Nourish Your Body, Lose Weight For Good with Louise Digby

Welcome, everyone, to another edition of the Wellness Talk podcast. I am George Batista, your host and your wellness advocate. Of course, Wellness Talk is the show that goes over the latest in health, healing, nutrition, and fitness. We're keeping you healthy one show at a time, as always, and also bringing you fantastic guests like we have today. Today, we're going to be talking about weight loss, metabolic health, nutrition, just stuff that I absolutely love to talk about, and we're going to be talking about one of the foremost experts on the subject. That is Louise Digby, and I think you're really going to enjoy this conversation, especially those of you who've maybe struggled with weight loss, especially as you've gotten older, trying to lose those extra inches, trying to get your mindset right, your lifestyle right. She's going to have some fantastic tips on that. We'll definitely dive into that. A little bit of her background, Louise Digby is a registered nutritional therapist, women's weight loss expert, and founder of the Nourish Method to Lasting Fat Loss. Her clients come to her after struggling to lose weight despite eating well and working hard to burn the fat. Louise transforms her clients' health and well-being by identifying and addressing each individual's unique needs and imbalances so they can lose weight, optimize their health, and rediscover their sparkle without restrictive dieting or the need for superhuman willpower. We all know how that goes, so let's bring Louise on. Louise, welcome to the show. Thank you for being with us. Hello. Thank you so much for having me. It's an honor. It's an honor to have you. I followed your work, and you're really doing some great things in this space. For those of you who don't know, Louise is coming to us from England, and I was just telling her that that is on my bucket list to get to pretty soon as well, because I've gone to a lot of cool places, but definitely Europe and England and those places are really one of the places I'm definitely wanting to get to. But Louise, I want to talk a little bit about your background first. For those of you who are not familiar with your background, talk a little bit about your journey and what brought you to the weight loss and nutrition space. Sure. Well, I graduated in 2012, and when I first started practicing, I was working with everyone and anyone in terms of people might come to me for IBS or chronic fatigue, acne, anything. What I always found was that pretty much everyone, whatever they were coming to me for, they also wanted to lose weight. I also had people that came to me who just wanted to lose weight rather than work on any other things. What was interesting was it was the people who were focusing more on their health and optimizing their gut and their skin and those things that actually got the best results when it came to weight loss. The people who were focusing just on the weight, just on the scales, they weren't getting such great results because they were more focused on restriction and cutting out food groups and portion control and all those sorts of things. I also noticed that there was a particular group of people, women who were over the age of 35, 40, who were particularly struggling with their weight, despite actually being more disciplined and dedicated than everyone else that I worked with. That really led me down that path of trying to help that particular group of women and try to understand why it was that it was such a challenge for this group to be able to not only lose weight, but actually maintain their health as well, because it does seem to be a time when your health can really start to deteriorate, even when you're not eating badly and you're staying active. That's kind of how I ended up there, and it's really what I spend all my time doing now. Wow. That's great. One of the things that I want to chat a little bit about is because the precursor to weight loss and nutrition and just having a healthy lifestyle, to me, is the mindset. We can talk about the how-to's all day long, but if that mindset is not there, it's not going to work because you end up defaulting back to whatever you previously did. A lot of people have that diet mindset. They hear the word diet, and of course, it's always associated with a short-term thing. Maybe I have to lose weight for the beach or the wedding or whatever that type of thing is. How do you address mindset when people are coming to you with maybe they've yo-yo dieted, maybe they've had that short-term mindset? How do you kind of break through that to help them realize that it's really more of a lifestyle moving forward instead of just a diet? Yeah, I completely agree. I think that it's all well and good knowing what to do, but you've got to be able to implement it consistently. I think for me and my team, what we find is effective is like a combination of things. Firstly, I think taking an approach that is focused more on nourishing your body and adding in the stuff that you need rather than focusing on cutting stuff out and depriving and punishing yourself is a much more positive way to go about losing weight and optimizing your health. But at the same time, working on your relationship with food and the way that you think about food, for example, rather than thinking about food as good or bad, thinking about it more in a functional way of what is this doing for me, what it's giving me? Is it nourishing or is it less nourishing? And working on people's beliefs as well. I think it's really important, first of all, to actually believe that you can achieve your goals. Because if you're coming from a point of thinking, oh, I'm never going to be slim or I'm never going to be someone who can go to the gym three times a week, whatever it is that you're trying to achieve, if you don't believe that you're capable of that, then you're probably not going to achieve it. Anyone who's ever achieved anything in their life has started from a point of believing that it is possible for them to get there with the right strategy and the right support. So just working on that foundational belief system around being able to get to where you want to be is a massive part of it, I