Weekly Living Light MRP Program [Sept 8, 2023]

Okay, perfect.

Hello. Hello, everyone. Good morning, Good afternoon. Happy Friday. Welcome, Annalisa. Lovely to see you. Hi, Beverly. What was that that you were saying?

Oh, I keep a piece of tape over my, over my monitor, my camera.

Yeah.

And I forgot to take it off and I thought, oh, maybe that's why you can't see me. But it would have been if I actually had the camera on.

It's a two step process.

Yeah.

Lovely to see your face. Glad we figured out any tech difficulties that were in the way. Lovely to see you. I hope you're having a good Friday far. Hi, Kat as well. Lovely to see you. I think she is just connecting here shortly. So as we start to pour in for today's Q and A, as always, I would love to start with some gratitude. Maybe wins, maybe something exciting, something that you've had a chance to experience a new opportunity, a new mindset shift. Maybe you learned something about yourself that you've never learned before and you're looking to explore that further. So I'd love to celebrate any wins, whether they're scale related, non scale related, program related, non program related. We want to celebrate and make sure that gratitude is a part of every day. So feel free to unmute yourselves. Again. Love hearing your voices, but if you are unable to, then the comments work just fine and as many people as they can turn on their cameras. The more the merrier. So I'm just going to take a quick minute here to write into the chat that we've gone ahead and gotten started with today.

We had. We went to the King Richard's Fair in Massachusetts last. This last weekend. We went on Monday and had an absolute blast. It was hot, but there was a lot of shade and it was. We really had a good time. We got to see a friend we haven't seen in a long time.

Oh, that's wonderful. I remember you mentioning that last week that you were going to see King Richard. So would you recommend going to see it?

Oh, I'm not seeing the movie. It's not a movie. It's an. It's a location.

Oh, it's a Loki. I thought it was a play.

No, no, no. It has. You go and you. It's. There's a lot of craft booths, crafts booths and they, there are pro play. Well, there are shows, but they're about a half hour each. We. There was. It's an unusual Renaissance festival in that the, the. There's a travel, there's an all day show. It starts out before the doors open, welcoming the visitors in and then they do different things and if you can follow them around all day and just watch what they're doing. Well, they actually did the musical and it was. It was great because you have these people dressed in Renaissance era clothing doing. Yeah, I think they did Michael Jackson. So, you know.

That'S hilarious. At a Renaissance festival, which is so funny to see those two worlds colliding.

Yeah.

Thank you. Thanks for sharing that. And sounds like a good time. Sounds like it was a novelty.

Yeah.

Event.

So hopefully, you know, maybe more of us can check it out at some point in the future. So thanks for sharing that, Beverly. I see Barb has made it. Nicolette has made it. Welcome, welcome, ladies. Lovely to have you. We are just sharing some wins, maybe some exciting things that have happened in the last week since we collected here on last Friday. Maybe it's something that you discovered about yourself during this journey of transformation. Maybe it's something new that you started doing that you really love that that's become kind of a staple in your routine. For instance, I have started picking up more running. So running is something I used to love doing. And for a brief period of time, I just stopped. It was a little bit too intense for my nervous system at that point in time. And so I picked it back up. Loving going on runs, especially at the sunset. And it's allowed me to connect to this old part of myself that used to use running as an outlet, as a therapy or even just, you know, as exercise. Just getting movement in. And so it's fun to see kind of old thoughts, old feelings flood in by doing those things that once brought you so much peace or once were such a staple in your everyday life. So I'm really grateful for two functioning legs, good kneecaps, you know, everything is going well and I can run freely whenever I make the time for it. Oh, I see Barb finally got the pictures of the protein balls here. They look delicious. How do they go? I'm just going to go ahead and unmute you here.

Sorry, I forgot to hit on mute.

That's okay.

It was. It was good. I did a lot of experimenting. So what that. That picture is, that's four different varieties I made.

Oh, they're all different.

They're all different.

Oh, my gosh.

Yeah, they were great. So basically when I made. When I tried to make your recipe, it kind of went blurgh. I didn't have enough texture in it somehow, so I ended up using myself at home. I just smeared it with apples. That worked out well. But then a friend of mine gave another recipe and hers, it worked really well with the balls. I took basically your suggestions and add it to her. So one of those dark ones, it has the cacao powder in it and the protein powder in it. The other dark one has apricot and date and hemp seeds and chia seeds, pumpkin seeds. Like it has, it has all the things. The other dark one, one of the lighter ones is basically the sun butter, pumpkin seeds, coconut, I can't remember, it was very plain. Then the other light one, it was an almond flour instead of coconut because my brother doesn't like coconut. But it worked great. I did that. I went to a kayak training weekend and I brought the protein balls. I also cut up orange pepper, yellow pepper, red pepper, celery and carrots and made homemade hummus and brought that. So everybody had the rainbow. I brought cucumber. So I had really healthy food, really healthy choices. I pre cooked chicken and brought those, you know, those organic boxes of arugula and spinach. And so every. I mean, we were, we were well nourished. So for making me think ahead and really prepare us with, like I say, good clean nutrition, oh, my gosh.

