Weekly Living Light Metabolic Program Q & A with Alice Jewski & Anna-Lisa Kinch [June 9, 2023]

Hello, Barb. Hello, Cynthia. Lovely to see you ladies. Happy Friday. Sorry for the last minute switch up. And thank you for being able to adapt so quickly. I was going to go into Deepa Zoom, but it requires authentication and she wasn't able to receive it in time, so. So here we are in Alice's Zoom room, hosted by Alice and Annalisa. Just combined our names there too. And so as per usual, I would love to start and start recognizing maybe some gratitude that we have for something that we've experienced this week. Maybe it's something that happened today. Maybe it's something you're looking forward to, to doing on the weekend. Feel free to either unmute yourselves. I always love hearing everybody's voices. If not, you can definitely go ahead and write it in the chat.

I gotta go check my phone so that I. If anybody's asking, I'll be able to send it.

Okay, perfect. Thank you, Annalisa. My glass containers, the simple things. Yes. Sometimes it's the aesthetic of something that can just make you so excited to do a task or do a habit and just know that you're making a healthy swap in the meantime too. And it's both aesthetic and it's healthy. So thank you for sharing that, Barb. Are these for more so food storage purposes or is this more so for maybe spices or something to drink out of?

Yeah, they're my glass lock and lock, or glass lock and lock. I think they're called containers. But the lids work perfectly. There's never any struggle with the lids. They're clean.

They're. They just.

I love boil.

Perfect, perfect. It's the simple things. And I love how they are vacuum sealed or airtight as well. So you can do soups, you can do stews and not have to worry about any of it spilling.

And I can also, from the stove, put it directly into the container as I'm measuring things out.

Exactly. I know. It makes it so perfect. And a little tool that I really love doing with my glass containers was, I don't know if you've ever heard of a hotlogic, but it's a kind of a healthy alternative to. To a microwave. So it's really cool because you can put your glass container directly on top of it and then it starts to heat your food slowly as you're working or plugging away. You don't have to think about it or manage it. And then your food is piping hot. If you didn't want to, you know, turn on the stove, dirty another pot, it's kind of that Nice. In between, especially for the lunch period.

I find I saw those on the 30 day thing that Satchin did a while. I saw that a while ago.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's. It exists. It's floating around in the abyss. So just, just an additional something to. To kind of bring into your awareness and. Yeah, just know that we have these options. Hello, Leo V. Hello, Julie. Hello, Preeti and Rhonda. Lovely to see everybody. So we were just mentioning a couple of things that we are grateful for, of course, to get us kickstarted on these calls. I was saying that you can choose anything from this week. Maybe you've experienced something today. Maybe you're really looking forward to something that is upcoming this weekend. It could be as simple as just having some time to rest. Give your body that time, that much needed time to rest and repair and show it some love for all of the things that it shows up for us to do every single day without us having to think about it. We never have to think about breathing. We never have to think of our heart beating or our lungs expanding. It just gives to us from such a beautiful place. Preeti is saying I am grateful for losing 10 pounds in 20 days. Congratulations. How's your journey been going so far, Preeti? I know that I believe. I remember when you were beginning and you were asking questions on how to get started and what foods to focus on for loading and stuff. How has your journey been? If you can of course unmute and share, it's good. But you're hungry. Okay. How has your water intake been. Typically? I find hunger kicks in quite frequently with these different scenarios. 100 ounces. Okay. So that's a really good water intake. So when it comes to feeling that hunger, I tend to see that it's either stress related. So if you've had any increases in stress in the last little while, that's definitely going to set off the hunger responses. Specifically for carbs because your body recognizes that that's a fast source of sugar if it's something that is associated with sleep. So that's going to increase your hunger cues because we're not getting the proper amounts of ghrelin and leptin, which are satiety hormones that we release at night. It might be because you're vegetarian. So are you using protein alongside your soy protein options? Okay. Okay, awesome. So are you loading up on lots and lots of free vegetables? Okay. Okay, awesome. So I'm not too sure where that could be stemming from. It could be that your body is depending on in which state you're eating is not absorbing the nutrition that it needs from those meal times. So if you find that you're eating at a time that is a little bit chaotic or especially with the lunch period, I find that people are just coming off of emails or clients or patients or errands or whatever have you. So you're eating in a typically sympathetic dominant state without maybe realizing it or. Yeah. And distractions or maybe in front of something like a tv, we're completely consuming with other senses so our body can't fully be present in consuming the meal that we have on hand. Sometimes it's unavoidable, sometimes things just line up that way. But as much as possible, the meals that you do have control over, something that I've used for a long time and like to encourage everybody to at least play around with is doing it a simple two minute box breathing exercise whenever sitting down to eat. So no matter where it is that you're coming off of what's been going on throughout the day, you have this two minute breathing practice that can switch your body from going from a sympathetic dominant nervous system to parasympathetic. So it just maximizes your nutritional bang for your buck, if you will. So both the food matters, but also the setting in which we eat matters.

