Live Your Best Life After 40 With These Wellness Tips with Gregory Ann Cox

Gregory Ann Cox the author of Your Genes Do Not Determine the Size of Your Jeans talks with Feeding Fatty about the importance of mindset in our question for health and wellness. She addresses the importance of finding what works for each individual and don’t let the values and beliefs of others determine your actions and how you feel about yourself.

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About Gregory

“Gregory Anne, aka “Greg” believes there is no one way to be healthy, no one diet for everyone, and no way aging should ruin your life.

Greg’s focus is delivering the truth to anyone who wants to live a long life in good health. She’d also like to reverse the rates of heart disease and diabetes, which are devastating the lives of too many people needlessly. She is proof that you can have a body you feel good in and still have your wine and foods you love.

She was among the first female graduates of The Culinary Institute of America, one of the world’s premier culinary colleges, in Hyde Park, New York. After 25+ years in the hospitality industry, a certificate in nutrition, and the launch of a heart-healthy restaurant in San Diego, she turned her focus to coaching.

She wrote Your Genes Do Not Determine The Size of Your Jeans, to bust the myths that are keeping women fat, frustrated, fatigued, and not able to fully enjoy their second halves.

Rebellious Wellness Over 50 Website

www.ageucational.com

Full Transcript Below

Live Your Best Life After 40 With These Wellness Tips With G...

Sat, 5/15 7:28PM • 43:56

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, age, body, test, talk, insulin, book, fat, eat, feel, podcast, women, wellness, inflammation, genes, calories, food, life, brain, myth

SPEAKERS

Gregory, Terry, Roy Barker

Roy Barker  00:15

Hello, and welcome to another episode of educational I'm Roy. I'm Terry course we are the podcasts that are we're chronicling not only our journey through aging, but we also have aging parents that we help as well. And so we always have new challenges. And so that's the basis of our show. But we also have professionals in different areas that Come on, give us some advice to help us live our best life and kind of one of our newer, our newer thoughts is that we definitely don't want to outlive our wellness. So that's important to a lot of us. But, Terry, I'm gonna let you introduce our guests for today.

Terry  00:53

Yeah, Gregory and Gregory and Cox scheme's me who goes by Greg is a podcaster. She has a podcast and rebellious wellness over 50. And she has a book called The missing middle it's referred to as the missing midlife manual, your jeans do not determine the size of your jeans. And, Greg, welcome to our podcast. We're so excited to talk to you. You have a lot of soul mops.

Gregory  01:24

I'm happy to be here.

Roy Barker  01:26

Oh my gosh, and I still snicker. But she reads that the the title of the book before the show.

Gregory  01:33

Sorry.

Roy Barker  01:35

Your genes do not have to determine your genes. I love that.

Terry  01:39

That's awesome. Greg, how did you get to where you are now? How did you come up with the writing the book? And how long has your podcast been going on? We have so many questions.

Gregory  01:51

Oh, any questions? I'll try and give you so many good answers.

Terry  01:54

I know you will. Let's

Gregory  01:55

start with the podcast. So the podcast is new. The beginning of this year 2021. It's something I started another one a year or two ago and it was a nation idea I wasn't ready to it was a spirituality podcast. And it was like so personal and raw that I was doing interviews and I wasn't really feeling it. So but health is something that I'm committed to helping people get new information, open their eyes open their mind a little to what's different. And that brings us to the book really the the idea that your genes don't determine the size of your genes is an was an outcome of my studying epigenetics. I got fascinated because again, I was in the world of personal development, I spent a lot of time in that I've been a coach for 18 years, you get to meet if you're interested. or hear about at least lots of these spiritual people who were scientists first, right blending science of mind and body together. And Bruce Lipton is the first person I ever heard talk about epigenetics, which means a epi means around right the environment around the cells and how much influence it has. And I was coaching women through perimenopause and menopause, I was going through it myself. And there are so many myths out there, especially about as you age, you're going to get fat, it's just the way it is. Or if you're in a family that has diabetes, or obesity or this, you're probably going to end up that way too. And that was making me crazy and sad at the same time, because I found out that it's not true. And genes do determine some part of our physiology, but certainly not all of it. And so the book is 10 chapters where I take one myth at a time, like fat makes you fat, or your genes determine the size of your jeans or you know, so just to help women see that they have other options than just buying into this negativity or buying into the calories in calories out. You're not working out hard enough, all of these things that we constantly get told, which is really shaming people who can't seem to change the bodies they have. And I'm not about changing the body, right? The physiology, the shape of the body, or the intention of the body, just to have people be as healthy as they could be within the body. They were given

Terry  04:07

an interesting.