It's our pleasure. Thank you for, for actioning it, for using the skills, you know, outside of this program, especially, because that's the most important part. And I know that whoever was around you was so fortunate to have you there to be able to nourish them. Yeah, it's. It, it does take a little bit of prep. It does take that mental switch to then kind of reshift your focus on when you do go to events or when you are going camping or let's say, you know, you don't have the luxur we have at home. But then once you make that, that switch or that change where, you know, now a part of this process is a packing list and is a food list, it makes it that much easier and then you have confidence and you feel great the whole weekend. There's no recovery kind of period afterwards, which is awesome.

My body is in some recovery.

I'm sure there's that too. But I'm sure it's much less inflammation than it could have been.

Yeah, well, plus we were, we were out on the water essentially eight hours a day. So to have those protein paws waiting for us on shore, it was key. It was really, I think it was.

A key factor, probably the motivation that got you to reach shore a little faster towards the end too. That's awesome. Barb. I'm so happy you're enjoying them. If you Find any fun, cool recipes and continue to explore with them, please share it with us. I'm loving this protein ball journey that you're on and it's always great to know good combinations that, you know, sometimes work. And I know in the past there's a lot of fun holiday spins that you can put on it as well. So with Thanksgiving coming up, I know obviously it's earlier in Canada than it is in the States, but it's great to put in some warming spices which boost up the antioxidant count. So using something like nutmeg, like clove, like cinnamon, those are going to be really great to include. And then it has that nice fall kind of feel to it as well. Christmas, of course, sticking to something like lemon cranberries, kind of more heartier, more drier fruits such as that. So it's fun. There's so many possibilities with it.

I also saw a recipe online for one that had cashews in it with for Christmas with peppermint extract in it there as well.

Mm, yes, I know. The possibilities are endless. It really just comes down to what you're in the mood for, which is fun. And then once you kind of invest in, in, I recommend investing in kind of like more bulk size packages whenever you're buying, like the nuts and the dates and all that. So then you can just mix and match and you have it all in your pantry.

Oh, and by the way, I can't remember, I think we had a conversation on here. I couldn't. I was looking for the organic unsweetened sun butter and I ended up ordering from, well, ca.

And they had both like the combination no sugar added and organic.

Yes.

Nice. Okay. Have you tried it yet? Is that what you used in the protein ball?

That's the, that's the guts of most of those protein balls. I had the sun butter in there.

Yeah. Got you, got you. Awesome. I'm glad that that that's been put to rest and you now can have faith in your sun butter. Make sure it's sugar free, organic. Everything looks wonderful. Thank you, Barb. All the things, all the things today and into the weekend. Irina, this recipe is for the maintenance phase, so it's going to be a little bit into the maintenance phase since we are combining different sources of fat inside of the protein balls that you are going to introduce first, one by one. But we can talk about maintenance in more detail if that's what you want. Kind of that information right now. I would recommend to hold off on it only because I know you're getting started with the program right now. And I would love for you to focus all of your efforts on the release phase first because that is of course, its own learning curve. I know that you're so much of the journey already there having a great foundation of health, but I think just to keep things plain and simple for the time being, we can discuss maintenance in maybe like three weeks time. That's what I'm thinking would be a good time frame. Okay. More info on release. I can definitely do that. I'd love to know exactly kind of where you wanted to get additional info in regards to release. I'm happy to answer your questions. And Annalisa, Yes. Adding in pumpkin, pumpkin puree is divine. It's so good. And even carrots. So making like little carrot cake, protein balls. Carrot cake is my absolute favorite. And it's pretty easy to make gluten free too, which is nice. And then you have the carrots inside, so it's great. So, yeah, so that's another great idea that we can play around with. I'll definitely be playing around with it this season. Irina? Yes. You can definitely jump on the call if you wanted to share your questions. I am ready for them. I'm going to go ahead and open.

Hi.

Hi.

Okay. Hey, question, question. We're going to open up. I have a question about the release and I'm kind of like I'm doing it as I go, which is, you know, crazy time in my life because it just moved. But I wanted to clarify one thing. Alice is. I'm studying, so I'm doing the 5,000 calorie, which is. We'll see what happens. There's no gluten around on the 5000. Correct. Or you can do whatever.

So really, we recommend to try to keep it clean if you can. The reason being is that you're going to feel a little bit better during those two days, which are a lot on your system already with the 5000. But yes, you can include gluten, you can include more of those indulgent foods. I recommend taking whatever kind of, you know, snack foods, indulgent foods you have in the pantry and using those.

Okay, got it. Because I don't do usually gluten, but like, we happen to be going out today and there will be pizza and I'm thinking, oh, maybe I should just do pizza and get it over with.

Yeah, yeah, you can definitely go ahead and enjoy it. It makes it that much easier to get to the 5,000 calories.

Yes. So, and another question. So when I'm Studying. I'm studying on Monday is the 4. 4. 4, 4. I have the list and I already did the food shopping. Is it two times the day that we eat? It is two times a day only or three times a day? Four. Four.

It's going to be two times. Yeah, so. So you're going to be doing it two times within that intermittent fasting window. Some people like to do breakfast and kind of like a late lunch, early dinner. Some people like to do a lunch and a dinner. So it really depends on your schedule, kind of how you, how what work makes you feel your best. As long as it's within that eight hour time frame.

Okay. And because there's a lot of free vegetables on the program, could you incorporate them if you get hungry within the between the two and just have an abundance or you suggest to do it all in one sitting.

