Weekly Living Light MRP Program Anna-Lisa [June 14, 2024]
Annalisa leads a group session where participants share weight losses up to 14 pounds and discuss family caregiving challenges. The focus is sleep: breathing techniques, 90-minute sleep cycles, and habits like red light, mouth taping, and magnesium glycinate. She also covers intermittent fasting with an 8-hour eating window and plate ratios of 4 oz protein, vegetables, and fruit.
Chapters
Hi everyone. Just getting everybody to join in. Glad you're all here.
Yeah, that wasn't gonna work. Like, can't really take it.
Okay, As you're coming in, I'd like you to think about what you, what your biggest win is for this past week. Start thinking about that and then we'll call on each person to kind of share. If you don't want to share online, share in the chat so we can celebrate you. Because one of the key things you need to learn as you're going through this program is to celebrate yourself. Really, really important and often we don't celebrate ourselves. Let me just get everybody in. So welcome, welcome. Joanne, good to see you. Becca, Tracy, Natalie, Nikki, Sherry, Marissa, they're still joining. So as we're getting ready for our day, please focus on what are the. I don't know if you can hear the sound. What is your favorite win? So nobody's putting them in the chat so I'm going to start calling on people. So, Joanne, good morning, how are you?
I'm doing good, thank you. I think my win is eight pounds. Lost my first week and sticking to plan. Even though my 95 year old mom had a little bit of a episode. But I was like, give me some tequila. No, don't you dare. So just staying focused and sticking to plan, knowing that restoring me is important so I can be there for other people. So that is my win.
Excellent. Congratulations. That's exciting. And I know it's not easy looking after elderly. I've had 23 years now looking after different family members. So I know. And of different conditions in each of the family members over time. So just supporting them, being there for them and loving them is the most important. Sometimes the conditions or diseases that they're going, we can't, can't do anything about them.
No.
But we love the person. We may not love what they're going through.
Right.
Unfortunately, that's just the way life is. And our, our goal with what we're doing here is really focusing on longevity. Making sure that when we're in our later years, you know, as we.
Whoops, sorry.
There, I just muted. You apologize.
No problem.
Yes.
Maintaining health and I think looking after our aging parents really instills that in us. The importance of it.
Yes, yes, yes. Not only mobility, but brain function ex, you know, really, really important. Sherry, if you're there, do you want to share next?
I'm here. I just have a little background noise. My two and a half year old grandson is here.
Oh, congratulations.
That's exciting.
Thank you. Thank you. Yes. He's a big reason why I'm here, why I'm here. Be here much longer for him, for sure.
Amazing.
Go ahead.
Oh, go ahead. You go.
No, you go.
What am I sharing?
Your biggest win this past week.
Oh, my gosh, it's. It's been a week. Well, it'll be a week on Sunday.
Actually.
We started on Sunday instead of Saturday, but.
It'S.
My husband and I, and we both lost seven pounds. Yes, yes. And I'm trying to. Oh, here. He wants to see. There he is. That's Levi. Okay, sorry. Sorry for the interruption.
That's the exciting part is the kids and the reason why.
Exactly. Absolutely. I mean, 100 even, you know, for. Even my own kids, too. But I've needed to be active for a long time. I retired two years ago, two and a half years ago, when he was born to. To babysit him. And prior to that was Covid, obviously, We all know that. And I was working from home, so I was very sedentary, very just sagittary. So, you know, I've been going through all of the apps and all the tips and everything else, and those are wonderful. So he. I have a living room, dining room, kitchen circle. So we. I call it getting dizzy. So he runs behind me and we get dizzy for the two to three minutes on the hour to get more activity in. So it's good that you. He doesn't need it. He's active enough.
It's just. He's the encouragement for you. Congratulations, Jerry. That's exciting. Finding the motivation sometimes for us is really difficult. Having an instigator and a Cuban.
Yes, yes. So much fun.
Brings out the little kid in you too.
Right.
As you're going through. That's awesome. Congratulations. Becca, if you're there, can you share?
Yeah. So I think the biggest win for me this week, besides my weight loss, I'm down 14 pounds, 14 and a half pounds. But I. I want to talk more about the, you know, other thing. So I think the biggest thing that I had to do this past weekend was go to a social event. I was going to avoid it, but then my daughter wanted to go, and it was basically a bar, and they only have bar food. And I went there and I forgot to eat. I was planning to eat, but I was in such a rush. But I found a salad on the menu, took off all the cheese and whatever else that was not supposed to be there, and they did make a burger patty, and it was completely void of fat and threw it on top of there. And that's what I ate. And then my brother got to see my whole family was there. So got to see. Like this is why I'm not joining family events for a time being anyway. I don't want to put myself in that kind of temptation. And then I went over to my parents place yesterday because they haven't seen me for at least three weeks and. And I was being accused that I'm chief. That's why I'm not going to the family events at restaurant. And they. I've offered to do potlucks. In fact, for Father's Day I offered that and nobody wants to do it. So I'm like, okay. And I went over to my parents place and I said Look, I'm down 13 pounds. And both my parents saw it. I'm like, I said we all need to get healthy. We're all unhealthy this family weekend. So I think they're. I don't know if they're getting the message but they at least saw the visible results of me being on the, you know, this plan that I'm on. So.
Amazing. Congratulations on your commitment to your program that makes the most difference in you by standing up and saying this is what I'm doing. That helps other people make that decision. Decision to also so that you can be the blessing to them and guide them and let them know it's possible. So that's so incredible. And to be able to go to the restaurant and to do what you did, a lot of people would fall into that temptation. But you've already proven to yourself that you're strong enough to make that decision and to prioritize yourself first. Right. Amazing. Congratulations Becca. That's awesome.
