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Transcript
- 02:13 Dating
- 08:35 Parents and Social Networking
- 10:44 Modern Paleo Cooking with Wendy Myers
- 12:06 Coffee Creamer Addiction
- 13:14 Bulletproof Coffee
- 15:08 Fat
- 18:24 Hitting the Gym
- 26:41 Body Fat Test Challenge
- 30:04 Goal Challenge
- 34:35 thyroid Issues and Weight Loss
- 36:29 fish Oils
Wendy Myers: Welcome to the Live to 110 Podcast. I’m your host, Wendy Myers. You can find me on myersdetox.com. If you only want to live to a hundred, don’t come to my site. Here is my co-host General Leigh Lowery.
Leigh Lowery: Hey, everybody. I’m glad to be here today.
Wendy Myers: You guys can find her on generalleigh.com. Today, we don’t have a guest. We are just going to be talking about General Leigh’s fitness philosophy and some of the controversy about fish oil. General Leigh, what’s been going on in our lives just for your entertainment pleasure?
Leigh Lowery: Yeah, it’s going to be a great show. Before we get started, let’s read that disclaimer. Please keep in mind that this program is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. The Live to 110 Podcast is solely informational in nature. Please consult your healthcare practitioner before you choose to do anything that we suggest on this show, whether it be a treatment or a healthcare…
Wendy Myers: …regimen?
Leigh Lowery: Lord have mercy!
Wendy Myers: A regimen…
Leigh Lowery: Yeah, that. Hey! I can’t read. I don’t know if you all know that yet. Good night!
Wendy Myers: It’s okay, I can’t think. I read really well, but I don’t think so hot.
Leigh Lowery: Yeah, it’s like don’t do anything we say to do on this show unless you consult it with someone first. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wendy Myers: The brain fog is hard to live with. Before I started my nutritional balancing program, before I started detoxing heavy metals and a bad diet that can produce brain fog, I could not string two much together, much less two sentences. But now, it’s a lot better after two years on this program, but not 100%. I still have got another year or two to go.
Leigh Lowery: I don’t know if it will ever help me with my reading. Maybe I should read books and stop watching True Detective. Anyway…
Wendy Myers: So what’s been going on with your week.
Leigh Lowery: Oh, my gosh! I had such a great week. We have talked about earlier and one of the things that I’m bringing up on the show – I don’t know if this is a good idea or bad – is my dating life.
Wendy Myers: Ah! I’ve actually been wanting to talk to you about that because I saw a post on your Facebook where you’re all dressed up in a hot, little, black dress, ready to go. I was like, “Hmmm… she’s dating. I haven’t heard about this… about this guy yet.”
Leigh Lowery: Yeah! You know, I was in a relationship for a long time. Everyone suggests when you get out of a relationship to take some time for yourself and I finally listened to that suggestion. You have to be a healthy person and get emotionally in a good place in order to move on to the next, you’re not bringing it forward. This is the first I actually took that advice because I figured, “Maybe this will work if I just work a little bit on myself.”
So I did take some time. It’s been about a year. And so now, I’ve decided to get full-fledged back out into the dating world.
Wendy Myers: Nice!
Leigh Lowery: I don’t know! You’re married and have a sweet, little kiddoe, but the dating world is brutal.
Wendy Myers: It’s hell! Oh, my God. It’s hell in L.A. I do not wish on my worst enemy.
Leigh Lowery: It is crazy. Let’s see, this week, I’ll just give you an example of my week. I actually went on a date with a fantastic guy. I had the best time. He’s hilarious. He’s nice. He’s kind. He treated me to dinner, which is pretty much new for me…
Wendy Myers: But…
Leigh Lowery: So that was nice. Accepting somebody treating me nice, I rode a motorcycle even for the very – actually, the second time in my life and I had the best time doing it. So let me just say, there’s been one good. But for every one good date, there’s probably about five that are bad. It’s funny, at the gym, there’s a lot of guys that, I call it ‘shark around’, looking. You just hear that noise inside of your head [humming The Jaws loop]. That’s how I feel at times.
Wendy Myers: I know. That’s such a meat market. Your gullies in Venice. It’s kind of like the weight-lifting Mecca. I’m sure it’s just a total meat market.
Leigh Lowery: There’s a ton of gentlemen there and a lot of people, I think, who are so into themselves they could care less about me, which is kind of the good thing about a couple of the different gyms that I go to. And then again, I have a lot of friends that are trainers and that are fellow fitness competitors and people out there, but there are a few, there’s always that few that shock you.
Leigh Lowery: This week, I had somebody Facebook inbox me, which I don’t think is the best way to approach someone anyway. It was so funny because he said, “Oh, I really missed you at the gym. We miss seeing your shiny, little, happy smile” and I got, “How nice…” I emailed back, “Thank you.” And about two minutes later, I got, “And of course, that cute little butt of yours” and I thought, “That’s a little stepping over the line,” but I just wrote ‘laugh out loud’ because I probably should not have written back at that point.
