice if there's any changes or any different ways that your body feels.

Okay. So that was three minutes. I went by pretty quickly, so there's no excuses. How did everyone feel after that type in the chat? If you, you know, felt like you were maybe tensing up your shoulders or your face or your jaw, right? When you bring awareness to it, then you can really relax all those areas of the body where we hold so much Tension, right? A, there's a, there, there's a quote where you know, it's your issues are in your tissues, right? So a lot of the times we hold stress in these parts of the body, right. And this is something that you can do at any time, right. If you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed, you don't necessarily have to close your eyes, but you can just take 10 mindful breaths, right. Inhale and exhale, right. A lot of people saying they feel more relaxed, right? And you have to find what works for you, right. For Beverly, I know she doesn't like the ones with like annoying music in the back background. Some people prefer silence, right? Silent quote unquote meditation. So it just depends on what works for you and what helps you get into that relaxed state. Some people have a hard time sitting in one spot. So do a walking meditation, okay? So try to find something that works for you. And the key is consistency, right? With anything in life is consistency, right. Even with this program, to maintain the results, we require consistency, right. And sometimes there'll be some ups and downs, but as long as we have a consistent practice that we can come back to, that's what's going to give us the long term results. Okay?

So.

I guess with this theme of regulating our nervous system, that is something that I just wanted to briefly touch on today. And then of course we will definitely open it up to Q A as always. You know, there's some newer faces here, there's some, you know, some of you who are midway through, some of you who are on your second round or perhaps third round. So everyone's welcome here. Okay, so let me just share my screen and oh, one thing before I do that, before I go into nervous system is I just wanted to briefly, I always like to just review with everyone. The modules that you have access to because sometimes we forget about all the amazing information that is at your fingertips with this program and highly, highly encourage you all to go through the modules. So when you log into your Practice Better account, you can log in, you can download the mobile app or you can log in through your desktop, through this, through the website here and I'll put this link in the chat, but you just put your username, which is the email that you have registered with us and the password that you've used. If you've forgotten your password for any reason, then make sure that you just hit reset and you can reset your password. Okay? So when you log in, this is what it's going to look like for you. So for those of you who may be new, you definitely want to make sure you, you know, enter your journals on a daily basis. Okay. So that helps us stay in touch with you and provide you with the right guidance and support. Okay. It's very simple. You can do a free form entry so you don't have to make it super complicated. Just let us know what you're eating, how much water you're drinking, whether you had a daily bowel movement.

The.

