the highly addictive nature of sugar and how to get it out ...164... · all these people that run...

Copyright 2018 The Pat Iyer Group www.podcast.legalnursebusiness.com 1

LNP 164

The Highly Addictive Nature of Sugar and How to Get It Out of Your Life Lisa Brown

Pat: Welcome to Legal Nurse Podcasts. This is Pat Iyer and I have with me today Lisa McDaniel Brown. She's a speaker and a holistic health coach. She works with people to teach them how to achieve their health goals. We know about health goals as legal nurse consultants. We know about weight loss, sugar addiction and feeding your family. I thought it would be great to bring Lisa on today to talk about those challenging areas for many of us.

Lisa's father was a physician for over 50 years. He specialized in weight control and longevity and lived to the age of 101. He nurtured Lisa's interest in passion, health and wellbeing through the examples, and the discussions that he, I'm sure, had around the dinner table.

Before health coaching and speaking Lisa used her degree in communications as a radio broadcaster. She's been a PR marketing professional, an event planner and a non-profit fundraiser. Currently she's focusing on her latest keynote presentation, which is called, "The Truth, Have Some." She discusses honesty, in being honest about what's happening in your health and wellbeing, and your life and your business.

Lisa and I met earlier this month. She joined a National Speakers Association local lunch that we were having in Bonita Springs, Florida. Lisa just happened to be at a Toastmasters meeting and then got invited to our National Speakers lunch. As soon as I talked to Lisa I realized that she had a lot to share with my audience. I'm so pleased that we can get this scheduled Lisa, and welcome to the show.

Lisa: Thank you Pat. I greatly appreciate this opportunity to talk with you today and talk to your listening audience. I'm so glad that we met so fatefully that day after a Toastmasters meeting. That was one of the best days I've had in a long time. I was obviously in the right place at the right time, so it's lovely to be here. Thank you.


Pat: I know that we talked in my introduction of you that you're focused in on health goals. Let's talk about why that's so important for our listeners who are legal nurse consultants - maybe working in a law practice and maybe running their own business. Why should they focus on health goals?

Lisa: I think they need to focus on health goals because of the way we all have chosen to live our lives these days and the way that society has developed in the last couple of decades. We're all so incredibly busy these days and life has changed dramatically since the invention of the Internet, which is allowing you and me to speak today which is so interesting. Because of cell phones, laptops, computers and modern technology, life is hurdling forward at an unprecedented speed. We're not used to this, so we're all multi-tasking. As women, we have so much responsibility between family, children, our career, parents and you name it. You then throw in your health and wellbeing.

Quite often for those of us that are so incredibly busy our health and our wellbeing are absolutely not at the top of our priority list. It's down at the bottom and that's why there is now a whole career opening for health coaches because that's what we do. We sit down with people and we help them prioritize in their life. Quite often that means telling them its okay to take care of yourself. It's almost like we need to give permission these days to put themselves at the top of the list or at least number two. You must take care of yourself before you can take care of everyone else and everything else in your life.

There's so much fast food. There's so much bad food out there for you. There's so much sugar. There are so many drinks out there that are just loaded with chemicals and sugar, and things that we don't need. Those are the foods that we often grab when we're on the go. Health these days almost must be absolutely intentional. You need to make it a priority. You have to think about it. You must put some time into it. Once you do that though, it can become a part of your life and that's what a health coach does. He or she helps you re-prioritize so that your health is not at the bottom of the list, it's at the top and then it gets easier-and-easier.

Pat: In putting this in context for small business owners, we talked about overall a focus on health. Why is it even more important for small business owners?


Lisa: This is incredibly important for small business owners because I used to own my own business making wedding cakes way back in the 90s. With that kind of business, when you're a brick-and-mortar kind of business if you're not working then your business isn't working. Your health must be a priority because you can't take a sick day.

Small business owners these days quite often are online, so sometimes when they are sleeping, resting or taking care of themselves their business is working, but you're still responsible. You're still the boss. If you are the owner, it starts with you and nobody has time to be sick these days. Prioritizing your health and making your wellbeing number one is a must and it's okay.

