Your Anxious Mood Could be Amplified By Your Food w/ Tina Hong EP 59

[00:00:00] If you're listening to this episode in real time. Happy new year. So glad you're here and welcome to another episode and another year of the Top Self podcast. I'm looking forward to 2024, as they say "new year, new you", but I don't want you to really do "new you" because we don't need a new you. I don't need a new me. But we are probably looking for a little bit of change. 

[00:00:29] Shanenn Bryant: If you're listening to this podcast, you certainly are struggling with jealousy and we want to get a handle on that. We want to make some improvements in that area. But I will say it's really hard to focus on your relationship; make changes to your relationship. Or to your career or with your kids and really show up and be present in life to make those changes, to do the things that are required. 

[00:00:55] Shanenn Bryant: Unless you're physically healthy. And that's what I want to focus on the month of January to kick the year off right. I just turned 50 a few months ago, and it's becoming more and more clear to me that physical health is the most important. I can't do anything or need to worry about anything. 

[00:01:14] Shanenn Bryant: You know, when we make our new year's wishes. Or 

[00:01:18] Shanenn Bryant: we're doing those vision boards. I think a lot of people are you know, wishing for more money or wishing for a better relationship or wishing to find a partner or. maybe they have some other goals, which all are fine. But if we're not first focused on our physical health none of that would matter. Who cares if you, you know, make that a $100,000 a year, $300,000 a year or $50,000 a year, whatever your goal is, who cares if you make that if your health is crap. If you get diseased or, you know, something happens. 

[00:01:54] Shanenn Bryant: So I'm dedicating the month of January, it's still going to be focused on relationships and you're going to hear today about, we're going to talk about relationship with food. Um, so it's still about relationships, but we're going to use the month of January to focus on health. And so I have someone 

[00:02:14] Shanenn Bryant: who is perfect for this, executive health and wellness coach, Tina Hong. She mentors highly accomplished women leaders and helps them to renew and reinvent in their second and third acts of life. So she helps them, like, what are we doing? How can we reinvent ourselves and renew ourselves.? She is also an NLP mindset practitioner and she's helped countless women lose weight, help them reverse diabetes, lower cholesterol. and lower their blood pressure. The big part though is really their mindset and their relationship with food. 

[00:02:52] Shanenn Bryant: So happy to have you on the show today. Welcome Tina Hong.

[00:02:57] Tina Hong: Thank you Shanenn. Shanenn, you're so awesome with the work that you're doing. I'm so honored to be here.

[00:03:05] Shanenn Bryant: Ah, thank you. Well, so I know you personally, I met you, I mean, we're new friends, but fast friends and so I'm pretty familiar with what you do. and I love it. As soon as I heard what you do, I'm like, I wanna pick your brain. I wanna know everything. Tell me everything. So this is a little bit close to my heart too. You talk about, reinvention in the second or third act or what some people might say midlife, 

[00:03:33] Shanenn Bryant: So I am excited to have you on. I'm excited to pick your brain, and allow the listeners to hear what you do. So go ahead and tell us, you know, what a, what do clients come to you for exactly?

[00:03:46] Tina Hong: Typically clients who are women who are achieving great things in their business and career life, may have forgotten about themselves and possibly even through midlife transitions where they're post-divorce or, you know, widowed recently or going through pretty big changes in midlife, including hormonal changes. So, um, they're feeling

[00:04:16] Tina Hong: really stuck with their body weight and not feeling confident in themselves, in their private world. And so they often come to me and say, Hey, I need to lose 20, 30, 50 pounds of body fat or weight loss and need to feel better about myself and also not just emotionally, but also physically. 

[00:04:40] Tina Hong: 

[00:04:41] Shanenn Bryant: Yeah. you hit the nail on the head of a lot of times, like they're busy, they're successful, they're accomplishing things, they're taking care of families, they're doing all the things that women do to help everybody else, and then all of a sudden they wake up one day and go, oh crap.

[00:04:59] Tina Hong: right?

