Mastering Overwhelm: Tips for Better Health and Weight Loss with Bryana Gregory [Ep. 42]

Lisa: 0:00

This is the eight well think. Well live well podcast. I'm Lisa Salsbury, and this is episode 42 mastering overwhelmed tips for better health and weight loss with Brianna Gregory. Brianna is a compounding pharmacist and a woman's wellness coach. And we discuss identifying your personal points of overwhelm, how stress and overwhelm impact the body as well as some supplements you could consider using for detoxification and nutritional support. Remember that even as we talk about these supplements and additional things you can do to support your wellness, that if you are still consistently over eating past fullness, no supplementation will make up for that in the weight loss department. I don't want you to take away from this, that instead of dialing in your hunger scale, you should just start taking some different vitamins. So always, always start with getting in touch with your hunger and then we can add in these additional tools. It's always fun though, to get more perspectives on health and wellness and different ways. We can support the body and also our brains. As we talk about stress and overwhelm. And ways we can get ahead of that and identifying why that is happening for us.

1:02

One easy way for my listeners to get out of overwhelm is to grab my go-to meals guide. I know I've talked about this before, but honestly it is so easy to get overwhelmed with what you are eating when you're not planning your meals. So this is just a really easy way to start with some planning. It just talks about ideas for creating some go-to meals, which are just meals that are going to always be on plan for you. So we're not having to plan something new every single day. So of course that link is in my bio and that's a great way for you to start on your weight loss journey. So without further ado, let's get into this episode.

Lisa: 1:41

Welcome to Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well; the podcast for women who want to lose weight, but are tired of counting and calculating all the food. I'm your host, Lisa Salsbury. I'm a certified health and weight loss coach and life coach, and most importantly a recovered chronic dieter. I'll teach you to figure out why you are eating when you aren't hungry, instead of worrying so much about what you are eating. Welcome back to the Eat Well Think Well Live Well podcast. I am privileged to be joined today by Brianna Gregory. She is a pharmacist and I've never had a pharmacist on the show, so I'm excited. So we're going to pass it over to her. Let her introduce herself, tell us a little bit about what she does and who she helps, and then we'll jump into our convers.

Bryana: 2:26

Awesome. Lisa, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here with you, as a. I'm excited to talk about what we can do in compounding pharmacy, and particularly how important personalized medicine and personalized care is. So as you mentioned, I'm a compounding pharmacist, so everything is very specialized. I'm also a women's wellness coach, and I really got into this, had the idea to start offering these coaching services a few years back in the beginning of the. And the reason why actually happened in my pharmacy. I had so many patients that were coming to me, which happened to be particularly women, but not all that were saying the same thing on repeat. Just I'm so overwhelmed. I don't know where my new normal is. You know, you've heard this, right? Everyone feels the same. It's the same narrative, but everyone's experiencing it through a little bit of a different lens. I listened to that and, and I thought, you know, there's more that I can be providing outside of the pharmacy really to provide guidance to people to, for one, highlight some aspects of functional medicine and treatment. And most importantly, get them in touch with the right people of where to seek out that information that is reliable.

Lisa: 3:44

So Two topics that we're gonna get into. Number one, we're gonna talk a little bit about overwhelm. Just like you said, people are coming into the pharmacy and they're just like, there's just so much. And of course that started with the pandemic, but you know, I think that was here for women. Pandemic or no, I think that a lot of women still become overwhelmed. There's a lot on our plates and whether it's due to the overwhelm or due to other factors, we also just are seeing a lot of fatigue. I always have, my clients have three main goals that they're working towards with their health. Uh, primarily I coach for weight loss and so most often we have a weight loss goal, but I always like for there to be a couple other things going on because we don't wanna. Be focused on the scale and the most common secondary goal is increase energy, and I think overwhelm can also suck our energy. So I think these two things go hand in hand, but talk to us a little bit about overwhelm. What are you seeing there? How it impacts health?

