0:00 Hi, everyone.
0:01 Welcome back to the Change Your Mind Podcast.
0:03 I'm your host, Kris Ashley.
0:04 We explore personal development, spirituality and science and we're gonna get really into the science today, which is gonna be really fun.
0:12 I have a holistic nutritionist with me.
0:14 So we'll talk all about nutrition first.
0:17 A couple of quick announcements, head over to the links in the show notes.
0:20 You'll find a link to my book, Change Your Mind or Change your reality.
0:23 It was endorsed by Bob Doyle Marcy Shimoff, Michael Bewit, all who were on the secret was also endorsed by John Gray, who wrote men are from Mars.
0:32 Women are from Venus, Anita Marjai, tons of others in the spiritual and personal development space.
0:38 This podcast is also a part of the Los Angeles Tribune Podcast Network.
0:43 So follow us to see what's going on in the personal development sphere.
0:47 We're doing a lot of really cool stuff and finally you'll find some links to my free master class, free downloads courses, coaching social media, all in the links down below.
0:59 So stay connected.
1:01 Hi, I'm Kris.
1:03 When I was younger, I went through trauma that caused me to feel broken and lost.
1:07 But my life changed after I had a spiritual awakening.
1:11 Since then, I've dedicated my life to studying and learning from masters all around the world that have helped me to create a life of fulfillment and abundance beyond my wildest dreams.
1:20 Now I'm dedicated to sharing everything I've learned so that you don't have to suffer for decades.
1:25 Like I did, I've seen people's lives completely transform and I share it all right here.
1:33 All right, let's get into it.
1:35 So, with me today, I have Marlene Zisman.
1:39 Marlene is a registered holistic nutritionist and a meditation and menopause coach.
1:45 Her business entails content creation and online education around all things, holistic nutrition, supplementation, hormone balancing lifestyle assessment, science backed research based on science backed research tools for up leveling the mind, body and spirit.
2:03 She calls all of that a high vibe lifestyle.
2:06 She's also currently working on her certification in somatic healing breath work.
2:10 Welcome, Marlene.
2:11 Hey, thanks so much Kris.
2:13 Thank you so much for having me on.
2:15 Yeah, absolutely.
2:16 So I'd like to start all my episodes the same way and that is by asking my guests what their origin story is.
2:22 So, can you tell us a little bit about what led you down this path?
2:26 How you got started?
2:27 What made you even want to do this work to begin with?
2:30 Oh, that's a good question.
2:32 I like that way of putting it origin story.
2:35 Yes.
2:35 Well, I would say I should have a more exciting origin story.
2:41 But, you know, beginning in my mid twenties and I'm in my mid fifties now.
2:46 So beginning mid twenties, I started really exploring like natural health and healing modalities and paying attention to what I ate.
2:54 And then I took a class at the museum at night about Ayurveda.
2:59 And I was like, this is so fascinating lining up, you know, eating with the seasons and your moods and your body type and so many different energies coming into play.
3:08 It just kind of all made sense to me.
3:11 But it didn't really occur to me until much later that I could make a career out of it.
3:15 It seemed like something that was of personal interest.
3:18 But eventually I did go to school to get a formal education in it.
3:24 And just when I got my diploma in holistic nutrition, my marriage split up and I, instead of me going into business for myself, which I had no clue about really.
3:34 Anyway.
3:37 I I went into, I went to work for other people.
3:40 So I went and I worked for a coaching company that coached really successful entrepreneurs.
3:46 And I thought, well, this is kind of divine because I really didn't know what to do in business so much.
3:52 Or, you know, I'd been married to a serial entrepreneur, but he wasn't necessarily successful in like a peaceful, consistent way.
4:01 And I got a lot of wisdom out of working there and a lot of ideas about, you know, a holistic balance in life and business was an important keystone to a lot of the entrepreneurs in that program.
4:15 Having a life was a big part of why they were in this program, which was only for like more successful entrepreneurs.
4:24 So anyway, my little entrepreneurial heart, you know, picker pattered all the time and I knew I'd have to go back into business for myself again.
4:33 So just a little over a year ago, I oh, now you're gonna hear the door in my background.
4:41 Don't mind that.
4:42 Just a little over a year ago, I decided to just to go for it, that this was the time of my life where I was gonna actually like make good on this dream of really my dream, my mission to share all this stuff that I'd really been immersed.
4:59 It immersed in for so long that I didn't realize so many people didn't really have basic knowledge of how to care for themselves and the mind body connection and how everything they did affected everything else, you know, energetically, physically and so on.
5:16 And I just, I wanted people to know that we're not all condemned to just fall apart once you turn 40 then everything's downhill and like the projected direction that we've been told is the way to go.
5:31 I, I wanted to call BS on it.
5:33 And I wanted to tell everybody that it's that it's a scam.
5:37 So my mission is for everybody to have the wisdom and knowledge and understanding, to take care of themselves and to be therefore more, much more healthy and vital and happy.
5:49 So that's what I focus on spreading that.
5:53 Thank you so much for sharing.
5:55 And you know, it's, it's interesting that you said that so many people don't have a basic knowledge of this, right?
6:02 Even so many doctors, like they don't even get very much nutrition training in medical school, right?
6:09 So, so you know, how are you reaching people?