Roy Barker  04:09

Yeah, and that's a you know, it's an important part I think that we have kind of uncovered as we've gone through this journey is that our bodies do I guess our genes, our bodies do have a determination. We're not all equal. Everything doesn't work the same for everybody out of course, the hate to say it but the older we get, the more struggles that we have for so many different reasons. And I guess that's one one thing to talk about, if for just a minute is some of those struggles that we face. Once we get over 40 once we get over 50 once we get to 60 united seem like they start mounting and mounting and mounting.

Gregory  04:55

It's true that the body does change and we think of things generally 40s 50s we start noticing incrementally that, you know, whatever we feel fatigue, I don't have the energy I used to I'm putting on weight I can't control. But technically, things really start changing in our 30s. But we have so many good things still in place that we don't notice the little things. And it's true that the metabolism does slow down as we age, but it doesn't mean that it doesn't work. And it does, we just have to adjust. And sometimes a person who had a lifelong successful eating pattern of let's just say, a low fat, high carb, or, you know, maybe low carb, high fat, all of a sudden, things could change, and that could not longer no longer feel good, or it couldn't give them It might not give them the results. So one of the things that's whoo and crazy to talk about what's really important is to listen to our bodies as we age. And you know, there there was a comedian would when I, somebody would say like, well, it hurts when I do this. He's like, well, don't do that anymore, right? So our body is constantly giving us clues. If we get heartburn after we eat something hollow, maybe instead of reaching for the pilot sec, we should see if we can substitute something as enjoyable, because I'm all about delicious and enjoyment and no deprivation. But there are clues along the way. But yes, there are going to be struggles and things are not going to work as we want them to as when we were in our 30s and 40s. But it doesn't mean we can't have a great life and enjoy it and have vibrancy and help. In the end. That's

Terry  06:23

a good point. I mean, we're just so used to get so conditioned to throw medication at Oh, this is happening. Let's just do this. Let's get some Pepto bismol. Let's just get whatever we need. Yeah, and a lot of what we're going through can be handled through foods that we eat, or, you know, supplements that we need things like that.

06:54

Yeah, all right. Yeah,

Terry  06:57

we froze.

Roy Barker  06:58

No, I was just gonna say that. You know, it's important because the, you know, the root cause of a lot of this and I'll speak for myself is that I have something and I think I chased traced, mostly traced it back to, you know, really sugary substances, and maybe even some carbs is kind of a food allergy. So in the morning, when I wake up, if I don't get to do this much anymore, but let's just say, you know, you go to the local Mexican restaurant and have some chips and a margarita. Something about that, the next day, my eyes are so puffy, and I just, I'm very clogged up, you know, it's like a sinus or an allergy. And it takes me, you know, a good half of a day just to get out from under that. And so again, I've pretty much quit that, because it's gotten used to it, you know, it had to be more, you know, maybe to a couple margaritas and you know, sitting around eating the chips all night. And then now it's gotten to the point that if we go up and just have split a bowl of chips and have one, I'm still done with that. Yeah.

Gregory  08:07

Yeah, it is interesting how we, and that does have a little bit to do with youthful metabolisms, versus, you know, the ones that are kind of just chugging along. But my husband, I joke all the times, like, because who's been to a restaurant a really long time, we haven't and but we take out and do you want to get Chinese or Mexican? Same thing. It's like, oh, but how are we gonna feel tomorrow? Just because we used to be able to pound it and we just can't so either order differently or order lighter, or we just say, Alright, tomorrow, I might be puffy. But tonight I'm going to enjoy this with my friends. You know, like that kind of thing. I always say excess in moderation.

Roy Barker  08:43

Exactly, exactly. So how does, let's talk about sleep for a minute. Again, that's something else that I can relate back to myself that sleep tends to be our lack of sleep tends to be the beginning of bad times for me because I seem to want to eat more to try to boost that energy level up and so that everybody's different. But you know, there's this I think there's a myth that as we age, we don't need as much sleep. But I personally feel like I need as much if not more sleep than what I've ever needed in the past.