Bryana: 4:47

Overwhelm seems to be a phrase that's coming up in conversation more and more frequently. And I really think that is the, the, the root cause, if you will, of what's going on. I mean, people might identify it as something traumatic that happened in their life or uh, you know, something like that. But at the end of the day, it's, it's that it was, that traumatic event or relationship or, you know, whatever it might be, is too overwhelming for the body to handle. And so, you know, someone doesn't experience a traumatic event and then gain a lot of weight overnight and experience fatigue overnight, right? You know this with your clients too. It's a continuum and it's a journey. And so healing towards wellness is also a journey. And you know, that's why as coaches we set realistic expectations with them. Of the duration of that journey and what it looks like to get back to their healthiest weight so that it can be maintained long-term. And if they don't have a good plan in place while they're shedding weight, then they're setting themselves up for failure, right? Because they're gonna pack all that weight back. They guess they have not implemented the lifestyle changes that are necessary to keep that weight off, especially if they're using the assistance of a weight loss medication, which many of those can be very valuable, but I think that they're being widely overused. So when it comes to overwhelm, the reason why I I focus on overwhelm with my clients is, You know, I thought, well, if I give people the roadmap to address their overwhelm, we'll be on track. And then I started having conversations with my clients where they're asking me, well, how do I know if I'm overwhelmed? And to me, I didn't even think like that. Right? But there's so much going on. There's so overwhelmed they can't, identify their personal pain points of overwhelm. So that's what I help them do as an outsider. I can more easily look at the moving parts of their life and identify those and help them simplify their life. That's a big one, right? I mean, there's so much self-imposed overwhelm that if you look at it from an outsider's perspective, we don't actually really have a fighting chance to not be overwhelmed and to reach some of our wellness goals. Weight loss being one of the biggest for people.

Lisa: 7:14

I think a lot of people are overwhelmed, with where to start with weight loss. A lot of like, we don't know what thing to change first, and so they just don't end up starting at all. Which of course is the surest weight not to lose any weight.

Bryana: 7:30

Right, right, right. Yeah, no, that's a great point. And I think that when we talk to our clients and you know, patients about what is your, what is your reason? For wanting to lose the weight. Is it that you just want to look better? Which that's a psychological portion and that's really important because a healthy weight is going to reflect healthy insides, you know, for the most part. But let's understand what's going on internally and how we really need to support our body from a functional point of view, because it all works together as this very intricate.

Lisa: 8:04

Mm-hmm.

Bryana: 8:05

And when we can healthily lose weight and while we're losing weight as we can replenish vitamins and minerals and we can supplement those. In the way that not only facilitates weight loss, but supplements, the deficiencies that are present in the body is so crucial because that's gonna help those people not fall off after they discontinue whatever weight loss aid they're using. Like a medication, for example. And a lot of these medications that are given completely deplete another portion of the body. So it's you're, you know, Robbing Peter to pay Paul, right? You took it from over here, but you sucked your body dry over here. So what are we actually really accomplishing? We're oftentimes doing ourself a disfavor because either way, your body will find a way to keep you alive. So it's going to pull those, those nutrients and those energy components from somewhere, and it's gonna be a little bit different for everybody. So if you're just zapping yourself clean, You know, hormones and nutritional co-factors that are gonna keep you going energetic, then you might be losing weight, but you also might be very, very fatigued during the process and your body's gonna seek different types of nutrients to keep you alive anyway, you know, to keep the brain going and all other systems of the body going. So it's important to have a very linear roadmap that's individualized for the person. About what their weight loss goals are and how we can support them along the way, primarily from a nutritional standpoint. I think that's important, but helping them understand that when they do shut off the weight that they need, that they have wanted to, how they keep it off. And that's where I think that the identifying overwhelmed is an important part because we're all gonna get overwhelmed, but if you don't know how to identify it, that becomes a problem. If instead we learn how to identify these pain points in our body and in our mind. Then we can get ahead of it and say, whoa, now I understand I'm going down that path again. Maybe I'm putting something in my mouth that I'm just, you know, coping. I'm eating junk food, I'm doing whatever it might be. No, how, what is another way that you can address overwhelm so that it doesn't make you gain weight or it doesn't make you have to get on an unnecessary medication? We have all the tools in our body, right within our body to nourish it.

Lisa: 10:27

yeah, yeah. What would you say then are those pain points that people don't identify as overwhelmed? Because I feel like we kind of use that word a lot, so I would be surprised if people don't know that they're overwhelmed. So tell me what you are seeing where people, where you're like, oh, you're overwhelmed and they're not identifying.