Ideally you want to try to get it in all in one sitting. So it's not to say that snacking is bad. If there's kind of a few steps I like to take before snacking so many times it's often because of a routine that we've had kind of instilled in our everyday life for so long where we feel like we need this snack at this time. So pausing in that moment when you do find that you are craving a snack and asking yourself, is this a true hunger or am I on autopilot right now? Am I bored or am I looking to fill an emotional need? And so just giving yourself a couple of minutes to kind of decipher what it is that your body is actually trying to tell you can help. Second thing I like to do is grab either a glass of water or a cup of herbal tea. A lot of the time whenever you have a food craving, it's usually a dehydration response from your body. But we don't have separate responses. Unfortunately, it's a flaw in our, in our blueprint. But oftentimes it's satisfied with just a glass of water. So having that waiting about 15 minutes, if you still feel like you want to go ahead and grab something and it is a true hunger, yes, you can go ahead and grab some free vegetables. Sticking to something like peppers, like cucumbers, celery.

Got it. And what about hydration? Do you recommend? I'm just thinking my daughter is a good example. Do you rec. Because I really want to introduce you to this program because, you know, it's mom. It doesn't work with mom, so she drinks a lot of water. And I just recently discovered Something trick that because some people drink a lot of water, you know, like with my clients is because they're not getting the minerals and electrolytes in the system. So I suggested to do electrolyte mineral infusion to the water to feed the organ system, which brands and what do you think about that?

Yeah, I think that that's a great idea. Especially in the summer and especially if somebody has been exposed to chronic stress because your body is going to want to constantly release the fluids that you're retaining if you're in a chronic stressed out state. So that's why people who aren't just that baby.

So yeah, she just had a baby.

Well, congratulations to her on her baby and to you as well. And so yeah, I think electrolytes are going to be really important. Some brands that are really is electrolyte synergy, which is by designs.

I put it down in. Yes, yes.

Annalisa actually just shared the link here. Thank you so much. So yeah, you're going to take. Yeah. Roughly one scoop each day. You can also do, let's say before you get this electrolyte synergy in shipping wise, you can also take a pinch of, let's say like something like Celtic salt or Redmond salt, something that hasn't been stripped of its minerals and put a little, a little pinch of that into your water in the mornings. That's going to help you absorb water or retain it and then also give you the electrolytes. So those are the two great options. So yeah, I would say it's a, it's a great, great idea to add them in especially in the summertime because we naturally just sweat more.

Yes. And she's from California, so it's kind of always. Yeah. There.

Yeah. So she can't escape it.

No. And I'm. Me neither. In Florida now. Yes.

You're no stranger to sweat.

Perfect.

Yes.

So I'm finding that my immune system is a little compromised right now and I've been kind of fighting a little cold. It helped me to cleanse with prolong, I'd say a lot. But I'm kind of. I'm back again, you know, with a little bit of cold constantly. Like I'm. So this is where my Chinese medicine, you know, had come then whenever I'm exposed to wind, you know, and the wind is delivery type of stuff. So, you know, immune system is delivery type of stuff. What can I do to, you know, from your protocol for my help to boost my liver.

Great question.

Immune system because I'm.

Yes, Edmond, we definitely. Yes, definitely. And there's lots of things that we can do to boost it. First and foremost, rest. Rest. There's no supplement that'll outdo it. There is going to be nothing on the market that stacks up like rest does. So giving yourself some grace and, you know, maybe getting an extra hour or two, let this be the allowance that you need to put other things that are not priority off to the side. Right now your body needs you and you'll be back sooner if you take that time now. So rest is going to be super important. Of course, getting in lots of fluids is going to be super important. So, you know, it happens that people do get sick on this program from time to time. I say grab some, some additional broth and. And sip on that throughout the day. That's going to give you a little bit of protein. It's going to be warming for the gut, and it's also going to give you lots of hyd. So having some broth around. Yes. Pacific Foods has a really great brand or a really great broth and it's all organic. So that one I would recommend, and it's gluten free because sometimes stock does have a little bit of gluten inside of it for whatever reason. So that one is a really great brand. I can link it down here.

I'll. I'll look for it here. Okay.

Okay. Awesome. Couple of vitamins to kind of boost your immune system from that side is taking zinc plus copper every day. So that's boosting your immune system on a regular basis. You want to take the two because you need both to be more bioavailable in your body. There's a brand. Let me see if I can find it. I don't know if Designs for Health has a zinc plus copper supplement, but let me see. Let me see if I can check it out.

Hey. Oh, my God. My dog is destroying my new place. Great.

It's a lot of chaos going on today.

At least a lot of chaos going on. Goodness. Okay. Sorry.

That's okay. Let's see.

My little puppy is destroying. Okay, let's see.

So there is there what isn't one by Designs for Health, but there is one by the NOW brand. So it's the Orange brand. It's kind of like a bright orange maybe. Okay, maybe you guys have seen it, but I can link it as well. I'll take notes for the broth and then I can link it in here.

Thank you.

You're welcome. And then the other thing that I wanted to also recommend is, of course, vitamin C Goes without saying. So vitamin C is going to be super important. Taking something like echinacea, this is more so effective, effective at the very start. So you want to try to catch it as soon as possible on the very, very onset symptoms that you're getting sick. Echinacea helps to strengthen the immune system. So it might not help in this interim right now, but the next time around if you find that kind of like a cold sore throat, whatever is coming on, dosing yourself with some echinacea, that's going to be, that's going to really help to get you kind of boosted immune system wise. It'll help you fight off that virus, whatever that virus is a little bit more effectively. You can also take vitamin C, vitamin D3. So D3 is also super important.