Gregory  09:19

That's absolutely right. You do need as much sleep as you ever have. And some people do need more Daniel Levinson's book, which I'm still getting through called successful aging. The chapter I just read was about sleep and how important it is and how we have made it okay to not sleep well as we age. Therefore, people don't take the steps because they don't think it's going to change anything. But to your point about you feel like you crave more sugar and things the next day you do when you're when you're low on the brain goes in search of energy when you're tired, and the fastest energy to get into the brain is something that turns into sugar or pure sugar. Way back in the days when we thought that low fat was a good idea. I was working for a heart surgeon and I got interviewed on a radio. I also had a column with another woman in a magazine. And we did an article titled jelly beans for breakfast. And it was because we said, you know, everybody's rushing off to work. It was a book, it was magazine for salespeople, people run out the door for work, they don't eat anything, they drink their coffee. What should you have in the morning, or like, at least you could have a handful of jelly beans or a couple of chocolate kisses in that, you know, everybody was like, Oh, my God, that's really bad. Well, now, I would never say that. But the science at the time, said because the brain, you really need to get something in there. And to help you with that worry, I would suggest that you increase your fat intake, because fat will help you sleep fat will help you sex hormones, that will help pretty much everything and help balance out quelch those cravings for the sugary carbee foods, because the brain can also run on fat, you just have to condition it.

Roy Barker  10:52

Exactly. And that's, you know, that's something I've learned over the last few years is we've kind of we've had a change in thinking, I guess, you know, it was like a carbs was what ran our brains, and we got to have it. But there's also a lot of scientific evidence out there that we can the brain will adapt to run off of the fat, if that's what we put in, which kind of brings up a question. I know, this is a little bit off topic. But the so I've read some studies as well, that kind of link back to that low. Let me get this right, the low fat phase of the 70s coming into the 80s. And they're trying to link that with the increasing amount of Alzheimer's we see in people, you know, who were I guess in their 20s and 30s at that age and having that now?

Gregory  11:42

Yeah, I don't know exactly the study or studies that you're talking about. But I asked I interviewed America's number one female brain Doc, couple weeks ago, it's not out yet. It'll be out in April. But I asked her specifically about the relationship between sugar carbs and what some scientists are calling diabetes, type three, Alzheimer's. And she said that she she said, We are in the early days of enough science backing that theory, but it is lots and lots of papers are being written more and more, you know, retroactive studies. We can't study that going forward. We don't want to cause Alzheimer's. But yeah, so there is definitely some credence to it. I just don't have a scientific I can't quote something for you to for your listeners to research right now.

Roy Barker  12:29

No, and that's one thing we have tried to be careful with is you know, trying to add back fat, the, the, you know, I think course we'll make that disclaimer, we're not doctors, we don't claim to be seek out medical professional help and all that. But, you know, the one thing I try to struggle with is that some of those fats are hawks, Lord. And so, you know, in this is something else we've talked about lately is trying to balance everything, you know, you want to increase that fat, but you got to watch your calories. That's why you really need a plan. It's hard to do this on the fly if you sit down and plan out your meals. And I guess you can speak to that, that's probably good, good advice for everybody. But we need to really be conscious of what we're putting in and, and not swing from extremes because the other thing that we've done is utilize a nutritional tracker. And so even when we have thought we've been eating right, at certain times, you're really deficient in a lot of these micronutrients that your body needs. So important to just be very conscious of these changes in what you're doing.

Gregory  13:41

Yeah, for sure. And I will tie back to the idea that calories and does not equal calories out so when you talk about the calories and fat they affect the body in a much different way. And if the body then let's say if I had a whole piece of whole grain toast with a piece of Turkey on it and some cheese versus a bagel, with like that tub of cream cheese kind of thing, they may have the same amount of calories, but the one with the turkey also has protein, the turkey and the cheese has protein has the whole grains is going to slow down the way the blood the sugar enters the body from the carbohydrates. So yes, awareness of the calories that we're eating is really important, but I don't like people to get hung up or they feel like I got off track this I just had a half an Apple was that 40 I'm gonna eat you know, it make when people especially people that have had speeding for experienced food disordered eating patterns as young people pushing or asking somebody to go back to the you know, controlling everything they eat can be worse for some people. Yeah, so it may not be your your issue at all and good for you that you're tracking and especially tracking the nutritional value of the foods we eat. So very important, just to say that, I don't like people to feel like they have to count all their calories and all their grams of fat but for some people that That's the only way that they really maintain that healthy weight.