Bryana: 10:47

so I like to start out by asking people. What the roadblock is to them achieving their goal. And almost all the time it's that I'm just too busy. I don't have enough time. I totally get that because I'm the first person to admit that I habitually put too much on my plate. But. I have to constantly remind myself to not do that, and I, so I think a lot of it starts with verbiage, right? If you find yourself oftentimes saying, well, I'm just too busy, I just don't have enough time, you know, there's not enough time in the day. I get that you are in control of your life, your time, and you dictate your schedule. Even if you have kids and family members, a spouse, you still dictate your schedule. So it's important to recognize that you have the option to commit to what you want to, and you need to be very selective about that. If what you're choosing to do is not fueling you, it's not energizing you, of course you're gonna be pouring from an empty cup and you'll be fatigued, and that will have long lasting impacts on the body. So typically it's a time, it's a time restriction. And you know, there's different techniques of course, for everybody of how they map out their their schedule. But by putting non-negotiable commitments on your schedule, that is a great place to start. We're using block time to block out three or four hours a day or whatever that might look like each day, so that you be sure that your non-negotiables get done first, and then that way you are more. Aggressive in the work hours of your day and you're more energized in the play hours of your day because everyone needs some work in play time. You know, you need to be able to show up fully for both. So I think time is the number one restriction. And also verbiage, you know, how do you talk to yourself? What is your, what is your verbiage internally? are you setting yourself up for. Encouragement and empowerment internally by your internal dialogue, or are you not setting yourself up for success? You know, it's important to get a lot of clarity on what your goals are, but that that's personal or professional and ideally both, because then you start to see, well, I'm losing a lot of time here. I'm losing a lot of time on social media. I'm losing a lot of time. You know, committing to this monthly book club I don't even wanna be a part of. Right. Don't, don't feel like you have to commit to everything. So that's, that's oftentimes a time sucker for sure.

Lisa: 13:16

So if you consider that, you know, you say you have a client in the, you're like, okay, you're definitely overwhelmed. How do you see that impacting her health?

Bryana: 13:26

Generally, as you mentioned, the overwhelm and fatigue, come hand in hand. And I, I typically see that these people are also reaching for the wrong types of foods. Their energy is low. They are overmedicated generally for anxiety, sometimes suppression, and sometimes both. And they're usually very low in cortisol, which is their stress hormone.

Lisa: 13:53

Which by the way, That's kind of like the opposite of what you would assume if you would assume, if you're overwhelmed and stressed, you're gonna have high cortisol.

Bryana: 14:00

Mm-hmm. And you definitely do it first for a while. Just like anything, your, your reserve is gonna kick in, but eventually you're gonna run out. You know, and if you don't take in the right types of foods to again, nourish the systems, the enzymes, the co-factors in your body to produce something like cortisol, then eventually you will quote, unquote, run out and you don't have any stress fuel left to, to, to work off of. So people are, they're, they're adrenal glands, are zapped. You know, there's been a couple different forms of verbiage out there about it. Either adrenal fatigue or adrenal burnout. I think adrenal burnout is more the, the common, uh, term used now, but either way, your adrenals are as z, you know, they've given everything that they can and so you're, you're running on empty. What can be confusing about that is you can see people make a lot of wrong dietary choices, but they can be very thin because they're actually very malnourished and they're z cortisol, so their body's really running on empty. That's generally the profile that I see people show up. And, um, you know, just to touch on the, the nutritional component is people start making poor choices with food because the body, the body's main fuel source is glucose. So if we're not taking in, or producing or converting enough glucose, our, our brain doesn't have access to it. So it's gonna reach to it in the form of, And we don't nourish the gut, of course, and we don't take the right supplementation, prebiotics, probiotics, a good healthy range of different foods, then our gut isn't set up to have a healthy stage set within the gut microbiome to be creating serotonin. And most of the serotonin that we make is made in the gut. So that's how it kind of comes back to talking about the brain, right? Cause we have that gut brain connection, which I'm glad that, that, that terminology is getting out there more. And people are, are hearing that and saying that they know that they need to pay attention to their gut if their, mood is off.

Lisa: 16:03

Their mood is off. Yeah, exactly.

Bryana: 16:05

Yeah. Yes. It's all, all connected.

Lisa: 16:09

Well, how, how do we get ahead of this then? And you've mentioned a couple times, like making the right choices with food. Uh, a lot of times with my clients, I focus on, uh, At first, especially just amount of food, because typically when we are overweight, we're overeating. It's just, the energy dynamic of it. So we focus a lot on hunger scale and feeling our hunger and, and not overeating. And then the second step is to get into food choices. Once we're not overeating the food, then, then we start making small changes in nutrition. So, What would you say is helpful in those kinds of choices, and how do we kind of get ahead of this?

Bryana: 16:52

So the first thing is to learn how to identify your personal sources of overwhelm, and I think for a lot of people, nutrition is that. So especially when people try to make. Dietary choices to control their weight. That on its own could be very overwhelming, especially if they're not educated on how to shop well in the grocery store. So it's, I think it's important to give them techniques of where in the grocery store to buy, I've heard the terminology before, to shop on the outside of the store where a lot of those products are refrigerated, so they'll be more fresh. I think that's kind of a nice rule of thumb, you know, stay away from processed foods, et cetera.

