Naima B. Robert – Self Care and Your Health Idil Farah
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
Bismillah al salam ala Rasulillah Salam aleikum, everyone welcome to
this session of the Muslim ummah self care conference, super
excited to be here with you on day two. And looking forward to really
diving in with Sister Adele Farah on self care and your health.
Those of you who were here at the kickoff you met Citadel, and she
is the one who told us that no is a full sentence. So with that
being said, insha Allah, I'm going to hand you over to Citadel who is
going to look after you very well just don't spend my take it away.
Sam alikoum everyone. My name is Ethel, thank you for introducing
me. Thank you for inviting me on this conference. It has been such
a learning experience amazing speakers, beautiful sisters,
incredible participation. Today, I'm gonna talk to you about your
health, food, self care, but really using food as medicine.
And we're calling this self care and your health. So I just want to
make sure that you need to always check in with your doctor. This
information because I'm not your nutritionist and practitioner, I
can't follow up with you. So everything I'm giving you is
information that you can use in your day to day, but just remember
that food drug interaction does exist, there are certain drugs, if
you're on medication that you need to be aware of. If you need more
help, we can connect in a more meaningful way. So
with that said, my name is Eva, like I said, I'm a nutritionist
that lives in Toronto.
Really, I believe Eve food is your medicine. And your kitchen is your
pharmacy. My kitchen is a place where herbs and spices and
holistic way of healing happens. I turned to food to help me thrive
feel energized in my body. It is really important to me, I have a
bachelor degree in food and nutrition. I have been practicing
for over 10 years. I really believe for me my main work is
with women and working with women in a way that allows me to sort of
help them and meet them where they are and help them grow and thrive
in their body.
So
today, before I get into the whole conversation about
self care, and food and all of that, I really want to talk to you
about what the antithesis of self care is stress. And what does
stress mean? And how does it impact your body. Because if
you're not looking after yourself, and if you're like most modern
women living in the 21st century, juggling that fabulous bag of like
I got it's in like doing it all. You are stress, right? And if you
are like most of us who feel who like kind of fall on the who are
last on our list, basically, we're feeling a lot of stress, there's a
lot of
real genuine.
We're so out of touch with our body. Right? So I wanted to talk
to you today and really delve into what does stress mean? So research
shows that 75% to 90% of doctors are now treating people with
stress related illnesses, right? And 30% of these stresses are
being reported by women, right? And women experienced stress
differently than men. So a man would be going on and really just
living his best life.
And he will.
Oh, I just heard my own echo, okay.
A man would wake up in the morning, go for a run, do what he
needs to do. And then it like he prioritizes himself first. Whereas
in women, a woman would wake up in the morning, look after the kids,
feed her family. Do the laundry, get ready, everybody ready for
school, like and then it's harder, right? And also there's this other
thing we're women in, we internalize stress so my partner's
stress will affect me more than my stress will affect him. So if he
came home and told me at news, I'll take
that on and he will now become part of my stress load. Whereas in
with him if you tell him, Hey, I'm I'm kind of this is what happened.
He's just Subhanallah the way men are made, they just internalize
that very differently. So what are the symptoms of stress, headaches?
Fatigue, foggy brain,
you know, indigestion, bloating, there's so many things, right? If
you've experienced that, you know, let me know, in the chat, I'm
going to keep an eye on that as well.
So I wanted to talk to you, there's something called an
allostatic load, right? So stress is our body recognizes stress, the
way our forefathers or ancestors have recognized stress was, you
know, a tiger is chasing you, and you're running for your life. So
your entire body shows up for that your entire physical being is like
now Whoa, you know, I gotta run for it. It's the fight or flight,
we've all we've all heard of that, right. So that physical fight or
flight,
that our body now our pupils are dilated, our heart is racing, our
muscles are like the blood is pumping through our muscles, so we
can run for it. That is the stress response, it's only supposed to
happen for like few seconds at a time, right? But with now, the
21st century in the way we live our lives, this is happening all
the time. It is like our body doesn't know the difference
between stress from not being able to pay the bills, or over our
taxes, or over our job, or over a relationship, or even food
allergies, or things like
environmental toxins. All of these things are perceived, like
stressors to the body, emotional stress, you know, all of these
things come in this package or under the umbrella of stress. And
now, our body sees that and it's like, well, you know, we're being
attacked, is it a famine, with the body doesn't know, the body's role
is to protect you. So your body will show up for you every single
time. In and we women are like, we've become sort of, you know, we
take that on plus all of our other roles, right. So when stress
happens to the body, this entire thing, it's called an Allostatic,
load, right, and allostatic load. So stress is supposed to only last
for a few seconds. And allostatic load is the price the body pains
over a long period of time for adapting to stress and stress
challenges.
Imagine stress as your house is on fire, right? You live in your
house, your bodies, your house, this is the body that Allah gave
you, the home that your soul resides in, until the day you
leave this earth. So imagine your house is on fire. What happens
when when there's a fire we call the fire department. And the fire
department is our hypothalamus. And it kind of calls the fire
chief and says hey, there's a fire going on. And that's our adrenal
glands and sort of sent all the troops and the body pulls from
everything from your digestion, your fertility from
your, like blood sugar, your blood sugar goes up, your
like brain function increases. So all these resources are being
pulled from everything that's going on, right? From your
hormones from your liver function, everything comes to a halt. And
every resource you have is now put into putting out that fire, right?
But when the fire truck comes, we have the ambulance that shows up.
And we have what else comes the police, right? So the ambulance is
your blood sugar, right? Which goes up and it comes to the rescue
because you need energy to start running for your life. And then
the police is that cortisol that that is produced in your body,
right? And the cortisol is a hormone that is literally your
body produces to fight for you. Right? It shows up when there's
danger and the body now is ready to like, do what it needs to do.
But imagine that's happening every day. And every day. Everything you
do is interrupted your entire like look at this poor camel is just
like I can't I won't I can't do this no more. It's a lot right.
But your digestion is interrupted so you ate but you're you're
you're not breaking down the food. The nutrients are not getting to
your cells to feed the rest
Have your body for all the stuff that you need to do, your liver
has to stop.
Really producing, breaking down hormones producing vital,
really like breaking down the fat, doing everything that it does, in
order to show up and give to the stress response, your estrogen is
now being used to produce cortisol. So that affects your
fertility.