[00:05:00] Shanenn Bryant: Um.

[00:05:01] Shanenn Bryant: What about me?

[00:05:02] Shanenn Bryant: You know. Now I'm noticing, I'm seeing these things that are different and I'm seeing things that are changing, and I feel like it got away from me. 

[00:05:11] Tina Hong: That's correct. Yeah, that's right. And you know, in midlife we just have to, there's so many complications. Not only are we going through hormonal changes and increasing belly flat fat, when you really, you know, if you touch, touch any sugar basically, um, you know, and they're like, I don't understand why things are changing.

[00:05:33] Tina Hong: So you're dealing with hormonal changes. You're dealing with a lot of stress, and emotional stress too, just in terms of relationship stress. Also being in the sandwich generation, taking care of kids, maybe still at home, but, but also dealing with empty nesting for the first time where their kids are going off to college and finding themselves like, okay, I've played this mom role for all these years, and here I am, and it's like Who am I? They have to re-identify, reclaim their identity, and they don't even know where to begin, um, to discover themselves, rediscover themselves. That's where I really come in to help them. Yeah.

[00:06:17] Shanenn Bryant: That's great because it is one of those things where you wake up and go man um, there were so many things that I wanted to do that maybe I didn't get a chance to do, or things happened and I kind of gave up on them. Or at the moment I decided to go a different route. But I wanna go revisit that.

[00:06:35] Shanenn Bryant: And I think a lot of times it's either like, I wanna learn something new or I wanna change my health. That is certainly a big one, right? I wanna get fit, I wanna be healthier. So that I can have really create this whole second half of my life.

[00:06:51] Tina Hong: Right, 

[00:06:52] Shanenn Bryant: and So what are some ways that we can do that?

[00:06:56] Shanenn Bryant: Like what, what would you say for someone who says, okay, I need to start focusing me. 

[00:07:03] Shanenn Bryant: of the things I wanna do is just get healthier.

[00:07:06] Shanenn Bryant: on 

[00:07:07] Tina Hong: So many times I, I swear if I had a dollar for every everybody who says this to me, I'd be a billionaire. Quite honestly. I know what to do, but I'm just not doing it right. Sound familiar? 

[00:07:20] Tina Hong: Typically, um, most people have an idea of what to do. They've gone through the dieting route, they might have gone through Weight Watchers.

[00:07:31] Tina Hong: They've done the, the, you know, South Beach diet. They've done all these different kinds of diets and they've failed over and over and over again. So they are living in this disbelief that maybe this is kind of what .what I'm destined for, you know, being 20, 30, 50 pounds overweight and midlife, maybe this is what it's at And, 

[00:07:53] Tina Hong: there's so many things about that when you don't feel confident, There's such. Uh you know, shamefulness around how they feel and how they look. They have difficulty even looking in the mirror sometimes, and that's when it's really deep rooted pain around, you know, all the things that they weren't able to do, the sacrifices that they've made. 

[00:08:21] Tina Hong: All along, raising children, being the, the best spouse and wife you could be, and holding up their end of the bargain.

[00:08:29] Tina Hong: in marriages also 

[00:08:30] Tina Hong: So, 

[00:08:32] Tina Hong: back to your question is what, what can they do in terms of changing their body composition and looking and feeling good again.

[00:08:39] Tina Hong: Really, it starts with nutrition. It really starts with really understanding what is best in terms of nourishment. People get confused that it's, it's about calorically restricting and especially going through menopause or midlife, hormonal changes. You don't want to calorically restrict. You want to be nourishing your body with the right foods and moving your body, but not too much. You don't wanna be exercising when you're already stressed. You don't wanna be exercising like crazy and getting on a treadmill and doing cardio at fi five, seven days a week.

[00:09:20] Tina Hong: That's never going to give you the body composition that you want. I speak about body composition because as we age, we're losing muscle mass, we're losing bone density. it accelerates, especially after the age of 50. And so this is the prime time for all of us to really get deliberate about what we're eating, when we're eating, and the manner in which we're eating. So those are the things that I teach and mentor my clients about. 

