Weekly Living Light MRP Q & A [Mar 8, 2024]

Satan foreign. Welcome, welcome. Happy Friday. Hope you're all having an amazing day so far. And as you're tuning into the chat, let me know what you're grateful for today. And I'm just gonna send a reminder here in our chat. And if you could turn your camera on, I'd love to see your beautiful faces as. Beverly, welcome Brooke. Jana, welcome Cynthia. Beverly says that she is grateful for her new computer. I guess streaming is so much better. Awesome. That's a big upgrade. You know what you're grateful for in the chat? Janice says, super excited to head out for our family spring break. Wow. So all of you are heading out together. That's fun. Amazing. Where are you heading to? Brooke says, I'm grateful that a friend reminded me that today is Mahashivra. Yes, it is. My mom just told me that's a. I guess a religious day in the Hindu calendar. Yeah. Day in Hinduism to ask for blessings from Shiva. Yes. Thank you, Brooke. Cynthia says she's grateful for a great team at work that presented on all they are doing to bring innovation to the agency this morning. Yes. Having a great team is so key. Anna says she's heading out to Atlantis, Bahamas. Nice. We went there. How long has it been? Maybe six, seven years ago. It's. Yeah, it's a beautiful resort. So enjoy. Sachin said he he was going down one of the slides and he thinks he saw George Costanza in front of him, but he never got a chance to, like, actually I guess confirm if it was him. He was like, so close and it looked very much like him. But Seinfeld, it was one of his favorite shows growing up, so he wishes he had tapped him on the shoulder. But by the time he went down the slide, he was gone, so didn't get to see him again. Okay, awesome. So I wanted to start off today with a little bit of box breathing. I find it super helpful when I need a little breather. Need to just focus on my breath a little bit. And it's a great practice for you to implement throughout the day when you're feeling stressed or when you just want to take a little bit of downtime. So wanted to kind of practice all. Practice that with you all and I'll kind of guide you through it and we'll do it for a few rounds. And so as you're settling in, you can close your eyes if that feels comfortable for you, and start to put your feet on the ground, wherever you're sitting, whatever chair you're sitting on, and relax your shoulders, Relax your jaw, Relax Your eyes and your forehead. Relax your neck. Sometimes we carry a lot of tension in our neck. Just start to pay more attention to your normal breathing pattern as it is right now, Your inhale and your exhale. Are you breathing from your nose or your mouth? And just try to become more aware of your normal breath. And focus on breathing through your nose and slowing your breathing down. And really giving your body this pause in your mind. This pause. And we're going to inhale through our nose for four seconds. And now you're going to hold for four seconds. And now you're going to exhale through your nose for four seconds. And hold at the bottom of the exhale. And inhale again through your nose. And hold. And exhale. And hold at the bottom of the exhale. And now inhale again through the nose. And hold at the top. And exhale through the nose. And hold at the bottom. And exit. Inhale again. And hold at the top. And exhale. And hold at the bottom. Inhale, Exhale, Hold, Inhale.

Hold.

Exhale.

Hold.

Inhale.

Hold.