Lisa: 17:31

The one place I feel like that always, that rule always goes wrong is I really love a lot of like, single in gradient Keon foods like beans and tomatoes, you know, your good grains and you know, quinoa and lentils. Those are all in the center too, so don't be too afraid of those kinds of things, you know? But, um, I know what you mean by staying away from those like multi, multi ingredient items that are heavily processed.

Bryana: 17:55

Right. I mean, if you feel overwhelmed by looking, by looking at the label, it's probably a good thing to stay away from that. You really should be able to understand it. So giving people a few, uh, staple ideas of how to create their meals or even prep the meals is very important. I like my clients to work primarily around vegetables because it seems like vegetables seem to. Make their way out of the plate last. But importantly, this can be a little bit complex at the beginning, but importantly, the food and nutritional approach needs to be customized and it needs to be personalized. So, you know, we were kind of talking before we hopped on here about ne Nutrigenomics.

Lisa: 18:38

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Tell us what that means before you jump into it.

Bryana: 18:41

Yeah, so Nutra obviously nutrition or food and genomics, meaning genetics and the information that sits inside of every single one of your cells in the D n A, and it does not get more personalized than that. So Nutrigenomics essentially is the way that. You based on your individual makeup, react and respond to certain foods and certain nutrients. Nutrients can also come from supplementation, vitamins and minerals, et cetera. So oftentimes we kind of tout vitamin regimens as being. Only what the really healthy people do. Right? But we get vitamins and supplements from our food too. It's just what is your source? Are you getting it from whole food or are you getting it from a capsule or a liquid? Right? We can't ignore that. So if you have a good idea of how you metabolize or how you respond, I mean, that's great information. If you can get a Nutrigenomics test done, essentially you get that by getting a DNA test done, like 23andme or something like that

Lisa: 19:42

Oh, that provides it.

Bryana: 19:43

Yeah, so they have a couple different types of tests that you can take, and one is more geared towards the ne Nutrigenomics side that gives you the information that is specific to that rather than looking to see what your ancestry is, you know, so,

Lisa: 19:58

what I thought it was. I've never done it, so it will tell you. What about your nutrition specifically?

Bryana: 20:03

It will tell you where your deficiencies lie, and it primarily will tell you what co-factors you're lacking. And what I mean by that is we all know we have enzymes in our bodies, but what we may be undervaluing is how important those enzymes are from converting a certain type of nutrient that's inactive. To the active form. So if we think of vitamin A or vitamin D, which we know are necessary, if you're taking a supplement that requires activation from the inactive form. So if you're buying the inactive form of that supplement off the shelf and your body requires an enzyme to convert it to the active form for you even to absorb it and utilize it, but you don't have that enzyme. You're just paying it out and you're wasting your money. So I think it's interesting that when the timing is right and if the, you know, client is on board to get this personalized information, because at the end of the day, it's actually going to save you money long term, cuz you're gonna be making informed choices, right? If you're going somewhere you don't know on a road trip, you're gonna use your GP ps cuz you want the most information that you can possibly have. And that's kind of what Nutrigenomics offers. Also, I think detoxification is a really important part, which we can certainly jump into that if you want, but I think that detoxification is important because people, you know, just living, eating, breathing in the environment that we live in, we are so toxic that if we offload that toxic burden, it actually helps with a lot of the weight loss to jumpstart it, and it makes our body more receptive to the other treatments or dietary choices that we're making.

Lisa: 21:40

And as far as detoxification, like do we need to just support the liver and the, and the systems that are already doing that? Or are you talking about a full detox, like sort of cleanse diet kind of situation?

Bryana: 21:54

I like to keep it simple. Most people, most people can benefit from a liver detoxification, which you can get in the form of a. Combination supplement, you know, over the counter from a trusted source. But I don't want everyone to think they need to rent out and buy charcoal pills. because we, for one, we wanna be gentle with detoxification because what's happening is we have so many systems in our body, and, and when I say systems, I mean the lymphatic system or the cardiovascular system, or the nervous. We don't talk enough about the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system is basically the sewage highway and sewage storehouse within our body that holds all of the junk, the byproducts, and essentially the trash that needs to be, you know, that needs to get out of our body. So it pulls it out of the tissues, holds it there, and then has a game plan to get it out. The more toxic our body gets and our bloodstream gets from breathing, environmental, air, you know, smog, toxins, all of these, um, you know, things that we're exposed to in our foods and at our workplaces, et cetera, make us very toxic and backlog us up so that we don't have a good avenue to get those toxins out of the body. And so what happens is that one of the, well, one of the first things that happens is we begin to pack on. Which is usually water weight because the body's main job is to just keep you alive.