Roy Barker  15:03

So let's talk about another another kind of a hot topic that's out there now is leaky gut. And maybe I think the effects of dairy or Oh, yeah, the gluten on that. So does that change as we age? Or is there more effect on us as we get older,

Gregory  15:27

again, the body can change, we can develop sensitivities to things that we never had. The gluten, one of the problems with gluten is that over the past five decades, maybe four or five decades, the wheat that we grow is different than the heirloom, if you want to call it that wheat that was grown, those grains that were growing probably up until the mid 50s, had a different composition, more protein, and other things in them that we've stripped out so that we get faster crops growing, the bread that's made now the crackers, the cookies, things like that use this newer form of wheat, from what I understand is what's leading to so much of this gluten sensitivity. Something's missing or something was added. I don't know which, but that's one of the reasons again, the body can change. And a lot of people unless you get tested for gluten sensitivity, which is a antibody test, you may not feel good when you eat gluten, that's a good enough reason not to eat it. But when people say I can't have gluten, I ate a bagel and I got bloated doesn't mean that they're gluten intolerant. And so they may wipe out all the things they used to love again, this this whole thing about all or nothing. But when people have leaky gut, which is evident by you know, gas, bloating, diarrhea, all kinds of things, symptoms. But again, that's something to get tested for, because it's a very serious condition for the body, the body poisons are going where they shouldn't, that's the leaky part, things are leaking out into our system causing inflammation. And we know that inflammation is like the devil when it comes to healthy aging.

Roy Barker  17:04

Wow. Yeah. And I can't even tell you how many times in the last month that you know, inflammation, inflammation is, is really gotten to be the thing that, you know, well, from my understanding, I'll let you confirm this. It's kind of the genesis of a lot of things, the cancers they arthritis is just probably a whole host of other things as well.

Gregory  17:27

Yeah, most of the dogs that I've interviewed will say that it is a catch 22 chicken and egg like is inflammation causing the problem are the problems there. And we didn't notice them until the inflammation became evident. So all of that to say though, if we can keep the inflammation in our bodies low, we have a less likely chance of experiencing them. So does that mean it's causative? I don't know. But they are definitely related. And we do eating is one way, easy way to keep the inflammation low in our body. Okay,

Terry  17:58

so one of the catchphrases on your website. Was everything is food, or that's your core belief. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Sure.

Gregory  18:11

If you think about ingesting, we ingest food, right? We eat we Munch we swallow. We also our language is riddled with metaphors of food. My, my husband is a sweetie. You know, we might say that I this is like he's like a bad apple. And so we you know, I could go on and on. We use the idea of food as emotional, to make an emotional connection to tell a story to describe our feelings. So I believe that everything is food in the way that every thought we think feeds our body well, or ill because I know that you both have had an experience where somebody absent mindedly or directly flung an insult your way or a challenge to you. And it It hurts, right. But there's nothing we ate. We thought about it, we experienced it in our energy body. And so I say that every thought we think and every bite we take either contributes to our wellness, or our ill health. So all the media that we consume the people in our lives, and there's one really easy exercise to do to have this experience. Have the outcome be better for people is to just look at their lives. Take 10 minutes, sit there, close your eyes if you need to. And just think about all the people in your life. Think about the room you're sitting in. Is there anything like somebody may sit down on a chair at their desk and say, every single day they sit down and they say, I hate this chair? My back doesn't feel good one of these days but they don't get a new chair. And all of that right? It's just I say look at your life and what isn't serving you if you possibly can. Now most people can't move just because they don't like their house. But whatever we can do to, to take away the this, the the noise in our lives are the people that are creating stress in our bodies. That's what I mean by everything is food, everything is creating the same thing that food does in our body.

Roy Barker  20:15

Yeah, and that's a good thing to point out because we talk about it a lot in businesses, you know, to be successful surround yourself with successful people. But I think that it goes for our happiness and for our positivity, if we surround ourselves with positive happy people, we will tend to be that way. Whereas in not, it may be even if we have negative people in our life, it's not. Maybe it won't turn us negative, but it's just such a mental drain in the psychological drain on our body. Yeah,

20:46

absolutely.

Terry  20:47

Can we talk about some of the other myths that you dispel in your book?

