Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You are listening to episode number 274 of Better Blood Sugars with Delain, Maryland. Today I have a special episode. It's an interview with Dr. Stacy Heimberger. She is a physician and coach similar to me. We talk about all things sugar and living healthy and she really gives some great information about really compelling reasons to get sugar out of your diet. So I hope you enjoy this podcast. If you have any questions, you can always email me at Delaine Elaine MD welcome to Better Blood Sugars with Delaine, Maryland. Where you can learn strategies to lower your blood sugars and improve your overall health. I'm your host, Dr. Delaine Vaughan. Ladies, if you know you're capable of doing badass things at work and for your family, but you're confused and frustrated with why you can't seem to stop eating the chocolate cake, this podcast is for you. Let's talk.
[00:00:57] Speaker B: Hey there. Welcome to the podcast. I am here with Stacy Heimberger. She is a board certified internal medicine and lifestyle medicine physician as well as a certified life and weight coach. So she is the founder of Sugar Free MD And I am here and she's here with me to talk about what we do to help women. Because there's a lot of overlap in what we do and I always think that it's important to hear just the same message in a variety of different ways. And I think, Stacy, that that's a lot of what you bring to the T and I appreciate that. So I'm going to allow you to tell the audience a little bit about what you do, what brought you to this place, you know, what your training is and what your coaching practices. I appreciate you being here by the welcome.
[00:01:41] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. I. I love being able to talk about all of this and I know you do too. So this is really fun for me.
I am an internal medicine doctor so I went to medical school a little bit late. I was a non traditional student, so I had worked up in New York actually on in TV for a hot second before I to medical school.
I so I graduated a little late, started a little late, got married a little late. I got married at 40, had my babies at 41 and 43 and found myself just at the heaviest weight I'd ever been. And I kind of struggled off and on throughout my life. Diabetes runs in my family. Obviously we start to worry about those things. And it was so interesting because all the medical training didn't teach me anything that I needed to know and I felt really confused and lost like how Can I be a doctor and be smart and know things and not be able to figure this out? And that what led me to coaching. So I listened to a podcast from another doctor who was helping people lose weight. Led me to the Life Coach School podcast. And then Covid happened. And with the tuition relief, I was like, well, let me just pay more tuition somewhere else. So I went ahead and got certified, really started to lose weight.
And the first decision I made, which they kind of advertise or promote is I just gave up sugar. Obvious sugar for 90 days. That's all I was going to do was like, let me try and just give up sugar and try not to snack. But no other, like no other restriction. None of the other ways that I had tried. I wanted to just try something that felt easier and the weight just started to come off. And so I was like, okay, I'm definitely onto something and more people need to know about this.
And of course all the like talking nice to ourselves and all the other coaching things came into play. But I ended up losing 70 pounds in my quest for knowledge. That's when I got certified in lifestyle medicine, which is basically food as medicine. So that helped with the nutrition part, which is what I really try and focus on now in my coaching.
I also did a little anti aging medicine because I was searching for anything out there.
But I settled sort of on the lifestyle medicine part. So that's what brought me to sugar free md. I just thought everyone should know everything that I haven't learned.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so similar to my experience. You know, I didn't realize you were not traditional as far as a student. I did the same. I was a nurse before I went to medical school. And then I came back and went to medical school. And so I was a decade older than everybody, but I had the same experience. I had this pregnancy in my mid-30s and was. I was pre diabetic. I mean, I was, you know, gestationally diabetic. And then.
[00:04:39] Speaker C: Oh, so was I. I did forget that I had gestational diabetes with both babies. So I actually didn't gain that much weight with the kids. I did very well. Is that afterwards, like I was somehow bigger than when I was pregnant. I was like, I don't understand any of what's happening.
[00:04:53] Speaker B: What is happening here. Yeah. So yeah, I came to the coaching and it's. And, and it was the same thing. I was like, who was I going to call? The doctor. I was the doctor. I know what they were going to say. And I'm doing those Things and they're not working. So, yeah, yeah, I had that very similar experience. So there's a lot of. And I know, and I love your concept of sugar free. Like, and again, like, clearly you and I, I don't think, are spe.
Sucralose as sugar free or these sugar substitutes being the sugar free concept that we hear.