Those are like the key things that we need to know, right? And your sleep. Okay? So keep it pretty simple. You can just hit add here and you'll be able to add your food and mood, your lifestyle journey journal and your water intake. Okay. And then you will also be assigned a program. So this is obviously my program pro, my fake patient profile, just for demonstration purposes. But you'll probably see one program here and so you'll want to click on that. And once you click on that, you'll be able to see all the different modules that are available to you in terms of all the information that is available to you. Right. So it's. These modules are self paced, which means that once you click on one of the modules, you can go through the information. A lot of them are text only. Some of them have a little video. Like this one has a little video. So you can play the video and then you can mark it as complete. Once you mark it as complete, then the next module is going to be unlocked for you. Okay. So same thing here. You know how to get support you, you know, it's just little information here. There's some clickable links here, right. The weekly zoom is here. The Facebook group, if you're not already joined, is here. So make sure that you go through all of these because there's some great information that's shared with you. Okay. So once again you can download the mobile app. The mobile app is if you just search practice better then you'll be able to locate it. This is the logo there for it. If you're looking for it on your app store. The two half circles, the green half circles, that one right there. Okay. Or you could like I said, log in from your desktop. Okay. So make sure you do the journals and go through the program modules. Okay. So any questions about that? Anyone have any questions about accessing the modules or inputting your journals in the app? No? Okay. And you know the journals, we usually recommend that you start them once you start your program. So once you start your loading days, that's when you'll want to start your journals. So that Way we know when you've gotten started, okay? So in terms of regulating the nervous system, you know, that's what we started off with today, is just doing some body scan and some breathing just to bring more awareness. Because most of us are primarily in fight or flight, which means that. Let me just share my screen here. Which means that, you know, acutely, it's okay to. Obviously, we want to our body to go into fight or flight if we are faced with a really stressful situation, right? So an extreme example is if a lion walked into this room. I would want my body to go into fight or flight because fight or flight is what's going to help me get out of the room, right? So when we're in fight or flight, our pupils dilate because we need more information, right. To get out of that situation. Our saliva production stops because eating, you know, a meal is not important when a lion's chasing you. Right. Our bronchi, which is our respiratory part of our respiratory system, dilates as well because we need to get more oxygen in, okay? Our heart rate accelerates because we need the blood to start pumping to get more oxygen delivered to our hands and our feet so we can run away, okay? We stimulate glucose release from the liver because we need sugar as an energy source to run away from the lion as well, okay? And then we also inhibit digestive function. So stomach, pancreas, and intestine, all of that is stopped because once again, eating a meal when a lion's chasing you is not important, okay? Usually our bladder will empty and then inhibit urination thereafter, okay? And then also our reproductive function shuts down, okay? So as you can see temporarily this is okay. But if this was a chronic state that we were in, it probably would not be a good idea, right? So you all probably know someone or you may even be that person where in a. On a really bright sunny day, you need sunglasses, right? And that's because you're probably chronically in fight or flight, where your pupils are chronically dilated. So it's so bright outside for you that you need sunglasses all the time, right? Or someone who has a dry mouth all the time, or someone who has urinary incontinence or someone who has high blood sugars or high blood pressure, right? So a lot of these adaptations that occur, which are meant to occur acutely, once they occur chronically, then that's not okay. So the goal is for us to shift more into the parasympathetic state and reserve the sympathetic state just for those acute scenarios, okay? So As I have mentioned, the rest, the nervous, the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for rest, digest. It's where our body repairs and regenerates and heals. It's where inflammation is going to be lowered. It's where we, you know, we'll be able to lose weight more effortlessly, where we feel more calm, relaxed and happy, okay? Whereas the fight or flight is where we, you know, may experience some worry, anxiety or anger, or always feel like we're in this stressed out state, especially when it occurs chronically.

Okay?

So in order for us to heal, as I said, we have to predominantly be in the parasympathetic state. Okay? So when we are in fight or flight long term, chronically, then a lot of these things, as I mentioned, may start to occur, okay? Weight gain around the midsection, low thyroid function, poor detox, poor digestive function, poor immune system function. You know, for some people, like, infertility these days is very common because there's so many people that are chronically stressed out. Okay? Whereas in parasympathetic, you know, everything works optimally, right? Detoxification, immune system, right. So if you're someone who gets sick all the time, it could be because you're always in a stressed out state. Okay? Hormones function better, we sleep better, and our body just functions better. So one way to really activate your parasympathetic arm of your nervous system is to activate something called the vagus nerve. Has anyone heard of the vagus nerve? Okay, some of you. So the vagus nerve is the largest nerve in the body. And it runs from the back of our brainstem all the way in through our abdominal, abdominal organs. And one of the easiest ways to activate the nervous system is kind of what we did in the beginning, right? Is through having more prolonged breaths, right? So at least five seconds on the inhale and five seconds on the exhale, okay? Humming can really activate the vagus nerve. Singing out loud for those of you who want to try out cold showers. Okay? So gargling is another one. We've maybe talked to some of you about gargling. So when you're brushing your teeth in the morning, you can take a glass of water and just gargle vigorously to the point that you tear, okay? Gargling vigorously can really help stimulate the vagus nerve as well. And the benefit of stimulating the vagus nerve is not only going to shift your nervous system into more of a parasympathetic state, but stimulating the vagus nerve, for those of you who struggle with constipation, can really help with that as well. Because when we stimulate the vagus nerve, we're stimulating the. The colon and the small intestine, large intestine. So we're increasing bowel contractility, which is going to help with constipation. Okay. Other things that you can do to shift into a parasympathetic state is go for a walk in nature. Right? On this program, we don't really want you doing any intense exercise. Okay. At least 20 to 30 minutes of walking outside is going to be helpful from a movement perspective. Right. But then also really helping you shift into that parasympathetic state. Okay. Do something you enjoy, whether it's gardening or sewing or reading a book. If you feel tired and you're able to take a little nap, right? That's what a lot of European countries do.