Yeah, so D3 with K, with K2, with K2. I have that and I do have some powders which are from Chinese, Chinese, you know, herbs that I can take to which I'm taking. But I'm just like as soon as there is a wind, you know, and that's what's happening. In the building that I live, they have air conditioning and I, as soon as I get under the air conditioning, we call it the wind gates in the back of your neck. As soon as I get some invasion of wind, I go, oops, here I go again. And it's just been, yeah, yeah, I.

Think it might be your body just, just letting go of some detox as well, especially that you've done prolon too. I wouldn't be surprised if you, if you were detoxing some stuff. So if you do have access to a sauna, this is obviously like an extra step then that would be fantastic to do at this time period as well, including the electrolytes having fluid and then getting inside a sauna is going to help kind of just speed up the process.

And that's my next question. I'm thinking of getting the infrared. So now I just looked on ebay and I found one for like really inexpensive. It's a sunlit dome. And you know, a lot of doctors and practitioners are backing this up very well, but in very low, like 1.5 electromagnetic field. And I was like thinking to get it for like a fraction of the cost. What do you think about that? The infrared?

I think infrared is great because it gets down to the cellular level. So it's, it's a lot more potent in that. And then it helps to detoxify as well. So it has added benefits to it. Sometimes it also, I mean it also has the red light waves which is really healing for your skin as well. So I would say there's no harm in trying it out if you like saunas and it's going to make it more convenient, more fun. Do it. I think it's a great addition.

Okay, perfect. Thank you.

My pleasure, My pleasure. Beverly, I see you have your hand up here. Would love to get your questions answered. There.

I don't know why so hard to unmute but, but anyway, yeah, I, I'm starting loading. I started did my first day yesterday and I was just so nauseated. I think I got 3,000 calories in but I just couldn't eat anymore because I was afraid I was gonna puke it all up. So I'm just wondering it do I, should I go an extra day for loading or can we call 3,000 calories? Good.

So what is your weight release goal with this coming round?

Oh gosh, whatever I can lose is I really, I go at five. My goal is five pounds at a time. I lost 10 last round.

So then in that case I usually say if, if there's, if you're looking to release somewhere in like the £20 plus range, let's say ideally, then I would say doing a third loading day would be beneficial so that your body can ramp up and have those additional calories to then be able to lose more. So it's up to you. If you wanted to do one, my recommendation would be to do one. Another one to 3,000 if you can. But how are you feeling today?

I'm feeling a little bit better today. I. But I haven't had a whole lot to eat yet. I ate my breakfast and then I went and laid down and took a nap and I got up in time for this call so.

Well, it's lovely to have you on the call. I'm happy you're here. So I would say, you know, trying your best. I would include more fats including nuts and seeds. Those are going to make it a lot easier including oils on top of whatever vegetables, proteins you're already consuming just to get those added calories in. And then tomorrow you can start your first day of release.

Okay, thank you.

My pleasure. What type of tofu is best? Firm or so I personally like firm tofu. You don't have to get firm tofu. You can get more softer, kind of medium firm or whatever texture because I know you can make desserts out of tofu. You can use it as a protein. Like it's so multi purpose this, there's a brand I Forget what the brand is called, but it's a Sprouted tofu. It's an organic sprouted tofu that I've seen in stores that I personally really like. Let me see if I can find it here. I know it comes in like a green case, green kind of packaging. Oh, yes, yes, it is. It's, it's by Soul Cuisine. So it's Sol Cuisine. I'm going to write that in really quickly. Wonder if I can search it up here.

Okay, one second.

Here you go. That is the sprouted organic Tofu. Tofu.

Looks like you can get it at Walmart in Canada.