6:13 What's, what's the main thing that you feel like you're having to teach people like you have to start back at basics like nutrition, one on one.
6:19 Like what, what is it?
6:22 Well, sometimes it is some basics because I know I have a lot of friends who are healthy, healthy, athletic, you know, they look good, intelligent and they, they still don't even understand some stuff like, well, why is gluten bad or how come I have to look out for dairy or paying attention to things like, you know, the amount of sugar in things artificial colors and flavors.
6:49 So just there's a lot of stuff that I think people haven't necessarily like felt like they had to take a look at, but then when things go sideways, that's when they usually start kind of tucking in.
7:02 So yeah, I, I found,, there's, it's partly that and it's also the, the aspect of it, like the psycho spiritual aspect of how much, what your life and your mindset, how much that affects your body physically and how you really can have more, more control over it versus it controlling you than we've been led to believe so, a little bit of everything.
7:28 But, yeah, kind of some basics.
7:30 Getting back to some basics.
7:32 Yeah.
7:33 I, I relate to that so much.
7:34 I've been gluten free since 2010 and my Italian family thinks I'm absolutely crazy.
7:41 No, I can't have the bread and the pasta and I'm, you know, I'm 8, 8.5 months pregnant and I'm, I'm, you know, sending TED talks to my mother in law and my mother about how terrible, like red dye is in yellow 40 all this stuff.
7:58 And they're just like, oh, you're just a nut.
8:01 So, you know, I totally, I totally understand,, as someone who's been seeped in all of this information for so long, like my best friend's husband is a functional medicine doctor, you know, this is just like my husband and I have been on this path for so long.
8:17 , we eat really clean, we eat really, we eat paleo, like kind of upgraded paleo.
8:22 We got into bulletproof with Dave Asbury forever ago of all of that.
8:26 , but it's, it's, it's kind of a bubble, right?
8:31 , like, you forget that the rest of the world, like, I still see like mcdonald's and Taco Bell everywhere.
8:36 And I'm like, how are they in business?
8:38 Who's eating this?
8:39 But a lot, a large majority of the world still eats that or the country, at least I should say I probably the world at this point.
8:48 It's true.
8:49 And I think I realized how much of a bubble I was in not that long ago.
8:55 And I, when again, somebody who really was like, pretty healthy was like, so tell me what's up with gluten, like had no idea.
9:02 And I thought, oh my goodness.
9:07 So I think wait, remind me what, what were we saying?
9:11 Right before that?
9:14 Oh I was just, I was just talking about how it's, it's, you know, you feel like you're in a bubble when you're seeped in this stuff and you're immersed in it for so long, but you forget that the rest of the country or a large portion of the country isn't educated on this.
9:28 They're really not.
9:29 And even doctors, like you said, they're only getting the equivalent of if you can believe this like 3 to 5 hours in all of medical school on nutrition.
9:40 You really have to learn how to be your own advocate.
9:43 So that's why I think when I try and like give information, share information, I do try and do it in a way that's really accessible for anybody because I don't want to intimidate people with like science e language.
9:57 Some people like more, some people need it to hear it, you know, in all different ways.
10:02 But I try and, you know, give people some general guidelines, like you said, like I, I always say avoid artificial fragrances 100% across the board.
10:14 Everybody everywhere.
10:16 And then when you walk down the street, I smell someone's laundry on the sidewalk.
10:20 You know what I mean?
10:20 Have you ever smelled like?
10:22 It's like the dryer sheets or something?
10:24 The, it's, the scent is so strong and I think, oh my gosh, they don't know what they're doing to themselves.
10:31 They've been led to believe that you have to smell good and all your laundry has to have a smell because God forbid you smelled like a, like a human or, you know, just that you have to have this extra scent.
10:42 And then this is one of my like favorite things to go out about.
10:46 So if you don't mind, I'll just say the artificial scents in like laundry soaps.
10:52 You're breathing it against your face and your skin, you're absorbing it all night long.
10:57 When you sleep, you, it's against your skin while you're perspiring your skin is the largest organ of elimination on your body.
11:04 So you don't want that, that stuff is toxic, toxic, toxic, toxic.
11:09 So if there's any one takeaway that anybody had that only one thing that somebody would remember, I would say, avoid artificial fragrances 100% across the board.
11:22 Yeah.
11:22 I mean, I can't even stand walking past those,, stores in the mall that are like the bath and body works type stores because it's like, oh God, it just feels so,, it's just like, so chemically, I don't know how else to explain it.
11:35 It's just like, it makes me gag a little.
11:37 So, it's interesting that there's, we were just talk just to go back to what we were talking about.
11:42 Like, with, you know, the vast majority of the country not being educated on all this.
11:48 But it's interesting because there is this, like, huge vegetarian and vegan movement across the country which unfortunately tend to supplement with lots of grains, right?
12:00 Lots of gluten.
12:02 , lots of, just like junk, right?
12:06 A lot of, a lot of crap because they, they're trying to, like, you know, supple, you can't just eat vegetables.
12:12 Right.
12:13 So,, what do you, what do you say to that?
12:16 You know, like there's, it feels like all these restaurants are catering to them.
12:21 But, you know, I know a lot of people who are vegetarian who are overweight or even obese or have high inflammation levels or have leaky gut or all these health issues.
12:35 Yeah, that's interesting because you're right.