So, Alice, a lot of the fires are affecting people breathing wise in.

Yes.

Different communities where they're affected. And I think that is also contributing.

Definitely. Yeah. And it's so, you know, unfortunate that it's been raging so much. I am not currently in Canada or in the US so I'm not personally around. Yeah, I'm not personally around it. And my heart goes out to anybody that's been affected. I know the air quality has been less than desirable for the last little bit. And you know, of course safety, that's number one for everybody as well. So hold on tight everyone. Hopefully this too shall pass very soon. Barb is saying here that is very interesting. This past week I've been in a conference all day, every day. No parasympathetic eating this week. And the scale shows a plateau. Yes. So it very much could be the setting. A lot of the time it is the culprit because we normalize eating and doing so many different things. That's so normal. Let's say in today's day and age that we don't have that. That off that present time like I mentioned or you know, getting out of the stressful setting and moving somewhere outdoors, you know, maximizing. I love the idea of habit stacking. So it Basically combines different activities on top of one another. So as a standing habit, let's say brushing your teeth, which I hope everybody has implemented. Everybody does every day. So I like to tack things either before or after that routine because it's already set in place. It's something you will never miss. I do the same thing with people's coffee or tea. So that's something that no matter how crazy your day is, what's going on in life, people never forget their coffee or their tea. So doing things before or after that really help to just practice and incorporate and make it second nature for other habits.

Would you also recommend to taking some apple cider vinegar with water before you eat just to increase the acid to help?

Yes. So anybody that is experiencing more so acid reflux, it tends to be because their actual stomach acid is too low. Not that they're overproducing stomach acid. It also helps to alkalize the stomach. So having apple cider vinegar additionally helps to re replenish gut flora as well. Because of the different components, I believe it's. It's not linoleic acid that's inside of it, but there is some sort of acid that exists that also helps to kickstart fat burning as well. So it really helps to prime the gut and increase those digestive enzymes in your stomach before eating so that you're ready to kind of break all that food down. Awesome. So feel free to let those questions roll in. Any questions that you may have, feel free to unmute yourselves. Feel free to write it into the chat. And I had a little bit of a blurb that I wanted to cover today in terms of antioxidants a little bit and in terms of herbs and spices. So that's kind of the content I wanted to talk about. But of course, questions come first. So if there's anything pressing, I would love to touch on that. And if not, I can go ahead and get started on my spiel and we can do questions after, whatever is easiest for everyone.

I just have something that might give people a giggle.

Let's do it.

I love it.

Today. Today I'm done the conference, but I was in front of the computer all day, every day. I've been having. I don't think it's or not this gigantic. It's over 2 liters tea sitting at my desk all the time. So I just keep filling my teacup from this.

That's amazing.

I always got my fluids in.

I've never seen such a big teacup in my life.

Well, I've got I've got a huge mug and then. Yeah, the gigantic measuring cup.

Talk about. So you came up with the idea of doing that so that you could reuse your tea bags.

Right.

And get the max amount out of the tea bag throughout the day. I thought that was a great idea.

Yeah. Because I, Yeah, I felt guilty that I was only using it for one mug of tea in the morning, that I kept reusing it. But I, I had a question of whether or not we are. What's the word? Diluting the effect of the Reishi tea for putting it in with 2 liters of, of water. Because this is. Yeah, this is. Yeah, I think so. I think you're.

You're just getting the effects of it all day as you're drinking it.

It's very. Even diluted that much, it's still very strong.

And again, my mother in law used to, she was English and she used to put the teapot on the stove and it was there all day, three bags going all day and it was strong. So I think it's sort of similar in the case of what you're doing.

Well, we'll see.

Yeah, it's a great physical reminder to have around you. And additionally, I think it does not lose any of its potency. In fact, I think it might be even better because you're having small sticks, steady doses throughout the day instead of one big massive dose, let's say in the morning. Not that either or is bad. Both are very good to introduce. But I think it's even better because your body can process it more so throughout the day and at a lesser dosage. So I think it might be actually more beneficial to do what you're doing.

And can you remind me again what the reishi tea, what the benefit of the reishi mushrooms were?

Yeah, so there's quite a few different benefits to it and a lot of it stems from calming the nervous system. It also is really good at immuno immunomodulating. It helps to decompress from stress, it helps to bring down inflammation. There's actually a lot of research that suggests that it's able to fight and eradicate different types of cancers. So it's good. It kind of does a clean sweep in your body, if you will. There's so many different benefits that it includes as well. There's actually a whole PDF that I have on reishi mushrooms. So if everybody is interested I can post it maybe in the chat or maybe in our Facebook group. So you can kind of go through that information or show family and Friends that are like, you're drinking mushroom coffee or mushroom tea, like, what the heck is that? I know. I get that question a lot. So it's nice to show them that there's so many different added, added benefits to it. And you're also still getting your coffee or tea.