About twenty minutes after that, I get this email and it says, “Speaking of butts, here is a picture of my butt for fitness motivation” and I thought, “Oh, my God!”
Wendy Myers: Argh! Oh, I just threw out in my mouth.
Leigh Lowery: First of all…
Wendy Myers: Was it hairy?
Leigh Lowery: No! I mean, he has a fantastic physique, great! Good for you. But let me just – for all you guys out there and for all you women who have been through this, for the guys, don’t send a selfie of your anatomy. We do not want to see it. It makes you look so odd and off. Girls, there’s kind of an acceptance rule. Girls can send a cute, little selfie. I don’t know, from what I understand, that’s not that weird. Guys kind of accept that and think, “Oh, she’s thinking of me.” Girls do not feel the same way.
Wendy Myers: No. I do not want any pictures even shirtless. I don’t want nothing. I just want to talk on the phone… nothing.
Leigh Lowery: Right! Treat me to a movie. Tell me I look beautiful. After that, it’s kind of like please do not – you know, just treat me like a lady and give me some respect. And at the same time – you know, the last thing we want is naked pictures honestly. That’s just the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of.
I really don’t know this person well. So now, I don’t know, de-friend, block. What do you do from there?
Wendy Myers: Was there a red eye on the photo.
Leigh Lowery: There wasn’t, but I did show it to two of the male trainers at my other gym and they were like, “Leigh…” I said, “Is this normal? Is this what happens because I’m just backed out in the dating world. I don’t know” and it is not normal. So I found that out. I do know this is not normal behavior. For any of you guys out there, even the muscle pics, unless they’re asked for like, “Let me see your pictures from when you did a great job,” send those. That selfie rule needs to be put in place. It’s a hard and fast rule. It does not change. It’s a good way not to get a date.
Wendy Myers: I think there’s a generational thing as well because my older friends that are maybe in their late 50s and 60s, they don’t even want to be texted. They think texting is rude, to ask you out on a date through text. And then I’m 40, so my forty-ish friends are like, “No, they don’t want selfies.” But the younger friends that are on their 20s and 30s that I have, they don’t mind the selfies. It’s just kind of the norm.
Leigh Lowery: Yeah. You know, my sister is about ten years younger with me, so I always check in with her to get the guy. She actually thinks things are weirder than I do. So that’s the good news is that I check with her and she’s like, “Nope, that’s weird. De-friend, get rid of that person.”
Wendy Myers: See, I don’t even want to see my husband’s butt much less a dude I don’t even know.
Leigh Lowery: Let’s just keep it all in the dark. I don’t want to know.
Wendy Myers: No. Clarification, I want to see his butt in person. I don’t want to see it in a photo emailed to me just to clarify that.
Leigh Lowery: Oh, my God. It just shows narcissism and somewhat weakness. I don’t know. That’s just odd.
Leigh Lowery: But on the other spectrum, I did have – I don’t about what you deal with. My parents are both alive and they both are on Facebook and Instagram. So again, back to that social thing, my Mom is really good. She typically likes about one out of four pictures. But my Dad – who I adore – is overboard.
Oh, my God! This week, he likes everything and he comments. I mean, I put up a picture of asparagus and he wrote, “aspara-gas.” I’m like, “Dad…” Everything single thing I do, he comments on whether it be good or bad.
So I had a phone conversation with him about parental Instagram etiquette like, “You’re allowed to like about one in every four pictures. You can maybe write a comment twice a month and it can’t be longer than two sentences.” And then all of a sudden, I’m on Instagram and I get a new Instagram friend and it’s my Dad. I’m like, “Dad, I’m blocking you. You’re allowed one social media outlet, that’s it. You can’t have more than that.” So I don’t know what your feelings on that are, but…
Wendy Myers: I don’t know about my parents. My mom is not on Facebook. I keep trying to get her on it, but she doesn’t really see a use for it – at least for her. She doesn’t need it. She’s got herself a hot, little boyfriend and they’re about to get engaged and married and stuff, so she doesn’t see the need.
Leigh Lowery: Let me tell you, don’t try to convince her to get the need because once they get the need, it’s like beyond. I talk to all my friends about it. It’s just like a big joke because a lot of my friends have the same issue. They post something and all of their friends’ parents are liking it. So it’s one of those things. It’s like, “Argh!”
Wendy Myers: Yeah, luckily, I’m not doing anything. I’m just doing health stuff. Some of my friends, they post photos of them going out and partying or being naughty and I’m doing any of that. I’m just like, “Here’s to your health… eat more radishes.”
Leigh Lowery: [inaudible 00:10:38]
Wendy Myers: Yeah, it’s nothing that I’m worried about mommy seeing it.
Leigh Lowery: I was thinking of this week. I know that you did your cooking show, tell me about it.