[00:05:25] Speaker C: No, no. And I tell people all the time, I'm not saying you can never have any sugar. I just like, if we can cut out obvious sources of sugar and kind of retrain our taste buds a little bit, so much easier to stick to what we want to be eating. Really? Like the high nutrition foods and the sugar messes with your hunger so much. I really did it because I didn't want to be so hungry. I thought it would make it easier to lose weight. I was like, okay, they say if I give up sugar, I won't be as hungry. I don't like being hungry. And I was hungry every two hours before I did that. And I was like, I know that can't be right. I know. Like, I just ate a huge meal. There's no way I can be hungry. It's an hour later. I was like, let me just. Let me drink the Kool Aid. Let me see what this is all about. And it really did work. I was so much less hungry. And I was like, oh, gosh. Like, why do I not know this? You know, I should have known this. But we don't learn this as doctors.
[00:06:24] Speaker B: We really, really, really don't. Yeah. No, and it is. That is the, you know, conversation. I actually just had it with a client this week. It was, you know, she's. And of course, I don't want anybody to ever approach food from a place of fear. That feels so out of control and powerless. But. And she was coming at it that way. Like, I need to cut this food, this candy, this sugar out forever because I can't control myself. And I'm like, then I'm. I'm the coach that's encouraging sugar, which is really funny, but I'm like, let's talk about this, you know, And. And what it came down to is really that exact thing. She's like, it's easier and I don't want to do the uphill battle constantly. And that was exactly the same. I mean, I probably cut sugar from my life for close to two years, except for maybe a handful of instances, birthdays and holidays, you know, a handful of specific instances. And it was not because my weight wasn't where I wanted. It wasn't because my insulin or my A1C wasn't where I want it. It was because I did not want the chatter in my brain about it.
Yeah, nobody tells us that. And that's the exact truth is like if that's the thing that you need to do. And I love this idea of not never ever, but not so much that it's creating an outcome that we don't like, whether it be too much weight on our body or in my clients conditions. I mean it's. You've eaten so much of it, it's created a disease in your body.
So.
[00:07:56] Speaker C: And sometimes it's a trigger. Right. So it, you know, this dream land that we would all love to get to where we only like nutritious foods and we only eat in moderation. Anything else and we only eat when we're hungry. And you know, there's, there's multiple components to that, but that's great. But not all foods are going to allow us to do that. And every person's different there. Like I can't eat cookies in moderation. So I have to tell myself not for now. Like I can always come back and revisit that after, you know, I've gotten my taste buds a little bit better, maybe I will be that person that can eat one cookie and stop. But until I am, it's a not for now. And I don't like to. I never tell people that. I never, I never say to say never around food because what that does is it creates like more desire for it because then it's forbidden. Right. And then it's like that rebellious part of all of us is like, oh I'll if you say I can never have it. Let me show you.
[00:08:57] Speaker B: Yes I can. I told my ladies I am a grown ass woman. I can do whatever I want. Right? Like yeah, yeah, that's exactly that. Rebellion is exactly what that never concept does. Yeah.
[00:09:09] Speaker C: Sometimes I just have to say not for now. Like I'll revisit it later, but not for now. And that feels much easier for me.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: And I think it's always important to see. You know, I remind people, I'm like, there is nowhere in the universe, nowhere on the earth, at least, that Oreos exist in a natural setting.
There is no natural governor in our brain to tell us enough is enough. Right? Like the sweetest things we come into in nature, like honey. And the joke in my group is, yeah, but honey is guarded by little stinging insects.
Like there's a natural break there, you know, Same thing with our fruit, our grapes Our strawberries. Once you clear the strawberry bush of all the berries, you gotta wait. There's like no other option. You just gotta wait. And this idea of like having unlimited Oreo supplied to us from the local grocery store, there's never going to be a time where our brain says, oh yeah, we've eaten enough, we don't need anymore. You know what I mean? We're always going to want more. And sometimes I do. I agree that sometimes just easier to be. It's not for me, not for now. Yeah, I love that. So one of the things that you said, you said that you're doing this anti aging thing. And again, ladies, I think that we're all like. There's all, I mean, an element of vanity. I don't even think it's just a ladies thing. I think it's a human thing. We want to look at ourselves and like what we see, whether we want to do it for somebody else or that's a whole different story. But sugar as an aging nutrient, like as a nutrient that ages us.