[00:09:52] Tina Hong: It's about really resetting your metabolism and healing your metabolism,

[00:09:59] Tina Hong: and that's what it really requires, um, you know, to, to sustain for the long term.

[00:10:05] Shanenn Bryant: Oh my gosh. So, so, so much in what you've already said, because you know, this podcast is about jealousy and I see it over and over and over again, where a lot of times this really starts showing up for women in particular, is when they're hitting midlife.

[00:10:23] Shanenn Bryant: As they're starting to get, you know, their kids are getting a little bit older. They're, they're in their, you know, maybe forties into their fifties, and they go, I feel so insecure anymore. I've maybe gained some weight. I don't look exactly like I used to look anymore. It hits them hard when now they're seeing, younger women and how their bodies are.

[00:10:47] Shanenn Bryant: You know, when you're 20 years old, typically your body's in great shape. You know, most of the time you've got, uh, a great shape. 

[00:10:55] Shanenn Bryant: And then it's that kind of wake up of, oh my gosh, I feel super insecure.

[00:11:00] Shanenn Bryant: And that does affect us in the bedroom in our daily lives of going out and feeling comfortable in our own skin.

[00:11:08] Tina Hong: Right, exactly. 

[00:11:10] Shanenn Bryant: So the other part you said, it's not about counting our calories or, or, you know, the, the deficit in our calories. 

[00:11:19] Shanenn Bryant: So can you talk a little bit, 'cause I think that that's the go-to, that's what we think we need to do, is I'm gonna run a ton, or I'm gonna get on the treadmill and I'm not going to eat as much. 

[00:11:31] Tina Hong: right. 

[00:11:31] Shanenn Bryant: What's wrong with that? 

[00:11:33] Tina Hong: Yeah. So, in midlife when we have a lot of stressors. The number one hormone that gets hijacked is our cortisol hormone, our stress hormone, and that will trump your insulin response any day. So if you are already in stress mode on a daily basis, from the minute you wake up to the time you go to sleep, you are in anxiety mode. And it may be a slow undercurrent, it may be, a low undercurrent, maybe it's not like you're completely stressed. There could be different degrees of stress, but if you are stressed, your body is in fight or flight mode. And what, what that does hormonally is it tells your brain. That you need to conserve energy because you're under attack, and when you need to conserve energy, your insulin stops responding.

[00:12:33] Tina Hong: It stops functioning as, as efficiently as it should. And so what it does is when your insulin isn't as efficient as it should be. Your insulin hormone, the job of insulin is to regulate your blood sugar. So every time you eat your blood sugar rises, right? And if you're having excess of, uh, refined carbohydrates versus candy bars, which is the same thing. If you're having cookies, muffins, scones, bagels, first thing in the morning and all day long and you're snacking and mindlessly eating, you are constantly raising your blood sugar and your blood sugar is in excess. So here comes cortisol. You're stress that even further elevates your blood sugar. So even if you are, you know, doing pretty well with your eating program, if you're under stress, it will naturally raise your blood sugar and your body is, is informed to conserve energy and store body fat because you might need that for later on because you're in fight or flight mode, you're in scarcity mode right now. 

[00:13:50] Tina Hong: Our thoughts are incredible, potent, tools. Managing our stress is an important tool to be able to actually get your body back in balance. That's like number one. Getting, getting your stress under control, getting your anxiety under control is huge. for weight loss. 

[00:14:13] Shanenn Bryant: Well, I think it's so important because as people who suffer from jealousy, worrying about their relationship, always have a focus on their partner, they're in constant anxiety, and so then it's just like adding things on top one after the other, right? I'm already anxious. so my body's responding this way, so then I'm gaining weight, which makes me feel jealous and insecure.

[00:14:39] Shanenn Bryant: Right. It's that 

[00:14:40] Shanenn Bryant: whole, 

[00:14:40] Shanenn Bryant: just 

[00:14:41] Tina Hong: whole 

[00:14:41] Shanenn Bryant: loop. Yeah. Yeah. 