And exhale. And hold. And now you're just going to return back to your normal Breath in and out through your nose, And you can open your eyes whenever you feel ready. Breathing in and out through your nose and try to really slow your breathing down for the rest of the day. Five seconds on the inhale and five seconds on the exhale. Okay. How did everyone find that? Do you feel more relaxed, More calm? This is a great practice that you can implement throughout the day, and we really want you to carry these practices with you throughout the day. Right. So breathing as much through the nose throughout the day, slowing your breath down, taking more expansive inhales from the belly and the rib cage rather than the chest and the throat, and really becoming more aware of your breath throughout the day. Okay. It's something that we commonly just take for granted. Right. Because it's something that we don't necessarily have to think about. Right. It happens automatically, but it's also something that we have great control over. And when we regulate our breath and slow our breathing down, that really optimizes metabolic health. Right. I'm sure I've shared this fact with many of you that for every ten pounds that you lose, eight and a half is lost through your breath. Right. So the byproduct of fat metabolism is carbon dioxide and water. So the other pound and a half is lost through your urine. So optimizing breathing is really important when it comes to metabolic health, when it comes to regulating the nervous system. Right. I Think every day I have conversations with many of my clients and many of you. And stress is such a huge factor for almost everyone I talk to. And so breathing is such a simple and profound way that we can shift our physiology more into that rest and digest parasympathetic state rather than the fight or flight sympathetic state. Okay. So there's a great, you know, sometimes for some of you, you're in a meeting or maybe you're talking to clients or whatever it might be. So when you have downtime, it's really great to just passively. Like, even if you're driving, right. You can kind of do box breathing while you're driving. There's an app called. It's called I Breathe, and you can set it to, like, how many seconds you want the inhale, how many seconds you want the hold, how many seconds you want the exhale, how many seconds you want the end hold. So it's a great app that you can have just running in the background when you're doing passive things like driving or if you're not in meetings, just to kind of prompt you to breathe at regular cadences. Right. Or more lengthened cadences. Because for most of us, we. We probably breathe too. Okay? So if you think of the lifespan of a dog versus a turtle, one of the main differences is the number of breaths that they take per minute. Right? The turtle takes way less breaths per minute versus the dog. And you can see a drastic difference in the lifespan of both of those animals. Right? And one of the key reasons is because they're able to. The turtle is really able to slow their breathing. Okay. So just, you know, want to bring more awareness to you all in terms of how you breathe and just, you know, really adding simple little things like this, which really can shift the needle with your health, with your health, with your stress, doesn't have to take too much time, Right. I find that when you anchor these kind of practices, either be before bedtime or first thing in the morning, you want to anchor it with a habit that you're already doing. Right. Maybe you do it after you come out of the shower or before you eat. Right. And that will make it more of a habit and easier for you to implement. So obviously, I do want to take questions from. From you all if you have any questions as you're going through your program. But one of the things I did want to also talk about today was beverages. So I think that this is a important topic because, you know, sometimes we focus so much on food in terms of what we're eating, when we're eating, how much we're eating, how we're eating. And what commonly sometimes gets overlooked is beverages. And some beverages, you know, can add a significant number of calories, sugar, Calorie sugar, fat in some cases. And expenses too, right? Like if you're used to like, you know, some people, they visit like a regular Starbucks every day, right? And, and it's not cheap, right. Prices everywh have gone up. It can cost anywhere from six to seven dollars for one drink, right? So over time, when you add that up, that over 365 days, you know, that's the investment in your program for many of you, right? So when we cut things out like that, it can really recuperate a lot of cost. Right. But you know, I really wanted to talk more about the health impacts and just being more aware of beverages. So of course on the release phase, a lot of those beverages are kind of cut out, so to speak. But basically, you know, obviously water is more than welcome, a clean source of electrolytes. So one of the easiest ways to get electrolytes is to put unrefined sea salt in your water. I know there are those fancy electrolyte sticks that some people use. And one of the things that you want to be aware of is if it has any sugar in it. So a client sent me a picture of one of the electrolyte packs that she was using, and the first ingredient on it was sugar. Right? So pay more attention to the ingredients in some of these beverages that you consume, right? You can also look these things up really easily, right? So if you're having like a drink at Starbucks, you can just probably google the drink and how many calories it has and you should be able to pull that information up, right? Other things are sodas, right? Sodas have a lot of sugar in them. And you know, some people switch over to diet soda, but diet soda has artificial sweeteners in it, right? So they might be zero calorie, but then you're loading your body with all these chemical sweeteners like sucralose or aspartame or whatever it might be. And those chemical sweeteners, yes, they have zero calories, but you can't fool the brain, right? So there's been a lot of studies that have shown that even though there's zero calorie, just by nature of the the brain sensing something sweet coming into the body, it can still create a blood sugar spike, right? And then those chemicals are not good for your brain, they're not good for Your gut health, they disrupt the gut microbiome, disrupt brain function. So a lot of, you know, some of them have, are known carcinogens. So, you know, pay more attention to those type of things, right? Some a great alternative to, you know, sometimes we want something fizzy, right? It can really quench our thirst. A great alternative is sparkling water, right? So Perrier or San Pellegrino, you can add some lemon to it to flavor it up a little bit. You can put like a little bit of fruit in it to flavor it up. So that's like a kind of alternative to something fizzy, right. Other things to pay attention to are things like the coffee you drink, right? So some of you don't drink coffee. But for those of you who do, you want to make sure you're choosing an organic coffee because coffee beans are one of the most heavily sprayed with pesticide.

