Valeria López is a Licensed Nutritionist, Health Coach, and Gut Health Specialist who helps high-achieving women over 40 lose weight and rebalance their hormones—without restriction, burnout, or self-sacrifice.
With a background in clinical nutrition and a deep respect for our brilliant biology, her approach is rooted in science, focused on gut and metabolic health, and guided by a profound understanding of how food can elevate our vibrational frequency.
To Valeria, true nourishment isn’t just about weight—it’s the foundation for clarity, confidence, and reaching your highest potential.Contact Infowebsite: www.valerialopezpoliero.seFacebook: Wise Food Choices by Vale @wisefoodchoiceInstagram: @wisefoodchoices Free Masterclass www.thewisefoodsolution.com/register-igCalendar Access for Free Assessment Consultation: www.thewisefoodsolution.com/call-ig
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to The High Vibration Reset, the podcast for women
ready to step into their next level of success, raising your
energy and your impact without burnout, overthinking, or
feeling undervalued. I'm your host, Kira Conlan, and
for the past 18 years, I've beenhelping women take full
(00:22):
ownership of their growth, theirvoice, their work, and their
leadership. And that's not just to succeed
personally, but to create a bigger impact in their
communities, workplaces and in the world.
In this week's episode, I interview Valeria Lopez.
Now Valeria is a licensed nutritionist, a health coach and
(00:46):
gut health specialist. She helps high achieving women
over 40 lose weight, rebalance their hormones without
restriction, burnout or self sacrifice.
Malaria has a background in Clinical Nutrition, so her
approach is really rooted in science.
(01:08):
She focuses on the gut and metabolic health, and she's
guided by a profound understanding of how food can
really elevate our vibrational frequency.
Malaria's goal is to empower women to make expert level
decisions about themselves, and her outlook on food is eat how
(01:29):
you want to feel rather than howyou want to look.
It's a really healthy and refreshing way to look at food
regardless of your health or weight goals.
This episode really is a must listen for any woman.
She breaks it all down to make it easy to follow and how to
(01:50):
make instant changes so that youcan live in a healthier, more
energetic body. And this will give you the
energy to achieve whatever it isyou're trying to achieve.
She tells us in this episode what most of us have got wrong
around fasting. And I have worked with Valeria
(02:12):
and this was a game changer for me because prior to meeting
Valeria, I would always have said I don't fast and fasting
doesn't work for me. So she showed me how we can
think differently about fasting.That fasting doesn't have to
mean that we're hungry. It's just an opportunity to give
(02:34):
our bodies a break from shoveling in the food and allow
our system to rejuvenate, to rejuvenate and to heal itself.
She talks about how food can actually balance our emotions
and our hormones. She talks about cortisol and how
this can be negatively impactingthe good habits and behaviors we
(02:59):
have. And she also speaks about the
real health risks associated with a very common food that I'm
sure most of us are eating everyday.
So I know you're going to enjoy this episode, so let's dive
right in. So Valeria, welcome.
Thank you so much, my dear, for joining.
(03:23):
I'm a very fortunate person because Valeria is now a good
friend of mine. And before we get into this, I
was just thinking, So I have a lot of lovely friends who I met
in different places, but I thinkour story is the coolest.
Valeria, If you remember where we met of.
(03:44):
Course I do. We met on a hike in Arizona in
the early morning and we our paths have been aligned ever
since, so I'm delighted to have you here to chat on the podcast.
(04:04):
Same. And I have to, I have to say
this before we start. Yeah, I'm, I'm just as lucky as
you are. Even more maybe.
I think that your friendship is a great value in my life.
So thank you. Thank you very much for having
me today. So why don't you start telling
(04:25):
us a little bit more about who you are and how you moved into
this area of nutrition and working with Women's Health?
Well, well, my name is Valeria Lopez.
I'm originally from Argentina and I went right after high
school. I went to university to study
nutrition at the At the time, I don't think I was so aware of
(04:48):
this, but in in time, I realizedthat I went into nutrition
school because I wanted to solvemy own health issues, my own
weight issues. I was overweight, like the
chubby girl in the family my whole life as a child and as a
teenager. And that was a very limiting
(05:09):
thing for me in so many ways, socially, personally, like my
confidence, it was everywhere. And I think that to a grant, to
a great extent, that the reason I decided to work exclusively
with women is because I think that we are very limited by the
(05:32):
way we look, by our weight, and that translates into how we
connect to the world. So my intention is to help women
get out of there, right? And like, step into the lights
and be be who they came to the world to be.
So well, and I'm doing it through nutrition and health.
(05:55):
You are doing it through other ways.
But I think that, yeah, that's that's the reason I decided to
work only with women. Yeah, it's so important, isn't
it? Because most women, I'm sure
there are fortunate women who'venever had to think about their
weight, their bodies. But most women have an issue
(06:16):
with how they look. And the media and social media
and life conditions us to be a certain way.
And we waste so much time thinking about it when we could
be, as you say, coming to do thegood work that we're here to do.
That's the fortunate thing aboutgetting older as well.
You care less. But.
(06:39):
But even there, we all want to feel good, look good and be
comfortable in our bodies. Yeah.
But also like, you know, The thing is also like the things we
do to ourselves to, to fit into certain role models, to, to, to
look in a certain way or to lookyounger or to be different, to
(07:02):
change our bodies. And I think that the best thing
that we can do is actually honorwho we are and what how we look.
Obviously, from a health perspective, Like if you are
severely overweight, like my BMIwas in the obesity range when I
was overweight. And that is not healthy, right?
(07:24):
And that doesn't have a good vibration because somewhere
there you're not entirely happy with yourself.
Yeah. So the only to me, the only
genuine reason to do anything for yourself is because it
aligns better with that higher version of yourself rather than
(07:46):
I have to look this way or I have to fit in this dress or I
have to, you know, that type of thing.
So the name of your company Valeria?
Oh yes, wise food choices. Yes.
So that is the essence about what you teach and what you do.
(08:06):
So explain why you came up with that name.
That name, Yeah. Well, especially because I
started working like I realized that most of the women that came
working with me were in their 40s and 50s.
So, and, and to me, because I'm a huge fan of perimenopause and
menopause fun in a good way. Like I think it's a wonderful
(08:31):
time of our lives. It's not a problem, it's not
something broken is not a failure or a mistake.
It's a wonderful thing. And that comes with with wisdom
and the wiser we get in, in, in terms of the choices we make
about our food, about our lifestyle, about the way we
(08:51):
treat ourselves well. That's why I wanted to help
people make wise food choices. Yeah, yeah.
And it and it's a really important thing that we need to
be reminded of. It's that we always have a
choice in every moment. And it's one of the things that
I say to my clients is that I say to myself actually is when I
(09:16):
have a negative thought, when I do something that I didn't want
to do, I actually say to myself,I choose again.
So, and that's something actually because I worked with
you, I did your program Valaria and which we'll talk about in
terms of hormone balance and, and making those right choices.
(09:37):
But I remember once you saying to me it's choose the best
option in the moment because we got hung up on, you know, we go
out or something and our perfectdiet, if we're eating in a
certain way isn't there. But you said to me, make the
right the the best choice in themoment.
(09:59):
And I always remember that and Ithink it's fantastic.
But anyway, let's get a bit meatier into deeper conversation
about hormone health. So you talk a lot about
balancing hormones and doing that with food.
And I think this is a fantastic thing that people, more people
(10:21):
need to know about. Food really impacts our
hormones. Tell us more about that.
Yeah, well, there's like I, there's three reasons that food
impacts our hormones. So the nutrients that we get
through our diet either help us make hormones or metabolize
them, which means changing them a little bit so they can be
(10:44):
usable by by ourselves. And they also help us detoxify
and eliminate hormones. So these are three stages of our
hormonal balance and all of themrequire certain nutrients.
That's why I focus so much on working on the microbiome, which
is the bacteria in our gut. They process part of the food
(11:08):
that we eat that most of the of the the benefits that we get
from food is because of the bacteria that we have in the gut
and they are key for our hormonal balance as well.
And then the second part is the liver.
So these two systems need optimal nutrition, and we're
talking about not just macros and calories and protein that is
(11:33):
so trendy these days, which we of course we need.
But we're talking about polyphenols, we're talking about
fermented foods, we're talking about essential fatty acids like
omega-3. We're talking about being
exposed to the sun. Certain vegetables like
cruciferous vegetables that are so key for liver function,
(11:53):
metabolizing excess ex estrogen for example.
Many women that are in on HRT for example, they start HRT
because they have brain foil, because they are low in their
moods. Because just so you know, the
main symptoms of perimenopause and menopause is not the hot
(12:14):
flashes is depression and anxiety and and being low and
feeling sad for no reason. So HRT has proven really
effective in that. But then when you don't nourish
your body properly to metabolizeand eliminate those hormones,
then you're not using them properly, you're not making the
(12:34):
best out of them, and then you start putting on weight,
especially around the middle. I don't know if this is clear or
if I made like a very big salad here of things, but basically
that's how we eat for our hormones for three reasons.
To make them, to use them and toeliminate them, OK.
(12:57):
And different foods will give you the tools for that.
That's why restriction will never work for us.
Right. Great.
Yay. But that's what happens a lot of
the time, isn't it? Where you see, you know, people
aren't able to lose weight not because they're eating too much,
(13:19):
because they're eating too little.
Yes. They're not nourishing their.
Bodies actually, the women that I interview on on on a daily
basis to join my program, they, they don't eat a lot.
Yeah, they don't. Yeah.
And it's a great relief to know that.
Yeah, if you know. But then the problem is that
(13:39):
they eat too little, so then their thyroid starts making
weird, you know, adaptations. The body is an adaptation
machine, so if it doesn't have enough resources, it obviously
will not use the reserves. But there's another thing here.
When the body cannot process something because it doesn't
(14:01):
have that vitamin or that mineral or that enzyme or that
little tool that it needs to process a hormone, a food, a
toxin, anything, it will store it as fat.
And that is a survival mechanism.
OK. Those of us that put on weight
(14:22):
in the middle and complain aboutit, think again.
Say thank you. It looks like you need something
that I'm not giving you. Let's take a look at that.
What is it that is missing here?What is it most likely to be?
(14:43):
Most likely are nutritional deficiencies, not just calories
but micronutrients. Unfortunately, the, the, the
food supply especially and, and also like these foods that are
labeled as healthy like whole grain bread and these diet
drinks and low sugar and low fatand 0 calorie whatever.
(15:08):
They come packed with chemicals that give more workload to our
liver. And then the liver cannot
process all of it because it hasnot the nutrients like I said,
all the polyphenols and the vitamins and the minerals and
all these essential amino acids and all these things that come
from real food. So when you don't get that,
(15:30):
obviously your body cannot process this other junk that we
give it. Now, the body is perfectly able
to handle this junk as an exception, absolutely, because
otherwise it would mean never drink a glass of wine again or
never eat pizza again or never. And that is not possible and
(15:53):
it's not going to happen and it's not realistic.
So the body can handle exceptions when it's fully
nourished. OK.
So that's the type of balance that we need to find.
So it's the liver that's gettingoverloaded with hormones even
and bad food and hormones. Like cortisol and insulin and
(16:17):
estrogen and progesterone and testosterone.
And, you know, everything goes through the liver.
It's the main metabolic organ that we have.
And it's a huge elimination pathway as well.
So a lot of women also experience high cholesterol
during perimenopause, and then they think they need to stop
(16:39):
eating eggs, right? But they don't think they have
to stop eating ice cream or sugar for some reason.
Very interesting, right? So these are the things that I
think are very important that people understand and know
because they empower you to makedecisions based on how you want
(16:59):
to feel, not how you want to look.
The looks will come right Once you feel the right way.
Absolutely. So how can we simplify that?
Because you've said a lot there.That makes a lot of sense.
But you did say a lot and you know for a lot of people it's
maybe language, polyphenols or you know, that we don't use in
(17:22):
everyday. So how do we simplify?
OK, Yep. Go ahead.