think. Absolutely. You're 100%. And also, I think sometimes when you're, as a person who I've coached people as well, one of the things you realize is sometimes you end up kind of being a little bit of a therapist for them. Because sometimes it's also what's going on around them. It could be their relationship in general that's at home, maybe a broken relationship, something that happened that kind of steered them in the wrong direction. And they need to kind of get past that piece in order to get back. A lot of people stress eat, for example. I've known people who they've lost a relationship or something like that, and it's hard for them to handle it. So eating is a comfort for them. And overeating is a comfort for them. Because then obviously that's one of the reasons why. Because that's also part of it. They're eating the wrong food too. But they're gaining that weight and that type of thing because there's that whole aspect of it. So I completely get, I understand that piece as well. Because sometimes people come to you with all these things and they're like, you know, I could have had a divorce, I could have had a relationship, whatever the case may be. And I'm sure you probably run into that type of stuff as well, right? Yeah, definitely. And I think the title nutritionist is a bit misleading really, because it's so much more than just nutrition. Food is actually a relatively small piece of the puzzle you've got to look at. Like you say, you need the circumstances of that person's life and their schedule and stress and sleep and movement, exposure to toxins and just so many things that go beyond food itself. Absolutely. So I want to get your thoughts in and we'll definitely dive into the specifics of a lot of that. But I want to get your thoughts on something. And I've talked to other folks on weight loss as well and nutrition as well. Going back to mindset for a second, we also have the mindset of the, you know, I don't have to do the lifestyle piece, I can take a pill or I can take a shot and that'll magically take my weight. So we're seeing that now in the Ozempics and the Wacovies, those types of things. Okay. I did a show on it and my question was, is it worth it? Is it worth the risk? Is that risk benefit profile, you know, I mean, we're hearing side effects, but at the same time it is working because people are losing weight. What's your thought just in that space as far as what's going on there? I think it's a very individual thing. And I think the most important thing is that someone who is considering something like that is going into it fully informed. And, you know, my feelings is that in most cases you can achieve the same results with food and lifestyle changes and working on mindset and behaviors without all of the negative side effects, which by the way, can last even after you've stopped taking the medication. And I think that's one of the major things that people need to be aware of is that it's not just a case of, you know, give that a try. And if you can't cope with side effects, then stop and it will be okay. Those side effects could continue in the long term. So that's one of the big things that you do need to weigh up when you're thinking about that. I think there are cases where it does make sense to use something like that, some sort of weight loss aid in terms of an injection or medication. You know, if someone has a lot of other issues going on, could be mental health issues or something that's impacted with to consistently get into place the habits that need to be there to help them to get to where they want to be, then maybe it is a good idea in order to reduce their risk of certain health factors and conditions. But my feeling is that in most cases, actually, with the right support, you can get to where you want to be without all that risk. Agree, agree. It's very and it is very difficult, unfortunately, because you're seeing it all over. Right. Every celebrity now is talking about it and all over the news and people talking about how great it is. And again, I listen, I always say even on this show, I say, listen, you do what you feel is right for you. I'm you know, I'm not here, I'm not a doctor. I'm not here to tell you exactly what you do, like exactly what you said. Know the risks, know what what's going on behind it. And then balance, again, that risk reward ratio, that benefit and see, is it worth it for me? You know, that type of thing. So I completely agree. I think that and we and we it's going back to the we that the mindset, again, trying to get out of that mindset of the pill for the ill or the pill for the weight loss, you know, we have to look at it in a long term basis as lifestyle at the end of the day is the best way to do this, in my opinion. You know, that's how I that's how I did. I mean, I didn't have to lose weight, thank God, because I'm a thin guy. But I did have to deal with a whole bunch of chronic issues that I got rid of. The only way I did that was by changing my mindset and by realizing it is lifestyle, you know, and and that's that's the big thing on it. So, again, you know, I completely agree with what you've said on that. The other thing I want to talk to you about, and I've heard you talk about this on some other shows as well, and it's the concept you don't hear a lot about. It's the the concept of a lot of people are actually not eating enough in terms of when they wanted to lose weight. So talk a little bit about that concept, because a lot of people are not used to hearing that. Yeah. So this comes from many of the women that come to me. They are pretty much starving themselves. They are working out every day, burning as many calories as they can. They're fasting, doing all the things just to try and get that big calorie deficit and still not losing weight. And the problem with that, apart from the fact that they're not losing weight, the problem with that approach is that it puts your body under a hell of a lot of stress. You know, your body feels that there is a lack of food and a very high demand for energy because you're exercising. So much so your because your body is so smart and adaptive, it reduces your energy expenditure to try and prevent that fat loss, because ultimately your body wants to survive and it doesn't want you