Episode 29: Beyond GLP-1s, Diet Culture, and Self-Worth: A New Era of Weight Management with Stephanie Gort, PA

Episode Description:

For decades, women have been told that weight management comes down to willpower: “eat less, move more.” But what happens when the math doesn’t add up? In this episode, we’re joined by Physician Assistant Stephanie Gort, who specializes in gastroenterology and weight management, to talk about why the conversation is shifting — and why your health and self-worth are about so much more than a number on the scale.

We explore:

• How diet culture shaped our generation’s relationship with food and self-esteem.
• Why weight regulation is influenced by genetics, hormones, and life stages like pregnancy and perimenopause.
• The rise of GLP-1 medications (Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound) and what they actually do.
• The stigma and silence women face when they want help with weight loss.
• How to reframe “health” in terms of energy, strength, and balance rather than restriction.

This is an honest, shame-free conversation about the pressures women face, the science that’s finally catching up, and the freedom that comes from letting go of old rules.

Pink Spotlights ✨

• Stephanie: Her new business adventure with her sister, CHARMD — a bracelet-making company that hosts parties and events.
• Kristina: Her love for MacKenzie-Childs — and the story of how she’s added a new piece to her collection every year since her son was born 12 years ago.
• Christina: Reinvesting in denim now that she’s finally in a consistent size after pregnancy and postpartum. She’s living in a pair of Mother jeans that feel as comfortable as sweatpants.

Show Notes & Links:

• Want to learn more from Stephanie or work with her directly?
• Work with her for weight loss
• Her on-the-go charm bar Charmd

Join the Conversation

📌 Follow us on Instagram: @prettyinpinkagain @christinatarabishy @kristinabontempo
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Don't forget:  Leave us a written review on Apple Podcasts, DM us your address, and we’ll send you a light pink beaded bracelet with a gold pink flamingo charm—just to say thanks for being here. 💕

Transcript

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I'm Christina and I'm t and this is the Pretty and Pink Again podcast where Motherhood meets rediscovery. Hello. Hello. We have a guest in the house. Yay. Hello. We have our friend Stephanie Gort she's a physician assistant. She works in gastroenterology, ology and weight management. And she's here to break down how the diet culture has shaped us, what difference there is now. She's gonna talk about GLP ones weight loss and the fads now. Yes. So when we were on the phone doing our prep call, we talked about how we grew up in the nineties. Yep. And the height of this diet culture when you would see special K for breakfast and a slim fast and low fat, everything. And you learn two things. One, you're supposed to be smaller. Yep. And that's better. And two, if you're not, it's your fault. Oh yes. So even though I didn't personally grow up like this, because I talked about how my mom was European and we literally ate everything from the house, from the garden, from home. Like my grandmother would kill a rabbit. And that was what was for lunch. But that is not how my children are growing up. My children are very American. They reach for a box. And so now I am so interested in this personally, also, all of the diets that you mentioned. I did. So I went to Weight Watchers when I was 11. 11. Wow. And 11 years old. We had all the snack Wells Ling cuisine smart ones. Eat this, not that. Books, like all of that was huge in my household growing up because thinness was such a big thing and I was really overweight as a childness was a big thing. Being thin was like a badge of honor, like an unachievable goal. My mom always told us we were beautiful and we were smart and she would do anything for us. But some message came that when I was 11 I needed to be thinner. And I think part of it was I would go to like field trips when it was hot out and I'd wear like a sweatshirt and shorts instead of a tank top and all the girls wearing jeans, skirts. And my mom would look at me and be like, I know she's uncomfortable so gently, she would bring me to Weight Watchers and we would, you know, do the thing. So I learned about calorie counting. Fat back then that was like the initial fad before low carb and before all this stuff came in. It's crazy'cause we've talked about, on here, Tia and I have talked about when that exact moment is that you realize about body image and it could be external, like you look at other people and start filing things away or like internalizing things. But it also could be when you notice your body. And so do you feel like it was around, I think you had said something around that. It was around that. Yeah. I was eighth grade for me. Okay. Fifth grade. Yeah, I was in, so I was tiny in my early nursery school ages. And then I gained weight in elementary school. I was pretty overweight. Sixth, seventh, eighth grade, ninth grade comes South Beach. Diet was big then. Yes. So I started the South Beach diet. Everything was low carb and then I lost weight and all of a sudden you have boys noticing you, your clothes are. Fit better. Like all this stuff comes. So then in my mind I'm like, okay, thin is in thin is what we need to keep, and I don't thin is in, I don't. I think that also that messaging from the nineties and early two thousands was so diet focused. And I think that if you said that you wanted to lose weight, it was almost like glamorized at that point. Like you're saying, a thin is in, it's a good thing to be thin. Yes. And now I think the messaging has shifted maybe in the opposite direction where if you had said, if you say out loud, I want to lose weight, you're like immediately inundated with no, you look great. And it's all, so it's the opposite right effect. And I think that both messages are dangerous in their own because obviously you want to feel good about yourself. And so I think that you just need to get to a middle ground where you're tuning out the noise, but then you feel good about your own body image. I think that there has to be like a mix of that to be healthy. I still think thin is in. I don't know, one person that's actually does not want to be a good weight. But I think maybe the messaging, and you can, you're gonna speak to this is more, it's more health based, right? Yes. Yes. So it's less vanity and more health. However, there are people like Lizzo and other clinically obese women that are body positive in that sense. And I don't necessarily agree with that either. There's two extremes. There's the th skinny, skinny, skinny obese, obese, obese. And I feel like you have to find that middle ground. When you were younger Yes. And you, your mom recognized my daughter appears uncomfortable. Yes. I wanna help my daughter. It came more from a vanity maybe standpoint at first. Or do you think it was more health based? I was,'cause Weight Watchers is good, right?'cause Weight Watchers, teaches you how to eat portion control. I gained weight on Weight Watchers, but I think hers came from. I'm seeing her with her peers and going into high school and going into her dating years. I want her confidence better. And I think all of us can say when we're at our thinner weight or when we feel better after we lose the baby weight, after we get to our wedding weight, we feel better. You're more excited to get dressed. You are more excited to go shopping. Being in pictures, you're not hiding your body. So yes, thin is. Cool. But the way we used to do it is not, so we used to starve ourselves. We used to do these crazy fat cleanses and diets like I did the Cabbage Soup diet. I don't know if either of you remember that I've heard. Yes. I feel