Sustainable Weight Management with Dr. Naomi Parrella

george grombacher 0:02
Dr. Naomi perilla is the chief medical officer with zero. They are the world’s most popular metabolic health app. And she is the medical director of the Russia center for weight loss and lifestyle medicine. Welcome to show Naomi.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 0:25
Yeah, so my work is a physician. So I’m double board certified as a physician in both family medicine, obesity medicine right now I just work with obesity medicine. And I have seen the power of lifestyle changes firsthand. So one of the fun things I get to do is take care of patients, helping them lose weight, but also work with organizations and helping them achieve their health and well being goals for their employees.

george grombacher 0:56
And how are people in organizations dealing with that?

Dr. Naomi Parrella 1:00
Yeah, so there’s a wide range, right? And there’s a lot of different ways people are going about it. So I think at this time, we need it more than ever. And so each company does it a little bit different.

george grombacher 1:14
Why are so many of us overweight?

Dr. Naomi Parrella 1:19
Hmm, good question. So many reasons. So number one, most common reason is actually probably the, the environment. So the obesogens, which are things that make us gain weight easily, are in the environment everywhere, we might know about those environmental toxins and pollutants. We also have a lot of different kinds of foods that are ultra processed and cause our body to create hormones and produce more hormones that help the body store fat.

george grombacher 1:51
So, okay, obesogens, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that term before.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 1:57
Yeah, so, you know, this is an area that I’ve just been newly really paying attention to. And because of my interactions with Dr. Robert Lustig, who’s a professor emeritus from University of California, San Francisco. And one of the really interesting things that we’ve learned over time is that the environment that you live in can dramatically impact your weight and your metabolic health, regardless of what specifically you’re eating. So we know that a lot of chemicals can act like hormones in the body. And the more you’re exposed to those, the more they impact your body. And so that’s what we’re finding with various chemicals in the environment.

george grombacher 2:45
So chemicals in the environment, can once they get into my body, make my body think that they’re actually hormones.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 2:53
Yeah, exactly. So we know that some chemicals can pretend to be steroid hormones, like sex hormones like estrogen. And that can affect reproductive health, it can affect our mood, it can affect our fertility. We already know that. But a lot of people were not aware that there’s various chemicals that also cause obesity, and they make it easier for your body to gain weight in an unhealthy pattern.

george grombacher 3:25
What are some examples of these chemicals? And how do we get rid of them immediately? Yeah,

Dr. Naomi Parrella 3:30
so you know, some of the chemicals are actually foods that we eat, right? So they can be different emulsifiers they can be sugar is a classic example of something that causes the body to stimulate a hormone called insulin. And artificial sweeteners can cause the body to produce insulin, even without raising your blood sugars. But Insulin is a hormone that tells the body to store fuel, and specifically stored as fat.

george grombacher 4:03
Okay, so the most common ways are, I’m spooning sugar into my coffee, or it’s added sugars, and it’s all of it.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 4:13
Yeah, pretty much. And now even just in our water, even the chemicals that are in the CANS that we might, you know, might store foods in. And so the food industry has gotten much better at trying to protect us and change the kinds of linings of the cans or the plastics in our bottles. But you know, we’re always learning and sometimes it takes time before we figure it out.

george grombacher 4:40
So, so many factors that are that are sort of going against us, for lack of a better term. Is that Is that the correct way to think about this? Or is that a stupid comment that I just made? No,