Yep, I've seen it at, I've seen it at no frills. Actually haven't seen it at Walmart, but I'm not in Walmart too often. But it's, it's quite easy to get your hands on and the ingredients look pretty good on it as well. So yeah, that's, that's a good brand to use there when it comes to. Oh, I was going to get the Pacific. Let me grab that link really quickly. The Pacific Foods broth. Perfect. Yeah, I think you should be able to find it at the no Frills near you. And then that's the Pacific Foods broth there that I put in. Oh, and then the last thing was the zinc plus copper. Sorry, I'm not sure why this is taking me so long to find it. Bear with me everyone. There we go. How does tofu rank in protein? Let's see. So tofu has a decent amount of protein. Of course, plant based proteins typically have, have less grams of protein than you would find in animal based protein. But it doesn't mean that it's not a good source. The only thing I would say with tofu is that it is calorically less dense. So on this program, whenever you are even outside of this program, whenever you are using tofu, specifically on this program, I'll say first is using an additional pea protein to top up on calories. So whenever you're using the 4 ounces, it amounts to about 80 to 90 calories for that portion. You want to get a few more calories in. And we recommend doing that by using the pea protein from Designs for Health because it's very clean and it has no additional fats, preservatives, you know, ingredients, any of that. And so you can get that additional, I believe it's around 100 calories and then additional 10 grams of protein. So when it comes to the oils and nuts. So I like to. One serving. Let's say, is one tablespoon. So that's going to be for oils. You're going to be measuring in tablespoons. When it comes to seeds, you want to measure in tablespoons as well. So roughly one. One tablespoon is one portion. Not too sure how much that comes out in ounces, just because they're going to be a little bit of a different weight each time. But roughly, you're going to be sticking to about one to two tablespoons. When it comes to measurement, a portion of avocado is a fourth to a half, depending on how large it a portion of. Let's say salmon or lamb, something that's a little bit higher in fat content. You could do 5 ounces, 4 to 5 ounces, roughly. Olives, 2 ounces are great. Coconut milk, 2 ounces or coconut cream, any one of those are awesome options. And edamame for extra protein. Yep. And you can use actually edamame as a protein on the program. I really loved making a stir fry, so I used cauliflower rice, as, you know, the 4 ounces, 5 ounces as the rice base. I used the edamame as the protein inside of it. And then the rest of it was just completely free vegetables, which, you know, a stir fry usually has. So you could do bok choy, you could do red onion, you could do bell peppers, you could do. Let's see, what else would I put in there? You could do even celery if you wanted to. So you can mix and match and kind of just mushrooms, you know, different varieties of mushrooms you can mix and match. And really what I did was I just took garlic and I took ginger, and I minced them finely, you know, both. It kind of amounted to 1 teaspoon each per portion. And then you would put in some tamari inside of it and kind of fry it all up really quickly on the pan. And it tasted delicious. It was like I. I was shocked that this was even a reset set, you know, meal, because I felt no difference from kind of like stir fries that I've had from takeout or, you know, made at home with, you know, traditional rice or whatever have you. So, you know, feel free to get creative. Sometimes you don't. You don't know what you can do or what's possible with certain vegetables until you kind of go into that exploration phase. There was somebody in the reset a little while back, but they shared a picture of one of their meals, and I was just dumbfounded. I was like, how did you make this? Like, how did you think, think to do this, it looks like they went out to a restaurant. So it was a burger patty encased in a lettuce wrap and there was, you know, tomato and pickles and mustard and all this fun, colorful stuff, red onions inside. And then as the non free vegetable, they chose to do pumpkin fries that were air fried. And just the combination looked so beautiful and it was so filling, so satisfying. And it's, it's very much the same traditional, you know, meal that everybody loves. Going out to get a burger and fries, let's say, but you're doing that while also working on your health. In the meantime, you get the exact same vibe as you were to go out, but you're giving yourself a gift of health. And it's reset approved. So it's a huge win. Win. So with the recipes, there's, there is a lot in the reset guide. There is, you know, as many as we can find in our Facebook group. But also, you know, feel free to get a little explorational. Feel free to, you know, create your own meals, try different flavor profiles, maybe try a vegetable that you've never touched or interacted with. You might be surprised how much you enjoy it. Yeah, thanks, Beverly, for this breakdown here. Yeah, so I have seen the Pacific brand at Costco as well. I know it different, differs a little bit from Costco to Costco, but you can find some really great healthy alternatives there too. I was actually there just yesterday and I picked up these fun snacks that I've never seen before that are high in protein and also good for kind of like just trail mix. Because I hike and I camp and I do a lot of outdoor stuff and they had really great healthy options that were fully loaded with lots of healthy nuts and seeds. So just making sure that anytime you are buying something like that at Costco, go checking to see if there's additional sugars, of course, that are added in or unnatural sugars, let's say, or white sugars that don't have any additional nutritional value. So doing your best to get highest quality. Yes, Kat, there is a vegan broth. There's actually a mushroom broth that Pacific Foods makes, so you can use that as your broth. Awesome questions, everyone. Hi, laronda. Lovely to see you. Hi, Denise. Any questions from you ladies or any comments? Hello. Lovely to see you. How has your week been, Laronda?

It's been good, actually. I'm on the maintenance from the, the last first reset cycle that I. And it's good, it's good. I'm learning a lot about how things are going to look after the last round when I get to that point and the decisions that I'm going to have to make and how I'm going to have to really be super conscious about being present and being attentive. So it's good, it's really good. I'm actually maintaining this time, which is good. Switch, switch.

Yay. Beautiful. Congratulations, laronda. And yeah, and it, it takes a little bit of that prep, you know, like we talked about. But I'm so proud of you for bringing awareness into your habits, into, you know, what is working, what is it that no longer serves you, what you don't need anymore. You know, old mindsets, maybe old routines even or sometimes old relationships, you know, bonding over something that we don't really align with anymore. It's just become so routine. It's ritual. So, so proud of you. Continue to inspire us like you always do. And we love being a part of this journey and yeah, it's our pleasure. And kind of on that topic a little bit, I kind of wanted to, to talk a little bit about kind of higher self practices today. So, and kind of. And how that gets into. In the way, let's say once moving and navigating outside of the program quickly to just answer Barb here. Are you recommending mushroom broth over bone broth? So as a vegan alternative, yes, I would say that's a great choice. Trying to stay away from bone broth on the program because it's going to be higher in fat, so sticking more so to kind of like chicken broth, beef broth, vegetable broth, mushroom broth, those are going to be your better options. But bone broth is fantastic. It's not to, you know, villainize bone broth. We love her. But, but for the purposes of this program, it is going to be put on pause.

