Ginger Morris: 0:07

Welcome to I Heart my Age, the show where we talk about loving, being kind and finding more confidence in yourself at your age, with your health and wellness in mind. Hi, I'm your host, ginger Morris, and I'm here today with my special guest, lisa O'Brien, and she is very passionate about nutrition. But I also want to say the episode today is all about the truth, about nutrition and how it's important to also exercise with nutrition, with good nutrition, and she's here to help us out with that, because these are questions that are always asked. So I'm going to introduce Lisa right away and I'm going to say just a little bit about her, because Lisa is passionate and about educating the public and her clients about this fascinating body of ours and its wonderful capacity of healing itself in her private practice in Saratoga Springs, new York. And so, lisa, I am here with you today.

Ginger Morris: 1:21

I know that you are a specialist in a lot of different areas of nutrition. Can you tell me a little bit about yourself? And I know your education. You've been educated in New York. You have a master's degree with New York Chiropractic College, right, and I want to just hear from you, and I know you're very big in the holistic world. So please begin and I welcome you and thank you for being here today. I have tons of questions to ask you. I'm going to try to get through as many as possible and if we don't, we might have to have a part two. If you're welcome to come back again, if you would like to come back again, absolutely.

Lisa Obrien: 2:05

I do welcome you.

Ginger Morris: 2:07

Okay, thanks for inviting me. I'm sorry. You are very welcome. I'm so happy to have you here today. So I know you have a story behind how you started to really get into nutrition and your health and well-being. Can you tell us a little bit about your story before I start asking you with tons and tons of questions?

Lisa Obrien: 2:31

Absolutely. I think a lot of these holistic practitioners have a story. There's their own health challenges that they've been working with and dealing with and coming up with solutions, working with and dealing with and coming up with solutions. And mine started about 20 years ago when I was about 44. And I ended up in the hospital with some kind of an intestinal infection that they never really could tell me what it was, and it was severe. I had holes in my intestinal wall. They kept telling me you know, you must have had too many antibiotics. We see these. You know it looks just like C, d, c, c, diff with. People are familiar with that, which is an awful bacterial infection. But you know, long story short it. Um, I finally got out of the hospital. I took massive amounts of antibiotics which are very disruptive to the, to the gut and to your health, um, and I finally got over it to a certain extent.

Lisa Obrien: 3:28

I still had some lingering symptoms and then it seemed like right around the corner from that was I had a diagnosis of arthritis in my knees and also in both of my thumb joints, like little by little they would just start creeping up like wow, what's wrong with this thumb? And then the other thumb hurt little. They would just start creeping up like wow, what's wrong with this thumb, and then the other thumb hurt and so it's just. These health conditions just kind of seem to seemingly came out of nowhere. With the arthritis it's, you know, it's debilitating, it hurts. I couldn't do certain things and just quickly I was given some. You know, in the medical community I've given some a painkiller called Vioxxx and people might remember it and it worked.

Ginger Morris: 4:06

I mean it tastes a pain away.

Lisa Obrien: 4:08

But, um, they pulled it off the market, luckily, within a few months after I started taking it, because it was causing cardiac issues and there were some deaths associated with it too. So, um, you know, it was just sort of like what do I do? I, um, I started doing a little research and looking at nutrition. I had always been interested in nutrition, um, and kind of around.

Lisa Obrien: 4:29

The same time, as things happen, I was laid off from my job in a corporate environment, um and I. So I got laid off and I had this time to myself and I went back to school and got a certificate in holistic health coaching and it was fascinating. I was totally enthralled with what nutrition could do for the body. I started to work at a nutrition center in Glens Falls, new York, as a holistic health coach and then, from there, I decided I just loved it so much I went back and got my master's so I could practice. So, yes, I did it in later life, but it was, it was awesome. I just loved every minute of it. So you know, currently I worked in the center for a little while and I've been in my own practice in Saratoga for about eight years now and I counsel clients and help them get back get get back their health using food and using whole food supplements.

Ginger Morris: 5:30

Okay, Without, without medication.

Lisa Obrien: 5:33

Without medications. A lot of them, a lot of clients are already on it, you know, and that's sometimes they can get off certain things. I don't advocate that they get off their medications. Obviously I can't do that, but many of them do. Many of them do, yes, they're using medications.

Ginger Morris: 5:47

That's fantastic, as far as all of this is wonderful, but what I want to do is ask you how do we begin this journey? I'm going to ask you what are your suggestions on the top five foods that we should purchase at the market, in your opinion, with our good health in mind, to remain strong and energized, and perhaps you can tell me the five worst foods that we shouldn't buy.

Lisa Obrien: 6:21

Okay, love to Only five is hard, but I'm going to try. I'm going to hit the top food groups. When we look at vegetables, my favorite is probably broccoli and cruciferous vegetables, because they have a compound called sulfolyurfane or it's a sulfur compound. Helps protect the antioxidant. There's doing a lot of research on these compounds and preventing cancer Wonderful.

