Lose Weight Peacefully

Today we are digging into what it means to change. Achieving permanent change is something that has proven impossible for many of you. You might know how to do it, and get temporary results, but nothing sticks around long term. Why is that? Today we are going over EXACTLY what you need to do in order to achieve lasting results, and you won’t even need to rely on your depleting supply of motivation or will-power. Don’t miss out!

Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.

You ready? Let’s Go!

Hey there! I want to start this episode by saying a huge thank you for taking the time to listen to this podcast. Each week a spend a lot of time investing into this work, and I love that you’re willing to invest in yourself by listening and (my hope is) applying these concepts we go over. I’m going to be annoying and ask that each of you take a moment to leave me a review. I know it’s a pain, but it really does help me get this info out to more people. So thank you to those who are willing to pause this episode and do that really quick, but now let’s begin today’s episode about why changing something about yourself is so hard.

So, I want to start by unpacking what it means to change. Change sounds like a simple thing, but we all know it is something very difficult to do. I want to start by looking at what I see as the four universally accepted components of change. First there is a problem that needs to be identified. This can be losing weight, getting rid of chronic symptoms, improving eating habits, exercising consistently, being a better wife/mom/sister/daughter, or even learning how to cope with work pressures. Boom, you’ve identified a problem that you want to solve. Then the second component of change is determining the “how”. How are you going to get this done? This is when you decide on which set of instructions you want to follow. Because there’s many different approaches for solving similar problems. AND, this is where you can easily become persuaded to purchase a “solution” because there’s a strong draw to pay top dollar for someone else’s “proven formula”. Know that getting clear on these two components is very valuable to you because you want to make sure you’re not wasting your time solving a problem you don’t care about, or wasting your time on a “how” that doesn’t work.

So now you know what problem you’re going to solve, and what your step-by-step plan is for how you’re going to get it done. Now you start looking for the third universally accepted component of change which is energy. The most common energy we covet for change is motivation or will-power. Without this component, you know there can’t be success. And there are a ton of different ways to create motivation. You can stew over the gap of who you are vs who you want to be, you can use an upcoming situation to put a timeline pressure, you can use pressure knowing that you have to make this change for the health of your relationship, your health in general, or continued employment. Or you could fall back on the energy produced from negative self talk. Something like “I need to change, I can’t believe you let yourself get to this place, what is wrong with you, etc.” You have many options for creating the energy you know will be required to make this change. But, you know that it can be really hard to drum up enough energy to make this change by yourself. This is where many of you reach out to your spouse, a friend, co-workers, or a professional to help give you externally sourced motivation when you can’t drum it up yourself. They’re casually called your “accountability partner” so that you can remain motivated to keep going when things get tough and when you don’t have it within yourself to keep going. Regardless of the way you get it, motivation or will-power is the next step you seek out when changing a behavior.

And finally, there’s the step of taking action. This is where the rubber meets the road, and tangible actions are taken. Without this step, you can know the problem, the how and have all the motivation in the world, but if you don’t do the thing, you’ll never see the change. Action is the next component each of you see as a vital component of change. Check boxes, task lists, filled up calendars, appointments, etc. Action is where many of you thrive, because it is so fulfilling to see action being done and boxes being checked off your list.

This universally accepted equation for change appears comprehensive and failproof. You have clarity of the problem, instructions for the how, the energy of motivation, and the action required to make the change. This is it, you have all the components you need to change your behaviors for good, right? But if this is true, why is change still so hard? Many of you are highly motivated and take all the action, but permanent change is never achieved. Or you know exactly how to solve the problem and you take lots of action despite low motivation, and still permanent change is not achieved. This can lead to frustration, overwhelm and confusion. Why is permanently changing your behavior so darn hard?!

I of course want to go over the missing piece that is not taught. It’s my goal with this podcast to make sure and teach what our culture and upbringing often leaves out. I want you to leave here with the tools and capacity to change yourself permanently and effectively, even when things get hard. So let’s start with what we do know. We know the result we want to achieve, which is the problem to be solved. We know we need to take action, and we also know we need to have decided HOW we’re going to get this done. Then we know there needs to be energy of some kind, often it is motivation or will-power that gets attention as the currency that will be required. And now here’s the most important piece of this equation, and thankfully it also is a component that remains 100% in your control. Maintaining control over your thoughts throughout this whole process will be crucial to achieving permanent action and therefore permanent change. And why this is imperative is because it’s your thoughts that create your energy, and your energy that drive action, and through consistent action you will generate your desired results.

A common mistake for behavior change is thinking that taking action = results. But I want you to consider that it is less about the action and more about the energy behind the action. If you want to learn more about this, listen to episode 10. And further, the energy behind your action is always created by the thoughts you are choosing to believe. Notice I said the thoughts you’re believing, which is an important distinction because it is 100% possible to have thoughts that do not generate energy simply because you are choosing not to believe them. But there is a magic that happens when you decide to think specific thoughts that drive intentional energy. From that intentional energy, you will have the capacity to create sustainable energy that will drive your actions so that you can get your results.

I want to share an example of one of my clients. She was losing weight consistently, doing all the actions she had planned, and felt energized in the process. She was operating from the energy of determination being driven from the thought “I can do this, I have the tools I need this time” But what was fascinating is that her weight loss began to slow despite taking all the same actions. When I brought it up with her, there was more of an energy of defeat than determination. She noticed how she was still eating well, but had an unplanned chocolate a few more times than anticipated. She was still avoiding the foods that caused her inflammation, but was noticing she was having more and more symptoms occurring. After our coaching session we uncovered the subconscious thought she had been believing this whole time which was “you might be seeing results now, but you know this won’t last”. When we uncovered it, she knew it was a thought she believed because when she said it aloud she had a tremendous sense of defeat wash over her. She knew it to be true, even when she didn’t want it to be.

But just simply knowing this thought was there, she was able to hear her brain bring it up and she was finally able to see it as optional. She knew attempts in the past hadn’t worked before, but she also knew that her past did not determine what’s possible in her future. She decided to believe new thoughts on purpose driving her continued determination that served her so well the previous few months.  She knew that if she allowed herself to operate from an energy of defeat, she would get the exact results those thoughts alluded to… that the results would not last.

There is something to notice about the thoughts you choose to believe, and the energy you choose to operate from. Notice what thoughts energize you, and notice which thoughts drain you. If you are choosing to think a thought that creates motivation, but is equally draining, is this a thought that ultimately serves you? Thoughts like this are usually at your own expense. “You’re so disgusting” is a good example. Sure, you can generate some motivation from it, but ultimately this thought will drain you because it’s origin is to be victim to your body. Alternatively, you can also generate motivation from a thought like “This time is different” which drives motivation, but also energizes you in the process. Notice how those thoughts feel different. If your thoughts are not in alignment with having your own back, just know that you are operating from a limited supply of energy.