The brain is really connected to your digestion, but plus also a
response to blood sugar. So your brain is now like, using all this
energy to sort of look at its surroundings and really figure out
what's going on. So next time, this kind of danger happens, your
your, your your, your body knows what to do, because your brain
took a snapshot, all of that is happening. And then it happens to
you every day. And this that kind of stress response. It's all these
cracks appearing, you might not see it, it's underneath the
foundation. But like these cracks, keep on happening day in and day
out. By the time you reach your 30s, you are going to start
noticing these cracks, whether it's in your skin, whether it's in
difficulty trying to get pregnant, your period, your digestive health
being destroyed, bloating, diarrhea or major constipation. It
is whether you have heart palpitation, whether you have
anxiety,
all of these things are stress responses that we don't recognize
a lot of my clients come to me and they say, my hair's falling out
and my skin is not doing well, I want to lose weight. But they
don't realize that all of these things do add up to one thing,
like if you are someone who's living under chronic stress, this
affects you all the time, not to mention things like your gut
health is really I want to I want to stop here and really talk about
what the gut health means 70% of your immunity lives in your gut.
So if your gut had health is compromised in any way,
it is, literally everything else is compromised, you're not able to
fight disease. We've all heard of gut bacteria, or gut microbes, or
micro biomes. All of that is the bacteria that live in our body
that decide who we're going to be how we're going to show up what
kind of how we're going to learn what kind of diseases we're going
to develop our metabolism,
our mental health, all of that is decided by our digestive health.
And those gut bacteria and during stress those gut bacteria, they
get destroyed at a faster rate than anything else. It's, it's
worse than actually, like, you know, eating sugar every day
stress can do the damage that nothing else in your life could
do. So me talking to you about what you should be eating without
really explaining to you, the underlying causes to your health
is doing you a disservice. Which is why we started here today. I'm
just gonna stop for a second just to see what's happening in the
chat. So I can answer some questions.
I can't even find the chat.
Huh?
Okay.
Let me just see.
So, there it is. Perfect. Let's see what you guys are saying.
What is an oil allostatic load. So it's the constant impact of stress
on your body. And price your body pays for constantly being
stressed.
You know, subhanAllah, the last few years has been terrible health
wise. Yep. Chronic stress has missed my cortisol. It also messes
with hormones, like women don't realize all the hormonal issues,
thyroid issues,
blood sugar issues, I will actually the one thing that really
a lot of women come to me about is weight loss. And they don't
realize that your liver is a fat burning Oregon, right? But it
could when it gets overwhelmed and when like the it keeps on getting
interrupted from doing its everyday jobs. Your liver then
just literally takes because it just gets over worked and then it
becomes a fat storing organ. So for a lot of people who are having
difficulty losing weight, you need to think about the lifestyle
you're living. Are you under a lot of stress. Has your liver been
over? Worked? Have you been?
You know, and these are not things that you can know but you know if
you're under stress
Okay, so let's go
Back to digestion. So in terms of the importance of digestion to our
health, go back to this and why it is being impacted.
So our gut bacteria, when we're born Subhan, Allah in Allah's
mercy and wisdom, when we are born we are, the babies are coated with
this sticky, slimy thing that when they come out of their mom, like
through the birth canal, that's the gut bacteria that now
inoculates as your body and your digestion to help build your
immune cells and really tell your T T cells, which is the soldiers
of your immune cells what to do on a daily basis. I know this a lot
of information, but this is stuff that you need to know. So you can
now understand, I'm stressed, I really need to manage this, right.
So these T cells now are doing our, you know, if they don't have
this gut bacteria instructing them, and our natural gut bacteria
should be 80%, good bacteria and 20% bad bacteria, and they live in
harmony. And they support each other to keep you healthy. If that
balance is interrupted in any ways, through environmental
toxins, poor food choices, stress,
antibiotics, all of these things, then now will affect the health of
your gut bacteria and your health.
Consequently, so you're going to struggle, you're going to find the
fear, anger, stress, all of these things will kill these healthy
bacteria, and you sometimes can't get them back. Right? So it's
really important to be aware of that.
So what else does stress affect it affects your heart. And why does
it affect your heart because your heart, like it's constantly
pumping blood and working super, super hard during those stressful
times, right? Sometimes you're late or you're stuck in traffic,
and you're just upset. That stress, right? You had like a
fight or you're in a relationship that is not the healthiest. That
is stress, right? And it shows up and it affects us is affecting us.
Sometimes we stop recognizing these symptoms, sometimes we're
not feeling our heart rate going up. Sometimes we're not even
experiencing these things because they're so normal, right?
So the heart is number one of the biggest.
It affects your stress affect the health of your heart, the health
of your arteries, all of that. And so
it's reprint, it's really important to remember, blood sugar
also affects things like heart disease, diabetes, blood sugar is
when you eat your body converts glucose into convert food into
glucose, and that then becomes energy for your body. If the
balance of glucose is constantly if your body's constantly
producing glucose to keep you going and energize sooner or
later, you're starting to see insulin resistance, pre diabetes,
and then eventually diabetes and diabetes is the gateway to
everything else.
Okay, so I talked about a little bit about how cortisol borrows
from your reproductive health or your estrogen, estrogen and
progesterone are what's needed for healthy fertility, your period,
all of that, right. The health of our womb, as women we're very,
very disconnected from and it's really important to
realize nothing happens in the body. Coincidentally, everything
is connected. So if you carry your health as a circle, there is a
break in the circle when something goes wrong. So
stress is a major part of that. Okay. Let's talk how the stress
affects your mood, right?
One in six women in North America is where I am and where I do most
of my research
is on antidepressant and a lot of
women are suffering from anxiety. They're suffering from seasonal
affective disorder, which is usually around the winter when
they have disturbances in their mood, fatigue, exhaustion, low
energy, all of these things.
Could be are related to
Chronic stress.
Okay, this is a really important one, because I don't think a lot
of us recognize how important sleep is to heart health. Sleep is
when our body repairs all the things your body didn't get to do
during the day, it's now doing when you're sleeping, right? So
why is it really important to focus on the idea of likes
sleeping, and when sleep is interrupted, so many women I know
are not, they have this feeling of Wired but tired feeling.
So you you're exhausted, but then when it comes time to go to bed,
you are having a hard time going to sleep, or you wake up in the
middle of the night,
completely exhausted and energized. All of these things are
things that into there something interrupting your sleep, and
adrenal fatigue is one major cause
high,
high levels of cortisol can cause those kinds of issues and really
start affecting the level of rest and really deep sleep you're
getting. So our body
after 3pm starts to shut things down. So our liver starts to break
down all the hormones that were not used, it starts to get all the
waste from our digestion, and it starts to process that, and then
it starts to move. Everything, you know, started, the elimination
process starts happening, right. But if it's interrupted, during
that time, when you go up, when you go to sleep, your body then
continues to do a lot of that work. A lot of people who are not
sleeping, have so many interruption in the body's
processes, that it affects them.
It's why they're seeing all these health issues, especially fatigue
for women, a lot of women think have become normalized fatigue.