Yeah.

Yes, exactly. And added sugars in broth. So gluten and sugar, those two sneaky pests, make their way into so many processed products. And, and, and it's because they have several names they go under undetected by all these different names. I actually made a post about sugar and all of its different names that you can find on packages that, that don't flat out say sugar. So there's still sugar inside of it. It's just masked under a different name. That's actually a post I am kind of inspired to share again today because I think it's a really powerful one. And what I like to emphasize all the time is really reading the ingredient labels and if it's words that you're not familiar with, if it's chemicals you don't have naturally laying around in your pantry or your kitchen fat, you know, fact of the matter is this is probably something that's not naturally occurring, that your body isn't going to appreciate as much as it' to appreciate its natural counterpart. So I'll post that actually today because I think it would be really helpful for everybody to see and kind of what to look out for when reading ingredient list. And I can also actually make one for gluten too, so that could be put out next week because I think that that would be really important as well. But to kind of backtrack a little bit into what I was mentioning a little bit more about the higher self. So this journey, while being very much rooted in lifestyle, in nutrition, it's also largely rooted in mindset. And whatever our mindset is, is created out into external reality. And so what, whatever kind of hardwiring we have, that's what we end up seeking. That's what we end up tuning into and finding in our everyday world. So it really does come down to this being very much a mental and mindset journey. And, and just like I mentioned, it's a journey you're not meant to hit a final destination. You're not meant to get it right tomorrow. You're not going to wake up and be a perfect person that does not exist. But you can get curious about yourself and you can learn different things and you can explore different avenues and maybe surprise yourself with who you are or who you're capable of becoming. And really that is the concept of the higher self. And so there's two kind of voices, maybe like the ying and the yang that you guys have seen, or like the angel and the devil on the shoulders. So there's two voices that kind of usually come into our minds and into our heads. And what I've come to kind of label them as, or, you know, this isn't my, my findings, this is my interpretation of it. But it's kind of like the ego and your highest self. So the ego is always concerned with maintaining its livelihood hood. It's going to make you the center stage of everything that's happening. Not in the sense that it's bad to be a main character in your own life, but you are not the main character that's owed everything. We're not coming here owed this or given that life is, you know, kind of a dealing of cards in so many different ways. And we can either work with that, or we can work against it and refuse to accept what it is. And so during this program, it's very much a huge shift, a huge change that you're all undergoing. And the ego flares up because it wants to protect what it knows right now, and it's going to kind of stand in your way from reaching that higher potential, reaching that higher self. So I found this kind of quick little picture, and I can share it in the Facebook group if it's helpful, but I just wanted to kind of speak it out loud whenever you find that, that, you know, you're frustrated or you're on this program and you're making changes and, you know, all these kind of thoughts come into your head that maybe aren't the most positive or maybe that are derailing you from. From being in your own corner. Look out what that voice is saying. Look out how it's trying to make you feel in that moment. Think about, are these my words or was this somebody's words that I've taken and I've placed and identified with? I've now, now owned this label that I'm this person and this is who I have to be moving forward. So the ego self is going to look at things and let's say in a situation where things derail you, you know, you didn't stay on plan for a day or there was a meal that was off key or off kilter for whatever reason that was outside of your control, the ego self is going to look at you and say, I'm. I was affected by this. This happened to me. I am a victim of this, of this event or what occurred. But in regards to the higher self, that higher self is going to look at that situation and take accountability. It's going to take that situation and say, how do I want this to look next time? The ego self is then going to, you know, look at. Look at what went wrong, look at what derailed it, and call it a mistake. Whereas the higher self is going to say, you know what? It didn't go according to plan, wasn't totally thrilled with the outcome, but how can I make it better for next time? You know, what is the lesson in this? Where can I grow from this situation? Because there is no mistakes. Mistakes do not exist other than when you stop trying. That's really the only mistake you can ever make on yourself. So they're all lessons. It's all guidance. And I believe I said this actually last weekend as well, but rejection, or whatever form of rejection you want to say, mistakes, you Know, self rejection, whatever is redirection. So it's redirecting you to the right path. It's redirecting you to think different. It's redirecting you to look at things from maybe a different perspective. So there's never anything bad that comes from it. I lost my little picture here. So ego self is going to look at, you know, let's say, going out to a social situation, seeing your friends and family eating different foods, having them comment on your program. I don't know if this has happened to anybody, but while I was doing my program, I see Barb nodding her head. And this happens often. You know, family is just. They're. They're in your grill in a different way, and it's a beautiful thing. But sometimes it can definitely hit some buttons that you didn't know you had. But I would go to visit my family, and I'm. Eastern European food is a massive deal. And I would have to say, you know, no, I'm not eating this food. I love it. It's beautiful. Enjoy. But I'm here with this food, and I love this food. And. And this is what makes me feel great. And so my family would look at me eating my food, which I looked at as delicious and fabulous, and they were like, you poor thing. Like, you. What are you going to eat? Like, what. How are you not eating these mashed potatoes and this corn and like, all this stuff? And I'm like, well, I'm choosing this. I. I'm. I'm not without. You might see, and you might think that's without, but that's completely the opposite narrative I'm functioning under. I see this food as nourishing. I see this food as filling, as delicious, as something that's going to propel me and fuel me to have my best day, to have my best energy, to feel the best in my skin. So while they might see quantity, or it wasn't even quantity because I had a ton of food, like, let me tell you, I was not hungry on this program whatsoever. There was free vegetables galore with every single meal. It was a lot of food, and I ate the most out of my family that day. And I felt the best, and I had the best amount of energy. And so the higher, or I guess the ego self would look at it as a scarcity mindset. Oh, my gosh, I don't have enough food. Oh, my gosh, I'm not going to be filled. But that's just a scare tactic that your ego is performing. That's not actually the truth whatsoever. And the the highest self is going to look at it from an abundance mindset saying I get to eat this. Look at this beautiful food that made it onto my plate. How many hands did all these different pieces of food need to pass through to be here on my plate? How cool is that? That I didn't even have to grow any of this. This was all done for me. I'm just sitting here preparing it, eating it sort of thing. So one thing kind of the last thing that this picture also talks about ego self bringing up is, you know, noticing if you're complaining. And this kind of ties into a little bit more of that victimness as well. Well, but notice if you're complaining, you know, what if, you know, oh, I'm without this or I can't do that or this is, you know, this way and I'm upset about it and I can't do anything to change it. Well, what if you were grateful and what if, you know, those moments that are a little uncomfortable, that are a little bit harder to navigate through, create such a beautiful learning experience or you're able to find the silver lining to then make the that experience? You know, that's let's say that experience it is what it is. There's nothing we can do to change it, accept it so that we don't suffer while we're in that situation because regardless, it's going to happen. So why don't we make our our the best case scenario out of this when it comes to our mindset, when it comes to our enjoyability in that event, of course it's so much easier said than done always. But it's something that we can continue to work on little by little each day day. And it all starts with awareness, which is what Laronda Talk touched on. Which is the most important step when it comes to change. It's realizing what triggers you to do these things that you no longer want to do. It's noticing what your mindset is. It's noticing if it happens in certain scenarios or situations. It's getting curious. Never judgmental with yourself. And, and I see Barb here. I get a lot of flack from my family, but look what I did this weekend. Powered by great nutrition and mindset and all post stroke. That's amazing. FYI, these photos are not me, but I did this and performed several controlled rescues of large men. Congratulations Barb. Kudos to you. What a beautiful goal you hit. Yes, strength and empowerment and just allowing people to see you can do both. It's not an and. Or it's an. It's just an added bonus. And then it's an and what? You know what I mean? It's never I need to do this or this. It's I can do this, but I'm also going to do that. Both are always in the.