I also want you to notice something about thoughts from my example. We know that thoughts create energy of some kind 100% of the time. This is how your body creates energy by your brain generating a perception or judgement of the world around you. But also notice that thoughts can be conscious or unconscious. They will always be there because you think about 70,000 thoughts every single day. But when you are making intentional change, you will need to begin to think intentionally. You CANNOT think intentionally with thoughts that are subconscious. Subconscious thoughts are passively believed as fact, and they drive your energy all the same. If you do not do the work bringing these thoughts to the surface, you will never have the opportunity to choose whether you want to continue thinking them or not. If you are stuck believing subconscious thoughts that generate defeat and discouragement ahead of time, what results do you think you are going to achieve? How permanent will this change be if you finally achieve it?

So, today I want you to remember that it’s your thoughts that create your energy, and your energy that drive your actions, and your actions that create your results. Today is the perfect day to begin taking notice of the thoughts your brain comes up with, and seek to be witness to them with pen to paper. Become the watcher of yourself as we discussed in episode 3, so that you can consistently and predictably show up for yourself and truly change your own life. You’ve got this, and I’m so honored to help you along the way.

If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.

This episode is pure gold and guaranteed to change the way you view your life. We will be discussing what will be required for you to confidently and effortlessly achieve your goals. We will be going over tools that are not intuitive, and tools that you have likely never used before. Today we are boldly learning new things so that you can boldly transition into a new and better version of yourself. A you who can lose weight, live healthy, and feel amazing. Let’s Go!

Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.

You ready? Let’s Go!

Hey there! Today is a beautiful day, not only because every day has beauty in it, but because today we are going to talk about having your own back. This episode is going to be gold my friends, and I hope it will change the life of at least one of you out there. This is not something that is taught in school, this is not something that is intuitive, and this is not something that is easy to do. You will have to fight to hold space for this and you will have to aggressively seek to find within yourself a clean space of awareness.

So let’s start by unpacking this concept for a bit… having your own back. I like to think about it like YOU’RE the one to catch YOURSELF when stuff doesn’t go the way you planned. I want you to transition into being your own best friend. You get to be the one to call in the middle of the night, you are the ultimate safety net, and you are your own partner in crime. I like to use examples, so here we go.

Let’s say that after a week of dieting, you hop on the scale and the scale is up instead of down. Ugh, right… freaking unbelievable. BUT, having your own back would look like looking in the mirror and saying to yourself, “hey there love, I’ve got you. I wonder what didn’t work for us this week. But don’t worry, tomorrow will be better”.

Or some of you might have just gotten a scary new diagnosis, let’s say diabetes or even an autoimmune condition. I want you to be able to hold space for the fear, but with love be able to reassure yourself.  It might look something like this… “Hey there love, I know you’re scared, but together we’re going to make this for our good, ok? We can do hard things, and I love you” Let’s do one more quick example. Maybe you find yourself fist deep in a bag of chips when previously you’ve decided you don’t want to include chips in your food protocol anymore. I want you to be able to say to yourself that night, “What’s the matter love? Why did we choose the chips? How can I help you, and where can I support you right now? I know those chips are good, and this coming week, let’s figure out how to not even want them anymore”

Can you think of what it would look like in your life to have your own back?

If you’ve never had your back before, this will feel very foreign. You will feel fake and very much like an imposter saying things you don’t mean. You will be going against what you have previously known, and choose to instead act like an actor in a completely new role. Having your back will require many things, but today I want to focus on two key factors. The first is learning the skill to hold space for yourself, and learning to rest in the truth that nothing has gone wrong. You might have to wrestle your brain when you first decide to do this, because it will immediately decide to throw a 3 year old sized temper tantrum. You will decide intentionally to believe the thought that nothing has gone wrong, even when your OWN brain and EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE in the world is trying to convince you otherwise. You will quietly and lovingly hold space for yourself to breathe and remember, “Nothing has gone wrong, this is exactly what was supposed to happen”. This will be the first thing you will begin to live into.

The second key factor you will live into is the skill of being able to love yourself through it all. To refuse to take sides against your decisions. To refuse to criticize yourself, or blindly believe the criticism of others. I’m not saying you shouldn’t find the truth in the criticism of others and use it for your good, but I want you to process that criticism with your higher brain, not with your emotional brain. You will intentionally decide never take sides against yourself, even if your actions were not actions you’d choose to take again. When you have your own back, it’s a little less finger pointing, and a little more taking ownership. When you have your own back, you make decisions strongly and intentionally, and choose that no matter the outcome, you made the right decision and did the right thing.

Why will you want to have your own back? What’s the potential for payoff, because obviously it sounds like a lot of work to learn, right? But here it is my friends…

Having your own back is the currency you will NEED to CONFIDENTLY pursue any goals in your future. Whatever that goal may be. Losing weight, getting healthier, improving your marriage, earning more money, whatever the goal. Because when you pursue something you’ve never done before, you are going to stumble, and you’re going to fall flat on your face. When you try to lose weight, you’re going to actually gain it some weeks. And if you make this mean something negative about YOU instead of intentionally deciding to believe this is instead FOR YOUR GOOD, you’re going to fall off track… 100% of the time. When you lose weight and the conversation is against yourself, what are your actions from that space? Your current conversations might sound like… “I knew you couldn’t do this, why even bother. You couldn’t eat your favorite foods this last week AND you couldn’t even lose weight. You’re such a failure” What are you going to go do? I guarantee it isn’t going to bring you closer to your goals of weight loss!! BUT INSTEAD, what if your internal conversation sought to have your back instead? It might look like… “Hmmm, I noticed we gained some weight this week. I wonder what’s going on? Is there something that happened this week we could strategize better for next time? Don’t worry love, I’ve got you. Tomorrow will be better.” Notice the ownership “we” instead of “you” takes. What are your actions going to be from this energy of love and support? Which conversation feels better, and more in alignment with who you want to be in your future?

So now we’ve unpacked WHAT it looks like to have your own back, and WHY this is an important skillset to develop. Now I want to talk about the HOW you’re going to begin living into this new version of yourself. And this will require you to do something you’ve never done before. But that totally makes sense, right? If you’re trying to change your life, and trying to learn the new skill of having your own back, of course you’re going to tap into foreign concepts and tools you’ve never tried before. So today, you are going to implement 2 new tools. The first tool will help you in the moment, and the second tool will help you to begin moving forward into sustainable change. Each of these tools works synergistically with the other, and can be used no matter where you’re at in this initiative to have your own back. Whether you’re a pro, or a beginner, these tools will be used continuously.