But you we really don't know how good our body can feel when we
look after, after it. weight issues are often the first thing
that shows up, and I want you to know that weight is a cause. It's,
it's it's sorry, weight is not the cause of something, weight is a
symptom. It's a symptom, your body not losing weight, if you're
trying is a symptom of something bigger.
It's panela. And
that sleeping also affects like cognitive,
your, you know, that foggy brain not being able to catch your
thoughts when they're happening, or not being able to think on your
feet as fast as you used to not being able to remember, I'm going
to talk about memory soon.
Finding like things like, you know, where did I put my keys? And
then now all of a sudden is what did I eat yesterday? And then it's
like, it just keeps on getting worse, these accumulative effect?
Let's see what we're saying in the chat.
Yes, somebody is asking about early menopause. I want to make
sure that we're going through some of this information real quick.
And then I'm going to just completely stop and then we're
going to chat, I want you to open your mics. I want you to ask me
rapid fire questions. We're going to like make sure that we so if
you have a pen, write your questions down and then
and then we can actually go through it. Somebody said, You
know what, my estrogen is fine, but my progesterone is too high
and testosterone too low. Allah Subhan Allah, Allah has created
everything in balance. And as humans,
we are now breaking down things into calories and like vitamins
and minerals, and this food is good for you. But if you've looked
at nature, everything was imbalanced, right? Like our body
is SubhanAllah. As soon as you show up, if you take one step
towards your health in your body, your body takes 10 steps towards
you. And it's because our body is always meant to protect us, our
DNA regenerate every like seven years, our entire DNA and our body
decides what diseases will develop and what diseases we want. And all
of that happens because your if you because of diet and lifestyle,
and people really don't put the weight they need to on that
because that tells your body whether it should thrive or
whether it should break down and like eventually like develop these
These
Sorry, I just want to talk about acute acute stress,
and memory and cognitive issues we all see as our loved one age
increased diseases like dementia, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's, all
of these things have like are now showing up in greater grade
greater and greater numbers. And at a younger age,
you know, you see it in younger and younger people, because we
live in an age where being busy and being constantly active and
doing things is a badge that we wear as a badge of honor, right?
We have really taken things out of balance and SubhanAllah. Our deen
is about balance, everything in life is in when imbalance and when
we strive for balance is when it's best. And when we are so far out
of balance with how much we're doing, and the lack of self care,
things just
that when you start to see all these diseases, cancer, mood
disorders, cognitive health issues, memory loss, you know,
you're even seeing it in kids now, because all of this is is is a
sign that we need to rebalance things.
Okay, our immune health, especially now, there is nothing
more important than our immune health really, with COVID with the
reality of
you know, all of this stuff that we're seeing the state of the
world, our global,
the economy of that are, you know, we're more susceptible to illness
more than ever, and protecting our immune health. And really focusing
on eliminating what we can control, which is stress is
really, really a step forward in healing, right and step forward in
taking care of ourselves. It's the ultimate self care. So for me,
the stress can cause chronic cellular damage, it could really
impact how much muscle even if you're working out how much muscle
you make, it impacts everything. So really realizing and going back
to digestive health, realizing that 70% of your digestion lives
in your gut, and your healthy bacteria are being destroyed by
stress is a real threat, that stress poses to our health.
I thought this was really important to bring in the thyroid,
because in terms of
our health, thyroid, for a lot of women, I get a lot of people who
are experiencing hypothyroidism. Hashimotos, which is an autoimmune
disease that is caused that is of the thyroid Hashimotos is when
your body attacks your thyroid and literally starts to kill off the
cells.
A lot of it has to do with our thyroid is very susceptible to
stress. And we need it for our metabolism. It's the temperature
control of our body. It is involved in so many of our body's
processes. And when our thyroid is destroyed or when it's impacted.
It really it's a long term health issues that can lead to other
health issues. So I wanted to make sure if you have questions around
that, and if you're experiencing that, then we can talk about it.
But this is a real thing. This is one of the things that really is
affected by stress in a major way.
Subhan Allah so now we're going to talk about the thing that is most
near and dear to my heart, which is
basic benefits of like something that we could all do, right?
To start making changes, right? What can we do to all start doing
today to show up for our body and ourselves and to make changes
towards our health so we can become healthier? And
start the process of self care? If you guys have questions, please
ask now. If you need to turn on your mics do it.
Because I want us to take a break here just because I presented a
lot of heavy information. And I just want to make sure that
it's not too overwhelming for everyone who's here
so
We can read. So there's a question that's been asked, Can we
replenish our gut microbes? Absolutely. I had my own digestive
health issues, my hair was completely flat. I thought I had
alopecia because I was balding. And I was born with a lot of hair.
And, you know, for women, our hair is our crown. And it was really
distressing. Not to mention, I had a lot of inflammation, aches and
pain everywhere foggy brain, like just was gaining weight
ridiculously didn't understand why. As a practitioner, I went to
my doctor over and over again. And
it took a lot for me to get to the place to be told, Oh, if you
change, like you really have to change your diet and eat very
differently in order for you to like,
take control of this. And a lot of research is now being done around
gut health. There's not a lot of information that's known, a lot of
our doctors have not been trained in this area. But you can
definitely replenish your gut microbe. And I'll share the steps
on how to do that. Sr, il l How can early healthy childhood diet
be developed in a child who has limited choices?
That's a really great question. Actually, children
are
forming the basis of their health, their immune health. And for kids,
it's really, really important to start building.
Expanding their palates. Now. I understand what it means to I'm a
parent. So I understand what it means for kids to be picky. They
go through stages where they feel like they can really enjoy. They
don't like this and then But yesterday, you were eating this,
why don't you like it today, though, that does happen. But I
want you to think about really trade offs and look into
children's plates and say, if you know if you, I'm gonna give you
this, this is what you want. And I need you to eat this, right? Even
if they take a few bites, it's few pie bites forward, right? I would
invest in making sure that they're eating more fruits and vegetable
in particular vegetables, because that's where you get the best bang
for your buck.
I also like to hide things in children's food. I like them to
see the vegetables on their plate for one. But also like in things
like pasta sauce, and soups and stews. And in even rice, the base
of rice, I add a lot of pureed vegetables. And so it becomes a
part of the dish that they they're not aware of. So you're building
in the nutrition, but you're not giving them
you know, and then you're giving them an extra vegetable that they
see. So even if they take a few bites, you know you've built in
some extra nutrition elsewhere.
What else would you recommend to improve gut health? And also the
tips of getting better sleep? Yes, we're going to go into that what
are the low hanging fruit? For solutions? Yes, we're gonna get
into that. I love that we're on the same page. Okay.
So let's go to what we can do basic things that everyone can do.