Okay.

We, for those of you who chose the coffee as a part of your program, the brand that we like is the Organo brand because it has reishi mushroom spores in it. And the spores are very potent in terms of their physiological effect. So spores help decrease inflammation in the body, they help with detoxification, they are immunomodulatory, so help with the immune system, they help with weight loss, they help with shifting your nervous system more into that parasympathetic state. So we just feel like it's a significant upgrade to, you know, whatever coffee, just normal plain coffee that you're drinking, which is why we recommend that one. And it's also organic and it's also comes in little sachets so it makes it really convenient for you to travel with as well.

Okay.

And then also you want to pay attention to what you're adding to your coffee, right? Are you adding sugar? Are you adding creamer? Right. There's a lot of great alternatives now, right? Um, so a little bit of stevia is a great alternative to sugar. Um, you can find some, you know, dairy free alternatives. If you don't do well with dairy, which there's a lot of great brands that you can try that don't have a lot of like gums and added ingredients in them. Okay. So always you want to learn how to read your labels, right? And one rule that I have is if I can't pronounce the ingredient, then like, it's probably not good for me. Okay. Other beverages, sometimes people will ask about kombucha and when you're on the maintenance phase, you can try some. But once again, it depends on the brand, right? Some brands are going to have added sugar, some won't. So there are a few brands that are going to be a little more healthy. But with all of these things, I always recommend, you know, having things in moderation. Right. So if you are going to start drinking kombucha, yes, it is good in terms of healthy bacteria. And for some people, you know, it, it can be. Can aggravate their gastrointestinal health. So you have to try it out and see how you do with it. Right. And then once again, read the labels to see if there is any added sugar in it. Okay. Beverly says, I got a soda stream for Christmas. I use that to make my own club soda. I drink it plain, put lemon or lime juice in it. If I wanted stevia, if I want it sweetened, I'll put four drops of stevia in it. Yeah, excellent. I am sure that's like a great alternative for pop. Right. Because it gives you that fizzy taste still. Brooke has a question. Go ahead and unmute.

So speaking of stevia, I guess I'm confused as to why we can use stevia as opposed to, you know, like the, the brain will get fooled by aspartame. Not that I want to use that other stuff, but why doesn't stevia fool the brain or not fool the brain, whatever it is that's supposed to happen.

Yeah. So for some people it can usually like the sweeteners like aspartame and sucralose. Some of those artificial sweeteners are going to be much more potent. So they kind of are a stronger signal to the brain. Um, but for some, some people like that, I have worked with stevia. They are sensitive to stevia. Like it just doesn't. Sometimes they're weight stalls or, you know, they feel like they're having a blood sugar spike and drop after having it. So some people are more sensitive to even those natural sweeteners. Even though they're zero calorie. I think most people tolerate them. But they are like with stevia, for example, like if you're using the. The drops like the liquid form, like as. As Beverly said, like you don't need a lot. Right. Couple of drops is going to go a long way. So just a tiny little bit. And for the most part it shouldn't have that type of impact.

Well, what would be a good way to find out if it is having an impact on you? Because I've been using stevia every day.