Dr. Naomi Parrella 4:52
no. So here’s, here’s the way so when I think about weight, I think of it as a manifestation You know, the balance state of the body and the mind. And so a lot of people think of me, it’s a weight loss doctor. But I really am on the journey with somebody to improve their overall health and weight as a side effect of everything else. And so, you know, you know, I was reading about your, you know, the things that you do, and you know, being in finance, weight and health are similar the way I think about it. So I want to help people identify, where do they want to go? Right. So in a financial situation, you might have specific numbers you’re targeting, or you might not even know, but your goal might be like, I have enough money in retirement. What does that mean, they come to you, and they come to your coaches, and they find out from you, you know, how did I get there, what’s possible for me with the trajectory I’m on, and if they want to change, it helped me in that process. And that’s exactly the way we should be thinking about weight, and how. So weight is a manifestation of the balance of the body. And once you understand that, it’s more about getting into a healthy state, and tweaking things along the way, you can whale around and try to figure it out on your own, you can try to manipulate, you know all these factors. But ultimately, patients come into my office and they say, you know, Dr. P, I’ve been trying this forever been trying this weight loss journey, can you just help me because it hasn’t worked, I might lose weight, and then I regain it. And really what what’s going on is, there’s many ways to be healthy. And it helps to have somebody guide you to that, where you’re trying to go as fast as possible. But if you don’t exactly know where you’re going, that’s hard. And so that’s sort of the way I think about weight, it’s less about the number on the scale, it’s about what it represents to you, and what it might be representing about the state of your body. And the choices we make, can make a dramatic difference. And it’s quite fun to see that. But some people just don’t know what’s possible. And you probably see that in your work as well.

george grombacher 7:06
under percent. Weight is the manifestation of the balance of the body, I think that that is, I love that. And so if I’m not sleeping, well, if I’m consuming stuff from an informational perspective that’s damaging or unhealthy, that’s going to have an impact on my weight.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 7:26
Exactly. So we know that somebody who has poor sleep or disrupted sleep, whether it’s from sleep apnea, or because they have somebody that caregiving for overnight, and they might be waking up multiple times, they can gain very gain weight very easily. In addition, if we’re eating poorly, because we’re racing around, and we’re just getting, you know, the fast food or whatever, that’s Ultra processed, and has all sorts of weird chemicals in it that your body doesn’t know what to do. It’s easy to gain weight as well, right. And then again, high stress. So if we’re in a situation of very high stress, and we don’t offer an opportunity to recharge periodically, it’s very easy for that weight to sail around the waist as well. So I think it’s one of those areas where people come in for the weight, but they stay for the longevity and the feeling better.

george grombacher 8:17
So the choices we make. I am a person who likes to believe that I have control over my life. And I do try to be thoughtful about all the choices I make. That doesn’t mean I make good choices all the time. But I think that that’s a really important thing. And it translates to weight loss as well as well. Yeah,

Dr. Naomi Parrella 8:37
exactly. So I think one of the fun things about being human is we’re super resilient, and we can adapt. And so like you said, being in control is what we’re all going for, right? We want to control where we’re going what’s happening right now. And if you don’t know where you’re going, or you don’t know how to get there in the right way, you’re going to hit a lot of road blocks that you might not need to hit. And this is where getting support from people who are experts in the area, who’ve seen many different ways of success can help guide and sort of eliminate a lot of that drama that goes along with going the wrong way and then figuring it out. So yeah, it’s a lot of fun, and it’s great to see what’s possible.

george grombacher 9:25
Why don’t I just take a pill though, instead?

Dr. Naomi Parrella 9:29
Well, so there’s a lot of people who do that, right. And what do we know about weight loss? studies consistently show when you stop the pill or even if you continue the pillar of the injection or have had surgery or whatever. If your lifestyle habits have not come in alignment with the state you want your body to be in, it’s going to go back, it’s going to revert back to that previous state. And so we call that weight regain, but really it’s again, an M balance that reoccurs. Right. So I think we can force the body to do all sorts of things for the short term. But then long term to have wild success long term, gotta have like the foundations. And that’s where I think a lot of people miss that. So you can get on the 12 week, you know, bandwagon. But what do you do after that? What happens long term, and your body will want to go back to the previous patterns?

george grombacher 10:29
It’s a tricky thing. Do you wish that there was a panacea, that you could just take a pill? And it would make everything all better?