[00:10:48] Speaker C: Oh, yes. Awful.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Yeah, it's awful. I want you to tell me all the things about that.
[00:10:53] Speaker C: The older we get, the worse it is. Right. So it's so inflammatory. It does all kinds of wacky things with estrogen that actually are like, increase our cancer risk if we eat a lot of concentrated sugar as women over 40, which is just crazy.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Tell me more about that. What does it do to our estrogen?
[00:11:13] Speaker C: It messes with the conjugation. So conjugation in our body, like some is good. And then like the bad estrogen, we conjugate sort of out of our body. But if we have too much concentrated sugar, it messes with that balance and we end up keeping more of the bad estrogen.
And I wish I could be more scientifically specific than that, but that's not how I remember things because it's never how I explain things to other people.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: Right. And it's never something we're thinking about as we're in the office doing our job. But it's interesting because I always tell women they will come to me and they'll be like, I want to go on hormone replacement therapy. I'm menopausal. I don't think my hormones are right. And I'm like, you need to get this sugar and insulin business under control or you're going to be chasing your tail with hormone replacement therapy.
[00:11:58] Speaker C: Absolutely.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: And I always approach it from the sex binding globulin.
I always get sp. I always get the letters mixed up. Yeah. Produced by the liver, though. And if there's insulin resistance and it's. And you know, impacting the liver, you're not going to get that globulin, that protein that binds up the sex hormones. Appropriate. And you're not, you're just going to be out of whack. That's the way I always approach it. I didn't even think about this estrogen conjugation component. So sugar directly impacts that. That's interesting.
[00:12:29] Speaker C: It does.
[00:12:31] Speaker B: So how else does it make us old? Tell me more.
[00:12:34] Speaker C: Well, just the inflammatory aspects, of course. Always like that does not help either, usually if we're eating a lot of sugar.
So the food industry takes a lot of, you know, the healthy fats and things out of food. Right. Because they've gotten this whole war about what's worse, fat or sugar, and it picked fat. And even though that's not tr. So the high sugar foods have a tendency to not have any of the good nutrients we need. Right. They've sort of pulled it out. So protein and muscle health is what keeps us young.
So the inverse. Right. So not having those things, sort of not having that nutritious diet, filling our diet with sugar in all the inflammation that it provides is really what's going to make us whole. Right. Because muscle and bone health is the organ of longevity. That's what all the research is telling us.
[00:13:32] Speaker B: Yes, yes.
[00:13:33] Speaker C: Especially for women who start to lose muscle after 40. So we have to make a concentrated effort to put that back on. Well, if I'm getting all my calories from sugar laden foods or highly processed foods, I'm not going to be able to get my 120 grams of protein in. There's just not going to be room.
[00:13:51] Speaker B: Right.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: And I need that because I, my muscle is really the most vital thing for me as I age.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: Yeah. I just heard another scientist, it was on a podcast, but he was talking about how the best thing that we can do as women, menopausal, Pre menopausal, over 40 women, the best thing that we can do for our skin is to build more muscle. I was like, what?
That's amazing. So, yeah. And of course there is so much evidence, like mounting, mounting, mounting evidence that we are in a, you know, an epidemic of low of muscle disease, of like sarcopenia is what we call it. Right. Like we are in an epidemic of low muscle volume to a point that it's creating disease in our human bodies. And so this makes sense.
[00:14:42] Speaker C: Right. Because diet industry for years has been telling us just don't eat right Eat, eat nothing. Eat like a lettuce sandwich and that's it. Right. And so that's what we eat. Yeah, that's what we do. Because we do have that vanity is like, I want to lose weight. And we've been told, like, go exercise, fasted, go exercise. When you don't have enough energy, when you don't have the building blocks to repair any muscle damage that you do. And God forbid, eat, like, do not eat, don't do it. And so of course, we're losing all of our muscle.
[00:15:17] Speaker B: Right.