Wendy Myers: Yes, it was so much fun. It was a lot of hard work. Poor, little doc was very tired at the end of the day because I had to stand up straight and I shot for cooking shows of my new show, Modern Paleo Cooking. It’s going to be on YouTube and I’m really excited about it because I wanted to start providing more recipes and a way to implement the Modern Paleo diet and not just tell people, “This is what you should be eating or not.” I wanted to really show people how to do it and how easy it is and how they can very easily and quickly prepare meals that are really, really healthy.
It’s also to support my book as well that’s coming out soon, the Modern Paleo Survival Guide. I got to tell people how to eat that way. So the cooking show is a way to do that. I’m going to have a new recipe with the show embedded in it on my blog. And then it’ll also be on my YouTube channel. I’m really excited.
Like I said, I shot four shows in one day and my director is amazing. I got really lucky meeting this guy on Elance. He’s a veteran director. His name is Lauren Baker. He’s really excited to do it and we had a lot of fun in my kitchen.
Leigh Lowery: That is so cool. Yeah, I saw the pictures. It looks like it’s going to be awesome.
It’s so funny. I’m trying something new. I had been addicted to coffee creamer and my coffee creamer is the kind that is the dirty, dirty creamer.
Wendy Myers: Oh, no!
Leigh Lowery: It’s made with corn syrup. I am anti-corn syrup, yet for some reason, to wean off of this, it’s like drugs. I look at it and I’m like, “I’m not going to do it today and I end up with the coffee creamer at the store in my hand.” It’s got to stop.
Wendy Myers: I have a solution for you because I used to be addicted to my hazelnut Coffee Mate Creamer…
Leigh Lowery: That’s the one!
Wendy Myers: And that’s the problem. It’s got partially hydrogenated oils in it and the corn syrup. It’s bad…
Leigh Lowery: It’s bad.
Wendy Myers: …on many different levels. What you do is you just use real cream, so you’re getting real, healthy fats in you. Actually, right now, I use raw cream in my coffee. I use raw cream. And then I just started using Stevia. But you can get a healthy sugar-free hazelnut flavoring that’s separate. So the cream and the hazelnut flavoring is separate.
Leigh Lowery: You know what? I’m going to try that.
Leigh Lowery: One of the other suggestions – and I wanted to get your take on this. For our audience, if Wendy approves it, then maybe it’s something you want to try. A friend of mine who’s a body-builder as well, when we go into the body-building phase, for me, I end up raising my fats and my proteins and lowering my carbs slightly. When I do that, I’m allowed a lot more healthy fats.
One of the things I thought about incorporating is a suggestion of his, which is a teaspoon of coconut oil and actually, he puts grass-fed butter in his coffee.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, that’s the bulletproof coffee method.
Leigh Lowery: I’m thinking about trying it because one, my fats are raised to a level that I can afford that and I do hear it does great things for your metabolism in the morning to have that fat in there. So what are your thoughts?
Wendy Myers: Well, that’s actually what I did this morning. I actually had my bulletproof coffee. I’ve had Dave Asprey who makes bulletproof coffee on the podcast – and I’m actually doing his podcast next Friday on March 21st, which actually, when this airs, that’ll be three Fridays ago. I know, the time sequence is hard to figure out here.
But in my coffee this morning, I had the MCT oil, which is actually extracted – the medium chain triglycerides extracted from the coconut oil. And I have an extra bottle. I can give it to you. Dave, he sent me a bottle of it. It’s the same thing as coconut oil. It’s just a little bit different. It’s just 18 times more concentrated in MCT, the medium chain triglycerides as the coconut oil.
Definitely for me, I take that when I’m going to start writing because it really gets me super focused. It’s super crazy brain fuel.
Leigh Lowery: High fats, the good kind, are great for your brain. Those two things are linked. A great, fatty diet – not the bad kind of fat, but the great kind of fats for you.
Wendy Myers: Yeah! You need fats because your brain and your nervous system especially if you’re someone like me who’s using your brain a lot, your nervous system has to have fats.
Leigh Lowery: Well, you know, somebody who’s trying to use their brain more like myself, I’ve always been on a very low fat diet, so maybe I’ll become super cerebral girl all of a sudden. We’ll see…
Wendy Myers: Yeah! You don’t have to fear fats. You don’t have to fear fats. Fat doesn’t necessarily make you fat.
Leigh Lowery: That’s right.
Wendy Myers: That’s what I try to tell people. Definitely, I’ve noticed for me, I can eat a lot of fats, but I find that I gain weight if I don’t cut carbs. I don’t go totally paleo and cut all the carbs, but the lowest I can go is one serving of carbs a day. But I don’t worry about cutting fats as much as I do the carbohydrates.
Leigh Lowery: I actually have a very similar philosophy when I train. I have a little bit of a higher carb diet a lot of times in my off season for the fuel. It really does well with my body type for some reason. I’m able to eat more carbs. But when it gets into the body-building season, I tend to go higher fat and higher protein and lower those carbs and really lean out and I love it because when I do switch the straight carbs and the fats or the fats for the carbs – it’s got to be one or the other for me. I can’t go to an all-protein diet, low carb/low fat. I have lethargy. I’m exhausted. There’s no way I can lift what I need to lift.
