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Separating Health Facts from Fiction: Exploring Ozempic, Nutrition Insights, and Building Self-Confidence

• Sophia Delavari • Season 1 • Episode 69

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Can you really trust the health advice you find on Instagram? Join us as we separate fact from fiction in the ever-evolving landscape of health and wellness. We tackle your questions on nutrition, mindfulness, and habit stacking, offering insights on how to critically evaluate the information you come across online. Our discussion takes a nuanced look at the fat loss drug Ozempic, exploring its potential benefits for those with severe obesity under professional care, while also highlighting the risks of its misuse. We aim to empower you with the knowledge needed for informed, balanced health decisions.

But that's not all—this episode dives into the essentials of diet and exercise, especially for those considering or using Ozempic. Learn how to maintain muscle mass and overall well-being through a protein-rich diet and staying active. We also share practical tips for improving your morning wakefulness by establishing a disciplined nighttime routine and overcoming common barriers to weight loss with tools like MyFitnessPal. To round things off, we discuss building self-confidence and the significant impact of alcohol on personal well-being, drawing from personal experiences to offer actionable steps for a healthier, more fulfilling life. Tune in for a holistic approach to enhancing your health journey!

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Speaker 1:

Well, hello, my lovely listeners. Today's episode is all about nutrition, mindfulness, habit, stacking multiple mix of your guys' questions from Instagram that I got this week, because I actually put up a question box early this week because my Instagram DMs have been getting a little bit busy. So, to keep on top of things, I just thought why not pop the box up and I can kind of dive in a little bit deeper or have an opinion or do some research on any of you guys' questions, because I always find some of the questions that I get, you know, I might have a perspective on the current question that you have, but I like to research other perspectives from other professionals within different fields and then make a slight decision. But I always think any decision is never definite and as a piece of advice I'm going to give you as a listener as well, instagram can be an amazing place for motivation, for information and to learn certain things, but you really need to pick and choose where you get your information from and make a decision whether you take it with a pinch of salt because there's so much information out there and as a fitness or wellness professional even you know, I used to get this wrong all the time, and I watched a podcast recently in between two highly professional people in the wellness space, neuroscientists, andy Huberman and Lane Norton, and these guys have been working in the industry for years. Guys have PhDs and the whole lot, and they called each other out on one of the episodes. So you know, you can study till the cows come home and you can still get things wrong. Um, you know, the world is evolving. Different methods evolve, new data, new studies always come out.

Speaker 1:

So, um, when someone suggests that they're an expert in their field, I sometimes question this, because not everyone is going to know everything. Um, or not one person will have all the answers. Um, because, yeah, the world is ever evolving. We have new technology out there, we have new resources to be able to test certain things, and no study is ever really that constant, to be honest. Um, so there's lots of biased reviews out there when it comes to nutrition, fitness and health. So it's really important where you get your sources of information.

Speaker 1:

So often, what I do, especially when it came to Instagram and I, when I was studying, I really fine-tuned the people that I followed on Instagram and just made sure that I wasn't actually following people that I wouldn't take credible advice from, and I did a lot of research to understand the people that I actually follow. What was their um their background prior to this? Um their experience now? Um, and also, what is um their motivation, um for the valuable content that they push out um. So, even just having that in the back of your mind, you can make better, uh choices on the information that you absorb. Um. So, yeah, anyway, with all that being said, um always check um and, if something's interesting to you, um explore a little bit further and then make a decision off that. As I said, nothing is ever really definite, um. So, with that being said, I'll start off the first question that I received of someone, and it was asking what are my thoughts on ozempic? And this is such a mainstream question that is been asked multiple times, and at the beginning, when.

Speaker 1:

Ozempic, if you don't know what it is fat loss drug that most people are using, which is used for diabetes and it suppresses your appetite. Now, it's no magic weight loss tool. It suppresses, obviously, your hunger levels where, potentially, you are not going to eat. So, in effect of that, if you're not eating any calories, of course you're going to lose weight. You can do that through diet methods and it's really for the people who haven't been able to control their diets and who are potentially obese, and it can be the the gateway for them to lose weight and really change their lives now.

Speaker 1:

With that being said, um, at the beginning I was so against ozempic, really, really against it. Um, because I've gone through my own natural um fat loss um journey myself, as I lost 26 kilos and I always felt like, oh, you know, the natural method is always the best method. You know, like, what's earned is learned. But now I've expanded my mindset on ozempic, I've done a bit of research and I'm in between. I would like to say I'm totally in between on this because, look, this could be something that could actually save someone's life If they're in a situation where they have gone so far, where they have lost all control on their life, their eating habits, and they are potentially having a lot of strain on their heart health and a step away from disease, if they're suffering from obesity.