Dr. Naomi Parrella 10:41
I do? Absolutely. Oh, my gosh, I’d love to be out of a job. This would be great. So, you know, I think that the challenge here is, there actually is a lot of information out there. That’s really fantastic. There’s a lot of garbage out there. But there’s a lot of really great stuff, to great information out there if more people got access to it. And then they figure it out specific to their health history and their physical state where they’re at now, what’s possible, what do they need to focus on next, they would have a completely transformed body. And what they could do that and moving forward would be so much greater, right. So the challenge is, we have this knowledge, people don’t know which pieces to pull, which are relevant to them, and how to apply it. So I think that’s the biggest challenge. And, you know, I tell people, there’s three steps, one, figure out where you want to go, if you don’t know where to go, or what’s possible for you, or you think that it’s not possible to feel better. Talk to an expert, who may have some different ideas and might, you know, help you open your mind. Second, make a plan. And the plan should be to get from where you are now, to where you want to go. And of course, that’s where the expert comes in. Right. And you do this all the time with, you know, people in your world as well. And so, you know, when we help people design that plan, it has to be actionable. A lot of people are like, I have the plan I’ve been visualizing, okay, if you don’t take action, that’s not helpful. And so taking action, and having touchpoints with a coach, a provider, somebody to make sure you’re on track, a way of tracking so that you have data to talk about and and learn from, then now you got the magic right now to success happens

george grombacher 12:34
was the third step in there.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 12:36
The third step is the tracking and having that, you know, person that you can touch base with, or a community that you can sort of bounce your, you know, look at your data and say, Okay, what can I learn from this? And what do I need to adapt? Am I still on track to get to my goal? And if you’re not, then again, the experts, the people who’ve been there done that can help direct so that you don’t have to keep going in the wrong direction?

george grombacher 13:05
Do you think that there’s more shame around? There’s certainly shame around personal finances, and sort of there’s so many parallels, which you’ve been touching on? Yeah. Is there a lot of shame around being overweight as well? Or is that less so?

Dr. Naomi Parrella 13:20
Well, I think it depends on the individual. Right? So it’s, if somebody has, for example, type two diabetes or high blood pressure, you can’t necessarily tell by looking at them. If somebody has overweight or obesity, you can tell, right? And so it’s something you you can’t keep private. So for some people that causes tremendous shame, and for other people, they’re like, Okay, with me say this is how I am. What, what’s most important is how do you feel? And how limiting is that for you? We have a lot of places where there’s weight bias, which there’s no laws against which is shocking. But that’s, that’s a whole different area, right? With regards to that individual think once we started having compassion with the body is trying to help you heal and thrive. So if it’s going in the wrong direction, something’s going on. That’s misdirecting your body to add on the excess weight. unnecessarily. Right. And so this is when it’s really helpful to learn what is it that I’m doing and what can I do different and again, it’s not a discipline problem. It’s a hormone problem.

george grombacher 14:41
This is how I am. I think that that’s a very, very natural thing to do. And it makes me sad. It’s like when people say I’m just not very good at money. And it’s just I’ve resigned myself to that and, but it doesn’t need to be that way. Everything that you’ve been talking about makes so much sense to me. And that we do need help and support. Because if you go on go online and search for what’s a healthy diet, you’re gonna get a frickin 1000 things thrown at you. And what’s the best exercise for losing weight? Same thing? Should I be doing this? And oh, my goodness, I don’t. So I don’t do anything. And I go and have something to eat because I’m, you know, I’m tired and hungry.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 15:27
Yeah, totally. Well, that’s exactly it. So, you know, you probably see also, with personal finances and such, a lot of times people think they have to be 100%. Right? Oh, I’m gonna stick to my budget forever and never deviate. And I’m gonna do exactly what I plan. Same thing with food, right? Oh, I’m gonna be on this diet forever. Yeah, no, really, actually, I want you to go and live your life. Right? And so we have to create a system. So it’s easier to make the choices that benefit you. Most of the time. Sometimes you’re gonna have a deviation. And that’s okay. You gotta have a plan for reboot reset. Right? And that’s all right. That’s normal. So many of my patients, you know, I’ll tell them, I, you know, they’ll say I’m not consistent. So that’s my problem. I said, you know, I’ve had one person ever, and I’ve taken care of over 10,000 individuals never had one person that’s 100%, consistent, right, life happens, life throws you a curveball, or you’re celebrating, or you’re doing something else. So your rhythms are disrupted. Okay. That’s how life is, it doesn’t mean then for the rest of your life, you’re going to be completely off? No, we’re trying to shorten the duration of time that we’re off track, and get back on track as quickly as possible. Right. So again, celebrating the wins, so many people just berate themselves and only focus on when they are not on track. Even if they’re making a lot of great effort. They don’t recognize it, because maybe they’re not tracking, maybe they don’t have a coach, maybe they don’t have somebody who they’re touching base with and confirming Am I on the right path or not.