So I absolutely agree. I’m excited because I’m ten weeks out for my competition and I’m about to go into that high fat/high protein diet, so it’s going to be great.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I think it’s one of those things that’s individualized…
Leigh Lowery: Yes.
Wendy Myers: …because when someone – oh, can you hear me?
Leigh Lowery: Yes.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, when someone has a – everyone’s different was what I was saying. And for me, I don’t do a lot of cardio stuff, so I can lower my carbohydrates pretty well. And also, for me, I kind of have a little bit of a slow metabolism. I’m still healing my adrenals and my thyroid a bit. I have a little bit further to go. So what I found working with clients is people that have slow metabolism, they don’t burn fat very efficiently for fuel, so they can’t consume as many fats really for that reason.
For some people, it’s really about cutting the fats down a little bit and cutting the carbohydrates down. It’s not about either/or.
Leigh Lowery: Right!
Wendy Myers: But it’s not about going low fat or non-fat. I always try to tell people, “Eat the full fat foods, but just eat less of it.”
Leigh Lowery: Yup, absolutely. Well, that’s awesome.
And then speaking of – a little bit just about what I believe when it comes to fitness is kind of in a similar vein. We talked about what is my fitness philosophy and it’s what you talked about with food, everybody’s different.
The one thing I always say is don’t be scared or intimidated at the gym or even going outside and doing your workouts outside. The number one thing I would say about fitness for myself and what I believe for all is that you have to work with what you have. And so if you are somebody who has never worked out and you feel intimidated to go to the gym, a lot of times, I ask those people, “Let’s start in your house. Let’s start outside. Let’s get you going there.” Really then, we find that it’s jjust fear that has taken over and not allowing our mind to think that we can’t do something that we can.
And so a lot of times, I’ll go to someone’s backyard. We can do a 15-minute workout in your backyard and you would be exhausted – exhausted and feel like you’ve got the most out of your fitness.
The other thing that I think is really important is I find that a lot of times in fitness, people, they hate on different types of fitness. So if you’re a body-building, you might hate power lifters and power lifters hate cross-fitters and cross-fitters – you know? It’s like this weird microcosms that they don’t want to allow anyone else to be right. I kind of liken it to religion. We’re scared to let others have what works for them.
Wendy Myers: I wasn’t aware of this rivalry.
Leigh Lowery: Oh, my God! It’s so big. It’s so funny. Everyone wants a certain look. And sometimes, body-builders are going to be – and for me, that’s more my style. It’s what I enjoy, which is why I went that direction. I have friends, absolutely, I will take them – they’ll say, “Leigh, I want to do what you do” and I take them through my workout and they hate it, they’re bored because a lot of it is slow, controlled technique, form. It’s very isolated slow movements.
Wendy Myers: That’s what I like. That’s what I’m used to doing with Pilates. I lifted weights for 15 years really before I started doing Pilates and I like that slow, controlled attention to form.
Leigh Lowery: Yeah. It’s great! It’s great because you can tract into those muscles and you build those muscle groups. So you get beautiful muscles and you look very well-developed in all areas if you’re focusing properly on each of the muscle groups like I do. That’s great! You’re going to get a very specific look, but it doesn’t mean you’re the best athlete.
And so for me, I also love – and I try to mix up my routines – I like some momentum, movements because I have fun doing them. I don’t love a lot of cardio, but I’ll take a Zumba class, I’ll take a boxing class because I enjoy it.
And I’m terrible at boxing. I took my friend’s boxing class the other day. I had the best time. These girls, they kick butt! They’re so much better at it than I am, so I walk in and they’re expecting the General Leigh to be amazing and I can’t tell which is my left and which is my right foot, but I had fun.
And so that’s the other part of the philosophy for me that I believe is – if you love Zumba and somebody says, “Well, nobody is fit in Zumba. Look at the people in Zumba. Do you want to look like…” – it doesn’t matter. If it’s getting your heart rate going, if it’s helping you cardiovascularly, then you’re doing something good for your health, bottomline.
And if you want a specific look, I say, “Okay, find somebody in a gym who’s a trainer that you like their body type and you ask them what they do and see if they can train you once a week or kind of give you some guidance into doing what they do.” It doesn’t mean you’re going to find it to be the most fun thing you ever did.
If you love Pilates, if you love gyrotonic, if you love Zumba, cross-fit, keep that in your regimen and then do also the things that are going to give you the body that you’re looking for if that’s one of your goals.
I just think that being anti-anything – we’ve talked about this so many times. I don’t like to say no, I like to say yes. I like to say, “You can do that… you will do that… be positive.”
So I think for anyone out there that’s scared to go into the gym the first time, the first step is walking into the gym for the first time.
Wendy Myers: And that’s exactly what I’m going to be doing with you this week.