Speaker 1:

In these cases, with a doctor and a nutritionist and a coach to be able to lead them from A to Z, I quite frankly think it's not a bad choice or decision to make Now with any of the information that I share. I'm not a doctor and I want to state that I'm not a doctor and this is not advice to be given lightly, but it's my opinion or belief that I do think um it does serve a purpose in some situations. Like this now for recreational use of um using ozempic, because you want to look a little bit leaner and you've already gotten yourself to a body fat percentage which is a reasonable body fat percentage, I would say in these cases it can be quite detrimental for people psychologically because they become reliant on fat loss drugs and they don't actually build the discipline on their own. So also in these cases as well, when someone is low enough in body fat percentage, they're probably going to lose a lot of muscle mass because they're deficient in the nutrients and vitamins and protein that they need in order for their body to function properly and effectively and their calorie intake is very, very low. So, as we know, it's a suppressant. So you know if you're not getting the calories in, the byproduct of this could be loss of muscle mass. So it's really in these cases I think it's quite detrimental for people who don't actually really need it. And if someone does want to get a little bit leaner. I do think the discipline of managing your diet is really, really important and taking a look at that Now.

Speaker 1:

Ozempic obviously it's a drug that's been around for quite a large time. I can't pinpoint an exact number, but because it's been used for diabetes, there is effects of like. It's been around for long enough to see the effects, but in the in the use of dietary purposes in people who have a lean body mass and who are a healthy weight, I'm yet to find some studies to find how detrimental it actually is. Also, at the moment, because ozempic is so rife and people are swimming towards this as the gateway to their fat loss journey, it is becoming a bit of a black market as well. So I always think, well, I think at the moment, it's very important that you're going to a professional to be able to consume this type of drug, because you don't know what you're getting.

Speaker 1:

Um, people are using, um, the same needles and, quite frankly, I think this is, uh, you know, very questionable that if you've gotten to this stage, it's like okay, how has this become your new normal? Like because this was not normal before, and it's like what kind of lengths will you go to normal like, because this was not normal before. And it's like, what kind of lengths will you go to in order to just look physically or aesthetically lean or whatever? Um, your, your physical goal is so um. With that being said, that's kind of the my rounded overview of ozempic, which I could probably explore for probably another half an hour. But there's one more thing that I would like to suggest is that if you're looking to take ozempic, it's not a lifelong drug that I would consider someone to take and have massive health benefits from this. So I think there's like a means to an end.

Speaker 1:

If you are considering to take these types of drugs, then it always needs to be an end game plan, and this even comes with dieting. You know, if you aggressively diet, you need to have a weaning plan, um, and when I mean weaning, it's like what's? How do you come off the process? Um, and how you wean yourself off a diet or ozempic, for an example? Um could be the difference in between you maintaining your results or reverting back to old habits or, even worse, um progressively, um indulging and over indulging and overindulging and actually being in a worse position than when you started. So it's not just the guidance during the phase of actually being on a diet or being on ozempic, it's the aftermath. That is actually the crucial, crucial part of the process. So you know, you might need someone to hold your hand on this journey and and yeah, I just would be very I would pay just as much attention to the process as the outcome and the maintenance afterwards.

Speaker 1:

One last thing to add on Ozambic as well is that this should not be a substitute for someone who hates exercise and they just think, oh well, I'll just take Ozempic and I will substitute it for exercise, because Exercise has a really important place when people are using this drug as well, because you are subsequently more vulnerable to losing lots of muscle mass and, especially for anyone above 40 and onwards, you want to retain as much muscle mass as possible. Taking ozempic or thinking of taking ozempic, I would highly, highly promote your food intake to really revolve around protein and to make sure that you are physically active, because it's quite detrimental for your future health, and I won't lightly just say that as well, because this is where people are missing the boat and are being uneducated or maybe just not aware of the potential consequences for the foreseeable future. So take note of that. And also, ozempic will never replace the feeling that you get from exercise. You release endorphins from exercise, you build muscle, you enhance your immune system like exercise just cannot be mimicked from an injection.

Speaker 1:

Um, and this is the chapter of ozempic. That, um, I will park to the side now. Um, so if you're thinking about oempic and also if you're currently taking it and you need an endgame plan, please reach out if you need some support on this. As always, when I was previously coaching before, I used to always have clients who would rebound after a competition. They just never really had an end game plan or an end game plan to an aggressive diet, and that's where I came in for some support and to maintain their calories and bring them on a journey back to reality a lot of the time because their reality had become so distorted. So please feel free to reach out. I have a link in my bio for my nutrition coaching and that's available there also, so don't be a stranger um. Anyway, moving on to the next question that I have, um, well, actually more of a suggestion.