to waste away. So actually, if you're under eating and or over exercising, it could be causing more problems than it's solving. It could be causing stubborn weight. And oftentimes eating more helps not only because you take away that kind of starvation response, but also you're getting in much more nutrition. And in order for us to be able to burn fat and make energy, there's a lot of nutrients that are required. So if you're lacking in those nutrients, your body isn't going to be burning fat very efficiently. And also, you know, your thyroid requires a certain amount of fuel, it requires a certain amount of calories and carbohydrates as well as nutrients. And again, if it's not getting those nutrients, then it's going to slow everything down in your body because your thyroid is the master controller of your metabolism. So many times actually increasing the amount you're eating is so long as it's nourishing foods can actually get you more results in terms of weight loss and overall health and well-being. And that's the key. The key, I think, you know, it's one thing to say, OK, eat more food, but it's the quality of food, right? That's that's the big thing, right? Because again, just exactly like you said, you know, it's the those vitamins, those minerals, all those things that your body requires to run your metabolism to give you that energy, your body requires them every single day. And people, again, this is something that people, you know, the average folks don't even think about because, you know, one of the things I've talked about on this show is like your body will ration even your vitamins and minerals where it needs it and where, you know, where it needs it to survive versus the long term effect of it. And your body will store where it needs to. And this goes back to our evolutionary phases of life where we've had to store food, for example, in terms of famine and that type of thing. And your body does not want to starve. Right. So your body will conserve when it doesn't have that adequate nutrition. But exactly and exactly like you said, it may it does really make sense. But yet this is not promoted. You know, people don't realize. And it's the concept, OK, yes, we you may need to eat more, but you have to eat that nourishing food. And people don't associate vitamins and minerals with weight loss. People don't associate vitamins. You know, it's it's very interesting. But I think I think this is one of the things that's just in overall health care and the weight loss industry. I think this is something that we need a revamping of, in my opinion. What's your thought about that? Oh, completely agree. It's my biggest frustration when I would have clients come to me that tell me that, oh, my doctor said I just need to try harder. My doctor said I just need to eat less. And or, you know, and I see it online from, you know, certain types of practitioners who are very much promoting it's just calories in versus calories out. That's all you need to master. And once you do that, you will see weight loss. And it's just not true. I see it time and time again that it just doesn't always hold true. And, you know, for extreme examples, I've had clients who have had gastric bands, you know, weight loss surgery where they physically cannot eat that many calories and they still can't lose weight. Or maybe people who have had sickness bugs where they've not been able to eat for a week and they've not lost any weight. So, you know, it just goes to show that being in a calorie deficit doesn't automatically mean you're going to lose weight. Definitely. As far as when we get older, especially like, you know, you talked about 35, 40, this is where we start to see a decline in a lot of things. You know, it could be obviously it's muscle, you know, just overall metabolism, all these types of things. And this is where I always say this is where you have to do a little more work to make sure you're keeping everything on track. So what are the things that can, you know, especially women, especially getting into menopause years, what are the things that that can hinder women, especially in those years and or what what can they do about them? I think one of the biggest things is stress. And when I say stress, I don't just mean, you know, your typical pacing up and down, pulling your hair out tight, acute stress. I mean, the chronic day to day stress that we all experience, you know, being super busy, not having enough downtime or me time, lack of sleep. Maybe it's worrying about your kids. Maybe it's worrying about your parents. Maybe it's bereavements, divorces. It could be over exercising and under eating. Those are also a type of stress. It could be pain. So any type of stress is something that is very disruptive to hormones. And during this time of perimenopause and menopause, your hormones are changing and they're more susceptible to the impact of that stress. You're essentially less resilient to stress. And what that means is that for women, this transition where your hormones decline and and menopause happens is completely normal and natural. But with our modern lives and this high stress load, it tends to exacerbate that decline in hormones and speed up or make the hormones fluctuate more than they should do. And that's when we get a lot of the symptoms that come with it and also the stubborn weight that tends to come with it as well. And there's lots of things that can exacerbate that process. But stress is the biggest thing. And, you know, so many women who are struggling with all of this during this time, their default is to eat less and exercise more, which causes more stress and makes the problem worse. When actually they took that effort and put it into just trying to manage stress, support their body through stress, delegate some things if they can, and just try and get some more me time and do more self care. They'd probably get better results from that. Absolutely. And it's again, this is one of those things that it's so hard to do the way our society's paced now. We're we're sitting more than ever in the offices, right? We're we're sitting behind computers. We've got, you know, all this type of stuff. And then raising children is stressful, you know, just in general. And then, you know, but