So what this would look like is when we talk about polyphenols,
we're talking about colors and flavors that are natural in all
fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts,olive oil, green tea, spices.
(17:47):
So think of everything that has flavor and smell and color
naturally. These colors are not just for
looks. These colors are essential
nutrients for us and they feed our microbiome.
They are anti-inflammatory. They are antioxidant and that's
(18:08):
why because of the antioxidant effect is that they have such a,
a huge impact in how our liver processes things.
OK, now all the vitamins and thelike, all soluble vitamins like
B's and C's and you know, all kinds of vitamins, they are also
in the same group of fruits and vegetables.
(18:31):
And there's another one that is key and it's deficient in pretty
much 95% of the population, which is fiber.
Most people don't eat the the amount of fiber that they need.
And fiber again, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, whole
grains, legumes or beans, that'swhere you find them.
(18:57):
And the fiber, what it does is it feeds the good microbes and
it's fermented. So another nutrient is produced
by the microbes in your gut. And that nutrient, those
nutrients are called short chainfatty acids.
And they not only feed your, they don't, they give you
(19:18):
energy, but they also feed your cells in the gut lining to keep
them healthy. They also signal satiety to the
brain. They help the production of this
very trendy thing these days, GLP, one that is in these weight
loss drugs, the weight loss drugs, the injections that a lot
of people are using these days to lose weight is a peptide that
(19:42):
is produced naturally in your gut when you eat the right
foods, right? So the body is perfectly
equipped to regulate food intaketo, to stay balanced to, to keep
you energized. It's a very, very smart thing.
(20:02):
The thing is that we need to, weneed to fuel it properly.
And when you get all these foodslike.
Convenience store foods like packaged stuff like ready made
foods that have all these inflammatory oils that have no
nutrients at all, that are full of flavoring and coloring and,
(20:23):
you know, additives and chemicals that gives more work
to your body, doesn't give, doesn't deliver the energy that
we need. Yeah, yeah.
So that brings up something thatI was just thinking about there
because probably before meeting you, I would have been somebody
who thought, you know, I, I do eat all the right things.
(20:44):
I already, you know, had seeds and a variety of vegetables in
my diet, and I was doing a lot right.
I'm gluten free. I don't eat dairy except for ice
cream sometimes. But you're human.
Yeah. Yeah.
But I was doing the right things, but I was gaining
(21:05):
weight. Now I think one of the things
that we identified was the inflammatory oils.
So tell us more about that. Yeah, Well, this, this is a very
interesting thing because peoplethink that saturated fats are
bad, like animal fats, the the yellow in the egg, you know,
(21:27):
that type of stuff. Butter is bad, but they think
that oils when their vegetable oils, they're good.
And that is a very old thing that came because they thought
that cholesterol in in blood andtriglycerides and all of that
raised when we had saturated fatbut not unsaturated fats.
(21:49):
And that gave place to the production of all these refined
oils like sunflower, sunflower, cotton seed oil.
They, they are making oil out ofanything these days and they,
they deodorize it, they refine it.
They, they take away the smell and the taste and the color
because these these oils are usually very strong but very
(22:13):
cheap to produce and they are high in Omega 6 and another
fatty acids that are pro inflammatory.
Now why is that a problem? Well, because when inflammation
goes up, your body is like in a constant start of alert, right?
So your body feels like something is wrong because
(22:35):
inflammation is a, is an immune response.
So that will deplete your immunesystem.
People get sick more often, theyget insulin resistant because of
this, because your body cannot regulate metabolism when it's
when it's in danger. And that makes a lot of sense,
doesn't it? Yeah.
So all these oils that get so oxidized that are so
(23:00):
inflammatory are one of the foods that we think are healthy.
And people use them for everything, for their salads,
for their baking, for their cookies.
You will find them in all salad dressings, in everything that
you find in the store. I now don't because now the
(23:21):
brands know that we look for sugar, right?
So they try not to put sugar in it or they kind of disguise it
without, with other names that are very fancy.
So nobody understands them, but they they don't, they know that
people are not fully aware aboutthe oils.
So you will find grapeseed oil and sunflower oil and corn and
(23:43):
soy and all these vegetable or just vegetable oil in pretty
much everything. So if you just can look for that
in a food label, make sure that it doesn't have any refined oil,
you will make a huge step forward.
And also these oils also raise your cholesterol, they raise the
(24:07):
LDL cholesterol. They have been shown to increase
cardiovascular risk, which is the opposite of what we thought.
Crazy. Yeah.
And I've noticed even a lot of the the so-called healthy
brands, you know, there's a couple of Irish guys who have a
(24:31):
really healthy brand and I've noticed and there is an English
woman who is a very healthy brand and all of the granolas
and all of these things have it as well.
So yeah, we think we're, we think we're making good choices.
But often, yeah. But The thing is, you know why?
Because food started being a financial situation more than a
(24:54):
nourishment situation. So people won't pay a certain
amount of money for a granola, so they make it cheaper by using
these products. And of course they make it
cheaper, so they make more profit as well.
And there's nothing, I have nothing against companies making
(25:16):
profit. The opposite.
Make profit doing the right thing.
Absolutely. And we can make our own granola
anyway. Very easily my own.
Granola, and it's really. Good.
Brilliant. So cortisol.
So that is something that also adds width to our middle area.
(25:40):
So how does that actually happen?
How does the cortisol make us put on weight?
Well, cortisol is cortisol in what One thing important about
cortisol, cortisol is good because now everybody's like,
oh, you have high cortisol. Like cortisol is the enemy is
not nothing your body produces is bad for you, unless of course
(26:04):
it's out of balance. Now when when we are under a lot
of stress, our cortisol will spike, right?
And where cortisol spikes, one very important thing happens.
We are more insulin resistant. Why?
Because cortisol wants to keep blood sugar high.
So if there is enough accessibleenergy, fast energy for your
(26:28):
muscles to run from danger, that's what cortisol was made
for, to put to make us safe, to help us run away from danger.
Right now, when cortisol is, is high, obviously insulin, insulin
and cortisol don't get along so well.
So if cortisol is high, insulin doesn't work, right?
(26:52):
So then your blood sugar will, will rise, but that sugar won't
get into your cells. So you will have low energy and
you will crave food. You will be great, especially
you will crave carbs, right? Because why?
Because cortisol wants you to have fast energy to use for
(27:12):
running from the beast that is coming to eat whatever.
Now when, when those hormones both because insulin is also
going to be high, it's just not going to be working.
Those hormones are very high. They are circulating.
The body doesn't know what to do.
So the liver says, OK, no worries, I'll put them here in
(27:32):
the fat tissue. Yay.
Why? Well, because we can't have
these guys around all the time. So excess sugar, excess insulin
and excess cortisol that cannot be processed are going to be
deposited around your midsectiontemporarily because the body
(27:52):
thinks we're not going to be in danger forever, right?
We're going to, this is going tobe resolved.
And when it is, I'll take care of this.
So it puts us in the middle in the midsection because it's
closer to the liver, so we can go get it.
Does that make sense? Yeah.
It also will store it here in your neck.
(28:17):
And when when a person starts putting a weight, the last place
where the fat will store is probably around here on the neck
and around the head. But if this is the first one
that will be removed because it's too close to the brain.
Wow. So you want your belly to go
away, but your body knows better.
(28:38):
And he will say, no, no, we'll take care of your brain.
That's not as dangerous, right? So that's why that gets stored
around the middle. And then when you want to get
rid of that, you need to you need to address the reasons why
your cortisol is high. And the reason why your cortisol
(28:58):
is high could be because of highinflammation.
That's why food is so important because that's, well, that's the
one of the main inputs we have in physically right, is food.
Of course, then we have our thoughts and our beliefs and how
we manage stress and so on. But the input, the biological
(29:20):
input that we have is food. And that's what give your body
the resources to do everything that it needs to do.
And we have control over it. Exactly.
Most of us, yes, we should, at least.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or let's say, let's not, let's
not say should. Let's say we can be in control
(29:40):
of it and we are designed to be in control of it.
Sometimes those control systems get hacked by these types of
foods. Refined oils, refined sugar,
additives like emulsifiers and sweeteners, even 0 calorie
sweeteners, all these things hack our control mechanisms.
(30:01):
Yeah, yeah. So that's why people can't stop
eating this stuff. And that's why conscious eating
or intuitive eating won't work for most people.
No. Because consciously I want that
ice cream or that bag of crisps is calling me so my I'm out of
touch with what my body needs. Yeah, I think that mindful
(30:25):
eating is very important when you're doing both at the same
time. You're taking care of the
quality of your food and then you use that very powerful skill
that is mindfulness to to make better and better and better
decisions about it. Yeah, Yeah.
But you need to give your body something to work with because
(30:47):
it won't come out of nowhere just because I think I'm
thinking of eating healthy. That's not going to happen.
It's more difficult than that, yeah.
Which I'm I'm sure a lot of people will relate to, but I
think what you said there is important as well, that we don't
label cortisol or anything as bad.
(31:09):
And this is something that you say about food.
You said there's no good or bad food, but surely there are foods
that are bad for us. But those are not real foods.
Very good. Products.
Yes. Because Coca-Cola is not food.
(31:32):
Sorry, I, I just, you just lost a sponsor here, but you know.
That's no problem. But you know, I think we need to
make a difference between what is food and what is not.
That's true. Very true.
Yeah. And even if we thought about
what we eat like that, we would make much better choices,
(31:52):
wouldn't we? When we think of it as The thing
is, I. Don't think, I don't think we, I
don't think people or us are to blame for that because we, we
were led to believe that these things were good for us and we
were led to believe that by people that we trust, like
(32:14):
doctors and brands and the fact that they it's allowed to sell
it. Like in an ideal world,
Coca-Cola should be forbidden. Yeah, yeah.
But even our parents, you know, I know my mother with with
probably lack of information or knowledge, you know, would say
(32:35):
things like eat it up, it's goodfor you.
And it might have been a piece of white bread and, you know, a
heap of butter. So we were encouraged to eat
things or this the whole cereal in the morning breakfast idea,
you know, was to, to give us fuel.
But in terms of then, you know, actually, it's, it's just to
(33:00):
come back to that, you know, good or bad.
I think it's it's important for people to remember that the way
we think about things influencesour body because. 100%.
Our body is listening. Yes, yes.
And also like what you, what youthink and what you believe
creates your physiological response.
(33:22):
So if you're eating this, I don't know what could it be?
Pizza. Well, I'm a pizza person, so
let's take my pizza. If I'm eating this pizza
thinking I'm so bad, I lack willpower, I'm terrible, I have
no discipline. I this is going to make me fat
(33:42):
and this is going to go straightto my butt.
And you know that type of stuff,your body will react in a very
respond in a very different way than if you say, you know what,
today I'm going to eat this pizza because I love it, because
it's something that tastes great, because I have been doing
(34:04):
everything in my power to nourish my body as much as well
as I can. And today I'm going to do this
because I want to share it with my friend because I am in this
birthday party, whatever. It's a completely different
situation. And it goes both ways.
You if you are, you know, fighting with your spouse or
(34:26):
with your boss or like completely angry and, you know,
upset, you can drink all the green juice in the world and
you're not going to give you anybenefits.
So it goes both ways. And I think that is really, that
(34:46):
was a really great thing to talkabout because I think people
don't really like you eat the salad and you hate it.
Yeah. Not.
Great, I caught myself this morning on my walk and I was
thinking about my aches and pains and I just caught myself
of saying, Oh my God, I, I, I keep thinking recently that I
(35:08):
need to sort out my neck. I need to, and I'm thinking
about my body negatively. So I switched into I am healthy.
I have a healthy body. I have a strong body.
As my dogs were pulling me along, but I repeated it over
and over again and I started to almost elicit the feeling of
inner strength, you know, and this is so important in every
(35:32):
part of our lives, but even morearound the food that we are
putting into our bodies. I like the I like the way that
Ayurveda talks like sees nutrition because in terms of
Ayurveda, we are nourished with our five senses.
