Welcome to the well and worthy life podcast. I’m your host, Deanna Pizitz a certified integrative nutrition health coach. This podcast is designed to inspire and motivate you to become a better you through sharing solutions, to your biggest struggles and concerns. In this second half of life, let’s change how we age by focusing on creating a positive mindset that allows us to flourish.
Nourishing our bodies for longevity, optimizing our hormone health for better balance movement that keeps us feeling young and active and managing our stress to improve our mental health. Things are different now in our second half, and we have to do things differently. Hey guys. Welcome back to Well and Worthy Life. I’m so excited to have a wonderful guest with me today. Dr. Jesse Hay Myer. Dr. Jesse is the physician founder of Well. Empowered where she practices data-driven, outcome oriented functional medicine. I love this because she, when she created well, empowered and I love that name, well empowered like well and worthy life, right?
With one commitment in mind. Providing you the foundation of health and vitality that transforms your experience of life and alters what is possible for you. She does this by getting to the root cause, something different. Right. And people that have been on here so, or li listening for a while.
I have had some functional medicine doctors on here Dr. H and I’m so excited to have you here today with me. It is such a pleasure to be with you, Deanna, and your, your tribe. Thank you for the opportunity to, to collaborate and partner in, in sharing the goodness of vitality and health. Yes, exactly. And I, yeah, I love what you’re doing.
I mean, we, we talked before the recording and A month or so ago before I went to Europe and before you came back, and let’s just tell everybody, well first of all, I wanna tell everybody where you’re living at this moment. So tell everybody about that and then we’re gonna go backtrack and tell everybody about how you got interested in functional medicine, because I think that’s something really important.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, I live in Lucerne, Switzerland, so I call it working remotely. Remotely, yeah. And my husband and I, we moved to Switzerland about a year and a half ago for his work, and I am grateful and fortunate enough that I can bring my work with me wherever I go. So, I now work from Switzerland and you know, my business is all virtual too, so that is the beauty of what we do because we can meet with clients from anywhere.
But I love this because I was just telling you, I just went to Switzerland cuz one of the days I had free me and my girlfriends did an e-bike tour through Switzerland and it was so beautiful. So clean. I’m like, of course you’d wanna live in Switzerland. I’ve gotta go back and visit Switzerland more.
I’m like truly, truly, truly. And you know to the point where it is kind of like a pinch me beautiful location. Right? It is. I call it supermodel. Gorgeous. It is so gorgeous. And, and it, as you were saying, right, it runs so well. As I shared before we hopped on today, one of my friends. Who lives in Switzerland but isn’t from Switzerland.
Texted me last week before I came back and she said, are you back in Disneyland yet? You know, like it really has this like, whoa kinda feeling about it. It really, it just, it just so beautiful and like, so clean and just, I mean, what a great place to live, to live. A well empowered life, to be honest. A well and worthy life.
A well empowered life. I mean, what a way to practice living that, you know, I mean, really. Yeah. The environment definitely calls for health and vitality. Yes. Right? It’s culturally speaking, it’s very centered around being out and using your body and enjoying your life, right? Mm-hmm. They really honor The, the wonder of, of this land and also they honor, you know, what it is to live fully, right?
It’s a, we’re, we’re multifaceted people and being out there in the world exploring and, and is a big part of the culture. So it, it definitely it, it’s, it is a wonderful thing and I’m very grateful for the experience. Oh, I know, I know. So if you guys are listening, you need to go visit Switzerland.
For sure. For sure. That’s gotta be on your bucket list. Okay. But let’s backtrack a little bit. And, and so how did you end up here and functional medicine? What, what helped you create? Well empowered. Yeah. Well, Deanna, I like to say straight lines are boring. Yeah. So we’ll just start with that as the premise.
But Ultimately, you know, how I made my way to becoming a functional medicine practitioner was I really have always been deeply devoted to health and vitality. I grew up and, and health was a focus in our household. Household through being active and through my mom feeding us wonderful, beautiful food.
And you know, I, and wait, where’d you grow up to? I actually, I grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago. Okay. And a suburb called Northbrook. And then I moved, when I went to college, I went to ucla. And at ucla I created my schedule so that it worked for my workout, like when I wanted to work out and love that.
I love it. So you could see where my mind was. And that involved a lot of running and rollerblading and biking and. Being out there in the beauty of the California sunshine, I did not take it for granted one day. Really, really, really, really. That’s perfect. I stayed in California for about two years after graduating and worked as a physical therapy aid.
And over the course of that was really looking at how do I want to be a part? Of people’s health journey. So I started considering graduate degrees at that point, but ultimately chose to move back to Chicago, downtown Chicago and opened up the first. High intensity strength training, boutique strength training facility in the city at the time, in 2002.
Wow. And was the managing partner there for about four years, at which point I really got, I wanted to be able to contribute to people on a deeper and more meaningful level, and part of that was related to my journey. Mm-hmm. Right. For me. I had, you know, been on the weight loss rollercoaster despite my commitment to health and despite how active I was, right for over 10 years at that point, and I really got that.