12:36 Like, the vegan vegetarian movement has gotten so big in the last five years and beyond.
12:45 , I personally went vegetarian for six months once, like a long time ago and I instantly put on a bunch of weight because all I do is replace everything with bread.
12:58 But now that I know better, I would say people need to get a little bit more educated on higher protein, non animal protein, higher sources of non animal protein like quinoa, for example, is a grain that has all the complete profile of amino acids.
13:20 The way that is hard to access outside of like eating animal protein.
13:25 I've heard, I've heard that quinoa like, can punch holes in your gut though and lead to leaky gut.
13:30 I heard it's like one of the biggest contributing grains to leaky gut.
13:33 Oh, that's what,, they actually teaches.
13:37 That's what a bunch of functional medicine doctors teach.
13:40 So it's interesting.
13:42 Ok.
13:42 Well, then I will, I'm certainly gonna look that up.
13:46 That's really interesting.
13:47 I mean, I mean, just grains in general aren't very good for you.
13:50 Right.
13:52 Well, they can be really, it depends on the grains, I'd say,, largely,, they vary from place to place, you know, there's something called lectins which are like a, a plant protein or protein that's in like almo, you know, almost every kind of plant food and grain, it's meant to protect it.
14:12 , and that's in all the grains.
14:14 So it's not, I mean, it's not just like gluten, gluten is one of them.
14:18 So it's staying off of gluten like fruit.
14:24 I could get into this whole thing about the lectins.
14:26 But I'm still learning about it myself.
14:28 But, you know, I mostly have been off of gluten for like, about 15 years, maybe more myself.
14:36 And,, I just learned that just staying off of gluten 100% isn't necessarily that great too because you're getting lectins in other sources.
14:48 Anyway.
14:48 I don't want to go the whole road of black kids because I don't know enough about it, but it's just, it's in, it's in all kinds of grains.
14:54 So I think grains can be problematic and I don't and not everyone does well with eating, taking in a lot more like say beans, you know, high protein in beans.
15:05 But I do know that if you cook them in a pressure cooker, you will remove the lectins and they're a lot easier to digest and eat that way.
15:14 Totally.
15:15 I do want to comment on lectins.
15:16 So this is in my book, Change your Mind and change your reality.
15:19 I have a chapter on nutrition.
15:21 I'm gonna read a paragraph on lectins just for listening because in case anyone's like what like plants protect themselves.
15:28 Ok.
15:29 What about grains?
15:30 You might ask grains have a reputation for being a superfood.
15:33 Think of the old school food pyramid with grains on the bottom row, but they can also destroy your health plants like grains don't want to be eaten.
15:41 So they've developed a defense system called lectins to prevent, to protect themselves.
15:45 Lectins can cause inflammation, leaky gut weight gain and excessive hunger in human beings.
15:52 Sometimes of some types of lectins can prevent your body from absorbing nutrients leading to malnutrition.
15:58 Other sources of lectins are considered seriously toxic legumes such as beans, lentils, peas, peanuts and soybeans are al also contain a high amount of lectins.
16:08 lectins, grains not only contain lectins but also enzyme inhibitors, which make it difficult for your body to break down food, phytic acid, which are anti nutrients that bind to minerals and make them unusable alos which is sugar found in grains that will spike your blood sugar.
16:26 And omega six fatty acids which are highly inflammatory when out of balance with omega threes.
16:32 So it's all grains like, you know, this is this is problem.
16:37 The problem I think with a vegetarian diet is people tend to supplement with these grains thinking, oh I'm eating this really healthy food.
16:44 It can actually cause more harm than good.
16:48 It's true.
16:48 And I think that's a real struggle.
16:52 I know you said you're kind of like an upgraded paleo.
16:55 So I mean, I I eat everything but I don't, I don't like it as much as I used to, but the issue of replacing the proteins sufficiently is like a genuine struggle.
17:07 So I maybe there's wisdom on that in your book, like how to, you know, what are the safe things to eat to help you make up for protein in like a vegetarian and vegan diet.
17:19 I would say if nothing else, if I can't offer anything else of wisdom on that specifically, just to make sure you're really greatly rotating and getting a variety, a great variety of plant based foods and donate the processed plant based like meat replacement foods.
17:38 Yeah, I agree.
17:39 Rotating is so important.
17:40 , because you can actually develop autoimmunity from just eating the same thing over and over again.
17:49 Like your body, like you can develop food sensitivities, your body will literally start attacking things because yeah, it's crazy.
17:57 Like I've gotten food sensitivity tests from functional medicine doctor and it's funny, it'll what?
18:05 Like, I'm such a creature of habit.
18:07 Like I'll definitely like sometimes not take my own advice and I'll eat the same thing a lot because I just like go through like phases and every time I've gotten these food sensitivity tests, it's like the food that I'm eating a lot is what shows up on there, right.
18:20 So it's definitely, it's definitely that's really good advice to like rotate what you're eating.
18:26 And even if you haven't, I'll just tack on what you were saying there.
18:31 A lot of people, if you discover you have food sensitivities, you can reverse it because it's like an over proliferation of certain food or foods are what are gonna cause a sensitivity and sometimes it goes too far and becomes like autoimmune.
18:46 But if it's not at that point, you can often, you know, you can do an elimination diet.