(35:54):
So it's what we see, what we hear, what we say, what we
think, and what we eat. Beautiful.
Yeah, the smell, the touch, the people around you, the the
environment that you surround yourself with, that that is a
nutrient too. So it is the essence of healthy
(36:19):
eating or mindful eating. Yes, bringing all of this into.
Yes, according I, I am, I'm, I love Ayurveda.
I've I've been training Ayurvedic nutrition and I use it
a lot with my clients because itexplains things in such a
beautiful way. And Ayurveda sees food as a met
(36:42):
with material components, which are the protein and the fat and
the vitamins and all the, you know, more hard things.
And it has and it has a subtle component which are mental
qualities of food. So food creates behavior, food
(37:05):
creates emotions and it it promotes certain states in your
mood, in the way you feel, in what type of energy, what type
of thoughts you have. So this ties in perfectly with
the idea of vibration ensued, yes.
So explain to us about that then.
(37:26):
What's the? If you, if you were to say, OK,
what has the highest vibration, right?
The highest vibration in food will come from foods that have a
lot of prana. Prana is vital energy and it
comes from the sun and that cultivates a mental state that
(37:49):
is called Satvas. Sadvas is the state of love,
compassion, focus, calm, beauty,light, everything you, you, you
think of like the perfect ideal balance that is sadvas and that
comes from your vital energy. And your vital energy will be
(38:10):
given to you by foods that are light, that have grown in the
light, that have been walking, swimming or flying in the light
in the light, right? Because some people eat, well,
most of us eat animal foods as well.
And it's not a bad thing as longas they were animals that were
out in the light treated properly.
(38:32):
Because it's not bad to eat an animal if if you don't torture
it, let's put it that way, right?
So all these things that have somuch prana, so much sunlight in
them, that's what you what you will find more energy from.
Now there's another guna or mental quality that is called
(38:55):
rajas, and that one is pretty much in between.
That is the one that will give you drive and motivation and
agitation and it will make you maybe a little bit too bossy.
That's the one that when it getsimbalanced, goes all the way to
stress and burnout. And the foods that promote that
(39:15):
state are stimulant foods like coffee and very spicy food.
Very, you know, this very intense flavors, very strong
flavors, things that have been burned, right, Smoked flavors,
that type of thing. And of course alcohol,
(39:39):
everything that is stimulating will do that to you.
Now, the last type of energy, which is the lowest type of
energy, is called tamas. And tamas has absolutely no
prana. So guess which?
No prana means depression, no motivation, no drive.
(40:03):
Being aggressive and mean to others, comparing yourself to
others, feeling hopeless and overwhelmed and like, well, this
is the life that I have, there'snothing I can do.
A victim, right? Victim that is tamas and tamas
is promoted by things that have no prana AKA anything in
(40:25):
McDonald's, anything in a package, things that are not
natural at all, refined oils, fries, excess sugar, excess
alcohol. Alcohol can can be stimulated
but stimulating but when when you go all the way to the
extreme is highly self-destructive.
(40:48):
Tamas is a self-destructive state and these foods create
that in your body. There are studies conducted by
people that expose themselves toeating processed foods for a
certain amount of time and they ended up doubling their body
weight, depressed with anxiety, with cognitive decline, or you
(41:11):
name it, everything. So it's very destructive to the
body to to expose. Not being nourished.
To that, yeah. Yeah.
So basically, yeah, like these, there are mental qualities that
food can promote. Food can promote Dr. and calm
and focus and can also promote depression, anxiety, self
(41:35):
destructiveness, aggressive, youknow, being aggressive when
somebody's mean to you. You know, people that are mean
to others are people that are unhappy, that are not
energetically balanced, obviously that don't vibrate
high because if you're happy, you're nice to people, right?
So and, and the food that you eat can definitely help.
(41:58):
Well, help or not with that depending on what you eat.
So Valeria, the food that you eat, would you choose it for its
vibrational quality, let's say, or you know, is that just
another way of talking about? I think it's just another way of
(42:19):
talking about it or maybe even to, to understand how deep and
how wide this can be, right? Because if we think that food is
just calories or just vitamins or just for the body, then then
you're missing out on at least half, right?
(42:40):
So you, you eat because you, because of how you want to feel
in every possible way. You know, you want to be
energized, you want to be calm, you want to be focused, you want
to feel happy, you want to be kind to others and you want to
have energy and you want to build muscle.
And you, you know, and all of itcomes from the same place.
(43:06):
And what is your advice to somebody who is struggling to
get going, who finds it really difficult?
You know, the typical person whoMonday morning, OK, I'm going to
eat healthy and by, you know, Monday evening it hasn't
happened. How do you get people on the
(43:29):
right track? I think the first thing that you
need to see is first you need tolook at yourself.
You can't look outside for this,right?
And I say this because we say, oh, I'm going to go do that,
right? I'm going to make that recipe
and I'm going to do that diet and I'm going to do that.
You need to start with what you're already doing.
(43:51):
So normally what makes you feel the way you're feeling or gives
you the symptoms that you have or the weight that you have or
whatever it is that you want to address are the things that you
do the most. So take a look at what your day
looks like in terms of what you eat the most.
Something that you eat every dayis possibly causing something
(44:15):
that you don't want it, you don't want to experience if you
don't eat, if you, for example, your, your meals are usually, I
don't know, meat and potatoes and every now and then a salad,
then you know that you're missing vegetables, right?
But I would, I like to encouragepeople to take a look at your,
(44:36):
what you're doing without judgment.
Just look at it. Just see what is there too
common? So you can add some variety here
so you can change a little bit there.
And it doesn't have to be so radical, because otherwise you
won't be able to do it for longer than a week if you're
lucky. Yeah, yeah.
(44:56):
Another thing that I think is super important when you want to
address your eating habits and your and your lifestyle is to
work on your on your internal clock that the one that goes
with the sun and the darkness. So more often than not, when you
start aligning yourself with thehours of the sun, being outside
(45:20):
in the sunlight, morning, noon and evening, that will reset
your circadian rhythm and that alone will help you stick to
healthier habits. The body.
The body is designed to align with these things so it will
take every opportunity that you give it.
(45:42):
Simple things like being in the sun, morning, noon and evening
that will help you sleep better,that will make you more insulin
sensitive, that will make you crave less sweets, that will
help you stick to whatever it isthat you want to do.
Drinking enough water, same water has very high calming
(46:05):
qualities. So it calms the brain, it calms
your mood, it will help you digest better and it will help
your bowel movements and your help your liver and so on.
So this simple thing, be in the sun, drink water, add a salad to
every meal and that should get you going.
(46:28):
Because if you try to make it too complicated, too
sophisticated, too special, that's not going to last.
There's a moment for all of these things.
You start with the simplest possible thing and then you grow
from there. There will be a time for the
hyperbaric chamber and the red light, whatever.
(46:48):
Of course there will be a time because we tend to, we tend to
evolve in these things. And in my opinion, this is, this
is a journey that it never ends because the more you learn, the
more you want and the more you, oh, look at that.
I'm going to go try it, you know, and.
The better you feel so it encourages you or you've more
(47:08):
energy to think, or your mind isa bit clearer from the brain
fog. And also you start making
different choices because when your when your body comes back
to a state of health and balanceyour choices, the things that
you start liking are different. Jete is a woman that I work that
(47:30):
is working with me. She's 73 and she sent yesterday
to our group. I realized that I don't like
fries anymore. I like group.
I like kale and arugula better. She's a weirdo.
She's a weirdo. If anybody listening to this can
(47:51):
is probably thinking that will never happen.
Right. I like both.
I like fries and I like rockets.I.
Tried. I tried fries yesterday, in
fact, because I was hungry and Iwas out with friends and I,
well, whatever. So there were fries there and I
just tried a few and I didn't like the taste.
OK, OK. Because the taste, the taste
(48:12):
buds are highly influenced by the type of bacteria that you
have in your gut. So if you if you feed your gut
bacteria the foods that promote the growth of these beneficial
anti-inflammatory, estrogen processing, metabolically
beautiful bacteria, they don't like fries.
(48:35):
Superhero bacteria. Exactly.
They don't like rice. Keep working on that then.
And they don't like and they don't, they don't make you crave
things that they don't like. That's the beautiful thing about
working with the microbiome. You crave what your bacteria
want to eat. Fabulous.
So if you have the right population of bacteria down
there, it's all good. It it sorts itself out.
(48:58):
I have been in a table where people are eating pizza and I
decided to eat something else and I'm like, who are you?
What did you do with Valeria? Like what happened here, you
know? And that is very, for me, it was
mind blowing because when you feel that way, it's effortless.
(49:20):
That's when being healthy becomes effortless.
But you need to build that. And it's so 100% doable and
buildable. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Drinking more water, getting
sunlight and adding in a salad. And we can always do that
without it being too stressful. That's it.
That's it. If you want to go even farther
(49:43):
with a with another very simple thing, take a 10 minute walk
after lunch and after dinner. That will make you more insulin
sensitive. That will help your body process
food better. That will help you deal with any
digestive issues from reflux to Constipation, you name it, all
of it. Wow, yeah.
(50:05):
So these are very simple things that the body was made to do, we
just need to let it do it. Very good.
I used to. Every time I'd take a break from
my computer or between meetings,I'd go to the kitchen and I'd
eat some grapes or some other fruit, thinking that, you know,
(50:27):
it was healthy. And it was for no reason other
than because that was what I always did.
And it was maybe boredom or looking for distraction from
work. And that's one of the things
that I have either replaced withdrinking a glass of water or
filling up my water glass. But also if I do want to eat
(50:50):
some fruit, I add a nut or two. That's a great thing.
Tell explain why that's a good thing.
That is a good thing for two reasons.
But well, first of all, when we when we take a break or when we
when we crave something like I want to eat something, I don't
(51:11):
know what it is. I just want something that
usually is not a craving for food is a craving for a change
of state. The best way to solve it is with
movement. Like right before our meeting
now I had a 15 minute break and I went outside in the sun and I
(51:32):
just sat there. Lovely.
That's it because I didn't have enough time to go out and walk,
but I would have otherwise I would have gone around the block
and that's it. You do that, that takes 2
minutes and all cravings are gone.
At the beginning, they can be the longest 2 minutes of your
(51:54):
life. But but it happens, you know,
like everything else, the more you do it, the better you get at
it, right? So that's one thing when we,
when we feel like that, unfortunately food is so easily
available that we always go grabsomething.
(52:14):
But I would encourage people to try and, and just make that one
decision and say, I'll go walk around the block first.
Don't say no, just I'll don't walk around the block 1st.
And then we'll see about that banana or the grape or whatever
it is. No.
And also we tend to eat like that when we're not even hungry.
(52:36):
Yeah, exactly. In my opinion, that is us not
respecting our bodies, disrespecting our bodies,
because when you're not hungry, it means that your body is doing
something else and you're saying, Oh no, liver, stop
whatever you're doing because now I'm going to eat.
(52:58):
So you're basically interruptinganother process, which is
usually a beautiful thing that happens, is like a cleaning
process of the digestive tube where everything is swept all
the way to the colon so the bacteria can ferment it and so
you can digest and absorb nutrients more efficiently.
When food actually comes. That process is interrupted
(53:20):
every time you eat and causes inflammation when you do it.
So people that are snacking all the time are interrupting this
process all the time. And when you interrupt it, it
goes back to the start. It doesn't continue where it
left off. So there are parts of your
digestive tube that are never cleaned.
(53:41):
So This is why fasting is good. Exactly.
And then you have SIBO, you have, you know, bacterial
overgrowth, Candidiasis and all these things that nobody knows
where they come from. Well, that's where they come
from. OK.
OK, now that's one thing about craving.
So maybe do something else instead right now when you do
(54:06):
eat a fruit. To your question, when you do
eat a fruit, fruits are amazing.Please stop thinking that.
Fruit no, don't eat fruit because it has too much sugar.
Come on now, fruit. No, but croissant C Hello.
So let's let's get real here. Fruits are wonderful foods that
(54:28):
are natural, that are full of nutrients, that are full of
prana that we're growing in the sun.