Gregory  20:55

Wait, we can talk about some of the elements, what are some of the Okay, one of the myths is I should have brought I have a book, if you want to get it is this is what happens at your age, the myth that at a certain age, whatever happens, we could stub our toe and go to the doctor and they'd say, See, this is what happens at your age, you're not as balanced as you used to be, right? aren't as aware your peripheral vision is going there are a host of things attached to the age that somebody is by the usually the western medical model and probably our friends and relatives. You know, they go I need new glasses, we'll see that's going to happen at your age, you just turned 60 whatever it is. There isn't one age, if you can, if anybody listening can point to an age for every single human on the planet, that a certain thing occurs. I'd say they could be a rich person. Isn't that true? We can't predict when things are going to happen. And we all know, vibrant, amazing people in their 80s and 90s. And people in their 50s and 60s that are living a very, very less than life. Not a judgment just to say they may have a disability, they may have depression and it right. So that makes me nutty.

Roy Barker  22:13

That's not true.

22:15

Okay,

Roy Barker  22:16

right. Yeah, no, no, I just wonder if you looked at the genetics of the, you know, these people that are doing better? Living into, you know, they're doing better at older ages? Is that a product of their environment? Is it a combination? And I realize if you have a severe disability, that's not really what I'm talking about. I'm talking about just like the, you know, the more you know, just the more normal normal person that is older, older, looking older, feeling rundown, is that because of the because what they fed themselves, not necessarily food, but that you know, what we're talking about with the positivity, that we see that probably the more positive people have aged and have better wellness.

Gregory  23:07

Yes. And I will point you to the twin studies that are so popular in psychology magazines, you know, and whenever we want to prove or disprove genetic, what do they call it, nurture versus nature. One of the stories I tell in the book is about a set of two women twins who were separated at birth, maybe maybe they were two or three. But they didn't spend much time together just a couple of years. And they followed, they found them, they found each other they enrolled in a twin study. And they found exactly the same age exactly the same gene pool. One woman was out there racing around at 67 or eight, whenever they were talking to them. Super vibrant, very, very happy. The other woman could barely get out of her chair, she was very despondent, she was a very negative creature. So then they would have to look at the parents in the situations that they both grew up in. And I don't think they had all of those information, or at least the study I read didn't give you all of that detail. But just a simple way of answering your question. I don't think it's just genetics that determines how we age. You know, mindset is such a strong part of all the work I do you guys, we talked about it before we had our this podcast together. It's you have to have a desire to look forward to something in front of you, and then figure out how you're going to make that happen. I'm not talking about maybe it's starting a business, maybe it's not maybe it's just like, I want to be here next spring to see those daffodils again, you know.

Roy Barker  24:38

Yeah. And we were talking about things that happen at certain ages is that, you know, we think there's a common myth or perception that, you know, as we age, it's like you hit 60. And it's like, well, are you just sitting out on the front porch and the rocker and it's like, well, I hate to admit that. I'm getting very close to that, but like it, I don't feel like it has slowed me down. Well, it slowed me down a little bit, just, you know, because of just for movement purposes. But as far as wanting to achieve things, still having a lot of goals. I mean, it's something that me and Terry talk about every day, you know, we have a big list on one of our whiteboards of all the things, you know, the short term things we need to accomplish today, but these long term objectives that, you know, I don't, I guess, you know, growing up, it was like, when you hit 65, it was like you're living on borrowed time. But now, probably not only now we've evolved, you know, over the last 40 or 50 years, but also because I'm at that age, when seemed like when you get to that age, it's like, yeah, things look a lot different to me. But, you know, I truly expect to be very active into my mid 80s, or 90s. I don't think there's any reason, you know, unless I have a physical health issue that comes up, but there should be no reason why we can't be productive accomplishing, still have those desires way late into life.

Gregory  26:05

Oh, I totally agree. And even if we don't move as fast, even if we have a major setback that takes our wind out or energy away from us, we can still have an enjoyable life. You know, we just again, it's that we started this conversation by talking about paying attention to the body and you know, adjusting as we age. That's, I think, one of the keys when people I recently did a survey of people over 50, between 50 and 90. And I asked, there was like five answers, but how do you view aging? What are you going to do? Great, I'm very happy, right? And a lot of people said, I don't like it, but I'm going to make the best of it. And I thought that was encouraging that the bulk of the people that answered didn't say I hated them fighting it. They just said I'm gonna do what I can to make the best of it.

Terry  26:54

Yeah, cuz you can't change it. And it's better than the alternative. Hello. Yeah, yeah.