[00:14:44] Tina Hong: Exactly. even low recurring anxiety, hyper vigilance. Your, your brain is turned on to watch out because you may be under attack. And believe it or not, that that message to your brain is affecting your physiology, is affecting your hormones, it is affecting your blood sugar. underestimate the effects of stress. It's not just because stress just kills and causes cancer and all these other things, but it really elevates your blood sugar. It elevates inflammation and so forth, but the hyper vigilance around having that anxiety around and that worry, the incessant worry that, that someone's Not doing right by you, that you are being cheated out of something that you might be lied to, you might be, not being treated the way you want to be treated. 

[00:15:47] Shanenn Bryant: Mm-Hm 

[00:15:48] Tina Hong: It feels bad, it feels terrible, and that feeling is is anxiety and it shows up physically over time. 

[00:16:00] Tina Hong: Most of the time when we're stressed or having anxiety, we're mindlessly eating. We we're multitasking, we're trying to do too much, and just to slow down and take a pause is one of the most important things we could do. Take a breath. And just intercepting our nervous brain or our anxiety brain because our bodies are designed to either self-protect or heal right? Naturally, or our bodies are designed to do that.

[00:16:30] Tina Hong: We have an intelligence system and essentially if we feel under attack or we feel nervous that, um, that we're going to lose or we're going to lose something. And that anxiety, that . affects their gut. It affects itheir ablity to digest foods. It affects their ability to, deeply nourish and extract the nutrition that you're eating. So When I talk about weight loss, it's not just about eat this, not that, not just about food on your plate, but I talk about nourishment that's off your plate. The nourishment, the things that nourish you, make you feel completely satisfied. That doesn't have to come in relationships doesn't have to come in codependency of other things, outside things. Some people go crazy in terms of really feeling nourished or feeling pseudo satisfied through their career achievements.

[00:17:34] Tina Hong: getting back to their breath, getting back to their center, and that is such an important, tool to actually take a breath. breathing in through your nose, actually intercepts your vagus nerve. And gives you nourishment and intercepts, your parasympathetic, it turns it on.

[00:17:54] Tina Hong: It turns on your parasympathetic nervous system, which is your rest and digest system. 

[00:18:01] Tina Hong: most people are operating on their critical thinking brain or, just reacting. 

[00:18:08] Tina Hong: allowing themselves to just react without really knowing what is the truth and what is false and what is made up in our mind.

[00:18:17] Tina Hong: Our minds are such powerful things. Our minds and our thinking can actually control our way of healing our bodies, healing our metabolism. And many times, the clients who I work with, they may have a hundred pounds of body fat to lose and their biggest obstacle is their thinking.

[00:18:38] Shanenn Bryant: Yes. I love that you talked about, let's work on what's off the plate, . 

[00:18:43] Shanenn Bryant: And that really is a big focus of yours is yes, you bring all of this knowledge on the nutrition and what the body needs but you're really focused on the mindset and I love it.

[00:18:55] Shanenn Bryant: 'cause you said earlier something like the body is designed to protect or to heal

[00:19:02] Shanenn Bryant: and.

[00:19:03] Tina Hong: correct? Yeah. 

[00:19:04] Shanenn Bryant: So my physical trainer said something that really stuck with me. I do weightlifting, so we're trying to go for a personal record on some things.

[00:19:11] Shanenn Bryant: And, and it was a, it was really difficult and he was like. "I can see where your bigger muscles are, are, um, coming in to help your smaller muscles". 'cause I was working a small muscle and my bigger muscles came help it. And he said, your mind will fail way before your body will because your body like, you know, your mind is what's going to 

[00:19:36] Shanenn Bryant: fail you. In that way, not your body, like your body has all these other ways that it's like, yeah, let's do this. Let's, let's take care of this. Let's make this work.

[00:19:46] Shanenn Bryant: and so I love the fact that you really focus on mindset when it comes to this. 