Ginger Morris: 6:51

Broccoli sprouts, all of those are my favorite vegetables. I love broccoli too yeah, I do too Especially steamed, especially steamed Roasted. You can roast everything. It tastes awesome.

Lisa Obrien: 7:02

You know, fruits obviously are important Nutrients, vitamins. Roasted Fruits obviously are important Nutrients, vitamins, antioxidants. Berries are probably my favorite because they are lower in sugar than some other fruits. A lot of antioxidants. So berries, blueberries, raspberries, all those.

Ginger Morris: 7:17

Okay, so berries are really the top choice we should be going for when we walk into produce Right and both of these.

Lisa Obrien: 7:25

You know, I tell clients, if you can, every day broccoli blueberries a little bit every day, if you can. So moving forward? Another top category, I guess, would be quality protein. If I had to choose one, I would probably choose organic eggs, Okay.

Lisa Obrien: 7:44

Full of good protein and you know eggs have been vilified and they really shouldn't be. I mean, we need cholesterol. Cholesterol is good for us and there's a nice combination within an egg that allows the cholesterol to utilize properly. So eggs are very nutritious and actually fairly low in calories. So organic eggs would be my number one, okay.

Ginger Morris: 8:06

And you're saying organic must be organic.

Lisa Obrien: 8:09

Yeah, you know, if possible, I think eggs are important, especially if you're eating a lot of them. I eat two eggs every single day, just about. Okay Now they say.

Ginger Morris: 8:18

I've heard different things. You know doctors say stay away from them, that the yellow, it has too much cholesterol. You know all that kind of stuff your take on it is. You know it's not, it's still nutritious and the value is really great for us. Absolutely Okay, all right, that's good to know. All right, and I'm sorry, go go ahead and go on.

Lisa Obrien: 8:40

Next category. If I'm going to hit all the categories, would be grains and I had to choose one. I would. If I'm going to hit all the categories, would be grains and I had to choose one. I would not choose wheat and it's not because of gluten, but I would choose. If a very good one is called black rice or forbidden rice, it's a black rice, very, very nutritious. It's got a little bit of a nutty flavor. If you're going to eat a food, make it be as nutritious as possible. So there's lots of good ones out there millet and quinoa and all those but if it's one because you made me choose only five it would be the black rice.

Ginger Morris: 9:17

Okay, so black rice is that something you can get in any market, or do you have to go to a specialty? Pretty much.

Lisa Obrien: 9:22

I think I've seen it in general markets, health food stores, but I've seen it more forbidden. It's also called forbidden rice, but definitely a health food store would have it. It's forbidden. See, I like that too, but black rice or forbidden rice, that's the other name, all right.

Lisa Obrien: 9:36

And then the last category would be fats. Very important Again. We vilify fats. That there. We should stay away from them. Fats are very, very important in our diet and what the most important is good quality fats. Okay, like, for instance. So what I love so I would have all of these in my grocery basket would be good quality butter. So grass fed butter I know Interesting.

Ginger Morris: 10:02

Might be controversial.

Lisa Obrien: 10:03

Olive oil obviously is another good one. Coconut oil I love all those.

Ginger Morris: 10:08

You're making me really happy right now. All right, people happy, I love. Now, you can't have butter Good quality.

Lisa Obrien: 10:13

Again, I'm always about quality, so we can talk about different foods and as much as people can gather and afford, of course, but that good quality butter has a lot more vitamin D in it. Hello, we're all okay. Vitamin D. You know grass fed butter in particular. That would be where you'd find more vitamin D, um the good quality fats that we need, and you know it tastes good If we cook with it, if we're using it. We're going to be satisfied.

Lisa Obrien: 10:41

You know it's a fat that's going to make us feel full and it's delicious and what we should enjoy our food. You know it's not about eating. People think I eat celery sticks and you know and no we should enjoy good food and butter is one of those.

Lisa Obrien: 10:59

And you know, I'll let me preface it by saying saying if you have severe high cholesterol numbers, yes, or something like that, or you know fatty liver and things like that, you know I wouldn't have you eating a lot of butter, but so you know you have to take it in context. But some butter, and in general butter, I think is a very healthy food.

Ginger Morris: 11:20

Okay, that's really good. A lot of people are going to be happy to hear that one, that is for sure. I know that I was limiting you and I think that was the five right, was that the five? Okay, all right. So what about? You know, we always talk about fiber, fiber, fiber. Is that considered with the rice and that category? Or are we talking lagoons, or or you know?

Lisa Obrien: 11:47

how fiber we find in many foods, vegetables in particular. So I'm all big on vegetables and I'll definitely in grains we'll find fiber. So out of those foods obviously proteins don't have fiber in them fruits and vegetables, vegetables.

Ginger Morris: 12:03

Okay, everything, really. All those good categories you just discussed all have some fiber, and that's what I'm, you know, hearing more and more as we age. We need more fiber and we also need a lot more protein. Do you agree with this?