Well, another benefit of this is I kept. I kept getting. Making myself crazy over measuring my intake of fluids, but now I know exactly if I go through this one, it's at least two liters.

Yes, exactly. So it's a perfect visual. Sometimes we need that. And then it keeps us on track. Like, I keep my, my big old jug next to me as well. And I know when I've had two of them, I'm done my water intake for the day. And it's that physical reminder that keeps you on top. So really helps for anybody that is struggling to get that water intake in. So thanks for those tips, Barbara. Cynthia here is asking, does it make a difference if you take apple cider vinegar cooked in your food or raw before your meal? So typically it takes a little bit of a couple of minutes for your body to digest it and process it to get the maximum benefits. It's never a bad time to include it, though. So if you wanted to use it in terms of your salad dressing, because I know a lot of people like to use that as the base, you're still getting those properties from it. The exact amounts. I don't have those figures. I don't have those numbers in terms of percentages, But I know it's more beneficial to give your body a little bit of preparatory time to digest it first and to build up that gut flora. But both times are beneficial and so much better than using, you know, something that isn't approved or something that isn't a natural substance. So I would say you can even do both if you wanted to. So putting in half of a tablespoon in 6 ounces of water approximately 30 minutes before you eat, and then you can use another half tablespoon to a tablespoon in your salad dressing, so you get both and play around with the ratios. I know I'm an acid person, so I love vinegars. I love, you know, any kind of apple cider vinegars or, you know, rice vinegars, all that jazz. So definitely work up to it because it can be a little bit intense on the throat. Awesome. So Preeti here saying just quickly, are we encouraged to still have two meals during maintenance or during the eight hours? Can I have a handful of almonds or protein team shake? So in the maintenance phase, we talk a little bit more about that in as, as you get closer to it. So when you enter the maintenance phase, the typical cadence I like to recommend is to keep as many things the same for the first little while, to not overwhelm your body in a way. So we've been working on accessing parasympathetic. So the first thing that I would introduce and keep a constant introduction is the fats. So the first food group you're going to introduce is fats and that's going to be all healthy fats. So you're going to start with one serving with your lunch, one serving with your dinner. After seven days, and sorry, I forgot to mention, one new food is going to be introduced per day. And for the reason, the reason is, is to isolate and see exactly which food is causing any sort of reaction that could potentially occur. So you're doing one with lunch, one with dinner. So that could be, let's say half of an avocado. If you feel like you tolerated it well, you can do the other half for your dinner. If you're choosing oils, nuts, seeds, nut butters, any one of those options, stick to 1 tablespoon, same with butter or ghee or coconut oils or any of that jazz. After you've exhausted all of your fats and you've introduced them consistently for at least seven days. So sometimes it might take a little longer than seven days to introduce fats. I say to introduce any that you're going to be in contact with on a regular basis or even things. Let's say you go out to eat and you grab a salad that is has a tahini based dressing. If you don't necessarily cook with tahini often, but the food you purchase out has that specific ingredient, it's good to introduce it just so you have the awareness after seven days of consistent fat integration, that's when you can go ahead and start opening up the fasting window. So if you wanted to do let's say anywhere from like 13 to 14 hours of a fast, that is what we recommend keeping up with at least five times a week. So you still get the fat burning properties, you still get a lot of the estrogen metabolization properties, but it gives you a little bit of extra space so additional three hours. So if you did want to go ahead and start including a third meal, then you can definitely go ahead and do so. So it's really about playing around, playing around with the ratios. Every person is going to be a little bit different. So it really depends on how many activities you have, how active you are, what your typical stress is, what your sleep is, you know, how quickly you metabolize things. So it's going to. It's going to be dependent on a lot of different stuff. But that's the cool part of the maintenance phase, is that you get to customize your own unique meal plan that gets to work for you, and you get kind of sharper in tune with yourself. So moving through the maintenance phase and back into everyday life, if you will, you've had those tools sharpened, so you always know how to get back to a good baseline. You don't have to rely on anybody other than yourself, which is what I like to promote. Of course I'm always here for help, and please ask if you have any help or if you need any help or support. But my job is to definitely make sure that you're empowered in your own health. Find that you're hungry in between the two meals. So have you tried exploring? I would say definitely the box breathing. Trying that out or eating outdoors is something that I would try if you're not already doing those two things. Or I would even explore doing something like adding in a little bit of salt, a pinch of salt, or something like electrolytes in your morning water or in that afternoon water intake. Could be that your body is not retaining that water. Oh, you've tried that as well. So are you partaking in any sort of, like, really exhausting behavior or do you have, like, a really intense work routine? How is your stress? Stress is always a sneaky culprit at times. Okay. And your sleep. Sleep is getting around seven to eight hours each evening. Very interesting. So I'm not too sure why the hunger is pinging in. Something else to try as well. And maybe you've already tried something like this, but giving yourself a pause when you do feel that hunger kick in and notice if it is a true hunger or maybe if it's an emotional hunger that is coming up, or maybe it's a habitual thing. I know that cravings tend to come up within that first part. I would say the first two to three weeks of the program, as you're getting used to things, Are you stocking up with lots of free vegetables? I don't know if you have anything else to add, Annalisa.