You don't have to label your eating habits we all you could be
like, whatever your food dogma is, whether you're paleo or keto, or
you know medicine, even Mediterranean diet or vegan or
vegetarian, whatever your food dogma is,
there is understand that fundamentally food
is medicine, right? And it's really important to look at food
from that point of view, right? It's a How can food help me to
thrive? How can I make each plate and each meal serve me like Mac
How can I maximize the benefit of each meal is what I'm trying to
say? And how can it serve me best well foods can add that are going
to be
really nourishing really like the best bang for my buck in terms of
like nutrients, calories easier to digest. What are those? And then
what do I love? It's kind of creating this trade off between
you know, foods that you love and you enjoy and foods that you need
to eat to enhance your health.
So when it comes to food philosophy, for me, the number one
thing is eating foods that are living that come from the soil so
things like vegetables
As
leafy green vegetables are really high in nutrients, they are easy
to digest. They are really full of like minerals and vitamins, they
feed every cell in your body food is information it tells your body
how to behave. So every cell in your body receives this nutrient
and interpret interpreted that how can you serve me and with
vegetables in particular, they serve your cells in the maximum
weight so making a third of your plate
as vegetables is really key into driving your health and into
adding nutrients adding fiber adding easy to digest foods, foods
that support your digestion and your gut microbes in your gut
bacteria. Foods that are hydrating these are things that fruits and
veggies them especially vegetables do for you because they are low in
the glycemic index in the amount of sugar but high in nutrients so
they give you they are super super nourishing. Now what what I would
say about
vegetables really look at eating seasonal vegetables right? So
right now it's still warm outside or it was summer. There were a lot
of leafy greens there were a lot of
really like nutrient rich vegetables that were in season.
But think about like you know the fall is coming right so there you
know our body also goes through the seasons and so like your The
colder it gets your
more comforting foods that your body craves but you like have
things like sweet potato sweet potato is a veggie starchy but it
and higher in the glycemic index. But it's still a great vegetables
to have right. So think about eating the rainbow all the
different colors, broccoli, squash.
Think about putting your own cultural flair on these
vegetables, spinach, kale.
What else dandelion, those bitter greens are really really good for
your gut because they help your digestive enzymes which is what
breaks down your food and it also helps your what is it called your
gut bacteria and it helps with valley fever. So really, I mean, I
can't let me count the ways is what I say when it comes to
vegetables they they do so much. And try not to overcook them try
to eat some raw, some cooked some bait like try a variety of ways of
cooking your food. So that would be the number one thing I would
invest in fruit. On the other hand, they're incredibly good for
you eating whole foods. Fruit is really important. Not juicing your
fruits is really important because you to get orange juice, you'd
have to juice for oranges and you're going to lose all the
fiber. Whereas in like if you ate one orange, you get fiber, you get
the vitamin C you get everything you need within that one fruit,
but fruit is higher in glycemic index and it has it drives your
blood sugar up. So you need to really be mindful about the type
of foods you choosing. Treat it like dessert, I would say treat it
as at something like you know, grapes are literally just sugar,
their sugar. Bananas are higher in sugar, watermelon, even though
they're hydrating, they're higher in sugar.
Apples are great, they have pectin, they have like insoluble
fiber that helps you eliminate and helps you with your digestion and
it just also helps push out all the toxins and all the things that
are lurking around.
But there are great options as long as you're creating some
balance around that. Is that a great way to go and it's the best
bang for your buck. Now the next thing I would say is really
prioritizing healthy fats, healthy fats which good fats good bad, a
bad rep but they wouldn't be on this earth if Allah didn't have a
purpose for them. And the reason our ancestors or other generations
were a lot healthier in the Constitution, especially mental
health and or their brain health was because they were eating
fat, right they were eat there's healthy fat things like avocado,
not to seed things like
nut butters in coconut oil, coconut oil
in particular will bypass your liver and will not have to go
through your liver to be broken down as a fat. Remember, the liver
is a fat burning organ, it goes straight to your brain and it
feeds your brain health. So it really is great with people who
are struggling with neuro
cognitive diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's and stuff like
that. And it's really important for us because we don't want to
struggle with that in the future. So eating healthy fats, and fat
keeps you satiated, keeps you fall, the low fat generation had,
like were the the struggle with weight the most because they
weren't eating one of the most important nutrients macronutrient
which fat is a macronutrient or body needed to function and
survive. So including fat in your diet is really important. It's key
and choosing healthy fats. Cook with avocado oil and coconut oil.
Grapeseed make sure that you are eliminating processed food is
number three, for me really huge, actually. Because the amount of
preservatives, some of the stuff is not even food actually. But the
amount of preservatives and
additives that are in food nowadays, some stuff that you
didn't even sign up for that you are not aware of that the FDA
approves, which is the governing body of food. We are very trusting
of others, right when it comes to what we eat. But unless it you
know, this food is a whole food that came from the earth, you
really don't know what if it came in a package, you have no idea
what's in it to always be an informed consumer or read the
label. But if something says sugar as the first ingredient, then it
is the largest amount of that ingredient in there in the like
largest amount. Let me rephrase that. So let's say I picked up a
package of
what am I
Kraft macaroni and cheese, right. And the first ingredients was mono
chloride, hydro epoxy. I'm making stuff up. But let's say that's the
first ingredient that tells me that ingredient is the largest in
like it's the highest amount of ingredient in there. And then if
sugar is next, and sugar has many, many, many names.
Fructose Corn Syrup. You know, honey is a sugar, snip syrup is
sugar. Some of them are natural sugars, but it's still sugar. If
sugar in any form is the number one two or three ingredient, that
means this food is mostly sugar. So you really need to be mindful
of what you're putting in your body in that sense and be an
informed
consumer Always read the label because there's so many people
marketing to you, that are really making sure that you're picking up
packages. So it's really key that you are making these decisions for
yourself and you know what you're putting in your body.
The other one that I want to discuss is bread, a lot of people
are buying bread and they think it's a whole wheat whole, a whole
wheat bread. But unless it says on the back of the label a whole
wheat whole grain 100% Whole wheat whole grain that bread can have 1%
Whole wheat and it can be called that like reading the labels so
important. Making sure that when you're buying something, you know
that it's that thing that you bought like so if you are buying
white bread, that's fine, but make sure that you know you don't think
that a whole grain bread you know whole wheat doesn't mean anything
unless it says 100% Whole wheat whole grain you need the whole
grain because they only give you the endosperm the middle part
otherwise, but when you get the whole grain you get the the entire
grain, the fiber, the endosperm, the roughage, all of that which is
good for you and helps balance your blood sugar.
Let's see what the common say
when do you recommend improve help?
Hmm.
It's one of the most abundant circulation stirred in humans DHEA
Yes.
Are autoimmune disease reversible with diet and stress control?