Pat: I wanted to focus specifically on the weight control. I know that in your background growing up with a physician father who specialized in weight control and longevity that this is subject that you must have had many discussions on. We know that Americans are becoming larger. I've gone into furniture stores with my son and we're both fairly small people. We've sat in chairs the two of us side-by-side and filled the chair which was meant for one person. We know that in health care there is a whole specialty of bariatric medicine, bariatric stretchers and bariatric services.

What's going on? Why is it so difficult for Americans to control their weight?

Lisa: The answer to that is pretty darn simple. Our food has changed radically; our grocery stores have changed; and our lifestyles have changed. We're all sedentary. We all like to sit in front of laptops and computers all day long to get our work done. That's become our job.

My father always said if you shop around the perimeter of the grocery store you're going to be just fine because that's where you're going to find your fruits, your vegetables, your lean meats, fish and seafood. It's when you go up and down the aisles of the grocery store that you're going to get in trouble because there are so much processed and packaged food in our culture let alone fast food.

When you go out to eat our portion size has just grown and doubled and tripled. Pat, with you being a small woman I'm sure you've been served a plate of food in a restaurant and thought I can eat this for


three meals as opposed to just one. It's the content of our food that matters. It's the size of our food portions. It's the sugar. It's the chemicals. It's the fast food and it's the way we're all living our lives these days. We're over-scheduled. We're rushing around getting our kids places, holidays come and go. There's always those priorities and let alone work.

Most families these days if they're a two-person head-of-household they're both working full-time most of the time. That leaves very little time for proper grocery store shopping, planning for meals or making your health and wellbeing a priority, especially in the nursing world. The obesity rates among nurses. . . in preparing for this interview I was reading it's up to 55% in some places. Obesity overall in the United States, and we're talking obesity not just being overweight with a BMI being 30 or higher, that's 1/3 of all adults and it's almost 20% of all teenagers in this country.

I always like to say if you look back to 100 years ago or 150 years ago what were people eating? They were growing their food. They were eating food that was sourced locally that they grew, or their neighbors grew. They were eating animals that were growing behind their home or in the field next to them. It was a very different time and that was long before obesity rates skyrocketed in this country, which really happened after the 50s and the 60s when our food started to change. It was all about convenience.

Pat: We have listeners who recognize the need to change their eating habits and perhaps they're interested in losing weight. What tips can you share with us about what they can do?

Lisa: I was trained at the Institute for Integrated Nutrition, which trains exclusively health coaches. They talk about bio-individuality. Bio-individuality means that what works for me is not necessarily going to work for you. You must figure out what your best diet is and what works for your body, so you have to listen to your body.

All these people that run around and say veganism is the way to go, you got to be a vegetarian or you got to stay away from food while on the other side of the aisle people are like Paleo is the best, so is Whole30 which is based on consuming proteins and meats. They're right for what's working for them. I always talk to my clients about


what do you crave, what do you like to eat, what works for your body, if you sit down and listen what kind of food really works for you?

That's bio-individuality, but we also talk about primary foods and secondary foods. Primary food is not what you would think. Secondary food is the food that you put on your plate, that's the food that you eat. That's the food that we consume like fruits, proteins, vegetables, carbohydrates, fats etc.

Primary food is so much more than that. There's so much more that goes on into your life that truly affects what you put in your body and what you put in your mouth. Your primary food is basically your career, exercise, relationships and spirituality. Those are the things that I think people really need to look at before they spend too much time on what do I want to eat and what am I putting over here. That's what being a holistic health coach is all about. You're looking at the mind, body and spirit.

We look at a bigger picture. You want to look at what's right in your life, what's not quite right and what you should be working on as opposed to what should be on the plate in front of me. That can get really overwhelming.

When you're working with a health coach we look at:

"Do you like your job? Are you where you are supposed to be and is something holding you back there?"

"Do you have a spirituality practice? Do you need one in your life? Did you used to have one and you got away from it?"

It's the same thing with exercise. "Do you have any kind of exercise in your life?"

When I talk about honesty and truth, exercise is a big part of that because people think I walk a lot and I get around a lot, but sometimes we fool ourselves into thinking we're active when you're not. We're sedentary.

"Do you have an exercise practice? Did you used to have one that you got away from? Do you need to get back to it?"


"What's going on in your relationships? Are you in a happy marriage? Are you dating somebody who fills you up as opposed to drains you? Do you have a partner who brings out the best in you? Do you bring out the best in your partner? How are you around your kids?"