like all of these, it was like, and I always go back to the magazines and the media and all of these things that were circulating for everybody to look at. And so yes, these fads were taken by storm. And I think now though with social media, I feel like it's, it depends on the algorithm and what you're in. But I bet you if you're in that space, you're inundated with that sort of fad diet. And I'm shocked my algorithm has changed. And I think the only reason everything has changed is when I had a kid. And I remember being like 15 and talking to a mom who was very fit and always active. And I said to her like. Are you obsessed with your weight? Like how, and she was like, I was until I had a daughter. And I was like, I don't believe that. Like after I have kids, I'm still gonna do that. But now I see my kids and I won't say the word fat around them, right? I won't. I'll eat dessert with them. I make sure to try to eat every meal with them so that they're not like, why does mommy only eat salads? So I think having kids really did it forces you to have healthier habits because you want them to, right? Because you feel like you're being watched. Yeah. And arguably what you're modeling for them is probably the best. And now, arguably, probably the best you've ever felt. And look because you're practicing I am on some of these things. A GLP one, but yes. But so we'll also go into that. Yeah. Like now we're coupling okay. So there was diet, there was starvation, there was all these things. Over exercising. Over exercising 100 calorie packs, like all this sort of like negative messaging. Part of it for your patients is, it's not all your fault. You can diet and exercise all you want, but there is another like hormone and metabolic component to this, and now insert science, and now you can actually live this like shopping the perimeter of the grocery store and eating a balanced diet because you can have access to some of these medical weight loss drugs that you are prescribing to your patients. Yes. So I wanna go into that a little bit too. We're gonna get right into it. Yeah. Because I think that's, I think that's important and that's huge right now. So I feel like this is very timely, but it's also very important that people get the correct information about this because we were talking, and this is one of those things where. A lot of people are prescribing these things and maybe and not everybody's expert's not the expert. Yeah. Not everybody's an expert and maybe it's not the best method just because somebody prescribes these things, it's like Botox. It's like just because somebody can actually do it doesn't mean they're the best and that you're gonna look the best and feel the best afterwards. So I think that sometimes when things get too big and you're just, it's almost like you're oversaturated with this information. Yeah. You start. Guess losing curiosity of like how to go about doing it. And so I think that's an important message that we're gonna talk about. Also, I think the drugs got a bad rap early on because again, anybody on social media can have a voice. You are a voice that I want our listeners to hear from, because you are actually an expert in this field. You work for a gastroenterologist, you day in and day out, you prescribe these medical weight loss drugs to your patients. You work with them, they work with nutritionists, they work with dieticians. Like you are the person to talk about this. And also you have a long history in this. It's why you went into it. Yes. So the, these drugs get a bad rap. I feel like when people, people lose weight, you're like, oh, are you on ozempic? Are you on this? And nobody wants to share. I saw someone the other day, it's not all bad. And I was like, you look amazing. How long have you been on Ozempic? And she looked at me like, did you just say that to me? I'm like, okay, Manjaro. Well, This is what I do for a living. Yeah. But it shouldn't be shameful because it shouldn't be shameful. It's not just eat less and exercise more. We learned that, right? You can starve yourself and you can over exercise and you may lose 12 pounds in a week. The next time you have a regular meal, you're gonna gain it back. So these medications are allowing people not to. Focus on counting calories and starving themselves, and like it's the first time in a lot of these people's lives that they're allowed to enjoy Right. Pasta and not worry about gaining weight. It's probably also removing some of the guilt and the emotional aspect of that. Yes. Like I feel like if you're just, if there's a little bit more flexibility, just taking that stress and that emotion out of it, I'm sure helps a ton too. Yes. So a patient comes to you Yes. And says, all right, I'm unhappy with my weight, or I'm going through menopause and I've gained like 15 pounds. Where do we start? So oftentimes patients are referred from their primary doctors or other GI doctors because of fatty liver disease, because of diabetes, because of high cholesterol, high blood pressure. So what we do at our first intake is we'll say, okay, tell me your story. I tell them a little bit of my story just so they're not like you. Have a normal BMI you're finish like what do you know? So I try to disarm them and we talk about that. I'll say, what's the highest weight you've ever been? What's the lowest weight you've ever been and what's the goal? Weight? And automatically, if their goal weight is much lower than the lowest weight they've ever been, I wanna be like, okay, let's stop there. I don't know if we're gonna get there, but we can go lower than you are now. And I don't love BMI because it doesn't take into account muscle mass. Arnold Schwarzenegger has the same BMI as some big fat guy and they both have different, right. And they both have different body types. So they'll come in. A lot of the stories are, I was thin growing up. I started the Depo-Provera shot and I gained so much weight. What's that? It's like a birth control. Oh, I started birth control. Okay. Okay. For some people have chronic conditions that they need to be on. Steroids and steroids are crazy. Weight, gaining meds, depression, crazy weight, gaining meds. So for a lot of times these people were dieting and exercising, and their bodies were working against them because even though they were doing everything right that we've been told, they're not losing weight. And we now know it's a combination of hormones, metabolism, genetics, psychology, environmental factors, social factors, like so much. So that's, it's not one size fits all. It's not, no. And that's why these medications are a game changer because they're new, but we're learning all these new indications for it. So came out as a diabetic med. Everyone who had diabetes was taking this medication. When it was prescribed to them, their blood sugars were going down, but they also saw they were losing weight. So now people are looking from the outside and they're like I want that. And that's when people started using diabetic medications for weight loss. And that's where all the uproar came because the shortages, people were taking it away from people who really need it. And then, which is no longer the case, which is no longer the case because the companies who created those diabetic medications were brilliant and changed the name Remarketed. It changed the dosing, and now they're FDA approved for weight loss and obesity. So there's no competition between them anymore. It's So this is this, even though they're similar or the same Yep. They're one is branded this way. Yes. And the other one can still be for, so Ozempic is the first one everyone got it Thinks about Ozempic is a diabetes medication. You cannot get it covered unless you have diabetes. The the weight loss medications that you can ask your doctor about are Zep bound and wegovy and do they work the same or are they different? So