Lisa Obrien: 12:19

As we age. I mean fiber and protein are good throughout our life. Do we need to eat more protein as we get older? I think what happens is either we're not eating good, our food sources are not good enough, let's say. The other issue, as we get older, is that we're not digesting our food as well, or often so there's just a natural tendency to have less digestive action.

Lisa Obrien: 12:46

Hydrochloric acid is part of that, and enzymes. We naturally will lose some of that. So if we're losing that ability to digest the food and the protein, we're not going to be absorbing as much either.

Lisa Obrien: 12:58

So it's really about what you absorb, not what you eat. So often I might recommend digestive enzymes for many of my clients. You know, fiber, again always important. I don't think we need to eat more if we can get it from food. That would be the best source, as we talked about, as opposed to doing a, you know, a um, a supplement or some kind of a over-the-counter fiber supplement. But they're all. They're all important for for good health and I think a lot of us we just eat foods that don't have a lot of fiber, right, you know right.

Ginger Morris: 13:34

So basically, yeah, so no, no cookies, cakes, don't make me ask you the bathroom, I know, I know, I know. Now, on a more serious note, you know, tell me then what five foods we shouldn't be, um, ever buying, and you know, process, whatever, what, what do you have that suggestion?

Lisa Obrien: 14:02

Uh yeah, there's some foods that I would, I recommend my clients, stay away from and and I've been staying away from that, I think have a lot of potential for harm for our health and are they are not supporting our health at all. In fact they're doing the opposite supporting our health at all, in fact they're doing the opposite. And number one this is number one change my number one now are vegetable oils. So those oils, like corn oil and vegetable oil you get in those clear plastic bottles. I'm just going to say they're terrible, they. You know it's hard to understand maybe, but you know the quick backstory is that it's really hard to get oils out of these seeds and these grains.

Lisa Obrien: 14:43

So, there's a whole process that has to happen and it's very um, it's highly, highly processed, and a lot of these vegetable oils are also. They're very unstable, so they don't. When a fat becomes unstable, it has very, very um has properties that are going to cause problems within the body, so like oxidation and those kinds of things. Um. So, though, we see those plant oils soybean oil is another one, um, and so many things you know, and all the processed foods we have, you know, even like sunflower oil and safflower oil and palm oil and canola oil, but you know, to cook with them is the ones in the bottles. We don't want to be buying those, just don't buy them, okay, all right. So, or olive oil, so I would use olive oil and avocado oil, okay, but how do we?

Ginger Morris: 15:37

even know if that's pure or the right thing to be doing in the store. I mean, you know they have all different types of olive oil brands. Talking about brands, are we okay to just get you know um a market, whatever? You know their market, whatever market there is, you know how they have their own names, right?

Lisa Obrien: 16:00

you know, I know, I mean it can be tricky. I think the main thing is, and again, staying away from those vegetable oils Key. Okay, I see what you're saying so you know, if you're reading labels you're looking and seeing what kind of oils might be in that product.

Ginger Morris: 16:17

You know we can get into it. So reading the labels is the most really important.

Lisa Obrien: 16:22

Salad dressings, soybean oil that's generally number one, what they're using or canola oil Right, and we? There's a lot. We have a lot of these products or these oils in our food. It's just a lot Okay, and maybe a little is not so bad, but we have it in so many different things. So my number one would be not to buy those oils that you see in the plastic clear container. Use something like olive oil.

Lisa Obrien: 16:46

And you know, yeah, there's better brands of olive oil, but we're doing much better because of the type of oil that it is and how it's processed than we need vegetable oil in a plastic bottle.

Ginger Morris: 16:58

All right, now go to number two. What's another one?

Lisa Obrien: 17:06

Yeah, we only hit number one there Cereals, those boxed. You go down an aisle at a big Walmart or something and there's a whole row. The whole row is Two rows. Yeah, sometimes I ruffle feathers here. That's sort of the American breakfast, right row. The whole row is two rows. Yeah, um, you know, and we've kind of again sometimes I'm, you know, ruffle feathers here. That's sort of the american breakfast, right. But right there.

Lisa Obrien: 17:27

They're made with grains that are generally not very well um. Grains that are just have a lot of chemicals in them. Okay, they're um, they're processed, highly, highly processed, so you know to go from a grain to then have like a little round, little O type thing. We've done a lot of heating and processing to that. And if you notice on the label, they'll say it's enriched enriched with B vitamins and folic acid. And you say, wow, isn't that wonderful.

Lisa Obrien: 17:56

Well it's enriched because the processing took all those natural vitamins and minerals out of the brain to begin with, so now we have to enrich it and put them back in in a synthetic form.

Lisa Obrien: 18:10

So we're just going out and buying vitamins and adding them to that little process of grains that we're making and we're going to, you know, pop out little, little little O's to, you know, for our, for our cereal. So you know they have synthetic vitamins in them is, if you want to look at nutritional contact, but contact, but they're just not a really a great, great food and we, I think, as you can see in the stores, we have so many of them, right, and we're all eating them.