then also dealing with now one of the things that we deal with in my house that is very stressful is aging parents, you know, by my in-laws are aging and, you know, they're they're up there and they've got some health issues. And my wife now is pretty much their full time caregiver, you know. And then on top of that, we've got a 17 year old who's who's, you know, that's a whole nother stress. So we've got those two stresses in the house constantly, you know. And my my wife has had, you know, a thyroid issue for many, many years, you know, and her and I chat about it all the time. And we say, you know, I told her, listen, you have to understand that you're you're under a lot of stress from your parents, from from our daughter and all this type of stuff. That's that's a jolt to the thyroid. We know that, you know, and she you know, and then we have to work on the nutrition piece. We have to do a little bit extra on that end because, you know, you're getting hit with the stresses of life, the physical, the chemical, the emotional stresses of life, you know, and we're getting older, you know, we're not young anymore. We're not 25 anymore. So, you know, even we in my house and I talk about it all the time, we're still trying to navigate those types of things. But it's not easy. It's not easy. And you have to you I always say you have to do more again when you get older to really do that. And stress reduction is great. Do you do you have some like do you recommend things like, you know, simple stuff like maybe some meditation and things like that? Do you talk about that with your clients and stuff like that? Yeah, I think it's important to do a combination of things. There's things that you can do that help to reduce stress. And those are the things that can be more challenging because it often involves looking at your life and kind of changing things there. But trying to do that is is important. Then there's also things that you can do to support your body through stress because we burn through a lot of nutrients when we're stressed, things like magnesium and B vitamins we have a really high demand for. So, you know, supplementing those or making sure that you're eating more foods, switching those can be helpful. And then also doing things that help to put your body into that rest and digest mode and move you out of that fight or flight mode that probably most of us are spending most of our time in. And those can be really simple things like doing a couple of minutes of deep belly breathing, doing some meditation. It could be doing a cold plunge. That can work really well to stimulate your vagus nerve and things like foot massage, whether you do it yourself or you get someone else to do it. Things like having a cuddle with your pet or your partner. You know, that has a magical effect on your hormones. So there's little things like that, that if we can weave them into our day, it doesn't have to take up a huge amount of time, but it can just help to support your system and the regulation of your nervous system, which has a knock on effect on your hormones and your metabolism if you do it consistently. And also a knock on effect on your overall well-being and mental health as well. Absolutely. Absolutely. Makes sense. And again, you know, when we look at holistic, it's the whole body. Everything affects everything else. And again, this is where this is where some, you know, a lot of times the mainstream medicine misses it because they don't look at the body as a whole. They kind of dissect that into parts. So we have to kind of get back into this mentality of the body. Everything affects the vitamins and the nutrition and the stress relief, all that affects everything, which actually also affects your environment overall, right? Because if you're less stressed, people, you know, the energy changes and then you have, you know, the people in your life can feel a difference in your energy. Who wants to be in a room with a person who's constantly stressed and tense all the time? Because that affects that person as well. So there's that piece of it. That's a whole, that could be a whole nother show in and of itself. I wanted to ask you about, um, there are some things that I have, uh, that I talk about on this show in terms of just eating. And I don't recommend a specific diet. I don't know if you do. I don't, I, I talk about more of a way of eating a lifestyle of eating, you know? Because I, one of the things I've realized in these years is that every diet can, can be good for someone, but not good for someone else, right? Not all diets work the same for everybody, you know? And I know sometimes it gets you clicks. If you say it's the vegan diet, or if you say if it's the keto diet and all that, and that's fine. You know, if that's your thing, but the reality of the situation is there's people on all those diets that do well and there's other people that don't. Okay. So you have to kind of listen to your body in my view of, of what works for you, but there are some principles that I wanted to ask you about some of these things that I talk about on this show. One of them is eating, um, I mean, eating dinner and then leaving space between dinner and sleep, which, which helps with hormones. So what's your thought on that? Yes, definitely. There's, there's research in this to show that, you know, having not necessarily completely empty stomach, but not having a full stomach when you go to bed is important. Um, so yeah, leaving at least a few hours between eating and going to bed. And alongside that, you know, I think that how long your overnight fast is, what's going to work for you is, is individual. And there's a lot of research to show that, you know, fasting can be beneficial. But again, if you don't have the foundations in place, if you've got a lot of imbalances going on, if you're highly stressed, if your thyroid's not working properly, then fasting might not be a good idea. But having a 12 hour overnight fast is probably suitable for most people. So that's usually a good starting point. And it helps to balance your hormones even while you're sleeping, right? You have, you know, your, your melatonin and your, all your, you know, and the adrenaline and everything that wakes you up in the morning and, and