So please fruits, yes. Now things that I wouldn't do
with fruits, I wouldn't juice them because when you use them,
you take just the sugar without the fiber.
So always whole. And if you can add nuts or nut
(54:48):
butter, it's great because that delays the absorption of the
sugar in the fruit. So it will keep you full for
longer. It will stabilize your blood
sugar, it will stabilize your your insulin and it will make
you it will give you more energy.
OK, in the long run, you will stay full and satisfied for
(55:09):
longer. And also there's another thing
that is interesting that is fat helps with the absorption of
some of the nutrients in the foods in the fruit.
For example, liposoluble vitamins like vitamin A that is
present in everything that is red or yellow or orange.
(55:29):
So you can picture a few like strawberries and apples and I
don't know, plums and all this. They have vitamin A vitamin A is
better absorbed with fat. So nuts have healthy fats and
fiber and polyphenols and some protein.
So it's a wonderful addition to it.
(55:51):
Brilliant. So malaria, fasting, obviously,
you know, tell us a little bit without going into, you know,
too deep on it because I know it's a topic you could talk
about for forever. But you know, sometimes it's not
the right thing to do for women.And sometimes it's very
(56:14):
beneficial to, as we just said, cleaning out your system.
Yes, so, well, I am a fasting coach.
I'm I've been learning a lot about this and I learned it
specially for hormone balance for two reasons, because
sometimes we we benefit from it and many times we don't.
(56:37):
So first of all, what fasting isnot, is not skipping meals.
You don't eat less because you fast, OK?
What you do is you choose to eatin a certain amount of hours,
and then the rest of the time you don't.
(56:59):
And then when you do eat, for example, let's say the very
typical intermittent fasting that everybody's talking about
is the 16-8. So you eat during 8 hours of
your day and you fast for 16 hours.
Now those 8 hours can be at any time of your day, it doesn't
(57:21):
have to be after lunch like somepeople.
Why after lunch? I would highly recommend
especially for women both cycling and non cycling women,
that they start eating between 8:00 and 10:00 in the morning
because especially when you are under stress, which pretty much
(57:44):
all of us are right, you don't want your your adrenal glands to
perceive that there is no food coming in because that will make
you more stressed. So you need to know what your
metabolic needs are before you decide the length and the time
of your fasting. Now, fasting is incredibly
(58:09):
beneficial because it promotes healing, cellular repair.
It makes your skin better. Like everything gets better with
with fasting. But again, if you're under a lot
of stress, don't fast longer than 12 hours. 12 hours is is
very safe for everybody every day.
(58:31):
So that means you eat dinner at 7 and you eat breakfast at 7:00
or 8:00 the next morning. That's it.
Yeah, very doable. Very doable, very beneficial, is
amazing for weight loss. That length of fast is amazing
for weight loss. It doesn't overstress your body.
It will give your digestion the rest that it needs.
(58:53):
It will give your liver the 12 hours that it needs to perform
the detoxification process overnight.
It's amazing for blood sugar regulation for everything.
Now, if you can, you will go twomore hours and you do a 14 hour
fast and that will give you a little extra benefit, especially
in terms of ketosis. So you will produce a little bit
(59:17):
more ketones, right? Which means that you've been
burning a little bit more fat? Very good if you if you have fat
to burn. You know some of us don't have
planning a 14 hour fast tonight.It's very nice.
(59:37):
It's a, it's a, it's a very niceand very doable fasting length.
Of course, there are others. If you fast for 17 hours or more
than you trigger another processthat is called autophagy.
There's a Japanese scientist that discovered it and won the
Nobel Prize for it in 2016. And that process, autophagy
(01:00:02):
means that your body will dismantle those cells that are
old or non functioning, right? So it's perfect for cancer
prevention. Right.
You will dismantle them and they, it will reuse components
that can be reduced and it will destroy those that cannot be
used. That happens after 17 hours of
(01:00:25):
fast. You can do 24.
There's like a lot of different types of fasting and each one of
them has different goals and different benefits and different
protocols. So you need to know when you do
each one, otherwise you will say, oh, I tried fasting and it
didn't work. I felt awful.
(01:00:46):
I had brain fog, I was dizzy, I had a headache.
I didn't have any energy. That happens when you don't do
it right. Basically, so you need to know
what you're doing, not just randomly fast for 17 hours.
No. And also you need to, you need
to know where you're at, how your body is at that time.
(01:01:09):
We in my program, you've done it, We do a protocol that is
that cycles the fact the fastingwith the, the hormonal cycle at
different times of the month. So between the 1st 10 days of
the month when you have your estrogen is going up, you can do
certain like up to maybe 2436 hours of fasting because your
(01:01:33):
body is, is well equipped for that at that time, but not
during ovulation, not during a high progesterone phase like
it's the week before your period.
So we can, we can cycle that. But even if you are in day 6
when you could fast, in theory you could fast for 24 hours.
(01:01:54):
Maybe that's not your day to do it because you have a very
stressful day at work because you had a fight with your son,
teenage son or teenage daughter and that completely throws you
off. So we are all we always need to
learn how to check in with ourselves, how we feel, what our
day looks like, what are our ourresponsibilities and our demands
(01:02:18):
that day because you can't you. We are very used to pushing our
bodies and that's exactly why the body starts peeing against
us, because you push it right. Yeah, and it resists.
If you do the other way around, so you go like, no, I'm going to
be kind to you today because I need you to perform all of this
(01:02:38):
for me. Yeah.
Then the situation changes. And Valeria, are you currently
doing assessments? I know what times you offer free
assessments for people. Is that something that people
can avail of at the moment? Yes, I have opened actually a
few slots for this week and nextweek for free assessments for
(01:03:01):
those who want for applicants tomy to my 6 month programme.
So yeah, I love having those assessments.
Those are usually really rich conversations with women.
We'll put the link in the in theshow notes for that.
Absolutely, absolutely just. Tell us, tell us a little bit
more about the programme and what you bring people through,
(01:03:24):
which I can highly recommend because it did have a huge
impact. Not just I didn't just lose
weight and this is what we're talking about.
Which of course is an added bonus that a lot of people want.
But it really was for me that change in my habits because
obviously, you know, being a a habit person, I like to think of
(01:03:47):
things, but it's allowed me to adapt some very simple habits
have given me more energy and also allowed me to become much
more aware of when something is not right.
Like we had a call recently and I mentioned brain fog.
You said you're eating too much carbs.
Oh, yeah, yeah. So it's just those kind of
(01:04:09):
triggers and getting more in touch with your own body and
understanding if something's notworking, as you say, it's not
about oh shit, it's not working,it's OK.
What's this telling me? What?
What am I eating too much of or not giving myself enough of?
I. Think it's nice to to look at it
that way because then you're allthe time learning about
(01:04:31):
yourself, right? Instead of, instead of thinking
I failed at this or this is, youknow, you just say, oh, OK,
there has to be a way around this.
What does this mean? Ideally, having you to answer
the question is great, but at some stage, yeah, you have to
(01:04:54):
know yourself. Yeah, but also like my idea with
this program, it's called, I went a little bit out there with
the name. I called it the Build balance
and become workshop, because my my goal with it is that women
are empowered to make expert level decisions about their own
bodies and their own health and their own food.
(01:05:15):
So then you start eating for howyou want to feel rather than
because it's lunchtime, right? So that's one thing.
So what basically what we work, we work on three main pillars to
start with. One is finding the root cause of
whatever is going on. So I do a thorough assessment of
(01:05:39):
well, first I do an interview and assessment consultation.
And then when women, when the applicants are a good fit for
the program, they start and the first thing we do is we find the
root cause of what's going on. So I make a very thorough
evaluation. It's a clinical evaluation.
I never ask for blood tests because blood tests come back
normal. And then people don't know what
(01:06:01):
to do. So we work with symptoms and
signs and symptoms. So we see, OK, this we can
connect the dots between what's going on and how you feel and
what you're eating and what yourday looks like.
So then we know, OK, let's startworking here.
This is what we need to do first.
(01:06:22):
So then we can do this. So then we can do that because
people want to go like women come look, it can talk to me and
they go like I want to, I want to start balancing my hormones
naturally. OK, that's going to happen.
But first we need to do this andthis and this.
So it's basically a way of putting it into a method, into a
system that will take you where you want to go without skipping
(01:06:46):
anything in between. So we work on the microbiome, we
work on the liver, because thosetwo systems are the ones that
will help you balance your hormones.
But we need to make sure that they are working properly first,
right? Because otherwise it's Band-Aid
solution. This is a very deep work that we
do on ourselves. And I think it's very
(01:07:08):
empowering. You know, it's, it's, it's
really is it gives you back. I've recommended your program to
so many people and, and a good few people have done it and, and
also felt the benefits. So thank you for the for the
great work that you do. Valeria, what is bringing you
(01:07:29):
most joy in your life right now?There's a lot that is bringing
me joy in my life now, but I would say that and I know that
this is going to sound like, oh,she she has to say that, right?
But no, it's my morning routine where I wake up early, early, I
(01:07:53):
go in the sun with my life flow planner that I got, yes.
She wasn't paid to say that. I wasn't paid to say this, I
promise. No, I do that.
I do the meditations that I learned from you and that is
what that is something that I don't know.
Maybe they need to drop a bomb. Something really bad needs to
(01:08:16):
happen for me to skip it. Amazing.
And it gives me joy because I doit every day.
So that's why it's something I want to say again, like the
things you do every day are the things that determine how you
feel and how you and everything in your life absolutely both for
(01:08:36):
your benefit or not. So if you're looking at a root
cause of something, look at what's the most abundant
thinking in your life. What's happening all the time.
If you're drinking too much coffee, if you're drinking too
little water, if you're not having your salads every day, if
you know that type of thing, something that happens or
doesn't happen every day, that is where you where you want to
(01:08:58):
be looking at. For me, joy comes from these
very little things that I can doto give to myself every single
day. Beautiful.
Yeah. So that's the one.
One thing I always say is the quality of your daily life or
the quality of your life is determined by the quality of
(01:09:19):
your daily habits. And that is both your mental
habits as much as your behavioral habits.
So yeah, yeah. So starting your day with some
beautiful morning habits. It just sets the tone, doesn't
it? For for the rest of your day.
100% like when, when I started with the planner that we got
(01:09:44):
from you, I honestly didn't knowwhere to start.
And I think that this might resonate with a lot of people
because this is something that we tend to take for granted
because it's so simple that we think, what is that going to do
for me? But it puts you in a state of
(01:10:04):
gratitude. It helps me do work on my
affirmations. It helps me choose, again, like
you said, choose my thoughts, choose who I want to be that
day. And it's incredibly powerful.
It fills me up with joy. And then I can make better
decisions too about my lifestyleand my food.
(01:10:26):
Because when you're in that Savvic state that I just talked
about, you don't want to ruin it.
Yeah, you know, Yeah, You know, no ice cream, no ice.
Cream is worth ruining that. Well, you might not have ever
tried an Irish 99 ice cream. I won't ruin you.
(01:10:49):
We won't buy you one the next time you come to Ireland.
OK, so I might need to visit Ireland again then?
Yes, like I. Missed something there.
You might have we turned your head the other way.
Valeria, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with
everyone. And yeah, thank you for who you
(01:11:10):
are and the work that you do, and we wish you a beautiful day.
Thank you so much. It's been wonderful and really
grateful to know you, to be in touch with you.
What you do is amazing and it's been a privilege to be here
talking to you. Always wonderful conversations.
Thank you so much. Thank You, Beautiful.
(01:11:33):
So I hope you enjoyed that chat with Valeria and as a lot of
people have said to me many times when I have got Valeria to
speak in my coaching program that they want to hear her
again, They want to bring her back.
So I do assume that we will haveValeria back again.
But please let me know what you thought of the episode and and
(01:11:56):
what you want to hear more aboutso we can plan for that in the
future. So thanks again for listening
in, for tuning in. Please share this podcast with
any of your female friends or colleagues that you think it
might be beneficial to. And please follow the podcast.
