Fitlandia | Fitness for Your Mind

Welcome back Fitlandians! Today’s episode is number 79 and my guest today is Evelyn DeDominicis and today we are talking all about having a hopeful perspective on menopause. I know it sounds crazy but Evelyn has a pretty incredible perspective and as a 45 year old woman, I was pretty excited to chat with her.

In celebration of support for menopause, if any of you ladies are perimenopausal or menopausal and want some support with your hormones, join the next 30 Days to Thriving with me! We start in just a few short days and to celebrate supporting all of you ladies with this wonderful time of life, I am giving you 50% off for 25 hours from the date that this is released! Hopefully you have subscribed to the show and you can take advantage of this offer. Just enter code MENO50 at the checkout to get 50% off for the April session

Today we are talking about menopause...but this time we are giving you a fresh and hopeful perspective! My guest Evelyn DeDominicis is a functional nutritionist and ready to talk all things menopause.

Evelyn and I first “met” when she listened to Leanne Vogel’s podcast and heard me talking about wine and how to overcome sugar, alcohol and carbs and here we are doing a podcast! Thanks to Evelyn for being an incredible addition to our online community on our Facebook group! We really connected on finding healthy relationships with alcohol and how to find out how to do that as individuals.

BUT...back to our fresh perspective on menopause. So I am 45 years old and a couple years ago my doctors told me I was perimenopausal but fast forward to when I found the ketogenic diet and my periods came back to normal as I found a hormonal balance that way but I know this is coming!

Menopause is something that all women experience but is sometimes a terrifying change! So what is this fresh perspective? Evelyn explains that she just turned 50 and that she has been menopausal (your period has stopped for a full year) for about two years now. The new perspective is that it is simply a hormonal rewiring.

Instead of ovaries producing the hormones in our bodies, our adrenal glands now pick up the job and that change can be challenging. A helpful resource is the book called The Wisdom of Menopause by Dr. Christina Northrup...she is phenomenal and has loads of information.

Her perspective is so refreshing...like it is a rite of passage! Not all that different than puberty! It doesn’t have to be dreaded one bit. In fact, perimenopause can be up to 15 or 20 years before you are actually menopausal...the average is between 4 and 14 years. There is definitely a stigma in this country about getting older and about menopause in general but understanding it is the key. It’s coming into who you are and learning to speak your truth.

With the decline of estrogen and progesterone can have an effect on many things...including our gut. This causes a lower stress tolerance and sometimes even digestive functions. So yes, learning to speak your truth is happening in your body, too!

Our adrenal glands always prioritize cortisol and therefore fights with the sexual hormones that are coming in during this time. Therefore, it is ESSENTIAL to manage our stress and listen to our bodies. We talk about how much stress we put on our adrenal glands climbing corporate ladders and we are left asking what our truths are...sometimes the passion feels passionless later on. Listening is key.

And this matters in all parts of your life...including your food and body. Take the wheel of life, you have your diet, exercise, movement, finances, relationships, spiritual, stillness, community and more...that’s a lot to balance but simply recognizing when something is OUT of balance is what it takes to know when it is time to make a change.

Embrace the journey, role with the punches, and find a state of grace in the changes of life. Spread some lightness in this world and it will ultimately reflect on you as well. Accept the support you need from those around you and it will all seem easier.

Evelyn explains that she was paleo for years and was working toward a keto lifestyle but was knocked out due to hormonal imbalance caused by perimenopause but has since understood what was happening in her body and why it wasn’t working quite right despite her best efforts. She encourages people to experiment with what feels best for your body and to always stay mindful to how you are feeling and what could be happening in your body.

So what ...

Think bootcamp is scary? That it's going to tear you up and spit you out? Think again! Today we're talking to Emily Corso of Bold and Badass Fitness on the benefits of bootcamp classes and a safe approach to keep them fun while still being a great challenge.

Before we begin, I want you to mark your calendars if you live in the Portland, Oregon area so that you can come on out to Emily’s studio on February 25th from 11 AM to 12:30 PM, where I will be delivering a workshop on the Mindset Detox!