Ginger Morris: 18:41

It's not my favorite food at all and it's unfortunate that everybody goes to that, you know, because it's quick and easy and the other thing is I'm sorry, yes very popular Right, right, and so really there's no nutrition value in it at all.

Lisa Obrien: 18:59

No, very, very little. There's synthetic vitamins in a base of some poor quality grains. Sorry, cereal companies, I'm going to get myself in trouble here but I don't consider them real food. Let's put it that way. Okay, all right, and so a couple of things.

Lisa Obrien: 19:18

You know, maybe you know yogurt's another one where we get these containers of yogurt and we think they're so healthy and a lot of them are just full of sugar. So we really have to read labels and look at the sugar content, and there's a lot of good ones out there now that are lower sugar. I also like full fat and yogurt. If we take out the fat, we've got a lot of fillers to make the yogurt look better and have a better consistency. So I just be cautious of those yogurts that look wonderful and if you look at the sugar content, you know you're looking at 28 grams of sugar, which is kind of more than you're probably supposed to have all day. So so you know those are misleading. You know they can. We think they're healthy. We have to be careful that we choose the right ones.

Ginger Morris: 20:01

Right, right.

Lisa Obrien: 20:02

Absolutely Protein bars. There's so many bars and protein bars and again, just have to be really careful. A lot of them they're very processed, so I'm really about whole foods, real foods, not processed. We have protein isolates in them, sometimes there's high sugar in them, and so I'm not a big fan of most of those like protein bars that you might find in the store. So any products you know that would be, you know, if you're kind of starting this journey, you want to eat better, you do have to read labels, but anytime, you see high fructose corn syrup.

Ginger Morris: 20:41

I would say put it down and find something else. Okay, so tell us why, what, what what's?

Lisa Obrien: 20:45

you know what body? Yeah, so you know we'd say it's a form of sugar. It's a sweetener. It's very inexpensive. It's made from corn. Corn has its own issues in this. In this country. A lot of it's highly genetically modified, for one thing, but the process was so this high fructose corn syrup goes right to the liver to be processed. So we're seeing um, and it's just causing so many disturbances. It's in most of your soda, regular soda. You'll see it. Um, you know everything from salad dressing to ketchup. Um, it's in so many different products so you really have to kind of look and see. It's in so many different products, so you really have to kind of look and see. It's one of my number one things to stay away from.

Lisa Obrien: 21:25

You're going to have to look for products that don't have it. A lot of them, you'll see, like a catch-up saying no HFCS, and so companies are coming around with that. But I've been doing research and it's one of the major reasons at least from the studies I've seen for fatty liver disease. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. It's becoming more and more prevalent and that's not good. White sugar is better than high practice corn syrup.

Ginger Morris: 21:57

Okay, so I mean, I've heard that it's been banned in other countries and for some reason it's still around here and I don't in the U? S, and I don't understand why they aren't doing more research on it. You know, I, I agree with you.

Lisa Obrien: 22:17

I know, I mean, I know.

Ginger Morris: 22:18

I'm not, you know I. I don't understand why it's there, if it's really not even necessary.

Lisa Obrien: 22:24

That is sweet.

Ginger Morris: 22:25

Right, well, there you go.

Lisa Obrien: 22:26

Yeah, right, I mean, that's why you know, is it?

Ginger Morris: 22:30

Yeah, absolutely Well, thank you for that, I know, obviously. You know food is a little different, for if you're a vegan or vegetarian, you know it depends on what you like, or you really are carnivorous and love you know more meat and so forth. But I feel you know, all of these things can work for somebody, somehow correct the foods that we're talking about yes, the good foods, and they shouldn't eat those bad foods anyway. So, no matter, you know who we are and what we believe in. That is the best for us, you know. And also, too, women versus men. You know, as far as food and calorie intake, you know there's a lot of. I feel men need more calories, obviously, than women. Do you feel that's the same? You have that same feel because of their hormone differences and so forth.

Lisa Obrien: 23:32

Mainly body weight character. You know they've got more muscle mass. You know so they're going to require more calories. And you know, through our lifespan we burn calories different too. So if you're very active, you're burning more calories. If you have a lot of muscle mass, you're burning calories also. So, good, strong lean muscles burn calories. So that's the reason to have a strong body.

Ginger Morris: 23:57

Okay, so it's, you know, so it's. It doesn't really. It's all about good health. It doesn't matter who you are, it's what you have to do to help yourself to feel well and and stay well, especially as we're aging, and that's that's the thing too. We, you know, everything starts changing and breaking down in our systems and then you know we can't handle it, because if we're not eating the right nutrition, then that were the right foods and you know, for our energy resources, um, you know. And movement, that's the other thing. Uh, I mean, I'm just trying to understand, you know the the differences in everyone, but yet we're all the same because we're all human beings. So if I'm making sense to you, I don't know, but I'm trying to explain that. You know, it's like everybody has different feel, in a different way. Well, I can eat this but I can't eat that, and I know there's different restrictions because of medical reasons and different diseases, but all in all, we can all eat good nutritional food and find that right.