This is the best way to support us, help us grow and get the
(01:12:20):
message out there that life doesn't have to be hard and with
small simple shifts, we can shift our vibration.
But really what that means? It's making life easier and
positively impacting those around us.
Also follow me on Instagram at Coach Kira Conlon and keep
(01:12:40):
committing to your high vibration and have a beautiful
inner day.
Welcome to The High Vibration Reset, the podcast for women
ready to step into their next level of success, raising your
energy and your impact without burnout, overthinking, or
feeling undervalued. I'm your host, Kira Conlan, and
for the past 18 years, I've beenhelping women take full
(00:22):
ownership of their growth, theirvoice, their work, and their
leadership. And that's not just to succeed
personally, but to create a bigger impact in their
communities, workplaces and in the world.
In this week's episode, I interview Valeria Lopez.
Now Valeria is a licensed nutritionist, a health coach and
(00:46):
gut health specialist. She helps high achieving women
over 40 lose weight, rebalance their hormones without
restriction, burnout or self sacrifice.
Malaria has a background in Clinical Nutrition, so her
approach is really rooted in science.
(01:08):
She focuses on the gut and metabolic health, and she's
guided by a profound understanding of how food can
really elevate our vibrational frequency.
Malaria's goal is to empower women to make expert level
decisions about themselves, and her outlook on food is eat how
(01:29):
you want to feel rather than howyou want to look.
It's a really healthy and refreshing way to look at food
regardless of your health or weight goals.
This episode really is a must listen for any woman.
She breaks it all down to make it easy to follow and how to
(01:50):
make instant changes so that youcan live in a healthier, more
energetic body. And this will give you the
energy to achieve whatever it isyou're trying to achieve.
She tells us in this episode what most of us have got wrong
around fasting. And I have worked with Valeria
(02:12):
and this was a game changer for me because prior to meeting
Valeria, I would always have said I don't fast and fasting
doesn't work for me. So she showed me how we can
think differently about fasting.That fasting doesn't have to
mean that we're hungry. It's just an opportunity to give
(02:34):
our bodies a break from shoveling in the food and allow
our system to rejuvenate, to rejuvenate and to heal itself.
She talks about how food can actually balance our emotions
and our hormones. She talks about cortisol and how
this can be negatively impactingthe good habits and behaviors we
(02:59):
have. And she also speaks about the
real health risks associated with a very common food that I'm
sure most of us are eating everyday.
So I know you're going to enjoy this episode, so let's dive
right in. So Valeria, welcome.
Thank you so much, my dear, for joining.
(03:23):
I'm a very fortunate person because Valeria is now a good
friend of mine. And before we get into this, I
was just thinking, So I have a lot of lovely friends who I met
in different places, but I thinkour story is the coolest.
Valeria, If you remember where we met of.
(03:44):
Course I do. We met on a hike in Arizona in
the early morning and we our paths have been aligned ever
since, so I'm delighted to have you here to chat on the podcast.
(04:04):
Same. And I have to, I have to say
this before we start. Yeah, I'm, I'm just as lucky as
you are. Even more maybe.
I think that your friendship is a great value in my life.
So thank you. Thank you very much for having
me today. So why don't you start telling
(04:25):
us a little bit more about who you are and how you moved into
this area of nutrition and working with Women's Health?
Well, well, my name is Valeria Lopez.
I'm originally from Argentina and I went right after high
school. I went to university to study
nutrition at the At the time, I don't think I was so aware of
(04:48):
this, but in in time, I realizedthat I went into nutrition
school because I wanted to solvemy own health issues, my own
weight issues. I was overweight, like the
chubby girl in the family my whole life as a child and as a
teenager. And that was a very limiting
(05:09):
thing for me in so many ways, socially, personally, like my
confidence, it was everywhere. And I think that to a grant, to
a great extent, that the reason I decided to work exclusively
with women is because I think that we are very limited by the
(05:32):
way we look, by our weight, and that translates into how we
connect to the world. So my intention is to help women
get out of there, right? And like, step into the lights
and be be who they came to the world to be.
So well, and I'm doing it through nutrition and health.
(05:55):
You are doing it through other ways.
But I think that, yeah, that's that's the reason I decided to
work only with women. Yeah, it's so important, isn't
it? Because most women, I'm sure
there are fortunate women who'venever had to think about their
weight, their bodies. But most women have an issue
(06:16):
with how they look. And the media and social media
and life conditions us to be a certain way.
And we waste so much time thinking about it when we could
be, as you say, coming to do thegood work that we're here to do.
That's the fortunate thing aboutgetting older as well.
You care less. But.
(06:39):
But even there, we all want to feel good, look good and be
comfortable in our bodies. Yeah.
But also like, you know, The thing is also like the things we
do to ourselves to, to fit into certain role models, to, to, to
look in a certain way or to lookyounger or to be different, to
(07:02):
change our bodies. And I think that the best thing
that we can do is actually honorwho we are and what how we look.
Obviously, from a health perspective, Like if you are
severely overweight, like my BMIwas in the obesity range when I
was overweight. And that is not healthy, right?
(07:24):
And that doesn't have a good vibration because somewhere
there you're not entirely happy with yourself.
Yeah. So the only to me, the only
genuine reason to do anything for yourself is because it
aligns better with that higher version of yourself rather than
(07:46):
I have to look this way or I have to fit in this dress or I
have to, you know, that type of thing.
So the name of your company Valeria?
Oh yes, wise food choices. Yes.
So that is the essence about what you teach and what you do.
(08:06):
So explain why you came up with that name.
That name, Yeah. Well, especially because I
started working like I realized that most of the women that came
working with me were in their 40s and 50s.
So, and, and to me, because I'm a huge fan of perimenopause and
menopause fun in a good way. Like I think it's a wonderful
(08:31):
time of our lives. It's not a problem, it's not
something broken is not a failure or a mistake.
It's a wonderful thing. And that comes with with wisdom
and the wiser we get in, in, in terms of the choices we make
about our food, about our lifestyle, about the way we
(08:51):
treat ourselves well. That's why I wanted to help
people make wise food choices. Yeah, yeah.
And it and it's a really important thing that we need to
be reminded of. It's that we always have a
choice in every moment. And it's one of the things that
I say to my clients is that I say to myself actually is when I
(09:16):
have a negative thought, when I do something that I didn't want
to do, I actually say to myself,I choose again.
So, and that's something actually because I worked with
you, I did your program Valaria and which we'll talk about in
terms of hormone balance and, and making those right choices.
(09:37):
But I remember once you saying to me it's choose the best
option in the moment because we got hung up on, you know, we go
out or something and our perfectdiet, if we're eating in a
certain way isn't there. But you said to me, make the
right the the best choice in themoment.
(09:59):
And I always remember that and Ithink it's fantastic.
But anyway, let's get a bit meatier into deeper conversation
about hormone health. So you talk a lot about
balancing hormones and doing that with food.
And I think this is a fantastic thing that people, more people
(10:21):
need to know about. Food really impacts our
hormones. Tell us more about that.
Yeah, well, there's like I, there's three reasons that food
impacts our hormones. So the nutrients that we get
through our diet either help us make hormones or metabolize
them, which means changing them a little bit so they can be
(10:44):
usable by by ourselves. And they also help us detoxify
and eliminate hormones. So these are three stages of our
hormonal balance and all of themrequire certain nutrients.
That's why I focus so much on working on the microbiome, which
is the bacteria in our gut. They process part of the food
(11:08):
that we eat that most of the of the the benefits that we get
from food is because of the bacteria that we have in the gut
and they are key for our hormonal balance as well.
And then the second part is the liver.
So these two systems need optimal nutrition, and we're
talking about not just macros and calories and protein that is
(11:33):
so trendy these days, which we of course we need.
But we're talking about polyphenols, we're talking about
fermented foods, we're talking about essential fatty acids like
omega-3. We're talking about being
exposed to the sun. Certain vegetables like
cruciferous vegetables that are so key for liver function,
(11:53):
metabolizing excess ex estrogen for example.
Many women that are in on HRT for example, they start HRT
because they have brain foil, because they are low in their
moods. Because just so you know, the
main symptoms of perimenopause and menopause is not the hot
(12:14):
flashes is depression and anxiety and and being low and
feeling sad for no reason. So HRT has proven really
effective in that. But then when you don't nourish
your body properly to metabolizeand eliminate those hormones,
then you're not using them properly, you're not making the
(12:34):
best out of them, and then you start putting on weight,
especially around the middle. I don't know if this is clear or
if I made like a very big salad here of things, but basically
that's how we eat for our hormones for three reasons.
To make them, to use them and toeliminate them, OK.
(12:57):
And different foods will give you the tools for that.
That's why restriction will never work for us.
Right. Great.
Yay. But that's what happens a lot of
the time, isn't it? Where you see, you know, people
aren't able to lose weight not because they're eating too much,
(13:19):
because they're eating too little.
Yes. They're not nourishing their.
Bodies actually, the women that I interview on on on a daily
basis to join my program, they, they don't eat a lot.
Yeah, they don't. Yeah.
And it's a great relief to know that.
Yeah, if you know. But then the problem is that
(13:39):
they eat too little, so then their thyroid starts making
weird, you know, adaptations. The body is an adaptation
machine, so if it doesn't have enough resources, it obviously
will not use the reserves. But there's another thing here.
When the body cannot process something because it doesn't
(14:01):
have that vitamin or that mineral or that enzyme or that
little tool that it needs to process a hormone, a food, a
toxin, anything, it will store it as fat.
And that is a survival mechanism.
OK. Those of us that put on weight
(14:22):
in the middle and complain aboutit, think again.
Say thank you. It looks like you need something
that I'm not giving you. Let's take a look at that.
What is it that is missing here?What is it most likely to be?
(14:43):
Most likely are nutritional deficiencies, not just calories
but micronutrients. Unfortunately, the, the, the
food supply especially and, and also like these foods that are
labeled as healthy like whole grain bread and these diet
drinks and low sugar and low fatand 0 calorie whatever.
(15:08):
They come packed with chemicals that give more workload to our
liver. And then the liver cannot
process all of it because it hasnot the nutrients like I said,
all the polyphenols and the vitamins and the minerals and
all these essential amino acids and all these things that come
from real food. So when you don't get that,
(15:30):
obviously your body cannot process this other junk that we
give it. Now, the body is perfectly able
to handle this junk as an exception, absolutely, because
otherwise it would mean never drink a glass of wine again or
never eat pizza again or never. And that is not possible and
(15:53):
it's not going to happen and it's not realistic.
So the body can handle exceptions when it's fully
nourished. OK.
So that's the type of balance that we need to find.
So it's the liver that's gettingoverloaded with hormones even
and bad food and hormones. Like cortisol and insulin and
(16:17):
estrogen and progesterone and testosterone.
And, you know, everything goes through the liver.
It's the main metabolic organ that we have.
And it's a huge elimination pathway as well.
So a lot of women also experience high cholesterol
during perimenopause, and then they think they need to stop
(16:39):
eating eggs, right? But they don't think they have
to stop eating ice cream or sugar for some reason.
Very interesting, right? So these are the things that I
think are very important that people understand and know
because they empower you to makedecisions based on how you want
(16:59):
to feel, not how you want to look.
The looks will come right Once you feel the right way.
Absolutely. So how can we simplify that?
Because you've said a lot there.That makes a lot of sense.
But you did say a lot and you know for a lot of people it's
maybe language, polyphenols or you know, that we don't use in
(17:22):
everyday. So how do we simplify?
OK, Yep. Go ahead.
So what this would look like is when we talk about polyphenols,
we're talking about colors and flavors that are natural in all
fruits, vegetables, seeds, nuts,olive oil, green tea, spices.
(17:47):
So think of everything that has flavor and smell and color
naturally. These colors are not just for
looks. These colors are essential
nutrients for us and they feed our microbiome.
They are anti-inflammatory. They are antioxidant and that's
(18:08):
why because of the antioxidant effect is that they have such a,
a huge impact in how our liver processes things.