Roy Barker  27:00

And it's funny, you bring that up. We just did a little short piece. yesterday. We haven't aired it yet. But there were, there's some studies that I didn't actually read the study I read, it was an article written on the study through the New York Times that older people have fared better through the pandemic, they said that, you know, of course, in the beginning, there was a lot of ages on because it tended to hit older people harder and worse. But now that we've made it through this year, they they were saying that we have fared better, which I thought was very interesting.

Gregory  27:36

Yeah, I did read that article as well. And it's also true for what was it accident, like if somebody is in an accident, and they lose an arm, or if they're, they've had a stroke, and they lose mobility or one side, the older the person is, generally speaking, the more able they are to sort of segue into something that looks like their life did before. Even young people. That's true of I mean, there are exceptional people that just have that resiliency, but there's something about the brain again, that we don't react to things like we used to in you know, with stress and anger and craziness, when things bad happen, we have wisdom to know that I've had something like this before. I'll get through this, too.

Roy Barker  28:20

Yeah, yeah, that's what they were saying is that, you know, some of us have lived through the, you know, the gas crisis of the 70s, the, you know, the financial crisis that we have, you know, we just, there's all these things that we are fairly confident that we will come out on the other end. The other thing that we were talking a little bit about today, though, you know, we don't have kids and a family, it's just us. And we're survivors, where, you know, I can only imagine if you were a young family with little kids that that just, you know, kind of mounts that. So we'll we'll say that

Terry  28:51

just worrying about all you know, all of them and how they're going to handle it and how you're going to take care of it and all of that.

Roy Barker  28:58

So what are some things that we can do? What are some things that we can listen to to our body? Of course, but are there? You know, are there tests that we should be doing, I guess, seeking out blood test to see, you know, how this is doing versus how that is doing so that we may know where we need to make adjustments?

Gregory  29:19

That's a great question. And I actually can I have a report on the tests you need and the tests you don't and what they mean when you get them, which I can send to you if you want to share it with your listeners. But to answer your question here. I think it's really important for every buddy, no matter what age you are probably over 40 to once a year, get a full blood panel, the CBC detective stories at CBC Chem 707 means just a total blood panel so that and of course you're going to within that get a cholesterol test, which is one of those myths and that's a whole other group. I cast episode on how I don't believe that cholesterol is killing all of us. But it also include if you can, if there's any reason to the markers of inflammation, and a healthy heart panel so within a blood test, you might see certain things that would indicate whether you have high sodium or white blood cells are okay. But and the the healthy heart tests are more common when I first started ordering them for myself 15 years ago, I had to pay out of pocket because none of the doctors were like, Who was this but the Cleveland Clinic are the people who started. So the the heart panel will show you what kind of particles your cholesterol is. So it's not just LDL and HDL, but the LDL and HDL get divided in, they get parsed into like all their different components. We want lots of fluffy particles, we don't want tiny little particles. That test will tell you, why do you want to know that? Because if you're otherwise healthy, but you have lots of tiny particles in your cholesterol, it's time to do something, whether it's lifestyle change, or talking to your doctor about what they would suggest. The other thing I especially for women who but men also, but especially for women, over 50 who feel that they are tired all the time, their skin looks terrible, they can't lose weight, you know, they've got a host of symptoms, they've gone to their doctor and said, Can you test me for hypothyroidism? The doctor will give them one test the TSH test. And if they're in the normal range, normal for like the entire planet is a very small range. They'll say like no, you're falling behind. Maybe you need to see a psychiatrist. That really is not the best answer for that poor woman. And a TSH a thyroid panel, which tests independently, the T four and T three is what you need to know because TSH thyroid stimulating hormone it's not a thyroid hormone at all. It comes from the pituitary gland. Actually, I was pointing out the pituitary gland. So it only is an indication of whether the pituitary gland is saying make more or make less TSH. Anyway, that's a whole nother subject. I don't want to get too confusing, but it especially if women are struggling, they might have to find a doctor who's going to listen. I one of my favorite patient advocates is Mary shomon sh o m. o m, she has tons of books, websites, Facebook, she can answer almost any question she's written the answer to every question you might have about thyroid health. So a CBC, total blood panel, a heart health panel, and then thyroid if they're feeling any other issues.