Thank you.
Proud of the decision decisions that you, you're making because that's going to help you propel not only yourself but your family and others who will see you as an example. Congratulations. Julie, are you there? I don't know.
Yep.
So I actually was in this program a year ago and I'm popped in today because I have my 10 year anniversary. Well, anyway, I have a colonoscopy coming up, so. So this weekend is basically the, the you know, pre two days experience. So I was trying to clarify based on what they let you eat, what is appropriate.
To eat for your colonoscopy.
Yes.
Did they give you a list and information?
They did.
I mean so it's, it's what they call it. So it's like you know, a lot of breads and you just like basic like meats and stuff like that. But it's. It's like no veg, no fruits, no veggies, because it. I guess it leaves. It's low residue is what they call it.
Okay.
So I'm trying to kind of come up with. Well, you know, what's not going to put me over the edge in terms of. I. I've been maintaining more. So, I mean, basically the intermittent fasting schedule I've been trying to maintain because that. Because I'm not. I had shifted my plan because I have to have breakfast, so I just don't do dinner. So I do breakfast, lunch, and then fast in the evening through to the morning.
So that.
That has been effective to basically maintain. I gained like five pounds. I lost 25. So I'm still better than I was a year ago.
But.
Anyway, so just kind of.
What.
What are good?
Just.
I guess I don't want to, like, gorge on bread, because that's not a good choice. But in terms of just basics, you know, what would be a man going to the grocery store today. So, like, what should I stock up on?
So for colonoscopies, maybe it's because they're recommending no fruits and vegetables at all.
Yeah.
So you're gonna just do, like, potatoes.
I mean, it's like starch.
So you would. So on. Did you get a fridge chart when you had done the program previously? Yeah, it kind of shows. So I would stick to the tubers that are listed in the Gotcha. Those would be the best option from a carb perspective to add. And then your proteins and maybe some bone broth if you can. Have you ever made bone broth in the past?
I have not.
So bone broth is just taking like a whole chicken, putting it into a crock pot, and adding in water. Dr. Axe has. If you look up online, Dr. Axe has a really good easy simple. Because all you're doing is you're just taking carrots and celery and onions and garlic, and you're just dropping it into the water with the chicken and putting it on for a period of time and then just drinking. That will help soothe the gut lining and help. Bone broth has. L Glutamine. L Glutamine is great for the. The villi that we have.
Or.
Or not the villi, just the. The replenishing the gut wall and how that. So if you take a little bit of that, that'll help keep you full too. It's nice and warming. You'll feel good and support the. Got you.
Okay.
As well. Great, thanks. Yeah, you're welcome.
Who else is here?
Nancy, if you're. If you can answer on your iPhone. I don't know if you put in the chat. I'm trying to follow the chat along with. While we're waiting for Nancy. I know Natalie has said had a great readiness and sleep scores this week. I saw you sitting out on the lawn, Natalie. Very cool. Congratulations.
Hi, I'm here, actually. Can you hear me?
Yes, we can. Awesome.
So myself, I'm actually. I've actually completed the maintenance phase, but I am going to. My husband and I are actually are going to redo this program after a wedding in the middle of July. But I just wanted to say that last weekend I got together with a group of friends that we're going away with and we were discussing like, we're going away for a week on a very small island. So you have to bring everything with you. And they're actually going to basically eat what I'm eating.
Oh, that's amazing.
Yeah.
So there.
So I just said, you know, you know, you guys do your own thing and I'll do my thing. They're like, no, no, no, let's just do it all together. So we're actually all going to eat the same things together.
How cool is that? Yeah, that's magic.
You are.
Pretty grateful about that. I thought. Oh, thanks, guys.
Like it.
I just really appreciated the support.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Awesome.
Congratulations. That's exciting. And that they're going to change their own life and their own health as well. That's phenomenal.
Yeah.
Congratulations.
That's exciting.
Be proud.
Also be proud of influencing your husband so that together you will achieve a long life and longevity, which is amazing.
Well, actually, he's lost more than I have.
That's normal.
That's normal.
That's normal.
Unfortunately, that's the way our genetics. I had an accountant do the program. He was in the accounting season and he lost 42 pounds.
And it was just of, you know.
He just did the same thing every day pretty well because he was in such a stressful time. But he lost 42 pounds in six weeks.
It was like, wow, that's amazing. But it's the genetics.
Unfortunately, women will lose half that. 20, sometimes 20, 25 pounds is roughly around what women will lose in the program. So it's okay.
It just means we got to do.
It a little bit longer. But then that creates the habits for us and allows us from a longevity perspective, which is great. So I see Nikki here. She got her aura ring. She's learning all the details. She had a goodbye Party for a teammate. And nice. Didn't buy food or drinks. Proud of herself. That's great. Congratulations, Nikki.
Way to go.
And had to have grace with myself because my timing of the fast wasn't perfect. Yes, unfortunately, there will always be lifetime.
Things that come up.
There's always going to be. You know, we choose health and then we have to choose ourselves. And so as we go out and do things, we're going to experience things that will come up against us. I know when I first went gluten free, it was tough. It was tough to say to people.
I don't eat that.
I'm sorry. And then they're like, come on, come on, come on.
I'm like, no, I can't.
Now I just say I have an allergy. And I got my food sensitivity test back. I think Deep went through hers last week. And wheat and glue is high risk for me, so I now know and.
Have proof that it is not right.
For me to have that. And that will destroy my gut, my thyroid, everything else. So very important. Tracy, if you're there, can you share.