OK, now all the vitamins and thelike, all soluble vitamins like
B's and C's and you know, all kinds of vitamins, they are also
in the same group of fruits and vegetables.
(18:31):
And there's another one that is key and it's deficient in pretty
much 95% of the population, which is fiber.
Most people don't eat the the amount of fiber that they need.
And fiber again, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, whole
grains, legumes or beans, that'swhere you find them.
(18:57):
And the fiber, what it does is it feeds the good microbes and
it's fermented. So another nutrient is produced
by the microbes in your gut. And that nutrient, those
nutrients are called short chainfatty acids.
And they not only feed your, they don't, they give you
(19:18):
energy, but they also feed your cells in the gut lining to keep
them healthy. They also signal satiety to the
brain. They help the production of this
very trendy thing these days, GLP, one that is in these weight
loss drugs, the weight loss drugs, the injections that a lot
of people are using these days to lose weight is a peptide that
(19:42):
is produced naturally in your gut when you eat the right
foods, right? So the body is perfectly
equipped to regulate food intaketo, to stay balanced to, to keep
you energized. It's a very, very smart thing.
(20:02):
The thing is that we need to, weneed to fuel it properly.
And when you get all these foodslike.
Convenience store foods like packaged stuff like ready made
foods that have all these inflammatory oils that have no
nutrients at all, that are full of flavoring and coloring and,
(20:23):
you know, additives and chemicals that gives more work
to your body, doesn't give, doesn't deliver the energy that
we need. Yeah, yeah.
So that brings up something thatI was just thinking about there
because probably before meeting you, I would have been somebody
who thought, you know, I, I do eat all the right things.
(20:44):
I already, you know, had seeds and a variety of vegetables in
my diet, and I was doing a lot right.
I'm gluten free. I don't eat dairy except for ice
cream sometimes. But you're human.
Yeah. Yeah.
But I was doing the right things, but I was gaining
(21:05):
weight. Now I think one of the things
that we identified was the inflammatory oils.
So tell us more about that. Yeah, Well, this, this is a very
interesting thing because peoplethink that saturated fats are
bad, like animal fats, the the yellow in the egg, you know,
(21:27):
that type of stuff. Butter is bad, but they think
that oils when their vegetable oils, they're good.
And that is a very old thing that came because they thought
that cholesterol in in blood andtriglycerides and all of that
raised when we had saturated fatbut not unsaturated fats.
(21:49):
And that gave place to the production of all these refined
oils like sunflower, sunflower, cotton seed oil.
They, they are making oil out ofanything these days and they,
they deodorize it, they refine it.
They, they take away the smell and the taste and the color
because these these oils are usually very strong but very
(22:13):
cheap to produce and they are high in Omega 6 and another
fatty acids that are pro inflammatory.
Now why is that a problem? Well, because when inflammation
goes up, your body is like in a constant start of alert, right?
So your body feels like something is wrong because
(22:35):
inflammation is a, is an immune response.
So that will deplete your immunesystem.
People get sick more often, theyget insulin resistant because of
this, because your body cannot regulate metabolism when it's
when it's in danger. And that makes a lot of sense,
doesn't it? Yeah.
So all these oils that get so oxidized that are so
(23:00):
inflammatory are one of the foods that we think are healthy.
And people use them for everything, for their salads,
for their baking, for their cookies.
You will find them in all salad dressings, in everything that
you find in the store. I now don't because now the
(23:21):
brands know that we look for sugar, right?
So they try not to put sugar in it or they kind of disguise it
without, with other names that are very fancy.
So nobody understands them, but they they don't, they know that
people are not fully aware aboutthe oils.
So you will find grapeseed oil and sunflower oil and corn and
(23:43):
soy and all these vegetable or just vegetable oil in pretty
much everything. So if you just can look for that
in a food label, make sure that it doesn't have any refined oil,
you will make a huge step forward.
And also these oils also raise your cholesterol, they raise the
(24:07):
LDL cholesterol. They have been shown to increase
cardiovascular risk, which is the opposite of what we thought.
Crazy. Yeah.
And I've noticed even a lot of the the so-called healthy
brands, you know, there's a couple of Irish guys who have a
(24:31):
really healthy brand and I've noticed and there is an English
woman who is a very healthy brand and all of the granolas
and all of these things have it as well.
So yeah, we think we're, we think we're making good choices.
But often, yeah. But The thing is, you know why?
Because food started being a financial situation more than a
(24:54):
nourishment situation. So people won't pay a certain
amount of money for a granola, so they make it cheaper by using
these products. And of course they make it
cheaper, so they make more profit as well.
And there's nothing, I have nothing against companies making
(25:16):
profit. The opposite.
Make profit doing the right thing.
Absolutely. And we can make our own granola
anyway. Very easily my own.
Granola, and it's really. Good.
Brilliant. So cortisol.
So that is something that also adds width to our middle area.
(25:40):
So how does that actually happen?
How does the cortisol make us put on weight?
Well, cortisol is cortisol in what One thing important about
cortisol, cortisol is good because now everybody's like,
oh, you have high cortisol. Like cortisol is the enemy is
not nothing your body produces is bad for you, unless of course
(26:04):
it's out of balance. Now when when we are under a lot
of stress, our cortisol will spike, right?
And where cortisol spikes, one very important thing happens.
We are more insulin resistant. Why?
Because cortisol wants to keep blood sugar high.
So if there is enough accessibleenergy, fast energy for your
(26:28):
muscles to run from danger, that's what cortisol was made
for, to put to make us safe, to help us run away from danger.
Right now, when cortisol is, is high, obviously insulin, insulin
and cortisol don't get along so well.
So if cortisol is high, insulin doesn't work, right?
(26:52):
So then your blood sugar will, will rise, but that sugar won't
get into your cells. So you will have low energy and
you will crave food. You will be great, especially
you will crave carbs, right? Because why?
Because cortisol wants you to have fast energy to use for
(27:12):
running from the beast that is coming to eat whatever.
Now when, when those hormones both because insulin is also
going to be high, it's just not going to be working.
Those hormones are very high. They are circulating.
The body doesn't know what to do.
So the liver says, OK, no worries, I'll put them here in
(27:32):
the fat tissue. Yay.
Why? Well, because we can't have
these guys around all the time. So excess sugar, excess insulin
and excess cortisol that cannot be processed are going to be
deposited around your midsectiontemporarily because the body
(27:52):
thinks we're not going to be in danger forever, right?
We're going to, this is going tobe resolved.
And when it is, I'll take care of this.
So it puts us in the middle in the midsection because it's
closer to the liver, so we can go get it.
Does that make sense? Yeah.
It also will store it here in your neck.
(28:17):
And when when a person starts putting a weight, the last place
where the fat will store is probably around here on the neck
and around the head. But if this is the first one
that will be removed because it's too close to the brain.
Wow. So you want your belly to go
away, but your body knows better.
(28:38):
And he will say, no, no, we'll take care of your brain.
That's not as dangerous, right? So that's why that gets stored
around the middle. And then when you want to get
rid of that, you need to you need to address the reasons why
your cortisol is high. And the reason why your cortisol
(28:58):
is high could be because of highinflammation.
That's why food is so important because that's, well, that's the
one of the main inputs we have in physically right, is food.
Of course, then we have our thoughts and our beliefs and how
we manage stress and so on. But the input, the biological
(29:20):
input that we have is food. And that's what give your body
the resources to do everything that it needs to do.
And we have control over it. Exactly.
Most of us, yes, we should, at least.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or let's say, let's not, let's
not say should. Let's say we can be in control
(29:40):
of it and we are designed to be in control of it.
Sometimes those control systems get hacked by these types of
foods. Refined oils, refined sugar,
additives like emulsifiers and sweeteners, even 0 calorie
sweeteners, all these things hack our control mechanisms.
(30:01):
Yeah, yeah. So that's why people can't stop
eating this stuff. And that's why conscious eating
or intuitive eating won't work for most people.
No. Because consciously I want that
ice cream or that bag of crisps is calling me so my I'm out of
touch with what my body needs. Yeah, I think that mindful
(30:25):
eating is very important when you're doing both at the same
time. You're taking care of the
quality of your food and then you use that very powerful skill
that is mindfulness to to make better and better and better
decisions about it. Yeah, Yeah.
But you need to give your body something to work with because
(30:47):
it won't come out of nowhere just because I think I'm
thinking of eating healthy. That's not going to happen.
It's more difficult than that, yeah.
Which I'm I'm sure a lot of people will relate to, but I
think what you said there is important as well, that we don't
label cortisol or anything as bad.
(31:09):
And this is something that you say about food.
You said there's no good or bad food, but surely there are foods
that are bad for us. But those are not real foods.
Very good. Products.
Yes. Because Coca-Cola is not food.
(31:32):
Sorry, I, I just, you just lost a sponsor here, but you know.
That's no problem. But you know, I think we need to
make a difference between what is food and what is not.
That's true. Very true.
Yeah. And even if we thought about
what we eat like that, we would make much better choices,
(31:52):
wouldn't we? When we think of it as The thing
is, I. Don't think, I don't think we, I
don't think people or us are to blame for that because we, we
were led to believe that these things were good for us and we
were led to believe that by people that we trust, like
(32:14):
doctors and brands and the fact that they it's allowed to sell
it. Like in an ideal world,
Coca-Cola should be forbidden. Yeah, yeah.
But even our parents, you know, I know my mother with with
probably lack of information or knowledge, you know, would say
(32:35):
things like eat it up, it's goodfor you.
And it might have been a piece of white bread and, you know, a
heap of butter. So we were encouraged to eat
things or this the whole cereal in the morning breakfast idea,
you know, was to, to give us fuel.
But in terms of then, you know, actually, it's, it's just to
(33:00):
come back to that, you know, good or bad.
I think it's it's important for people to remember that the way
we think about things influencesour body because. 100%.
Our body is listening. Yes, yes.
And also like what you, what youthink and what you believe
creates your physiological response.
(33:22):
So if you're eating this, I don't know what could it be?
Pizza. Well, I'm a pizza person, so
let's take my pizza. If I'm eating this pizza
thinking I'm so bad, I lack willpower, I'm terrible, I have
no discipline. I this is going to make me fat
(33:42):
and this is going to go straightto my butt.
And you know that type of stuff,your body will react in a very
respond in a very different way than if you say, you know what,
today I'm going to eat this pizza because I love it, because
it's something that tastes great, because I have been doing
(34:04):
everything in my power to nourish my body as much as well
as I can. And today I'm going to do this
because I want to share it with my friend because I am in this
birthday party, whatever. It's a completely different
situation. And it goes both ways.
You if you are, you know, fighting with your spouse or
(34:26):
with your boss or like completely angry and, you know,
upset, you can drink all the green juice in the world and
you're not going to give you anybenefits.
So it goes both ways. And I think that is really, that
(34:46):
was a really great thing to talkabout because I think people
don't really like you eat the salad and you hate it.
Yeah. Not.
Great, I caught myself this morning on my walk and I was
thinking about my aches and pains and I just caught myself
of saying, Oh my God, I, I, I keep thinking recently that I
(35:08):
need to sort out my neck. I need to, and I'm thinking
about my body negatively. So I switched into I am healthy.
I have a healthy body. I have a strong body.
As my dogs were pulling me along, but I repeated it over
and over again and I started to almost elicit the feeling of
inner strength, you know, and this is so important in every
(35:32):
part of our lives, but even morearound the food that we are
putting into our bodies. I like the I like the way that
Ayurveda talks like sees nutrition because in terms of
Ayurveda, we are nourished with our five senses.
(35:54):
So it's what we see, what we hear, what we say, what we
think, and what we eat. Beautiful.
Yeah, the smell, the touch, the people around you, the the
environment that you surround yourself with, that that is a
nutrient too. So it is the essence of healthy
(36:19):
eating or mindful eating. Yes, bringing all of this into.
Yes, according I, I am, I'm, I love Ayurveda.