We've tried all the things you suggested. It's great. And we increased. She's taken the pea protein powder. She was taking one scoop. She's going to add two now and see if that helps with the meals. And I also told her to chew the shake because a lot of times digestion starts when we chew and if we just drink a shake, it doesn't always. We don't always digest it properly. We've got some suggestions, but again, the fires are really bad. So I don't, I don't know if she wants me to share what's going on, but the fires are affecting many of us.

Yep, definitely. So I think exploring, and thank you for that context, exploring, adding in an extra scoop of protein. I would even say if that is still not helping, then you can go ahead and up your protein during the meals to 5 ounces to see if that makes a difference. But I would definitely try the protein first.

Yeah, she is vegetarian, so that's also a concern with the amount of protein. And when she started, we didn't add in protein powder because she was focused on doing that. But she does have asthma and has had to increase her asthma medication because of the fires. So there's a lot of immune response that's going on and I think that's triggering. So I just about it as well. So we could get suggestions to her.

Okay. Okay, good. Yeah, I think it's. It's a lot of different environmental factors that are obviously taking place. And so I think also change in medication can alter things a little bit. I usually see that, that for some people it could create a little bit of a plateau. Maybe for others it can increase the hunger response. So yeah, keep. Keep us posted and if there's anything additionally we can explore and rummage through, we definitely will. We want to make sure that you're not feeling hungry. Oh yeah. Cynthia is saying here when she takes asthma medication, she gets hungrier. So maybe that's something that's a byproduct from asthma. I have no experience with it, so I am not too sure myself. But thank you for sharing that, Cynthia. I'm just scrolling up here to get to Baruch's question. So I am adding foods in the maintenance phase. I would like to identify any foods that my body. Body may be reacting to. I have not noticed any reactions. What are the common side effects that people have if they are reacting to something? Great question. So this is something that can be so variable. But commonly what I find is people will experience indigestion, some sort of stomach upset. You can have loose stool that typically happens or stool kind of shortly after consuming something. Typically speaking, if you're going to react to something, it tends to be within 2 hours or 24 hours after consuming that food. So that's the most typical cadence when reactions are going to come up. For somebody that has a really sensitive immune system, it can be up to 72 hours. So it can take that amount of time for your body to kind of process through that food. So you might not even react to it the first day, but the second day. And I see this commonly with eggs, specifically when people introduce eggs back in, wreaks havoc the second day and the third day more so than the first day. So whenever introducing eggs, I always say, keep them separate, the whites and the yolks, because people tend to react to the yolks very well because that's mostly fat, whereas the whites are mostly protein. So they're different from, of course, human protein. And that's kind of where the inflammation can take place. You might notice a rash that you've developed. It could form in the sense of a headache. So I've seen a lot of people have headaches or dizziness or nausea. You can see the scale increase as well. So if your body has picked up some inflammation, let's say you introduced popcorn and you had a bowl of popcorn, and the next day you saw that there's two pounds additional on the scale. It's not that you ate two pounds of popcorn, but from that popcorn, it created two pounds of inflammation that will go down much faster once you get back on track with the program and you start eating more. You know, of course, approved foods with the addition of some indulgences, but making sure that you're keeping tabs on those metrics, because that'll be a great insight for anybody that has an aura ring. It's also a good thing to check out your hrv. So sometimes it is a very subtle stressor that this food is putting on your body, but your body is still picking up on it. And so to have something to track your HRV or even your resting heart rate, those two metrics I find can get for hrv, it decreases. For resting heart rate, it increases. So noticing any anomalies that you typically don't experience with any wearables that you're tracking, it could even be. Be a decrease in your deep sleep. I've seen that come up for some people as well. So typically it manifests physically. I can, I can say that some people also have a little bit of brain fog as well. So they're like, I don't feel as clear. Or some people change their, or notice changes in their mood or in their overall kind of balanced mood as well. So food can implement or I Guess infiltrate in any one of those sections. So the more in tune you are with yourself, the more you tune in to how you're feeling each day, your energy, your sleep, your stress, your mood, the better you'll have kind of sharpened those tools to be in tune with yourself if anything goes awry. So Barb ACV on the teeth. So that's why you want to dilute it. So anytime you are drinking apple cider vinegar, it's usually only a small amount. So it's going to be half a tablespoon to a tablespoon spoon that you're enjoying and that's going to be diluted in a cup of water. So Julia is asking, what is the normal weight loss in the first 20 days? So typically speaking, and again, it's very unique. Depending on where somebody is starting from typical weight release 20 days in or that halfway point of three weeks is anywhere from 12 