Your wind for this week?
Hi there.
Hey.
Hi. Let's see. Probably just staying on my regular routine of doing a bit more protein, and I start out with a really good smoothie. And I'd love to know. I know you're not Deepa. So are you Alice?
Yeah, sorry.
I know you're not Deepa. So are you Alice?
No, I'm Annalisa.
Annalisa. Hi, Annalisa.
Nice.
Wow.
See, you're that beautiful picture down below.
Okay.
There's two of you.
Oh, shoot. Yeah, I put my phone.
I always do it on my phone.
To make sure I. I'm on in the right thing.
So let me just.
Yeah.
Your name says Deepa, and that picture down below says Annalisa.
Yeah, I'm just gonna get it.
Okay.
Well, it's nice to meet you, Annalisa.
Yeah, nice to meet you too.
And everybody else. So, yeah, just great to meet you all.
Yeah, great. Congratulations. And where are you as far as the program is concerned? Are you already finished or.
That's a really great question. I kind of dip my toes in this program in different ways.
Okay. And.
Yeah, no, absolutely. Because I didn't need to lose weight when I joined.
Oh, okay. Perfect. Yeah. So it's more like a resetting nervous system. Other things.
Yeah, yeah.
Like using a lot of the. A lot of the content for looking at how my nervous system was firing. So just based on. Just based on all that stress we went through and then the stress we continue to carry as a family and as we. We shift and change with this sort of. I think we're on this hyper growth. Everybody's on hyper growth. So it's such a. Such a massive shift.
Yeah.
Hyper growth and lots of information coming at us.
So it's change.
So much noise, right? Yeah, we change so much. So.
So trying to, you know, like everybody in my house, there's five of us.
Yes.
And everybody's got a desk in their room and different people are running businesses out of their. Out of the home. So it's very different.
Yes, absolutely. And adjusting to that. I think we heard. Shoot. I've forgotten who was it the went first apologize and she. Sherry, I think. And she said that she is at home now and we don't get out and walk as much. And when we're working from home, same thing. We're not being more as active as we maybe were getting out of the car, walking into work, you know, walking, talking to people, going down for lunch, etc. Now we're working from home and there's less activity. So planning those times during our day is really important. It's not about just going to the gym and exercising anymore. It's the movement throughout the day, the little snippets, the little bits of time that we spend maybe, you know, 10 minutes going out and walking if you have a forest near you, getting that nature in, which is. Yeah.
And I just heard a really cool term from Mel Robbins because I listened to her podcast and she's. She's been on this kick for health, so she's really cool to listen to. And one of the things she. She has this term called bubbing. And it's this concept of when we're all so connected to tech and we've all got our phones, so we're all in the house and so people are picking up their phones, putting it back down. And some of us can feel like at different times, like hello.
Hello.
So, you know, to think about how I'm going to redo. I'm going to add something to do with bubbling maybe in that kitchen space. What is something we'll see when people are together.
Yeah.
But when you get back to shit just shifted back to people talking when they're in the same space. Instead of this one's on tech and headphones and that one's on tech and they're both eating in different spaces or I'm trying to have a conversation, they keep going back and vice versa. I'm. I'm not. I'M the same.
Yeah, but.
But it's recognizing, right? Changing a habit is first recognizing a you're doing it and then changing when you're doing it and then tying it to something else that you're doing that's positive.
Right.
So that you can get out of what you're doing. Because you can't have a mentor always says you can't rep. You can't stop doing a habit. You have to replace it. So he always talks about smoking. He used to smoke a lot, and after dinner, often most people who smoked would go out for a smoke. So what he does now, he carries toothpicks in his pocket. He hasn't. I think it's been 20 years since he stopped smoking. And still today he will put a toothpick after dinner in his mouth. And that just is the change in the behavior that keeps him from going back to smoking. So it's finding what is it that you can shift to that will allow you to stop that habit. So if there's any questions for today, if you could put them in the chat. What I'm going to do today is I want to go through a little bit about sleep, because I know sleep is something that a lot of people are concerned with having difficulty with. So I'm going to share my screen.
Hang on.
Actually, I'm going to stop share first. Before I do that, I'm going to just walk through. I'd like to do a little bit of breath work. This is a breath work that Satin teaches for sleep or getting better sleep. So one of the things he calls this the parachute breath. And think of children, you know, have you ever seen those colorful. Almost like. Like trying to think of the fabric that it's made of, but they're all different colors, and they. They usually in preschool or in, you know, if you're a kindergarten, they'll all grab a piece of it and then they'll throw it up and down. Think of that. Yes. So he calls this the parachute breath. So when you think about this, think about that process of the up and down and the filling and the. The emptying of the process. So as we go through, I'm just going to walk you through kind of how to do this. And normally you would do this when you're lying in bed. You're going to lay comfortably on your back, you're going to place your hands on your belly, and you're going to place the tongue on the roof of your mouth. But not like push it there. It's more like nice and relaxed and Soft. Make sure your jaw is soft, your mouth will be closed. And then you're going to breathe in for a count of four to six, and you're going to breathe in through your nose. And then as you're holding your belly, you're going to feel your belly expand like that parachute would, right. That filling of the stomach. And then imagine that air going in and filling on that count of four to six. And then you're going to pause for four to six at the top so your belly is full with air. And then it's kind of like you're suspending that parachute. Then you're going to exhale for 8 to 12 slowly, allowing the breath to come out, the parachute slowly coming down, and your body slowly melting into the bed as the air leaves your body. And then you want to practice this in relaxing and the breath and go out and repeat it until you're fall asleep. Some people have difficulty sleeping on their back. And I'm going to put a link in the.
