Weekly Living Light MRP Q & A [March 15, 2024]

Sa. Friday everyone. Welcome. Welcome. Melissa. Hi farhana. Hi rosalynn, beverly. Nice to see you all. And as you're tuning in, let me know one thing that you're grateful for today. You all welcome. Welcome. I'm just gonna put a message. Melissa says, grateful for this whole journey. Yesterday was my last day. Day 72. Amazing. Rosalind says, grateful for an upcoming vacation next. Well deserved. I know that for a fact. Farhana says, grateful for my ability to breathe and sense the world around me. Awesome. Thanks for sharing that. Welcome. Hi Brooke, how are you today? If you want to share what you're grateful for in the chat, that would be amazing. So we'll start off with just a very simple breathing exercise. So if you're able to just get comfortable in your seat. And you can make sure you get your feet on the ground, relax your shoulders, Relax your jaw, And I find it helpful when you just close your eyes. It can be really present and not distracted. And just start paying attention to your breath. Inhale, Exhale. As it comes in and out of your nose, Focus on your inhale. And your exhale. You're going to inhale for six. And then you're going to exhale for eight seconds. And when we lengthen the exhale, that really puts us more into a parasympathetic state, which is the rest and digest state. State where our body heals, where it repairs, where it regenerates. This is something you can do throughout the day. Do a shorter cycle. If breathing in for six and exhaling for eight is too much, you could do four and six. Just meet yourself where you're at. And give yourself this moment of relaxation, presence. And joy and calmness and peace. Do a few more cycles into the nose. And out through the mouth, Into the nose, Out through the nose, You can slowly open your eyes when you feel ready, Come back to the room whenever you feel ready. Does anyone have a regular breathing practice that they do on a daily basis? Brooks raised her hand. Good. What, Brooke, if you want to share what, what's your daily practice?

Well, as you know, most things that people tell us to practice, they want you to do it like first thing in the morning. So first thing in the morning what I do is drink water and take my vitam, my medications. But after that I practice thing, it's called Gamma Point. It's eight beats in. Wait, no, sorry. Three beats in, hold for two, eight beats out, hold for four. And it's supposed to raise your brain waves that you get more in a gamma state. And I did that for about 15 minutes.

Okay.

He recommends doing it with your eyes open, which I wasn't doing at first. I thought it was an eyes closed thing, but it was eyes open. There's a musical track that I have to help you stay with that beat. And then I meditate. It's a group meditation, so it's like, all together.

Very nice. Awesome. And how do you feel after?

I feel pretty good.

Yeah. Probably more clarity and calmness, and it just helps you throughout your day. Right. Just to start it off that way. So thanks. Thanks for sharing.

You're welcome.

Okay. And so Rosalyn says have started Heart Math daily. Yes. Heart Math is a amazing tool. Helps to increase heart rate variability, get you more into a coherent state. They have tons and tons and tons of research. We used to actually include HeartMath with some of our programs instead of the OURA ring, but we found a lot of people wouldn't use it, so we switched over to the OURA ring. Oh, Brooke has one.

Yep.

I have one, too. It's in my nightstand. But HeartMath basically can help increase improve sleep. They did a study where, I guess with 14,000 people, and in four to six weeks, it improved sleep by 36%, improved calmness by 49%, decreased anxiety and depression by 67%, decreased fatigue by 53%, decreased anger by 67%, and increased emotional vitality by 27%. So great tool, you know, great to do in the beginning of the day or at the end of the day, just a few minutes, and can really help to. To shift the state of your nervous system. So I'll put a link if anyone's interested. But, yeah, it's a. It's a really great tool. Rosalynn, I don't know if you want to share how you've found it. I know sometimes in the beginning when you're trying to get into coherence, and it's not getting into coherence, it can be frustrating sometimes. But, you know, I usually sometimes recommend, well, just closing your eyes and not even looking at it so that it doesn't stress you out if you're not getting into coherence. But it is a great tool. So I don't know if you want to share. She's unmuted, but we can't hear you.

I think my connection isn't great. I can.