18:52 A K A just, you know, going down to like super clean basic food groups for a bit and testing with things in and out.
18:59 But if you take away something that you have a sensitivity to, let's say eggs, I ate so many of them that I became sensitive to them that I didn't eat them for a while that I brought them back in bit by bit and now they don't bother me.
19:12 So you can cycle your stuff in even if it's causing you problems doesn't mean you have to say goodbye to it forever in some cases.
19:20 Totally.
19:21 And what's also interesting is it, it might not even be causing you problems.
19:25 Like I've gotten these food sensitivity tests and things show up on there and I'm like, what I can eat that fine.
19:30 Like I've never had an issue with that.
19:32 I've never had a reaction to that, but something in my body is reacting to it.
19:36 So it's like, ok, maybe that's time to like, step back a little.
19:39 That's why it's so important.
19:41 You know, it's, it's so easy to like follow book advice or like follow advice you see on the internet.
19:47 The best thing to do is get your labs done, like know where everything is.
19:52 Then you can supplement based on your labs, right?
19:55 Get food sensitivity tests done, then you can create your own diet based on what you actually need because otherwise you're just shooting in the dark.
20:05 I agree.
20:05 And then try and I would add that, do those tests and have a baseline and, and track also how you feel so that you can see the subtle differences because like you said, sometimes it's doing something under the surface and you're not even aware of some damage, it might be, you know, tickling at right in the background.
20:26 Totally.
20:27 Totally.
20:28 So,, I know that you have an 8020 rule with your diet and I'd love for you to share that with people.
20:35 What is that?
20:36 Ok?
20:37 I love the 8020 rule because it allows me to do basically anything.
20:42 , in essence, 80% of the time and I think this is, could work for anybody.
20:50 80% of the time I eat, I eat clean, I stay away from refined foods, processed foods.
20:58 , I exercise even if I don't want to every other day and,, do all the things part of my morning routine.
21:09 But in terms of the food, you know, bulletproof coffee, clean diet throughout the day, stop eating at 8 p.m. you know,, managing amount of sugar that I take in and I do like that most of the time and sometimes it takes some willpower and discipline, but I do it and it's easy because I know that when it comes up, something is gonna come up that I want to eat it or there's gonna be an occasion where, you know, you wanna have drinks or you're having dinner at 10 o'clock at night or whatever and you don't wanna be the person who can't enjoy themselves when they're out or you're not eating something that you want because you're trying to be good this way, if you're, if you're good, good, whatever that means to you.
21:56 But if you're good and you operate within a, you know, some limitations most of the time, then you're really free to float around.
22:05 You know, you can have a full cheat day.
22:08 Some, some experts really talk about like once a week, even having like a full blown cheat day different from what you eat the rest of the week.
22:16 But 20% of the time you can roll with it, somebody invites you out last minute you're not gonna like, freak out about your diet.
22:24 Like that's just, it, it takes the stress off of the, you know, dieting and not dieting kind of cycle.
22:31 Like of being obsessive about it this way.
22:32 It's more like a lifestyle and when you veer off no one incident or meal or outing is gonna crash your whole program or your progress or you know how you feel.
22:45 So it just the 8020 rule lets you, lets you roll with it guilt free.
22:51 That's why I really like it.
22:53 Yeah, I think that's great and it's just goes back to that old adage like everything in moderation, right?
22:58 Because if you, if you start thinking about these things, like as a diet, right?
23:04 Which, like, I hate that word, right?
23:06 In that, in that context because people think of like, you know, I don't know, diet pills or like going on this very strict diet, very restrictive where I like, I like how you said it's a lifestyle thing.
23:17 But it's like if you, you can become obsessive, it can become your whole world and it can almost branch into disordered eating, right?
23:26 And again, like you, like you said, you still want to enjoy your life, you still wanna have this human experience that we're here to have.
23:33 You wanna be able to like go to social events.
23:35 You don't want to be that person that's like turning down invitations to things because you're worried about your food, right?
23:42 So, yeah.
23:43 No, I think that that's really important for your mental health.
23:47 It's interesting.
23:48 So I'm, I'm very pregnant right now.
23:50 And my favorite, actually, I should say my only pregnancy book I've read is Bringing Up Baby, which is French, but it's, well, it was written by an American woman living in France and she is comparing the French way of raising a child versus the American way.
24:07 And one of the things they talk about is during pregnancy, French women really only gain like an average of like 26 pounds where in America, like people are gaining like, the minimum is almost like 40 pounds, right?
24:21 They say, like, gain 25 to 35 but most people are gaining more, way more than that.
24:25 And it's because Americans restrict their dieting, they're, they're eating so much.
24:31 But then, like, when they're pregnant it's just like, that's free for all.
24:34 Whereas, like, French women don't restrict their diet.
24:36 They still enjoy a glass of wine, they still enjoy a chocolate croissant.
24:42 Like they still, they still indulge in these things and they, and it, it's in moderation, like you said, you know, they're not living off of them, but they'll have them sometimes and they don't feel guilty about it.
24:54 They don't stress about it, they don't worry about it.
24:56 So like nothing changes in pregnancy.
24:58 It's not like this permission to just like go like, fuck wild, right?
25:04 So, I don't know, it just made me think of that.
25:05 It's just it's all about your mindset, right?