Lisa Obrien: 25:14

I mean this body of ours is surviving because of what we put in it. Food is the energy that we need. We know that Food helps repair tissue. It supports our immune system to protect us from colds and viruses.

Lisa Obrien: 25:33

Right right what we put in our very cells are made from fat. So if we're eating poor quality fat, we're making poor quality cells. I mean, you can't say that it's okay to eat some of these foods that are really not even foods, they're really more like food products and think that it's going to support a healthy body. I think we all I think most of us know that you know that food is important, it's just getting there.

Lisa Obrien: 26:01

You know we're so used to some of these foods that are so like addicting. You know, like the sugars and the. You know the chips and things they just call to us right. You know the chemicals that are in them. They just it's like we say I can't help it. You know I want these chips. I know I should be eating healthy, but I really just crave these things. So you know, I think most of us realize we're not going to be healthy eating. You know, fast food all day long. Or you know, for the rest of our life Right right, right, right.

Lisa Obrien: 26:30

But it's so powerful I don't think we realize how powerful for our health and it's been described as food is really energy communication. Health, and it's been described as food is really energy communication. It really communicates with our body and our cells are communicating, finding through something called epigenetics now that even with a genetic predisposition toward a certain disease, such as, let's say, diabetes, doesn't mean you're going to get diabetes, even even if you had the gene for it, and foods and toxins can turn those genes on and off. By eating good food we can protect ourselves from turning on some of those hereditary type situations that we might have going on. It's that powerful and it's really a new world within nutrition.

Lisa Obrien: 27:19

It's called epigenetics. It's really overriding our genetic code In some cases not every single thing, obviously, so tendencies towards certain diseases. Food can absolutely help you turn that around, so that you don't maybe get diabetes, I mean right, oh my goodness, fantastic. I mean, it's not a maybe, it's, it's happening, you know so food is so much more important than just getting energy.

Ginger Morris: 27:45

you know, critical to if we want to be healthy, right, right, okay. So you, you, what you do with your clients, is you help them to get better as far as their nutritional habits and help them to perhaps get off of medications or, you know, feel better and so forth. Is the main goal with most people to lose weight or lose extra fat, or are there a lot of people who need to gain because of people who need to gain a little weight because of the way they're eating? Can you give me a little input on that?

Lisa Obrien: 28:27

Sure, I mean most people that come to see me have health concerns. They're either fatigued they may have a diagnosis blood sugar issues, they're right on the cusp there, but they don't want to go on medication. Sometimes they very often. They want to lose weight too, but I'm not strictly a weight loss person, you know very often, when we get balanced and we're eating healthier, the weight comes off.

Ginger Morris: 28:54

Okay, so you find that? Yeah, that's what I was kind of getting at too, because it's again, all about what you put in your mouth and I'm always the healthiest way possible.

Lisa Obrien: 29:04

Think about the nutritional value of the food you're putting in and I might not say let's count calories or let's do this diet. It's really about let's eat good food. You know, because food it evolves over time too. As we get older or change, we may be eating different foods. So I think I'd like to say that I want to have my clients have a healthy relationship with food and enjoy it as it improves their health at the same time. Right, okay.

Ginger Morris: 29:33

All right. So, whether you're 20 or 40 or 60 or 80, I know that our hormones are always changing. So I know, as, especially as women, as we age, we go through the perimenopausal, menopause, postmenopausal, and I, you know, this is what I'm always hearing. You know, well, I have this extra belly fat now. I have this, these things on the sides I never had before. And now you know my legs, this, that, whatever my arms sagging underneath those wings, we, you know this is what we're talking about today.

Ginger Morris: 30:16

We need help with this as, as we're aging as well, I mean, you know you should be practicing this at the age of 20. So when you're 60, you already know what you're doing. You know, you know how, you believe that, with the good nutrition and obviously an exercise program which I can help you with, that you will succeed and be able to feel and you know, and do a little better and feel like, oh, you know, I don't have so much belly fat. I mean that belly fat seems to be coming about more and more, and I'm hearing that from a lot of women in the business I'm in. Is this a fiber thing, or should we be eating more or just follow what you're saying Try those groups and work with that.

Lisa Obrien: 31:07

Yeah, it's a hormone issue is very complex and hormones are very complex. They're very powerful molecules in our body and I'd say one of the most important things we might look at is stress on our hormones.

Ginger Morris: 31:25

Right right.

Lisa Obrien: 31:26

The stress just activates certain hormones and you know, and they're all connected. So we have our female hormones but we have, you know, the pituitary, the hypothalamus. We have the thyroid, we have the pancreas is a gland and the hormones there. So there there's many. The endocrine system is is very large and very powerful, like I said, and it's all related large and very powerful, like I said, and it's all related. You know, when we're under a lot of stress it's affecting, it affects one of the glands and the hypothalamus.