Tool one begins with an understanding that YOU ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS. It is easy to believe that when your brain comes up with a thought, that it’s your automatic job to believe them and go with them. You have never been taught that believing thoughts is an optional choice, this is something that is missed in grade school. But today I am asking you to listen to your thoughts, and choose which thoughts you want to believe. I want you to stay with me here, because here is where I’m going to tell you exactly what you’ll need to do to implement tool number one. You will need to listen to the thoughts your brain offers up about you, and consciously choose not to believe any thoughts that put YOU AT ODDS with your body. Any negative or hurtful thought that you yourself would never say to a friend, will be noted, but not believed. I want you to instead, hear the un-useful thoughts and respond to your brain with kindness and love. It might sound something like this…  “no brain, not today. Today we choose love, and that doesn’t feel like me loving me.” Or “No brain, we don’t talk to ourselves like that anymore” or even “Oh brain, you’re mistaken. I even love me when…” When you first begin to implement this tool, don’t be discouraged when you need to use it A LOT over the first few days. A lot of these thoughts have just been subconsciously believed, so it might startle you when you begin hearing all of them consciously. Nothing has gone wrong, just keep talking back to your brain with kindness and love. “Not today brain, we don’t talk to ourselves like that anymore”

The second tool is going to be less of a response in the moment, and more of an intentional plan. It will be a vital part of your life that will help you to take ownership and be less of a victim to yourself when things don’t go as planned. This second tool is to make decisions strongly. This means to intentionally decide a direction you want to go, and strongly decide that regardless of outcome, it was the right decision. This tool will begin with choosing an outcome you are wanting, and then really making sure you like your reasons. When you decide that you like your reasons, and you want this outcome, then you strongly decide that you will not second guess your decision, even when things don’t go the way you planned. Let’s go over an example to bring it more to everyday life. Let’s say you have an upcoming birthday party. You decide that you want to continue to eat from your food protocol, and the reason you like is that it keeps you symptom free and clear headed. You decide ahead of time that the birthday cake and pizza is just not worth the symptoms. But when you get there, it turns out to be your favorite cake that you haven’t had in over a year. All of your friends have gotten their piece, and you’ve just said no thank you when asked if you wanted a piece. All of a sudden you hear your brain chime in “A little won’t hurt” or “Nobody will even notice” or “If you had known THAT CAKE was being served, you never would have made this choice!” Immediately your brain is on the offense, and you now have a wonderful opportunity. This is your chance to practice having your own back, and choosing NOT to go back on the decision you’ve already made. Maybe you’ll implement tool number one and with love talk back to your brain “Oh brain, I know you want cake. But we’ve already made this decision, no cake is what we’ve decided we want today.” Or maybe you’ll rest in the peace that you’ve already decided this ahead of time and that it’s just not even up for discussion. When you make decisions strongly, and know that you like your reasons, it can be much easier to follow through with what you want, and begin to build trust with yourself. Now don’t get me wrong, when you first use this second tool, you will not feel great. This will likely feel very uncomfortable! But you’ve decided this discomfort of allowing an urge now is what you are willing to experience instead of the discomfort later of experiencing symptoms or gaining weight.  These two tools will take time to become second nature, but once you implement them consistently every day, they will become effortless. This is one way you can stay on track towards your goals without tapping into willpower. You will slowly begin noticing a blossoming relationship of trust with yourself. And then my friends, you will begin to live into the person who has their own back, no matter what.

That’s all I have for you today. Remember, having your own back is the CURRENCY you will need to confidently pursue and achieve your goals. You’ve got this, you are amazing, and now it’s time for you to believe that too. Talk to you next week, bye!

If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.

Many of you type A personalities take pride in your to-do lists. You love to check boxes, take action and do all the things you know you have to do to achieve success. But what if I told you that taking action was not the most important step? What if it more mattered on the energy behind your actions. Join me today as we unpack this concept and how you can begin applying it to your life today.

Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.

You ready? Let’s Go!

Hey there! How’s it going? I’m having a great day so far. The sun in shining, and I’m super excited to talk with you today about the energy behind your actions. BUT, if you didn’t tune in for last week’s episode about losing weight vs. gaining health, I’m going to ask that you listen to that right after you’re done here with me. There are such foundational and important concepts that were talked about, and I really don’t want you to miss out. But today, this week, we’re going to focus on the energy behind your actions.

I’m especially talking to those of you out there who are my people pleasing, type A, overachievers. You are the ladies who focus on checking boxes, doing action, getting stuff done. You are the ladies who focus on action in order to get results, because this is how you think results are obtained. Action. Pure and simple. But the thing you’ve been missing in this equation is that action may equal temporary results, but action does NOT equal behavior change. Action may lead to losing weight quickly, but gaining back even more all said and done. And I think each of you out there will give me a quick head nod when I say that you’re done with the temporary fixes. It’s time to figure this out for good so that you can move onto other things in your life.

You will instead want to focus on the energy behind the action you’re doing. What is the energy driving your actions? What are the emotions you’re feeling as you go to do various tasks? Are you feeling an energy of dread, overwhelm or discouragement? Or are you generating the energy of determination, excitement or courage instead? There is a big difference in the actions you take when you’re acting from discouragement versus determination. BUT your actions may look the exact same! Let’s take a peak into what I mean by this.

Let’s say you have an upcoming dinner with friends where you don’t have control over what you’re eating. You’ve been eating on your protocol for a month, and your goal is to continue to eat well, lose weight and feel amazing. BUT you’re coming into a circumstance where you don’t have any control over what you’re eating. There’s going to be friends, alcohol, foods you love… you know you’re going to be hungry, but you don’t know if you should just figure out what to eat there, bring your own food, only have one drink, only have one treat… there are just so many ways this night could go! And all you want to do is be able to eat what’s at the party and drink a glass of wine with friends, but you decide to bring and eat your own food instead. Discouragement and frustration is behind the action of taking your own food, but you do it anyway because you want to keep moving towards your goals.

But there’s another way this night could go. Same circumstance, you have an upcoming dinner with friends where you have no control over what you’re eating. You know there’s going to be foods there that you enjoy, the opportunity to drink some wine with friends. You’re well aware of what you’re getting yourself into. But you also know that staying on protocol is actually what you desire, not all of these indulgences. You decide to take matters into your own hands and bring and eat your own food. Determination and courage is behind the action of taking your own food, and you do it because you want to keep moving towards your goals.