It was interfering with my ability to be present and fully contribute in this world. Like the, you know, being constantly focused on my weight and what I was eating or what I wasn’t eating. And at one point there were a number of aha moments, but there’s one in particular I remember. And I’ll just say a little bit about this moment because I think people can relate to this, right?
I was standing in my kitchen in Lincoln Park in Chicago, and I was holding in one hand a glass that kind of had like a little sludge at the bottom of it. Mm-hmm. And in my other hand, I had my car keys. And there was this noise. It was kind of like a kind of noise, and that was my, my stomach. Right?
And the, it was given by this sledge filled glass was the remnants of a master cleanse. Right. It was like a, I know, right? Please, yes. Eye roll of recognition. Right? It’s like, okay, what was it? It was like cayenne pepper and a little lemon juice and maybe some. Maple syrup, I think, I don’t even know. It was all kinds of shenanigans.
Right. And so I was starving because I was doing this ridiculous master cleanse for a few days. Mm-hmm. And it really, and the, and the keys by the way, they were in my hand because naturally when you’re starving, you go to McDonald’s and get a McFlurry. Right? And, and so that was like the solution, right?
And I really got in that moment, this ridiculous paradigm we were born into of deprivation or overindulgence. Of all or nothing. Mm-hmm. And you know, being able to see that and also being deceit, being able to see what it was costing me to live in this inherited paradigm. Maybe just go like, no, no, no, no, no, no.
This is not how my life’s gonna go. Right? And so that was one of of multiple moments where I drew a line in the sand and really committed to a journey that I now call Mastering Your Middle Ground. Right, and that mastering your middle ground is really born of equal parts heart and science. And it’s one of the primary things I do in my data-driven functional medicine work is, is guiding people in the realm of weight loss.
I certainly work in other areas as well, but guiding people who, people who, who have struggled for years or decades in this area. But one of the things I got was that okay, it was great for me to figure out my path. But if I really wanted to be able to contribute to others, I needed to learn about the body because different bodies work differently.
Different bodies have different obstacles. Different bodies have different needs, right? So that led me to go to graduate school and get tooled up with the science that I needed to be able to. Become a functional medicine physician. Mm-hmm. And do what I do. So I love that, that all or nothing mentality. I was stuck there for so long too.
And that diet rollercoaster, I mean, always trying to find the next best diet to lose that weight quick. And, you know, I never, honestly, I never had that much weight. I had to lose. It was always that little bit, like five pounds maybe. I think the most I ever gained other than having children was 10 pounds, you know?
Yeah. So, but yeah. But I started that roller coaster about the age of 15, I think. Yes. 14 or 15. My mother put me on my first diet, you know? Mm. And and so, It took me years too to figure out, like, this is not working. I was a lot older than you. By the time I figured that out. I only figured that out if, like, maybe when I hit 50 I was like this is really not gonna work at this age.
Yeah. I think that that all or nothing mentality, so many people get caught up in that. And and it does, it, it’s just like you said, it just gets you stuck and then you’re either on a diet or you’re just like, whatever, you know?
Right. Absolutely. You’re on a diet or you’re off a diet, right? Mm-hmm. And the thing is, is none of us made this up. Right. It, you know, it’s been going on for generations. Mm-hmm. And so I think it’s helpful to kind of see, right. You said your mom put you on your first diet at 15, and if you look back at when you were 15, Deanna.
Do you think that 15 year old you needed to be on a diet? No. No. Absolutely not. Yeah. Right, right, right, right. So it’s, you know, I, I think a lot about how this all evolved for us, but, but the punchline is we didn’t make it up cause we never would have. It’s broken. It doesn’t work. If we were just given a real true clean slate, we would’ve come up with something much better.
But it’s great. Right? It gives us an opportunity to invent a whole new perspective. Mm-hmm. And have that be what we pass along. Mm-hmm. Right, right, right. Well, that’s why I think for me right now, that is a huge passion for me. I want to make sure that my granddaughter, who is almost four years old, Never even thinks I need to go on a diet.
Yes. Like that never comes to her mind. All she thinks is I wanna nourish my body so that I feel good and it’s just I wanna move my body, not because I have to quote exercise, but because I feel good and I like to be active and I like to be outside and, but she doesn’t have to go through what I feel like that I battled all those years, like, You know, looking in the mirror and, and seeing something different, you know?
Yeah. I mean, I still, even with all the, the things, and I’m in a very healthy weight now, I still look sometimes I’m like, oh, you need to, y’all hear my mom’s voice. You need to lose a couple of pounds there, you know? Yeah. It’s work that you have to do. Yes. It just doesn’t. But let’s go back to this that you learned.
The body because yes, that’s another big, big thing that people don’t understand that we are all different. There is no one size fits all. So you can’t say, do this, this, this, and this, and you’re gonna lose the weight. It’s not gonna happen. Absolutely, absolutely. And you know, I, I call the work I do data driven because it really is, it, it’s a combination of things that really helps me.
Guide people in addressing the root cause of whatever they’re dealing with it, whether it’s weight loss resistance or digestive distress, or hormones gone, whackadoodle, whatever it’s right. But being able to understand, first of all, what information do I need for this person? Like what labs do I need? And then being able to look at those labs through the lens of this individual and understand how it is all connected.