or sorry, 10 to 12 pounds pounds. So on average that's what I tend to see within that three week mark. Again, everybody is so different. People release a lot of inflammation, some people are carrying a lot of water retention. So for those people it might look very different. On average it's going to be around 10 to 12 pounds. And is it okay to just blend your meal into a shake a house clean and can't stop to eat or the zoo available after the zoom call to listen to it again? So ideally you on the program don't want to blend your meals unless you are of course a vegetarian or a vegan and you need to take the extra additional protein sources. The reason being is that it rips apart the fibers so it can actually increase and spike your blood sugar every ever so gently. And additionally, you want to exercise your jaw, you want your body to go through the digestion, digestive process. And like Annalisa mentioned, you even want to chew your smoothies because that's what releases the salivary enzymes, the digestive enzymes that we have in our mouth that's going to help aid in breaking down the food. So as much as possible, I would say to keep it whole food, I would definitely vouch for having a proper break to enjoy that wonderful meal. That's going to nourish you and that's going to help you in your job on top of that as well. So making sure that if you can allocate, even if it's 10 or 15, this is, you know, a human staple. This is a necessity that everybody needs time to include and know that you are deserving of that as well. So I know that sometimes it can get a little hairy and it can get difficult to add in, but just, just to bring that into your awareness as well that you deserve to have kind of a non negotiable lunch period in the middle of your day. Oh, thank you Annalisa for this breakdown here as well. Yes, allergies are common to come by and additionally joint pain, of course, any sort of chronic pain or inflammation. That's a huge one as well. I started adding my starches and I wake up bloated the next day. I did ask Annalisa about it and saw her message back to me but didn't get a chance to reply back. She said something about ACV to take with water before I eat. I wasn't sure what that is. Maybe she can elaborate or yourself. So we did talk about apple cider vinegar a little bit. It's kind of a primer, it's a digestive bitter if you will, for your stomach to help rebuild gut flora, which is going to help to break down your food, specifically more so carb dense foods as well. So it alkalizes the body. So body or any sort of healing that needs to take place thrives in an alkaline setting versus an acidic setting. So even though it's apple cider vinegar, it's still alkalizing the same way that lemon. And adding lemon into your water also alkalizes your body body. So you can dilute, like I mentioned, half a tablespoon to a tablespoon and about six to eight ounces of water. You want to do that 30 minutes before you sit down to eat and that's going to help you break down those starches, those sugars from the carbs. And keep us posted if you haven't had a chance to try that out to see if that worked in terms of the bloating. But additionally that kind of ties back into making sure that the setting that you're enjoying these carbs in is also a quiet, distraction free, potentially outdoors chill setting that you get to enjoy these carbs in. And it might not be all carbs. I would notice to see which carbs are causing the bloating. Is it the resistant starch version of the carb? Is it, you know, maybe it's just potatoes and specific white potatoes or Yukon potatoes or russet potatoes or I would get very granular to see which food is possibly causing the not. My pleasure. Yes, there's many, many recipes and hopefully lots more that I can find that I can share that are simple, easy, nutrient dense. I Try to post whatever I can in the Facebook group. And if anybody finds any recipes or creates recip, I always love trying other creations as well. So feel free to share. Pictures are definitely welcome and I definitely eat with my eyes, so whenever anybody can share. We always love compiling as a community. Any other questions coming in for anybody? Awesome questions and awesome breakdowns here too. Well, while we wait, if something does come up, of course, feel free to share it in the chat. But I had a couple of things I wanted to touch on just as a supplementary information, if you will. It's something that I've. I've recently been diving more into. So. And it was the topic of antioxidants, free radicals, kind of how to, to help vamp up your healing on this program, if you will. So antioxidants are very important compounds that we need in terms of protecting our cells from damage. So whenever our body converts energy, so sugars into energy, it releases a little bit of a byproduct called free radicals. And so this isn't just linked to energy. It's. It's linked to any sort of chemicals that we expose ourselves to, whether it be in the air, whether it be in our products, whether it be in our food. And so these free radicals can sometimes cause damage and they do occur naturally in the body. But there are certain lifestyle factors that can definitely speed up the progression and the production of these and increase oxidative stress on our body. So of course it's going to be, like I mentioned, exposure to air pollution. It could be something like exposure to toxins in a workplace. It could be, of course, poor food choices or not great sanitation. It could be something like smoking, it could be something like drinking. So all of these things are, are creating a buildup of free radicals that reside in our body that's creating more stress on our body and on our nervous systems. So what antioxidants do is they actually bind to these free radicals and neutralize them them. So instead of there being, you know, like a loose ball, let's say in, in this huge maze, it