[00:15:17] Speaker C: Even, like, I have a lot of women on GLP ones now, which are amazing medications. I'm a huge fan. But when you lose weight quickly, you're going to lose muscle, too. So those women, I'm doing extra counseling, like, we absolutely have to get our protein in because we're, we know we're going to lose muscle. High sugar, high cortisol, all of that. Preferentially, we lose muscle first. Sure, sure, sure.
[00:15:43] Speaker B: Yeah. It's so interesting, this idea. And you know, the other, like, we, you know, those of us who are, you know, children, you know, born in the 70s, grew up in the 80s and the 90s, the Kate Moss, you know, glorification. Yeah, we exercised. Even our exercise was meant to make us thin, not build muscle. And it's not just, you know, Right.
[00:16:09] Speaker C: Go run on that. Get your cardio. Was all cardio. It was all cardio strength training.
[00:16:15] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, definitely. And I talk with my women. I mean, I feel like over the last three months, I've just been on a broken record about the we must build more muscle. You don't have anywhere to put your glucose if you don't have any muscle. Like, you gotta have volume of muscle to have a place to put your glucose. And it's metabolically active tissue. So you're starting to have more tissue that isn't impacted or has an ability to not be impacted by insulin resistance. Like, you got to build this muscle. So. Yeah. And it makes us young. Let's go.
[00:16:52] Speaker C: I know, right?
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Why aren't we doing this more?
[00:16:54] Speaker C: You can't tell me a negative. And I, I think, you know, I just talked with Ashley Lau. You might have met her at that conference where we met, actually. And she does just strength training.
And I was asking her sort of about the misconceptions and it's that a lot of people see the bodybuilders from the 80s and feel like that's what's going to happen. But those people were all on mass dose of steroids. Genetically, it is nearly impossible.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: We're not going to accidentally look like.
[00:17:25] Speaker C: That big, but you're not going to get big and bulky. Especially as a woman over 40, you.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Know, you got to put your back into that muscle.
[00:17:35] Speaker C: So we just are trying to get back to what we looked like in our 20s. Right. You have to put on a substantial amount of muscle just to get back there. I don't know that you're ever going to get big and bulky like you're worried about. So I think that's what holds people back and it's just not going to happen.
[00:17:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I agree. I think that I, and I think maybe that whole idea is being debunked a little bit. And then of course, we uncover the real thing. It's a lot of work we're lifting. You know, as Gabrielle Lyons and the Stacy Sims of the world are like lift heavy. You know what I mean? It's like, yeah, it's work, it's uncomfortable. And we've all become very accustomed to that low grade nagging of long term cardio. But the short term discomfort of lifting something heavy I think is a discomfort we've yet to overcome and just lean into. So, yeah, and I love what you talk about with this protein like that getting 120 grams or 130 or whatever, you know, the 1 gram per pound of ideal body weight or whatever it is.
You know, that's the one thing that I encourage my clients to do. If, like, if you're getting the protein that you need and you're getting the fiber that you should be getting, if you have those two goals, there's literally no, no room for anything.
[00:18:48] Speaker C: There's no room for anything else.
[00:18:51] Speaker B: They're really like, it's just like there's no room. And then all of a sudden like we're eating to provide nutrient to our body and we're exercising to be strong and do the activities of daily living. We're starting to do things to be a human being, not running away from some idea that we've had in the past about. Yeah, so that's interesting. I love that and I definitely, you know, the idea of getting those nutrients in seems to limit the fear or like the ability to consume those things that we shouldn't be, that are making the problems that are making us old. I love that idea.
[00:19:30] Speaker C: Brain switch, right? It's a, you know, all this allowance as opposed to I have to cut out all these things. So it's much more abundance.
I get to pack my day full of like all this food instead Of I can't have an Oreo.
[00:19:47] Speaker B: Yeah, right.
[00:19:48] Speaker C: And that just that subtle mind shift can be so important.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: It's huge.
When we no longer, when we start to look at the things that we're doing to create the health that we want as self care for us versus the way I used to self care was with an Oreo. And I've got to take that away now. Like, I think that brain shift, it's a subtle shift and really like, you know, we're not doing, you know, we're not learning like, you know, physics or something. I mean, it's really straightforward, but it just is. I think that shift is really, really everything.
[00:20:28] Speaker C: Yeah, it's super powerful.
[00:20:30] Speaker B: Yeah.