In this story, the action is the same. You bring and eat your own food at a dinner party with friends. But notice which energy feels less resistant and more sustainable. The energy of discouragement and frustration may get you the same action, but will this energy ultimately be the driver that will help you reach your end goal? Or is this tapping into a limited supply of energy that fades away quickly with continued use? But when you tap into the energy of determination and courage, how does this feel? Now I’m not saying this is going to be sunshine and rainbows, it’s still going to be hard to eat only food you’ve brought when surrounded by the smells and social pressure of alcohol.  But generating an energy of determination and courage is an energy that fills you because you are owning this decision ahead of time. You are deciding ahead of time that this is what you truly desire, and the rest is just managing your urges. You are not being controlled by the food or environment you are entering, YOU are remaining in control of the one thing you can control in this circumstance. YOU. Not because you have to, because we all know you’re a big girl and can do whatever the heck you want to. Having to do something against your own will is exhausting and fleeting. No, you are doing this action because you want to.

Where in your life are you acting against your own will. Where are you focusing on actions and expecting long term results? Where in your life have your actions failed you, and lead you down the opposite path of where you wanted to go?

What I want you to do this week is begin to take notice of the actions you’re doing, and begin to feel the energy behind those actions. Become curious and really investigate where this energy might be stemming from, if it feels draining or sustainable?  And if the energy is NOT the energy you want to be taking action from, begin to take action instead on changing the emotions that you are generating within your own brain. Next week we will focus on how you can generate emotions that better serve you, and how to shift away from emotions that are holding you back.

Let’s start taking control of the only thing you can control in life, and this isn’t your actions my friends. I want you to begin taking control over your brain. Alright everyone, I’ll talk to you next week. Bye!

If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.

Losing weight is a goal many of you have. This goal seems worthy, objective and understandable. But what if this goal was actually the thing holding you back from your true desires? What is it that you want to achieve from losing weight? Join me today as we discuss losing weight vs gaining health.

Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.

You ready? Let’s Go!

Hey there! Today I want to go in a different direction with this episode. We’ve been talking a lot about what you can do to feel better, mostly because symptoms are annoying and it’s nice to know how to feel great when you want to. But for today I want to shift our focus to what it will LOOK like when you’re on the path to gaining health instead of losing weight.

Losing weight is really catchy. Sure, for some people there’s a lot of dread, overwhelm, frustration… But the possibility of losing weight is really quite exciting. There a decisive point when you decide enough is enough. There is a search to figure out how you’re going to lose the weight. You get to choose what foods you’re going to eat, how much you’re going to eat, when and how you’re going to shop and prep all of these things so that you don’t fall back into old habits. Then once food is settled on, you focus your attention to exercise… how much you’re going to exercise, what types of exercise you’re going to do, when you’re going to fit it in, what equipment to buy, walks to take, friends to go with. At the beginning of a weight loss adventure, there really is a lot of anticipation and decisions to be made. There may even be the excitement of the last day before your diet, right? The day you get to splurge because tomorrow you’re going to start. Your dopamine (which is the brain chemical of motivation) is really present at this point! First week of dieting down, you might feel awful, but the scale has gifted you with a significant loss of weight already. Yes!! You’re on your way! Enter motivation because by golly, the scale is moving! But then after a few weeks, the excitement fades. The scale begins to move less and less. You become less motivated to plan foods ahead of time. Parties, holidays, weekends away begin to knock you off track. Your calorie deficit is begun to shift to more calorie neutral from overeating and under exercising. You try to tap into the motivation to continue, but it’s long gone and has been replaced with this steady urge for carb filled, sweet and salty foods.

Setting a goal of weight loss sounds pretty. It sounds like you’re on the right track… you’ve set an objective goal, you have a destination in mind. But when you set a goal of weight loss, I think you are completely missing the point. Weight loss should never be the primary goal, and this is because you lose sight of the purpose entirely. How I know weight loss should never be the goal is because there’s a clear start and a finish line. When the scale says a certain number, you’re done. You’ve arrived. You can relax back into the life you really want to be living instead of this dieting hell you’ve been going through. And the scale tells you numbers that might entirely be taken out of context. You may think you’ve done well this week by dropping 2lbs, but how can it be a win if those 2lbs were lost from eating foods that promote inflammation and strain? The number on the scale should instead be used as an objective piece of evidence letting you know how your body is responding to your plan. The end number should be a rough guess, an estimate of where you think your body wants to go. If you are taking care of your body in the way that it needs, it will reward you with weight loss and longevity. How much weight it releases is completely up to your willingness to stay on protocol, what protocol you’ve decided to do, your genetic capacity and your willingness to feel your feelings. When you become fixated on a number on the scale, what can happen is a tunnel vision to the how it happens. This can lead to crash diets, severe limitations of food and nutrient variety, and weight loss against the will of your body.

When your focus is on gaining health, weight loss looks like taking care of your body. You transition into the space where you want to love your body because of the amazing things it does for you every single day. Your body protects you from diseases, removes toxins from your environment, produces chemicals, hormones and nutrients, allows you to move throughout the world, allows you to see the world, hear, touch, taste. Your body is your partner in life, you will never get another you live with so intimately and consistently. When you shift your perspective to gaining health, you come alongside your body and begin to work together synergistically to reach a common goal. Your body wants to be healthy, just like you do. It wants to live long, feel good, and take you all the places you want to go. Your body wants to lose weight, it doesn’t want to hang onto extra energy that compromises your overall quality of life. Your body is your friend, and when you begin to talk and treat your body like you do your best friend, only then will it begin to respond with equal love and grace.

Losing weight sounds like a healthy and appropriate thing to do. But losing weight should never be at the expense of the relationship you have with your body. There should never be resentment, disgust, deprivation or discouragement. These are the emotions that breed inflammation, hormone dysregulation and being stuck in fight or flight. Losing weight should not be a gruff dictatorship where you tell your body what is going to happen. The foods used to lose weight should never promote strain and inflammation despite being marketed as healthy, low calorie or “good for you”. Losing weight should NOT be your PRIMARY goal because a lower number on a scale means NOTHING if your brain and body has not been optimized. I am very passionate about this belief because I believe it so completely. I feel that this is where many of you are going down the wrong path, and I know it’s where many of you can completely change your lives. There are many specific tools that can be used to cultivate a deep relationship of love and trust with yourself, all of which I teach within Synergistic Lifestyle, the program I’ve carefully developed to help women reduce their inflammation and achieve optimal health with a by-product of weight loss. If that is something that interests you, I encourage you to head over to YourLivingHealth.com and book your free consult. For everyone else, I want you each to evaluate the ways you are using to lose weight. I want you to evaluate and question your goals. I want you to see if these goals and weight loss methods are in alignment with an improved or estranged relationship with your body. I want you to use today to gain awareness, and use that awareness to help you decide where you ultimately want to go. Do you want to lose weight? Or do you want to gain health? I’ll talk to you next week, bye everybody!