binds to a big piece of gum. And then this big piece of gum, you can transport it, you have more control over this free radical and it completely neutralizes the charge. And so what's cool is that natural foods have an antioxidant content associated with them. So there's plenty of fruits and vegetables that actually have naturally occurring antioxidants, oxidant compounds inside of them. But one of the things that I've recently learned is this term called an orac value. So it's Orac, and that stands for oxygen radical absorbency capacity. So it basically talks about how antioxidant potent, whether a food or a herb or a supplement is. So there's this whole ranking system basically that exists and spices and herbs actually contain the most amount of antioxidants or the highest per 100 gram portion. So basically when, whenever we're cooking. And what I thought that this kind of related to in terms of the program is in so many ways using herbs and spices and how beneficial it is to include these not only for the flavor profile, but now for the antioxidant profile as well. So there's a long list of foods that contain these Orac values. I have a small list of them here, here. And basically you want to aim for as high of an Orac value as you possibly can. So a couple of different options or a couple of different foods that have and contain a really high amount of antioxidant content that you can or some people can and can't use on this program. So I say can and can't because the lentils and the beans are more so reserved for vegans. But lentils, raw lentils, lentils have a high antioxidant content. You have pinto beans, you have black beans, you have kidney beans. Let's see here. You have oregano. You have peppermint. That's on this list. Apples with the skin on, you can do broccoli, different types of cabbages. You can also do cherries that I know are on the approved food list. Green apples, let's see here. Peaches that are unfortunately not approved at the minute. I'm so sorry. I know that they're delicious and in season, but that's exactly why they're not approved. Because of the sugar content. You will be able to enjoy them very soon. Or if you really have a juicy peach, you just got it at the farmer's market. You really want to enjoy a peach. Have the peach or even do, you know, 2 ounces of peach, 2 ounces of, let's say strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, whatever else to kind of lower the sugar content content. But back to the Orac value we're doing. You can also do basil, you could do raspberries. The most potent substance that exists with the highest Orac value that I've been able to come by is actually ground clove. So, you know, using that maybe on top of your fruit, that's what I like to do with cinnamon. Cinnamon is also high up on the list. It's just under clove. So just to give you a rough idea, so to compare it to raspberries. Raspberries have an Orac value about, of about 5,000 per hundred gram. Ground cloves per 100 gram has 315,000 or in Orac value. So it is a antioxidant powerhouse. Ground cinnamon is coming in at about 268,000. And then you have oregano that is, you know, shortly underneath that you have turmeric. No surprise, you have a little bit of sumac on there. You have acai berry, you have sorghum, and then you have cacao powder. So, of course, not everything you can use in the context of this program. But it's good to know, moving outside of this program as well to incorporate more of these foods. And really what you want to do is make it more of a daily practice. Start using spices that maybe you haven't played around with or adding in just a little dash. Something like a little bit of clove or a little bit of nutmeg can go such a long way for anybody, let's say, that enjoys their oats or even putting it on fruit or, you know, maybe enjoying. And this is of course, post program, but what I like to do is make nice cream. So taking frozen bananas and blending it up and using that as kind of like an ice cream alternative, putting it in there, you know, putting it in your coffee, putting it in your teas, whichever blends that you really enjoy. So slowly you're having that kind of cascade of antioxidant content, so you're not getting blasted with all of it. And one go, your body is receiving it throughout the day in different methods alongside all the other nutritious compounds associated with the foods and with the spices. So something that I thought might come up, a question is how much should we include in terms of that Orac value? So, current research, there is no daily requirement in terms of Orac units and how much you can include. Generally speaking, the evidence alludes to having about 3,000 to 5,000 units, units of Orac or anything that has antioxidant compounds inside of it. But that's getting, of course, a little bit more technical right now. I just want everybody to explore a little bit, you know, choose maybe one, two things off of that list that intrigue you and start looking for ways to incorporate it. And you might surprise yourself, maybe something that you didn't think you enjoyed or you liked. Like, I was never a huge basil person. And then you go to Italy and you're like, Basil is everywhere. I have to enjoy this. I have to throw myself in. And then you end up loving basil because prepared in such a beautiful way. So that is a little bit of what I wanted to share. I don't know if anybody is excited to try any of those different foods that I've mentioned or things that you're realizing now that you've already been doing that have just, you know, helped motivate you to do it even more and send you in the right direction. But I definitely know I'm going to be playing a lot more around with clove after finding this information and putting cinnamon wherever possible, because I already love it, so why not include it? But, yeah, that's the information I kind of wanted to. To chat about today.