Leigh Lowery: We are going to have the best time. Like I said, the first thing I ask people, “Do you have anything that hinders you from doing exercise?” A lot of times, I’ll work on stability stuff first just to make sure where you’re at. I know with Wendy, you do a lot of Pilates so you’re going to probably have an amazing ability when it comes to stability already…
Wendy Myers: Oh, yeah. I’m all about stability.
Leigh Lowery: Yeah, you know? And so that’s great because then we can really work on those prime mover muscles and do some of those body-building type styles. But I love to keep your heart rate up throughout that, so I typically do circuit workouts. I always include three different body-building moves plus cardio accelerator to keep that heart rate up throughout my exercise. I do a lot of no-rest. I can’t wait to work out with you because I don’t do a lot of rest between sets. That’s one of the things I tend to do unless I’m lifting to max effort, then I’ll let myself rest so that I can come back in and do a good set.
But outside of that, I think burning through those workouts is really important and not doing overdoing the rest periods between. You want to keep that heart rate up.
Wendy Myers: Well, I want to confess something.
Leigh Lowery: Yes.
Wendy Myers: In the past when I’ve lifted weights, the trainers, I’d always buddy up with my trainer and when we do like a little 1-minute rest in between sets and I always had a little tactic where I’d be talking about something, we’d be chatting away. The one minute would go to two, maybe three. So I had this tactical thing where I would just be chatting him up to extend that rest period.
Leigh Lowery: We know your secrets. We know your secrets. We, trainers know. We know when you need water breaks and, “Oh, I had to go to the bathroom” and you disappear for five minutes. We know. We know when you want to have lengthy conversations. And you’re super smart, so I’m sure you could bring up a topic that would get your trainer going for a long period of time then.
Wendy Myers: I need commando ‘whip my fat ass’ shamelessly. That’s what I need.
Leigh Lowery: Well, I’m training a girlfriend of mine. Her husband texted me just yesterday and said, “My wife loves working out with you… Wait! I take that back. My wife says that you kill her, but she’s happy that you’re killing her because she likes you.”
So at the end of the day, just like I like with my trainers. I think it’s important that some people tell me, “I don’t want to be sore, so don’t make me sore because I want to come back.”
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Leigh Lowery: I’m like, “Well, that’s not what I’m here for, but I’ll do that if that’s your goal. You don’t have a goal to really try to push yourself and get in shape, I’ll follow that. But my philosophy is I like to push people what they think is beyond their limits so that when they leave, they feel like, ‘Man! I would never have done that on my own.'”
Wendy Myers: Yeah, and I apologize, listeners. I don’t mean to be so hard on myself, calling myself a fat ass. I’m just soft. I’m not as in good a shape as I used to be. I used to work out four or five days a week and so I get kind of hard on myself.
Leigh Lowery: Yeah, you’re amazing and you do a lot, so it’s not accurate. It’s not an accurate description of yourself.
Wendy Myers: Well, I’m 30 lbs. overweight than I have in my whole weight. I’m 30 lbs. heavier. That’s a lot! I’m 170 lbs. right now. Most of my life, I was between 120 lbs. and 140 lbs. So I get hard on myself about that.
Leigh Lowery: One of the things that I do is I do a body fat test challenge. This year I did that, we had this hydrostatic machine. It comes to our gym about once every three months. In three months, it’s kind of hard to really change majorly percentage of body fat, but it’s definitely plausible. You’re not going to make leaps and bounds, but you’re going to do pretty well.
But like I said, three years ago, I was 20% body fat and I’m down to 12% and I’m not even trying.
Wendy Myers: That’s amazing.
Leigh Lowery: So I’m excited to see as I go into body-building season what happens when I go into my first show because I’m going to take another body fat test in May, the week after my show.
Wendy Myers: Nice.
Leigh Lowery: It might be something you want to do.
Wendy Myers: I would. I’ve done the hydrostatic. I took exercise physiology at USC when I was in college. At that time, I was in great shape and I was at 18% body fat. So I don’t think I’ve ever been much lower than that.
Leigh Lowery: That’s incredible. Yeah! It’s incredible, 18% is a great percentage. That’s exactly where you should be. I’m obviously in the gym all the time and I lift weights and I don’t do a lot of cardio, so I’m putting a lot of muscle on and my diet is keeping a lot of fat off, so that’s how I probably ended up where I’m at.
Wendy Myers: I’ll estimate I’m at 30% right now, 30% body fat.
Leigh Lowery: I don’t think so. I’ve seen you. I’m guessing probably a little bit lower than that. The point for I think doing this with you and I is it gives you a goal. I think for me, it gave me a goal and I was glad to be where I was at and I had to keep those things in mind.
For long-term health, you want to be obviously in that 18% – 24% percentage max. You don’t want to go over 25%. So let’s see what we can do obviously with you, Wendy. I would love to have that be part of the test.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, and you’re really inspiring me because I see how much you’re working out and I see all your posts on your Facebook page. I’ve always loved lifting weights since I was in high school. I would go to the gym and lift weights and I had to have all kinds of trainer. And so it really makes me want to get back to the gym because I’m one of those people where just focusing on weight training really works for me. I’m not a big cardio person. I’ve had become an ectomorphic, I’m really tall and slender, so I’m kind of like a giraffe in aerobics class. I’ve done Zumba and all these stuff and I’m just looking in the mirror and going, “I don’t belong in here. I need to be going for walks and lifting weights.”