Yes. So one of the ways that sometimes that will have clients try this out, especially if they're Diabetic or if they are concerned about blood sugars, is a continuous blood glucose monitor. So a continuous blood glucose monitor is something that goes on the back of the arm, it stays there for two weeks and you can read your blood glucose every two weeks. So it's an excellent way to really determine how certain foods impact you. Right. Because my husband and I wore one about probably over a year ago and we were eating the same foods and you know, sometimes he would have a blood sugar spike with, with a certain food that I ate as well, and I wouldn't have that blood sugar spike. So CGM really helps to determine your individual response to certain foods. And it's something that is for some people. I'll recommend it on the maintenance phase because that's when you're starting to reintroduce some foods back in. Right. And that's when it's like, okay, I introduced rice back in. It didn't make me feel terrible, but maybe it caused a huge blood sugar spike. Right. So that's when you can really determine from a blood sugar standpoint how a certain food is impacting you.

Okay. I have one of those keto mojos.

Yep.

That's was it. Yeah, Keto mojos. But that I'd have to test quite like pretty frequently, wouldn't I?

So keto mojo is going to see if you're in ketosis. So it's going to measure ketones.

It also does glucose.

Oh, okay. So do you have a combo one?

Yes.

Okay. Yeah. So you can definitely use that and see where your blood sugar is at.

Okay.

Yep. And this program, like when you are on the release phase, it's. It's a low fat keto plan. So you still will go into keto even though you're having fruit. Like most of the fruits on there are pretty low glycemic, so most people will still go into ketosis.

What is a number that you consider being in ketosis?

So I'm not that familiar with the keto mojo. I'm going to have to look it up and see how it measures ketones. Is it, let me see, there's like.

0, 3 or, you know, a percentage. That's how it reads it.

M. I'm gonna have to look it up and get back to you about that one.

Okay. Yeah, I'm curious because it doesn't. And I've checked with the sticks and it doesn't seem like I'm in that much ketosis.

Okay, let me take a look at it. And how often are you checking it?

Not in Any kind of reliable way.

Okay. Just kind of like randomly?

Yes.

Okay. So basically.

Ke.

Does it test the glucose ketone index for you? Is that what it's testing?

No, there's two different strips. One is for glucose and the other's for ketone.

Okay. This is what I found on their website. The ratio of blood glucose to ketone. So you do glucose divided by 18, and then I think you divide it again by the ketone reading. So that's going to give you the glucose ketone index.

Oh.

And then that number determines what state of ketosis you're in. So I'll send this over to you.

Okay.

Yeah.

Okay.

Thanks. You're welcome. Yeah. So I guess, you know, main point is that you want to be more cognizant of the beverages that you're drinking, because I think that's an area that can get a lot of people into trouble. Right. So, you know, reading the ingredients, some of these drinks, like, have over 50 grams of sugar in them. So just really paying attention to what's in that beverage that you're drinking. And some of them are quite calorie dense too. Right. So just paying attention to that as well, because that can. And then another beverage I wanted to talk about another beverage is alcohol. Right. So alcohol can have significant impacts on your health as well. Right. Some of you have an aura ring and, you know, you really want to pay attention to how alcohol impacts your aura. Right. So for most people, I would say that their deep sleep and REM sleep decreases. Their heart rate variability was a. Which is a measure of how resilient you are to stress decreases. The higher the hrv, the better. Right. So if it decreases, that's bad. And then also resting heart rate increases, which is an indication that there's a stressor on your body. Right. So really pay attention to those things and just become more familiar with how some of these things impact you. Right. Because once you kind of have that objective data, then you can make an informed decision. Right. Then you can decide, like, maybe I'll have one drink instead of two, or maybe I'll have a drink on the weekend rather than every day. Right. Because now you know how it's impacting you. Okay, so I'll share in the group chat, like a great podcast on, like, there's a. There's a gentleman named Andrew Huberman, and he's a scientist that works in. In Stanford University, and he has his own podcast, and he does, like, deep dives into certain topics, and he did a whole deep dive on alcohol, and it's Very objective. Like, it's just kind of presenting the research and the data and trying to stay as unbiased as possible. So I think for any of you who do drink or enjoy drinking, I'll share that with you just so you can have a more holistic viewpoint of how alcohol might be impacting your health. Okay. What other questions do you all have? You can type them in the chat, or you can raise your hand on zoom, or even just if your camera's on, you can raise your hand and I can unmute you. Any questions, comments. Brooke, go ahead and unmute.