Absolutely anything. They can be man
Ah and go into remission.
reversible, the damage is, whatever damage is done, could be,
is done, but the body has a way of regenerating and really showing up
for you. So if you
if with diet and lifestyle and stress management, it all could be
managed, right?
A lot of people who have their thyroid removed because of surgery
could have that little bit of nodules that are left work better
than someone who has their full thyroid. So never give up on your
body, your everything could be like, I like to call remission
because you could go back to your old lifestyle and things could
come back. So remission means you're back. There's no more
damaged, you have stopped, you are in a place where now you're in
healing and progress.
It's Hanalei like when I mean, we are one of our number biggest
blessings is our body and Allah has the ability to show up for for
our bodies show up for us all the time. Is is
a miraculous experience. Every day you get to experience every day,
you break your leg and your leg heals, right,
something happened, you get sick, and you get better. And you don't
realize how many cells and how many things are working in the
background to get you back to your full health. So it is what a
blessing that is.
The other thing, the fourth pillar that I have when it comes to
healthy eating, is making sure that you're eating in in
moderation, really, everything in moderation, you can have a
chocolate cake and enjoy it. As long as you know that chocolate
cake is something that you're not going to punish yourself for.
You're going to like allow yourself to savor the experience.
And it's not a daily occurrence like it is something that is a
treat. Having
things like foods that you love that, you know, you've like some
of the fried foods that we eat, in our cultures. It's okay to eat
that occasionally. But when it is all the time, then that the
moderation is out of the door, right? And eating foods that are
serving your body 80% of the time is what really important, it's
what you're doing the most that will
you will reap the rewards up.
The next thing I wanted to also share is really prioritizing your
digestion. This is something that we talked about.
And that was asked in the questions How can you prioritize
your digestion? First of all, it is making sure that you are paying
attention to the foods that you're eating. We all have intolerances.
And a lot of us eat and feel like a bomb exploded in our stomach
bloating, constipation, sometimes diarrhea, discomfort. So being
aware of what foods are causing you that and eliminate eliminating
them for six weeks at least is really important. Investing in a
good probiotic that is multi strained, is is is a great idea
for at least three months taking that to help re inoculate your
system.
Making sure that you are letting go processed foods because sugar
allows the bad bacteria to grow and thrive. So making sure that
you eliminate that and also eating foods like bitters
for me fermented foods, and when I say bitters I mean arugula
dandelion. You know those vegetables that are have like the
little peppery, spicy taste. Those really help feed the good bacteria
they eat called prebiotics. And they help your probiotics. They
the prebiotics help the good bacteria stay alive and strong.
Probiotics are the actual bacteria getting back in your body.
And then making sure that you're having fermented foods. Every
culture has its own fermented foods, eating foods that are
fermented have their own bacteria built within them. So things like
kefir Lebbon
what is it called? Kimchi, sauerkraut?
Whatever like you if we are multicultural most as Muslims and
so we know we all have these fermented foods, having things
like artichokes and cauliflower.
are all great for your healthy bacteria, making sure that I'm
going to talk about sugar in particular later on, making sure
that you're hydrating. And elimination is a process of
removing toxins,
hormones, leftover hormones, digestive waste, all of that out
of the body, a lot of us are not eliminating, and if we're not
eliminating, what happens is your body reabsorbs, all of that. And
then it becomes a part of your bloodstream. And your body has to
work harder to remove these things and the constant buildup, then
that when disease takes hold,
what else did I forget anything but your digestion, again, it
becomes a also a part of food. Self Care, self care is an
agreement with yourself to take time and replenish, it's taking
care of your wholeness.
Like your full self, because you can separate your mind body and
soul.
As a part, it you are one and so taking care of the full self
prioritizing yourself as a woman is key to everything you do, you
can be good to anyone if you're not good to yourself, and
remembering that is a way of really
giving yourself permission. If you don't,
whatever you do, now you're debiting from your future self. So
whether you do it now, whether you pay the price like now or later.
If you're not looking after yourself intentionally if you're
not taking steps to really care for your health and yourself,
whether it's with food, whether it's with exercise, whether it's
with
meditation, prioritizing sleep, minimizing stress, with all of
these things, you will debit from your future self, you are deciding
right now who you're going to be a week from now, a month from now, a
year from now, 10 years from now, how you're going to age, the skin
that a lot of women talk about and like oh, my skin is not as like,
you know, it's not clear, it's the skin is a window to what's going
on inside your body. So if you are experiencing any visible skin
issues, it's because you're there, your body is sending you messages.
Our body constantly tells us, Hey, this is not working. Bloating is
one of those signs hunger is one of those signs. Headaches is one
of those signs.
Fatigue is one of those signs and we constantly ignore it. And then
when you ignore your body's signs, what ends up happening, your body
will decide oh, okay, she doesn't want to listen. Okay, sure. I'm
not gonna tell you you're hungry. I actually have a really good
example. You know how sometimes you gotta go pee. And then you're
like, Well, let me finish this. Let me do this first, and then I'm
gonna go pee.
And then you wait to go pee and then you start to realize your
body goes from telling you you need to go to the washroom, to not
at all, and you urgently all of a sudden have to go, you're sitting
there, you're fine. And then all of a sudden, it's like this urge
to go and pee is because your body decided you're ignoring the signal
so I'm not going to tell you until it's really like urgent. Same
thing with hunger you go from like fine to starving in one second is
because your body you've ignored it so much that it stopped telling
you so these are ways of like
a lot listening to our bodies need is a way of like, self care, but
it's also a way of like health care, because you start to get
ahead of issues before they really become a problem.
For me, whereas I self I self care it for me is is healthcare. Like I
said, one of the real important ways that I care for myself is
prayer.
Right Salah is really like not only connecting with Allah in a
way that is like fun, forth for us and meaningful, but it also allows
you to kind of take some of this off your shoulder right because
you really never in control but when you're in front of Allah, you
are able to, to put your problems forth, right.
Every Salah pose that you get into is a yoga pose. Also, like it
allows blood flow to your brain. It allows all the major muscles to
be activated and to move and to stretch. And you know, even the
ROCOR and a sujood
is literally those neck muscle movement and the blood flow to
your brain is is part of like healing and self care. And it's
part of like Subhanallah like it is really a way of us looking
after ourselves in a meaningful way.
And it's doing double duty, right? It's a form of meditation, it's a
form of quieting the mind, it's a form of standing before our maker
and like, really quieting that inner voice that can't, you know,
the constant conversation that's happening on our in our regular
day. Reading, the Quran is calming, it's centering, it's
healing, it's connecting you to Allah, but it's also helping to de
stress.
connecting with nature, getting outside is another way of
distressing. But also, not only are you it grounding you, it's
helping you
move away from that stress response into a more fully in your
body response.