So I know we talked a little bit and I think our clients experience similar obstacles between like perfectionism and food scarcity, the breathing of the food that we have to let go of or that we are letting go of. I'm sure you've had this experience. If you cut the sugar from your life and you're like, I just, I just, it's not for me, not for right now.
There is a bereavement that happens with that. And so I think like, how, how are you addressing those obstacles with your clients? How big are those obstacles?
[00:21:08] Speaker C: We do a lot of not for now, because I do think that helps a lot. Because even that, like the very beginning of my journey, I wasn't committing to never having sugar again. It was 90 days. Like, can I do this for 90 days? And if I, like, if that starts to freak me out and I'm getting like activated and I feel my heart rate going up and like that's not going to work. Okay, can I just, can I do a month? Can I do a week? Can I do today? Like, can I. My next meal? Can I not do my next meal? And so I really try and tap into like, or have my clients tap into like you can feel when your body's about to say no way, like that activated energy feeling where your body is like, that's not going to work for me. So like, let's get right under that where it feels really doable. And then once we start stacking those days together, we can see it's really not that bad. And the more days off of concentrated sugars we can be, the easier it is because it really doesn't take as long as you think. Like someone told me 90 days or I read 90 days. Like that's where I picked that out of. I think I was going off more the anti inflammatory research, like, you know, to try and sort of really reset my body.
It did not take that long before I really didn't miss it.
And it doesn't feel that way when you're sort of thinking about doing it. It really feels like it's going to be. So, um. So I just picked an amount of time that felt reasonable and achievable and didn't freak my brain out. And that's what I started with.
And then the other thing I did as far as grieving food. And we talk about sometimes, too, if it's something that you really, really love, like, for that 90 days, can we say, like, I've just had enough. Like, I've had so much in my life that I'm, like, kind of tapped out for now. Like, can we make that mindset change?
I do that with King Cake. I talk about that all the time because I'm in Louisiana, and King Cake, like, especially as a doctor in the hospital, every rep from everywhere is bringing you king Cake. And then everyone thinks they have the best King cake. And there was literally King Cake just coming out of my ears everywhere I turned. And it was never as good as I wanted it to be. When I really sat down and thought about it, I never felt full. Like, it didn't change how hungry I was an iota. It was never quite as good as I wanted it to be, but it always made me want another piece.
[00:23:42] Speaker B: How interesting is that?
[00:23:44] Speaker C: Well, that's the sugar, right?
[00:23:46] Speaker B: I know. It is 100 the sugar.
[00:23:48] Speaker C: And so I. When I started to think about this, I was like, okay, I'm gonna do this during king cake season, right? I'm gonna not. Can I just not have it this year? Like, can I tell myself I've had enough last year or the last 10 years? I've had enough that I can go this year without it and just see what happens? It has to be this very curious, experimental.
[00:24:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:17] Speaker C: Mindset. And I think that helps a lot because I'm not saying I'm never going to have another piece of king Cake. And I'm not asking anyone to never have a piece of King Cake. It's. While I'm trying to make a change and reset. Can I can just for now, like, can I just see what happens if I don't have it this year?
[00:24:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it worked. I. Yeah. And I think that.
[00:24:41] Speaker C: That.
[00:24:42] Speaker B: I think that curiosity, you're right, though, getting right under that area where you feel it in your body, that triggering, starting, and that's probably where curiosity lives, you know, is like, I don't know. I'm not so secure with it that I know, but I'm not. So I do know it's going to be horrible that I'm shifting into that triggered component. So. Yeah, that's interesting. So how are you addressing honey maple syrups and then artificial sugars?
When you talk about cutting sugar entirely, do you cut even the natural sugars also?
[00:25:19] Speaker C: I do not. And I let people sort of make their own decision, but our body processes that so differently. And I always tell them the story. When I had gestational diabetes, so I was checking my blood sugar every two hours, and I was a crazy person because I was pregnant. We're all a little crazy when we're pregnant. I had a flavored coffee, and it said natural flavors.