Mm-hmm. And then translate that to, okay, what’s gonna make a difference? You know, what do we need to do here such that the body heals such that we address the root cause of chronic constipation, diarrhea, bloating, or weight loss challenges, or you know, Menopausal symptoms, whatever it is. Right. And you know, when I get a notification that I have new lab results in, I’m like a kid at Christmas.
I cannot wait to open them up and see what we’re gonna discover about this person. You know, it’s, it’s just really exciting work. You know, I tell my clients all the time, you’ve got to get your labs. I mean, I’m not a doctor, so, but you need to go get your labs. Yes, you need to go ask your doctor for your labs with unfortunate part is it, you know, trying to find a doctor.
And that’s why I’m so glad to have you on today to kinda. You know, show people that you don’t have to go to your traditional doctor to get your labs, you know? A lot of times I’ll tell people to go to their doctor and get their labs and they come back to me and they’re like, my doctor said, like, I’ll say we’ll go get your hormone panel, your metabolic panel, or whatever from your doctor.
And they’re like, no, my doctor said there’s no reason to run that they know that I’m in menopause. Cause I don’t have a period, my hormones are. I’m like, well, yeah, but you don’t know where your hormones are. You like, you still need those labs. Mm-hmm. You still, you know, and these doctors, I don’t really understand why they don’t run the labs, but they don’t.
And then even if they did run the labs, let’s be honest, they don’t have the time to. Spend with you to go over and come up with a plan to get to the root cause. Unfortunately, right now, a lot of doctors are throwing medicine at. What, whatever it might be, right? You have anxiety, oh, here’s an antidepressant.
Oh, you have, you know, you wanna lose weight. Oh, we have a new drug out for that now. Mm-hmm. Oh, you, you know, and that’s not getting to the root cause. We know, I mean, if you go off the medication, if it’s not sustainable, which it. You know, most of the time we don’t wanna have to take medication for the rest of our life if we don’t have to.
You know, some people have to. Sure. But you know, what, what can we do to make it sustainable? So I’m wondering what do you find when a menopausal or perimenopausal woman come to you and they. They’ve all of a sudden started gaining weight, they can’t lose weight.
What, what do you find? Is there a more common. Thing that is happening with them. Yeah. There are often, there are a few different things I begin to think about in that situation. The woman who’s perimenopausal or menopausal and is struggling to lose weight and, and sometimes it’s like for the first time in their life.
Mm-hmm. Right. I was talking to a woman yesterday who I’m working with who, she’s like, whose body is this? Right? Like, this has never been a problem. I’ve heard this too, and now it’s right. Mm-hmm. But you know, when the way of, okay. What is at the source of this? I think about a few different things. One is I start to get, well, yes, we wanna make sure the thyroid is working well, but what’s interesting is that it’s so rarely the thyroid, but we have to make sure it’s not for thyroid at the same time.
Mm-hmm. Right. So it’s, you know, doing a very comprehensive assessment of the thyroid is a. Essential. So what’s commonly done when the thyroid is checked as a test called t s h, and that’s an important puzzle piece, but in my opinion and experience, there are at least four other tests that should be done.
So, you know, really doing a comprehensive, comprehensive assessment of the thyroid is important. And if someone does need thyroid support, we wanna make sure they get that thyroid support. But even then, when it comes to weight loss, Even around perimenopause and menopause. It’s never just the thyroid.
I’ve never seen anyone who was diagnosed as hypothyroid at at any point in their life who began to support their thyroid appropriately, who suddenly, like the weight was just handled. In other words, yes, it must be addressed if there’s a problem with a thyroid, but it’s rarely the only thing that needs to happen.
So there are three things. That I commonly look for in these situations outside of, you know, assessing the thyroid. Mm-hmm. The first one is looking at optimal insulin sensitivity. So what happens for a lot of people is that their fasting insulin levels are quote unquote normal, but they are far off. Of optimal.
And when that happens, the body is, has like its foot on the metabolic break, right? Metabolism is just slowed down. Mm-hmm. And so I really like to see insulin seven, you know, kind of like I. Two, three to seven. That’s the range I like. Mm-hmm. Whereas, you know, oftentimes the lab normal range goes up to 19 or 20.
So I’ve got a much tighter criteria that I’m looking at for, does this person have optimal insulin sensitivity? So that’s the first thing is looking at, you know, is there, is there a, is there compromise insulin sensitivity or is it optimal? The second wait before you state anything else there? I wanna say this because I think that’s, A great thing to So you’re looking for optimal.
Yes. You’re not looking for average. Yes. And I think that’s what you know, unfortunately, you know, they have this average range like, oh, well that’s good. Well no, we don’t wanna be average, because let’s face it, the average of America especially is not anywhere. Close to what we wanna be. So I wanna really point that out to people.
You don’t wanna be average. Well said. Very well said, Deanna. Truly, truly, truly. Yes. And then, you know, the second thing that I look at, Is inflammation. So inflammation, you know, a lot of people have heard the term inflammation, and oftentimes I’ll talk to people and they’ll say, I’m really inflamed. And I’ll say, tell me how it’s showing up in their body.