And then whatever else you do, you know, whether you do a facial, or
whether you go out and with friends, or connect with family,
or laughter, whatever it is, all these forms of self care add up to
literally
long term benefits for your health and helping your body repair from
the inside out.
Okay, so eating the rainbow, we talked about food being the most
powerful drug, I didn't say that, but food is the most powerful drug
in the world, it works for 100% of the people, whereas in
pharmaceutical drugs work for maybe 60% of the people and for
you, you have not been a part of the cohort that those
pharmaceutical drugs were tested on. So it's never going to work
for you. 100% so but food Subhanallah works for 100% of
humankind. So using food as medicine, and as a way to
biochemically communicate with every cell.
It food.
Food is like messages from the outside to your body on how to
behave, right. So foods from the earth, like like I said earlier,
fruits and vegetables, grains,
nuts and seeds, lagoons, all of these things are, you know, so
easier way of like easy to digest, but also really higher in
nutrients than
meat. Meat takes a lot of, of your body to digest, right? It's a
living carcass, right. So it needs, it has tissues and muscles
and things, and so takes a long, a lot longer to digest. So really
using fruits and vegetables, the main part of your plate, and then,
you know, if you're a meat eater then eating your meat but like
portioning that to Allah smaller and filling up on the fruits and
vegetables. So you when you eat the carbs in the meat, you're
eating much less of it.
And for the digestion, what I wanted to add is eating stews and
soups
that
they have a variety of like vegetables, like lentils, or like
grains, whatever you have, when it and they're cooked longer, they're
easier to digest, your body doesn't your stomach doesn't have
to work as hard to break them down to they're really great way to
get yourself to take care of your digestion.
Actually, I'm going to come back to that I want to talk about
hydration for a little bit.
The importance of water, we are 60% water, it's the number one
deficiency in the world, even though it's free, and we are not
drinking enough water to to keep our bodies processes going. Water
is necessary. You could actually stop eating and survive by not
drinking for a day will actually impact your health in a far
greater way. Three days of not drinking, you're dead. And so
Hydration is key to your health. It's key to how your body performs
physically, your electrolyte you know your kidney health, weight
loss, tissue production in eliminating it a huge part of
elimination in
Getting your,
the toxins and the waste out of your body. And so a lot of people
don't realize exhaustion, fatigue that they're feeling is due to
actual
dehydration. So, things that you need to look out for if your urine
is dark, it's already you're already dehydrated. If you're
constipated, you're most likely dehydrated, dry lips, chapped
lips, dehydrated headaches, frequent headaches, dehydrated,
dizziness and lightheaded this Ichi.
Like really dry, flaky skin. A lot of the times you're dehydrated,
achy muscles.
Not being able to recover from workouts, dehydrated, feeling
fatigued and sleepy. A lot of the times, try water first, before you
start looking into other things. It's so simple, yes. So
ignore it. And the way I really what I recommend to my clients, I
say, Okay, we're drinking maybe three cups. And so I say increase
it by two. Because initially, you'll start to notice you're
constantly having to urinate and pee, because your body is not
holding on to the water, it's push, it's just like, it takes it
a minute to get used to that, right. So initially, you so you
need a little time to give yourself a little time to recover.
So you wait the day
or two or maybe I usually say if you increase it by two cups, just
wait a week, make that a habit, and then add another cup and then
so forth until you reach at least 10.
I recommend anywhere from 10 to 12. A is really the minimum. So if
you're not even drinking eight and you're not even drinking five,
then we need to start looking into that immediately. It's the easiest
fix even for your digestion because your healthy bacteria
needs that to thrive.
So yeah, and
this sugar
I just want to tell you how much of a drug sugar is it is
on par as addictive as
research is showing is as addictive as heroin.
Most people are consuming at least 22 teaspoons of sugar per day. And
that's not the sugar that you see. Right because it a lot of the food
we're eating has added sugar in it. Right? packaged food store
bought food, prepared foods because sugar is like, plays on
your tastebuds. Right. It's part of that satiating yumminess,
right.
It creates that
anxiousness that and fat, and Oh mommy, they all do that. So should
this added sugar in everything. Kellogg's cornflakes, which
supposedly doesn't have any added sugar out of the cereals. If you
turn it around. It has I don't know I forget maybe set like it
has added sugar 13%
There's like lemon bread, white bread has added sugar. Even
multigrain bread has added sugar, it's just there's so many places
that we don't look for sugar that is, is just, it's in there. And
then on top of it, it's all the diseases that the sugar causes.
The it actually alters an ad attaches itself to receptors in
your body. And so it alters your mood, it tells your brain to
behave differently. It causes inflammation, which is
like your body's response to heal itself. But when your body's
inflammation is overworking, you start to see
physical breakdown inflammation can happen to the skin it causes
it's the number one cause for aging.
After stress it literally like and then not to mention constant
buildup of
there's stuff coming in let me just check there for a second.
What's the minimum amount of sugar one is allowed to have? Honestly,
so okay, the i
i Say like think about it. Sugar is not a nutrient so it's not add
it's not necessary. So
honey, maple syrup, all the things that you jammed, all of these
things are sugar, right? But they're just called by a different
name. And we assume because it's a natural sugar that it's not being
counted as sugar right?
So, I for your entire day, you shouldn't have more than five
teaspoons, right? But if you think about all the stuff, even fruits
have a lot of sugar vegetables have sugar, natural occurring
sugar, that's fine. But if it's best to get it from like, your
food, then to be getting it as an additive thing, right?
I honestly
just want to tell you, if you do nothing else today, and you
eliminate, and you start to look at the amount of sugar you're
consuming, if nothing else, you take away from this conversation,
that would have an incredible impact on your health. And in the
type of diseases you develop. I want you to know diabetes is the
gateway to all other diseases. It because blood sugar impacts your
brain and it impacts everything else. It's blood sugar is
literally an insulin is a hormone that decides like how much how
much sugar how much
let me take that back. Okay. So when you eat and food is converted
to glucose, right, and it's take it's broken down converted to
glucose, it knocks on your glucose knocks on your cells, doors. And
then insulin comes, which is a hormone to help the glucose get
into your cells as a form of energy. Right? When your cells get
the amount of energy they need, the rest of the glucose that's
just coursing through your blood is converted by your liver, liver
to glycogen which is stored in your muscle for energy for later.