If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.

Chronic anxiety is a condition that can easily take over much of your thoughts. Anxiety is a common emotion, but it can quickly lead to a symptom filled life created by the fight or flight defense mechanism. Together we will go over where anxiety originates from, and the what you can do to protect yourself from a life of being stuck in defense mode.

Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.

You ready? Let’s Go!

Hey there! Today I want to talk about anxiety as a physical symptom that many of you experience on a day to day basis. But In addition to the physical sensation of anxiety, I also want to shift the way you think ABOUT your anxiety.

And where I want to start is by getting more clear on what this sensation IS in the first place. Anxiety is a feeling, and feelings are created by thoughts (or sentences) that we generate in our brains. Anxiety is a very common feeling, and when CREATED, it triggers the release of many chemicals, neuromodulators, neurotransmitters and hormones such as cortisol, dopamine, serotonin, thyroid hormones, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and more. Just like all feelings, when your brain thinks a thought… it creates a feeling. Then that feeling is FELT systemically through the process of your brain releasing a chemical cascade that works its way through every system of your body. Some emotions are intense, and others are mild, but each are felt through this same chain of events. Circumstance triggers thought, thought triggers feeling, and feeling triggers action.

So let’s talk a little bit about how you may process anxiety.

Many of you may give anxiety a lot of power over your life. You might think of anxiety as an intensely uncomfortable sensation to sit with, leading you to consciously avoid situations that may create more of it.  Interestingly, your primal brain feels the same way about feeling discomfort, therefore your primal brain will also sub-consciously lead you away from these situations and instead guide you TOWARDS comfortable and safe alternatives. Consciously AND sub-consciously, there is often measures in place to avoid this feeling. Examples of what this may look like is having a snack or a sweet treat, indulging in some alcohol, watching a little extra tv, digging into your work, exercising a little longer each time, all of these actions INSTEAD OF allowing yourself to feel it completely.  When you avoid anxiety, you might inadvertently be increasing the amount of damage this feeling may cause in your life.

Another way you may process anxiety is by resisting it. Anxiety can be a feeling that is felt acutely, or even chronically. Some of you may wake up with a low grade sensation of anxiety, and then frantically try to figure out what “caused” this anxiety in the first place. You may frequently judge yourself with thoughts like “what’s wrong with me” and “normal people don’t think like this” or even “if I were normal this wouldn’t even be an issue!” When you resist or push away this feeling, what might instead happen is this feeling fights back. Resisting may create more of a robust and intense version of the original sensation of anxiety. You may accidentally convert an acute event into a chronic feeling, one where you can no longer find the off switch.  When you resist, you are creating a battle within yourself where you will lose 100% of the time.

The other way you may process anxiety is by indulging in it. You may be that person that wakes up with anxiety, potentially even as early as 3:00 am. You may recognize that you have it, and then go to work figuring out what you’ve done (or haven’t done) for it to be there. You may build a life where you are trying to outrun anxiety by thinking up every possible scenario and solving for them ahead of time. You may act from the space of anxiety and your actions will come across as frantic, nervous or inherently chaotic. You may even have anxiety over having anxiety, which will only work to increase the intensity, duration and frequency in your life.

But there is another option that I want you to work on incorporating into your day to day routine. This option is not intuitive, and this option will force you to live a more conscious and intentional lifestyle. What if instead of avoiding, resisting or indulging in your anxiety, you just ALLOWED it to pass through you. What if you recognized that the only thing creating this feeling was believing a sentence generated by your brain. What if you could allow yourself to breathe into the discomfort of watching your physical body react to the chemical cascade being generated. What if you didn’t make it mean anything about you, and just allowed it to remain an objective and neutral sensation. What if you remained in the truth of your biology, and found strength knowing that you have a body that wants to protect you. What if you remained in the truth that nothing external was causing you to feel this way, and nothing external can solve for it.  Breathing into anxiety is the only way that you can process it fully WITHOUT allowing more harm to be generated.

But, there is one more thing that some of you may need to consider about your anxiety. It may sound a little out of right field, but I want you to truly consider this possibility. What if your body actually craved the chemical chaos of anxiety? The cortisol, the adrenaline, the epinephrine. What if consciously you want to get out of anxiety, but subconsciously your brain is driving you into those situations without regard. You crave the high. You crave the chaos. You crave what you want out of it. This is very common in careers that work in high stress environments. Once that anxiety response gets turned on, it can be hard to turn off, especially if subconsciously you crave it. But when you transition into leading a conscious and intentional life, this is a process you can watch, allow and begin to slowly back away from.

So I want to summarize some of these key points about anxiety, and how you can process it to reduce the physical symptoms and symptom manifestations.

For those of you who regularly experience anxiety, you are not alone. You may naturally feel anxiety more often than others, or you may fall victim to the influence of the culture we live in. This does not mean you are broken, this does not make you less worthy, or less valuable than anybody else. This is just your opportunity to embrace a natural discomfort of life, and find yourself stronger and more resilient on the other side.

If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you suffer from stomach or intestinal cramping, bloating and gas pains, this episode is for you. We are going to be summarizing the 10 most common culprits that cause cramping. This episode is meant to be an overview instead of a deep dive into specific triggers. Cramping is one of the most complex inflammatory symptoms to decode because it is a symptom of MANY different conditions. Together let’s discuss what might be causing your cramping so that you can strategically target a specific culprit to put an end to your daily pain.

Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.

You ready? Let’s Go!

Hey there! Today we are going to continue with our recurring theme of helping you achieve symptom relief. And for many of you our there, the thing that plagues you most is stomach and intestinal cramping. Often this has an element of bloating and trapped gas too, but the symptom most often complained about is the painful cramping. The cramping can also have some variety in location, each meaning something unique. There’s upper gastric cramping which is around the stomach area. There’s upper left cramping which is around where the small intestines connect to the stomach. And then the most common is lower cramping that can be connected to spasms of the small and large intestines. In each of these cramping locations, there can be sharp pains, dull pressures, intense bloating, or more of a bubble gut sensation.