My blood sugar, an hour later was through the roof, like, over 300. Wow. I called the poor little nutritionist at the hospital, freaking out, crying, like, losing my mind, like I was killing my baby because my blood sugar had spiked. She, like, came running to my office from her office, God bless her. And that's when I realized, like. Like, you really can't trust what's on the package for some of these processed foods. So I. That's when I was like, okay, I'm just going to do natural sugars. I know my body knows what to do with that. In my mind, sort of the story that I've told myself is these artificial sugars, our brain, like, our body doesn't recognize those, so it stores it as fat because it just doesn't know what to do with it. It's like, we might need that later. We better hang on to it. And, you know, some of them are not supposed to affect your blood sugar. I just assume they're all going to because of my coffee fiasco that happened because no one would think that that should have done it either, but it absolutely did. And so natural sugars are fine.
I will sort of not have as much fruit if I'm trying to lose weight. Like, if I'm trying to, like, get over a hurdle or trying to get past a plateau just for a second, and then I'll add it back in.
In the beginning, I didn't have it because I really wanted to reset my taste buds. I didn't want to have those things, like, in the very beginning, but they were always there as a safety net. So it wasn't, I can't have them. It was a, let me see if I can get by without having them for right now. Just to see. I used herbal tea as my sweet after dinner because I Know, that's probably a problem with all of your clients, right? That's. We're so conditioned.
[00:27:32] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. What am I gonna have for a snack? What is my treat? What is the. Yeah, yeah.
[00:27:36] Speaker C: So conditioned for that sweet after dinner. And so I used. I used herbal tea for that because it does have nice sweet flavor.
[00:27:45] Speaker B: And somebody remember when that started tasting sweet to you? Like, I remember the first herbal tea that I drank, and I took it to the Starbucks barista, and I was like, did you put sugar in this?
I was convinced because it was so sweet. And that was when I knew my taste buds had changed. I was like, oh, wow.
[00:28:06] Speaker C: And it makes, like, so all that fruit tastes so much better if you can. Yes, that hump too.
[00:28:11] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:28:12] Speaker C: But I still love a nice warm herbal tea if I start to have those late night cravings because there's something about the warmth in the stomach and the receptors that really sort of make your body think you've gotten more food, too, which is a nice bonus.
[00:28:27] Speaker B: Yeah. That's interesting. I've also heard that about coffee. Like, warm water. Like, even I'll do warm water sometimes with lemon in it in the morning. That it's. Sometimes it's the warmness of the water that, like, is the stimulating effect the night, the thing that you're actually looking for. So that's interesting. Yeah. But yes, the herbal teas, I think they're wonderful. But. And yeah, sitting in my favorite chair in a nice darkened room with nobody talking to me, it's like heaven. So. Yeah. Yeah. And I do think it's interesting, the change, that change again, it was so spectacular. I watched the barista brew my tea. I knew there wasn't anything in there, but I was like, let me see that little tea bag. Let me see the box that came from. Are they starting to put sugar and tea back? Because I was confused because the. The combination of those spices that was in that tea tasted sweet. It's crazy. It was like magic happening. So.
So, yeah. And then, of course, artificial sweeteners. So what is your take on those? Is it just the possible raising of your blood sugar, possible raising of insulin levels, the cravings? Like, there's discussion about artificial sweeteners and how they impact the gut microbiome. And there's mixed evidence that I've come across with that I believe that they probably. I believe maybe from my own personal experience, I just. It makes sense there. Lots of them are sugar, alcohols. Alcohol definitely kills bacteria. We know this is not rocket science, you know, so what are. What are You. What is your take in your understanding of biology and artificial sweeteners?
[00:30:14] Speaker C: I mean, my general take is I try and stay away from them because they're chemicals. Like, the further away we can get from chemicals in our food, the better it is. I just think. And I think some people are not as sensitive to them and, like, great for them.
After my experience, I think I'm super sensitive to them. So if it's doing that to my blood sugar, what else is it doing in my body? It's kind of my thought on all of them. So the more I can stay away from them, the better. I would much rather just use, like, if I'm baking or something like that. Like, if I would rather use, like, coconut sugar or honey or something that I know is at least derived from something natural, because I do think our body just knows how to process that better. I really just try and stay away from chemicals, and I recommend it. I remember all that research because I used to be a Diet Coke crazy person. You're my girl.
[00:31:10] Speaker B: You're my people.
I was a Diet Coke head, too.
[00:31:14] Speaker C: I would swear it was making me hungrier. I really.