And they might say, my joints are achy, or My skin is, you know, I get rashes. Or you know, my digestions, you know, I get bloated all the time. Right? They, they share how they experience inflammation in their body. And while that can be helpful, way more often than not, People don’t have symptoms with elevated inflammation.
Mm-hmm. And so we wanna make sure we get the number and we don’t guess whether someone has symptoms or not. I’m going to be looking at inflammation and the different, there are different ways we can test inflammation. The two I most commonly look at and the way of labs, one is called h s. C R P, which stands for if you want the long name.
Yeah, high sensitivity. C Reactive Protein, but Hs. C R P. And I like to see that. Under one, so 1.0 or less. Mm-hmm. And then the other one is something called homocystine, which often isn’t thought of an as an inflammatory marker, but in my opinion very much is, and I like to see that between six and eight.
So those are, those are two inflammatory markers. And in if inflammation is elevated similar to that, Insulin, if it’s suboptimal, if it’s higher than, you know, that seven range, the body is going to be. Shifting to energy conservation, aka a fat storage mode, right? Elevated inflammation means conserve calories, right?
And, and our body’s, you know, incredibly intelligent. That inflammatory response evolved to protect us and keep us safe from acute or, you know, kind of short term immediate injuries, right? Imagine hundreds of years ago if you were foraging and you injured yourself, you broke a leg or something like that.
Well, You know, nobody’s around. You’re in the forest and you can’t get more food. You better be able to conserve some calories until you’re able to get your TXs to some more food. Right? Right. So very intelligent, but it’s that chronic inflammation that we’re looking at with these numbers. That’s really the problem.
So that second one is inflammation. And then the third common thing that I look at for people who are perimenopausal or menopausal and are struggling with weight is their detox pathways. Right. And the thing is that there are a lot of different ways we can assess detox pathways. And I’m gonna look at it differently for different people, but when are detoxification, you know, detox is such a sheet word.
I’m always like, you know, if you put detox on a supplement, you’re just gonna sell a lot of it. So like everybody should use detox on their supplements. Right? Exactly. But, but you know, their actual physiological processes are detoxification pathways. Mm-hmm. And when they are not working well toxins accumulate.
And hormones don’t get metabolized properly and our microbiome functions differently. So it really sets the stage for damaging cells for damaging our ability to produce energy for increasing inflammation. For a lot of different things that interfere with our ability to lose weight. Mm-hmm. So, again, tho those three things that we, we’ve talked about the thyroid, which most people are familiar with, right?
But the three things really are optimal. You know, does this person have optimal insulin sensitivity? Is inflammation elevated? Are there detox pathways, quote unquote gunked up? Those are different things that I look at in, in, you know, the, in with people. So on those tests are those all blood lab tests or are they the dried urine test?
So the first two tests, insulin and inflammation, those are blood tests. Mm-hmm. The detox pathways, tests, it depends. There are different things I do. So there will be some things I look at in blood because it helps, you know, for example B12 is a nutrient that is, it’s one of many nutrients required for healthy detoxification pathways to run.
Mm-hmm. So if I’m doing someone’s. When I’m doing someone’s blood work, I will put a B12 in there and if it’s low, I already know they don’t have enough fuel to run their detox pathways appropriately. Right? So that will be a red light. I might actually do an assessment of the microbiome. To see there, there’s a marker on microbiome assessments that helps me understand if people are reabsorbing toxins.
Mm-hmm. I might do an assessment, a salivary assessment or a urine assessment mm-hmm. Of sex hormones. Mm-hmm. I use different ones for different people and And then there are some things that actually more specifically, text test, detox pathways. I tend to do those less because I find the other information is more actionable.
Mm-hmm. And I always want actionable information, you know, like Right. You know, there’s information that’s interesting. And there’s information that’s actionable and we want information that’s both interesting and actionable. I love that. Yes. Okay, so let’s talk about actionable. So tell everybody some things that maybe.
You know that you might give, you might see some results, and then you’re like, okay, well you can do this, this, and this. Yes. Yeah. So with insulin sensitivity, I will be looking for nutrient deficiencies that are either interfering with healthy insulin production or healthy insulin. Like receiving the message, right?
All of our hormones, insulin, cell hormone, and all of our hormones work like a ball in a mit, right? Think of the ball as the hormone, and the MIT is the receptor. So we wanna have appropriate amounts of the ball and we wanna really good mit. Mm-hmm. We want that MIT to just connect with that ball perfectly, right?
Mm-hmm. So part of insulin sensitivity will be, especially on the receptor side, do we have a sticky mit. And that will be, for example, looking at omega-3 fatty acids. Mm-hmm. That will be looking at vitamin D. I will also even consider inflammation in that conundrum because it will certainly appeal, interfere with a sticky mit.
So it, they do certainly all dance together. But if insulin, insulin isn’t ideal, we’re gonna be looking at places we can. Support the person nutritionally come up with some new solutions that are sustainable. Right. You used that word earlier, Deanna, and I was like, oh my gosh, music to my ears. We speak the same language, right?
Yes we do. It’s like, you know, if it’s not a sustainable solution, it’s just not a solution. Mm-hmm. Pure read. Exactly. So, you know, when I work with people, I actually have them track nutrition and symptoms off of a shared Google document because that helps me get on your side and helps you troubleshoot like, With your life, what will, what, what’s the next step?