[00:19:52] Tina Hong: Yeah. That's such a critical, critical, essential key. The nutrition mechanics is just as important. Like I said, you have to really regulate your blood sugar. When it comes to hormonal balancing and losing weight, it really comes down to regulating your blood sugar. So what you eat and in the manner in which you eat is just as equally important. But a lot of times clients will have a disbelief that's, that it's even possible. They're like, ah, you know,

[00:20:26] Tina Hong: uh, here I am. Here's what I got. You know, it's not gonna get much better than this. And they believe that in their subconscious thought that that's what they got to work with. But it's not true. If you are healthy in general and you have metabolic flexibility, you can change not only, body composition, losing body fat, increasing strength, but also heal your body from, you know, a lot of different serious symptoms that are totally, 

[00:20:57] Tina Hong: curable, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, type two diabetes.

[00:21:03] Tina Hong: These are all curable through nutrition. And that's 90% of the work. 10% of the work is really exercise. And, um, when we exercise and sometimes people end up over exercising, that that in itself, that activity of doing too much cardio raises your cortisol, you know, it raises your endorphins and make, make you feel good. When you are nutritionally imbalanced and your insulin is imbalanced and you're insulin resistant, basically I say, don't even do the cardio right now. Do light walking and get a couple days of weight training in, and really focus 90% on being deliberate about what you're eating.

[00:21:53] Shanenn Bryant: Thank you for that tip, because I do feel like people automatically go to the cardio when they feel like they're overweight. They automatically go to the cardio,

[00:22:02] Shanenn Bryant: and we know, especially in this stage of life, it's really . The weight training, things like that, that are going to help 

[00:22:10] Shanenn Bryant: 

[00:22:10] Tina Hong: No, cardio is not going to make you lose body fat. It, it is just not 

[00:22:16] Shanenn Bryant: Yeah. 

[00:22:17] Tina Hong: It

[00:22:17] Tina Hong: is. There's the, the, the purpose of weight training and that form of exercise is to, to really change your metabolism. And when you're eating, more protein, less carbs. No processed foods, nothing in a package wrapper, box or bag or can 

[00:22:43] Tina Hong: and and ,,right when you can clear all that stuff out. 

[00:22:48] Tina Hong: You know, most people can start regulating their blood sugar through real food,

[00:22:56] Tina Hong: and that's about real nourishment, nourishing your hormones so that you can get back into

[00:23:01] Tina Hong: balance. 

[00:23:02] Shanenn Bryant: I have a couple things that I want your professional opinion on, and I wanted to run by you the blood sugar part is super key. It's really important to this whole thing. Do you recommend, 'cause I've been hearing a lot about people, um, even without diabetes who are getting glucose monitors or maybe the, the lumen, I is what it is.

[00:23:25] Tina Hong: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:23:26] Shanenn Bryant: you think that those are good things to do to monitor that blood sugar? 

[00:23:30] Shanenn Bryant: 

[00:23:30] Tina Hong: Thats a great question. I think when you have any kind of technology, medical device tools, Like blood glucose monitors or even food tracking apps or body composition, um, scales. some people really get into the data 'cause that data informs them and you learn like, okay, I just ate that. So it means this. Right? There's a, there's a input and there's an output. So. Um, a lot of people can really learn a lot about themselves and their bodies and everybody's different. 

[00:24:08] Tina Hong: typically once you have breakfast, first thing in the morning, your blood sugar's going up. If you're gonna have pancakes or even oatmeal in the morning, your blood sugar's way up sky high. and it's gonna take several hours for your insulin. And to start regulating several hours. So after your meal, it may take up to almost four hours for your blood sugar to get back to level. Okay, get back to Norm. And you don't really lose body fat. Your body's not actually seeking body fat to lose until you can regulate that blood sugar. so essentially the, the, the, where the blood glucose meters come in is. Test yourself. You know, if you look at type one diabetics, they, they don't produce insulin naturally. That's why they have to inject insulin medication to bring down their blood sugars through e you know, exogenous insulin, external insulin. people who are, type one diabetics. If you're 250, 300. You know, without the insulin, you can go into a coma can go into shock, 

[00:25:24] Shanenn Bryant: Yeah. 