I can type a little bit in the chat. I can. We can hear you now. Okay. She's going to type in the chat. Melissa says I use the Insight timer app and breathe terrain sounds typically three seconds in. Hold for Three. Okay, so you do box breathing, three seconds and then you increase to five. Okay, good. Awesome. I want to share a little. I like the Insight Timer app too. I think it's great. There's also another app, there's so many out there now, but it's called I Breathe. And basically with I Breathe, let me just pull it up here, You can kind of set the cadence, like how you know, to whatever you wish. So if you wanted to do like a 5 second box breathing, you can do that. You can do what we did just now where you. So basically you, you download it and then you can set the intervals so that you can set how long you want the inhale, how long you want the exhale, how long you want the hold. If you want to hold, you can set how many cycles you want to do. So it's good because it kind of just runs in the background. Like, especially if you're doing something passive, it'll ding even while you're driving. You could do this, right? Just focus on your breathing and it just kind of dings for you to cue you when to inhale, when to hold, when to exhale. And the reason why I'm bringing up breathing today is because most of us don't breathe properly, right? We grow throughout the day with a shallow breath. We don't breathe fully into our ribs, our belly and our chest. Most of us are, you know, more shallow breathers where we breathe just from the upper part of the chest rather than using the belly and the ribs. So, you know, really it's, it's a really important to bring more awareness to our breath. I know some of you may have watched the modules on breathing. If you haven't, I would highly, highly, highly, highly recommend, recommend you watch the modules on breathing in your practice better because, you know, we can go, you know, 30 days without food, we can go seven days without water, but we can only, you know, for most people, we can't go more than a couple minutes without our breath, right? So it truly is very important and something that's commonly overlooked. And when we improve our breathing and pay more attention to our breathing, it can boost our energy, can provide more mental clarity, it can help with sleep, it can boost your immune function, it can really reduce stress, right? Like for many people that I speak with, they have a lot of stress. And of course, with certain circumstances, a lot of the times for many people it's work, right? And sometimes we can't just drop our work, right? So it's, how do we become more resilient to stress. How do we deal with the stress from the day? Especially if you have a more busy or stressful job, you really need to have these type of tools available to help you shift more into that parasympathetic state, right? So stress is one of the number one causes for chronic disease, right? It can really increase your blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation, weight gain, like all of it, right? So it's really important for us to find tools to help us become more resilient to stress, manage stress better. And one of the best ways to do that, in my opinion, is a breathwork practice, right? Some type of breathing practice. So really, really encourage you all to take a few moments a day to do that. It doesn't have to be super long. Three to five minutes can go a long way, right? And the purpose of it is to then have you bring that into your day to day, right? So fine, you do it for that three to five minutes. But then how can you implement some of these breathing practices into your day to day, right? When you're sitting at your desk doing your work and you find that you're holding your breath, you can, you know, especially if you're not talking to clients, you can put something like this I breathe app on and just have it ding so that it, it prompts you to. To breathe properly, right? So ideal cadence for breathing is 6 seconds on the inhale and 6 seconds on the exhale. Just so you all know that is the ideal cadence for breathing, okay? And then also when we look at different animals in nature, so if you look at a dog versus a turtle, which one lives longer, right? It's the turtle that lives much, much longer. And if you compare their breathing, it's very different, right? Like a dog has very short breathing, whereas a turtle breeds very, very, very slowly, right? So that makes a huge difference in terms of lifespan as well, okay. The less we breathe and the more we can extend our inhales and exhales, the better our health will be as well. Okay? When we breathe properly and we use all the right muscles for breathing, our belly, our ribs, you know, and we really get that diaphragm to pump. Our largest lymph nodes are located right beneath the diaphragm. So when we activate the diaphragm properly, we get that lymph moving as well. And getting lymph moving is extremely important for our health too. So stagnant, stagnant lymph is a big problem, right? And can be, you know, an issue with regards to immune health, things like cancer. So really getting your lymph moving is important, too. So breathing is one of the best ways to get the lymph moving. Dry brushing. I don't know if any of you have heard of dry brushing, but dry brushing is great to get the lymph moving. I can put a video if you're not familiar with what dry brushing is. Rebounding. So jumping up and down on a little mini trampoline, you can get, like, a really cheap one. We got one from. We got one from Sport Check, which is a sports store, just not too far from us for about 60 bucks. Right. And you can jump on that for two to three minutes a day. So lots of ways to get the lymph moving as well. Okay, so I'll put something in here. And you can get a dry brush on Amazon or even at a local health store. They should have them as well. Thank you. Okay, so Ron said, when I started this program, Alice suggested that box re breathe before I eat my dinner. I've been doing it, and it's very calming. Yeah, that's great. Especially if you have a lot of digestive issues. If you have a lot of stress throughout your day, just taking like three to ten breaths, conscious breaths before you eat can really shift you into that parasympathetic state so that you digest your food better. Right. A lot of people, when they have digestive issues, they overly focus on what they're eating. But a lot of people actually, or practitioners don't actually ask people how they're eating. Right. So you could be eating all the healthy food in the world, but if you're not eating your food properly, if you're not in a parasympathetic state, if you're not chewing your food enough, then you could still have digestive issues. Right. Because when you're in a fight or flight state, blood flow is moving away from the trunk organs and into your hands and feet. So digestion is not a priority when you're in fight or flight. Right. Also, if we don't chew our food properly, then we're not going to be able to assimilate the nutrients properly from that food. Okay. So, Brooke, the I Breathe app is the one that looks like. I don't know if you can see the squiggly line there. Oops. Yeah, the one with the little wave. Okay. Barbara says I am dry brushing regularly now. Occasionally I'll forget, but I do it almost every time I take a shower. Yeah. So it's great to do right. Before you hop into the shower and really get that lymph moving. So it's great for exfoliating your skin. You know, any type of, like, irritations or bumps you have, it can really smooth those things out. So initially, if you haven't done it, when you start, it's going to feel pretty rough, but you're. You'll get used to it pretty quickly. Okay, so what questions do you all have today? You can type them in the chat or you can raise your hand and I can unmute you. Rook, go ahead and unmute.