Zep bound is the exact same as Moon Jro. Wegovy is the exact same as Ozempic. However, they are different indications, so insurance looks at them differently. Can you walk us through what those differences are for like, those are the two big players right now. Yes. So can you walk us through what those, like, how they would affect your body? Yeah. So GLP ones are a hormone in your body that regulate hunger. They also work as a neurotransmitter in the brain to regulate like food noise and cravings. You might have heard that food noise a lot of people are talking about for sure. So it works by, yeah. Bethany Frankel, I feel like coined that turn term. Yes. And Oprah had a whole special on it. And Okay. So if you guys have never been overweight, you may not know that food can control your mind. You're like thinking all day like, oh, I'm not gonna eat today'cause I wanna have ice cream tonight. Or. Ooh, what do you think the next snack I can have is? Or, what am I, what are they gonna have at the baseball game for food? Sometimes food controls a lot of people's thoughts and that it controls my thoughts in a different way. Me too. Because if I don't eat, I feel like I get hangry. Yes. And I'm like, oh my God, if I don't eat my blood sugar's gonna drop and I'm gonna be angry. And these help with the blood sugar too, these meds. So mine, mine food, and I feel like you're similar. Mine is similar to that, but mine is probably the opposite, which I know might come across controversial, but mine is when I am stressed out or when I'm not in a great place, I actually have the opposite, right. Where I don't have any, I, it's like there's no sound. Yes. And I have to force myself to think about eating. And so that I, that has gotten me into a lot of trouble the opposite way. Yes. Because if I am stressed out, I don't eat right. And some people say, I wish that was my response, because other people I've heard that. Of course. Yep. And but, so I can understand it from that perspective of, okay, it's just the opposite. Like you're thi overthinking versus not thinking. It also works directly to regulate hunger. So food leaves your stomach slower. Okay. You get fuller quicker and so therefore you end up eating less at the meal and you end up having longer periods before you get hungry again. So it is like a physical and mental Yes. Physical also. Yes. Exactly. Okay. Yes. So it works both ways. Okay. And it's dose dependent. So you start at a low dose and then we increase it up. The side effects are not always so beautiful, people don't talk about it, but nausea, queasiness, morning sickness. Is one extreme. The other extreme is vomiting. Like some people vomit all day, other people have diarrhea. And how long does that last for? Like your entire time, your body gets use of the dose and we don't increase their dose until they're like comfortable at the dose. Wow, okay. Yeah. So you know that they're effective, you know that it works. Yes. So now your patient's on it for three to six months and they, you're seeing weight loss. What do you, how do you maintain that? So a lot of people come in and they're like, I wanna lose this 15 pounds. And then once it's off, I promise I'll be able to keep it off. I just need to get this 15 pounds off. Because it's also to jumpstart. It's not just the 15 pounds, it's now their cholesterol has gone down. Yes. Now they're at a less of a risk of stroke and heart attack. Exactly. And maybe their diabetes is maybe under control. So like it's not just the weight. Yes, it is about the weight loss, but it also, like they have all these other health benefits. So those are the non-scale victories that we also talk about a lot, but. The first thing before we start is I say, this is a chronic medication. You are gonna have to be on this long term in order to continue to see the weight loss and maintain your weight. And I have tons of people who are like, no, I know myself. I know my body. I'm like, okay, this is what the studies are showing. And I use the example like when you have high blood pressure and your blood pressure medication has your blood pressure normalized, and now you're 120 over 80. Perfect. You don't come off the blood pressure medication. Yeah. You stay on it to maintain that healthy blood pressure. So there's nothing there that can, that you can take away from it and then be able to do on your own. I know.'cause I've heard that like people, it's, they're using it, or at least they're saying it as this is my goal. I'm gonna start it. It's gonna jumpstart me and then I'll be able to take over. Does that work in any instance? Or is it really just for It's just something like you're saying it's chronic, like you're gonna be honest. Once you take it, if you like the results, that's it. Yeah. So research is so new because they're newer medications. So different doctors or providers are doing different things. Yeah. So when my patient reaches their goal, I'll start by decreasing the dose back towards starting. And we stop when we start seeing weight gain. Or we spread out the interval. Instead of taking it every seven days, we'll do it every 10 days. Okay. And so none of us know right now what is gonna work, but it's patient by patient, so some people can get away with the lowest starting dose once a month and maintain their weight. Is it so new that we haven't seen any success getting off of it where people are able to keep the weight off? It's so new that the research study shows that you will gain the weight back if you come off of it. Interesting. Okay. Okay. So you're still currently playing around with dosing with myself and timing even with yourself. Yes. So now you are not an overweight or an obese person. And so now, but you were, when you started and I was postpartum. And you were postpartum. So postpartum, I had gained a hundred pounds in pregnancy, and this is from someone who studied nutrition and exercises, gained a hundred pounds. My body wanted to gain weight. We did it. I was left with a newborn and a body, which I didn't feel comfortable in or recognize. Luckily they were winter babies, so I could wear sweatpants. But you have two. I know, but still you have two girls, two little that. What did you gain the weight for with both of the pregnancies? Oh yeah. I went up and then down and then back up and then down. And then you're left with all the skin. Yep. So I started it even before that, I played around with weight loss medications in New York when I lived in New York City and worked at a weight management center there because I was like, I eat well, I exercise well. I have a family history of diabetes. If I look at cake, I gain weight like something else is going on. And so that's when my doctor introduced me to these medications. Was that in between pregnancies or was that before? Before, that was before I got married. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. So these weight loss drugs have been around then for a while? This, so I've been prescribing them since 2018. And weight loss meds have been around since the 1970s. Like phentermine, fen. Mm-hmm. More stimulant type have been around. But these GLP ones are newer to the market. Okay. So you started using GLP ones and it was insane, the change Pro, when did you start using them? Probably 2018. 