Lisa Obrien: 32:00

And that's going to start a cascade of responses to other organs and glands. So you know it's very complex. Obviously, In stress in particular, the one that we all understand is cortisol with our adrenal glands. So if we have an overabundance of cortisol and if you're under constant stress, you're, you're constantly putting out cortisol right and that's yeah, that was one of my questions too, because that's an important, so important for us to really watch that and you know it's.

Ginger Morris: 32:31

It's the same as exercise that helps certain things. Your endorphin, your dopamine, dopamine works together and that kind of helps lower the cortisol levels as well. Correct, right, right so this whole.

Lisa Obrien: 32:45

It's so complex and it's very different for for everyone too. But again, I think stress is a big one of why we might be holding onto it, especially in the belly fat. I mean, your adrenals are right behind that area. Right, um, you know we're, our metabolism has slowed down. We have to admit that. Right Um, you know, are we really being active?

Lisa Obrien: 33:07

Um, you know how much stress do we have in our body and as the um, hormones change or ovaries are not producing as much estrogen to believe it or not, I just found this so fascinating is that the, the adrenals, will take over some of that, some of the the ability of the ovaries to produce hormones. So the adrenal glands are actually struck, you know, getting worked on even more. So they're producing more hormones and working harder at this age. Okay, at the same time, and if we're under stress at this, also at the same time, you know, we're really putting a ton of stress on these adrenal glands that are just trying to keep everything together, and you know, and fat burning is going to be the last on the list, you know.

Ginger Morris: 33:51

Right. So stress does equal equal fat.

Lisa Obrien: 33:55

You know there's so many factors, but it's a, it's a big one. It is a big one. Yeah, things that stress causes, right, I understand that.

Ginger Morris: 34:04

So the more stress we put on ourself cause okay, again, I. You know I'm in the fitness world and I try to help as many people as possible. Um, it's, it's always over and over again. Well, if I just lose this much weight, if I just can get this much off, I want the.

Ginger Morris: 34:21

you know, if I have five pounds down and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah, and there everybody's worrying constantly about that and that is very stressful, getting on the scale every day like three times a day and this can't be right and I've you know, I've done it all, I've heard it all, and all the diets that are out there, that are fad diets, this and that you hear about all the time be on a diet like that, right, we should be on a journey of good nutrition daily, not different. Okay, thank you. I totally agree. It's really so important.

Ginger Morris: 34:59

Sometimes people say, well, at my age, forget it, I'm just going to have this extra fat and dah, dah, dah, but then you're going to be unhealthy. Is that what you want? Do you want your kids to be taking care of you when you're, you know, 60, 70, whatever? There's a lot of things people have to think about if they want to look and feel good the best they can, right, absolutely Right. So we can't give up on any of this. The nutrition isn't so difficult once you get into a pattern of knowing right and doing daily correct.

Lisa Obrien: 35:35

Right, and the more you know you know I think that was for me the more I learned, right, keep educating yourself. There's so much information out there now. Listen to these podcasts, it starts sinking in and you start making those changes little by little, right, it takes time. You know no one's going to you. Don't go on a diet and change overnight. You know. Change your whole eating pattern, right, it's a difficult. We've been maybe eating a certain way for many, many, many years and to make those any change takes time. So, yeah, just I think you said in your first podcast day by day, little steps is the way to go?

Ginger Morris: 36:12

Yep, definitely. I'm going to ask you this what do you think about intermittent fasting, and do you know what the best time frame I mean while we're sleeping? Do you agree with that stuff?

Lisa Obrien: 36:30

I think there's been a lot of really interesting information on intermittent fasting. I actually did a form of it myself and I found it very effective and I did lose some weight and kept it off.

Ginger Morris: 36:43

Okay.

Lisa Obrien: 36:44

Again, we're individuals, so for some people I've had people say it didn't work for them and I don't know how well they were following it.

Ginger Morris: 36:52

Okay.

Lisa Obrien: 36:53

I guess if you want to start on that journey, to try that, it would be to do it slowly. So you know, there's a 12 hour break between your last meal, your dinner, let's say, and your breakfast. So at least 12 hours, and that's sort of common for a lot of people, and then you would just increase that. You know. Go to 13, then go to 14 hours, Cause you want to see. What you're doing is you're putting pressure on your liver to make uh, taking glycogen and giving you energy.

Lisa Obrien: 37:21

So that's a good thing, cause you're forcing that liver to use up its stores of glycogen and and and fat Um, but for some people they might not be ready to do that. The blood sugar might not be stable enough to do that, so you just have to know yourself and if you're working with blood sugar issues, you have to be kind of careful because if not eating for long periods of time, you might be causing some more stress on your body.

Ginger Morris: 37:47

Absolutely.

Lisa Obrien: 37:49

And there's people that you know there's the 24 hour fast, you can throw that in here and there and personally I, you know, I've seen more. You know 36 hours, 48 is great and I think 24 is enough. Yeah, absolutely, you know, and I've seen some people do well with that and they love it. And, um, beyond that, I think we're getting to a little, not unhealthiness, but I think too much stress. I think too much stress.