Chat.
There's a podcast that Satchin did that I'm going to talk a little bit about today. He did it with one of the doctors that he's connected to on, is a chiropractor, and he is really into sleep. He had a dislocated disc and had difficulty with sleeping because of that. And he tells his story in the podcast where he ended up being rushed to emergency because he had paralyzed his legs and couldn't walk. And the pain was severe. And over time, he figured out how to correct things without surgery so that he could actually sleep. So he now teaches that as a process. So I'm going to talk a little bit about that today. Just some of the findings and some of the things that he had as far as sleep is concerned. So whenever you need to do that parachute breath before bed, just practice it. Even if you just do it for, you know, 30 minutes and then roll onto your side or do whatever. Although he's teaching that we need to sleep on our back. And so for us who are side sleepers, that's a big change. I'm telling you. I tried it last night and I. He says do it for at least an hour because it corrects the neck and the back area so that you're. You're becoming more in alignment and decreasing the stresses. Because think about it, you sleep for eight hours a night. And now if you're in that stress, stress contortion on your, your spine, how that affects your back over time, right? The muscles, etc. So in that process so, all right, so today I want to go through a few things on sleep. We're just going to talk about sleep positions. Fall asleep on your back. It's best if you have disc issues. Although one of the key things is when you're sleeping on your back, most people snore more. So mouth taping is going to be key for helping that. Or he gives some different things to have your neck reclined a little bit so that that will keep your mouth closed and it's hard for your tongue to fall back into your throat. So he's got some great things that he talks about. He also talks about our hands and our feet are temperature regulation. I always wondered why I would take my feet out of my blanket. I sleep with a weighted blanket, but I always put my feet out and they become the temperature regulation for your body. So I like to have the weighted blanket on. But sometimes it can be too hot. So it was interesting for him talking about that. And then he also says your hrv. So for those of us who have an OURA ring, you can measure your hrv. And when you put pressure on your eyes, it can help to improve your HRV because it stimulates your parasympathetic system. So some really great things that you can learn from just going through it. And all I'm trying to do is just whet your appetite to go and listen because most of you are information gatherers. So that will give you a great input into sleep. And then I'm just going to share my screen. We're going to talk about from beginning. And this. All right, so talking about sleep. Oh, wait, this. Let me just, you know. Oh, sorry about that. Every time I share, I have to close my video. So let me just do that again and. All right, so this is my daughter. She is now in a couple of days, she's going to be 20. But this is when she was a little girl and just, you know, thinking about her, she got my. My dad was babysitting and he lost her. He couldn't find her. And so the process of being able to fall asleep anywhere was amazing. She fell asleep, actually, this is our couch and this is the windowsill. And she fell asleep behind the couch with all her stuffed toys. And so, you know, just thinking about that. We sleep one third of our life and our bodies restore when we sleep. And so sleep is going to be one of the most important things for us to manage. Horm replenished when we sleep. Our brain gets rid of toxic products when we sleep. There's a Whole glymphatic system in our brain that gets washing. And so in order to have better mental focus and function the next day, we want to make sure that we get great sleep. Helps with our weight loss. Of course. Sachin always talks about our weight loss is happens through the night and we give it up through our breath and our toxic practice. When fat is released, those toxins are released and then we will poop those toxins out. So we want to be make sure that we don't have constipation in this process and that our body is eliminating every single day sleep cycles. So this was really enlightening to me that we have five sleep cycles a night. So sometimes you wake up in the night. I know a lot of people in our when we're going through journaling and I can see some people wake up but then they're able to fall back asleep. So our sleep cycle actually runs for about 90 minutes. It can range 75 to 90 minutes or six to eight hours. As we have five sleep cycles through the night, we roll through these sleep cycles. So there's stage one is where.
Our.
Body is producing alpha waves. That's where we're helping to fall asleep. You can be woken up at this time. I don't know if anybody's fallen asleep in front of the TV and, and then you wake up and you know your, your cortisol rises and so you can't get back to sleep. So you get that second wind in the process and it's more difficult to fall asleep. Let me just find participants. Somebody isn't muted mute okay, so stage two is where the body temperature drops. So having a really warm bath before you go to bed can help you get into that. Your heart rate will slow down. And then stage three and four is where you get that deep sleep that's the body restoration. And then stage five is your REM sleep where your brain becomes most active. You're processing your emotions, your memories and your stresses. And so as you go through this, through the night, sometimes as you're going back from stage five to stage one, you can wake up to go pee. And that's okay, just know that that's fine. Don't get stressed about it or have anxiety about it. Just you know, get up, go pee and go back to bed knowing that you're going to follow again into another sleep cycle. And one of the key things from a REM perspective in deep sleep, if you have an Oura ring or a Fitbit or I'm going to talk about some Other tools that you can to help monitor your sleep. You want to be getting anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours of both REM and deep sleep. And then how much sleep do you need? So there's two ways to do this. You can do it the way where you set a wake up time. Many of you, many of us, if we're working or we have to get the kids to school or we have some kind of commitments, you can set a wake up time based on what is that time that you normally get up consistent for all days. Then you want to set a bedtime. So now let's say you want to wake up at 7am so count back seven and a half hours backward from 7am make so that would make 11:30 your new bedtime. Keep a journal beside your bed. Write down when you wake up. So set your alarm for 7am and note what time you naturally wake up. So if you found that you woke up at 6:30, then perhaps you only need seven hours of sleep. But if you find the alarm goes off, it wakes you up, you feel groggy and