That was amazing, Alice. Love it.

Thank you.

Sumac. I just went and looked it up and I guess they use it a lot in Mediterranean dishes. So I saw a recipe to add it to because it's tart, lemony, astringent. It gives it more acidic flavor and put it in a dress. Wow, that's awesome.

Yeah. I'm glad you liked it. It's. It's. I found it a lot in Lebanese cooking. So sumac is often used in salad dressings or I used to enjoy these things called mana ish. And they used zaatar, which has sumac on inside of it. It's kind of like a seasoning blend. It was something I've never tasted before, but it was so addictive because it was so used unique. So zaatar is a spice that I don't see commonly in grocery stores. You probably would have to go to more of an international grocery store. But it's delicious. So delicious. Finding ways to integrate it differently.

And I think too, as you move into maintenance and lifestyle, I mean, a lot of times at release phase, you'll kind of stick to basic things.

Yes.

Your habits. And then as you move maintenance and lifestyle, you want to try adding these new things in. In. Because then that makes it exciting to sit down to a meal rather than doing the same thing. Because we eventually get bored and then we're going to extract and start expanding and including things we shouldn't.

That's exactly it. And you start to feel restrictive or, you know, even bored, like Annalisa said, following the same thing. I know some people are creatures of habit and they, they enjoy having certain meals and the same thing coming in. But I always say you never know until you. You try. And your taste buds change every seven to 10 days. So even let's say you didn't like something last week or two weeks ago, two months ago, whatever. Have you prepare it in a different way. Especially if you've already purchased this thing and you have it kind of lying around your home. Get creative. You know, find this to be kind of a self care time or self explorational time and something to add in quickly. On top of that too is it really matters how you store your spices and herbs. Herbs. So that also contributes to how much antioxidant content there is inside of these foods. So whenever it comes to whole spices, something like whole cloves, whole, you know, peppercorns, you want to keep them for no longer than a year. So a year is typically when they stop losing their potency or as much the the antioxidant value goes down. You also want to make sure that they are in an airtight container away from light and away from moisture. Moisture. So that's going to help retain its antioxidant content the best. So you also want to store them away from something like a dishwasher or from the sink or having it close to your stove. That's going to have a lot of steam coming off of it because that can interact with it as well. And then for anything that's ground, typically the freshness is going to be around six months. So it's about half the time. So if you're somebody that's just getting into spices, you don't really know which ones you're going to love or use. I say buy the whole stuff spice, because it lasts a little bit longer. You have more time to play around with it with a simple pestle and mortar or even. What are they called? Not a blender. You can use a blender.

You can use a coffee grinder just for spices instead of using it for coffee. That's what we do.

Exactly. Or even if you have a coffee grinder, that's perfect so you can just grind the whole spices within your home. So you could just keep them for longer.

Or grow fresh and go out to the garden and pick. But I guess that's more herbs.

Yeah, but herbs are definitely on the list as well. So you know, fresh peppermint, fresh oregano, you can do fresh basil. So all of those things are also really great to include. Yep. Cinnamon and coffee. And cinnamon and chia pudding are just chef. Chef's kiss or anything coconut. That's one of my go to killer combos. Or apple and cinnamon.

So find there's that recipe with apples. My husband used to make it all the time. When we were doing the program with.

Apples, the baked apples. Right.

Oh my gosh. With cinnamon, it was delicious. Like having an apple pie without the, you know, extra.