So there's this doctor on YouTube. I mean, YouTube has everything. Dr. Mindy Peltz.

Yep.

Really big on intermittent. Intermittent fasting. Those are a big thing.

Yep.

She talks about changing the length of your fasting window, and she was saying that that actually really helps you lose weight rather than get stuck with. Because I've found that I've just been doing pretty much the same length of fast all the time. So do you recommend moving it around a little bit and changing it?

So for the purpose of the release phase, I would recommend just sticking with what you're doing. My name is Kelly and I'm a physical therapist and I specialize in oncology.

Sorry.

Sorry. I don't know what happened. Yeah, okay. Okay. So, yeah, so I would suggest. I would suggest sticking to the 16, 8 for the release phase and then for the maintenance phase, you can play around with, you know, a few other different cycles of fasting. Like in Jane, like, I always recommend going slow. Like, so 16, 8 is a good start. And then after that you could try like 18 or 20 hour, and then you could try like a 24 hour fast, and then you could try like A 48 and then a 72 if you really wanted to. Now, those longer fasts are something that I would only recommend doing like quarterly or. Yeah, it's not something you would do regularly for sure by any means. So 48 hours or 72 hours is definitely something that's like, you know, once or twice or maximum three, four times a year. And obviously, you know, something that you want to work your way up to and something that you want to make sure that you're supported with. Right. In terms of like, you know, clearing it with your physician or whatever you have to do. Right. So just make sure that you always speak to your doctor before you. Before you do a more extended period of fast like that.

Thanks.