these types of things that help and also blood sugar, right? Blood sugar, it helps to balance that out as well. So it's, it's something that's, that's really important. Now, in terms of just eating in general, as far as how many times do you recommend? Cause there's always these theories, you know, these, these theories of I should eat six times a day versus no, I should eat three times a day and day type of thing. Is there any kind of frequency that you recommend as far as meals go? Um, I think again, a good starting point for most people is three meals per day. Um, I feel it's quite individual, but it's not very often that I'm recommending that someone's eating six more meals or meal stack meal stack. I think that the, the less often we eat the better generally. Um, so long as we're not having really long fast, particularly if we are experiencing imbalances in our hormones. Definitely exactly what I recommend on this show all the time. Um, I grew up eating three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Simple. And I always say, I always say, because the space between those meals actually, again, helps hormonally and helps all these things, you know, get back in, especially leptin and all these types of things, all these hormones that, that are helping with, with weight loss and your sense of being full and all this type of stuff. So I completely agree on that. Um, the, uh, let's, I want to pivot a little bit to gut. Um, again, I recently, I've been doing a lot of shows on the gut as far as how important the gut is to keep the gut. And it's, and obviously in the last decade or so gut has become a huge thing. Beneficial bacteria, microbiome, whatever you want to call it. Talk a little bit about the gut. Why is the gut so important in this whole business of weight loss and metabolism? Yeah, it's absolutely critical. And I think it, we seem to come back to the gut, whatever imbalance we're talking about, it tends to link back to the gut. Um, and so often with my clients, we're working on the gut, even if they don't have obvious gut symptoms, we do a lot of testing on our clients. And we look at the gut in terms of bacteria and yeast and absorption and digestion and all sorts of things. And there's almost always something going on there again, even if there's no obvious symptoms. The reason why it's so important is because, well, there's lots of reasons your, your guts can influence your brain. So, you know, it can drive cravings. It can impact your mood. It can change your brain chemicals. You know, we make about 90% of our serotonin in the guts. So if your gut isn't happy, your brain isn't going to be happy. And then that's going to impact your sleep, your appetite, your cravings, moods, loads of different things. Um, we also eliminate our hormones via the guts. So once we've made particularly estrogen, your liver detoxes it once it's been used and then you eliminate it via the guts. But if the guy isn't happy, you know, if you're constipated and not eliminating as often as you should be, then you can end up reabsorbing those hormones that should have been eliminated. There are also ways in which your gut bacteria can be imbalanced where the hormones get reactivated as well. And then once they're reabsorbed, you know, they're causing imbalance in your system as well. So that's not helpful, particularly when you're trying to lose weight. If the bacteria in your gut is imbalanced, that can create a high toxic load. The bacteria can produce toxins. They get absorbed. The liver has to detox them. Um, and so that can be inflammatory and disruptive as well. Um, and you know, we could get into how. When your liver's under a high toxic load that can actually slow down fat burning because one of the ways that your body defends itself against a high toxic load is to lock those toxins away in fat. So your body doesn't want to release the fat to manage that toxic load. So it has this huge knock on effect. Absolutely. And it goes back to the adaptation of the human body, right? The human body is just an adapting organism. I always, I always see that you train your body, uh, you know, the way you eat and your lifestyle, you literally train your body and it's like those, the folks, you know, folks I've talked about, even in my own family, when I say, listen, your, your meals are erratic, for example, because I tend to like to, for me, I tend to like my meals the same times every day. And usually, you know, during the week for the most part, my, my, you know, my body will tell me exactly when I'm hungry because it's so used to eating the same times every single day. And that's just the kind of the way I'm used to. And it will vary maybe on a weekend when I'm maybe out and stuff like that. But I've noticed that, that my body I'm, and I'm very attuned to it, but it's like, I could literally time it by my watch. I'm like, wow, I'm getting hungry exactly the time that I normally eat. So it shows, it really goes to show you that you train your body on your lifestyle. You train it and what to do with those calories and when this, when it needs the food and when to get hungry, that type of thing. But, and there's another thing that I wanted to talk to you about was folks that, that are more erratic in their eating patterns. So maybe shift workers, maybe they're working overnight. They have a whole different ball game in terms of that. Have you worked with clients like that and how do you address those issues? Yeah, it can be tricky, you know, particularly if the shifts are constantly changing and the schedule is all over the place, shift workers are up against it partly because then they're not following the normal sleep pattern, which, you know, has all sorts of impacts on your levels of inflammation and appetite and hormones. But I think the most important thing is to try and still get those free meals a day and still follow a relatively normal eating pattern, even if you're waking up at three o'clock in the afternoon, you know, still having a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner, but, you know, it might just be that you're having those at different times to everyone else. You just got to have them at a time that makes sense for you, really. Absolutely, absolutely. Talk a little