Ginger Morris: 38:18

The stress always seems to come back to that. So the time of day. I mean, that's the thing too. Do we eat three meals a day? Do you follow that? Do you do every few hours? What do you think is best?

Lisa Obrien: 38:35

So if you're intermittent fasting, you're probably only eating two meals a day, and for certain people.

Lisa Obrien: 38:40

That's, that's fine. You know, if you're, if you want to get pregnant or if you are pregnant, obviously that would not be a good thing to do or blood sugar issues. You know three meals a day and I think the question is about like cycles. I think three meals, generally without snacking, is a good way to go, because you're eating and then you're letting your body digest the food and then use the food and then before your next meal, so you're hungry before your next meal. Okay, we're constantly snacking, even if they're healthy snacks. We're constantly eating and, you know, throughout the day we we're not setting our bodies up to burn fuel very well, okay.

Ginger Morris: 39:18

So I think those?

Lisa Obrien: 39:18

you know, for some of us we're snackers all day long.

Ginger Morris: 39:21

Right right.

Lisa Obrien: 39:22

And I preface it by saying if you have low blood sugar, you may need to do that.

Ginger Morris: 39:26

That might be Right.

Lisa Obrien: 39:28

It depends on your health.

Ginger Morris: 39:33

It's pretty individual, individual, but everything should be the right nutrition, nutritional choices, um, for you, and you know your, your particular situation. So, but eating late at night is not a good thing, right? I mean, like some people go, well, I'm going to eat a 10 or 11, but I'll fast for you 14, 16 hours the next day. I don't know if it seems to me, with my past experience and vast experience over the years, I cannot eat after six, seven at night, or I will start gaining unwanted weight, you know so, even if I do fast. Unwanted weight, you know so, even if I do fast. So I don't know if that's something you, you know, believe in, or or you know I know, everybody has different hours of working and sleeping, and so forth.

Lisa Obrien: 40:21

So you know, but I'd say generally that's a good rule to follow not to eat late at night, at least two hours before you go to sleep, right? Well, that's the other thing too, and as we're getting older, that whole digestive process might not be as robust as it used to be, right? So I just had a client the other day say, you know, I never realized that she found some digestive enzymes. This is decided to try them because she was waking up in the middle of the night, kind of uncomfortable, and she and her husband eat dinner at eight or eight, 30, and she didn't. So she tried this digestive enzyme and it worked because she wasn't getting good digestive action when, um, first of all, being being older, over, maybe over 50, 55, depends.

Lisa Obrien: 41:04

but and um and then also um. What is the? The circadian rhythms of our body are certain organs are more active and later in the evening your digestion kind of shuts down a little bit and you go to purifying. So the liver is more active. So if you're having, if your digestion is starting to settle down or shut down not shut down, but it slows down at a certain time in the evening, like 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, and you still have a whole bunch of food in there, you're not going to be digesting it very well.

Lisa Obrien: 41:37

So for that reason I think eating late is not ideal.

Ginger Morris: 41:43

I agree with that. It's hard on your body.

Ginger Morris: 41:45

Right right, I still have a whole list of questions to ask you, but I think we're going to have to make a part two out of it, as long as you don't mind coming back again. But I want to ask you before you leave. I just have a few more things and maybe you can answer these quickly, either with yes or no, or okay, you can whatever you'd like. Okay, in your opinion, what are the benefits of protein protein shakes, if any, or does it depend on what kind, what brand? What's in it? I don't know if you even consider those.

Lisa Obrien: 42:20

It totally depends on the quality.

Ginger Morris: 42:23

Okay, the quality right.

Lisa Obrien: 42:24

In general, I'm not a big fan. There's some good quality ones out there and I think for people who want some extra protein, or if they're really busy and they're eating a donut, I'd rather have them do a protein shake. Okay, they do vary a lot and you do need to find a quality protein shake.

Ginger Morris: 42:39

Okay, yeah, I figured they vary. You can see all the different things in them too, and, and you know, we always say, well, protein shake is great, but the problem is, in the long run, what is processed in there, because they say it's all natural, this, that you know organic or whatever. And I just feel as soon as they put those powders through the process and you know whatever they're doing to make it a powder, I feel that's a process that shouldn't be done. It is, it's really a processed food. So it's like everybody always asks well, I'm just having my protein shakes today. Well, you need something else besides your protein shake, and I don't know how really good that is for you. They're not created equal by any means. Right, exactly, okay, all right. So this is a question I had for you. I know I did have on your list.

Ginger Morris: 43:30

Do you have any input about the newest meds that are out there for diabetics that are helping people to lose weight quickly, like Ozempic, to mention a few? I have other ones here. Oprah aired a special report on you know all in regards to that and the positive effects it had on her, and she had other people who were. You know all in regards to that and the positive effects it had on her, and she had other people who were, you know, ranting and raving over it and there's all different things going on about that. I mean, I know you're trying to do things without meds and I get it if you're a diabetic and if you have to have that, I understand. But I don't understand why everybody can just start doing that and losing weight.