[00:31:17] Speaker B: Yeah, but it could be fixed with another Diet Coke.
[00:31:20] Speaker C: It could be fixed with another Diet Coke or something else sweet. And so the general consensus, right, was that you're getting the sweetness, but your body's not getting the calories. And so then it increases your urge for something sweet because it was expecting a calorie load. Right. So if you ate that much, if you got that much sweetness from berries, there would be a calorie load to.
[00:31:45] Speaker B: That, or there would be. Yes, a carbohydrate component to it, some.
[00:31:49] Speaker C: Kind of calorie load. And then when your body doesn't get that, it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa. I needed, like, I. I was expecting it. I've made plans. I need it. So now I'm going to increase your urge for something sweet because I want those calories or just food. Right. Because I was expecting calories, I didn't get them, and now I need them twice as much again. I don't know if that's exactly what happens on a, like, microcellular level, but it makes perfect sense that that's what's happening and that's why we're more hungry after having some of these fake sugars.
[00:32:21] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I. That's my understanding, too, is your body, you know, there's this, you know, cephalopancreatic, you know, responsive insulin or whatever. And again, I've heard mixed evidence is that even really happening, is it significant enough? And I'm like, well, if somebody's insulin resistant resistance and the studies show that nine out of ten Americans are, if they're insulin resistant, that, you know, what maybe is a minimal effect in a non insulin resistant human being is a pretty substantial effect for the insulin resistant human. And if you're eating the standard American diet, you should probably bank on being insulin resistant at this point, you know, So I agree. I mean like I, that's kind of the way that I've always dealt with them as well. And they are chemicals.
And of course all of these chemicals create this inflammation, you know, that then we have to clean up or address or you know, live the outcome of.
[00:33:17] Speaker C: So it'll be interesting too, because I know you listen to Gabrielle and Stacy Sims. Like the, the news to me was that a lot of these studies really aren't on our demographic. Right. They're not on women.
[00:33:30] Speaker B: Oh, I know.
[00:33:31] Speaker C: And they're not on women group. And so who knows what it's doing to men. They're a different creature. Right.
And what I took away from that when they were talking about that was this fasted workout, how that's really not good for women. Yeah. And. But even though it is beneficial to men, but the research is not the same. So I sometimes wonder if some of that, the sweetener research and all of that, is that because they're doing it on men and it really doesn't apply to us.
But we'll, I mean, we'll figure that out though.
[00:34:02] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:34:03] Speaker C: And I think eventually, in the meantime, no chemicals.
[00:34:06] Speaker B: And then I think in general your, your response that your. The human body, it's just the biology. Like there is no way that in the Last hundred years, 50 years, 75 years, whatever it is, that we've had artificial sweeteners. There's just no way that our body has, you know, changed, evolved to a place where it's going to recognize and know how to manage those things. So it is a foreign chemical that our body doesn't really know what to do with. And just on that alone, if we're interested in being healthy, like we can't do that to ourselves. You know, I mean, like clearly there's not going to be a healthy outcome with that. And it's interesting you bring up this research thing. I also feel, although Gabrielle Lyons seems to be more reasonable about it, I read Roar from Stacy Sims, she's her book. And it was good. And I agree again, we should be building muscle. But every single person, she was like using as an example were like elite athletes, they were competitive athletes. And unfortunately 9 out of 10 humans in America are not competitive athletes. They're insulin resistant human beings and they're. And even some of our athletes, I mean Peter Attia and you know, he's very famous and all about longevity and all about how to live healthy. He was a competitive swimmer, maybe it was a bike, maybe he was a cyclist, but he was a competitive athlete and insulin resistant and pre diabetic and it's, you know. So I guess my point though is the recommendations that we're giving for diet, the necessity, the needs for nutrient and what we need as a human being for the diet, who's competitive elite athlete is very different from the majority of the people out there. But these, but nobody points that difference out. And instead every woman's reading Stacy Sims book saying, oh, I gotta eat 300 grams of carbs a day. And I'm like, stop.
Only if you're running 26 miles a day. Like if you're not doing that, like you can't. Like that's not the same.
[00:36:14] Speaker C: No, we need to get our protein in and we need to do something that is strength training.