Okay.

Before.

The host is not letting people unmute.

Yeah, I.

It's okay. I can unmute you just. Okay, raise your hand. Mute you.

I wanted to ask Beverly if she thinks the soda stream is worth it. Sounds like you use it a lot.

I'm going to unmute you, Beverly.

Okay. Actually, I do. That was one of my concerns is that was it less expensive to buy my club soda than it was to make my own? And now that I'm making my own, it tastes so much better than the stuff that you buy.

Yeah. And you know, the thing I like about. So if you're just buying canned club soda, then, like, the can, you know, does have aluminum and, like, has a BPA lining. Right. So that's one. One thing number two is, like, the canned stuff is usually not. They're not using the best quality water. So there was, like, a consumer report on. Let me see if I can find it on sparkling water. And they f. Found a lot of these brands, like, bubbly. Like, the water that they use is terrible. So I'll. I'll try to find that. But. And then the other. The other. The flip side of it is you. You know, then you might buy the more expensive brands like the San Pellegrino, and that's where a soda stream is definitely going to save you money. And it's also, you know, obviously better for the environment as well. Right. Because you're. You're making your own and it's not creating as much waste. So in my. We have one as well. And in my opinion, I think it's. I personally think it's worth it.

Thanks.

Yeah, you're welcome. Yeah. Gonna have to try and find that report. What other questions do you all have?

I guess I'm interested in seeing if there's people who have gotten to the end of release and if they've experienced this kind of. Well, I've had a. I had a little plateau, but weight is definitely slowing down. Weight Loss is slowing down and I just feel like, oh, my God, sleep two more weeks. Can I just have whatever fill in the blank? And I always get over it, but it feels like the longer I'm in the release part, the more I'm sort of fighting it. And we're having this tension where I have to just like, just keep my willpower going. Like in the beginning, you're excited and that momentum keeps you going. And maybe it's like, I need to find that momentum again.

Yeah, great insight there. And, you know, the. The weight loss, of course, in the beginning is going to be a lot more because it's a lot of water weight and inflammation. And then it does know, start to slow down a little bit. Average weight loss for most people on this program is 20 to 30 pounds. And just, you know, from what I've observed with you, Brooke, is you're like above average in terms of, like, how much your weight is coming down. So, you know, hopefully that's motivating for you. And then, you know, I think that near the end there is a little bit of release phase fatigue. Right. But I think that, like, once you start introducing some foods back in, especially the fats, like, that's really gonna make a big difference in terms of your mood and helping you feel more satiated. So that is why we only recommend, like doing the release phase for the six weeks. Because it's not that we're saying fats are bad. We want you to have fats in your diet. We just eliminate them for a short period of time because we want your body to utilize its own fat stores. So once you start adding a little bit of fat in, once you start adding some carbohydrates in, like complex carbohydrates, like sweet potatoes, maybe a little bit of like wild rice or quinoa. You know, you can, I know, for example, like, Melissa's on this call. She's had gluten free bread and like, her weight has stayed pretty stable. Right. So it's when we start and you'll. Everyone's different, right? So for some people, they might introduce gluten free bread back in and notice, like, their weight really starts to increase. Right. And it's, you know, once again, we want to focus on the 9010 rule where like 90% of the time we're eating really clean, having our proteins and our vegetables and our fruit. And then maybe 10% of the time we may, you know, go off track a little bit, but not completely go off the deep end. Right. So hang in there. You're doing amazing. Coming to these calls every Friday is going to be helpful, right? I'm sure you found it helpful just connecting with other people and getting different people's insights. So continue to come on the calls as well because that will be helpful as well in terms of just. That's why we do these. Right. Because we know that like motivation and willpower is a limited resource. Right. Like you said in the beginning, you were like really excited. But then you need, you need community to, to keep you going. Right. You need a group of like minded people to kind of, you know when you're struggling like this to reignite you, so to speak. Right. So, yeah, I think you're doing amazing and you're almost there.