bit about your program, the, you know, the Nourish Method. Talk a little bit about what it is and what people can expect when they work with you. Sure. So in my program, the Nourish Method, we work with people for six months and we start off by running tests to identify what's going on inside the body, what's going to be contributing to stubborn weight and metabolic issues. So we look at the gut and the blood sugars and hormones and nutrients and toxic load and lots of different things. And then we use the information alongside a thorough kind of medical history and symptom analysis to put together a really targeted action plan, which will take the person through step by step over the course of several months to address these imbalances using food, lifestyle, sometimes supplements in the short term. And we work with them very closely so that we can make sure that not only do they know what's been keeping them stuck and what they need to do about it, but also how to do it and how to do it consistently. So working on those mindset challenges, those limiting beliefs, that relationship with food so that they can not only lose weight while they're with us, but in the long term and keep it off for good. And is this done like, is this done virtually or in person or how's that done? Yeah, yeah. It's done virtually. All of our consultations are done over Zoom. All the tests can be done at home. And we work with women both in the UK and in the US as well. Fantastic. And I'm assuming that, you know, you've, you work with people, let's say who are working with their doctor, maybe they're on medications for something or whatever. And then obviously, cause that's, that's sometimes tends to be a tricky minefield in terms of if somebody's on certain medications, you have to navigate that piece, so I'm sure you kind of work with them if they're on medications with their doctor, right? Yeah, definitely. Many of the women that work with us are on all sorts of different things for different problems. And, you know, something that we absolutely factor in, for example, certain medications can cause nutrient depletion. So we might compensate with certain foods or supplements. And certain medications can have interactions with certain foods or supplements. So we'd make sure that everything that we recommend is safe. Great, great. Absolutely. The other thing, oh, and what I meant to ask you before, and I just kind of had left my head, but was, um, the, you know, obviously we also want to move. We want, we want, you know, we do have to move. We do have to have some kind of fitness. We do. And, and particularly maintaining muscle mass, you know, and I, and when I say muscle mass, I don't mean bodybuilder or anything like that, but I just meaning maintaining some lean muscle mass, because we're seeing now, especially in a lot of the studies in the recent studies that muscle mass plays such a role in your metabolism and the burning of fat as well in general. So, you know, how important is that just, especially as you're getting older? Yeah, it's definitely really important. And I'm glad that you've asked that question because when I talk about, you know, not doing too much exercise, it's, it's less about not moving. It's, and it's more about doing the right type of exercise and not kind of stressing your body too much. So often that means shifting away from some of the cardio to more strength training, um, and, uh, weight training type work. And like you say, maintaining that muscle mass and taking steps to really lean out your muscle is absolutely key because with your typical diets and eat more, sorry, eat less exercise, more approaches, you tend to lose muscle, which is just catastrophic for your health. And it's going to set you up for gaining weight as soon as you fall off track. Whereas if you take an approach where you're focusing much more on maintaining your lean muscle, fueling your body so that you're able to build that muscle, then when you take a week or so off, or if you are unable to kind of stay as on track as you want to be because you're on holiday or because it's Christmas or whatever's going on, you're not going to just pile the weight straight back on. You're not going to pile on a load of fat because you haven't decreased your metabolism through dieting. So it's really important for the long-term success of the approach that you're taking. Yeah. And it brings me back also to the, when we talked a little bit about Ozempeg and those types of things, one of the things they found was that there was a huge decrease in muscle along with the decrease in fat. They found they're going down. And this is why I say, again, this is one of those things to look at because you don't want to lose that muscle. You want to do everything you can to maintain that as you get older, even while you're losing fat, because it's very, it is very easy to lose muscle while that fat is shrinking. And so these are one of those things that you have to, that you have to really look out for. Um, the other thing I wanted to kind of really chat about quickly was also on just blood sugar in general. You know, I'm sure you work with a lot of people who, you know, deal with, you know, you know, uh, just a one C's high blood sugars, high than maybe their borderline, you know, diabetic, those types of things, maybe they are diabetic and, you know, maybe we can actually start to trend it back in the right direction. So you, you work with those types of folks as well, right? Yes. Yeah. And it is in most cases, very achievable to get your blood sugars or your HPA one C back down into the normal range, even if you are diabetic. Um, you know, the longer you've been diabetic and the more uncontrolled it is, the longer it's going to take. But, you know, I've seen plenty of people reverse their diabetes in a matter of months, so it's absolutely possible. And, you know, it's something that just a few years ago, it wasn't really like very well accepted that it was possible to reverse it, but thankfully it's now a little bit more mainstream. And, um, as the case for most conditions and imbalances, they are absolutely reversible. That was one of the things that actually got me to do, to do what I'm doing today. Because one of the things that, and I