george grombacher 17:04
So tell me about the app, tell me how that I assume it checks all the boxes, we’ve been talking about us to help. So otherwise, we need to get back to the drawing board.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 17:13
George, you know, it’s so interesting, I’ve been taking care of 1000s of people, we’ve got clinics all over, we’re having a lot of fun taking care of individuals. But there’s a long waitlist, and so many people can’t get in. And so it was so wonderful to have this opportunity with zero, where we have this app that reaches people around the globe. And the purpose of the app is really to help people, it’s being that digital coach for the individuals who maybe can’t have access to somebody to help them guide their way. So through the app, what we like about it is there’s educational content for people who are curious, we want you to be curious about your body, so you can understand why you might be doing what you’re doing. And then there’s two things that are really, really stand out. Awesome. One is the tracker. So the tracker can help you track the lifestyle behaviors that get your body in balance, you don’t have to focus on everything all at once. But you could focus on one or two items. So for example, you might just want to see if you can do the 12 hour fast, and that sets your body to reset at 12 hours, right? So it might be overnight, you stop eating at eight o’clock, you’re not going to eat before eight o’clock, right? That would be a 12 hour fast, you can tag that into your app. And that helps you kind of keep track. So over time, you can see Oh, am I able to hit that? What are my streaks. And if you’re struggling with it, there’s a lot of support in that space. So we have lots of information, we have digital coaching. So there’s a lot of opportunities to help correct or get better and learn more, more tools and more skills in this space. So that’s one of the fun things there. The other part that’s really fun about it is being able to see over time, the trends. And the trends are really what we’re looking at, right. So even with weight, weight might fluctuate up and down a few pounds on it every day. So, you know, I’ll have somebody come in and say yesterday, I was half a pound lighter than I am today. I don’t know what happened. That’s, that’s normal. Right? It could be waterway, you might not have had a bowel movement, like it could be so many things. So but that doesn’t tell us enough. But if we see over time, the trend that gives us information, and that’s one of the really fantastic features that we offer.

george grombacher 19:49
I love it. And it makes all just makes sense. And when you start seeing trends, so many virtuous things happen, become more confident and enthused YaSM and just, I guess the term I was looking for was momentum. So, yes.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 20:04
Oh my gosh, absolutely. And I think it helps to know that there’s a community of people out there who are also trying to get better at their life, right. And as we continue to move forward, and you track and you see the progress, it becomes easier to learn over time. Okay, yeah, this deviation. But look, I got back on I joined, you know, I reopen the app. And now I’m tracking again, and seeing the progress and continuing to move forward. And a lot of times people say, you know, I look back at my data from last year, and I’ve really come a long way, or I didn’t realize I was doing as well as I thought, because I only paid attention to the times that I miss. And so that’s really fun. And the whole journey should be fun. And that’s why it helps to have digital coaching or a regular coach, right? Lots of different ways for us to recommit to ourselves and make that positive, or movement. And one, you know, patient come in recently who just said, you know, I know what I’m doing, I’m on track, I feel great. I just need to come in to get a high five. And just check in and make sure that I keep this in my forebrain. And I was like, That’s exactly it, right? Have that tool, whether it’s a person or an app that keeps you in line with your goals, and reminds you what you’re trying to do.

george grombacher 21:37
Love it. When Naomi, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? And where can they check out the app and zero.

Dr. Naomi Parrella 21:46
So zero can be found on the the App Store, so you can download that and it’s free. You can also find me actually, I’m hosting a webinar on Wednesday through zero but we have a bunch of live free webinars as well as through the website. Please message me, and I’m gonna find me.

george grombacher 22:10
I love it. And you can find the what is the website?