Cramping is the result of many different things that might be going on under the surface. Today I want to go over the 10 most common culprits that cause cramping. My goal is for you to be able to troubleshoot your situation, and hopefully begin to taper this annoyance in your life. The list of the culprits are:

Fiber

FODMAP carbohydrates

Candida

Bacterial Dysbiosis

Mental Stress

Lactose intolerance

SIBO or IMO

Antigen sensitivity

Sugar or artificial sweeteners

Gluten

And please keep in mind, this episode is ABSOLUTELY an overview of the common culprits. Going into each of these in-depth would make this an 8 hour episode, and I’m going to attempt to keep this less than 30 minutes. I can expand on each of these in future episodes if you are wanting more of a deep dive. You just let me know!

So let’s start with fiber. Fiber is often the first line defense with anything gut related. Usually when we think fiber, we’re meaning the indigestible (or insoluble) fiber that creates bulk for our stool. It’s what allows for easier turd formation. All fruits, vegetables and the hull of grains contains this insoluble fiber. But more importantly than just forming a turd, this fiber is the food that feeds the bacteria that live in our colons. The common train of thought is that too little fiber causes constipation, too much fiber causes diarrhea. This just isn’t true. The amount of fiber you need will vary based on the bacteria you have living in your gut. You can have a normal daily bowel movement with very minimal fiber, or you can eat only vegetables and fruits all day but suffer from constipation.

People with a diverse and healthy gut environment have a wide range of bacteria that thrive on all types of insoluble fiber. But some of you will have bacterial environments that do not support large amounts of indigestible fiber, and having large amounts can cause intense cramping or gassy bubble guts. If this is you, you might have more of a bacterial environment supporting more simple sugars or meats instead. If you want to include more fibrous vegetables into your day, you’re going to need to slowly increase the amounts to give your bacteria some time to settle and shift. Some people just never will tolerate large amounts of fiber, and that can be completely healthy too. But if you’re needing to include more vegetables into your diet for whatever reason, just make sure to choose wisely and go slow, or you’re setting yourself up for all the cramping.

Next is FODMAP sugars which stands for fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyols, which are short-chain carbohydrates (or sugars) that the small intestine absorbs poorly. Removing FODMAP fibers became a common first line therapy for the treatment of IBS, mostly because it was identified that a lot of people just don’t have the bacteria to properly digest these sugars. This can include foods like asparagus, scallions, apples, spinach, avocado, onion, garlic, wheat, some dairy, etc. There are many FODMAP containing foods, and removing them can be helpful to stop some intense cramping. But most of you won’t cramp to ALL of these FODMAP foods, so the trick is carefully re-introducing these culprits back into your normal diet to see which ones cause discomfort and which are completely benign.

Third is a candida overgrowth. Candida is a yeast that is always present in your digestive system, but sometimes there can be an overgrowth leading to more of an upper-gastric bloat and cramping pains. A candida overgrowth can occur after taking antibiotics, by having a diet that’s high in sugar or simple carbohydrates, stress, an intense sickness, etc. I think one of the classic candida overgrowth symptoms is relentlessly craving sugars and carbohydrates. These simple carbohydrates are the actual food of these bacteria, so these bacteria will actually create your sugar cravings therefore making sure they get the food required to thrive. But when you eat other types of fibers, THIS OVERPOPULATED candida yeast doesn’t properly digest them. AND unfortunately, you lack in bacterial diversity because of this overgrowth, therefore you can’t handle these other insoluble fibers very well. This can lead to intense bloating and cramping when eating anything other than simple carbs and meats.

Fourth is a generalized bacterial dysbiosis, but not necessarily relating to candida overgrowth. Your colon is a delicate balance of good and bad bacteria, and sometimes situations can trigger an imbalance to this good and bad ratio causing inflammation and symptom manifestation. Triggers of bacterial dysbiosis include overeating certain macronutrients (like too many simple carbs or too many meats), an abundance of alcohol, antibiotics, stress, or acute infections. A dysbiosis can cause sharp painful cramping in addition to a gassy and bloated sensation. Probiotics and prebiotics can be introduced to help to rebalance the bacteria ratio, but often more intensive interventions need to occur in order to cause die-off of the bad, and growth of the good.

Fifth common trigger is mental stress. Stress that is created from the brain creates a chemical and hormonal cascade that leads to dysbiosis, acute cramping and intense symptom manifestation. When you are emotionally or mentally stressed, this leads to the overproduction of cortisol and the stress hormone adrenaline or epinephrine. These fight or flight hormones wreak havoc on your intestinal environment. When you are stressed, your body is not worried about digestion, it is just trying to stay alive. And these hormones will cause many inflammatory symptoms to develop until you intentionally learn the skills to manage your mind and turn off this built in protection mode.

The sixth trigger is lactose intolerance. Lactose is the sugar in milk that simply cannot break down. As you age or if you don’t include a lot of dairy in your diet, you slowly stop producing the lactase enzyme required to break down this lactose sugar. This lack of digestion can excite the bacteria in your guts if it reaches there intact, causing all those nasty symptoms.

The seventh trigger is a very complex condition that can take a long time to rebalance. This is SIBO (which stands for Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth) and IMO (which stands for intestinal methanogen overgrowth). These conditions occur when the bacteria in the colon are starved of food, and instead of dying decide to seek food more upstream in your small intestines. Upstream these bacteria will find undigested carbohydrates, and become quite content setting up camp there because of the abundance of food. This can lead to sharp and painful upper gastric cramping and intense bloating. The sister to this condition is IMO, which is the same concept, just a different type of microbe overgrowth. This microbe is quite a challenge to deal with because it is able to live in anaerobic environments and is quite resilient. Creating conditions where these microbes will diet off completely often requires medical intervention with targeted antibiotics or herbal therapies.

The eight trigger is an antigen sensitivity to various proteins, chemicals, or whatever else your body deems as a threat. When your immune system identifies certain food substances as foreign invaders, it then triggers your immune cells to attack. These immune cells release mediators which are produced as chemical warfare against these foreign invaders. When your body is exposed to this chemical warfare, often this can lead to intense cramping, bloat or other symptoms of inflammation such as achy joints, headaches, lethargy, anxiety and more.

The ninth trigger is the exposure to dense sources of sugar or artificial sweeteners. Although these can cause the dysbiosis we’ve talked about previously, there’s another way that you can experience cramping from these sweet culprits. What sugar or artificial sweeteners can do is actually pull water and electrolytes INTO your guts, therefore causing diarrhea. This can feel like a very sharp pain often followed by a round of diarrhea.

The final culprit for cramping is gluten. Some of you may have the autoimmune condition known as celiac disease where your body’s immune system reacts to the protein gluten by targeting your small intestine lining. However many of you may not necessarily have celiac disease, but have developed an antigen sensitivity to gluten causing the chemical warfare reaction explained earlier. Either way, gluten is the 10th most common culprit for causing cramping.