Right?

A lot of stores. We were in Italy this past summer and a lot of stores are closed from like 2 to 5, right. Because people are napping or prioritizing the rest. Okay. Journal journaling can be super helpful as well, Especially as you embark on this journey. Right. Really documenting how you feel, what's triggering you. Right. If you learn how, like learn your patterns, right. If you're having a stressed out day, do you feel like reaching for that bag of chips or that chocolate? Right. So then when you journal, you can really work through this. I think Alice was telling me about someone who's really been journaling recently and finding a lot of insights into learning about themselves and what triggers them and when they, you know, feel like they want to reach for. For something unhealthy. Right. But if we're able to journal about it and process it, then we may not need to reach for that food. Okay. Breath work, super important as well. We have a whole module on breath work, so highly, highly recommend you listen to that. Okay. There are some really helpful breathing techniques that I would encourage you all to try out. And we will practice some of these, you know, on the Friday Q&As. So box breathing, I know we've done many times, but we will, you know, do these. We kind of rotate. So box breathing is a great one. So this is when you inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, and then hold on the exhale for four seconds. And you just keep repeating that. 4, 4, 4, 4, 4. Okay. The 448 breathing technique is when you. When you breathe in for four seconds, breathe out for four seconds and hold on the exhale for eight seconds. When we hold on the exhale and when we extend the exhale, then we really activate the parasympathetic as well. Okay. Another thing that we highly, highly encourage you to do if you aren't already doing so, is pay attention to how you breathe. And if you feel like you breathe from your mouth, then you want to shift that to breathing from your nose. Okay. When you breathe from your mouth, you're activating the sympathetic, the fight or flight. But when you breathe through your nose, you're activating the parasympathetic. And then the placement of your tongue is super important as well. So making sure that you gently place your tongue at the roof of your mouth, right behind your two front teeth is where your tongue should rest when you're not talking or eating. So the tongue should not touch the teeth. It should just rest right behind the teeth and then tongue at the roof of the mouth. Okay. Another thing I've talked about this before is the same technique to help you with emotional stress, also known as the ring technique. So the S stands for stop or recognize. A is allow the emotion. No judgment, no right or wrong. I is investigate where the emotion is in the body. Right. That's why we had you kind of do the body scan too. Right. Sometimes when we get stressed out, for some people, you know, they might get a headache or an upset stomach, tight throat, you know, maybe some tension in the upper traps. And then N is non identify. Watch the emotion happening, but don't become it. Okay. So really trying to be that observer. Okay. Other tips is trying to stay in the present moment as much as we can. Right. Because usually when we're thinking about the past, we might, you know, feel for some of us, if we're focusing on negative things, then we might feel depressed. And if we're thinking too much about the future, we feel anxious. Right. So when we're, when we're in the present moment, that's when we can really focus on what's going on. And that's when we have the most balanced nervous system as well. Hey, do a brain dump. Write down your thoughts and feelings. This is a great thing to do right before you go to bed. Right. Especially for those of you who carry a whole list of things that you need to do to bed and then you have trouble falling asleep. Okay. And then just releasing some of the stress. Right. So we're kind of the only mammals in nature that don't physically release stress. Okay. So a gazelle, after it's chased by a lion, a gazelle in the wild, if it survives, it will like Shake and like, you know, really physically move to move that stress of being chased from the lion. But what do we do as humans? We contract. Right. So really moving your body can help move stress. Right. Whether it's dancing or yoga, whatever that is for you, going for a walk, riding your bike. Another thing I like to talk about is the 5, 5, 5, 55 rule. I think I said that five times. But basically, if something stressful happens, just helping you put it in perspective. Right. Are you going to remember what happened five minutes from when it happened? Right. If you got in an argument with your kids or something? Okay, Maybe you might. Five minutes from when it happened. What about five hours from when it happened? So a lot of these little things. Probably not. What about five days? What about five months? What about five years? Right. So a lot of the day to day stress that we carry by the time the five hour or five day mark comes around, like we probably won't even remember it. Okay. Spend time in the sun, connect with nature. In the evening, dim the lighting. Right. A lot of us have like really stimulating lighting at night, which is just not setting. It's not setting us up for a good night's sleep. Right. So really dimming the lighting is going to be helpful as well. Okay. So I will open it up for questions. If you do have a question, you can type it in the chat or you can raise your hand and I'm happy to unmute you. Okay, so Audra is asking, how many rounds does it typically take to achieve insulin sensitivity? I've had to return to using insulin during maintenance and beyond. Okay, so I'm going to unmute you, Audra.