This is crossing the monkey bars and we don’t get from A to Z overnight. That’s no problem. We’re looking for progress, not perfection. So how might we help insulin sensitivity? We might look for ways that we can come up with some, what I call swap opportunities, right? Ways that we can satisfy your.
Carb, carbohydrate needs mm-hmm. That, you know, true physiological needs and also just, you know, pleasure desires. Right. Right. In a way that still helps you produce the right amount, but not more insulin. Right. So re yes, reducing refined carbohydrates, but doing it in a way that works for you in your life.
Mm-hmm. In the nutrient aspect. Right. Certainly if omega three s are low, we’re really gonna work on elevating those through nutrition, but probably also through supplementation. Mm-hmm. Another supplement that I know is having a stay in the sun and rightfully so, truly rightfully so, is Yeah. Burberine.
One of my, one of my patients the other day was telling me about like, burberine, TikTok videos are like galore. I’m like, I’m not about TikTok, but I’m like, good to know. Yeah. But you know, with Burberine it’s important that we use the right amount for the person in front of us. Right? There are different doses.
There are some people who I might use 500 milligrams three times a day, and really that person needs that amount. There are other people that I might use it once a day. Some that I might use it twice a day and numbers don’t lie, right? I’m always gonna circle back and check numbers again. Versus cross my fingers and, and hope that we’re getting the alcohol.
Then you’re just like shooting the dark and like hoping you hit Totally. You know? Now I think that’s a very good point. You just made supplements. Okay. So people ask me all the time, what supplements do you take? And I’m like, Well, I can tell you what supplements I take, but just because I take these supplements doesn’t mean you should take these supplements because a hundred percent like, but, but let’s go back to supplements.
What are some, because there probably are some supplements that most perimenopausal, menopausal women should take. What would do, would you say that? Well, I will say there are supplements that are commonly useful for people’s bodies, but to your point, you know, I test, don’t guess. Right. Yeah. Don’t guess.
Right. You know you know, and to give you some examples of this, just even thinking about my husband and me. Mm-hmm. Right. His vitamin D receptors, he has some genetic mutations that are very common to his vitamin D receptors. Mm-hmm. And so for him, he needs to take 5,000 IU vitamin D a day. Mm-hmm. To even have like barely.
Optimal levels. Wow. And when I say barely optimal, I mean, I like to see vitamin D 45 to 60. So for him to be in that low end of optimal range, he needs to take 5,000 IU a day. For me. Wow. I need to take 5,000 IU a week, period. Like that’s all I need. Right. And the only way we learn that is by doing our labs to figure out where we were.
Supplementing and then circling back to see, you know, our absorbtion. Does your vitamin D dosages change in the summer versus the winter months? A little bit, but I’m pretty good at prote, you know, wearing SPF F or wearing you, you know, the, the protective clothing that blocks the sun at wearing, you know, so.
So a little bit, but not hugely. And I do enur. I know there’s some conversation about whether we should be wearing SPF or not. I am a believer in wearing spf, right? I mean, skin cancer is real. And of course there’s the vanity aspect of keeping your skin as, yeah, it’s a wrinkle for you as possible. So anyway but sure it could, it can vary a little bit.
You know, there’s certainly some people who, especially the person who they’re taking. Thousand IU a day. Mm-hmm. Sometimes I’ll say, you know, like, let’s get a read on your vitamin D levels, the third week of June. Mm-hmm. Right. And see where you are. And sometimes we’ll say, okay, for your body in the summer, only take it Monday through Friday, skip the weekends.
And then once the shade hits, you know, if you’re living in a place that gets cold or not a lot of sunlight, then you wanna bring it up back to the weekends. Right? And, and so yeah, there can be a little bit of variability for sure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Sorry to get off of that tangent, but I, I think about that.
And magnesium. What about magnesium? I love magnesium for a lot of different things. I joke that magnesium’s the gateway supplement because it does so many miraculous things and like seemingly unrelated, right? So it can be a fabulous, very gentle adrenal support that helps people relax and go to sleep, right?
It’s, it’s not the I know there’s some conversation about whether melatonin is appropriate to use or not. I actually do believe it’s appropriate to use when it’s used appropriately. Haha. Right. You know, like, in other words, not everybody needs melatonin, and some people benefit from melatonin, but magnesium is, you know, super gentle, A great way to help people get restful, relaxing, sustained sleep.
It also is fabulous when someone is dealing with constipation. And there are forms. For someone who’s like, you know, a champion pooper, right? Who doesn’t need support in that way. Mm-hmm. There are different forms, like magnesium glyconate, for example, is one that doesn’t have the same GI impact.
Mm-hmm. Right. And so for someone who has daily healthy bowel movements, They might wanna reach for a magnesium glyconate versus a magnesium citrate for someone who tends towards constipation. And then magnesium definitely can be helpful for, especially, you know, kind of related to insulin, but optimizing fasting glucose.