tired, then perhaps you need a little bit longer or an earlier bedtime. And don't feel bad about whatever happens. It doesn't really matter. The world's top performers usually get an average of 8 hours and 36 minutes of sleep per night. And I know a lot of people, when we were working, it was like a badge of honor. You know you don't want to sleep. But another easier way that you can do this is called the Power of When quiz. So if you go on the power of when.com and you do the quiz, you're going to come up with an animal. So they're going to send you a bunch of different things about which animal you are based on a set of questions that you answer. And it will give you kind of an idea of a schedule that best works depending on what type of animal you are. So I encourage you to go and do that on your own time. And then one of the things that I think a lot of us deal with is tension and anxiety on issues. So having a journal beside your bed where you can write down some of the thoughts that you're having. A lot of times if you've got a heavy schedule and you've got a lot of things on your mind that you want to accomplish, writing those down in a journal will help you for the next day so that you can just empty to your mind of those thoughts of the things that you need to do. And then one of the other things that's really important is repeating negative judgments about the fact that you can't sleep. That's the hardest part. I think when we get into that I can't sleep, I want to sleep, I got to sleep. Changing that I can sleep, I can relax. Or maybe doing the parachute breathing that can help you that mindful breath work. Or one of the other things that I have used in the past is binaural beats. Binaural beats are designed to activate the brain into different wavelengths. So our sleep process has different wavelengths. So when you're focusing on work, you have a certain wavelength and a hertz. When you're trying to sleep, your brain goes into different waves, kind of like a delta wave. And then place playing music or a meditation that has binaural beads that are designed to help get your brain into that sleep wave can help you move the brain and stop that, what we call monkey brain. So it's a process of helping you get to it by changing the way your brain works. The other key thing that I would suggest that you work on finding out is caffeine. So a lot of us, especially if we're prior to the program, if we've been fatigued, we depend on caffeine or stimulants or something help us keep going during the day. I know when I was really sick, it was 10 years of walking through mud, and I used caffeine or whatever I could use to get energy so I could accomplish the things during the day. Of course, that tanked my adrenals. So one of the key things to find out is where does caffeine affect your sleep? Is it at noon? So try, try practicing and including. So if you normally take caffeine, coffee, tea, you know, whatever it is that you do, try to eliminate caffeine after 2pm and see if your sleep improves. If it doesn't, try eliminating at 12 noon and see if your sleep improves. Try that process and see what works for you. The other thing you can try to find out is any of your medications that may have a stimulating effect that are disrupting your sleep. Just a couple of key things to think about. And one of the things, you know, on some days I get from some people that they're feeling more hungry, and that could be because you didn't get enough sleep the night before. And so the next day you can feel like you want to eat 350 more calories. Typically, you're craving sugar or salty foods, and it'll be more difficult to stay on the program. So it's really key to get enough sleep so that the next day you don't have this high ghrelin that's going to make you feel like you're more hungry. Sleep panning the body loves routine. You want to really plan your sleep by putting it in your schedule. Focus on, you know, a lot of times, not only a consistent schedule, but a sleep routine that you put in place that allows you every day to let your body and your brain know you're going to bed. And that process helps your body relax into a very good sleep. You want to avoid late afternoon or evening naps if you can. If you do need a nap often, you know, in the earlier part of the afternoon, try to focus on 30 minutes max. That's where I use binaural beats to help calm my whole system down and to help me get a really restful 30 minutes in the process. One of the other key things is making sure you don't eat three hours before bed. So a lot of us are doing intermittent fasting. Just make sure that last meal is three hours before going to sleep. You don't want your body prioritizing digestion. You want your body prioritizing sleep. You could take a hot aromatherapy bath. It's just, you know, take one to two cups of Epsom salts that has magnesium sulfate. It gets absorbed in through the skin. It's very relaxing. If you have lots of pain that you've been dealing with, this will help. You can add half to one cup of baking soda that's very alkalizing to the body. And it helps if you're in a stressed out or acidic body state. And then add in 10 drops of lavender oil. For those who are in the longevity program, you would have gotten the lavender oil. Add that to your bath and that will help lower your cortisol levels. Strategies for falling and or staying asleep. So if you wake up and you find you can't get back to sleep, move out into a place where maybe you have a red light bulb. You don't want to turn lights on overhead because that wakes you right up. You want to. The red light bulbs are really key. I'll talk about that in a second. But putting in a low light area can help. 20 to 30 minutes. Trying to fall asleep, then get out of bed. Meditation, as we talked about and also I found for me, adding in an eye mask has been a blessing. It keeps all lights that might be in the room or anything. If my husband wakes up because he deals with a little bit of hip pain, then my eye Mask is on that keeps me sleeping. I also put earplugs in that helps mouth taping if you find you snore. Sleep apnea or deep sleep for those who have an OURA ring you can track. If you put mouth tape on, start tracking how it affects your sleep and it should help to improve your deep sleep. It also can help with decreasing nighttime wakenings because you won't wake up to go pee and helps the body relax more into that parasympathetic state. And if you have difficulty doing it, I know for some people you put the tape on and. And then you wake up, it's gone because you're. You're like panicked. Try doing it reading a book. So practice. If you're reading a book before bed, just practice for, you know, the time you're reading the book and then take it off and then the next day and get used to just having it on until you can actually wear it while you sleep. Bedroom air quality. Couple of things with breathing. My son had a mold exposure and so this little tool here is called the Navage. Great, great tool. I don't know if you've ever heard of using what do you call, salt, nasal sprays and things. This