[00:36:18] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:36:19] Speaker C: A week. And that could be because, you know, I was, this is what I was asking Ashley about. That could be. I do some body weight squats. Like we don't need, like if we can, we want to build up to heavier. But if we're not doing that now, like just do body weight, it doesn't.
[00:36:35] Speaker B: Mean you can't start.
[00:36:37] Speaker C: You don't have to go to the gym, you don't have to do anything special. I bought a weighted vest and I go like. So I walk my dog every day anyway. I, and I don't put it on every day, but three times a week I try and wear my weighted vest and I might try and do like 10 squats when I get home. And that's okay for right now. And I can build up. So I don't want people to listen and think like, oh my gosh, I've got to eat like 150 grams of protein and I've got to go like to the gym.
[00:37:01] Speaker B: An hour and a half at the gym every day.
[00:37:03] Speaker C: Like, no, like just eat more protein. Start there, try and like start your day with 30. Like see if you can start the day with 30. You will feel better throughout the day if you can do there and then just do some body weight, something. Do a couple push ups, do a couple of squats just to start reactivating your muscles.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Yes, yes, yes, yes. And you'll be sore if you're not doing that. If you do 10 push ups, you're gonna know it tomorrow.
[00:37:33] Speaker C: 100%.
[00:37:33] Speaker B: Yeah. So I, yeah, I totally agree. The other part that's really interesting, I heard a trainer on a podcast the other day and he said, I mean he's an elite trainer, he trains elite athletes. He said most people will get everything, including his. Elite people will get everything they need from three times a week, two or three times a week, weight training. And I'm just like, oh yeah, it doesn't need to be complicated.
Yeah, I love that. All right, I want you to share with everybody your vfo. I know your, your, your meal planning, I guess meal plan that you have available for everybody.
[00:38:14] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a dinner guide. I, I find that a lot of women are just overwhelmed and so it's just really, there's some time scar around dinner. I have found if the starting place for my clients is can we plan dinner? Just plan dinner. Right. So that's the first step of planning our meals for the week. Because we're usually so beat up by the end of the day, it's like the last thing we want to do. And so it's such a nice piece of self care if we already have planned like what's for dinner so we don't have to think about it. And so this is exactly how I started. My husband and I found sugar free dinners that we liked that were easy, that we could sort of parcel out pieces to the kids. Right. And so I put those all together in a sugar free dinner guide. So it's real food. There's nothing artificial in there. So it's not sugar free, like chemical. It's just healthy, no sugar. Real food dinners that are pretty easy to make. They and I did all different kinds of cooking styles. So we can put some in the crock pot. We can put some. It just depends on how much time time you have. And I just use those to plan our dinners for the week.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: I love it. I love it.
[00:39:24] Speaker C: I want everyone to have it.
[00:39:26] Speaker B: Where can they find it? I know, I'll put it in the show notes. But if you can tell everybody where they can find it.
[00:39:30] Speaker C: Sure. So it's www.sugarfreemd.com. that's all one word forward slash dinner.
[00:39:39] Speaker B: Love it. And I love this. So I have a 14 day food plan. 14 days to better blood sugars. Because really it's amazing that people will see in just two weeks and shorter than that, they'll see their blood sugars get better. I think many of the ladies that listen, they've, they've done that and they're like so sick of foods that I put on there. So I'm sure many ladies are going to rush to get that because they want some different options. So I think that's great. I think that's wonderful.
[00:40:09] Speaker C: Great place to start. It really is. Because you know how the day goes. Like absolutely. Trying to do a thousand things. We're totally stressed out by the end of the day and when we're stressed out, our brain wants sugar. And so if we have pre planned something that's sugar free, it's just such a lovely treat. Especially if it's something you put in the crock pot to know, like, dinner's done. It's so lovely.
[00:40:32] Speaker B: Yeah. A gift. I love it. Stacy, I appreciate you joining me today and being here and sharing your expertise and the insights that you have. It's just so valuable. And again, it's great for people to hear that from more than one place that, you know, really this food thing is an issue. And really, if you're interested in impacting your health and being healthy, this is the place you're going to get the most bang for your buck and the easiest place to start. So I appreciate you being here today.
[00:41:00] Speaker C: Thank you so much for having me. It was great.