Yeah, you're welcome. I just did a. I did a 48 hour fast in January and it was really, really interesting because my aura data significantly improved. So my. Let me show you guys, it's really, really interesting what happened. I did it. Like my HRV just like completely sh. Okay, Let's see if I can find the date. Why doesn't this tell me the date? I'll have to take a look at it, but I know I did it back, I think mid January. I did it. Okay, here it was week three. Oh, here's the date. Okay. I was wondering where the date was. Okay, so I skipped a few days, but if you can see, it's kind of hard to see. But this was before fasting. See how it's like, it's kind of in the 70s. 71, 70, 81, which is still pretty good. But then when I was fasting it shot up to, that's 144. And then the next day it shot up to 159. So. Yeah. So even with my resting heart rate, like it significantly went down. Yeah. So I've never done a 48 hour fast before. So it was a really good experience for me and I, I, I felt really good. I actually didn't really feel that hungry. Like once you get over the 24 hours, it's, it's not that bad. But everyone's different. Right? Like, that was my experience. So, you know, everyone is going to be different in terms of how they tolerate fasting. Okay, what other questions do you all have? Melissa says, is there a range of where your HRV should be? Okay, so everyone is going to be unique. So it's hard to just give like a blanket number. The higher the better. So you know, if you do have an OURA ring, like for most people, what you'll notice when you, as you go through this program is HRV does increase over time. There are a few things that can help HRV increase. Obviously getting good sleep is a huge factor because if we don't get good sleep, then that can really impact our HRV because it is a measure of how resilient you are to stress. So really making sure that you prioritize sleep, get good sleep, physical activity can really help increase HRV as well. So I put a little article from oras, specifically in terms of heart rate variability. Let me find it here. Okay, here we go. So, yeah, so you know, hrv, like I said, it is unique. Like certain things we can't control. Right. Like our genetic factors. Some of us are more, genetically, we're more resilient to stress than other people. Right. You might notice like, you know, especially within your own household. Right. Like if it's you, and let's say Your sibling or your parents, like, you may notice that one parent reacts to stress very differently than the other parent. One parent can maybe shake it off very easily. One parent might hold on to stress more, more, longer, for more prolonged periods of time. Same thing with, you know, siblings. You might notice you, you know, might take after your mom or your sibling might take after your dad because deal with stress differently, genetically speaking. Right. Illness, of course, you know, if you do get sick in any way, whether, you know it's a cold or flu or whatever it might be for some people. For most people, like, I know in January I had like two days of like a really runny nose and just a very mild fever, but my HRV went down. Right. So you'll notice, you know, HRV will go down if you are coming down with something. So, you know, there are day to day fluctuations, but for the most part, the higher it is, the better. So here's the, here's the link. And as we get older, HRV will tend to kind of decline a little bit. Not saying that, you know, it, it can't improve, but slowly it'll decline a little bit. Okay, Brooke is asking, so you want to weigh the food cooked. So whatever the final state is of that food that you're consuming. So let's say you're eating some fish, right? Typically speaking, with most, most proteins, most you have to weigh out to about 5 ounces raw because by the time you cook it, the water evaporates and it shrinks to about 4 ounces. So with protein, you always. Or with foods, you always want to weigh them in their final state in terms of how you're going to eat that food. Right. So same thing with broccoli. Like if you're eating it raw, weigh 4 ounces, but if you're eating it cooked, you want to weigh it once it's cooked. Okay, what other questions do you all have.

Another question?

Yeah, sure.

I don't want to hog things. I hope other people.

No, not at all. Go ahead.

I've just been looking or listening to that podcast with Dana James and she talks about the archetypes of most women and how it affects eating. Anyway, she mentions this thing called, I think she said the A study or the ACE study. And that's about how childhood conditions or trauma will affect how you comfort yourself later in life. And much of that comfort could be through food. So if you happen to know what that study is, I would like to like, you can, she said you can take the questionnaire. It's 10 questions. So I Just couldn't find it online.

The original study you're referring to.

Yeah, I was looking to actually take the test.

Okay. Did we. Was it in one of the modules?

Yeah, it's the module. The same module where Satchin talks about mind mastery.

Okay.

And you just like scroll down in this other podcast with Drew Poor Ahead.

Yep. Drew Pearl. It. Yeah.

Yeah. She interviews Dana James and it's really fascinating. I was just curious about this test.

Yeah. Okay. I will definitely try to locate that for you and send that over to you.

That would be great.

Yep. No worries. Oh, here. Archetype quiz. I found it. I'm going to put it in the chat. That's the one you're referring to, right? The archetype quiz.

I don't think so, but I. I mean, that looks cool. She talked about this other study, but maybe that's it. She said if you get four answers, a positive response, you definitely got some childhood trauma going on that would affect you later in life if you haven't resolved it. You know, because we all have stuff that may affect your ability to lose weight.

Yep. That is a huge. Let me see if there's anything in the show notes.

Oh, that's a good idea. Yeah. That quiz is like basically trying to figure out if what archetype you are.

Yes.

Yeah. Which is cool.

She also has a book, the Archetype Diet.

Yeah. Oh.