actually, you put salt water solution in the top and then it's automatic with a pro. Uses a battery to run the water through your nasal cavities. And I have a friend of mine who swears by it. She gets incredible sinus congestion and deals with really a lot of sinus pain. And she uses this two to three times a day, sometimes four times if, if it's really bad. If you deal with allergies, it can help to flush out any of that in there as well. It's great thing light sources. So we provide, in the longevity program, we provide a red light and you can see from here the difference in melatonin suppression. So under the red light area, it's less than 2%. So as you're going to sleep overnight, if you're using LED bulbs overhead, it suppresses your melatonin by 80%. So you definitely want to focus on using red light. It's 0%. Same thing. Turn the lights down overhead. Either use a dimmer or candles or a salt lamp in your room. You definitely want to have dark window shades. And then noise is often an issue for people. I know my daughter goes up camping and has difficulty because there's no noise. So some people need no noise and some people need white noise. So we have a fan on all the time that just creates that and an air treatment system that creates that noise that just helps us sleep temperature. You want to make sure you're sleeping in the correct temperature, not too cold, not too hot. And then EMFs avoid sleeping near electrical fields. I know a lot of people will take their phone and put it in their bathroom so it's not right beside their head. And just making sure that you're, you're not sleeping by computers or plugs or that kind of thing. If you can change those things. Screens, this is really important. At night, a lot of people will sit in bed with their phone and there's a couple of things you can do if you have to work late on your computer. There's something called F lux you can add or just get flux that has a blue light filter to your computer. So if you can set that up on your computer, it will help. On your Apple devices there's a night shift function that you can set that automatically based on the sun in your area. It will come on and makes your phone more red light. And same with your Android devices, there's an app called Twilight that does it for you. So during the day, really important to get out and get sunlight exposure in the morning. That sunlight in your eyes, no hat, no glasses on, will help to reset your circadian rhythm, especially if you're dealing with not being able to get to bed at an early time. Sleep tracking tools there's something called sleep cycle. I know different. Oh gosh, different practitioners have talked about sleep cycle and Dave Asprey is one of the ones that talked about it. And it really helps you connect with what's going on in your sleep. Same with the Oura ring. For those who are in longevity and have the Oura ring, great opportunity to do that. Dave Asprey actually has a free 14 day sleep challenge. If you're really having sleep problems, you can check out sleep with Dave, which is an interesting comment the way he named it, but that's a really good one to use. Deep sleep is your recovery sleep, of course. And your OURA ring will help with heart rate variability, of course. That measures the variation between your heartbeats and really reflects the status of your autonomic nervous system. So if you have an OURA ring, use that every day. Try something, see how your body reacts the next day. The factors that affect your results for HRV are age, health status, fitness level, and don't compare your HRV with anybody else's because everybody's is different and you want to see the change over time in yours. Supplements, you can Take some people will use melatonin to fall asleep. There are different types. Magnesium glyc glycinate so we've talked about for constipation that use magnesium citrate. For sleep you can use magnesium glycinate or magnesium threonate are really good calming herbs like lemon balm, passion flower, valerian root. If you like herbal tea you can do those at night. Chamomile is also very good. And Dr. Bruce, the sleep doctor talks about three vitamins and minerals that really can affect sleep. One is vitamin D, two is magnesium. So make sure you get, you get that vitamin D checked and your iron, if your iron levels are affected those are two things that can affect your sleep. So really focus on slowing your heart rate down at night so that you can fall asleep making sure your room, your temperature. If you have a monkey brain, journaling, writing things down. There's lots of different things. Self love can help you leave the stresses of the day behind in order for you to be able to fall asleep easily. So I hope that helps a little bit in helping you get that sleep. I've just whet your appetite as well. In the modules there are several different modules that talk about if you're dealing with sleep apnea or snoring. Satchin has in the breathwork meditations some things that you can learn about breathing and how to improve that for your sleep. And then let me go to Questions for today. Dr. Waiting 45 minutes in the morning. Yes, yes. Before you take intake. Caffeine. I've heard a lot about that actually there are lots of doctors, functional medicine doctors that are really talking about that. Making sure even with if you take some kind of medication in the morning, leaving that half an hour to an hour to get your caffeine. Great. Thanks Tracy for that thing And Nikki, the power of when.
Yep.
What was the name of the sleep quiz? Yeah, thank you Nikki for sharing that with Julie. Any other questions for today about the program? Any anything that you're dealing with, you're unsure of what to do next? I know some people are moving into maintenance. We've tried to support you as best we can with the guidelines for maintenance and those that are getting started, just keep going. That's the most important thing is just stay focused on the goals and the you know that you're. You prioritize you. A lot of times as women we don't prioritize ourselves and we do everything for everyone else. And I think that's the power of saying no is probably has been the most important Thing for me. My husband has been great in supporting me in making those decisions. He always asks me certain questions that just kind of trigger did I make the right decision. So any other questions for today? Go ahead. Becca, can you unmute? Yep, go ahead.
Sorry about that. I was trying to find the raise hand. Yeah, just quick questions, a couple days, just running errands and I was wondering is there, is it okay to have a shorter time frame for your eating window or does it have to be the eight hours?
No, you can have. It's the only key thing is to eat your meals within the eight hours. So anytime within there I, I eat at 11:30 and 4:30 and I'm done. And I've been three years.
So can it be, can it be a four hour window? There's no. I, I'm assuming that my, my fasting time is better but I don't know about this program specific. So that's why.
Yeah, no eating within an eight hour window or less. You're fine.