25:09 I totally agree.
25:10 And you said like three things that I was like, wait, I want to talk about that.
25:13 I want to address that.
25:14 One thing is I read this book a long time ago called French Women Don't get fat, but I've never read it.
25:21 So I, you know what it must be like 20 years ago, maybe that it came out.
25:26 And I was fascinated also by the woman who was talking about again comparing like American North American eating habits with the French specifically.
25:38 And a lot of the difference was that they ate their meals mostly with other people and they had reverence for the food and the process,, and they allowed themselves to actually enjoy the food.
25:51 So, you know, I tell people, like, if you really want to eat that thing, just go get the good thing of that and you just enjoy every freaking bite of it and don't let yourself feel badly and then you'll, you, you know, tomorrow you'll work out a little bit more or whatever it is, but just enjoy it.
26:10 And I think that's part of this standard American diet kind of thing is they've, we've lost some of the tactile pleasures of eating and all the things associated with it.
26:22 And I think the French kind of have more of a handle on the whole lifestyle and we're more just consuming it over here.
26:33 , so that was one thing I wanted to say they are definitely on to something over there that we haven't quite caught on to yet.
26:39 And meals last for hours.
26:41 Right.
26:41 They're taking their time, they're savoring it.
26:44 They're enjoying the company like Italy is the same way and then here it's like a lot of people eat in front of the TV.
26:51 Yeah, exactly.
26:52 And that's like a, more, just a mindlessness that permeates.
26:56 Unfortunately, I think a little bit more of our existence over here.
26:59 , ok.
27:01 So I was gonna say the, the pregnancy part too when you're like, only 25 pounds.
27:06 That was like the smallest weight gain that of anyone that I knew,, who had babies.
27:12 The first time I got pregnant I ate all the sugar and everything I wanted and I put on 52 pounds and I was like, oh, I'll just lose it after and now it's really hard.
27:24 I mean, I did eventually but,, it was so hard, especially when you have a newborn.
27:29 Oh my God, you're not like gonna be all geared up and working out extra after you have a brand new baby.
27:37 So the second time I, I learned my lesson, I didn't just have a free for all of, you know, eating anything I wanted to.
27:44 But the struggle is real on that one but we just don't, we it's just, it's a, it's learned behavior too and it is mindset.
27:55 It's mindset like, oh my God, this is my chance to pig out and eat whatever I want to versus I always enjoy food throughout my life on a daily basis.
28:03 Kind of vibe.
28:05 That'd be a good shift for people to try and embrace, I think.
28:08 Yeah.
28:08 And you know, the, the paradox of it all is is that when you eat healthy, you feel really freaking good.
28:17 And then if you eat healthy for a while and then you have a day where you're like just eating a bunch of carbs and potato chips.
28:23 And greasy stuff.
28:24 Like, you're gonna feel like, shit, you're gonna notice it.
28:28 Like, to me that's the best motivator.
28:30 Right.
28:30 Like, I'm a, I own a yoga studio.
28:33 I'm a yoga practitioner and, like, when I eat well, I can feel it in my practice.
28:39 Right.
28:40 And the next day if I don't eat well, like, I feel sluggish, I feel slower.
28:43 I'm not as flexible.
28:45 I don't have as much stamina and it's like, you know, if there's something like that, that motivates you, like, that's the best way to do it.
28:51 Right.
28:52 I totally agree.
28:54 It's like you don't, it's not worth it to feel that way.
28:57 So the things that you thought you were giving up and sacrificing really were the things that weren't making you feel good and that makes them less desirable anyway.
29:07 , if it starts affecting your energy and like you said, if you, you know, you're, you're healthy and you're practicing yoga and you're doing all the things,, then you, that feeling is better than the feeling you would get from any kind of indulgence.
29:25 Although you do it and it's like, it's like,, your body is like a, like a fancy sports car.
29:31 You're like a Ferrari and then all of a sudden, instead of putting like 94 gas and you put rocks in your gas tank, you're gonna feel it.
29:38 You're like, I'm not gonna do that again.
29:39 You're less apt to behave in the way and, and indulge in the things that are gonna make you feel less than you wanna feel.
29:47 So, you're right.
29:47 It just eventually supplants some of the behavior naturally totally.
29:53 And I think about too, like, I live in California now, but my family is in the Midwest and every time I go back to visit and, like, stay at my parents' house, it's just the food we eat.
30:03 It just makes me so lazy and so sluggish and just not wanna work out and not want to do anything.
30:10 And it's like, you, you, it, it's so I could see how easy it is to fall into that trap because when you feel like lead and you feel like you have to like, drag yourself up to like go do something like, of course you don't want to and it's like the more you and then you eat more right?
30:27 And the more the less you work out and the less active you are and the more you eat that way, the harder it gets like you're just digging yourself deeper into this hole.
30:35 It's true.
30:36 It isn't, it's a slippery slope.
30:38 I feel that way too.
30:39 Sometimes when I go home and I'm away from all the things that I eat and my routine and all that and you, it is easy to just fall into it.
30:48 My clothes are always tighter when I come back, I'm always happy to come home and like eat vegetables, eat salad.
30:58 Totally.
30:59 So,, what about eating organic?
31:01 What's your thought on eating organic?
31:03 Oh, la.
31:04 LA.
31:05 Ok.