You can claim your Eventbrite ticket for the event here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/mindset-detox-uncover-release-your-fitness-obstacles-tickets-42690040059

I’m here now with Emily Corso of Bold & Badass. I am so excited because Emily is going to help give us a taste of the bootcamp life!

Bold & Badass is a body-positivity focused gym, which accepts everyone and encourages them to come as they are. They offer bootcamp trainings and also semi-private personal trainings. Inclusion is at the core of what they do.

This series is all about highlighting the beautiful variety of exercises we have available to us, so let’s dive into the beauties of bootcamps!

Emily lets us know that bootcamp workouts are all about motivation. Having others working hard around you and doing the same things that you are doing is huge motivation to keep going strong and get in a fantastic workout. It’s a great workout option for those who love to socialize or feel supported by a community.

Bold & Badass offers a variety of different bootcamp options, but many of them focus on using free weights, dumbbells, kettlebells, bands, body weight exercises or other strength and conditioning training.

It’s all about knowing that someone else is there. You can always look over at a different station, a different team, or your own team and know that someone else is working hard as well. You’re never alone. It’s about pushing yourself to be the best you can be and do the best you can do.

How do people know the difference between challenging themselves and over doing it?

Emily says that is a great question and one that is incredibly important. It is all about getting to know your body and your limitations. Some indications that you are not challenging yourself quite enough would be if you are consistently reaching for the same weights for months at a time without increasing or if you are not feeling sweaty by the end of your workout.

Some indications that you are pushing yourself too hard would be soreness for extended periods of time or lengthy recoveries. Granted, when you first get into working out, you are going to be sore for the first few weeks but if after that time, you are still having long recovery periods or feeling weak or sick often, you may need to cut back on intensity.

It is also incredibly important to remember that if you are just getting back into working out or doing so for the first time, GO EASY ON YOURSELF! Give yourself time to learn your body, your capabilities, your limits, and learn where you can challenge yourself in a healthy way.

Christa shares a story about her experience in a bootcamp a few weeks ago and how even though she moves everyday, she took extra care to listen to her body and make the modifications she needed in order to not cause harm and get the workout that was right for her. Different exercises challenge different parts of the body and they all deserve to be listened to.

Emily agrees that it is all about what is right for YOU. And that doesn’t always mean doing what is right for everyone else. She highlights that at Bold & Badass, they encourage and remind their members to use modifications as necessary. It is important to complete a workout that is right for you, not someone next to you, and being different is absolutely okay.

It is important to have this beautiful appreciation for what your body is today while still having goals for the future. It is all about honoring where you are and whom you are today, even if you are still working toward where you want to be. It is a gift that you showed up and were present and provided yourself with amazing movement and a healthy mindset.

Here’s the magic: it’s all about feeling like you went in and got a great workout...not about the numbers or the weight. You did it and that is the success. YOU get to say where...

On the 12th episode of the Fitlandia Podcast Christa sits down with Larry Dukes to discuss his story of fitness transformation. On discussing his tipping point, Larry talks about how he reached a peak weight of 315 pounds, but didn’t even realize how big he’d gotten. After a trip to Thailand last year the heat started to get to him, and he wasn’t able to do some of the same activities that other people were. In November of the same year he was visiting friends in upstate New York when they got caught in traffic following a Giants game. As they tried to push their way into the train someone yelled “better watch out for the fat guy!” He turned and said the only thing he could think of which was “you’d better be careful kid ‘cause the fat guy is hungry.”

That experience stuck with him, and eventually he got home and it really began to sink in. He wasn’t able to wear a lot of the clothes, he had trouble fitting in airline seats, and his own weight was keeping him from doing things he wanted to do. His family had a history of Type 2 diabetes, but when a doctor diagnosed him with gout he decided then and there that something had to change.

See Ya, Sugar!

By January 14th he started, and the biggest thing was cutting sugar. He was drinking 64 ounces of soda a day, and decided to flip that relationship and replace that with 64 ounces of water. He got a Fitbit and became obsessed with it. From there he got rid of cookies, brownies, and sweets and completely changed his relationship with food.