[00:25:25] Tina Hong: and most people don't even realize how high their blood sugar is because they're not testing or they have no idea. They're not type one diabetic or they're not type two diabetic. So I think more information is good, 

[00:25:40] Tina Hong: essentially if, if you can start with the basics and start noticing, and clearing out those processed chemical, sugary or refined foods, you're gonna have a great start when you start there. Yeah.

[00:25:56] Shanenn Bryant: That's like one of the hardest things to do though, I think for people, right? It's like the pasta and the sweets are 

[00:26:02] Tina Hong: mm-Hmm. 

[00:26:03] Shanenn Bryant: So hard. I have a big sweet tooth. That's my thing. Um, and so it's really hard and I, we know the more sugar you eat, the more sugar you want, right? . So like really making that choice of like, I'm not going to eat it. 

[00:26:18] Tina Hong: Yeah. And it's not just about, it's not just about the sugary sweet, okay? Because your blood sugar responds the same exact way, whether you're eating a candy bar or a piece of bread, 

[00:26:30] Shanenn Bryant: Mm. 

[00:26:30] Tina Hong: same exact thing. So, so even though it may look different and you think, well, I'm just having a piece of bread and not the chocolate cake, right? 

[00:26:41] Shanenn Bryant: Right,

[00:26:42] Tina Hong: but basically what it's doing to your body and how your insulin is responding is the same exact way. It's reading that information is the same way. It's raising your blood sugar and your insulin is doing a really hard job to regulate your blood sugar back down to balance.

[00:26:59] Shanenn Bryant: So we've, we've been talking about, and I know this is who you focus on, you know, people in their second and third acts or midlife when these things really start to change, but. Also, I kind of wish that somebody, it's not like I didn't hear diet and exercise, diet and exercise, meaning nutrition and exercise for years, but I don't think it really hit me how important or how different it could have been for me had I started this a long time ago and really focused then of getting, um, of eating healthy leading up to my forties and, you know, now into 50.

[00:27:40] Shanenn Bryant: So. Is that something like are there things that we can start doing as we are younger? Because I know my breakfast used to be a cupcake and a diet Coke when I was in my twenties, so, and like nothing happened, so I thought, eh, no big deal.

[00:27:57] Shanenn Bryant: What can somebody do who, like leading up to that, are there things that they should be watching for or doing that will help as they approach that age? 

[00:28:06] Tina Hong: It's the same thing that applies whether you're 40 years old, 30 years old, or 50 years old. Okay? It's the same thing. It does catch up with you, but it's really about looking at food in a very different way. That it's not a source of comfort, that it's not a source of stress relief. 

[00:28:27] Tina Hong: You know, it's really looking at food as fuel for your body. It's looking at food as nourishment, and that's the nourishment that's on the plate. And then, you know, going back to the thing that we were talking about, nourishment off the plate. It's like when, when most people feel satisfied, generally in their relationship life, in their home life, um, in their career life, maybe it's not a number 10 in all, all categories, but they generally feel satisfied. There's less of wanting or missing something. So when you feel emotionally satisfied. You're less grabby for those quick fixes

[00:29:15] Tina Hong: 

[00:29:15] Tina Hong: when you're seeking comfort food through sugary treats or, um, refined carbohydrates or even bread or pasta, you know, 'cause what what that does is it raises your blood sugar and it hits up your dopamine hormone.

[00:29:30] Tina Hong: That's your pleasure hormone. It directly. Hits up your dopamine hormone. So when you're lacking pleasure or satisfaction in your life, what I found was that people are grabby. They, they're seeking that comfort. They're seek, there's something always missing. And that, that's something always missing.