But if you're not using that energy for later, that's converted
to fat, right. And fat is a living breathing hormone producing
organism, fat will cause inflammation, fat will cause
disease fat hat tells your brain how to behave. And so all this
extra fat that's living in your body, it's not good for you. And
then it starts to like compress your organs, it starts to affect
how your body responds, or your cells respond to insulin. And then
it's done. Like, that's when you start to develop insulin
resistance. That's when diabetes and all these other things start
to happen. And you really like we need to start taking diabetes
very, very seriously because it's a gateway to other diseases, but
it is a very, very serious disease and it could impact everything in
your life. Long term and the name of the game is prevention. It's
not treatment
what is the best way to
to wean yourself off of sugar? What is the best way to wean
yourself off of sugar for me, the best way to wean myself off of
sugar is to start first of all, you have to detox your
your tastebuds right because your sugar, the sugar that we eat
especially high fructose syrup that added to a lot of our foods
is is not natural way like it's not, it's not natural sugar, so
our capacity for the taste of sugar has changed is no longer
natural. That's why fruits don't We don't really enjoy the sugar in
fruits and vegetables because we're eating this unnaturally high
sweetened food right. So you need to start including more fruits and
vegetables and counterbalancing it with what else you're eating
because you will change your taste buds in the ad. You know it start
to work on your taste buds so you start to crave natural foods and
plus you will start to feel lighter. What I do is in terms of
like my mornings I do a smoothie a smoothie, I'm able to add some
vegetables, some fruit,
some you know healthy fats
protein in the form of like hemp hearts and chia seeds, and then
I'm able to like use that as a way of like filling myself up. So I'm
filled up myself with some good stuff. So then I'm not as hungry
so even if I have a toast with jam, let's say I'm gonna have one
instead of like the two or three that I was gonna do, you know, so
and if you're having coffee, cut the sugar in half and then cut it
in half a week later and then cut it in half a week after that and
start to now you start to do it gradually it becomes a
Not jarring, but a part of your life, it becomes manageable. But
if you say I'm gonna go from zero
to 100, and stop everything all at once, it's really hard. It's like,
going to rehab almost, it's very difficult in the beginning, you
could do it but you know, it's not sustainable or manageable, right?
Give yourself the grace of doing it gradually, allow yourself, you
know, you didn't get here overnight habits have been formed
over long periods of time. It's a slow transition and change.
All right, where are we supplementing before we get to the
supplements, and we're we're winding down, I don't even know
what time it is. But supplementing smartly is a great,
it's important. But before you do that, before you supplement I need
you to know your numbers become somewhat be in charge of your
health start to learn what your numbers are. So when I say know
your numbers, I mean know your a, a one C, which is your blood
sugar, number, know your T HSTS H, so sorry, TSH, which is your
thyroid hormone.
Number, know your vitamin D levels, know your B 12. levels,
know your iron levels. If you know these levels, when they start to
become out of whack or they're not where they need to be, then you
can actually say to yourself, Okay,
my iron is low now.
I need to increase it used to be here, and now it's here. How can I
manage that? Right? Whereas in if you didn't know any of these
numbers, when things go wrong, how do you know where how far you've
come where you were, even if you made progress? If you if you
weren't aware of these numbers, and you didn't know what your
baselines were, how are you going to keep track of the progress and,
and all the positive things you're doing right.
So know your numbers, make sure you're getting most of your
minerals, vitamins and nutrients from food first. And then if you
need to supplement, then you go ahead and do that. Right, vitamin
d3 Number one supplement, especially if you're wearing
hijab, as a Muslim, it should be priority number one for you and
your kids. Because vitamin D is a it's almost it's a hormone,
temporary hormone. It's involved in so many of the body's
processes. But on top of that, it is essential for your bone health.
So if you don't, if you're low in vitamin D, you will surely develop
us your process down the road and and it affects your mood and it
affects so many things. So please
invest in vitamin d3 1000 international units, get you some.
It's, it's it's my I really I want you to do that today if you
haven't done it yet.
Also, what else would I would, I would magnesium is also another
deficiency that most women suffer from. And most of us are deficient
in magnesium. Magnesium is important for our nerve health and
our nervous system. It's important for our muscle health, it helps us
to sleep better. And so taking magnesium at night purchasing
quality.
Make sure you read the labels and it says it only has magnesium in
there. And then the third one that I would recommend is omega three
fatty acids, it's really important because a lot of us are not
getting healthy fat. And if you're not eating enough fish
or you're not adding enough healthy fats into your diet, then
get a supplement like cod liver oil or omega three fish oil that
you and your kids can both take.
I like adaptogens adaptogens are sorry, whereas the adaptogens.
The adaptogens are herbs that help your body rebalance where it needs
to. This is not necessary, but it's an option. If you're under a
lot of chronic stress. Things like Ashwagandha is a great addition.
Holy Basil is an adaptogen they're a great addition into your
diet, but that is after you've really conquered your healthy
eating habits before you get into the supplement.
Resilience, building our resilience resilience for us is
key because life keeps on coming
And you know, things happen and getting ourselves is that inner
strength that keeps us at that enables us to deal with stress
when it happens. So
really creating space for yourself, it's another form of
self care, it's the, it's a way you're giving you're like putting
yourself on the list. Do things you love, if you love painting,
paint, if you love,
you know,
working out do that, if you have friends that just bring joy, go
ahead and connect with them. Do something that fills your cup, it
should be overflowing give from your overflow, do not give from
like a half full cup, because
you gave the half and then what? What happens, like, it's not
selfish to be self full, right?
You want that for your kids, and they're watching you, you're
teaching them, you want that, for your loved ones, they're watching
you, you're teaching them how to treat you, you're telling them I'm
not worthy of looking after myself, I'm not worthy of being
you know, that care that I'm giving you, you are worthy. And if
you don't put yourself on the list, nobody's gonna do it.
Nobody, there is nobody who's gonna love you more than you love
yourself. There is nobody who's going to show up for you the way
you show up for yourself, I need you to like underline that you are
it for yourself, like nobody can look after you in the same way.
And be kind to yourself, what you say to yourself really matters.
Your nobody talks to you like the way you talk to yourself, nobody
really the stuff that you say to yourself, you would not even dream
anybody else saying to you. So really
make it a habit to really invest in the language that we are saying
to ourselves are how we approach ourselves to the day, I cannot
mentality you can there's the one thing standing between you and
what you want is you it's just in our mind, right?
We all struggle with that this is not something that is, you know,
only one person struggling with we're all struggling but some of
us are.
I guess I better at giving ourselves permission to do things
like we give ourselves permission, we are a little kinder to
ourselves. And it's a practice like a muscle you have to work out
resilience is a muscle that you have to build.