talked about this before on the show was I was at a barbecue with, uh, uh, a friend and he had mentioned, this was back when I was just starting to say, okay, I need to change my diet. And a friend told me, he says, oh, I'm I'm diabetic. And I mean, this is 25 years ago now. So diabetes wasn't as big of a thing as it is now. And I said, oh, so I automatically thought he's on medication. So I said, oh, you were taking medication. He says, no, I control it with my diet. And I was like, what? And this was the first person that I actually had even spoken to that actually could, I even thought could do that. Cause I didn't think that was even possible. He says, yeah, I control my diet. He was every, everything's normal. Now I just watch what I eat. And that the light bulb for me went on and I said, wait a minute. Okay. So now there's something to, so I'm on the right track and this is kind of, that's kind of what sprang me forward into really diving into the nutrition piece. So you're absolutely correct. You know, it's, I don't even think it's even that difficult to do as far as bringing people back and their A1C down on all these types of things. But again, it, it, you, it, it's meeting the person where they are, but then the person also has to take their responsibility. And they have to do it right. Because, and I'm sure you deal with this a lot because not everybody you work with is always going to do everything you tell them to do, you know, I, you know, and you know, so I was going to say, I'm sure you deal with that stuff as well. Right. Yeah, absolutely. I think for some people, it may be a little bit of a case of if they throw money at a problem, they think that's going to be enough to solve it, but you do have to be responsible for your own change in your, your own health and working with a practitioner, yes, they're going to guide you and facilitate that change, but you have to be the one who's putting in the time and the effort. And just going back to what you're saying before, I think sometimes people can meet resistance when they talk to their doctors about these things, because their doctors often don't believe that they can reverse diabetes or they can put an autoimmune condition into remission or whatever it is. And oftentimes they just get completely dismissed or even laughed at, which is shocking. But it is absolutely possible. You just need someone who believes in you and the right support. One hundred percent. And unfortunately, doctors are not really taught this stuff. Doctors are not, no, they're not really taught nutrition in medical school, you know? So this is this is why even myself, I've worked with people who have been working with their doctors because I help them with the nutrition piece while they're working with their doctor on whatever it is they're dealing with, you know? So and I respect those doctors that actually send people to nutritionists because I at least they know, you know, maybe I don't know the nutrition, but I can send somebody to somebody who does know that piece of it, you know? So that's that that's a you know, I commend those those doctors for that. One other question I wanted to ask you about, and I'm just things are flooding into my head now while I have you here, is carbs. OK, we you know, a lot of people even that I you know, even in my own family, again, a lot of people I've worked with have always been carb phobic. You know, we can't eat any carbs. I have to get rid of carbs. I haven't. What's your thought on carbs in general, just, you know, as far as the macronutrient part of it? Hmm. I think it's not as black and white as we've been taught. And we've been taught that if you eat too many carbs, you have high blood sugars, you'll eventually get diabetes, you'll put on weight. But there's a lot of things that impact your blood sugars and also lots of things that impact the way that you digest and process carbs that I think they are an essential part of the diet. They bring a lot of nutrients with them. And, you know, the first thing is making sure that your carbs are unprocessed because there's a lot of confusion between, I think, junk food and carbs and they get lumped together. But actually unprocessed carbs in moderation, in balance with proteins and fats are a really key part of the diet. And like I was saying before, your thyroid needs some fuel from carbs. And, you know, some people are better at coping with less carbs. Their body might be more efficient at using fats for fuel or even storing sugars. But yeah, for a lot of people, particularly the type of person I work with, women in their 30s and 40s, 50s, they tend to need a little bit more carbs to support their hormones. And, you know, again, if you're more active, you're going to need more carbs. If you're doing work that's very kind of heavy in terms of the mental load, you're going to need some carbs to fuel your brain as well. You know, we kind of overlook how how energy intensive it is to be staring at a computer all day and doing really hard work. So making sure that we're fueling our bodies and our brains, even if we're not moving that much, is still important. Yeah. Even if you're an athlete, like my daughter was, you know, was a basketball and softball athlete and all that type of stuff. And she also goes to the gym, working out all the time and stuff like that. She's really into it. And, you know, I even coach her. I said, don't don't get into that mindset of I just got to get rid of carbs because, you know, it's you still I mean, vegetables have great carbohydrates in them. That's you know, these are those those important carbohydrates you need. So you have to have it as part of the diet again, goes back to the food quality that we're just talking about at the end of the day. Right. Those processed carbs and those junk carbs versus the ones that are actually help you, you know, nutritionally and give you that fuel and give your body what it needs. Absolutely, completely. One hundred percent is what we need. So, you know, and at the end of the day, I think, you know, we I talk about, you know, meeting everybody where they are. And again, no no diet, no lifestyle or whatever is fit for every single person. Everything has to be individualized, in my opinion. You know, even