[00:29:53] Tina Hong: You know, we have food around us all the time. We can get food at the press of button

[00:29:58] Tina Hong: through DoorDash and instant Instant gratification, right? And so, so when we don't feel happy, satisfied, when, when, we need to feel comforted. Oftentimes the dangerous thing is the accessibility and and the instant gratification of food. That becomes really a a huge saboteur for people who are entering, you know, who, who wanna, who wanna feel good, number one, but also who want to look good too, who wanna feel more confident.

[00:30:36] Tina Hong: Food directly affects our mood. Food directly affects anxiety. You know, if you are on a highly processed high sugar diet. There, there are millions of studies out there that talk about, you know, anxiety for people who, are not eating nourishing foods, nutrient dense foods like proteins, meat, fish, poultry, ch you know, uh, you know, seafood, whatever. A, a wide array of nutrient dense foods, and they're just eating box foods or fast foods, or convenient. Foods that you buy at a convenience store, you're not nourishing those neurotransmitters in your brain. So there's always a level of anxiety that exists. It's do directly correlated What you eat affects your mood. What you eat affects your level of anxiety. 

[00:31:34] Shanenn Bryant: Mm. 

[00:31:35] Tina Hong: And there's tons of studies around that. And I've really studied, you know, like when I got into health coaching, I was like, Why do people get addicted to food? Why do people get addicted to sugar? And this is years and years of really getting to the root cause of this and in application and coaching sessions with my clients that I've really come up with a formula that works and that's, uh, that's proven in terms of a program, in terms of nutrition, mechanics, and the mindset piece to help you get there.

[00:32:07] Shanenn Bryant: Oh my gosh. Such good information. I have one last question for you before we go. 

[00:32:13] Shanenn Bryant: I wanted to ask this because it's so popular right now. It's being talked about so much. You and I had a personal conversation about it, but I want you to share,

[00:32:22] Shanenn Bryant: here, because we always wanna go for the quick fix.

[00:32:26] Shanenn Bryant: We wanna go for the thing like, oh my gosh, I'm so tired of, you know, feeling this way. I am tired of carrying around this weight, or I'm feeling super insecure. What can I do that's gonna make this happen right now as quick as possible. And so we know that there's the Ozempic, right? 

[00:32:43] Shanenn Bryant: That's out 

[00:32:44] Shanenn Bryant: So I know that a lot of people are thinking, oh my gosh, this is, this is great. This is the thing. And there are a lot of people, a lot of doctors that are giving that away. What are your thoughts on that, 

[00:32:56] Tina Hong: Yeah, so great question and yeah, it's totally relevant to what's happening right now and. You know, more than 50 to 60% of the American population is overweight, chronically overweight or obese. And so it, it affects a lot of people and understandably so. a lot of people they they want the quick fix, right?

[00:33:22] Tina Hong: Gimme the pill to help, help me lose this weight. first of all, Ozempic Wegovy, those are synthetic peptides that control. Okay, so what, how does that work? It really affects those neuro messengers to your brain. So basically appetite control happens to say, I am full. I don't need any more 

[00:33:48] Tina Hong: food. Right. So this goes back to, oh, well, I guess I'm just going to eat less, right? And when you eat less, what happens? You're, you're pretty much calorically restricting, meaning you are not getting the full nourishment that you need to truly heal your metabolism long term. Does Ozempic and Wegovy? Yes. They've, they've said that a lot of people lose weight very quickly. So I believe that this drug can be useful for people who are on high risk factors, meaning they are morbidly obese and they need that help to, to, to bring down so they have more mobility. 

[00:34:33] Tina Hong: Or they're, they're out of the 

[00:34:35] Shanenn Bryant: their body moving. 

[00:34:36] Tina Hong: right, so, or they're out of the, getting them out of danger zone. But if you're 20, 30, even 50 pounds over fat, you know, you're, you're putting yourself at greater risk because not just in terms of the side effects of the medication, right? 'cause it hasn't been out of the market all that long.