31:06 Well,, you know, I've eaten all organic and I've been in a position where I couldn't really have any and everything in between and there are certainly things that you want to always eat organic because of the amount of pesticides that are on them.
31:22 And there are other foods that you don't need to buy organic because they're naturally resistant and they won't have the same kind of issues.
31:30 So,, the,, is it the environmental working group?
31:37 E W G?
31:38 They put out every year, like a,, a dirty dozen list and a clean dozen list.
31:44 So it changes year to year.
31:46 But I would say, like, go on their, on their website environmental work.
31:50 Yeah, it's like E W G dot com and you'll see the things that have the most pesticides on it.
31:57 And I would say try and buy those organic wherever possible.
32:01 Like,, berries cherries.
32:05 I can't think of it off the top of my head.
32:08 I think it up.
32:08 I'm gonna look it up right now dot com is not the correct website though.
32:13 It's not,, environmental, what that of his environmental working group.
32:22 Let's see, you could probably put dirty dozen and it might, and it, ok, you know, when you, here's an easy rule for people because food is so expensive these days and getting more.
32:32 So where you don't need to spend on organic.
32:36 Think about things that naturally have like a really tough outside.
32:42 Like you don't need to buy organic pineapple.
32:45 You don't need to buy organic bananas because the, the skin is really thick.
32:50 , things that have a, you know, like berries and cherries and d like delicate stuff like that often.
32:57 Those are on the dirty dozen list.
33:00 Ok.
33:01 That, that totally makes sense.
33:02 Ok.
33:02 So I pulled it up.
33:03 So the dirty dozen for 2023 is strawberries, spinach, kale, collard and mustard greens are in one peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, grapes, bell and hot peppers, cherries, blueberries, green beans.
33:17 So it totally makes sense what you were saying.
33:20 Let's see what's on.
33:25 Oh, it's a clean 15.
33:26 0, ok.
33:28 So super similar to what you're saying.
33:30 Avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, onions, papaya, sweet peas that are frozen.
33:35 That's interesting.
33:36 Asparagus, honeydew melon, kiwi, cabbage, mushrooms, mango, sweet potatoes, watermelon, carrots.
33:43 So like anything that has like a rough outer shell.
33:46 It's interesting that cabbage is clean.
33:47 But other like leafy greens like lettuces.
33:52 I wonder if it's because you know how cabbage is just so tightly compacted that maybe it's just the nature of its design.
33:59 But I don't know.
34:00 Yeah, you should eat more cabbage when you buy most of those, but it is good to know like and not be scared into spending like all your money buying organic everything.
34:13 Some organic labeling can some of it is not 100% like black and white.
34:21 From my understanding, what do you mean by that?
34:25 ok, wait, not maybe organic labeling on fruits and vegetables but maybe more when it comes to, animals, I just, my understanding is that it's really super hard to get certified as organic.
34:39 So sometimes you'll have manufacturers and growers and farmers that are using organic practices, but they're not certified organic and that sometimes.
34:49 , well, I, I think that's really it.
34:53 I think that's really the anomaly that I'm thinking of otherwise I, I would, I would pretty much trust and go with that list.
35:01 Ok.
35:01 So it's not like organic things are not really organic.
35:04 It's the other way around.
35:05 Like, no, you know what I was thinking of for a second.
35:07 It's more like when you hear about when they went like on eggs, when they say like cage free or free, run on certain things.
35:14 And you hear that, that some of that's a little bit, you know, like like all natural, like what the hell does that mean?
35:21 Yeah, exactly.
35:21 Like some of its language like voodoo, you know.
35:26 So I would recommend always if you can know where your food comes from, that's the ideal, like if you can tell where it's from.
35:34 Yeah, absolutely.
35:37 And what about food combining?
35:39 I know that's something that you also teach.
35:41 Yes.
35:43 So I'm just looking at my thing behind here.
35:46 So, food combining and now I'll have some guides on my website that you can,, check that out.
35:54 But food combining is one of those things.
35:56 I'm trying to see where I wrote it down.
35:57 Sorry.
35:58 Hold on one second.
35:59 , now I see.
36:02 Oh, because I, ok, I'm just gonna take myself right to the diet on my website because I forgot to put it in front of me.
36:10 But in essence, you know, food combining is just a, a practice of putting certain foods together so that you can maximize your ability to digest them and also to take the nutrients to garner the nutrients from them.
36:27 And so an example of food combining, you don't wanna do, you know, like meat and potatoes, everyone loves that combo.
36:35 It sounds really good.
36:36 But the truth is you have competing digestive enzymes that make it really difficult for it to be like a smooth process for you to digest.
36:45 Another thing about food combining is how fast something will a food will break down and layering things so that you don't have light things sitting decomposing in your, you know, digestive system, kind of like breaking down while heavier things are blocking the passage, so to speak.
37:07 So like eating berries at the end of a meal and really light things at the end of the meal or dessert can sometimes cause that because if you think of everything you eat in a meal, you have like meat and veg.
37:19 I don't know.
37:19 I guess this is your stomach only.
37:22 You can see me right now.
37:23 But,, and then if you put the stuff on top, you have to wait for the heavier things to digest first.
37:29 So that's why it's good to have.
37:31 That's why the tradition of having like salad at the early onset of the meal at the beginning of the meal makes more sense.