In.

In your, I guess, sphere to control. So, for instance, this is kind of a strange example, but one that happened to me this past weekend, too. So I went. Went backcountry camping. And it's very intense. So it's. It's not for the faint of heart, but I love it because of that reason. It really kind of maxes you out and pushes your limits. And I have long nails. And so typically people that go camping don't usually have longer nails. And so I catch a lot of flack for that reason because people, you know, think I can't lift a canoe or I can't backpack or I can't do these things. And I'm like, but why not? Why do. What do my nails have to do with anything? Why can't I. This and this? And it's fun to know that you can. You can acquire all of those skills. That's just a, you know, a small, silly example. But you can do whatever you want to. You can be in great health. You don't have to eat meat. You can eat meat. You can be vegan. You can, you know, fast for a day, whatever is necessary for you, what you feel best doing, of course, with the attention of either a health coach or your doctor, of course, you know, being there side by side, making sure you're not going off the rails, especially if you're taking medication and need to be slowly weaned off of it. But it's really a huge experimental playground where you get to explore those sides of yourself and become your higher self or, you know, work towards getting closer to being your higher self. So I know we don't have too much time today. I did want to do maybe a small quick exercise, but instead, actually, because I think this practice deserves its amount of time, its own kind of timeframe, maybe, you know, at the end of this of kind call, the question that I wanted to pose to everyone was, what? What does your higher self do? What does your highest self feel? How does your highest self, you know, wake up the day and start it? How does your highest self deal with, you know, maybe confrontation or deal with stressful situations? What does that version of this person that you're growing into, that you're learning into to look like? What do you want them to be? How do you want to show up in the world? How do you want people to leave conversations with you feeling, you know, there's no detail that goes unturned. You can get as detailed or as simplified as you can. But I think it's really important to have an image of what that person looks like because again, what we focus on expands. We create a blueprint when we know what it is that we're actually looking for, when we know what it is, what we need or we value or we trust, treasure. So getting to know yourself is so important on this journey and it'll really help, you know, create that, that long lasting bond where you don't have confusion about your body sometimes it can still happen. Of course, you know, there's, there's things that come up always, but you'll have so much more empowerment. You won't have to wait until things kind of, you know, go much more off kilter. You'll be in tune. Your body will tell you right then and then there. So the question to ponder is, what is, who is your highest self? You know, point blank period. And all the different situations in all the different avenues, mindset, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, who is that person? And so, yeah, I don't know if anybody has anything to share on that topic or if you're open to sharing, but I wanted to make sure to give everybody at least a couple of minutes, you know, whether it be right now, now or after this call, to really think about that. I don't know if you have anything to add, Annalisa, on anything we've touched on. I know you have a wealth of knowledge as well.

Yeah.

From.