Lisa Obrien: 44:13

Well, I think, first of all, all drugs have side effects, right? This is a medication that I forget now. It mimics or reduces a hormone that tells you that, or increases, I'm sorry, a hormone that tells you that you're full, right? So it sounds simple enough, but when we do this, put these synthetic hormones in our body again, it's a hormone very powerful, and they all interact with all the other hormones.

Lisa Obrien: 44:45

So, there's a potential there to me, just common sense potential that what is it doing? And there are some serious side effects, like any other drug potential there to me just common sense potential. That what is it? What is it doing?

Lisa Obrien: 44:54

You know there's and there are some serious side effects, you know. I mean like like any other drug, you know constipation and diarrhea and nausea, and I had a woman who she's tried all three and they just didn't agree with her. So she, so you know, some people will not do well with them. For that reason Some of the side effects are more serious pancreatitis and I think gallstones, is the risk worth the potential of that Right, and I guess depending on how overweight you are.

Ginger Morris: 45:23

If a doctor feels you can't lose weight and you need to because of your health I mean I've heard so many different things about it need to because of your health there's I mean, I've heard so many different things about it. The thing is it does say over and over again even if you're taking those, you still have to eat properly, proper nutrition, good nutrition, and you also have to exercise. And you know, do you really need to do all three?

Lisa Obrien: 45:47

Importantly on that note Ginger is that what I'm seeing too in research is that some of these drugs are also. The weight loss is quick, which is seems wonderful. But when you do quick weight loss like that, very often we're not.

Lisa Obrien: 46:02

It's not fat, You're actually losing muscle Muscle mass, yes, which is not good at all, I agree you should be exercising, making sure your diet I mean, there probably should be a diet that goes along with it that has, you know, more, more protein, and the diet that goes along with that, that medication, right. And I think you know, I know some people that they just didn't feel good. They felt kind of nauseous, they weren't eating as much, which was a good thing, but then what were they eating? Were they getting good nutrition? And, um, you know, I think it remains to be seen over time what kind of side effects that people might experience, and we might not know that until it's been out.

Ginger Morris: 46:45

Until it's been out for a while, right, right so you know, it's like any drug, it's risk versus reward.

Lisa Obrien: 46:53

There Is it.

Ginger Morris: 46:53

Absolutely Okay. I'm going to ask you this what's your take on a cheat day? I love cheat days. We still have to eat something that's good for us, so what would be your cheat day? What are we going to consist of?

Lisa Obrien: 47:09

So I try to stay away from sugar, and a cheat day may include dark chocolate. Yeah. My fave, that's so bad. You know a little bit of that would be okay. My big win would probably be chips.

Ginger Morris: 47:27

So you're a saltie? Yeah, definitely.

Lisa Obrien: 47:29

But there's some good brands out there now, so like one brand is called Siete and they use really good quality ingredients and they use avocado oil, which is a lot better as opposed to sunflower oil or whatever.

Ginger Morris: 47:43

What's the name of that again?

Lisa Obrien: 47:44

Siete S-I-E-T-E.

Ginger Morris: 47:47

Oh, I'm going to have to check that out.

Lisa Obrien: 47:49

So I you know if I'm cheating or I feel like I'm cheating, I at least try to go for the better stuff.

Ginger Morris: 47:54

Okay, all right, got it.

Lisa Obrien: 47:56

Dessert made with maple syrup and some good flour instead of, you know, Oreo cookies or something like that. Right, got it, thank you. A healthier version of dessert Yep, yep.

Ginger Morris: 48:08

We all like our good homemade cookies Much better than processed cookies of dessert. Yep, yep we all like our good homemade cookies. Yeah, right, right. So you know what you're putting in it definitely.

Lisa Obrien: 48:15

And you know what's going into your mouth.

Ginger Morris: 48:17

Yep, I'm going to. I'm going to say today that really, the take about this is, you know, having a good relationship with nutritional foods in combination with exercise, movements, is a must for longevity, absolutely. So I feel that we went over some great, great facts today and I've learned a lot, and I hope everyone out there watching or listening have also learned a lot. And, lisa, I'm hoping you can come back to do a part two, because we do have a lot more questions for you and you are a walking book. I would love to Okay, I mean, I appreciate it so much.

Ginger Morris: 49:02

Lisa O'Brien is right out of Saratoga, new York, where I'm home-based, from as well, and we will give you more information about Lisa and her nutrition journey and we'll see you next episode, okay, and probably in a week or so, lisa, maybe two weeks, I think. Okay, we'll figure it out, but we'll let our listeners know and I wanna thank you for coming and I want to thank all my listeners for being here and make sure that you like, comment, follow and please subscribe to. I Heart my Age, so we can continue to give you some great knowledge about our health and well-being. Thank you for coming. Thank you, lisa. Again, I appreciate it so much that you're here today. It was fun Great. Thank you, I will see you all soon. Have a wonderful day.