37:39 , but you wanna look out for, hey, I gotta find this,, I have to find this guide.
37:47 Sorry.
37:47 Give me one second here.
37:48 , I'm just gonna go,, ok, I'm just gonna have to wait because I don't know where I put it to give you all the combinations.
38:02 I'm sorry, my bad.
38:05 No, it's not there either.
38:06 Ok.
38:07 So let me just think for a second.
38:08 Ok.
38:08 So food combining.
38:09 So anyway, I will send you the, share the link where you'll be able to find the list of the food combining stuff on my website.
38:17 But you can combine.
38:20 Ok, so if you have like fats, carbs,, and protein groups at every meal, then something like, ok, high quality fats,, olive oil, avocado, those kinds of things.
38:37 Grass fed butter can go with anything.
38:40 You can eat those with anything without any real issues.
38:43 , grains, beans and rice and carby vegetables go together.
38:50 Well,, and then it's the starchy starchy carbs.
38:57 You want to avoid eating with proteins and you want to also stick with and this is kind of hard to do sometimes depending on how you eat, but stick with one protein in the meal, one animal protein like per, per meal.
39:14 So, I mean, I love a good Pad Thai that has like shrimp, chicken tofu and egg in it, but sometimes that can do a number on you.
39:23 And it's because again, you have like competing enzymes and proteins at work at the same time.
39:32 That's my favorite way of talking about that.
39:34 Yeah.
39:34 Sorry.
39:34 That could have been a little bit more eloquent, but somehow it disappeared from my notes.
39:39 My apologies.
39:41 Another thing I, I do with every meal is take digestive enzymes too.
39:44 That's, that's like really, really helpful too.
39:47 If you feel like you're bloated after a meal or you're just,, you feel like things aren't digesting as well.
39:53 That's like always a good little hack.
39:55 I agree.
39:56 I take, I usually take like three or four before a meal if I know it's gonna have some offenders or some things that usually make my stomach upset.
40:04 Do you take them with your meal or do you do them beforehand?
40:08 I do it like right before I start eating.
40:10 You do.
40:11 Ok.
40:11 I definitely recommend people to have digestive enzymes at least on hand at home.
40:18 Yeah.
40:18 No, it's, it's really fascinating.
40:20 So my, again, my best friend's husband is a functional medicine doctor and he ran my labs and it was like, my pancreas numbers were low.
40:29 I don't remember, low or high, whatever they're not supposed to be.
40:32 And he was, like, taking these digestive enzymes and then we tested again, like, a month later and they were just in normal.
40:37 So now I just, I take them all the time.
40:39 So again, that's why it's so important to get your labs done.
40:42 Right.
40:42 Because, you know, it's easy to, like, throw out advice.
40:45 But then you know what's like, personalized to you?
40:48 Yeah, that's really true.
40:50 With what is your, what are the, what are the labs specifically?
40:55 Like, what tests would you recommend, you know, for people to get a baseline?
40:59 Like, what have you done?
41:00 That's been really helpful for you?
41:01 Oh, my gosh.
41:02 I don't even know.
41:02 It's, I, I do whatever he has me do but I take all my, like, vitamins and minerals and all of that stuff regularly.
41:09 Like, I don't know, like, know where your vitamin D is and your vitamin A and your magnesium and all of that and your iron.
41:16 But he, he runs like really, comprehensive panels.
41:21 So, ok, you're doing all kinds of light blood stuff and, and like I said, we also have done like, food sensitivity testing and stuff like that.
41:30 Yes.
41:30 Ok.
41:31 That's good.
41:32 And you get your baseline, like you take multi, you get all your vitamins and minerals and everything.
41:37 Yeah.
41:37 But again, like a and then things levels change.
41:40 Right.
41:41 So, like, get them, get your labs run every six months or whatever it is.
41:44 You know, it's, it's better to spend the money now than spend it on, like, medicine and doctors later a 100%.
41:50 It's totally true.
41:51 You either have to be prepared to spend it now proactively or be prepared probably to spend way more on the back end.
41:58 If you're trying to fix stuff, it's easier to stay healthy than it is to get healthy.
42:04 Yeah.
42:04 Absolutely.
42:05 , so we have a little bit more time, like, talk to me about intermittent fasting because I know that's another thing you're a big proponent of.
42:13 Yeah.
42:14 Ok.
42:15 So, you know, I, I learned about fasting first from Dave Ashbury.
42:20 Love him.
42:21 Big fan.
42:21 , and I used intermittent fasting to help me, like, lose some body fat and have some, like to up my energy levels and to power up some,, like working out and so forth.
42:40 But I found for me it got a little, it became,, a little bit difficult for me to sustain it all the time.
42:46 So then I started to read how different it was for like men and women, it can be different around your cycle.
42:53 , and certainly around big hormonal changes like pregnancy.
42:59 , and for me and perimenopause.
43:03 So I think that's what happened.
43:04 Like it was, it worked, it was good for me and then it was a little bit too taxing on my system once I was going through all these like, big hormonal wave changes.
43:14 But it,, it really can and you can just do it like, in little bits.
43:19 I mean, now I usually have, I'll have a bulletproof coffee which is coffee with fat in it, but it doesn't have any sugar or other or carbohydrates.