This is more information on her hearing. Most of the things I'm finding is about the archetype.

Yeah. Maybe if I go back I could find you the exact moment where she talks about this and send it to you. Because she either says the A or the ace. She has an accent, so I wasn't sure what she was saying. It's in the Broken Brain podcast.

Yep.

Yeah. Okay. Anyway.

Okay.

And then I have one more question.

Yes.

Totally unrelated and that is Berberine. People are talking about Berberine as the natural metformin. Yeah.

Yeah.

Or even Ozempic instead of Olympic and all that, which I don't want to go near, but.

Yep.

Wondering what you feel about that.

Yeah. I love Berberine, specifically for people who have insulin resistance, blood sugar related issues. It is a great, great herb, so to speak, that really can help with those things. So. Because it, it also helps with like, it's a GLP1 agonist, just like Ozempic. So mechanism of action is. Is similar without, you know, a lot of the side effects. Right. Which is what a lot of people are concerned with with Ozempic. So put a link in here for the one that we Recommend. Yeah, and it's, I think it's a, it's, it's a great. Supplement to take on a daily basis.

And you take it.

I don't take, I don't take this one. I take, I take like a multi. Which has some other. Like. I don't have issues with blood insulin resistance, so I don't take this. But if you have issues with insulin resistance or blood sugar, then I would, I would probably recommend taking this if you're, you know, some people don't like to take too much supplements, so I try not to recommend a lot of supplements. I like to do things with food and diet first. But for people who are like pre diabetic or diabetic, then, you know, this can really help with healthy blood sugar metabolism and weight management too. So if that's an issue for you, then that this is a great product to take. So the link I put there is, is for those who live in the US if you live in Canada, I'll put a, another link. Okay. Beverly, you had a question. Go ahead and unmute.

I, I actually had a comment.

Yes.

On, on the berberine. I've been taking it for several years. It was recommended by. One of my health coaches and I didn't notice any difference. I was taking a statin drug for high cholesterol and within like nine months of starting that, then I was actually, yeah, I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. So it's like, okay, I, it's a reaction, it's a side effect of the statin drug because I, I know that.

Can be the case.

But another health coach looked at my blood tests and said that because of the statin drug, the ratio between my triglycerides, which are also high, and my cholesterol was just way out of whack.

So.

I talked to my doctor about it and he took me off the statin drug and put me on one for the triglycerides. After that, my blood sugar just went high.

High, high, high, high.

Well, I mean, it was like, it wasn't above 200 high, but it was consistently fasting. It was like 130, 140. So she had me do a viome test to see if there were any food sensitivities. But I also started to increase my berberine and my blood sugar has come down a whole lot. Now I'm regularly under. 110 for my fasting. Blue, Blue coast. But so, yeah, that was just my, my experience with berberine. So I'm taking like, I'm taking two Cat four capsules a day. I take two in the morning and two at night. Get it all nice and spread out and.

Good.

I think I take, I think I take the designs for health stuff too. So.

Yep. The Burba veil. Yeah.

Yeah.

Excellent. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah.

Okay, so what other questions do you all have? Questions, comments? Now some people are finishing any questions about maintenance for anyone? Okay, quiet bunch. What's one big benefit that you've experienced from this program?

I think I'm going to stick with intermittent fasting for good. I mean it's, I find it easy and know when I look at all the benefits of it then I, I'm inspired to just stay with it.

Yeah, yeah, it's, that's a, a big one for a lot of people. So usually with intermittent fasting there's, you know, I, I find for most post menopausal women and men, like long term intermittent fasting, depending on your goals too can be really effective. Right. And then for premenopausal women, you know, sometimes a third meal does help. And then of course if you're trying to really put on a lot of lean muscle mass, then it's hard to intermittent fast if you're trying to get, you know, a certain amount of protein in. But for most people who are doing this program and if you're not sure, you can always ask me the intermittent fasting, even if you do it like you may not do it seven days a week, but even if you did it like three or four or five days a week, I always, you know, will recommend for maintenance at least couple days at a minimum of fasting. And for most people like fasting is still considered like 12 to 14 hours is still considered a fast. Right. So even if you do 12 to 14 hours long term, like you can still fit three meals in. Right. It's when you go to 16 hours, it's a bit harder to fit the three meals in. But 12 to 14 hours is what I recommend on a daily basis and most people can do that pretty, pretty safely and easily. Okay. Farhana says belief that weight loss is actually possible after menopause. Yes. Thanks for sharing, Farhana. Melissa says, I've realized my relationship with food is social. A bunch of co workers go to Timmy's or lunch. I do as well. It was a culture that I just adapted and not knowingly they know I'm on this journey so they don't ask me anymore. Oh yeah, Mel's on her program. Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Yeah. So like sometimes we get into these habits where we don't even know why we're doing it. We just do it, like, because everyone else is doing it. And last week we talked a lot about beverages and like, you know, coffee, it just seems like coffee, but when you add the milk and the sugar, like, that's when it can get, like, really unhealthy. Right? So, you know, just.