And then I gotten in a couple times. I actually haven't eating my 4 ounces of vegetables I'm supposed to have. I could be eating a salad but for example I just didn't have the vegetables around. And then same thing with the fruit. Sometimes I skip the fruit. Not on purpose, but it's just the situation. Just wondering what your thoughts were on that.
So we encourage vegetables because of the nutrient density, right. You're getting lots of vitamins, minerals. In order for our body to restore, we need all of those things. So just think about that. Frozen vegetables are fine too. That makes it easy. They're pre proportioned. I always buy organic broccoli frozen from Costco. If I'm in a rush, I just take it out. Takes one minute to warm it up and I'm good. I got my 4 ounces in the other thing with fruit. So fruit is at the end of the meal because it can spike your blood sugar. And you've eaten things that will help slow that sugar coming into the body. But it's also something that sends a message to your brain, satiety. So you, what can happen is if you skip the fruit later on you might feel more hungry because you didn't get that satiety. And so now you're going to have to have strategies to help yourself get through that so you don't go off plan. Do you understand? So that's why we incorporate it at the end of the meal. I don't know if that happens for you. Maybe because you're early in the program. It doesn't. But as you move into the later parts of the program, you're going to want to definitely have that fruit to create that satiety and help you make it through.
You mean the maintenance part when you say later in the program? Oh, no, no.
In release phase. Because as your body is getting used to the habits and releasing, we. A lot of. Sometimes people will feel more hungry as they get into weeks. Three or four. And so you want to increase the amount of free vegetables that you're having, but you definitely don't want to miss your fruit. Really important.
Oh, okay. Okay, that's good to know. And then just to clarify, when I missed my. The. What is it called? Not free vegetables, I guess is what it's called. Yeah. Where you have to weigh it out. I still ate a big salad. I don't know. So I'm still getting the micronutrients, but are you saying that I really just gotta get that 4 ounces of that vegetable consistently because it's got maybe other micronutrients? I don't even know.
Yes.
The green veggies are higher. I find the. A lot of the free veggies are there to support your liver.
Oh, okay.
The approved veggies are there because of the other nutrients and minerals and things that we need in our body to have. So really focus on the 4, 4, 4, 4 ounces of protein, 4 ounces of veggies, and 4 ounces of fruit and then add in those free veggies as you can.
Okay, thanks. I didn't get myself on a slippery slope because I was like, oh, that's. You do it one day, then it's likely to happen often. So. But thank you. Yeah.
But it's also the changing your mind. Right. So if it happens. Okay, it happens. Now get back on. We really focus on progress over perfection. Some days we're going to not make it. Some days things are going to happen. Yeah, that's okay. But just progress over perfection. Yep. It happened. Move on, get back on. Right. And don't berate yourself, because when you berate yourself, you change into the wrong state. We want to love ourselves through the process and keep ourselves in that parasympathetic state. So that over the time as we're going through this, we become less stressed about lots of things. Right. As we're going through. Great reminder, Nikki. If you're too full from the proteins and veggies, you can always have the fruit a little bit. Any other comments, questions? Anybody want to share anything as we're Going through. Did anybody learn anything new over this last week? Tracy, go ahead.
I did. I heard a doctor talking multiple times and talking about the fact that when we wake up, we have this thing called adenosine that needs to dissipate, and if we take a coffee caffeine right away, we can't get rid of that adenosine. So the good thing is to try and avoid having caffeine for about 40 minutes, and then, then it might be easier for you to reduce your caffeine throughout the day because you've got rid of this adenosine that makes you feel tired and. Yeah, that's just my piece.
Awesome.
Thank you for sharing that. That's exciting and can make a huge difference in how we function every day. Right. Needing less caffeine is always good because the adrenals, we don't want to wipe them out. Right, Natalie.
Hey, Annalise.
A great call.
Thanks, everybody. I'm just walking while I'm listening. And so I just wanted to follow up off of Rebecca's experience and just share a little bit of, like, a mindset piece and what's worked. And, like, the great thing is, is, like, we're all doing this program to really look at, okay, what is in my house. And so, like, the ideas and the suggestions that Annalisa had is making sure you're prepared right, so your house is prepared. So, like, what are those veggies that are frozen in the freezer? What are those fruits that maybe last a little bit longer? Like, I'm sure we all know fresh berries do not last in a house if you have more than one person eating. So things like apples, frozen berries, just ensuring that there's always something, something there so that, like, when it's in a pinch, it's just like, okay, I know there's something there. And another mental thing that's really helped me is mentally having, like, kind of like a short list of 15 minute meals. I call them of, okay, if I'm tired, you know, it's Friday night, I'm tired, you know, you really don't want to cook or whatever. It's like mentally knowing I have things in this house that I can make a 15 minute meal. And it might not be the most amazing gourmet thing, but it's going to be cheaper than going out. It's going to be way better for me than going out, and I'm going to be proud of myself when I'm done that I actually did that. So that's where I'll use things like heart of palm pasta or edamame pasta or like, a lot of people will do shrimp. I can't do shrimp. But, like, quick, like, keeping frozen stir fry vegetables in the freezer so that there's always something in the pantry. So it's just like, it's prepping for success and your lifestyle that we're moving into. And then also, like, the mindset piece of looking at those situations with that attitude of, like, all right, I'm going to figure this out. So thanks for letting me share.
Awesome. Natalie, you are being requested to share your 15 minute meals.