Speaker 1:

I struggle to wake up in the morning. What should I do now if you struggle to wake up in the morning time, there's a couple of things that you might have in place. It may not be your morning routine that's the issue. It's your nighttime routine that's the issue, and getting disciplined with your nighttime routine can be quite important, like no phone an hour before bed, which can be quite difficult for very busy individuals, and I totally get it but often leaving the phone outside the room so when you wake up you're not doom scrolling first thing in the morning time as well. So an hour before bed, leave the phone outside. Even if you need an alarm, get another alarm or leave it on your phone. That's outside the room and you have to get up out of bed to go and get it now. In this case, if you're looking to work out first thing in the morning time, have your things ready to go.

Speaker 1:

I know this might sound really simple, but try and make getting up and going to the gym or having some form of movement as accessible as possible. Set yourself up for greatness the night before so you're organized. For some people they don't can't get out of bed because nothing's organized for them. The night before everything seems like an absolute chore and you know you feel so far away from being that morning person when things aren't organized when you wake up. So I would suggest this waking up in the morning time as well. It doesn't happen overnight, like I would always.

Speaker 1:

If you're struggling to wake up, don't wake up three hours earlier than your usual time. Slowly increase it like a half an hour, 30 minutes each day for maybe a week until you reach the time that you want to wake up at, because you need to reprogram program. Sleeping sleeping doesn't just your sleeping program has to be unlearned if you've falling into terrible habits of not waking up early. So I would always say give yourself the best chance. Um, start off new habits, really small baby steps. Make sure your night routine and supports your morning routine, and that would be my best piece of advice on that. Um, okay. Next question um, so I'm can't lose weight, I'm not achieving my fat loss goals? Um, okay, these questions I would suggest are a little bit fake. But the most common things that I see in here with people who can't lose weight or they say they can't lose weight, can be two things they're not measuring what's going on and they're being inconsistent. So well, that's basically, I suppose, the same thing. So if you can't lose weight.

Speaker 1:

I would start by tracking your food, so your energy intake, and this can be done on MyFitnessPal. So if you check MyFitnessPal, it's a calorie calculator. You can define exactly what you're putting inside your body. Part two I would check your movement, your energy output, to understand how active you are on a daily basis. Now, if you can define a day of eating and a day of exercise and understand how much energy output that you have and also how much energy you consume, if you can rinse and repeat that, you will get a great measure of what's going on in your body. And if you're not losing weight and your weight is stagnant, you are potentially in a maintenance phase, so understanding that you're just consuming enough energy for your body to be able to function efficiently and effectively on a daily basis and over time.

Speaker 1:

I always suggest, when it comes to nutrition, if you can be consistent 80% of the time for four weeks, then we can undercut those calories or the energy that you are consuming. You can undercut it anything from 250 calories down to 500 calories, or you can undercut your energy consumption by progressively enhancing your movement throughout the day. Maybe is it going to be an extra 5,000 steps, but you need to be really consistent with this, and if you're someone who is a busy individual, I would always suggest that the best method forward is to look at your nutrition and potentially see what you can take away from a nutritional standpoint rather than a physical standpoint, because relying on physical markers for you to be able to be in a calorie deficit can be sometimes counterintuitive, because not every day you might potentially be able to have that physical exercise like you. Just never know how life is gonna plan out, um, maybe you're in the car a little bit longer, maybe you didn't get a chance to go out on a walk, where it's easier to manipulate your nutrition. But, with that being said, you need to make sure you're getting the right, adequate amount of nutrition in terms of vitamins and minerals for your body to be optimal and function in order for you to be able to lose weight, um, with the best foot forward and have the best energy moving forward. Um, so that would, uh, round up my question. Okay, I have someone. Do you know what?

Speaker 1:

Some of these questions I really appreciate, because lots of people are being very vulnerable here and I've gotten a question in to say I lack self-confidence and I don't know how to change this. So before my fitness journey, I completely lacked self-confidence and it's such a difficult thing to be able to create change when you're acting from a place of lack and when someone tells you to love yourself, your body and you know you'll be able to take action from a place of love. Well, unfortunately, when you are someone who's potentially overweight and you've lived in a body that you really dislike, it's so difficult to go turn around and be like I love myself, because it feels like lies that you're telling yourself and unfortunately, I've been there. I've sat in a changing room before when I was a little bit heavier and I remember actually trying on a pair of jeans and I just felt so miserable and I actually cried in the changing room. I remember the time I thought how can I love myself and I just feel like shit here. So I would always say start off by liking yourself first Liking. I'm not telling you to love yourself, but like, and there has to be one or two elements that you even like about yourself and lean into that.

Speaker 1:

Whenever you have that negative or self-doubt or lack of self-confidence, remind yourself of all the good things about yourself and build that confidence from there. Confidence is often built through action as well, but sometimes we don't take those actions when we lack self-confidence because we don't feel encouraged to do so. So I would always suggest start off making a list of the things that you like about yourself. Lean into that progressively, do the steps that you need to do. That will build your self-confidence.