Whew!! That is quite an extensive list! I without a doubt think that intestinal cramping is one of the most complex symptoms to decode. There are so many factors that play into this common symptom, that it can seem overwhelming to know where to even start. If this is way too much information and you’re looking to get rid of this symptom quickly and with minimal learning curve, I encourage you to head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free consult. Working with someone 1:1 might just be the thing that changes everything for you. With that I’ll say bye for this week, and I can’t wait to talk with you again soon. Bye!

If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.

If you suffer from brain fog, you must tune into this episode. Brain fog is a symptom that is often ignored, but that alludes to a scary process unfolding under the surface. Brain fog can easily be equated to a poor nights sleep, busy days or just getting older. I want to help you understand what is actually happening.

Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.

You ready? Let’s Go!

Hey there! You ready to keep learning about the symptoms of inflammation? I know I am. These symptoms are so common, and are easily overlooked, but today I want to shed some light on a symptom that should not be ignored. And that symptom is brain fog my friends. Brain fog can look like reduced cognition, reduced memory function, reduced ability to multi-task, limited ability to find words, and an overall sensation like there’s a curtain between you and the world. Brain fog can lead to reduced productivity at home and work, increased lethargy, strain in relationships, and long term risk of scary conditions like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and dementia.

Brain fog can be a chronic low grade annoyance, or come and go with your sleep quality, after being sick, and with other inflammatory related flairs such as IBS. And what’s interesting is that brain fog also is common with neuroimmune conditions such as Autism Spectrum Disorder, Fibromyalgia, POTS, chronic fatigue syndrome, and celiac disease.

Brain fog is also very common amongst those with mast cell activation disorders and other conditions that lead to a low grade chronic inflammatory response. At this point I’m hoping you’re seeing the trend beneath the surface of brain fog. Yes, you got it, inflammation.

The broad overview is that brain fog is the result of a chronic inflammatory response that leads to brain inflammation and the untimely death of your brain cells.  Now let’s dig in a little bit deeper, but I’ll make sure to remain in a place that is simple to understand.

Your brain is surrounded by what’s called the blood brain barrier which has a job of protecting the environment of your brain which is obviously a highly specialized organ. When you experience low grade chronic inflammation, this barrier becomes more permeable (meaning it lets things through that shouldn’t be there). This change in brain environment then triggers MORE activity of a cellular clean up system meant to protect your brain cells because your body knows that these cells are slow to repair themselves. The result of this blood brain barrier permeability is brain inflammation. And when your brain is inflamed, that system that is responsible for removing dead and dying neurons (the same system that is meant to protect your brain) loses the ability to accurately differentiate between the dying neurons and the healthy neurons. So that system that is meant to protect your brain function can instead forcibly remove your healthy neurons with the noticeable side effect of brain fog.

Do you see the importance of this? Brain fog is literally the result of your brain cells dying from an uptick of the trash clean up crew doing a bad job cleaning! This should not be taken lightly!

Now that we know what’s going on under the surface, let’s discuss what I don’t want you to do. You might feel the need to stress and worry when you are experiencing brain fog. But as we know from episode 2, when you don’t properly manage your mind you can promote increased inflammation from the hormonal cascade triggered by stress. So… stressing about your brain fog is absolutely not the answer, because it will only promote more brain fog. Some of you may feel the urge to lean into this non-productive brain foggy state and indulge with some snacks or adult beverages to just end the misery of your day. But as you know from episode 1, more inflammation can be triggered from your system being exposed to reactive antigens. Food, especially indulgent snacks are usually full of questionable ingredients, and alcohol doesn’t need any extra help killing brain cells, it does this all on it’s own.

So what should you do when you have brain fog?

You will need to target the inflammation that is causing the permeability of your BBB in the first place. Your low grade chronic inflammation is caused by many things addressed previously in this podcast. The most predominant triggers include oxidative stress, toxin overload and emotional stress. There are many ways to reduce the overload of these stressors, but today we I am going to encourage the one quick intervention that will specifically target brain fog. And that is fasting.

Fasting is an incredibly powerful way to reduce brain inflammation and chronic systemic inflammation by intentionally creating space for your body to clean itself up. When you fast, you are encouraging your body to reduce the free radicals that are responsible for oxidative stress. You are promoting the systems designed to support liver detoxification. And when fasting correctly, you will be utilizing tools for managing your mind that will allow a calm to the hormone cascade leading to emotional stress. Fasting is a powerful tool that should be strategically utilized by most of you, especially if you have chronic inflammation.

But fasting is going to look different for everyone, and we’ll go over ways to fast in much more detail at a later time. But today, I want you to intentionally plan a fast for tomorrow lasting between 14-16 hours. Use the overnight hours to your advantage. You’re not eating anyway, why not count those first! I like to fast from 8:00pm until 12:00pm the next day which is a 16 hour fast and an 8 hour eating period. I think 14 hours is a great place to start, especially if your brain and body are not used to fasting. Your body might resist a little at first, but it will eventually settle into the routine of things which is when you can start extending the fasting window slowly.

So in conclusion, brain fog is a symptom that is very common but that should not be ignored. Brain fog begins with chronic inflammation which leads to brain inflammation, and this triggers dysfunction within your brain’s protection system leading to the untimely death of your brain cells. In addition, brain inflammation if left unchecked increases the likelihood of acquiring cognitive related diseases down the road. A simple intervention is fasting, beginning with a fast between 14-16 hours starting with 1 day per week, and building to at least 5 days/week. And of course, we will dive more deeply into fasting in future episodes. With that I thank you so much for wanting to reduce your brain fog, and I’ll talk to you next week!

If this has been helpful to you in any way, I ask that you leave me a review so that others can have easier access to this information. For those who have comments or ideas for future episodes, please take a few minutes now and type them out, I promise to read every single one. If you’re looking for some 1:1 guidance, head over to yourlivinghealth.com and book your free introductory consult. Again, thanks for your support of this podcast and I’ll talk to you soon.

Resources:

Galea, I. The blood–brain barrier in systemic infection and inflammation. Cell Mol Immunol 18, 2489–2501 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41423-021-00757-x

Salucci S, Bartoletti Stella A, Battistelli M, Burattini S, Bavelloni A, Cocco LI, Gobbi P, Faenza I. How Inflammation Pathways Contribute to Cell Death in Neuro-Muscular Disorders. Biomolecules. 2021 Jul 28;11(8):1109. doi: 10.3390/biom11081109. PMID: 34439778; PMCID: PMC8391499.

Theoharides TC, Stewart JM, Hatziagelaki E, Kolaitis G. Brain “fog,” inflammation and obesity: key aspects of neuropsychiatric disorders improved by luteolin. Front Neurosci. 2015 Jul 3;9:225. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00225. PMID: 26190965; PMCID: PMC4490655.