Mm-hmm. So when someone has an elevated fasting glucose, that means they’re pre-diabetic at a certain range, they’ll be. Esteemed diabetic, and then that person, there’s great research on magnesium being one of the things that can be helpful at improving fasting glucose. Mm-hmm. So yes. Yes. Lot, lot. And that’s so interesting because magnesium, there are so many.
Kinds again. I mean, I get asked that question, well, what? Which magnet? Yeah. I’m like, I can tell you what I use. Yeah, but you really, I think that’s really why it’s important, you know, to find a doctor, to figure out your labs, to hear what you should be taking and not what your friends taking. Not what.
Somebody on Instagram or TikTok taking, but what is for you? Okay, let’s, so let’s go back to those. You know, I get off tangents, I’m sorry. But No, it’s, I think this is like the natural flow of the conversation. We’re both, you know, so like we said, straight lines are boring. That’s right. Okay, so the actual items, so we talked about insulin and burberine and how that can help.
And then even the magnesium maybe. Mm-hmm. So, and then just really eating, you know, going to probably just maybe cutting out some of that processed foods you’re, yeah, making yourself miserable. The sugar and yes, the sugar and simple carbs, public and, and then, you know, alcohol and access, and especially those sugary drinks.
Right. But you know, Rome wasn’t built in a day, right? We, we doesn’t happen overnight. So I’m, I’m such a huge, when I collaborate with people, it really is, okay, let’s get clear on your next step. Not, yes, we’re not going, you know, again, we’re ditching the other nothing broken approach. What’s the next thing we’re gonna take on?
And we’ll create that together. We’ll talk about, I, I thi I, I have something that I call our q2. Yes. And our Q2 less. So q2, yes. The Q2 stands for quality and quantity. So the YES list, these are things like our, you know, non-starchy vegetables and our omega-3 rich fish and our you know, anti, anti-inflammatory spices and, you know, all, all our, our mono and polyunsaturated fats like nuts and seeds and avocado and all olive oil, all those wonderful things, right?
Mm-hmm. So these are things that we know. Help our body thrive. Simply put, right, our q2 Yes checklist, the, these are things that support our body’s ability to express vitality and health. Mm-hmm. Right. And then our q2, less checklists. These are foods that when we consume them in access, create stress, and show up in different ways in different bodies.
For some, you know, based on people’s genetic Achilles heels. Some people will show up as heart health. Others, it might show up as diabetes. Others, it might show up as weight gain or hormones gone. Whackadoodle or digestive distress, right? Different things show up for different people. But this Q2 less checklist.
These are things we know that when we consume them in access. They do create stress on the body and that will show up in different ways. And so, you know, really when I work with people, we, we talk about, okay, what’s on this? This, yes, these, this q2, yes, that’s going to elevate our health list and our Q2 less, that’s going to create stress and detract on our, from our health.
And then we talk about, okay, Deanna, What, where would you like to start in this next week? What are two promises you’d like to make to yourself? And, you know, you might come back and you say, you know, I can see, I, I used to eat vegetables more regularly and I just, you know, these last years have been hectic and I really, I’m, I’m committed to prioritizing that.
So how about I start with, And you’ll say whatever there is for you to say, like, you know. Mm-hmm. For me, I, I really encourage people half a plate of colorful vegetables twice daily. Mm-hmm. So, you know, the place someone might start is, listen, I’m gonna start with a quarter plate once a day, because right now I’m not getting any and a quarter plate’s gonna be better.
And half, half plate twice a day sounds like overwhelming. No problem. Let’s start with a quarter plate once a day. That’s awesome. Right. See, and I love that too because I, I am a big believer that we know what we should do. And, we start ticking off all of these things that we should do, and then just like you said, it becomes overwhelming and then mm-hmm.
We may do it for a little bit. But it goes back to this, it’s not sustainable. And I say this to my clients all the time, it’s the small things that we do consistently over time that add up. That add up to a bigger transformation. It’s not some big thing that we decide we’re gonna do because we can’t sustain that for long term cuz things come up and innately we know that one or two things.
That we should do, but we just don’t wanna admit it or we just don’t do it. Cause maybe we’re not ready to do it too, you know? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And so taking those small steps and holding you, holding them accountable, like, okay, you decide it’s not, I’m not deciding. You decide. Yeah. Here are some things absolutely.
That you can do and that could make a difference. And then, hopefully if they’ve reached this to you already, you know, it’s kind of like what I say. When people come to me, when they come to me, they’re ready to make a change. They’re ready to feel better, and we always do that better when we have accountability.
You know, absolutely. Accountability and, and structure. Right. You know, tructure people. Yes. Right. Structure data. Right. You know, how is someone going to know that they have elevated inflammation or that they’re not metabolizing their estrogens in the optimal way unless they have the information, but not just, you know, get the numbers.
But really understand how it’s showing up in their body. And, and I’m such a believer that we don’t buy what we do. We buy why we do it. Right. And, and so, you know, a, another part of my work is, is not just giving people information but guiding them and getting connected to their why. Right? So, oh, I do that same thing in my program.
I love that. I love it. I love it. Yeah. Love it. Totally love it. Yeah. And. You know, if you think about, you know, as a mom, Deanna, I can’t imagine how many nights you woke up in the middle of the night to care for a child. Right. Oh wow. Like the things you had to do at those moments we won’t talk about. Right, right.