There we go.

Okay, awesome. So how long have you been using insulin for?

2 weeks. Well, before the program or.

Yeah.

Since March.

Okay, so you just recently got put on it?

Yeah.

Okay. And then on the release phase, you were able to kind of eliminate it?

Yes.

Okay. And then when you went on maintenance, what, like, what foods did you feel like, I guess triggered you to have to use it again?

Reintroducing fat and soluble fiber.

Fat. Huh? Wow.

Yeah. My triglycerides, my, my triglycerides never went to normal, so my cells are still bathed in fat and insulin is not working. My own insulin wasn't enough.

So when did you do your blood work? Did you do it shortly after the release phase?

Yes, I did. And my, my low class and the low inflammatory cholesterol is dangerously high.

Okay. So a lot of the times when it comes to measuring blood work, after doing the program, you really want to give it at least three months. Because sometimes if you measure it too close to finishing the release phase, it could sometimes show like a. It's called like, you know, for cholesterol, for example, like rebound. Rebound cholesterolemia, hypercholesteremia. So sometimes things go a little higher than when they may have been at baseline before they come down. So I would wait until you're kind of at the three month mark. In terms of insulin sensitivity, like, it depends on the person, depends how much weight they have to lose, depends how insulin resistant they are. Did you ever get your insulin tested on blood work, fasting insulin?

No, they just did. C peptide.

Okay. So fasting insulin would be probably a good baseline for you to get just to, you know, see where you're at with that marker. But typically, you know, for some people it can take three months, six months, for some people, a year. But you will if. Are you doing another round?

I'm going to. There's some medical procedures I have to get through first before I can start another round.

Okay. So I think that if you do another round, especially if you feel like you have more weight to release, I would probably do the blood work after that round round is completed. After that, 10 weeks is completed to see where you're at. Yeah, yeah.

It's my doctors that are ordering these mostly, and my cardiologist wants to increase my cholesterol medicine. I'm like, no, wait a minute. This is probably just temporary.

Yes, yeah, exactly. It, it, especially if you had it done a really close to finishing the release phase, it's not going to be accurate.

Okay.

Yeah. So I would wait a little, A little longer.

Do you happen to know what causes that? Is it just stress from.

It's probably just a variety of different things. Like when you change your diet, you're liberating a lot of like, you know, fat and cholesterol and glucose into the bloodstream because you're really optimizing liver health. So it, it temporarily does increase, but then as things stabilize, it'll decrease.

Okay.

Okay.