“This is not a journey you can take with somebody else forcing you. It doesn’t matter who’s nagging you, if you haven’t bought into it nobody can get you in that frame of mind but yourself.” - Larry Dukes

Larry goes on to discuss his weight loss and how the initial wave of losing so much water weight was a great motivator. That slows down and plateaus, but he says instead of continuing to try to lose weight he focuses on maintaining that weight and lifestyle. There’s tons of great food out there that’s unhealthy, and he still enjoys them, but it’s now all about moderation. That’s key for him. It is about a healthy change, but “sometimes ya gotta eat Grandma’s cake.”

The important thing is being able to maintain your choices. There’s all sorts of pre-packaged food diets, but what happens when you have to go to a party, or a restaurant, or stop your subscription? Are you going to be able to do that? You have to make smart changes that you know you’ll keep. Food is still going to be a part of your life, so make sure it’s a change you can make.

Larry’s life has changed since that diagnosis, he’s lost 80 pounds, his resting heart rate and cholesterol are way down, his blood pressure is impeccable, and his gout is nearly gone. His doctor is “jumping up and down” with his changes. Larry is now feeling better with himself, feeling better physically, and feeling better emotionally. His story is a prime example of seeing a change that needs to be made and committing to it wholly. Change is possible, you just need to want it.

Ready to learn how you can make your own transformation? Visit www.fitlandiafitness.com today and start your free trial. Podcast listeners using the code PODCAST at checkout get 30-days FREE and 10% off for the life of their membership.

Welcome back to the Fitlandia Podcast! Today we have the pleasure of meeting with Thubten Comerford for another inspiring story of weight loss and transformation.

Thubten Comerford has come a long way from his elementary school days when his mother placed him on the Cambridge Weight Plan and he was constantly being reminded he was bigger than the other kids in his class. Growing up active but not athletic, Thubten always struggled with his weight. Upon entering college, he was in the early stages of substance abuse due to conflicting religious boundaries relating to his decision about coming out about his sexual identity. Thubten describes himself at that time as, “a “hot mess.” With no attention being paid to nutrition, he gained the "freshman 50” during his first year of college. He left school soon after and joined the National Guard and then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. After leaving the military, he went back to his parents’ house for a short time and then returned to school only to find himself living in a fraternity house, which escalated his negative drinking habits.

A few years after college Thubten became a practicing Buddhist Monk. While traveling and still struggling with his weight, he found himself reading Dr. Peter J. D’Adamo’s, Eat Right 4 Your Type and was quickly motivated for change. He soon dropped 50 pounds by eating right for his blood type and after starting a prescribed diet, dropped another 50!

Today, Thubten is 29 years clean and sober, describing it as a yo-yo rollercoaster journey that so many of us can relate to regarding dieting and self-mastery. He has lost another 40 pounds this year, on what he calls “the potato-based coffee diet” and is working to share his impactful story.

Books like, Presto! How I Made Over 100 Pounds Disappear and Other Magical Tales, by Penn Jillette, have inspired Thubten during his transformation journey. He’s learned it’s about finding what works for his body while being aware that things change depending on time and environment. Today he knows how to be mindful of his actions since they are often related to deep-rooted thought patterns and forgiving of himself when working past negative emotions or during a setback.

With his vast knowledge of business and marketing, culinary skills and understanding of video and YouTube, he recently started producing a cooking show, Thubten’s Kitchen, a 13-episode, multi-segment program that will launch soon on YouTube and be formatted for network television. His Facebook site is live, and has more information, but here’s what each episode offers:

• The first segment is a culinary training program where expert chefs come into Thubten’s Kitchen and teach him (as the student) to prepare their signature plant-based dish.
• The second segment is with a farmer in the field.
• During the third segment, Thubten meets with an artisan making a plant-based cured or fermented ingredient.
• The closing segment concludes with Thubten making a wonderful plant-based dish using all the ingredients from the episode.

The business allows you to pick and choose the cured or fermented ingredients, including Thubten’s own line of products. There’s also a monthly pop-up episode, available on Feastly Portland where Thubten shares his very own recipes and plant-based meal tips.