Finally,
moving your bod. So important exercise is like your body is a
machine, right? If it's not being used, it's being it's breaking
down. It's like if if a machine sits around, it becomes rested, it
breaks down, it's not working as well as when it's brand new blood
flow for muscles is necessary not only moving waste, but in bringing
oxygen and allowing that muscle to live and stay strong. Otherwise,
it atrophies and dies. So you really need to move for the health
of yourself and your future self. Remember, we're not debiting from
our future self, we're investing in ourselves. And so whatever you
put in the bank today, will be there for you later. And you know,
you're not magically going to age into your like beautiful self,
your best self, you're going to have to work for that. So invest
in moving, whatever, if it's 10 minutes, one of the things I
really do is during prayer after prayer, I stretch, I have a yoga
mat under my prayer mat. And I stretch my body using the prayer
mat and just getting in, like you know when I remove my prayer mat
and use the yoga mat, and that's five times a day you build that
in, right. And that's just stretching. And then if you just
go for a 15 minute walk, go up and down your stairs. These are ways
that you're building manageable ways of moving your body so
we always make things harder than they should be. You know, small
things add up to big things and big wins.
I am so excited to talk to you guys. I have been waiting for this
moment. I have been talking nonstop and I like can interaction
so let's go let's ask questions. Let's interact lids
I am so excited for this. Alright, let me do this. Let's go to the
chat. I mean unmute your mics if
You guys have questions. Just tell me and I'll just call on you guys.
And then that way we can I can answer your questions. Could you
please recommend some good resources, websites, books. For us
to learn more about additives in food, and more details, this is
really great session we appreciate I appreciate you saying that thank
you just like Alafaya it.
If you connect with me on ILS world, I'll put that there because
I don't have anything in front of me. There's so many, like, there's
so much information. And I know sometimes it's an overload of
information. But there is a lot of great information out there.
For me, it's really important for women to thrive in their body, we
are the teachers, the mothers, the caregivers, and it's really
important that we start taking charge and reclaim our own power
and our health, connect with our feminine body be in our body
become home to ourselves, this is really key because, you know, we
can't just constantly we're the ones struggling with a lot of
these diseases. And as we go on, who's going to look after us as we
age, right? So
I really it's, it's, I'm deeply committed to this work, it's my
life's work, really reclaiming our health through food.
I love that.
Yeah, don't get from your empty cup. Your your cup should be
running like it should the overflow is what we're giving
people now. Because Can you imagine how good you're gonna
feel? Can you imagine the person who's going to show up to be that
incredible person? I mean, you're just going to be if you're just
giving from an empty cup, and you're amazing. Can you imagine
who you're going to be? When you give from like an overflow? It's
panela.
A voting by anything that's winner, or dessert or sweets,
snacks in my cabinets helps me also avoiding using sugar and
maybe use honey instead. But it's still sugar and slowly reduced. I
don't use sugar in my tea anymore. Okay, yeah, that's exactly it.
Like whenever something is available, and it's at a hands,
like you could reach for it, then you're going to eat it. So that's
a really great suggestion, making sure that you're not buying stuff,
I do not buy it, I make it. I believe that when you make
something, even if you want cake, fries, whatever, if you make it,
you're going to realize how much work it takes. So you're not going
to be eating all the time. It's a rule. And it's a safety guard that
I put in place for myself. So if I want something sweet, I have to
make it and I have to make the time for it. So that's how I
stopped my sugar consumption.
Yes, a place of Sn Exactly. SubhanAllah.
What's the minimum amount of sugar is okay, we talked about that.
I feel like I'm missing questions because I wasn't back here. As you
know. For me, I autoimmune disease is really
something there's a lot of people who are struggling with autoimmune
disease who haven't been diagnosed yet. There's a lot of people who
advocate for yourself, make sure when you go to the doctor, if the
doctor is not listening to you, because you're the expert on your
body understanding you might need to start looking for someone else
because or ask the doctor to for a second opinion, ask them to go to
a specialist. If they're not listening, ask them to document
that in your file. Because that in this part of the world, it that is
actually illegal, because if you discover they're liable for that,
so they're they're most likely going to start showing up and
doing what they need to do if you ask them to document that they
refuse to to see a specialist or a second opinion, if you're not
feeling if you're not feeling well, we know that the symptoms
have been persisting.
It's hormone that links the test.
Yes.
True. I had to change the C functional doctor to start the
healing now. Yes, functional doctors look at the root cause of
a problem is just instead of just putting a bandaid on, you know,
looking at one thing at a time, they look at the root cause and
they start to really draw a map between all of the symptoms that
you're experiencing.
That someone who's listening right because in order for them to get
to the root cause they
had to listen to you. And you're the expert. So I'm alaykum I am a
type one diabetic for 25 years, take ashwagandha Jays to
multivitamins and try to have healthy things, but sometimes
struggle in.
Right? So I would recommend if you are a diabetic,
really knowing your numbers in terms of your blood sugar, right?
So in the beginning is going to be a bit of a chore you need to start
like documenting
how high your blood sugar goes after each meal at two hours after
you eat, right? And you need to know two hours before you eat.
Right. So I would start with breakfast, I would do two hours
before eight as soon as I wake up, I check my blood sugar I wait.
Before lunch, I'll check my blood blood sugar. And then so every
alternate meal one before you eat one after you eat so that way
you're not constantly poking yourself. But this gives you an
idea what happens when you eat where what what is your what are
your levels, and you start to recognize what foods push your
blood sugar too high and you start to make adjustments there. Because
you need to have like a vision like it's walking blind otherwise,
right? Because you have no idea I just ate. But my blood sugar is
not stable. Why not? Right? It will see is the three month blood
sugar that also that number and seeing what's been happening? Have
I been stressed? Have I been emotionally eating? Where are the
gaps and start to like, sort of make these connections draws a
picture and then you can make the changes accordingly.
Here
some people like drink What did you say? You drink a lot of water.
But you have some of the symptoms? Is that what I'm reading? I, I
find that if you are drinking sufficient amount of water and you
still have symptoms, then there's something else going on. And
that's a great way to sort of like start eliminating by like, doing
the easiest, quickest thing. Right. I hope I got that question.
I'm just gonna go to the top of this.
I have to jump off to take care of something, please.
Oh, that was
Yeah, I mean, if you guys don't have any other questions, I feel
like Subhanallah
at these times, we need the community we need to stay
connected, we need to be able to
just really come together and share resources and information.
Please do stay in touch. I really hope to connect with you.
At ILS world I have all my information there. But you know,
I'm doing a course in November. It's a four week course. So the
first one is on your hormones. It's on fertility, it is on immune
health and then it is on
changing how you eat.
This was a lot in one session. And my goal is to break that down and
really make it comprehensive we need to understand how our body
works, how our hormones work in order to heal
permanently and start to move in a thriving the direction of thriving
and feeling our best so if you are if that sounds interesting to you
do connect with me and I'll inshallah look forward to and I
provide meal plans and resources Baden Illa All right ladies slo
Alikum water Tila, who better care to jazz Aqua Mala who Clayton and
thank you for coming on today and joining me I look forward to
connecting again in the future. Sam Aleikum