32:35

Okay. Well,

Roy Barker  32:36

speaking of that, that brought up something I have seen a lot more on TV commercials the last few weeks are some it's a company or a guy that they're promoting. If you're over a certain age, and you have a certain waist circumference, then you are more likely to be insulin resistant. And that's what's calling causing the issue. It's a pretty, I guess what concerned me about it is it's such a broad net that they've cast that always makes you concerned about, you know, how accurate something like that can be. But can you speak to that? Do you have any knowledge of that,

Terry  33:16

like the, the higher you carry it in your body that

Roy Barker  33:20

no, this was just basically the commercial says if you're over for a man over 40 and have a waist circumference of x, maybe over 36 or 4042, that you are probably insulin resistant.

Gregory  33:35

You know, again, it's like so many commercials for health products, they they can get away with what they're saying because there isn't as much regulation as there could be. And that person I've seen that commercial, they are drawing from a pretty big pool of research that indicates that at that point, you have insulin resistance once you have that much fat around your middle. Insulin resistance is if there's too much sugar in the blood, because there's too much sugar going in in the form of carbs or actual sugar. You have high blood sugar, right? And in your your blood tests, you're going to hopefully get an A one c test number, and that is a measure of 12 weeks. I don't know how this one test can figure out 12 weeks worth of our blood sugar, but it does. And if that number is within a healthy range, that's a good first step. You could also ask for an insulin test that will say you're too high and insulin But back to the idea of too much sugar in the blood. When the blood sugar goes into the blood cells. It insulin comes I mean when it goes into the blood insulin comes and as a response and puts it into the cells where the cells can use it for energy. If there's too much sugar in the blood, insulin gets tired knocking on the cell doors like I opened the door again open the door again in the cell. They're like I can't. So now there's insulin in places it shouldn't be too much blood sugar in the blood and insulin resistance is the first Insulin resistance is related to the fact that the insulin can no longer clear the blood of a blood sugar. It's supposed to take it and put it into the cells or store it in the liver can't do that if it's overwhelmed. So that creates the ultimate inflammatory response. That's why we don't want inflammation and insulin resistance. We don't want it anyway. Because it should be able to put blood sugar where it needs to go, not gumming up the works of our blood.

Roy Barker  35:26

Right? Yeah, and as a type two diabetic, I know that that you know, the more weight you carry the, the higher, the harder it is to control that blood sugar. And sometimes I can eat right and do the exercising. But if, if I'm carrying more weight at that particular time, it's just much more difficult to control. So

Gregory  35:47

you know, the weight becomes an organ. It acts like an organ in the body when there's an accumulation of fat around. Well, the other organs, it starts to put out hormones just like other organs do. It's really crazy.

Terry  36:03

Oh, I've never heard Yeah,

Gregory  36:05

so anyway, you have this? Do you have more now another system with its own brain kind of thing, sending signals throughout the body? And, you know, it just complicates matters. Right. Interesting, Michael? Yeah.

Roy Barker  36:21

Greg, we've appreciated you taking time out of your day to talk to us. Any other points that you want to make? Before we wrap this up?

Gregory  36:29

The only thing I would say is honestly, if if you get away from the noise of what the world is saying, through commercials, for instance, have taken Pepto bismol take, you know, we talked about before, listen to your body. And even if you don't go, you know, Dr. Google is great, but can make you a little crazy. Find a trusted resource. And see if they have information on that, like natural remedies for heartburn, natural remedies for elbow pain, you know, I don't sleep well, what should I take, I have to tell you guys, I'm in my 60s. And I sleep like a baby. Unless I have something on my mind. But you know, most nights, but that wasn't always true. I had to really over the past 1015 years, I've had to work at it. And I've had to change things, right? I take an herbal supplement before I go to bed. I'm good, right? So just do what you can to see what your body needs so that you can feel good. And you mentioned the very beginning of your show about wealth, wellness, lifespan versus wellness span, we want our health span to equal our lifespan. So listening to you, not necessarily to all the noise out there.

Roy Barker  37:33

Yeah, that's a great point, we, you know, we are all different individuals with different makeups. And the other thing to talk about doctors not to not being hard on them. But if if you if you don't feel like your doctor is giving you the time, or telling you what you need to hear, it's always good to get a second opinion because unfortunately, you know, we've talked on some other shows about I guess the pattern can be Hey, I have this going on. Okay, great. Here's a pill that'll solve that for you instead of let's figure out what's causing that to make you not feel good. So just, there's a lot of resources out there. Just Just be sure that we're not getting so focused on one. You know what one person is saying, if we don't feel like it's correct, get a second opinion. It doesn't. It never hurts.

Gregory  38:23

Absolutely right.