So for me, I’m very motivated to get back in the gym and I’m really excited to do our first workout this week. I’m going to try to find somebody to film it because I think it’s going to be totally hilarious.
Leigh Lowery: Oh, my gosh! We’re going to have the best of time. You know what? You’re going to do so great. I’m going to use bands on you. I talked about that a little bit. It helps you perform squats properly and it does so much. There’s so many things I do with bands. And so I’m excited to do that with you.
Leigh Lowery: But I also challenge our listeners. One of the things I want to do is I want to put a challenge out to our listeners. Right now, I ask everyone – just like you ask a question, “What do you think is the most pressing disease facing the world today,” I always ask people, “What is your goal?” It’s kind of this big, abstract question. A lot of people, I have them pick a goal. I have 50-year old clients who say, “I want to get a pull-up by the end of this year.” I had a lot of women turning 40. I get a lot of clients who are 39 on the verge of 40 and they want to be in the best shape of their life for 40.
I had three clients currently right now who are that is their goal. We drill down on, “What does that look like to you? What does the best shape of your life look like? Do you want to run a half-marathon? Do you want to have abs or arms? You want to see your abs? What does it look like?”
And so I ask people to take the time, think of a goal, refine that goal down. You’re welcome to share it with me. I am so inspired when I hear and I see people say, “Because of this podcast, I picked a goal and here’s what it is…” I’ll be your cheerleader.
Wendy and I are here for you just like you’re here for us each week. And if you want to do that, you’re welcome to email me, [email protected] or through Wendy’s site, Live to 110. Tell us what your goal is. What do you want to accomplish this year in fitness or nutrition or in life and let us help champion that for you.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, because you got to know where you’re going to get there. You have to set goals. You can’t just meander in the gym three times a week. You got to know where you’re going.
Leigh Lowery: I always say, “Before you hit the gym floor, you should have a plan in place.” That’s the most crucial thing with both food and with fitness. The night before, I plan out exactly what I’m going to do. I know what body part I’m working. I know exactly what my routine looks like and I give myself exactly how much time I have to do it in, so that I’m not sitting in there going back from machine to machine without a plan because I, who know all the machines would be totally at times thinking, “Okay, well I did that for my arms and I did that for my triceps and I did that for my bi.” It just takes up time, thinking and wasting time.
Wendy Myers: I’ll tell you, a lot of my client’s goals is to de-worm. A lot of my clients come to me and they’re really freaked out about parasites. I’m like, “Don’t worry!” This program I put them on, Nutritional Balancing, it’s a total deep parasiting program.
Leigh Lowery: Oh, my God!
Wendy Myers: But that’s my client’s goal, get rid of parasites.
Leigh Lowery: Well, that’s very opposite of mine, but I love it – de-worming. “My 2014 goal is to de-worm.” You know what? It makes sense though. A lot of people want to get rid of parasites. That’s their goals.
And mine, I have a lot of clients. Mine is a little easier. They want to see their abs. They want to see their abs. That’s what I hear. Girls wants butts. Guys wants abs. That’s what I always hear.
Wendy Myers: My problem is not my stomach. I’ve always had kind of a flat stomach. My problem is my grandma chicken wings. I got these flappy chicken wings. I call them my ‘chicken wings. My upper arms are flapping away.
So that’s my goal. I want a tone in my arms and I want to lose 20 lbs, that’s my goal.
Leigh Lowery: Alright! That’s perfect. Let’s focus on that as being your goal then and we’re going to make that happen.
And you know what? I had flappy chicken arms when I got started. I actually had an ex-boyfriend send me a picture on text and said, “Do you remember this?” It was from 12 years ago.
Wendy Myers: That’s so sweet of him.
Leigh Lowery: I know! He was like, “You were a real catch. I was horrible.” I think I was drunk at the picture. I looked like a hot mess.
Wendy Myers: You’re wearing Gap khakis.
Leigh Lowery: Argh! Yes. I was sweating. I guess we were at a club, we were sweating. Anyway, I was not a catch. I was like, “Thank God, you didn’t marry me then. You’re a lucky guy” because I was a hot mess.
The only thing I could see is this fat arm. I thought, “Oh, my God! I was just still out of shape.” I’m just so thankful that closer to 40 rather than – I was 21 in that picture. I can’t believe I’m in better shape. I always tell people, all my clients, most of my clients I told you are 85% women over 35 because they have the same feeling I have, which is it’s a new life. You don’t have to live – and this is the prime time to get in shape. In your twenties, it’s easier to get in shape…
Wendy Myers: It’s easy, yeah.