Roz is asking, how many breaks do you advise taking from screens in a working day? Great question. So if possible, I would recommend trying to take a break at least every hour. And, you know, especially your eyes sometimes need that break. Right. Because when we're in front of the screen, like, the distance that we're looking at is like, very short. And in a natural environment, we don't look at things that are so close to us for that extended period of, of a time. Of time. Right. So really looking into the distance and looking at nature and getting out in, in this, in the sun, if possible, as much as possible is going to be beneficial. And a good, a good way to kind of get your butt out of the seat sometimes, because sometimes it's hard, right, Is you can put reminders in your phone to get up every so often, drink a lot of water. Because when you drink a lot of water, you're going to have to get up every hour or two to use the bathroom. Okay. So a lot of little tips that you can do to kind of get your, get you out right. And does have to be a long break, right? Because sometimes we're like, you know, I have so much work to do, I can't take a break. But even just, you know, couple minutes can be beneficial. But it's better than nothing. Hey, what other questions comments do you have? Ed, go ahead and unmute.

I just want to let you know I had my, I went back and had that blood test done, redone for the kidneys today. So I won't have the results, but I was thinking about that, my results when Audra was asking her question because I think years ago when I did this, my readings were lower when I started and they improved. And then this time around they improved a lot more than last time, but I started at a much worse off place. So I think it matters. You know, everyone's different, obviously, but I think it matters. But you know, just for her benefit, my blood Sugar started, my A1C started out at 10.3 and went down to 6.6 and my glucose went from 235 down to 98. So. I, I really think it depends. And the last time I did it, I didn't start off nearly that bad to begin with. And I down into my A1C last time around I started out at like 7.8 and it went down to 5.6. So I think it really, it really depends. But, and there's a lot of other things that go into this. But I, I like your explanation of the rebound because I've also noticed that, you know, prior to the program, I could eat just about any kind of food and I had no reaction, or at least I didn't know I had a reaction probably because I had inflammation everywhere and it couldn't get it much worse. But after the program, I was sensitive to a lot of things and especially to fat. When I tried to do the second round of loading and I ate those 5,000 to 5,000 loading days, I used a lot of fat to get to 5,000. And my body really did not like that. So on this, on this maintenance round, I've been very careful about adding fats because of that. So I don't know, for what it's worth, but.

Thank you. Yeah, thanks so much for sharing your insights. And, you know, too much of anything is not good. Right. So, you know, and the key with the maintenance part is, you know, trying to stick to something similar to the release phase. Right. For those of you who are insulin resistant, like maintaining the fasting, that's going to be really helpful with improving insulin sensitivity. You know, grains, for a lot of people who are insulin resistant is going to be problematic. So really sticking to, you know, the high fiber with the vegetables, the fruit, you know, the little amount of protein and then adding an appropriate amount of fat. Right. So typically like 1 to 2 tablespoons per per serve per meal is going to be more than enough. Okay. And really trying to, Audra, for you perhaps keep a journal in terms of your blood sugars and just how you feel. Right. So let's say you introduce. I'm just gonna, you know, make something up here like rice back. Right. Measure your blood sugars two hours after, see where they're at. Right. Are they still high? Does it really spike your blood sugars? Like, a good thing for those of you who have blood sugar regulation issues or diabetes is to wear a continuous blood glucose monitor, because that is gonna be much easier for you to see the trends so you don't have to keep pricking yourself every, you know, couple of hours. Okay. And if you do have a. In the US if you have a diagnosis of diabetes or blood sugar dysregulation, then you can get one as a prescription. In Canada, you can buy one, you can get it as prescription, of course, and have it covered by your insurance. But in Canada, you can buy CGMs on online. They don't require prescription. Okay. What other questions do you all have? Questions, comments? Who's had blood work done before and after? I know. Ed. Has anyone else? Did anyone else get any baseline blood work and. Okay, good. Beverly did. Excellent. Any improvements? Beverly and blood work?

Actually, it was just my A1C that I checked.

Okay.

My insurance provided me with an at home A1C test, so it had gone.

Down.

From 6.4 to 6.2 in the first month of the program.

Yeah, that's too early.

Yeah, that's too early because.

I know, I know it is, but it was exciting in any case, so.