2019. Wow. So this was before babies, this before babies before marriage. And I used to be the friend who could go out to Mexican with you guys and eat my plate and then eat your plate in your plate. But I was going to Barry's bootcamp at the time so my weight would stay the same when I took this medication and I didn't even finish my own plate. I was like. Game changer. Like I've never felt this before. I've never experienced this before. And it's just so eye-opening for people who suffered for so long and that's why it's changing the environment. So do you have girls come in, or I should say men too, that are not obese, but just wanna control their weight? So insurance is the tricky thing because these medications are approved for weight loss. If you are overweight and have a comorbidity, like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or if you're obese, and that's through BMI and other parameters. So if a normal weight woman comes in and she wants to lose weight, I would not offer this medication. If a normal weight man who is training for a marathon and just wants to shred 10 pounds, this isn't the right medication. And so that's why we have a consult first. And that's also why these compounding medications are dangerous.'cause you can subscribe. To a website and get the medication without a full medical history without doing all the blood work. So that's where you have to figure out the right person, because you are an expert, and I don't like this, I'm, I don't know, I don't like how I'm going to say this, but I don't know how it, how else to say it, but people are coming to you and getting it prescribed the right way, because they need it. Medically, how is this so rampant then? Like, how is this all over the place? Like how, why is everybody that I know on this medication, like, where is it coming from otherwise then? So it's a huge money maker, right? So people took these brand name medications, scientists compounded them and reformulated them into compounded vials. And all these medical spas are. Prescribing or cell or injection, how are they access to these? Like, how is this happening? Because the patients just have to know it's not an f FDA approved source. So similar. So this is something that somebody really could get their hands on if they're like a med spa, if they're in that absolutely. Field, like they can. So other people can get their hands on this and they may very well work. And I tell my patients, listen, if insurance isn't gonna cover it, go to a reputable place that, other people have had success with. I wouldn't buy it off the black market, I wouldn't buy it online. But if you have people with success, ask'em their success rate, look at the research, make sure they tell you the side effects, the warnings, the contraindications, but then how are these people who are giving this? And this is not to shade any of those people, but how are they monitoring this in a safe way? So I'm not sure how often they they see these patients, right? I like to see my patients once every three months in person and then we speak once a month. So I'm guessing the check-ins are they weigh-ins? Are you doing blood work or so what kinds of things are you doing? When they start with me, we'll do blood work. We'll look at cholesterol, we'll look at blood sugar, thyroid, insulin resistance, which is a big one with women who are like postmenopausal or on certain medications and like blood counts, metabolic panel. I do it all just so we have a baseline. And then studies have shown that after you lose 10% of your body weight, so if you're 150 pound woman, 15 pounds, you're gonna start seeing these health benefits. So after about six months or so, I'll reorder these panels and see what's happening. If at any point the patient feels stomach pain, if the patient feels like intense constipation, you need to have a red flag because there are these warnings of gastric paralysis and all these lawsuits coming out. Now, if you're with a prescribing provider that knows these risks and follows you closely, none of. Should occur. So that, I think that's, I guess that from the outside,'cause I have not taken these so I didn't know how people go about finding that. I think that's a red flag and if you're thinking about taking something like that, I think it's great. But I think that, how do you go about getting this done correctly? So if you are somebody who just wants to quote unquote jumpstart your weight loss, or maybe you're not in that medical need of this medication, how can someone go about finding this safely? So I'd say everyone, the first person you can start with is your primary care provider. Okay. And they all should know this, everyone in the world knows this right now, but it also shows how desperate people are to lose weight that they would take as something that isn't safe for their body. Just to lose weight. And I think that now that this is becoming more of a thing where it is socially acceptable and everybody is talking about it. I think it's more so than it was maybe a year ago or two years ago. I think now people are. It's a little bit more known. Mm-hmm. And it's a little, maybe a little less shameful saying that you are right. Talking about it. But then that gets dangerous because then you just think oh, I know somebody who offers this. And you go to that person. Yes. Maybe without a referral or without knowing, you know that Yes. That it went well for some other people. And it starts to get a little scary that way. If everyone's offering it, there are risks associated with it. Yes. And maybe the dosing isn't correct. Some people get started on the highest dose. Right. And land in the ER with vomiting. So I think my question is, from an expert, I would wanna know what are the questions that you could ask? How could somebody go about asking for this in a safe way?'cause I think you don't wanna scare people off and say, that something bad is gonna happen. Yeah. But people need to be responsible using this. Right. I almost feel like kids and you're the parent and like you have to be like. A parent that's still firm and strict, but knows, okay, my kids are gonna drink. Yes. And they're 16. Yes. You know those access out there are looking for booze. Where do you start? So I'll share with you my, one of my good friends owns a med spa and she knows like I'm always hangry. And she was like, I feel like if you try the microdosing, it'll help with your hunger and you'll lose a few pounds. Let's try this. And I trust her. This is what she does. So I've tried it from her. And it does, it works. So I told you I tried it back in January. You had a good experience and I had a great experience with it. And that's a safe success for us. And I want it, and I wanna do it again. Yes. It's amazing. It's amazing because it does, it quiets the noise. And not necessarily, I'm not somebody that's oh my God, I can't eat a cheeseburger. I can't eat this. I don't have that kind of noise when I go to a football game or a baseball game. Yeah. It actually allows you to eat the cheeseburger. Mine is just more oh my God, my blood sugar shouldn't drop. I'm gonna be hungry more. I have to have purse snacks all the time. Maybe that's more anxiety than it really is like actual blood sugar. Yeah. But it helps with that. It does because it almost makes it go away. Christina's seen me, how many times do I need to have food with? Yeah, she really does. While we're recording, she really does. It's and it happens fast, anxious, hang, it comes on fast. Yeah. So the medication, because it's slowing down the rate foods leaving your stomach, your blood sugar spikes are not happening. Yeah. So it's steadying out your blood sugar. So that's why people feel so much better on it. You probably just feel like you're just in people a good spot all the time. So I don't, I can understand. I don't wanna like completely scare people away. No. Like my husband went to, his primary care physician for a check-in. And he was like. His cholesterol was a little high, his blood pressure was a little high. Like all of these indications were like a little high. So he asked his doctor about these drugs and she was like, hard stop. Absolutely not. No. And I was like, I don't feel like she should have just given you a hard no. I think she's afraid of them too. But I think that gets scary. And then that's when people go and they start looking for who can prescribe it. Yeah. There's online and there's the black market, and