[00:34:57] Tina Hong: So we don't know what the long-term side effects are, but secondly. You are not actually getting the nourishment you probably need because this drug is controlling your brain in terms of appetite, suppression those neurotransmitters in your brain, and so you're not truly getting the correct macro nutrients that you need to nourish your hormones to produce a healthy gut; produce healthy neurotransmitters. You're not really healing the underlying problem, and not only that, you think this quick fix is gonna help you drop 30 pounds, but if you have not cleaned up your diet, you're still eating lots of sugar and you're still having processed foods, and you're still eating mindlessly and without any deliberateness in terms of your eating. these are habits, these are lifestyle habits that are always gonna be in the place, you know, and, and, and as soon as you get off the drug, you're gonna regain your weight instantly because you never fix the habits. 

[00:36:04] Tina Hong: So that's my opinion of that. If you're on a high risk factor, I would say, you know, for, for doctors, um, to just willy-nilly give away this prescription to anybody. I think it's almost irresponsible because people, even though you may lose weight, you can actually be malnourished. You may not be getting the macronutrients you need to rebuild your hormones naturally. 

[00:36:31] Tina Hong: And our bodies are designed to heal, 

[00:36:35] Tina Hong: and we need that nutrition and we need the essential amino acids on all the, the nutritional, building blocks. to, to heal our body naturally. And that's totally possible, just in the way we eat. Just clearing things out, that's the first thing you can do. But yeah, um, it really depends on risk factor number one and number two, it's if you're not actually, you know, fixing what you're eating. 

[00:37:03] Shanenn Bryant: Yeah. 

[00:37:04] Tina Hong: And fixing your habits around your eating, then you will regain the weight.

[00:37:09] Tina Hong: You don't wanna be on this medication for the rest of your life. You just don't. you're,

[00:37:14] Tina Hong: you're gonna, you're going to end up, you know, with saggy skin. with a body composition in your older age without having strength or muscle mass, um, because muscle mass comes from protein, comes from essential amino acids, comes from nutrition. And if you, you know, okay, you lose 30, 50, a hundred pounds, but essentially, if you're not fixing your actual nutrition and what's your mouth. You're just kind of, you know, 

[00:37:44] Shanenn Bryant: Yeah. 

[00:37:44] Tina Hong: a,

[00:37:44] Tina Hong: a contain a container.

[00:37:47] Shanenn Bryant: Yeah, which is why the weight training and that type of stuff, the strength training is so important. You have this awesome program to help people that are suffering from this. so where can people reach out to you?

[00:38:00] Shanenn Bryant: 'cause I know that there are gonna be people that are like, oh my gosh, tell me more. How do I do this? Let's work on my mindset. 

[00:38:07] Shanenn Bryant: Let's work on my body composition. How can they reach you to do 

[00:38:10] Shanenn Bryant: that? 

[00:38:12] Tina Hong: Right. So you can go to www.coachtinahong.com and reach out to me that way to book, a call with me to see where you're at, what's the roadmap look like for you. I continue to offer group coaching programs throughout the year, but if you want a personalized plan that, that's probably the best way to go.

[00:38:35] Shanenn Bryant: Love it. Well, thank you Tina. 

[00:38:37] Shanenn Bryant: Thank you so much for being here. It was so good to see 

[00:38:40] Shanenn Bryant: you. I 

[00:38:42] Tina Hong: Yes, 

[00:38:43] Tina Hong: You're a doll. Thank you so much, Shanenn, for having me. And 

[00:38:47] Tina Hong: I just wanna say that, women out there who are part of Shannon's community, I just wanna encourage you that you are enough. You are so worthy. So worthy, 

[00:39:01] Tina Hong: and sometimes you need people like Shanenn and myself outside people. To help you see that sometimes we don't see that and it's hard for us to see that because we are just blinded by whatever's in front of us and we need that intervention sometimes that that objective point of view. And that's what a good coach does. So I wanna encourage all of you out there to really just, um, know that you are worth it and that your self-worth starts with you.

[00:39:34] Shanenn Bryant: Love it. Yes. What a great place to end. Thank you so much, Tina.​