43:28 , but I'll do that and I usually stop eating at 8 p.m. at night and then I'm not having that until or ha or breaking my fast until like 10 to 11 a.m. So it's not like a, that's not like a super long intentional intermittent fasting period, but it still is intermittent fasting.
43:49 So, any, you know, prolonged period of not eating is gonna be really helpful in terms of improving your metabolic health all around.
44:00 So it, it helps with insulin sensitivity.
44:04 It keeps your blood sugar levels lower, it can help reduce inflammation, Possibly reducing the risk of type two diabetes.
44:14 It also triggers cellular repair processes.
44:18 So, it just, it helps like enhance the body's pathway for removing damaged cells and damaged material out of the body.
44:30 It certainly promotes longevity.
44:34 And it actually, I think it's pretty interesting that it really does it help with brain health.
44:41 ok, so I'm just looking at my nose up here.
44:43 So if it looks like I'm looking at this because so B D N F brain derived neut tropic factor.
44:49 I don't know if you've ever heard of that, Kris.
44:51 , well, it's,, it's something that the brain makes and it aids in your cognition and it protects you against neurological conditions.
45:04 And so fasting helps create more of that, enhances productivity of that.
45:09 So the, I mean, anything like that is going to go a long way in terms of your brain health over a long period of time and modulating your blood sugar.
45:21 Also, I don't know if you've heard of dementia and Alzheimer's being referred to as type three diabetes at all.
45:31 But that's one a new way that people have been referring to it.
45:35 So the managing of your blood sugar through prolonged periods of caloric reduction has like a lot, it sets a lot of metabolic processes into play that are normally maybe are probably just like clouded over by doing regular metabolic function.
45:52 So it gives your body a rest from all the regular activity and let some of the other like superpower stuff come in.
46:00 That's sort of how I would describe my understanding of it altogether.
46:05 So I don't know if you've had any experience with it or have you tried fasting yourself?
46:11 Yeah.
46:12 Yeah.
46:12 No, I'm, I'm a big proponent of fasting.
46:14 Definitely not while I'm pregnant, but big proponent of fasting and you know, so many, you know, we hear that C word, right?
46:21 Like cancer, people get so up in arms, but everyone has cancer, cancer cells.
46:25 Like there, you probably have cancer cells in your body right now.
46:29 Right?
46:29 But when you fast your body can actually attack and get rid of those cells, right.
46:35 That's like your normal immune system should be able to take care of those before they become anything right before they cluster before they become a tumor.
46:43 So, like when you're talking about getting rid of damaged cells, like that's, that's a huge benefit of fasting.
46:50 Yes.
46:51 Yeah, that's huge.
46:52 I agree.
46:54 Awesome.
46:55 So, is there anything else you wanted to touch on before we before we go today, you know what I would just say?
47:02 I made like a tiny list of things if I just had to say here's like a bullet list of bullet point list of a few things to look after just overall health and wellness.
47:15 OK, so 8020 rule making sure you get healthy fats in like healthy fats.
47:23 extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil grass, fed butter.
47:27 Those are my favorite.
47:28 Those are my three favorite that you're taking some kind of multivitamin, multi mineral supplement, pro and prebiotics.
47:37 I feel like everybody needs that across the board.
47:40 A B complex is also a good addition to beef up depending on what's you may or may not have in a multivitamin.
47:48 To take vitamin D, most of us are vitamin D deficient but don't take your vitamin D at night because it can mess up with your sleep, it can mess up your sleep and take it with vitamin K.
47:58 Yeah, that's good.
47:59 I have one, a formula of them together otherwise.
48:02 Yeah, that's a good, that's a good hack.
48:05 Actually.
48:05 Vitamin K people don't often know about that one.
48:10 and I wrote bulletproof coffee also.
48:14 I love bulletproof coffee so much.
48:15 And if, you know, if someone's listening and they've never tried it.
48:19 Oh, I just, I can't even drink regular coffee anymore and it just makes me feel so good.
48:25 Yeah.
48:25 Yeah, that little bit of fat keeps you full, gives you energy.
48:29 It really does.
48:30 Keeps your coat shiny.
48:34 Awesome.
48:34 Well, thank you so much.
48:35 , can you let us know how they can,, find you get in touch with you?
48:40 What your offers are?
48:41 All those, all those things?
48:43 Yeah.
48:43 Sure.
48:44 I would love to.
48:45 , ok.
48:46 Well, my website Marlene Zisman dot com,, houses all kinds of articles and blog posts and bits and pieces,, all about ho holistic health and wellness.
49:01 , and just other things that I've that I've gone on about in blogging.
49:06 , and on social media, I often share tips and recipes and all kinds of things,, about, you know, holistic health and natural healing as well.
49:19 Also, you know what it, on my website, sign up for my newsletter.
49:23 It's called The Vaser.
49:25 And,, in it every week.
49:28 Well, there's like a little, a little blurb from me, but also recipes, product recommendations and I do podcasts and audio book, summaries on there as well.
49:38 All related to the kind of stuff we've been talking about.
49:40 So awesome.
49:42 Thanks so much and all those links will be in the show notes as well.
49:44 So if you resonated with this episode, please like share, subscribe, help spread the good word and I'll see you all at the next episode.
49:52 Have a beautiful rest of your day.
49:55 Thank you.
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