I know prior to the program, having tried a lot of things, I know my mindset was coming into the program feeling less like, is this just going to be the same thing over again? Am I just not going to get the results? And you know, but having an open mind and knowing that lots of people had succeeded and going through, I think, the opening of the mind and the wonder of being able to say, oh my gosh, what if it does work?

Right?

Like, I know there's got to be something out there and then coming through it at the end, end, and knowing that it does work and that I have this and that from a lifestyle standpoint, you can make those choices to be whoever you want to be and decide, you know, what is your identity. I think that's one of the key things is the changing and the shift of our identity as we go through and becoming confident in our decisions and not letting other people tell us who we are and what we need to be is key.

Yes, yes. Beautifully said. Exactly. And, you know, knowing that people in our lives that we love and that tend to give us direction, whether it's warranted or asked for or not, they're always going to tell you from their map, they're always going to tell you from their life experience, from their personal preferences. And, you know, sometimes they're able to remove that bias and they're able to give you that. That advice that you need, or even. Even just, you know, a shoulder or a confidant there for you. But it's knowing that you ultimately know the best, you know yourself the best, you know your gut instincts the best, and to tune into it as much as possible, lean on others. You know, this is a community that we have here and that we keep building, and. And there's so much benefit and purpose to that, but also being able to have that within yourself and. And have that independence, have that empowerment, too, is really important. Irina, I saw that you had something to share. I would love for you to share when you're ready.

Oh, wow. I. I was just very inspired by the pictures that you just shared. They were beautiful and really inspiring. And I remember. So I'm 65, turning in about a month, but I'm already saying, okay, 60, 65, because I'm doing the Medicare and Medicare, you know, whatever insurance stuff, so my brain is already there. But, oh, my gosh, I will say I just recently decided I want to do a book, you know, just to share all my knowledge with Chinese medicine. And I'm just like, oh, where do I get a publisher? Oh, how do I do it? And I'm like, okay, I'm too old to do this, this. And. And the story just goes on and on and on in the brain. And then. And then I'm saying to myself, well, if I don't do it, then I will even regret it later. So with all the chaos and taking care of myself right now with this program that I'm on, which is. I'm very grateful. It's very inspirational. And definitely having accountability and having the support is crucial to success. I. I'm committing that. I'm gonna write that book.

Yes, you will. Yes, you will. Congrats on committing to that. And you're gonna thank yourself so much in a year from now, even in six months from now, that you said yes to that commitment. So, way to go.

Yes. And also moving, you know, like, I'm much more aware That I just recently saw a very interesting movie. I just want to quickly say, share. It was from the Blue Zone and was another take on it. It was another guy, I forgot his name. He was doing the Five Blue Zones. And one thing that came out out of it for me personally was they did a shoot. Shooting in. Filming in Japan. And in Japan, and people, you know, they live long lives, have no issues whatsoever with arthritis and don't have any issues with wheelchairs. And why? Because if you look at the environment that they live in, the bed on the floor, they eat on the floor, everything is done in squatting position. And I'm thinking, okay, we're getting furniture. Oh, I think I need a little higher. Chair. Chair, yes. And I'm going, no, I can get my strength going with my leg. And I'm not thinking that way. Well, I'm not going that way. So I just want to share that. Yeah, I'm not going that way. I'm getting my leg strengthened.

Good.

Squatting. Just squatting.

Congratulations, Irina. And yeah, I see some comments here on the Blue Zones, too, and there's so much to learn from them. There's a really cool film that came out. I want to. I think it's on Netflix. It's live to 100. And. Yeah, and it's all about blues. Yeah, that's the one. Yeah. So it's all about the Blue Zone. So much cool stuff. And from different places in the world. So, like Sardinia, of course, there's Korea in the mix. Japan is, I think, in there as well. And Greece. So super, super cool stuff.

And United States, too.

And the United States. I didn't know. Know that.

Yes. In a. Where. It's in California. There's a Blue Zone there.

Cool. I had no idea. I'm. I. I don't think I've seen that episode or I haven't heard about it. But there's also a really great book by Voltair Longo. It's called the Longevity Project. And yeah, it's all about Blue Zones, longevity, all that jazz. It's really great. It's super fun because you can. Action. All the things that the book talks about, which I really, really like. And one last thing, I will say it's super random, but whenever people talk age, you know, we always say, oh, I'm. I'm 30 years old, or I'm this. Or this amount old. I say, you know, I'm 30 years young. I'm young. I'm going to continue to be young. It's a state of mind. Age is simply a number. And it's something to be proud of, you know, because we've lived to this age. We've had this many rotations around the sun. How cool is that?

That?

But you can choose if you want to be years old or years young. So I'm going to leave everybody on that comment because we are at the top of the hour here. I want to say thank you for such an amazing call. I hope that you were able to learn something new about yourself, maybe do a quick reflection, maybe get to know your higher self a little bit better and continue to ask that question in different scenarios, especially if you find that you're frustrated or you're encountering resistance or if there's stress, say, how would my highest self respond in this situation? And then maybe see how a different outcome comes to be just by simply trying a new way of doing things. So I wish everybody a beautiful Friday. Have an amazing weekend ahead. Thank you all for showing up for this call, for yourselves, for your community, for your family. Family. I appreciate you all sending love all your way. And I will see you all next week. Bye, everyone.

Thank you.

Thank you. Bye.