It's so much more than food. It's a little of everything. I've talked to my clients about their entire life and for most of them that's a new approach to food and to what you eat. It's looking at the whole picture and not just what goes in your mouth.

Pat: That's an important perspective because the whole picture does influence what goes into your mouth.

Lisa: It does, and a lot of people aren't prepared to look at that when they're thinking of starting a "new diet". I don't really like to use the word “diet” because it implies something temporary. I like to say, "Eating plan" because you must plan on what you're eating for you to really feed your body. The question most of the time is, "Are you feeding your taste buds, are you feeding your cravings, are you stuffing down your emotions or are you giving your body fuel?"

I know a lot of people, especially men, can identify with this analogy, "You buy yourself a really nice car. You get successful. You get yourself a top of the line car that you worked very hard for. You have to put premium gasoline in that car to keep it running" and most people would never even consider putting regular gas in that. The same thing is true of our body. You have been given one body. It is a gift. It is full of things that you must keep healthy, so why would you put garbage fuel inside of your body?

It's pretty simple. I tend to have the same conversations over-and-over again with clients. It's mainly talking about adding vegetables back into your world. It's so easy to get away from vegetables, but vegetables are the primary fuel along with some fruits, lean meats, proteins and water. It's not that hard to figure out. We haven't gotten into the discussion on water yet, but I'm sure we will get there. If you just simplify things and you go back to the way things used to be, you just eat real food, stay away from the processed stuff and stay away from the sugar.


Before we continue with the show. I want to ask you a few questions. Do you struggle with getting fit?

Does the bag of chocolate in the cabinet call to you? Does the ice cream in the freezer speak your name? Would you rather eat an Oreo than a carrot? Does the idea of going to the gym for getting fit seem less

interesting that watching a movie?

If you answer “yes” to these questions, you are singing my song. I interviewed Mike Schatzki to talk with him about how as a middle age overweight male he was able to get into shape. His story may surprise you. I think it will inspire you. The program is called Coach Potatoes: Secrets of Getting Fit.

We have the audio recording and transcript for you at http://LNC.tips/couch and as always, offer you a 25% discount if you use the code Listened in the coupon box during check out.

Pat: Let's talk about sugar. There is a term called "Sugar Addiction", what does that really mean?

Lisa: When I first became a health coach I realized that I was a sugar addict and I really didn't know that. I knew I loved sugar. I love sweets and so did my dad. I thought I got that from him. I know it runs in my family. There are certain members of my family that couldn't care less


about sweets and then there's the rest of us who are like, "Where are the cookies and ice cream because dinner's over?"

I had kind of a life-changing experience when I was at a conference back in 2012. I saw a woman speak named Julia Ross and she's a psychotherapist who has specialized in all kinds of addictions for about 40 years. Her presentation that day was called "Sugar Addiction: Confronting the Greatest Nutritional Crisis of All Time". Now that kind of stopped me in my tracks when you hear a title like that. I don't think mainstream media or in the mainstream anywhere sugar is being talked about as the greatest nutritional crisis of all time, but she had my attention.

I knew sugar was on my plate every day and I had a tough time getting it out of my life sometimes, so she had my attention. She noted that sugar is four times more addictive than cocaine and it's more toxic than alcohol and tobacco.

Have you ever heard that before, Pat?

Pat: No.

Lisa: In my world as a health coach I do hear it, but you're not hearing it in mainstream media. You as a nurse - I'm not surprised to hear that you haven't heard this, but it stills surprises me because it's such a big part of my world. Sugar is just everywhere, but also in my world I'm hypoglycemic. I've got to be careful with sugar. If I eat too much of it, I crash and burn, I get the shakes, I get the sweats and I get a bad attitude. I think I'm fine, but I'm spewing badness out of my mouth. We've all heard the term "hangry" as opposed to "hungry" and that's what that is.

I knew sugar was having an extremely unfortunate effect on my body and that was because it was the highs and the lows. I knew I had to get it out of my life. I battle with it almost every day. I know when I get sugar out of my system after three or four days I don't crave it. I know for most people the idea of giving up sugar completely is foreign. That's a concept they cannot wrap their brain around, but that's just like any other addiction. If you're addicted to drugs, if you're addicted to alcohol, it's best if you step away from it completely and you get it out of your environment.