When they needed your help, right? Yeah. But you know, you didn’t think about it cuz your why was so clear. I mean, devoted love period. Like why devoted love, like, I mean, just thoughtless, right? But when people are dealing with their health in themselves, there is a why for them to uncover. They’ve just not really uncovered it yet.
And so the what itself might not be naturally compelling, in other words, you know, Wine is delicious. Why not drink a bottle? And you know, cookies are too, so you should have some of that. Right. Right. But, but really, why, why, why not? Lies in what’s at stake. Mm-hmm. You know, like really what’s the five year future look like?
Mm-hmm. In the downward spiral future. Mm-hmm. That, yeah. Might be pretty sucky to consider. Right. Well, but then on the flip side, what’s the spiral up future look like? Mm-hmm. You know, like what actually, what’s the carrot dangling? What becomes available for you? Mm-hmm. Through triumphing in this area of your life.
And I think that’s really important and really digging deep into figuring out that wine. Cuz it can’t be, well I wanna fit in these jeans, or I’ve got an upcoming wedding. Or, you know, I mean, like it’s, there’s gotta be more to it because once you reach that, that that place, then you, a lot of times I’ve seen it, I know you’ve seen it, people reach that destination and then, They backtrack, they go back to, you know?
Absolutely. And it goes back to that all or nothing mentality. And yeah. So I, I think that’s a really in imbalanced wellness method. We, I asked them like, why do you wanna do this? And they write it down. I’m like, but mm-hmm. But why do you wanna do that? And then they write it. We just keep asking why until we get to that real powerful Why?
Because you and I both know things come up. Mm-hmm. And and it’s not like we have to be perfect. And I, I hate, you know, if I have to be perfect at anything, I’m like, no, this is not gonna work for me. I’m not perfect. A big thing I have done over the last few years is really well I cut out alcohol altogether for a while.
Right. I, I did drink a little bit when I was in Italy and France cuz the wine is so much cleaner there, and I did not, yes. Have, but I, I only still had one glass. I mean, I just, to me it’s more. About, I wanna make sure I’m sleeping. Yeah. I wanna make sure I feel good the next day. So alcohol does not serve me.
And as I’ve gotten older, it just really doesn’t serve me. So, so my why, of why I don’t drink the alcohol. Even if I think, oh, it might taste good, or, ooh, maybe I just want a little re you know, an edge up. I’m like, but how do I wanna feel? Yes, I wanna sleep good and sleep is my big priority. So, Eh, I’m not gonna do it.
You know? Yeah. It’s a, it makes it easier to make those decisions. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. No, that is, that’s so well said. And you know the point to your, like what you said, right? That there’s no such thing as perfection. Mm-hmm. Right. There is some physiological sway our body has. So having a glass of wine here and there.
Can absolutely align with someone’s intention for their health and their life. It’s really just getting very clear. You know, I, I actually, I have one woman who she keeps count. She has now, oh gosh, where is she now? She’s at over 500 days without alcohol. But for her, she really saw for herself, like what served her was no alcohol.
But I have many, many other people who’ve seen similar to what you’re sharing. Right. And what I experienced also is less alcohol. Right? Like a glass here and there totally works. That’s fine. Right. But how it used to be, that doesn’t work for my body and my health and what I’m committed to, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I love that. And again, everybody has to make that decision for themselves. You can’t, you know, you can’t tell somebody. Well, you need to, I mean, I’ve learned that I had a quiet that she was drinking alcohol almost every night. Not because it was a social thing for her, and, but she wanted to lose weight.
And I’m like I’m just gonna tell you you’re not gonna be able to lose weight if you do that. Mm-hmm. And and so then she came back to me later. So she dropped outta my program. Didn’t, you know, she just, she, it’s like, I can’t help you lose some weight. If you don’t, you know, you might not like the answer, but here’s what it’s, I’m like, I, you know, I am.
I just, this is the way it’s, so anyway, she came back a few months later and I said, look, it’s the same way. It’s still the same thing. She said, Deanna, I really cut back on my alcohol. And and so she had joined a program with a 21 day reset and it really changed everything for her. So then she was able to partake in my program and and she didn’t give it up totally, but she found different alternatives that didn’t make her feel, you know, oh, well there’s a lot of peer pressure when it comes to alcohol, let’s face it.
Mm-hmm. A lot of peer pressure. I always say, if you can just get past that first drink, nobody’s gonna notice. It’s so true. It’s true. It’s like so true. It you, what can you say? Hold on. I’m still thinking about what I want. Or I’m really thirsty. I need a glass of water first. Or, you know, like whatever it is that helps you and kinda crowd out the noise of what other people think.
Mm-hmm. For that. I know, I know. Oh my gosh. I mean, we could talk forever and ever, so let’s, let’s. Everybody. Just a couple more actionable things that they could do that you know, or that they may need to do. Again, you don’t know what you really need to do until you go see Dr. H. And but let’s, let’s just skip a couple of extra.
Actionable items? Well, so I would say you and I are both on the same page of, I, I I will actually start with perspective because to me it is really is the foundation that opens up the world mm-hmm. Of change. And so the first action item is to, in my encouragement, is to get clear on your why. Mm-hmm.