Leigh Lowery: …but in your thirties and in your forties, it’s more crucial, so it’s the time.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, one thing I focus on with my clients is I find that most people that are coming to me, whether they’re a woman over 35 who wanted to lose weight or they’re not well, they have chronic fatigue or what-have-you, everyone pretty much has a thyroid issue over the age of 35. That’s what I found with myself just after decades of accumulating toxins and maybe not living the healthiest lifestyle even if you exercise.
I find that even for me when I wasn’t living the healthiest lifestyle and then I had a baby and all the stress from that (I gained 75 lbs. with my pregnancy, but I took most of that weight off), but still because of my thyroid issue that I had developed, I had such a hard time taking it off.
I would exercise literally 6-8 hours a week. I was eating healthy and I was going to bed hungry. I’m a little peckish, so I knew that I ate fewer calories than I burned that day. What I kind of do to try to lose weight is just try to go a little bit hungry, just a tiny, tiny bit.
Unfortunately, I find a lot of women are in this same boat where they’re kind of spinning their wheels, where they’re eating a healthy diet and working out and it’s not happening. It’s really about healing the thyroid.
So for me, I focused on healing my thyroid the past couple of years and I’m feeling like I’m in a really good point where I feel like more of my workout efforts and dieting, I’ll be rewarded because it’ll actually work now, that my thyroid is burning the calories that I’m eating. Your thyroid sets your metabolism. So if it’s slow, even if you eat a healthy diet, you’re not going to burn off those calories.
Leigh Lowery: There are so many factors, you’re right. There are so many factors that go into weight loss and diet and nutrition, so you’re absolutely correct on that.
Leigh Lowery: Well, one thing before we end the show today that came up at the gym this week – and I wanted to ask your professional opinion, Wendy because you know way more on this than I do is about fish oils.
So it’s crucial for most body-builders and people in fitness to take fish oils. I currently am taking fish oil myself every morning when I get up. One of the thing that’s come up is the toxicity of fish and the toxicity that occurs in fish oil. So can you give me some clarity to make sure I’m not swallowing down toxins and what I should be doing in that realm?
Wendy Myers: Well, I was going to ask you. Before we started the show, there was a controversy in your gym where people, some of the weight lifters are starting to not take fish oil. What’s that about? Why?
Leigh Lowery: Well, there’s a gal who is a professional in this field and I saw actually a Facebook post and she’s got tons of followers regarding fish oils and the toxicity of your standard fish oil. She’s like, “If you’re eating fish, they’re toxic, so why do you think that fish oils aren’t going to have toxicity in it as well?” I didn’t see a solution-based. I mean, I think she was just saying, “That is the overall truth?” Now, I didn’t see a solution. So is there a solution? What kind of fish oil?
Wendy Myers: Yes! Absolutely. So what the problem is is that larger fish (salmon can be in this category as well), fish that live a long time just have more time to accumulate toxins. For instance, some tuna live to be 20 years old or maybe even older. And so in that 20 years, they accumulate mercury, they accumulate PCBs or eating other fish. They just accumulate these toxins and many, many other things including the Fukushima. They’re collecting cesium and and strontium and radioactive isotopes and things like that.
And so the problem is – well, theoretically – people that are worried about the toxicity of this fish was an absolutely legitimate concern. When I have clients do a hair and mineral analysis, if they eat a lot of fish, then they invariably have high mercury levels on their hair tests. The clients that cut out all their fish except for small ones like sardines and anchovies, herring, mackerel, those clients, their mercury goes down to very, very low amount. So I know the clients are eating too much bad fish.
So in fish oils, what manufacturers have done is they’ll use salmon or they’ll use any kind of fish and they’ll purify the fish oil. So that gets rid of any of the mercury. Unfortunately, the price in that is every time you see a fish oil that’s purified, it reduces the absorbability of the fish oil. The processing of it, it changes the nature of the fats.
Leigh Lowery: Just like when you process our foods.
Wendy Myers: Exactly! It just changes the nature of it, so it doesn’t absorb as well. And then people, they think they’re taking, whatever, 1000 mg of fish oil and they’re not absorbing that. I can’t tell you the percentages. Everybody is different. Every brand is different.
So the solution to that and what I recommend for clients and what I take is I only take fish oil that’s extracted from small fish like anchovies, like sardines. The one I take is from menhaden fish in the Atlantic. They’re just really tiny fish. I take [inaudible 00:40:17] EPA DHA. That’s what I use, but you have to take more of it. A big capsule is only about I think 190 mg of EPA DHA, so I have to take it at every meal. Yeah, so you end up having to take more of it.
A lot of people try to take 1000 mg. once a day. It just doesn’t really work that way. Our body can only absorb so much at one time, so you have to take the fish oil every meal. It’s a pain in the butt, but the best way to supplement is small amounts with every meal.
Leigh Lowery: It’s similar with Calcium, right? Isn’t it at you don’t take it all at once in the morning, which a lot of people are doing?