Speaker 1:

So for me, for an example, it wasn't just body conscious, like situations, that made me lack self-confidence, it was actually knowledge. In some situations I felt like I didn't have enough knowledge in order to be able to have the confidence to do the things that I want to do. I would research, I would read books, I would do the things that would do. That would replenish my confidence and give me courage to do the things that I need to do. So, when you lack self-confidence, make a list of why, ask why, why, why? As if you're that nagging little child and you'll find your answer. And then, once you have your answer, then act on it and remember to make a list of the things that you like about yourself and remind yourself of that. So that would be my answer to that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, so we have one more question, um, that I'm going to touch on. Um, is alcohol bad for you? Um, now, this is always an interesting topic for me, um, because, if you don't know, um October, four years ago, four actually. I don't even know if this is going to be five years ago. No, it's four years ago. I gave up alcohol. Um, not, I didn't know at the time I was going to give it up for good. I really didn't, um, and then I gave it up for like three months. Three months went to four, five months, six months a year, and it just progressively just kept getting extended.

Speaker 1:

Now, the reason why I gave up alcohol was because I was trying to build a business at the time and I found it hugely difficult to stretch my time any further to drinking alcohol and being hung over, and I just didn't want to waste my time. And life just started to get a lot better as well. I really enjoyed life and I loved being super present, and I was very focused on having moments where I was entirely in control of feeling, smelling, like all these things, where I feel like when I had alcohol, I was like it made me not be able to be present in all my senses. I was senseless when I drank alcohol. I just found a new way of living life, where everything felt like an experience that I almost felt for the very first time, and I even remember, even so, this. Only only two weeks ago I went for a run and I remember running through nature as if I was seeing nature for the first time again and potentially, if I was still someone who drank every single weekend, going to brunches 24 7, I do not think my senses would be as heightened as they are now. I feel very sensitive to nature, smells, everything, and I always felt like I wasn't fully alive when I was drinking alcohol all the time, and that was just by choice myself.

Speaker 1:

Now I don't tell people not to drink and I have people drink around me, and now recently this year, I've occasionally had one or two drinks um, which I'm happy to do. Um, but I'm not a. I wouldn't classify myself as a massive drinker and I never really was. I went through my 20s um drinking um alcohol and had some really excessive nights, but, um, I could take it or leave it. It was never really something that I absolutely love to do. I love to have a boogie, I love to have a little dance and have a bit of fun and let my hair down, but I can do that without alcohol.

Speaker 1:

So, with that being said, alcohol I don't um, if I'm going to be really transparent with you, I don't see um huge benefits from it. Um, I find it actually takes away from sleep recovery. Um, also, when you have alcohol as well, it slows down the rate of protein synthesis, which is the absorption of protein. So if you are looking to go to the gym, smash a gym session, you're eating protein and then also on top of that you drink alcohol, it actually slows down the process of recovery, absorption of protein, and you'll notice as well that you don't go into deep sleep. Also, your habits following on from the next day because you haven't gotten decent sleep you like to often people make poor food choices the next day. Um, or they tend to have a little bit more hunger when they go out on a night out and they end up over consuming their calories, and also then they consume many calories from alcohol in itself.

Speaker 1:

So for me, I don't think it actually adds too much value to my current life, but if it's something that you love doing and you can manage to integrate it within your lifestyle, I think, well, why not? So if you're someone who can drink alcohol, in moderation, of course, and it doesn't enable your life, and if you potentially feel like letting your hair down and enjoying a drink enhances your life, by all means go ahead, do it. Do it, like you know, we can't. Life is too short to um caught in the things that we enjoy the most. So I don't see it as a bad thing, um, but I would be wary of um. You're managing your expectations and your goals, especially if you're someone who is looking to be super lean and athletic um, you will discount yourself um to potentially being um the best version of yourself, depending on how much alcohol that you consume. I know olympic athletes um and bodybuilders who drink alcohol, and they still maintain their shape all year round um, but it definitely requires them to pay a lot of attention um to the aftermath of a drinking session. So, um, if the pros outweigh the cons, then go ahead, do it. Always, say this um.

Speaker 1:

With that being said, now I think this is coming to the end of a live q a?

Speaker 1:

Um. I know that was only a handful of questions, guys, but if this was an interesting podcast for you, I would love to hear your feedback and share it with someone, potentially someone who's looking to take Ozempic as well. If you think it might change the way they think about it, or if they need to seek advice, please share this over. As I said, guys, previously before, if you've been listening and subscribing to the channel, leaving a rating or review would always be really, really helpful, because it helps boost the channel and it shares other information with other people that might need to hear it. So thanks, guys, for listening to another episode of the detached podcast, and I hope I will be providing a lot more value in the future, as this is just a hobby of mine. I obviously don't get paid to do this, but I love to share any information that I study or experiences that I have. So, with that being said, guys, have a beautiful day and see you in the next episode.