you're just desperate for these medications. And so that's where people can get into a lot of trouble. We don't know. I hate being like this, but now I feel like I'm an anxious person and a mom now. And so I feel like I'm always just like 10 steps ahead being what is gonna happen. Yeah. It's fun times in my brain, but I feel like it's one of those things where now it's gonna be. All over the place. And are people gonna mix it with something just to sell it for cheaper, to give it to, oh God, like that this is the road that this could go down. If this, it turns into buyer beware. Yes, it is a medication, yes, it is a drug just like opioid. Just like other dangerous things. Yes. And that, I think that's where my mind is going of okay, sometimes when things are too accessible then you're just not really thinking of like, where can I get this safely and where can I verify this and make sure, because now it's just all over the place and you're almost saturated in the thinking where you're like, some lawsuits are starting Yes. Against med spas against non FDA approved compounds, and you're finding them less and less. So hopefully it's gonna be more regulated, but it's also gonna be easier for the general population to get them correctly because of all the new indications. That would be great. Got it. I feel like that's like a positive thing, so you can only get it. Prescribed. If you have an indication, even if you had a pocket, like I couldn't come to you and say, I wanna go on a microdose of this. And I wanted to ask you what that meant. Yeah. Because it will help me regulate my blood sugar. So I would say that some providers will prescribe it. I've had patients come to me who have diarrhea all the time, and I'm in gi so I see diarrhea all the time. This medication slows down your GI tract. So naturally diarrhea might slow down. She's normal weight, but she wants to try this right now. It might be behind the scenes being researched for diarrhea, who knows? But it's not an FDA indication. So I What would you like look into first? Why do you have diarrhea? Yeah, so she would've had the colonoscopy, she would've had the stool studies. You're in gi so that makes her, that's Sal bowel syndrome with diarrhea. Same with PCOS infertility. A lot of these fertility centers are using the medications now to boost fertility. Interesting. The new indications, fatty liver disease, which pretty much everyone has, there's chronic kidney disease. So as it gets more and more widely distributed, the insurance companies have to catch up. And that's where our biggest, I always say the worst side effects is insurance. So maybe it'll be safer. Versus what the more accessible is more. In your opinion, who would be great candidates for this versus who would not be great candidates for this? So automatically there's black box warnings or contraindications. You cannot take this if you have a personal history of pancreatitis. Which is inflammation of your pancreas. Or if you have a family history of medullary thyroid cancer. Okay. Automatically cannot take it and don't say, when you say family history, is that like mother, father, mother, father? What does family history consist of? Grandmother, grandfather, like not my dad's sister's cousin's friend, but Okay. Family history. Okay. And if medullary a specific type of thyroid cancer is in your family history, your prescriber shouldn't even look at it. What if you don't know? So then you have to assume the risk and your provider has to document. Patient doesn't know. And why? Why medullary specific?'cause in research in mice specifically, they did see the thyroid receptor is associated with the GLP one. And in mice they saw that specific type of cell, I believe, grow. I don't quote me on this, but that type of cell was isolated is medullary thyroid cancer? Rare. An aggressive type. It's rare. It's a rare type. So you see like papillary and that's more common. People say I have hypothyroidism. Can I take it? Yes, you can take it. Okay. Hyperthyroidism. My mom has hypothyroidism. Thyroid issues aren't the problem. It's specifically medullary thyroid cancer. Okay. So I guess how important is it that a screening is done before you're on something like this? Extremely important. Okay. So you order like an ultrasound of people's thyroids. So if people, when I see them, if I do a physical exam and they have an enlarged thyroid, I might I check their thyroid level when I start with everyone. Another big one is lipase. So the pancreas is a big thing. So pancreatitis is inflammation of the pancreas. It can happen with people who drink alcohol. It can happen when you have your gallbladder removed. It can happen from certain medications. These medications have shown that it may cause pancreatitis. Okay. So if so, if you're predisposed to that. So if you've had it in the past, you shouldn't be on it. The way we could see it is patients call, they have significant stomach pain. If you're on a GLP one, your doctor needs to order a lipase to make sure that you don't have pancreatitis. Okay. When you discontinue the med, the pancreatitis goes away, but you cannot continue it and you can never go on it again. How does pancreatitis go away? So we use IV fluids, we use pain medications, but it's really discontinuing the offending agent, which in this case would be the GLP one and GLP one stay in your system for how long? So the dosing is once a week, so you'd have to think the half-life is at least several days. Okay. So if you've taken it in like May, and then you've having stomach pain in October or November later on that year? No, it's not related. No. But I still would never give it to you again, but never to, yeah. Wow. Okay. So that's if interesting, that's people that should not take this medication. And I, that's not, I guess my follow up. Yeah, that's a not a great candidate. What would you recommend as far as if I'm, I keep going back to the same question, but if you're, if they don't qualify to have somebody like you prescribe this for them. There's other medications that they can prescribe to them, right? So if they come in and they have the need to lose weight, they've tried diet, they've tried exercise, there are other FDA approved weight loss medications. But just that aren't in this category. That aren't in this category. Okay. And they don't work the same way, but people want, they want these medications. They come and asking specifically. Yes. They come in asking specifically. And so when there's a will, there's a way. And so would you recommend then maybe starting with your primary and getting a full kind of panel done and a baseline maybe to see if there is anything that could be missed before you start? Because if you go to a med spa Uhhuh, I guarantee you they're not sitting there and probably running your life. Like to prescribe you these medications. So I would first ask your doctor, do you feel comfortable talking about weight loss medications? Some of doctors don't want anything to do with it, or they don't believe in them or they all that. Then I would say, is there a medical weight management provider nearby that you can refer me to? Okay. And in our area we do have a few. I. Then once they get to the medical weight management provider, that's where the specialty comes in. Okay. Okay. So that would be like a good, that would be like the order that you would probably referred to. Yes. Feel comfortable doing that? Yeah. Okay. And then can you talk about people that would be great candidates for this maybe from your perspective? Yes. My favorite candidates are postmenopausal women. Patients who have gained weight from starting a medication like I mentioned before. Patients who eat well, exercise, but still can't get to a healthy body weight. The thing is they have to try themselves because it's in adjunct with weight management diet, exercise. So if I have a patient