As a sugar addict, I found that I do best when I have sugar completely out of my environment. That's kind of tough to do when my husband is not a sugar addict. He's the kind of guy who can open a bag of cookies, eat three or four and put the bag back in the cabinet, but in my mind, I know those cookies are still there. I think about them and I think about them. It's the same thing with ice cream or with cakes. I am hyper aware of where those things are in my house.

Intellectually I know I shouldn't be eating them and that nutritionally they do nothing for me, and as a matter fact they do quite a bit of harm to my body when I consume them, but I still love them. They still taste great and sometimes I do like the effect on my body. I do need a pick-me-up. Sometimes I feel myself getting low or I know I'm going to go into something where I want some energy and sugar is a great thing to stuff in your mouth. I then also know 30 minutes later I'm going to have a crash. That's what we're all dealing with in this country.

There are plenty of people who are addicted to sugar who might not know it. A lot of people just don't know there is a sugar addiction. It is in my world a real thing. It is very real. Going back to bio-individuality, it is up to you the individual to decide if you have a problem with sugar. Some people do, and some people don't. I think most people in this country have an addiction to something and a lot of people have an addiction to sugar. They just don't know it. They think, “I want to eat this food all the time and I don't know why I can't give it up.”

Well, there is a reason. There are all kinds of additives in our foods these days in processed, packaged or fast food that get us addicted to get our bodies very much attuned to wanting those foods over-and-over again. Once we realize that we do better physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually when we don't have those additives in those foods in our lives, we can take a step back and say, "Okay I need to make a better plan. I need to have a plan so that those foods and those ingredients aren't in my life."

I’ve got to tell you almost all the health coaching clients I work with have a sugar addiction, but that's also kind of my specialty. We have that in common and I know how to help them work through the


process so that they can make better choices and get away from those sugary foods.

I have all kinds of suggestions on how to do that. Would you like to hear those?

Pat: Well, let me just clarify a couple of things before you share those. When you talk about sugar, are you also including fruits that have different types of sugar as opposed to the ones that are in processed foods?

Lisa: No, I'm not talking about fruits. The sugar in fruits naturally occurs and if you're eating a piece of fruit you're also getting the fiber, and all the other good things that come with it. When I'm talking about sugar, I'm talking about modern day refined white crystallized sugar, high fructose corn syrup or any of the man-made created sugary additives that end up in our foods. I'm talking about white crystallized sugar mostly.

Pat: Another question or another point that I have become aware of in learning more about diabetes, which my husband has, and I have pre-diabetes, is becoming aware of the fact that there are foods with high-glycemic indexes such as rice, potatoes and bread that transform into sugar in your body. You don't ordinarily think that when you're looking at a potato or a dish of rice that that's a sugar-creating food.

Lisa: Yes, Pat that's a great point that you make. The Glycemic Index is basically a ranking of carbohydrates on a scale of 0 to 100. That scale is basically measuring the extent to which foods raise the blood sugar levels and how quickly that happens.

A lot of people are real surprised that corn, rice and potatoes are high on the Glycemic Index. They convert into sugar once they're inside of our bodies. When I'm talking to my clients, I tell them that yes, it's best to stay away from those and if you can avoid them as much as possible while you're trying to clean the sugar out of your system.

You can go online and look up the Glycemic Index. I tell people to do this a lot, which is to do your own research. Don't just sit here and listen to me or listen to all the experts who are out there who tell you over-and-over again what you need to do. That phrase kind of drives me crazy when experts start with, "What you need to do is this…" I'm


back to bio-individuality and what you need to do is what is right for you.

If you are pre-diabetic or you're diabetic, hopefully you have been told that there is such a thing as the Glycemic Index and you can go online and look it up. It will take you two minutes. There are several sites that will explain what it is and will give you a very clear list of high glycemic foods, foods that will raise your blood sugar quickly that you might want to avoid and then the low glycemic foods that you can eat and are much better for you.

Fruit by the way, for the low glycemic foods, we're talking about apples, strawberries, peaches and pears. On the vegetable side, low glycemic vegetables are asparagus, broccoli, artichokes and Brussels sprouts. Those might be foreign foods to you, especially if you're living a fast-paced life and you're used to eating fast food, but those are the foods that your body is going to probably like a lot. That is fuel for your body.