Lisa: 23:24

Always. yeah.

Bryana: 23:26

yeah. And so it'll find any way to do that. And one of the ways it will do that if the body is highly toxic, is it will try to keep the toxins outside of the cell and dilute them. And it does that by pulling water into that area to try and dilute the tox. And so what do we do? We blimp up. It's like, whoa, it feels like it's overnight. You know, why did this happen? And then we get a downward cascade of a lot of problems like hormonal deficiencies and imbalances, et cetera. But again, that happens over the long term. So I really like to focus on detoxification first, where it's gentle. That happens through supplementation

Lisa: 24:03

Do you mind sharing what kind of supplementation?

Bryana: 24:06

Yeah. So yeah, I think that vitamin C for starters is, is really great. Um, it probably does not get enough recognition any product that is going to be a strong antioxidant. Vitamin C being one of those is, really great. The, like broccoli extracts, which oftentimes will be in this liver. These liver support products are also really helpful. Citrus pectin is really helpful. And these are all products that I've used personally that have really helped to mobilize my lymphatic drainage and get it outta my body, help me actually reduce some weight and not be so bloated. So I really like those because for one humans we don't even make vitamin C, so we have to get it through either whole food or through supplementation, you know, capsule, tablet, liquid, something like. To help facilitate detoxification in the body. Also, movement is free.

Lisa: 25:03

Right. Yeah. Walking.

Bryana: 25:05

Yes, yes. And even walking, you don't have to go out and and be a runner. I mean, in many ways, walking is actually more gentle and a better starting point. I mean, even if you're, you know, a high level athlete walking is, is very ideal for getting your lymphatic system moving and facilitating brain detoxification as well. That's a big one. So that's, I mean, that's free. You know, we like to start out with free tools, but those are a couple supplements that I also like to use. The citrus pectin is fantastic, not just for lymphatic drainage, but also for helping to cleanse the gut as. And also assists in hormone conversion in the gut. So a lot of, a lot of conversion of hormones or activation of that does happen in the GI tract.

Lisa: 25:53

Awesome. All right. Any other things that we can do just to get ahead of overwhelm or any last tips that you have for, for kind of getting out of that? When we're feeling stuck?

Bryana: 26:07

Yeah. Other than identifying personal sources of overwhelm, you know, get, it's important to give yourself the permission to change those habits. Just cuz you've had 'em a long time does not mean you cannot change and get very, very clear on what changes you wish to make. That help move you towards a low stress lifestyle. Everyone deserves the low stress version of themselves. Really, it's such a personal freedom and get comfortable in the discomfort cuz you're gonna have to make these changes consistently, right? You will find yourself in situations throughout your entire life where you start to feel overwhelmed and understand that small tweaks need to be made and that's okay. So get comfortable in that. When you get comfortable in the discomfort, that's when you. And then commit to the change. I always tell people to find an accountability buddy, whether that's your coach or it's a family member or spouse or coworker, whoever you know, write it down, share it with them, and say, Hey, I am asking you to hold me accountable to make these changes, and we're gonna check in about it. So get verbal with it, share that with others. It really is gonna help you stick to the changes that you deserve to be the best, most healthy and well version of.

Lisa: 27:14

Yeah. Yeah. Great. Thank you so much. Why don't you tell us where people can connect with you or learn more about what you do?

Bryana: 27:22

Yes, absolutely. So my website is www.briannagregory.com and you can also find me on Instagram. Generally where I'm most active, which is Dr. Dr underscore Briana Gregory, and you know, you can shoot me a message in there if you have questions about anything we talked about today or any of the content I post. I like to just give information that I feel like is bite size for people, digestible and easily applicable. So those are the, the two best ways to find me. Please shoot me a message if you have more questions. But, you know, I want everyone to feel encouraged and empowered to, to achieve the, the changes that they deserve. We're all so deserving of that. So thank you for having me on, Lisa. It's a pleasure and I really enjoyed our conversation today. Thank you so much.

Lisa: 28:04

Yeah. Thank you for being here. hey, thanks for listening today. If you're ready to get some personalized coaching from me, I'd encourage you to schedule a free strategy session. Visit www.wellwithlisa.as.me or it's easier just to find that link in the show notes. We'll talk about where you currently are with your weight loss goals. And I'll give you some actionable tools. You can start implementing right away. Before you go, make sure you subscribe to the podcast so you can receive new episodes, right when they're released. And if you're learning something new and enjoying the podcast, I'd love for you to leave me a five star rating and a review. Thanks again for joining me, Lisa Salisbury in this episode of Eat Well, Think Well, Live Well.