again, putting two people on a even a supplement, sometimes you'll get two different outcomes. Definitely, definitely. Yeah, I think that there's it definitely needs to be individualized is different for everyone. There are some core foundations that can be applied in most cases. But I think to to get the the true transformation, particularly when you're trying to address imbalances or conditions, it does need to be personalized because everyone is going to have different triggers and things that led up to the development of that problem. Definitely, definitely. And also the mindset that, you know, sometimes people who have gone through these problems and are dealing with a problem, it may have taken them 10, 15 years of that lifestyle to get there, to where they are. So going back to the mindset that we talked about, it's going to take them a while to get back. And this is where we go back to the quick fix, where we say, listen, let's unravel it slowly because it took you so long to get there. It's not an overnight thing. So another thing for you, do you work with as far as people making changes? Do you do you suggest people make changes just like one piece at a time versus kind of changing a lot of type of stuff? I found that one piece at a time tends to work for a lot of people because the pace for them there, it helps them. So what's your thought on that? Yeah, definitely. One piece at a time. You know, we don't exist in a vacuum where, you know, we can only focus on this one thing. There's other things going on. We've still got to work and look after the kids and do the food shop and all these things. So just doing one thing really well and getting that to become a habit and then moving on to the next thing. Yes, the progress is slower, but the the consistency is there. And, you know, the transformation is big once you start building on these things. Whereas when you try to change 10 things at once, you know, for a lot of people when they go on diet, they're like, right, I need to cut out this, this and this. And I'm going to exercise five times a week and I'm going to start drinking more and I'm going to start getting to bed early. I'm going to get up earlier and, you know, on and on and on all these things. And it sounds great. And then when you actually come to do it, it is so much change that it's just completely overwhelming, impossible to follow. And when you break it down and you look at even just drinking more water to achieve that, that's actually several changes, because you might need to start taking a glass of water up with you when you go to bed and drink that when you wake up in the morning. You might need to start carrying a water bottle around with you. You might need to buy a new water bottle. You might need to get a water filter if you don't like water or whatever. So there's like so many things that you need to do to make sure you actually fulfill that one thing or drinking more water. And that's what we forget when we try to do all these many, many different things. We can't just magically find the time and the energy to do all these things. Yeah, you're a hundred percent right. And again, people, I think people tend to, you know, it's it's better for them, a lot of better for a lot of folks to celebrate the small wins, you know, the win, maybe giving up the soda, maybe they gave up this, maybe they gave up that, you know, little by little, because I always say, you know, one of my philosophies is that the big win at the end, when you get to your, your, one of your big goals is really just a culmination of small wins on the way. So you, and you celebrate those wins, right? You say, oh, I've, I've lost the inches. Oh, I gave up the soda. I gave up the smoke, whatever it is. But you know, that those little small wins will add up to that big goal that you're waiting for. And I think at the end of the day, you know, it's a great way to approach it. Then it helps to go back to change that mindset. And maybe I, I, I think, and I'm sure you would agree that people would be, would, um, there'll be more lasting change if people can approach it in that way. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think if, if you can achieve even just a few basic changes and do that consistently, it's going to impact your long-term health and wellbeing so much more than, you know, once a month for a week, following a diet and giving up fall off the wagon for three weeks and starting all over again. Exactly. A hundred percent. So let me give your, I'm going to give your website here. Uh, it's Louise dig me nutrition.com. Um, I want everybody to check her website out. I I've looked at it. You've got a great blog on there right away with, with, with great, you know, nutritional tips and stuff like that. And then also you have the nourish method, which is your program there that people can work with you. And, uh, and how do people get in contact? They, they go directly to the website and then contact you through there. Yeah. Through the website, you can book a discovery call, which is free and you can, um, use that to see if, you know, it's going to be good to work with us, whether we're a good fit for each other. Um, and then I also have a masterclass as well, which you can watch by the website, um, where I walk you through the steps that I work with my clients. Excellent. I'll make sure that everything is, is put in the notes. So Louise, Louise Digby, thank you so much for being with me today. Thank you so much for having me. It's been great. Absolutely. All right. Guys. So, um, thank you again for joining me this week. I hope you guys really got a lot of this conversation. It was a, you know, a lot of nuggets in there, a lot of great tips that Louise brought on and again, some, some, some things you may not have heard, you know, before in, in health and in public health and that type of thing. And, and again, that's what we do on this show. We want to bring you things. We want to bring you options and, and, and folks that are giving you another perspective. And she definitely gave us a great perspective on weight loss and metabolism. So thank you guys for joining me. Have a great week. Take care of yourselves. Take care of each other and as always control your health. Have a great day.