Wendy Myers: Yeah, you can only absorb so much of any mineral at one time. I think for Calcium, the limit is 500 mg. at one time. And you don’t want to take that in the morning because Calcium relaxes you. You want to take that at night.
Leigh Lowery: Good to know.
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Leigh Lowery: Yeah. That’s one of the common things that a lot of my clients are taking their Calcium with their morning multivitamin and I always tell them the same thing. One, I take it later in the day. I take it two times later in the afternoon about my meals.
Wendy Myers: I had my clients supplementing, taking smaller amounts with every single meal. I only eat two meals a day, so I break up my three allotment into two. It’s not as good, but I can’t seem to fit in three meals a day. That’s what works for me. Every other people are different.
Leigh Lowery: That’s right.
Wendy Myers: But as far as the fish oil is concerned, I avoid purified fish oil at all cost, it’s counterintuitive, but you don’t need to purify fish that is really low in mercury.
Leigh Lowery: Good to know!
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Leigh Lowery: Well, that’s exactly what I wanted to know. On the other hand, I tried to eat sardines the other day and I thought I was going to throw up. I thought, “Oh, I’m going to do this.” I think I brought like nine cases or sardines.
Wendy Myers: Oh, no.
Leigh Lowery: When I do anything, I am determined I’m going to do it. I tried to eat it plain, that didn’t work. I tried to cook it with eggs, that didn’t work. I tried to cover it in sauce, that didn’t work. I’m like, “You know what? I’m going to give these away. These sardines are going to go to a good person.”
Wendy Myers: Oh, you know it’s a good thing. I tell my clients that they don’t have to take fish oil at all if they eat sardines three to four times a week. You don’t have to take vitamin D or fish oil. You can save money on those Supplements because you just will get it from your food.
Leigh Lowery: That was my goal and I am now back in fish oil.
Wendy Myers: But you know what? There’s a big difference in sardines. I get these little, small sardines from Spain. They’re like $8 a ten. They’re a billion dollars, but they’re so good. They’re just really yummy. I ran out of those and I ate some brisling. I had some crowned prince also. I just had those in my cabinet just laying around. Those are the typical ones you get at Vonn’s or your typical market and they were disgusting.
Leigh Lowery: Okay. Well, I’m definitely the cheaper disgusting route. So maybe I’ll come by and I will get that coconut oil and be the sardines that you’re talking about and I’ll give it a shot.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. There’s a big difference. You’ve got to try my sardines. They’re very tasty and they’re small. They’re small, little baby ones, which means they have even mercury. All fish have mercury. Evne sardines have mercury, but they have far, far, far less than salmon. Salmon has far, far, far less than tuna. I never eat tuna. I don’t touch it. I don’t touch that stuff. It’s way too high in mercury.
But yeah, the crowned prince ones I ate, they were kind of brownish and they were nasty. I wouldn’t eat those things either. I think that’s what most people has experienced what sardines are. You’ve got to upgrade your sardines.
Leigh Lowery: Okay, I’m going to upgrade. So basically, I’m going to try my bulletproof coffee, do not send butt shots if you’re a guy or selfies in general, my philosophy is ‘do what you love’ and eat smaller sardines that tastes great rather than the big, chunky brown ones that I’ve had my experience with and definitely check out Wendy’s cooking show. So that’s kind of a wrap.
Wendy Myers: Well, everyone, thank you so much for listening. We’re so happy to have you on the show today. If you guys want to check out my site, Live to 110, I have all kinds of information on the Modern Paleo diet, all kinds of stuff about nutrition, all kinds of tips and tricks on how to live a long, healthy life. I love detox. I love talking all about detox and the best methods to do that.
You guys can check me out on Facebook and Twitter, @iwillliveto110. Where can they found you, Leigh?
Leigh Lowery: Yes, you can find the General Leigh at generalleigh.com. I have a newsletter coming out. I also am available on Instagram. You can see my pictures and all the different things that I’m doing in fitness at gymleigh or my Facebook page is generalleighfitnessandnutrition. Again, I want you guys to share a goal with me, so that we can get you started on a forward trajectory with a plan.
Wendy, I’m excited – you know, it’s hard for me to talk about my philosophy as much as it is to going to be easy to show my philosophy when I work out with you. So please stay tuned because Wendy and I will be shooting some fitness videos together. I’m going to whoop her butt in shape. She’s already in shape, but I’m going to get her into a little bit more.
Wendy Myers: I am not in shape. I want you to whip me and, “Give me twenty! Shut up and get me twenty!” That’s what I want your philosophy to be.
Leigh Lowery: Yeah, exactly. That is kind of my philosophy, so…
Wendy Myers: So hey, everyone, if you liked what you heard on the show today, please give the Live to 110 Podcast a review in iTunes. We need reviews to get higher up in the charts so more people can hear us laughing away and babbling away about our ideas about health.
So everyone, thanks for tuning in. I hope this podcast gets you thinking about your philosophy about fitness and getting you into the gym and doing what you love. Thanks so much for listening to the Live to 110 Podcast.