So.

Yeah.

Okay.

Give yourself a pat on the back.

Is it one more week of maybe? I don't know, maybe it's two.

I have a tracker here. You're on day 28, so you have two more weeks.

Two more weeks. Okay.

Yep.

Thanks.

Yeah, no worries. And you know, the biggest thing, like I tell people, is to really view this as a lifestyle program. Right. It's not, it's not like just a temporary diet. We're not just focusing on food. Like there's so much more that we want you to focus on beyond just the food that can play a huge role. Like not just, you know, weight, but all aspects of your health. Right. Your sleep, your, you know, the way you breathe. Like all of those things are important to your health. Right. So it's not just the food. Okay. Melissa is asking, is there anyone that has finished their 10 weeks and wondering. She's wondering how they're finding it. I'm done 10 weeks on Thursday, next week and wondering how life is after these phases and if they are doing another round this year. Anyone want to comment? Who's Beverly? Beverly's been done for a while. How's life after. After finishing the program?

I really think that the program gave me the ability to. I'm trying to think of how to. After I did one round, I decided I was going to take a break because it was getting close to the end of the year and. And then another group I'm in has a 16 day challenge. You do 16 foods for 16 days and 16 activities and it's, it's a very interesting program anyway. And I went on that and.

I.

Think that this plan prepared me to be able to do that one successfully and I was able to make a huge, huge break. Breakthrough with my chronic migraine.

Yeah. And I think like with this program, like we really want to lay down the foundations, right. In terms of like your nutrition and sleep and you know, digestion and breathing, like a lot of the lifestyle foundations. And then basically after the 10 weeks, it's not like, okay, you know, I'm just gonna go back to doing what I was doing before the 10 weeks. It's really preparing yourself mentally for that mindset shift that this is a way of life now. Yeah. And of course there might be like hiccups along the way, but now you have the tools and the resources to always come back to, to what you've learned.

Yeah. And I find myself doing that quite a bit. Yeah, I go back to having the 1, 4, 4 and 4 quite a bit.

Yeah, exactly. Because it's, it's easy, it's simple and it gives you structure. Right. A lot of people without the structure, they like, it's too loose. Right. And so the, the way the nutrition plan is, it's something that you can come back to quite frequently if you feel like you're like, you know, kind of going off track, so to speak. Right. With maybe a few modifications. Right. You can always, like you said, go back to the four, four, four. Right. So, um, yeah, I think it's just about checking in with yourself daily, reminding yourself what your goals are, why you're doing this program. And it's a daily journey. Right. It's like you don't, it's not a destination that you're trying to get to and then you get there and it's all done. It's like health is a daily journey, a daily practice. Kelly. So 444 is the 4 ounces of protein, 4 ounces of non free vegetables, 4 ounces of fruit. The release phase plan. Okay, what other questions do you all have? Questions? Comments? Oh, quieter today. Okay, well I will let you all go early today then can enjoy some sunshine. The weather's been absolutely beautiful here in Toronto. It's a sunny day, so if you've dedicated an hour, you have 15 minutes. Maybe go for a walk. I think that's what I'm gonna do. Go for a walk, get some sunshine, get out of that indoor air, get some fresh air and we'll see you all next Friday. So have a lovely, lovely weekend and we'll see you next Friday, everyone. Bye.