Have you ever wondered which foods might be causing your headaches? Although there are many causes of headaches, many can be induced by the chemicals you’re eating or drinking every day. This episode will explore obvious culprits like hydration, but also dives into which specific foods to be aware of, and exactly what you can do today to decrease the frequency, duration and intensity of your headaches.

Welcome to Your Living Health, the podcast where we talk about real life strategies to reduce chronic inflammation. Each episode will uncover tools for you to lose weight and achieve optimal health. I’m your host, Carly Lucchesi, I’m a UC Davis trained registered dietitian and I’m also a life coach. Together let’s coach through the science of inflammation, but in a way that is simple, purposeful and fun.

You ready? Let’s Go!

Hey there! Today’s episode is going to focus on the frequent headaches that seem to plague many of you. There are many things that cause headaches, and many different types of headaches. There are tension, migraine, ocular, cluster, and other types that seem to be a little less common. However, there are many triggers and causes of headaches within the umbrella of inflammation, foods, hydration and nutrients. So today, my goal is to help you better understand what may be causing your daily headaches, and exactly what steps you can try to get rid of them for good. AND… although we will be focusing A LOT on ACTION, I never want you to forget about what drives your action. Remember, it’s likely you already know what to do, but the problem may be an inability to consistently show up for yourself in the way you want to.

The perfect example of this surrounds the most common headache trigger, and that is dehydration. This just seems so obvious that why am I even bringing it up, right? Well, because this is a big factor with many of my clients. And the problem never is that they don’t know they should be drinking water. Everyone knows they should be drinking more water. But the problem is always in lack of follow through. What is standing in the way of your hydration? I know you have all the excuses in the book, I’ve heard them all. I don’t like the taste of water, I just forget, I don’t have time to pee all day, water is boring, and so on.

Let’s observe this daily need a little closer. How is the way you’re thinking about your water consumption? And knowing that our thoughts create our feelings which drive our action, observe what those thoughts may be generating in your life. Even those thoughts that seem factual, might need to be observed. “I need to drink more…” “I don’t like the taste of water”… “I don’t have time to pee all day” What is the result of thinking these thoughts? Is it serving you? What energy might need to be generated instead in order to create the result of more water in your day? Even a simple shift from I need to drink water TO I want or get to drink water may be more useful. Or a shift to “Sometimes I forget to drink water, but not always” might help your brain to remember this more during the day. Emotions that might serve you better might be determination, or acceptance or desire. What thoughts would you need to think to generate those emotions?

Or more importantly, consider asking your brain the question, “Why am I choosing to remain dehydrated?” And just be curious what your brain reveals to you.

So in summary, dehydration can cause lack of fluid volume in your body leading to undue pressure on your nerves, especially in your head. Boom… headache. But now let’s discuss more food related triggers.

There are many chemical compounds within certain foods that can effect how big or how small your blood vessels are. This is called either vasoconstriction or vasodilation.  Your body is generally pretty sensitive to changes in your blood vessel diameter, so even a slight change here might trigger a headache or migraine, however some are more sensitive than others. Some of you might trigger to a very small dose, but others might take a ton. This needs to be explored more on an individual basis once the sensitivity is uncovered.

Chemicals that can cause a narrowing of your blood vessels (or vasoconstriction) include tyramine, phenylethylamine, tyrame, caffeine or sodium.

Tyramine and phenylethylamine are both naturally occurring chemical compounds found in aged, fermented or spoiled foods. Examples include cured meats, aged cheeses, fermented foods, wine, beers, kombuchas, or any food that is allowed to over-ripen or over-age. All of you chartacuterie entertainers, or wine and cheese indulgers might need to question this food relationship if you get frequent headaches.

The main chemicals that might cause a widening of your blood vessels (vasodilation) leading to headache or migraine include nitrates/nitrates and alcohol at low to moderate doses. Nitrates are found in many lunchmeats, but there are many lunchmeats now that don’t have these added for a preservative. Meats can also be cured with different salts such as celery salt. With alcohol, you have to watch out for more than one reason.  Not only does alcohol dilate, but it also is a diuretic causing you to lose fluids. It has a double edged knife to your head of messing with your blood vessel circumference AND your fluid volume. So much headache potential.

And then there is a large group of chemicals that can cause headaches simply by triggered your body to feel threatened, therefore initiating the inflammatory response. This response will lead to vasoconstriction because literally the vascular walls can become inflamed. Amazing, right?

These chemicals include histamines, MSG, emulsifiers such as lecithin and preservatives such as sulfites or sorbic acid. Histamines include many different foods, and will get a whole episode to themselves. These foods can include seafood, citrus, tomatoes, berries or fermented and aged products.

But a little easier to avoid is your anti-fungals or more chemical based preservatives or emulsifiers. These products are found in all of those processed foods we’ve grown so used to. A good rule of thumb to avoid most of these products is to stick with foods that you either prepare fresh, or have ingredients of fewer than 5 on the nutrition label. That way you know it’s fresh, and minimally processed.

And lastly, the other foods you will need to be aware of are the unique and random foods that your body might feel threatened by. There isn’t really a rhyme or reason to why your body might develop an intolerance or sensitivity to various foods, but this is a common occurrence. But when your body feels threatened, the release of the chemical warfare meant to protect you can also trigger headaches as a symptom.

But as always, I want to discuss actions you can take today to either avoid or get you out of your current headache. I threw a lot of information at you, and I want you to leave here today knowing exactly where you should start. First, I would start by drinking your fluids. In my experience, carbonated water will not suffice. If you are hydrated, and still having frequent headaches, be suspicious of your caffeine amount, and the histamines you’re being exposed to. Next are those chemicals meant to preserve foods, so focus on whole and unprocessed foods for a bit and see if that alleviates the frequency or intensity. And finally, if you are deep in the throws of a headache and seeking relief, avoid the use of traditional pain killers like ibuprofen or Tylenol. Often your body will release more headache inducing chemical warfare when exposed to these medications, and cause a longer headache duration. The best remedy will be water with some electrolytes, and maybe some B vitamins or a high quality Omega 3 supplements.

In summary, headaches are not fun, and can be an annoying burden many of you face every day. There are many triggers of headaches, from dehydration to your own naturally occurring defense chemicals. Rest assured that the source of your headaches can absolutely be pinpointed, and to date 100% of my clients no longer experience headaches after completing their program with me. But this process takes a willingness to be the scientist of your body, and truly listen to the unique language it speaks in. Thank you for your interest in today’s episode, and I’ll talk to you next week!

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