And yeah, yeah, because A1C is your average blood glucose over the last three months. So, you know, if you take it a month into the program, it's still going to be reflective of two months prior to the.

Well, yeah, my A1C, I had. Actually, the one that my doctor had ordered was my annual blood check, and that was probably about six months before I started the program.

Okay.

I don't know what she just said, but it reminded me of something deeper. There's a. There was a study done in England where they had participants limit their calorie intake to 500 calories a day for eight weeks.

Okay.

Which is crazy. But it was in an effort to get rid of 1 gram of fat in the pancreas. And the way. Because you're just like you. You know, on this program, your visceral fat goes with your other. And so they were trying to get rid of enough fat in a short period of time to get rid of that 1 gram of fat that seemed to be blocking insulin release. And by doing so, they almost had a hundred percent success rate of reversing diabetes. But I think a lot of the reasons why I like this program is that you have a much more moderate way of approaching that, and you get the same results. But so I. In the chat, I asked what were your levels before and after? And that's where I was sort of going with that.

Yeah.

But it seems like it comes up and no one really understands the difference between the total fat and the visceral fat. And like that little bit that can really make a difference. But I know I dropped enough where it made a difference in mine. So I don't know if there's a way to measure that or check on that when you're in. In the program.

So the Rempho scale does measure total body fat, so that's something that we ship out to you all when you join the program. So, you know, tracking that can be helpful. It's not always, like, a hundred percent accurate, but it's the trend. Right. So we want to see that come down. Right. So that. That can be helpful to. To measure like, percentage of fat and make sure that that's coming down.

It seems like the only way, you know, if you've gotten the fat out of all the bad places or the heart, you know, is when you see your blood test results.

Yeah, blood test. And then also, like, you know, there are like, DEXA scans and MRI scans that people can do these days, which are obviously way more advanced. But, you know, it is helping us look at some of those things in a little more detail. Okay. Denise says her A1C went from 5.9 to 5.4. Also, I've decreased my thyroid. Excellent. Congratulations, Denise. Yeah, and it takes time. Right. Another thing that we have to remember is some of these issues that we're struggling with, like they didn't happen overnight or in six weeks. Right. They happened over years and years and years. So for them to start reversing takes time too. Right. Some things we'll see some immediate improvement with and some things, you know, may take a little bit longer. Okay, what other questions? Comments? Quiet group today. And Lisa or Alice, do you have anything that you'd like to share or add? I was gonna say, you're just so good at answering everyone's questions, but there is none. Any left?

Bas.

Okay, so Audra is asking, can I use psyllium husk in the next round? It binds to bile. So typically we recommend not using psyllium husk on the release phase. So you could try something like activated charcoal capsules. That can help bind toxins, help bind, you know, things like bile as well. Eating a lot of cruciferous vegetables is going to help. So those are things that can be used in place of psyllium.

Husband.

And in terms of regularity, sometimes people want to use psyllium husk for regularity. Just make sure you're drinking lots of water. You know, having a lot of the free vegetables. Perhaps for some people, taking magnesium citrate is helpful too. So Beverly is asking about the psyllium. You could try it the first few days, see how it impacts your results. If you feel like it is impacting your results, we can take it out. Other things I would recommend for hemorrhoids is using a squatty potty if you're already not doing so. Okay, that can be super helpful. Making sure that you're not sitting, you know, on the toilet for longer than necessary can be helpful. So, you know, for you with that specific situation, you might want to keep it in and just see how it. I would recommend taking it with your meals if possible, rather than taking it in the morning on an empty stomach because you don't want to break your fast. Any other questions, comments before we meet up again next week? No? Okay. All right, so I guess we'll see you all next Friday. Make sure that you spend some. Some time outdoors this weekend. I live here in Ontario. I know these are kind of the last few days where it's going to be warm and then it's going to start to get colder. So have a beautiful weekend, everyone. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to post them in our practice Better Chat or you can post them in the Facebook group. We're happy to help however we can. Bye for now everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you. Bye. Take care everyone. Have a great weekend.