The Glycemic Index, look online and find out what's high, find out what's low, and find out what's in the middle. Do your own research.

Pat: Let's conclude by talking a little bit about how kick that sugar habit.

Lisa: I have several suggestions for you. The first thing being obvious is to clear the sugar out of your house and read labels. That is probably the number one thing I tell my clients constantly. If you pick up a food that has a label on it, read the ingredients. If you remember anything I've said today, please remember when you're in the grocery store and when you're in your own home to turn the box to the side or turn it around and read the ingredients. Sugar is hidden in a lot of different things. It's usually words that end in O-S-E like sucrose and glucose.

O-S-E is how they hide sugars in there but get the sugar out of your house. Clear it out of the cabinets. If it's not around you, you can't eat it. At work that means don't have a big thing of chocolate sitting on the edge of your desk. I don't know how many coworkers I've had who have M&Ms or little candies all year long. Get that stuff away from you. Get it out of your car.

Also avoid processed junk food and you're going to want to drink plenty of water to clean your system out. Eat more vegetables and eat


more protein. Eating protein is really a good thing to do even if you're vegan or even if you're a vegetarian. You don't have to eat meat. You can get protein from beans, legumes and even from vegetables like spinach. You can get protein from lots of other places. Eating protein and eating foods that will fuel your body and keep your glycemic index from spiking. That's going to keep you in a happy place as opposed to sugar, which brings your glycemic index and your blood sugar up and down.

Get support. Find a health coach and find a buddy. Go through this process together. Stopping sugar and changing the way you look at food is a process. It's not a one week I'm doing this and then I go back to what I used to do. It's a plan and hopefully it's a lifelong plan and you will adjust it as you have life changes.

Pat: Tell us how our readers can find out more about you.

Lisa: I have a website and it's pretty simple to find me. It's www.LisaBrownPresents.com. You can find me there. I am available for speaking engagements and that's primarily what I'm focusing on these days. I'm starting a book as well and I am limiting the number of people I work with individually since my husband and I are empty-nesters now we're traveling a little bit more. I'm focusing on my speaking engagements and you can find me at www.LisaBrownPresents.com.

Pat: Thank you Lisa. I really appreciate you being on this show. You have inspired me. I have a big bag of chocolate in my cabinet that you use to melt and then dip in strawberries, but I've decided that it's going to be thrown away as soon as this call is over. It's been sitting there and calling me, and it needs to be silenced.

Lisa: Excellent. If it's not around, then you can't eat it, so good! I'm glad that you had a good takeaway from this. I hope a few other people do too.

Pat: Thank you to our listeners. I encourage you as a result of listening to this podcast to go in and look at your cabinets and read the labels, particularly look at if you've got yogurt in your refrigerator. That's a food substance that has a great deal of sugar in it and you should purchase wisely, looking for the brands that have the lowest sugar.


Look at your cereals to see how much sugar is in those, the breakfast bars and the snack bars. Take a hard look at what you're putting in your mouth and how that affects your health.

Please stay tuned for our next interview, which will be a week from now. We love it when our listeners give us reviews on iTunes and give us feedback about the show. This has been Pat Iyer and Lisa Brown with Legal Nurse Podcasts.

After you stop listening to this interview, be sure to go over to LNC.tips/couch to order your 60-minute interview and transcript of Couch Potatoes: Secrets of Getting Fit.

I’ve got a phenomenal resource for you just waiting on LegalNurseBusiness.com. My online training and books are designed to help LNCs discover ways to strengthen their skills and businesses. Check them out at legalnursebusiness.com. Many of us are lifelong learners who enjoy the chance to keep expanding our knowledge. Just like the book of the month clubs, LNCEU.com gives you two online trainings every month. We have a yearly payment plan that saves you over $50 compared to paying monthly, and each program is hugely discounted. Look at the options at LNCEU.com. The LNCAcademy.com is the coaching program I offer to a select number of LNCs. You get my personal attention and mentorship so that you can excel and build a solid foundation for your LNC practice. Get all the details at LNCAcademy.com.

the highly addictive nature of sugar and how to get it out ...164... · all these people that run...

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