Stay tuned for the Thubten’s Kitchen website for his great information on weight loss, healthy eating and everything nutritionally plant and nutrition based.

Closing Tips:

• Start somewhere and do something – measure something small that you can feel positive about
• Eat the rainbow and increase your plant based meal options
• Stay connected with Thubten and his favorite canine companion through Instagram for videos, food as they continue to work on launching his show and website!

Huge shout out and thank you to today’s sponsor, Portland Community College and their holistic nutrition program. This 100% online program is 1 year and provides students with science-based principles while integrating in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurveda for a well-rounded perspective on nutriti...

Christa welcomes back Dr. Michelle Neil-Sherwood, DO and Dr. Mark Sherwood, ND, or as they like to be called, “Drs. M and M without the sugar” to talk about the science of nutrigenetics. Dr. Michele and Dr. Mark own and operate a wellness-based practice in Tulsa, Oklahoma called Functional Medical Institute. Their practice bridges the medical model with the functional model to teach people how to be completely and totally well. Drs. M & M use all kinds of unique and interesting tools to accomplish their mission and have many patient success stories where existing medical conditions have been reversed or eliminated.

Christa repeats Dr. Michele’s opening statement and says, “So it’s not outside of our realm that we can actually be completely and totally well? I love that.”

The functional medicine approach gets to the root cause by looking at:

• Hormones
• Neuro transmitters
• Nutrition
• Lifestyle

Looking at genetics:

• We are 99.9% genetically identical
• The .1% difference is what makes us unique
• That difference makes all the difference in the world – not everything works the same for everybody
  • Traditional diets
  • Workout programs
  • Supplement types and quantities

We’re born with our genes, but the experiential knowledge those genes have with the interaction of environment is called Epigenetics (the environment’s effect of the genes). For example, two identical twins can grow up and turn out a little different from each other because of the environment’s effect.

Nutrigenetics – the genes effect on the environment

• How do our genes detoxify things?
• How do our genes influence what we need to be taking?
• How do our genes handle lipids; metabolize the fats we consume?
• How do our genes handle workouts we do?
• How do our genes handle inflammation?

Drs. M & M utilize genetic testing to get the ideal breakdown of macro nutrients for each individual based on their genetic makeup. They formulate a unique nutrition and exercise plan based on those results to optimize body composition for each person. Benefits of testing include:

1. Cutting edge technology
2. Replaces trial and error
3. Unravels the mystery for each person so they get specific, individual plans
4. Optimization of health
5. Saves time by getting to the answers faster

Dr. Mark gives an example of how two people can have different reactions when consuming caffeine late in the day. One person may not be affected by a late afternoon cup of coffee, while the other person may be awake all night. Why? The person who is not affected at night by the coffee has a faster metabolism, so the caffeine is processed quicker. For the person whose metabolism is impaired, the caffeine is not processed as fast.

To change metabolism:

• Reduce detoxification on back end (inside) = nutrigenetic effect
• Reduce toxins on the front end (outside) = nutrigenomic effect

How does the genetic test work? Get specific information here

• A sample ‘buckle swab’ of cheek cells is taken
• The sample is sent to lab and tested for 80 different genes specific for health, metabolic and exercise
• Results come back within 21-25 days
• Analyzed by Drs. M & M
• An individual plan is designed based on patient’s genetic and lifestyle information
• A sustainable life plan is created for the patient to use for the rest of their life
• Implementation may be either fast pace or a slow transition but results are definite

Most people think that more exercise is necessary to lose weight but it can create inflammation and can be the wrong type and amount for our unique genetic makeup.

Example: A female patient, in her 40’s, chronic boot-camp person, 15-20 pounds overweight in excess fat, can’t get the fat off, frustrated, going to two boot camp classes daily several times a week, exhausted, and stressed out of her mind!

The patient’s genetic testing revealed that she is of an endurance-based structure. Drs. M & M outlined a new exercise plan including:

• Only two boot camp sessions per week
• Walking, yoga, relaxation to “chill out”

Once she incorporated these changes in her fitness routine, she immediately began to see results by allowing her body to adapt to the way it is supposed to be.

Christa ...