And what I’ll invite your listeners to do is actually time travel to the five year future. And take pen to paper or fingers to keyboard, whatever you like and write the story. Of your five year future with your health as you intended occur. Mm-hmm. Right. In other words, I love that five years from now I’ll be 51.
So I’d say I’m 51 and my body is strong and resilient and beautiful and healthy, or you know, whatever I’d say. Mm-hmm. And I talk about what that experience is like and what it makes available for me in my life. Right. How it allows me to connect with others, contribute to others, be with others.
Experience, joy, all those different things. Right. So that is my first invitation to your listeners is to do that five year time traveling. Mm-hmm. To this future you intend. Mm-hmm. The next thing that I would encourage your listeners to do is to actually begin. Cultivating a habit of being kind and honest.
Ooh, I love that. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. There we, I, I think for most of us, that’s not a. Thing we’re born with, we’re more often, especially in this area kindness expressed as, I’m not looking right. I’m not gonna look at the scale, or I’m not gonna really be present to what I’m putting in my body or how my body’s reacting.
Right? So that’s kindness because the other option has been look and beat ourselves up, right? Mm-hmm. So, My encouragement is to begin practicing being kind and honest. So how could you do that? Well, you could actually begin tracking just for yourself how you’re fueling your body, how you’re moving your body, how you’re sleeping, how your body’s reacting.
Starting to notice, right? So that that would be something that would be really useful. You, I promise. I’ve actually had to do this in a number of graduate courses and Oh my gosh, Deanna, every time it’s been assigned, I’ve been like an Influe child. I’ve been like, oh, this is ridiculous. I can’t believe you’re making me do it.
And every time I do it, I’m like, oh my God. Wow. Look at what I just learned. I, I mean, it’s just true. Agree. Cause when it’s down there, you say yes, yes, yes. Totally, totally. So it’s just nothing wrong. We’re just humans doing our best. So that, that would be a, a practice I’d encourage people to take on in the way of a few other action items.
The third one I’d actually invite everyone to take on is, Playing your best game now. So what I mean by that is actually leaning into your wisdom and asking yourself. What is the best game I could play right now? Right now? And for some people in the moment, you know, like if we think about movement I was talking to a woman the other day who she had intended on exercising for 60 minutes, right?
She was, she loved to do Peloton, she was gonna do a Peloton exercise, you know spin class and life happened, her job happened, her kids needed her, yada, yada, yada. She had 30 minutes late left, you know, that she could use to exercise. And she said, the old me would’ve said, you know, well, I didn’t get it in, it’s just how it’s, but the new, her actually got on the bike and rode for 30 minutes, right?
She took something, right? She, her best game was the 30 minutes she had and she used that, right? So that’s one example. Another example might be, okay, I’m going out for big celebration. I could have three drinks instead of five. Okay. If that’s the best game you can play right now, I’m gonna cheer all day long for that.
Like really, if that’s, you know, yeah. So looking for opportunities to give up that broken all or nothing paradigm and step into a new habit called playing my best game right now. I love that. Oh, those are so great and so actionable, so thank you. Thank you so much for that. I love that. I’m gonna think about that.
How can I play my best game? I love that. I’ve never heard it said like that, so, oh, I love it. Okay, Dr. H, how can people find you and get in touch with you and get started with you? Well, you can find me on my website@wellempower.com, and you can schedule a free consultation through the website at complimentary 30 minute virtual consultation, unless you’ll be in Lucerne, in which case we can do it in person.
But but yes, you can find me there and please be sure you tell me where you. Phone me because you will get 10% off Ala DMA for oh, thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally my pleasure. But you know that 30 minute conversation is designed for me to learn more about you, for us to discuss what it would look like to work together and answer any questions you have so that you can figure out what your next best step is.
And then on Instagram, I’m at well empowered and on Facebook I’m at At You Well Empowered. So it would be a pleasure to connect there as well. I love that. And all of that will be in the show notes. So be sure and look at those if you’re, if you’re like, I’m, I’m in the car right now driving. Can’t write this down.
So well, Dr. H thank you so much for taking the time to meet with me. I’m guessing what time is it there? It’s late there in Switzerland. It is six 30. 6:30 PM Okay. Okay. Yeah. Not so bad. It’s not so bad. I know I was on on a whole different time zone when I was there, so I kind of understand a little bit.
But thank you so much for taking the time and I love all that you’re doing and just the knowledge and I really think, I wish there were more and more people like you, but I love that you are doing it. Through telehealth, which is, I think y’all, it makes life so much easier. You know, especially after Covid, more and more doctors have gone to telehealth and it really is simple you can do it in the privacy of your own home.
I’m guessing you send the, the tell ’em what labs they need and then they go to a lab close. To their house. Is that correct? Yeah, exactly. Exactly. We get people set up with appointments near them to complete their labs. Some of the kits we complete are in-home kits, so it just depends on what labs we’re ordering, but usually it’s a combination of the two.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, again, thank you so much for joining me today. Thank you so much, Deanna. It’s been such a pleasure to be with you and to share our love of health and vitality with your, with your listeners here. Well, thank you.
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