Roy Barker  38:25

All right, well, what is something that you do in your daily life? It could be professional or personal. But do you have a habit that or habit or an app or a tool or something that you do every day, that adds a lot of value?

Gregory  38:38

Wow, I, you know, I am lucky that I live in a beautiful place. And I would have to say I have nature. And it doesn't matter if it's 22 degrees outside or if it's 102 degrees outside, I have to go outside. And even in the middle of the day, if I'm feeling like that, whatever. It's not enough to look out the window. I just take a few minutes and I go outside and I look at a tree. I'm going to go pick some daffodils after we get done because they finally started blooming. That is my resource happy place. Yeah. remedy.

Roy Barker  39:09

Cool. And that it's it's funny because that's when we have somebody else. Somebody else chatting. No, we have a you know, that's what we do. We we take a lot of stock in nature and Terry has been she has her own herd herd of deer that she nurtures a lot. And so it's it's funny where we are like little kids. We wake up in the morning and the first thing we do is we run to the back window to see how many see how many deer count. Yeah. And we had some rain the other day and so now we've got a flock of ducks that have taken up. Yeah, and I think it was I guess it was bank rat before the big cold snap. We had a flock of probably 25 or 30 turkeys Out of nowhere,

Terry  40:02

I love you've had turkeys too.

Gregory  40:05

And the big the guys when they put out all their feathers, and they do the whole little dance around and I know that women seem to pay attention, you know, I feel bad for them. They're just,

Roy Barker  40:15

you know, I see see them in the woods and on the road, I may see one or two, but having this many it was, you know, we had the wild tears like, what is

Terry  40:26

flying monkeys from the Wizard of Oz is that they were coming down to like they're not graceful when they fly.

Roy Barker  40:35

So anyway, yeah, take the stock in nature. The other thing too, I like to do is to clear my head is you know, get out, take a little short walk. And, you know, just soak it up. Also, I think that one thing it does for us when we take our morning walks, is the gratitude just to be able to look at these beautiful surroundings. I mean, how lucky are we you know, even when I have a piece of podcasting equipment that's given me static, I'm like, you know, it's like that's it's such a small thing compared to this big, beautiful world that we live in. So I guess just everybody try to look around and be grateful for something. So I'm with you. 100%. All right. So tell everybody course how can they get tell us about the book again, tell us how they can get it tell people how Of course they can reach out and get a hold of you. Okay, thank

Gregory  41:23

you for asking the My website is rebellious wellness over fifty.com. And on the website, you'll find a book page. If you look at the little tabs, it says book. And that'll tell you more about it. And you can download a the introduction and the first chapter, which sets up my philosophy, why I wrote the book and then gives you some things to do actually, in the first chapter. For those people who don't want a whole book. And the podcast is there to on the website. And as I mentioned, I can certainly send you guys the what tests you need, etc, etc. and share it with your people. But it will be up on my website. Again, it's not there right now I took it down so that I could put my hidden hidden fat loss saboteurs freebie, it's all about the things that disrupt our hormones that are parts of our everyday life. That helped make it hard for people to lose weight.

Roy Barker  42:19

Okay, interesting. And you also provide coaching services, too. I

Gregory  42:22

know when I do provide coaching services, Yes, I do. And it's an individual thing. I do have a lifestyle assessment, which is a short it's a one hour they answer a questionnaire. And then I give them a response. And we talked about next steps. For people that are feeling like they think they could be doing something a little better. They're not sure what it might be. So it's an easy way to get some information without committing to a whole big coaching program if they're not ready for that.

Terry  42:45

Okay, and for women in men, not just not just you know, it

Gregory  42:48

is for women and men. It's a very different thing. And I mostly get businesses, women over 50 but I have coached men, just a whole different beast. They're like, tell me what to do. I'm gonna do that women are like, wow, last night after I talked to my daughter. That's funny, but yes, I love men too.

Roy Barker  43:08

All right, then. Well, thanks so much. that's gonna do it for another episode of educational. I'm rolling. I'm Terry. And you can always find us at www.ageucational.com and we are on all the major social media platforms, as well as the video of this interview will go up on YouTube when the episode goes live. So appreciate you reaching out. We're on all the major podcast platforms, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Spotify, or not a one that you listened to. Please be sure and reach out. We will be glad to add you. So until next time, take care of yourself and take care of your family.

Terry  43:42

Thank you, Greg.

Gregory  43:43

Thank you so much. You too.

Rebellious Wellness Over 50 Website

www.ageucational.com