coming and they're sitting in front of me eating McDonald's, but losing weight on the scale, I'm not gonna continue prescribing you this because. You're not changing your, it's the lifestyle change that you're after. So that still means something. Okay. These patients remind you a little bit of yourself too because you were somebody who did work out, who did eat well. Yes. You had these tools and you still struggled And one of the weirdest thing is I find myself, when I talk to these patients, I get tears in my eyes sometimes because it's still like that personal. Yeah. Oh wow. That happened to me. Do you wanna talk about that a little bit? My weight? Yeah. Just about your journey and I guess how this ties into you because I think that's always very powerful when you have somebody who's somebody that you can talk to about these things. Just in addition to a medical professional. It's like nice when you have a full rounded somebody who just understands and can lend an ear and explain maybe they've been on the side of this. It's almost like a therapist in conjunction with Yeah. So if I have a patient that I can tell is skeptical of me. I will automatically be like, listen, this is a no judgmental zone. Like I had french fries dipped in a milkshake last night. Like I get their guard down. I let them know I'm human. I say I was overweight my entire childhood growing up. I show them a picture of myself. I tell them I get it, and I'll, try to just disarm them because a lot of people wear their weight as like a shield and it's their defense mechanism. And so first, if we can dismantle that,. So my history I mentioned a little bit is I just was overweight as a child. Did all the fad diets, got to a healthier weight, but was never thin by any means. I was always a little bit bigger than all of my friends. I was never comfortable in a bathing suit. I was never the girl at the like college parties wearing a bra, type of thing. And then I always wanted to be that girl. I feel like you were that girl. I feel like you are that girl. Like in my mind you are that girl. I mean I might've been that girl. Yeah. And then I met Nick and he was like, can you maybe not be that girl anymore? Can you get down off the bar? Can you? Yeah. Not so I never had that. Can you not be that girl? Because that girl's really annoying. Yeah. And so now I wear all these like crop tops and stuff. I never had that growing up. I feel like. I love that for you though. Thank you feel. I love that. Thank you. It's really fun getting dressed when you are comfortable with how you look. I love that you share it and you're not ashamed of it. You're like, I wanted to make a change, so I did. Yeah. Also I've. Non-disclosure. I've had a tummy tuck, I had those two children and I had my stomach stretched out, and I think I saw you at Bar and you were like, you look amazing. And I was like, I like threw down my pants. And I was like, look at my scar. Like I just got this done. The trans parent is amazing because I think that's important. Same with parenting. If you're pretending like everything's butterflies and rainbows, it's not the truth. And, but you can't connect with anybody like that. No. And I think as soon as I, you're just gonna push people away. Yes. You can be in your new crop top, but you're gonna be all by yourself. You're like unapproachable. It's not interesting. And not that I want you to have to gain a hundred pounds and have to have a tummy tuck to have a conversation with you, but you looked amazing that day. Yeah. And I wanted to be like, damn girl, you look good. And I wish I could say thanks. It's from exercise and eating less, but that's not the reality anymore. It's always, yeah. Appreciated if people are transparent with things, I we talk about you don't always have to share, like we've said that on this podcast. It's a fine line of it's nice when you can share but you don't have to share and over overshare. I don't have a little oversharing issues. We do too on here. You're sitting in our podcast room. We clearly have a lot to say. I think it's, I think it's a good thing for the future. Yeah. So that helped shape you to go into this field, obviously. So then I started college and I was still in the phase of dieting and I was like, I'm gonna be a nutrition major and I'm gonna learn the trick to being thin. So I started my nutrition major and I started really liking the medical side of it and learning about the disease states. And so I went that route and my mom always said to me like, you're gonna be on TV one day talking about losing weight and helping people lose weight. And I was just like, medical weight loss wasn't a thing then. There was no medical weight loss. And so being able to do this now is really nice. It I feel like it's such a good fit and I It is. It's my, because it's my life. Yeah. But it's also, you live and breathe it. Yes. Yeah. You can just feel that and it feels like you're somebody that, somebody could trust in this space. I hope so. It feels like that. It's a good feeling. You are feeling, you are a very trusting person. Like talking to you. I feel like it's talking to somebody that I've known forever. Because you're so open, you're so honest. Talking about your weight and like going down memory lane to when you were like a teenager. That's not like an easy thing to bring up. And you do this with your patients so they trust you instantly. You're helping people. Yeah. You don't want them to feel judged by you. You don't want anybody to feel judged by you. No. What is the fad now? Yeah. Healthy like the fad then. So the fad now is healthy. Yes. Have you ever seen those memes where it's eat whole foods, but also don't eat too much, but then don't have coconut oil, but also, so there is so many messages coming that I think the message now is less is more. Yes. So shopping the perimeter when my kids ask for a snack, my goal is okay, but it has to be from the refrigerator. We have our snack habits, I buy the mini muffins, I buy the fruit roll-ups. I think you'll feel better if you have X, Y, and Z. So that's the messaging. It's more about the feel less of the look. Yes. And I need to eat breakfast. I eat throughout the day and I think that's the best thing I've ever done for myself. Instead of starving yourself all day. And then overeating later. I think your kids need to see that, but need to see what you're eating. So it's not like snacking all day on Chex Mix and pretzels. It's understanding protein makes you. Full protein also gives you muscles like depending, like changing it to age appropriate talking about it. And Devin now will start, my daughter, she's five, will start saying this steak is gonna give me a lot of energy. And I'm like, it absolutely. Oh my gosh. So we finally have, I love that. Love that. I feel like I am jumping outta my seat because we've talked about how we struggle with the messaging. Yes. There's like healthy messaging, I think now more so than ever. But we don't know how the frick to talk to our kids about. Food in general without, we don't, it's like we don't wanna shame them. Yeah. We don't wanna guilt them and be like, two more bites, three more bites. Four more bites.'Cause we want them to have this like intuitive eating, but also it's very frustrating when they are like, I don't wanna eat this. I'm full. I'm like, no, you're not. I know you're not full. You only have one bite and you're gonna have snacks later. And we're worried that we're being pushy and the snacks aren't gonna give you good fuel and you have hockey practice. So we're in sync about energy and not the image. Yeah. But we don't know what to say. Yeah. And what I'm finding, because this is where I'm deeply struggling, is that the message I'm seeing right now, and again, this could be a trap with the algorithm, the message that is I'm seeing right now on how to talk to your kids is to not