And.

And those are things that sometimes we don't take into account. Right. We don't take into account that we're drinking like X amount of double doubles. Like in Canada we call them double doubles. We don't realize we're drinking like three or four of those a day or, you know, that we're drinking like, you know, a can of pop or whatever it might be, right. Or a latte from Starbucks. Like those things add up, right? So not just from a caloric standpoint, but for our health too. Like, it's even alcohol, right? Like a couple glasses of wine here and there. Like, it adds up, right? So I did post in the Facebook group a post about alcohol. I'd highly encourage you all to listen to it. It's very insightful. I thought it was very balanced. You know, a lot of research supporting the. I don't know if you want to call them claims, but supporting what was said during that podcast. So I would, I would highly recommend it for, for any of you who do consume alcohol. It was pretty, pretty insightful. Not even hungry. Yeah, sometimes it's like we're not even hungry, but we just, oh, everyone else is doing it. I'll get some. I'll do this. Right. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Most office workers don't realize how much they bring in bad food. Yeah. Bringing in treats like donuts, muffins, candy. It's difficult. It is, yeah. The office culture is a tough one, Right. I used to work at St. Michael's Hospital. It's to downtown hospital. And in the nurses station there was always like some sort of donut or cake, like celebrating someone's birthday or this or that. And it can be tempting sometimes, right? So takes, you know, willpower or reminder of our why. And like, sometimes what I will recommend is maybe bring in an alternative that's healthier. Right? A treat that is healthier. There's a great website, it's called Bakerita. I'll put it in the chat. But all the desserts there are gluten free. Most, a lot of them are vegan, but they use things like almond flour and, you know, more healthier sweeteners. It's still, obviously, you know, Might not be the, the, the healthiest thing, but because it still has some sort of sugar in it. But, you know, we don't. We don't have to be all or none. Right. I always say 9010 rule. Right. And that 10% of the time, maybe we indulge in something, but maybe we make it a little more healthier. Right. So there's lots of options and they don't. They can taste just as good, if not better.

Yeah.

I've made some of the cookies, I think, at Christmas. I made the cookies on chocolate chip cookies on her website and they turned out great.

So I just finished my, like, 36 sessions of cardiac rehab. And you would not believe the stuff that comes in to that, like donuts and cookies. And like, this is why we got heart attacks. It just kind of incredible.

It is, it's very eye opening. Like, even the food that they serve in the hospitals, like this person just had a heart attack and look what you're feeding them. It's.

Yeah, yeah.

Even the things that they carry in the vending machines and that they, you know, have in their cafeteria, like, this is a place where people are supposed to be getting better and it's like.

It'S a revolving door, basically.

Exactly. Yeah, totally. So keeps. Keeps business going, I guess. Yeah. So Melissa says, grateful for the awareness this program has gave me, for sure. Definitely an eye opener. Yeah. And that's one of the main things that most people will share after they've, you know, been on this program is that it's. It's really eye opening for them in terms of some of the habits that they had prior to. Right. So.

Yeah.

And that's the main thing we want. Right. Is just the increased level of awareness because once you know something, you can't know it. Right. Okay. Well, thank you for being here, everyone. Does anyone have any other questions or comments? If not, I guess we'll see you next Friday and enjoy your weekend. Have a wonderful weekend and make sure you get outside, get some walking done, focus on your breathing, get some good sleep, and we'll see you all next Friday.

Right. Thank you. Bye, everybody.

Bye, everyone. Bye.