Well, that's so, like, my one is taco night on every Wednesday for the last three years has been taco night. Because, you know, rewind. Three years ago, it was like, crazy stressful. I was like, oh, my God, what am I doing? I get two. Two young kids. And so I just made tacos one night and I was just like, oh, my God. Everyone ate everything and there was zero complaints. Right. Usually one kid is going to complain about something. So what I do is, you know, again, because that's consistent. Then I always know that I need to have taco stuff in my house. Right. So I use. I make my own taco seasoning with the recipe. I usually do like a pound of turkey, a pound of ground beef. And so, like, that meat cooks super fast. And then the kids can do it how they want.
Right.
They usually have like, a wrap and cheese and stuff. And then I mix my meat with cauliflower rice, and then I put it on, like, like salad, greens, whatever. I got spinach greens. So my, you know, approved veggie is like the cauliflower, essentially. I just mix that with the meat, top it with whatever I got, and boom. So that's like, we literally make that every week for the last three years. And then like, a lot of those pasta things or stir fries.
Excellent. Thank you. Yeah. My mom taught me how to kind of always do the beginning the same. So, Chi. I take a little bit of broth or if I'm cooking with oil or, yeah. Add in tea or whatever, and then I'll cut up onions and celery and a little bit of garlic. I can't have ginger anymore now. I just found out on my thing, ginger is one of my sensitive activities, which is so sad. I love ginger. And my mom, we buy it and then we. We shave it off, and then we put it in a food processor and then we store it in a container with a little bit of. What do you call those packs that keep it, and then we have it whenever we want. So I have kind of a set thing of things that always go into the dish before I actually put the meat in. And I think that's a Caribbean thing because my mom is from Barbados, and so the standard way to, I think, cook. So. Awesome. Thanks, Natalie. Appreciate that. Two participants, raised hands. Who I can't see, though. Oh, Becca, go ahead. Oh, you're on.
You're muted. Sorry, I thought I. But anyway, I wanted to show you guys this. That's what I did last night. It is.
Well, to show the. Yeah.
What I did before. And I. I was like, all right, I gotta get on top of this food prep. So this is ground beef, And I got my 4 ounces of green beans mixed in there. Like, I cooked that separately. And then I have like a whole station right now. Like, I'm not. Because it's so, so easy to just, like, have it all just sort of made and then I can microwave it because what was happening is I'm running out the door and I couldn't even, like, steam my broccoli or whatever. But this has been so. What a God bless, you know, godsend to just have it all ready. And it's been simple. I've never food prepped in my life. I don't think my husband has, but. So this is great for me. Great tip, I think. Yeah.
Actually, one of the other things, too, you can do with your vegetables is prep them as soon as you bring them home. I did a meal planning program once, and. And what they recommended is as soon as you bring them in, you clean them. So you put them in a little bit of water with some. About a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or any vinegar that you have. You wash them, you let them sit. Then you lay out a tea towel, a clean one. You just lay them on there, let.
Them.
Dry, and then you can cut them up. And if you have glass containers, you can just cut them and then put them all into glass containers. She recommended paper towel on the bottom. Then you're like, if you're doing celery, for example, paper towel on the bottom, your celery, and then a paper towel on the top to absorb the water. Because one of the key things that makes vegetables go faster is the water that gets in there, and then they. They lose their flavor and will go bad quicker. So that's one of the great things that you can do as well for meal prepping is just, you know, pick a day if. If you know, Friday is your day to clean out your Fridge and then you go shopping Saturday. Then maybe your prep day is Sunday, right? Just schedule it into your calendar so that you can be more successful on a long term basis. And then it just makes it easy to just pull out the celery. It's already washed clean, ready to go. If you chop it up, throw it in and you're, you know, like that's. You're done.
Right.
Makes it simple. So what was that prep tip, Tracy? What was which prep tip?
The one you were just giving. Were you saying washing everything and wrapping it in a. What was that?
Oh. So one of the, one of the ways that you can prepare your vegetables to have them stay longer is you, you take a big bowl or pan or whatever and you put water with a little bit of apple cider vinegar or vinegar and you just put it in for a very short period of time. It just cleans all your vegetables. Sometimes different things like salad greens, I wouldn't do because they can go mushy too quick. Just do them at the time. And if you have a salad spinner, you can just spin off the water from that. But just taking like celery, I'll just give you the example of celery. If you, you know, cut off the bottom and the top, you put it in, let it clean, you lay it out on a tea towel, let it dry, because water is what's going to cause the vegetables to go quicker or just. So then once they're dry, then you'll take them. I use glass containers and I'll put a paper towel on the bottom, put in the celery, put a paper towel on the top and then close it. You want to make sure it's in an airtight container because also air is what's going to affect the vegetables going and then that will. They're prepped, they're ready to go essentially, and they're clean. And then all you have to do and they'll last longer. So all you have to do is take them out, cut them up and you're good to go. Same with your fruits. Take the apples, right?
You.
Because a lot of times, if you follow ewg, which is the environmental Working Group, you can see the clean 15 and the dirty Dozen try to buy the Dirty Dozen organic, but clean them, right. Who knows who's handled what of whatever you're picking up and what they had that got on. So just, you know, taking a little bit of water, some vinegar, put them in for a short period of time, dry them and then store them in your fridge. That can help keep your vegetables and fruits. Some things you can leave out. Some things don't do well in the fridge. Other things do do well. So.
Great.
So any other questions? We're at 106. Thanks everybody for staying on and great call today. You guys are amazing. Congratulations for all the wins and things that are up and coming. This week's going to be awesome. Our weather is going to be amazing here where I live, and I hope it's going to be great where you are. Good to get out, get that sunlight in the morning and get out for a walk in nature, right? Parasympathetic. Moving the body is going to be the most important to helping you accomplish your goals and your dreams. So have a great week, everyone. Take care.
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