With all the goodness and none of the, none of the garbage, if you will. And yeah, it just tastes like fall literally in, in one little bite. It's so delicious and the flavors work so romantic, authentically well together. It's beautiful. So, yeah, and it's nice because it's naturally a little bit sweet. So I always recommend to anybody if you miss having the sugar or the sweetener, the creamer or whatever in your coffee, Cinnamon goes a really long way. Gives it more of a robust taste. And it also has blood sugar stabilizing properties and fat burning properties. So you're getting now antioxidant content that's through the roof. So it's. There's so many benefits to having just even micro do doses of these spices throughout the day. Barb is saying, I will shake some nutmeg on my food. I know I have that in my cupboard. I'm not sure if I have clove. I'll see. Nutmeg is perfect. Let's get started there. Let's see how you like it. That one. I know you only ever need like a little bit of a pinch and so see exactly where the flavor profile lands for you. Everybody is going to be a little bit different, but I love that you're already thinking and looking at things to use. Yeah. Leo V. This is not in the manual. I. I just created this content for today, but I'm happy to share all the different Orac values if anybody is interested in that. I could post it in our Facebook group today. So then you can kind of pick and choose, see what makes sense for you. You. Any other questions coming through for anybody? So typically they'll have Barb, maybe they'll have an expiry date date. I don't know if the expiry dates tend to be six months out because I think it also depends on when you open the product. But moving forward, what I recommend and something that I do is I have little labels and I write the date in which I open that specific spice. So I know six months from that day. Or you can even do the calculation ahead of time. That's probably a lot easier. I like to overcomplicate. But then you can always know if you've crossed that line or not. So that's another way of kind of tracking things. And start slow. You know, sometimes it's nice to, to have all these fancy, robust spices. But you don't need it. You know, you can start with one thing and get really comfortable with this one thing and something that I've also started doing. And, you know, this is just something that works for me that I draw a lot of happ from is anytime there is a special occasion, something like Christmas, something like your birthday, where you typically receive gifts, I always ask people to get me really high quality, you know, spices or really high quality honey or maple syrup or whatever have you. Because that's just, you know, my personal philosophy. I'm more of a minimalist. I like things that I can use up and that are actually going to add some sort of health value or practical value in my life.

Life.

That doesn't mean that you have to do it that way, but that is another way to kind of sneak in, you know, things that you're really going to be excited about if. If it is a health product or, you know, some sort of food that is a little bit more expensive. I know Manuka honey is like $50 for a tiny little can. So things like that are also really nice gifts to receive. So kind of planting the seed to family and friends really, really helps. And of course, the ones that know you the best are gonna be able to kind of know what it is that you're. You're into at that time as well.

One suggestion. I know we were trying anise. Aniseed. I think it's like a star thing. And we went to the bulk barn. Now, it may not be high quality to start with, but just getting a few of them and trying it, and then that way you don't spend the money on a larger bottle until you know that that's something you want to incorporate. That can also help you with trying different things. Things without spending a lot of money.

Yes. Yeah, exactly. That's a great tip. So even just having a little bit from somewhere that you can, you know, choose how much you're purchasing first. I love that. That's a great tip. Yeah. Manuka honey is amazing. It's so good at healing. It's good as a face mask, is good to ingest. It's good for your hair, it's good for burns, it's good for wounds. Like, no wonder it's so expensive. But still, it's a bit of a drag that it is so expensive. But I get it. It's a holy grail item. So, you know, we'll. We'll let that one slide. But I think Costco sometimes. I've seen Manuka Honey there. I don't remember. I don't recall the quality of it. It's been a little while since I went to Costco. But sometimes you can get lucky and find some bulk Manuka honey there too too.

Yeah, usually it's Australian, I think, and it's usually quite expensive.

Yep, yep. So as much as you can, slowly, slow and steady wins the race. There is absolutely no rush. Enjoy the process. You know, go down the roller coaster of spice Lane whenever you please and just make sure that you enjoy it. That's the most important part.

And I know Manuka honey we get from a local flower farmer. So sometimes you can get it at a more reasonable rate locally. So it's from your area.

Yes. Yeah. And there's. I'm not too sure how much research is behind this, but it's best to get honey that is sourced from your local area because of course you're using, you know, plants and interacting with the gut microbiome and the soil and you know, the, the bacteria that exist that's already in your ecosystem that you are interacting with in different ways. Ways. So it's more beneficial, some research suggests, to use honey that is from your local area. And also it's great to support local on top of that as well. Get to know the person that's producing the honey or that has the honeybees and be able to support a small business and your health. So win, win. Any other questions coming in from anybody today? Great call. Today. I feel like I learned some things. Hopefully everybody has learned a little something as well. Except that honey is a high crown carb. Yes. So I do find when you choose sugar sources that are, you know, more whole food based. Something like honey that has the additional properties, something like maple syrup that is a little bit more expensive or even agave, we tend to use less because it is so expensive, so. And then additionally it has more benefits. Something like dates, it has the additional fiber. Honey has so many antioxidant healing properties inside of it. Maple syrup syrup. Not too sure about that one. But that one has a really intense taste. So we tend to use less. So it's better to have those products around when choosing a sugar source than any other sugar source or table sugar or whatever have you. Well, if nothing else is coming in from everyone, I want to wish you all a beautiful fresh Friday. Enjoy the rest of today. Eat in peace this weekend as best as you possibly can. Maybe get familiar with a new spice that you weren't friends with before. Maybe you could be best friends. You never know until you try so have an amazing weekend, everyone. Thank you for showing up today and have an easy breezy time through the reset program.

Great job, Alice.

Thank you.

Thank you so much. Love, everyone.

Take care.