make food a big deal. Like you basically put, and I'm not gonna, you put the dessert on the plate, the parenting, and I'm not gonna shame the parenting experts, quote unquote, that are talking about this, but I could assume that people could put two and two together. It's all food is created equal. Put the cake with the apples and let them have at it. And you don't make a big deal about one. You don't say, oh, the apples are healthy, the cake is not healthy. That verbiage should not be used in the messaging from the parents. And I think that's bullshit. Like I think that's extremely dangerous because it's not the same. It is not the same. And so I think that it would be helpful growing up to share that information without making pressure on it. But how could you tell a kid that cake is the same as fruits and vegetables? How this is a big thing in my house because when I had kids, I was like, my kids are not gonna be obsessed with food. My kids are not gonna be obsessed with dessert. So I said, Brandon, we are putting the cookie on the plate. And he was like, this is insane. We're not doing this. I did it sometimes, but honestly, no. That's not gonna work. Yeah. So the biggest thing is food does not have a moral compass. There is not good food and bad food. Okay. Food does not do good things or do bad things. Food has a place in your diet at all times, but there's different foods for different things, so different foods for different things. Yes. Okay. I like that. So there's food for enjoyment. You go to a circus and you're having cotton candy that is nostalgic and environmental and you're enjoying it, then you're at a meal or you're watching a movie. Yes. And you're having popcorn. Exactly. Food for enjoyment. My kids will always say, can we watch a movie tonight? And I know it's yeah.'cause you want popcorn and candy, right? Yeah. But so there's that, and there's all of that, right? And then there's food for fuel, and that's the food that is proteins and fat. So cheese sticks. My kids like these beef jerky, there's food for fuel like that. Oh yeah. The chomps. Yeah. Yeah. That's great. And then there's just filler food that taste good. And you should really only have that if you've already had the. Fuel food. But it's hard with kids. So yes, there's days where my kids go from goldfish to pretzels to cookies, whatever, or snacking all day. But all you can do is be consistent in what you're eating in front of them, making sure they have a protein option every meal that they have. And you choose what goes into your house. They choose what they eat. Okay. So whatever's there, if I put out a plate of cut up peppers and cucumbers, when my kid has friends over, they're all going to it, as opposed to if I'm putting out chips and salsa. Because they'll go to that too. Yes. They'll go to both. If you put out pirate's, booty, they'll eat that. They'll, but when I'm cutting up a melon or I'm cutting up, I don't know how to cut a melon, but if I'm cutting up fruit or vegetables, my kids will come over to me and take it and start eating it because it's there and available. If you're eating it I'm just cutting it for the week and I leave it in the fridge, so if it's like exposure. If they're exposed to it. It's exposure. Yeah. And that's what you, so what you're doing is working. They are obsessed with dessert and they love dessert, but yeah, it's working. So then how do you to them about that then? Okay. With dessert, when it's dessert, if it has a name, this is dessert. This is we have this after meal, after the meal. This is for like the social part or the fun part or the sweet treat before we go to bed. Like I'm okay with it being that I'm not okay with it being an part of the plate. So since they were little, we've always fed them what we eat. And I know people listening are like, yeah, like my kid will only have mac and cheese. We just always did it. And some nights Dana will love the steak and Devin will say, gross and won't look at. She wants to have the dessert, she has to eat the meal. Okay. If you're hungry enough, you're gonna eat the meal. Like you cannot have the dessert if you're not gonna have the steak. Okay. So you, it's safe to the boundary. That's how you hold that boundary. I do. You're firm on, I don't like that. Dessert is bad, but I say you need to eat this first because, this is what's nutritious. Okay. Okay. I like say it's bad versus good, but this is what our dinner is. This is the Q why. So this is, there is no shame around food and there's no praise around food. Is that are you, I'm not like, oh, clean plate club.'Cause a lot of my patients come in and say, growing up we had to finish our food. We were so poor that we were shamed if we didn't enjoy and appreciate the food we had. So a lot of people gained weight that way and they never learned that intuitive eating. So they don't, my kids don't need to finish their plates. They need to at least taste it. It try it. At least try it. Yep. Or know that if you're not gonna try it, there's not gonna be a snack after dinner. Okay. I that because you're going to bed. In my mind, that is how I would like to operate. Yes. And I think I do most of the time operate that way. But then I hear this talk about noise, right? Like you hear the social media noise and the guilt and the shame around food messaging and all of this. And I'm like, I don't wanna be like sitting here screwing both of them up and how they have a relationship with food. So I'm trying to do the right thing. But then you feel like, yeah, but you wouldn't sit down to dinner with Raj and put a cookie and Skittles on your plate. No, it would not on your dinner. I heard that and I have heard it several times from several different platforms. It's, I'm like. What, like I actually wanna be somebody that comments on the thing, like what the actual f are you talking about? Like how I always come back to the data and it's like, where are the kids that had that sort of parenting now? And can you verify that they have a healthy relationship with food now? And that's also how you talk to them. That same kid who's not eating their salmon and green beans after dinner is like, mom, I'm hungry. I want a snack. And we'll say that's, that happens at my house all the day. So what? So what's a good message for that? Dinner was 15 minutes ago. Yeah. You told me you weren't hungry. There'll be breakfast in the morning. So that's it. And I get it. Oh, you seem mean. They're like, but we're hungry. If you were that hungry, you're gonna eat the plate and we'll leave the plate on the table for them. If you're hungry, great. Your salmon's waiting for you. So you offer the same thing from before. Okay. See, I, but they, yeah, that's hard. I'm struggling in this house right now because yesterday I made dinner at one o'clock. I grilled pork chops. I made couscous and then I made like a salad that nobody eats the salad except for me and Nick. We are the only ones that are eating the salad. Sometimes the girls eat it, but then it's okay, first wave, when they get off the bus, they're having something to eat. Then second wave before we go to practice. Third wave when we get home. Yeah. So I'm only eating once, so sometimes they're not always seeing me. You guys are busy reading. We can sit down as a family because they're three and five as like sports and stuff come in. It's gonna be tougher. But I don't know that life yet, growing up, I did sit down with a family. I guess by the time we've gotten to this point now, my boys are like pretty good. And they know what they're eaters. Yes. And if they're gonna gimme a hard time about it, I'm like, go to your room then I don't wanna hear about Yeah. Maybe build the foundation. They're a little, they're a little older. I also question myself, both of my kids are in the lower weight category. They're percentiles are third percent. And I wonder if I would