Dr. Naomi Parrella 22:14
Zero, longevity science.com.

george grombacher 22:19
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed as much as I did show Dr. Naomi your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas. Find the zero app and the app store. And also go to zero longevity science.com and check out the webinars and all the great resources and get in touch and start on that start on that journey that we’ve been talking about figuring out where you want to go make a plan and track and get the support that you need. Thanks. Good, Naomi. Thank you so much. Till next time, remember, do your part by doing your best

george grombacher 16:00
So if I want my iPhone, and my Tesla and my Bitcoin to work, we need to get the metal out of the ground.

Pierre Leveille 16:07
Absolutely. Without it, we cannot do it.

george grombacher 16:13
Why? Why is there a Why has production been going down.

Pierre Leveille 16:21
Because the large mines that are producing most of the copper in the world, the grades are going down slowly they’re going there, they’re arriving near the end of life. So and of life of mines in general means less production. And in the past, at least 15 years, the exploration expenditure for copper were pretty low, because the price of copper was low. And when the price is low, companies are tending to not invest more so much in exploration, which is what we see today. It’s it’s, it’s not the way to look at it. Because nobody 15 years ago was able to predict that there would be a so massive shortage, or it’s so massive demand coming. But in the past five years, or let’s say since the since 10 years, we have seen that more and more coming. And then the by the time you react start exploring and there’s more money than then ever that is putting in put it in expression at the moment for copper at least. And what we see is that the it takes time, it could take up to 2025 years between the time you find a deposit that it gets in production. So but but the year the time is counted. So it’s it’s very important to so you will see company reopening old mines, what it will push also, which is not bad, it will force to two, it will force to find a it will force to find ways of recalibrating customer, you know the metals, that will be more and more important.

george grombacher 18:07
So finding, okay, so for lack of a better term recycling metals that are just sitting around somewhere extremely important. Yeah. And then going and going back to historic minds that maybe for lack of technology, or just lack of will or reasons, but maybe now because there’s such a demand, there’s an appetite to go back to those.

Pierre Leveille 18:33
Yes, but there will be a lot of failures into that for many reasons. But the ones that will be in that will resume mining it’s just going to be a short term temporary solution. No it’s it’s not going to be you need to find deposit that will that will operate 50 years you know at least it’s 25 to 50 years at least and an old mind that you do in production in general it’s less than 10 years.

george grombacher 19:03
Got it. Oh there we go. Up here. People are ready for your difference making tip What do you have for them

Pierre Leveille 19:14
You mean an investment or

george grombacher 19:17
whatever you’re into, you’ve got so much life experience with raising a family and doing business all over the world and having your kids go to school in Africa so a tip on copper or whatever you’re into.

Pierre Leveille 19:34
But there’s two things I like to see and I was telling my children many times and I always said you know don’t focus on what will bring you specifically money don’t think of Getting Rich. Think of doing what you what you like, what you feel your your your your your, you know you have been born to do so use your most you skills, do what you like, do what you wet well, and good things will happen to you. And I can see them grow in their life. And I can tell you that this is what happens. And sometimes you have setback like I had recently. But if we do things properly, if we do things that we like, and we liked that project, we were very passionate about that project, not only me, all my team, and if we do things properly, if we do things correctly, good things will happen. And we will probably get the project back had to go forward or we will find another big project that will be the launch of a new era. So that’s my most important tip in life. Do what you like, do it with your best scale and do it well and good things will happen.

george grombacher 20:49
Pierre Leveille 21:03
Thank you. I was happy to be with you to today.

george grombacher 21:06
Damn, tell us the websites and where where people can connect and find you.

Pierre Leveille 21:13
The it’s Deep South resources.com. So pretty simple.

george grombacher 21:18
Perfect. Well, if you enjoyed this as much as I did show up here your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciate good ideas, go to deep south resources, calm and learn all about what they’re working on and track their progress.

Pierre Leveille 21:32
Thanks. Thanks, have a nice day.

george grombacher 21:36
And until next time, keep fighting the good fight. We’re all in this together.