I've I've been training Ayurvedic nutrition and I use it
a lot with my clients because itexplains things in such a
beautiful way. And Ayurveda sees food as a met
(36:42):
with material components, which are the protein and the fat and
the vitamins and all the, you know, more hard things.
And it has and it has a subtle component which are mental
qualities of food. So food creates behavior, food
(37:05):
creates emotions and it it promotes certain states in your
mood, in the way you feel, in what type of energy, what type
of thoughts you have. So this ties in perfectly with
the idea of vibration ensued, yes.
So explain to us about that then.
(37:26):
What's the? If you, if you were to say, OK,
what has the highest vibration, right?
The highest vibration in food will come from foods that have a
lot of prana. Prana is vital energy and it
comes from the sun and that cultivates a mental state that
(37:49):
is called Satvas. Sadvas is the state of love,
compassion, focus, calm, beauty,light, everything you, you, you
think of like the perfect ideal balance that is sadvas and that
comes from your vital energy. And your vital energy will be
(38:10):
given to you by foods that are light, that have grown in the
light, that have been walking, swimming or flying in the light
in the light, right? Because some people eat, well,
most of us eat animal foods as well.
And it's not a bad thing as longas they were animals that were
out in the light treated properly.
(38:32):
Because it's not bad to eat an animal if if you don't torture
it, let's put it that way, right?
So all these things that have somuch prana, so much sunlight in
them, that's what you what you will find more energy from.
Now there's another guna or mental quality that is called
(38:55):
rajas, and that one is pretty much in between.
That is the one that will give you drive and motivation and
agitation and it will make you maybe a little bit too bossy.
That's the one that when it getsimbalanced, goes all the way to
stress and burnout. And the foods that promote that
(39:15):
state are stimulant foods like coffee and very spicy food.
Very, you know, this very intense flavors, very strong
flavors, things that have been burned, right, Smoked flavors,
that type of thing. And of course alcohol,
(39:39):
everything that is stimulating will do that to you.
Now, the last type of energy, which is the lowest type of
energy, is called tamas. And tamas has absolutely no
prana. So guess which?
No prana means depression, no motivation, no drive.
(40:03):
Being aggressive and mean to others, comparing yourself to
others, feeling hopeless and overwhelmed and like, well, this
is the life that I have, there'snothing I can do.
A victim, right? Victim that is tamas and tamas
is promoted by things that have no prana AKA anything in
(40:25):
McDonald's, anything in a package, things that are not
natural at all, refined oils, fries, excess sugar, excess
alcohol. Alcohol can can be stimulated
but stimulating but when when you go all the way to the
extreme is highly self-destructive.
(40:48):
Tamas is a self-destructive state and these foods create
that in your body. There are studies conducted by
people that expose themselves toeating processed foods for a
certain amount of time and they ended up doubling their body
weight, depressed with anxiety, with cognitive decline, or you
(41:11):
name it, everything. So it's very destructive to the
body to to expose. Not being nourished.
To that, yeah. Yeah.
So basically, yeah, like these, there are mental qualities that
food can promote. Food can promote Dr. and calm
and focus and can also promote depression, anxiety, self
(41:35):
destructiveness, aggressive, youknow, being aggressive when
somebody's mean to you. You know, people that are mean
to others are people that are unhappy, that are not
energetically balanced, obviously that don't vibrate
high because if you're happy, you're nice to people, right?
So and, and the food that you eat can definitely help.
(41:58):
Well, help or not with that depending on what you eat.
So Valeria, the food that you eat, would you choose it for its
vibrational quality, let's say, or you know, is that just
another way of talking about? I think it's just another way of
(42:19):
talking about it or maybe even to, to understand how deep and
how wide this can be, right? Because if we think that food is
just calories or just vitamins or just for the body, then then
you're missing out on at least half, right?
(42:40):
So you, you eat because you, because of how you want to feel
in every possible way. You know, you want to be
energized, you want to be calm, you want to be focused, you want
to feel happy, you want to be kind to others and you want to
have energy and you want to build muscle.
And you, you know, and all of itcomes from the same place.
(43:06):
And what is your advice to somebody who is struggling to
get going, who finds it really difficult?
You know, the typical person whoMonday morning, OK, I'm going to
eat healthy and by, you know, Monday evening it hasn't
happened. How do you get people on the
(43:29):
right track? I think the first thing that you
need to see is first you need tolook at yourself.
You can't look outside for this,right?
And I say this because we say, oh, I'm going to go do that,
right? I'm going to make that recipe
and I'm going to do that diet and I'm going to do that.
You need to start with what you're already doing.
(43:51):
So normally what makes you feel the way you're feeling or gives
you the symptoms that you have or the weight that you have or
whatever it is that you want to address are the things that you
do the most. So take a look at what your day
looks like in terms of what you eat the most.
Something that you eat every dayis possibly causing something
(44:15):
that you don't want it, you don't want to experience if you
don't eat, if you, for example, your, your meals are usually, I
don't know, meat and potatoes and every now and then a salad,
then you know that you're missing vegetables, right?
But I would, I like to encouragepeople to take a look at your,
(44:36):
what you're doing without judgment.
Just look at it. Just see what is there too
common? So you can add some variety here
so you can change a little bit there.
And it doesn't have to be so radical, because otherwise you
won't be able to do it for longer than a week if you're
lucky. Yeah, yeah.
(44:56):
Another thing that I think is super important when you want to
address your eating habits and your and your lifestyle is to
work on your on your internal clock that the one that goes
with the sun and the darkness. So more often than not, when you
start aligning yourself with thehours of the sun, being outside
(45:20):
in the sunlight, morning, noon and evening, that will reset
your circadian rhythm and that alone will help you stick to
healthier habits. The body.
The body is designed to align with these things so it will
take every opportunity that you give it.
(45:42):
Simple things like being in the sun, morning, noon and evening
that will help you sleep better,that will make you more insulin
sensitive, that will make you crave less sweets, that will
help you stick to whatever it isthat you want to do.
Drinking enough water, same water has very high calming
(46:05):
qualities. So it calms the brain, it calms
your mood, it will help you digest better and it will help
your bowel movements and your help your liver and so on.
So this simple thing, be in the sun, drink water, add a salad to
every meal and that should get you going.
(46:28):
Because if you try to make it too complicated, too
sophisticated, too special, that's not going to last.
There's a moment for all of these things.
You start with the simplest possible thing and then you grow
from there. There will be a time for the
hyperbaric chamber and the red light, whatever.
(46:48):
Of course there will be a time because we tend to, we tend to
evolve in these things. And in my opinion, this is, this
is a journey that it never ends because the more you learn, the
more you want and the more you, oh, look at that.
I'm going to go try it, you know, and.
The better you feel so it encourages you or you've more
(47:08):
energy to think, or your mind isa bit clearer from the brain
fog. And also you start making
different choices because when your when your body comes back
to a state of health and balanceyour choices, the things that
you start liking are different. Jete is a woman that I work that
(47:30):
is working with me. She's 73 and she sent yesterday
to our group. I realized that I don't like
fries anymore. I like group.
I like kale and arugula better. She's a weirdo.
She's a weirdo. If anybody listening to this can
(47:51):
is probably thinking that will never happen.
Right. I like both.
I like fries and I like rockets.I.
Tried. I tried fries yesterday, in
fact, because I was hungry and Iwas out with friends and I,
well, whatever. So there were fries there and I
just tried a few and I didn't like the taste.
OK, OK. Because the taste, the taste
(48:12):
buds are highly influenced by the type of bacteria that you
have in your gut. So if you if you feed your gut
bacteria the foods that promote the growth of these beneficial
anti-inflammatory, estrogen processing, metabolically
beautiful bacteria, they don't like fries.
(48:35):
Superhero bacteria. Exactly.
They don't like rice. Keep working on that then.
And they don't like and they don't, they don't make you crave
things that they don't like. That's the beautiful thing about
working with the microbiome. You crave what your bacteria
want to eat. Fabulous.
So if you have the right population of bacteria down
there, it's all good. It it sorts itself out.
(48:58):
I have been in a table where people are eating pizza and I
decided to eat something else and I'm like, who are you?
What did you do with Valeria? Like what happened here, you
know? And that is very, for me, it was
mind blowing because when you feel that way, it's effortless.
(49:20):
That's when being healthy becomes effortless.
But you need to build that. And it's so 100% doable and
buildable. Absolutely.
Absolutely. Drinking more water, getting
sunlight and adding in a salad. And we can always do that
without it being too stressful. That's it.
That's it. If you want to go even farther
(49:43):
with a with another very simple thing, take a 10 minute walk
after lunch and after dinner. That will make you more insulin
sensitive. That will help your body process
food better. That will help you deal with any
digestive issues from reflux to Constipation, you name it, all
of it. Wow, yeah.
(50:05):
So these are very simple things that the body was made to do, we
just need to let it do it. Very good.
I used to. Every time I'd take a break from
my computer or between meetings,I'd go to the kitchen and I'd
eat some grapes or some other fruit, thinking that, you know,
(50:27):
it was healthy. And it was for no reason other
than because that was what I always did.
And it was maybe boredom or looking for distraction from
work. And that's one of the things
that I have either replaced withdrinking a glass of water or
filling up my water glass. But also if I do want to eat
(50:50):
some fruit, I add a nut or two. That's a great thing.
Tell explain why that's a good thing.
That is a good thing for two reasons.
But well, first of all, when we when we take a break or when we
when we crave something like I want to eat something, I don't
(51:11):
know what it is. I just want something that
usually is not a craving for food is a craving for a change
of state. The best way to solve it is with
movement. Like right before our meeting
now I had a 15 minute break and I went outside in the sun and I
(51:32):
just sat there. Lovely.
That's it because I didn't have enough time to go out and walk,
but I would have otherwise I would have gone around the block
and that's it. You do that, that takes 2
minutes and all cravings are gone.
At the beginning, they can be the longest 2 minutes of your
(51:54):
life. But but it happens, you know,
like everything else, the more you do it, the better you get at
it, right? So that's one thing when we,
when we feel like that, unfortunately food is so easily
available that we always go grabsomething.
(52:14):
But I would encourage people to try and, and just make that one
decision and say, I'll go walk around the block first.
Don't say no, just I'll don't walk around the block 1st.
And then we'll see about that banana or the grape or whatever
it is. No.
And also we tend to eat like that when we're not even hungry.
(52:36):
Yeah, exactly. In my opinion, that is us not
respecting our bodies, disrespecting our bodies,
because when you're not hungry, it means that your body is doing
something else and you're saying, Oh no, liver, stop
whatever you're doing because now I'm going to eat.
(52:58):
So you're basically interruptinganother process, which is
usually a beautiful thing that happens, is like a cleaning
process of the digestive tube where everything is swept all
the way to the colon so the bacteria can ferment it and so
you can digest and absorb nutrients more efficiently.
When food actually comes. That process is interrupted
(53:20):
every time you eat and causes inflammation when you do it.
So people that are snacking all the time are interrupting this
process all the time. And when you interrupt it, it
goes back to the start. It doesn't continue where it
left off. So there are parts of your
digestive tube that are never cleaned.
(53:41):
So This is why fasting is good. Exactly.
And then you have SIBO, you have, you know, bacterial
overgrowth, Candidiasis and all these things that nobody knows
where they come from. Well, that's where they come
from. OK.
OK, now that's one thing about craving.
So maybe do something else instead right now when you do
(54:06):
eat a fruit. To your question, when you do
eat a fruit, fruits are amazing.Please stop thinking that.
Fruit no, don't eat fruit because it has too much sugar.
Come on now, fruit. No, but croissant C Hello.
So let's let's get real here. Fruits are wonderful foods that
(54:28):
are natural, that are full of nutrients, that are full of
prana that we're growing in the sun.
So please fruits, yes. Now things that I wouldn't do
with fruits, I wouldn't juice them because when you use them,
you take just the sugar without the fiber.
So always whole. And if you can add nuts or nut
(54:48):
butter, it's great because that delays the absorption of the
sugar in the fruit. So it will keep you full for
longer. It will stabilize your blood
sugar, it will stabilize your your insulin and it will make
you it will give you more energy.
OK, in the long run, you will stay full and satisfied for
(55:09):
longer. And also there's another thing
that is interesting that is fat helps with the absorption of
some of the nutrients in the foods in the fruit.
For example, liposoluble vitamins like vitamin A that is
present in everything that is red or yellow or orange.
(55:29):
So you can picture a few like strawberries and apples and I
don't know, plums and all this. They have vitamin A vitamin A is
better absorbed with fat. So nuts have healthy fats and
fiber and polyphenols and some protein.
So it's a wonderful addition to it.
(55:51):
Brilliant. So malaria, fasting, obviously,
you know, tell us a little bit without going into, you know,
too deep on it because I know it's a topic you could talk
about for forever. But you know, sometimes it's not
the right thing to do for women.And sometimes it's very
(56:14):
beneficial to, as we just said, cleaning out your system.
Yes, so, well, I am a fasting coach.
I'm I've been learning a lot about this and I learned it
specially for hormone balance for two reasons, because
sometimes we we benefit from it and many times we don't.
(56:37):
So first of all, what fasting isnot, is not skipping meals.
You don't eat less because you fast, OK?
What you do is you choose to eatin a certain amount of hours,
and then the rest of the time you don't.
(56:59):
And then when you do eat, for example, let's say the very
typical intermittent fasting that everybody's talking about
is the 16-8. So you eat during 8 hours of
your day and you fast for 16 hours.
Now those 8 hours can be at any time of your day, it doesn't
(57:21):
have to be after lunch like somepeople.
Why after lunch? I would highly recommend
especially for women both cycling and non cycling women,
that they start eating between 8:00 and 10:00 in the morning
because especially when you are under stress, which pretty much
(57:44):
all of us are right, you don't want your your adrenal glands to
perceive that there is no food coming in because that will make
you more stressed. So you need to know what your
metabolic needs are before you decide the length and the time
of your fasting. Now, fasting is incredibly
(58:09):
beneficial because it promotes healing, cellular repair.
It makes your skin better. Like everything gets better with
with fasting. But again, if you're under a lot
of stress, don't fast longer than 12 hours. 12 hours is is
very safe for everybody every day.
(58:31):
So that means you eat dinner at 7 and you eat breakfast at 7:00
or 8:00 the next morning. That's it.
Yeah, very doable. Very doable, very beneficial, is
amazing for weight loss. That length of fast is amazing
for weight loss. It doesn't overstress your body.
It will give your digestion the rest that it needs.
(58:53):
It will give your liver the 12 hours that it needs to perform
the detoxification process overnight.
It's amazing for blood sugar regulation for everything.
Now, if you can, you will go twomore hours and you do a 14 hour
fast and that will give you a little extra benefit, especially
in terms of ketosis. So you will produce a little bit
(59:17):
more ketones, right? Which means that you've been
burning a little bit more fat? Very good if you if you have fat
to burn. You know some of us don't have
planning a 14 hour fast tonight.It's very nice.
(59:37):
It's a, it's a, it's a very niceand very doable fasting length.
Of course, there are others. If you fast for 17 hours or more
than you trigger another processthat is called autophagy.
There's a Japanese scientist that discovered it and won the
Nobel Prize for it in 2016. And that process, autophagy
(01:00:02):
means that your body will dismantle those cells that are
old or non functioning, right? So it's perfect for cancer
prevention. Right.
You will dismantle them and they, it will reuse components
that can be reduced and it will destroy those that cannot be
used. That happens after 17 hours of
(01:00:25):
fast. You can do 24.
There's like a lot of different types of fasting and each one of
them has different goals and different benefits and different
protocols. So you need to know when you do
each one, otherwise you will say, oh, I tried fasting and it
didn't work. I felt awful.
(01:00:46):
I had brain fog, I was dizzy, I had a headache.
I didn't have any energy. That happens when you don't do
it right. Basically, so you need to know
what you're doing, not just randomly fast for 17 hours.
No. And also you need to, you need
to know where you're at, how your body is at that time.
(01:01:09):
We in my program, you've done it, We do a protocol that is
that cycles the fact the fastingwith the, the hormonal cycle at
different times of the month. So between the 1st 10 days of
the month when you have your estrogen is going up, you can do
certain like up to maybe 2436 hours of fasting because your
(01:01:33):
body is, is well equipped for that at that time, but not
during ovulation, not during a high progesterone phase like
it's the week before your period.
So we can, we can cycle that. But even if you are in day 6
when you could fast, in theory you could fast for 24 hours.
(01:01:54):
Maybe that's not your day to do it because you have a very
stressful day at work because you had a fight with your son,
teenage son or teenage daughter and that completely throws you
off. So we are all we always need to
learn how to check in with ourselves, how we feel, what our
day looks like, what are our ourresponsibilities and our demands
(01:02:18):
that day because you can't you. We are very used to pushing our
bodies and that's exactly why the body starts peeing against
us, because you push it right. Yeah, and it resists.
If you do the other way around, so you go like, no, I'm going to
be kind to you today because I need you to perform all of this
(01:02:38):
for me. Yeah.
Then the situation changes. And Valeria, are you currently
doing assessments? I know what times you offer free
assessments for people. Is that something that people
can avail of at the moment? Yes, I have opened actually a
few slots for this week and nextweek for free assessments for
(01:03:01):
those who want for applicants tomy to my 6 month programme.
So yeah, I love having those assessments.
Those are usually really rich conversations with women.
We'll put the link in the in theshow notes for that.
Absolutely, absolutely just. Tell us, tell us a little bit
more about the programme and what you bring people through,
(01:03:24):
which I can highly recommend because it did have a huge
impact. Not just I didn't just lose
weight and this is what we're talking about.
Which of course is an added bonus that a lot of people want.
But it really was for me that change in my habits because
obviously, you know, being a a habit person, I like to think of
(01:03:47):
things, but it's allowed me to adapt some very simple habits
have given me more energy and also allowed me to become much
more aware of when something is not right.
Like we had a call recently and I mentioned brain fog.
You said you're eating too much carbs.
Oh, yeah, yeah. So it's just those kind of
(01:04:09):
triggers and getting more in touch with your own body and
understanding if something's notworking, as you say, it's not
about oh shit, it's not working,it's OK.
What's this telling me? What?
What am I eating too much of or not giving myself enough of?
I. Think it's nice to to look at it
that way because then you're allthe time learning about
(01:04:31):
yourself, right? Instead of, instead of thinking
I failed at this or this is, youknow, you just say, oh, OK,
there has to be a way around this.
What does this mean? Ideally, having you to answer
the question is great, but at some stage, yeah, you have to
(01:04:54):
know yourself. Yeah, but also like my idea with
this program, it's called, I went a little bit out there with
the name. I called it the Build balance
and become workshop, because my my goal with it is that women
are empowered to make expert level decisions about their own
bodies and their own health and their own food.
(01:05:15):
So then you start eating for howyou want to feel rather than
because it's lunchtime, right? So that's one thing.
So what basically what we work, we work on three main pillars to
start with. One is finding the root cause of
whatever is going on. So I do a thorough assessment of
(01:05:39):
well, first I do an interview and assessment consultation.
And then when women, when the applicants are a good fit for
the program, they start and the first thing we do is we find the
root cause of what's going on. So I make a very thorough
evaluation. It's a clinical evaluation.
I never ask for blood tests because blood tests come back
normal. And then people don't know what
(01:06:01):
to do. So we work with symptoms and
signs and symptoms. So we see, OK, this we can
connect the dots between what's going on and how you feel and
what you're eating and what yourday looks like.
So then we know, OK, let's startworking here.
This is what we need to do first.
(01:06:22):
So then we can do this. So then we can do that because
people want to go like women come look, it can talk to me and
they go like I want to, I want to start balancing my hormones
naturally. OK, that's going to happen.
But first we need to do this andthis and this.
So it's basically a way of putting it into a method, into a
system that will take you where you want to go without skipping
(01:06:46):
anything in between. So we work on the microbiome, we
work on the liver, because thosetwo systems are the ones that
will help you balance your hormones.
But we need to make sure that they are working properly first,
right? Because otherwise it's Band-Aid
solution. This is a very deep work that we
do on ourselves. And I think it's very
(01:07:08):
empowering. You know, it's, it's, it's
really is it gives you back. I've recommended your program to
so many people and, and a good few people have done it and, and
also felt the benefits. So thank you for the for the
great work that you do. Valeria, what is bringing you
(01:07:29):
most joy in your life right now?There's a lot that is bringing
me joy in my life now, but I would say that and I know that
this is going to sound like, oh,she she has to say that, right?
But no, it's my morning routine where I wake up early, early, I
(01:07:53):
go in the sun with my life flow planner that I got, yes.
She wasn't paid to say that. I wasn't paid to say this, I
promise. No, I do that.
I do the meditations that I learned from you and that is
what that is something that I don't know.
Maybe they need to drop a bomb. Something really bad needs to
(01:08:16):
happen for me to skip it. Amazing.
And it gives me joy because I doit every day.
So that's why it's something I want to say again, like the
things you do every day are the things that determine how you
feel and how you and everything in your life absolutely both for
(01:08:36):
your benefit or not. So if you're looking at a root
cause of something, look at what's the most abundant
thinking in your life. What's happening all the time.
If you're drinking too much coffee, if you're drinking too
little water, if you're not having your salads every day, if
you know that type of thing, something that happens or
doesn't happen every day, that is where you where you want to
(01:08:58):
be looking at. For me, joy comes from these
very little things that I can doto give to myself every single
day. Beautiful.
Yeah. So that's the one.
One thing I always say is the quality of your daily life or
the quality of your life is determined by the quality of
(01:09:19):
your daily habits. And that is both your mental
habits as much as your behavioral habits.
So yeah, yeah. So starting your day with some
beautiful morning habits. It just sets the tone, doesn't
it? For for the rest of your day.
100% like when, when I started with the planner that we got
(01:09:44):
from you, I honestly didn't knowwhere to start.
And I think that this might resonate with a lot of people
because this is something that we tend to take for granted
because it's so simple that we think, what is that going to do
for me? But it puts you in a state of
(01:10:04):
gratitude. It helps me do work on my
affirmations. It helps me choose, again, like
you said, choose my thoughts, choose who I want to be that
day. And it's incredibly powerful.
It fills me up with joy. And then I can make better
decisions too about my lifestyleand my food.
(01:10:26):
Because when you're in that Savvic state that I just talked
about, you don't want to ruin it.
Yeah, you know, Yeah, You know, no ice cream, no ice.
Cream is worth ruining that. Well, you might not have ever
tried an Irish 99 ice cream. I won't ruin you.
(01:10:49):
We won't buy you one the next time you come to Ireland.
OK, so I might need to visit Ireland again then?
Yes, like I. Missed something there.
You might have we turned your head the other way.
Valeria, thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with
everyone. And yeah, thank you for who you
(01:11:10):
are and the work that you do, and we wish you a beautiful day.
Thank you so much. It's been wonderful and really
grateful to know you, to be in touch with you.
What you do is amazing and it's been a privilege to be here
talking to you. Always wonderful conversations.
Thank you so much. Thank You, Beautiful.
(01:11:33):
So I hope you enjoyed that chat with Valeria and as a lot of
people have said to me many times when I have got Valeria to
speak in my coaching program that they want to hear her
again, They want to bring her back.
So I do assume that we will haveValeria back again.
But please let me know what you thought of the episode and and
(01:11:56):
what you want to hear more aboutso we can plan for that in the
future. So thanks again for listening
in, for tuning in. Please share this podcast with
any of your female friends or colleagues that you think it
might be beneficial to. And please follow the podcast.
This is the best way to support us, help us grow and get the
(01:12:20):
message out there that life doesn't have to be hard and with
small simple shifts, we can shift our vibration.
But really what that means? It's making life easier and
positively impacting those around us.
Also follow me on Instagram at Coach Kira Conlon and keep
(01:12:40):
committing to your high vibration and have a beautiful
inner day.
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