have the same message for them if they were overweight. And that's what I, and I hope they never struggle with being overweight, but I wonder if I would be as lenient or Sure. Or have dessert or buying the minim. I wonder And I'll hopefully, we'll never know. But it's a hard life to be weight. Yeah. I it is. I, so I have four kids. They're all pretty much like. Decent. They're athletic too. They're athletic. My middle son is the best eater out of all of them. He eats in air quotes like the healthiest. Okay. And he, so when you say best, you mean healthiest? Not that he tries a variety. No. Like he eats the most of everything. Like he'll eat the steak, he'll eat the salad, he'll eat the co. He eats like how I want him to eat. I'm like, oh my God, you're such a strong Yes. He naturally gravitates towards good things. I'm such a strong boy. Like you're such a good eater. Yeah. And he outta all my kids is like the stockies. And he'll say to me like, mom, I'm fat. Like why am I so fat? And that's the genetics and metabolism, like it's not anything. Just keep doing what you're doing. In the end it's gonna work out. It's hard. I'm like hard told you at school that you are, you could tell them that you are healthy. And at that age she's door. Which we were just saying. He's at that age where you're becoming aware of your body. Yes. And maybe what you're putting in it and you're comparing and that honestly, that breaks my heart to even hear that on the outside because like you're saying, he's sitting there. Doing the right things. Right, Eating the correct way. And then his siblings are sitting there eating Skittles all the time and he's probably, yeah. We also shouldn't limit his food because if in your mind, if you're like, then I'll start giving him less so he doesn't need as much. He's gonna start sneaking food and then people, and then they get obese that way, I know. So what's gonna happen? Try, I try to limit his sweets. Okay. Like the sweets. Because sometimes he'll go overboard on the sweetss, like the other kids will graze through the meal and they'll go off to their sports. Vincent will eat his whole plate like a good, healthy boy. Yeah. And then he'll have, he'll want two or three ice creams. I'm like, can we maybe just have one ice cream? But then I don't wanna make it a thing because I know, like you said, he'll hard be sitting it in his room. Like after all that, will he ever be like, oh, I eat a little bit too much. I've never seen him do that. So I, he's like a bottomless pet, and now I'm like really oversharing? Now he's on, he has a DHD and now that it's school time. Yeah. He's on the A DHD medication and he, so you under eat during the day, so he won't eat as much during the day. So when I, he comes home and he's binging Spamish. I know it's because he hast eaten a thing the entire day. The food is tricky. It's so tricky. And we, and it all comes down to genetics. So if he's gonna be a stocky little boy, he's gonna be a stocky little boy. Yeah. And you're gonna love him. And that's him. He's not gonna have high cholesterol and diabetes because he is eating well. But if his body type is stockier go have fun at football. Embrace it. Yeah. I'm not like body positivity, obesity, I'm body positivity. This is what you have. Like this is your belt. This is your belt. Yeah. And I used to hate my whatever, insert my stomach, my butt, whatever I see on Dana. Dana has my butt. I love her little butt. But I ever want to. Talk to her. Like I used to talk to myself. I know. Now I know. It's, she's the cutest little butt in the world. When you become a parent, especially when you become a parent of girls, of a girl, you, it's crazy how your mind just shifts about how you think about yourself. I'm sure it could go to both extremes, where maybe you become harder on them if you're noticing something about yourself, Yeah. If you see like a correlation there, it's probably triggering, oh, absolutely. But it also makes you very sympathetic and it also makes you more aware of how you speak to yourself and how you think about things. And you didn't like this about yourself, but now it's on your kid and it's, it's hard. Parenting's hard and the food part of it, you hope doesn't become a thing. You want it just to be natural and you want it to be dinnertime. Kids let's have our chicken and broccoli and rice. But it's gonna become a thing. So you just have to be equipped how to deal with it. And the best thing I could say is never call a food good or bad. Okay. I like that advice. Food, good or bad. I like that a lot. And you are not good or bad for eating said food, right? Like patients come in and say, oh, I was so bad yesterday. Yes. I was like, did you rob a bank? And they're like, no, I had ice cream. And I'm like, no. Walk out the door. Yeah. So you gotta talk to yourself like food is food, you mess up, you start over tomorrow. But it doesn't have to even be mess up. You're right. Absolutely. You mess up in your mind. You mess up in your mind. You didn't follow your prescribed perfect plan in your mind. I'm a failure, you, ooh. I shouldn't have had those m and ms as I walked upstairs last night for bed. I'm a failure. Tomorrow morning you wake up, you don't skip breakfast to make up for it. Those calories you start and you have your eggs and you have your toast and you go it's a reset. Yes. And that's part of what the medical weight management. Practice does is because it's reframing, it's psychological medical, it's a whole new field that we're learning about. And these medications are a great tool for that. I love, so my mom grew up poor. They were like immigrants from Italy and they grew up poor. So I wanted to eat like the snack wells. I wanted a Lunchable, I wanted to buy lunch. And she was like, the processed food. No. You cannot eat that. That is crap. And part of it was a, it was how she was raised because that other stuff cost money. Whereas like the garden was essentially free. Yeah. And B, it was like, she would call it crap. It was never like she was ahead of the game for weight loss it was never like for aesthetics purposes, she was like. No, this is actual shit. Crap. You are not eating this. You have to eat this. But that's how you, and that was what was available and that's what you like now, right? But I feel like I rebelled a little bit.'Cause I was like, when I become a mom, I'm gonna give my kids chips and snacks and this and that, and I'm gonna, I'm not saying it a big deal and I'm gonna do all the things. And then I'm like, oh my God, they're absolute monster terrors when they eat this stuff. Like food really does affect I just prescribed the Thrive Market. Have you ever heard of Thrive Market? Yes. Oh I just prescribed it and I'm gonna be like, does Red 40 really do anything? I don't know. And I'm not an expert, but I'm trying the Oreos from Thrive Market instead of the grocery store and Right. I'll let you know if it works, but you can report back to us. But t do you feel like with that messaging being shared from your mom, do you feel like you have an unhealthy relationship with food? I feel like no. It's like she's a good one. She I have a really good relationship with food. Yeah. Don't think it did any damage. I think it was like probably one of the best things that she could have done for me. And parents should put so much blame on themselves, do the best. You We're all doing the best we can. With everything with parenting. Yes. So this is just another part of it. Yes. I love that. Yeah. It's turned into a parenting podcast again. I know. We, it always does. It always circles back because I always like to come at everything from all the moms that are listening in. Mm-hmm. And just relating it back to that in a way, if we took the roof off of all of our house, the same shit is going on at our house. Oh, yep. At the same time. Or your daughter was yelling at you? Maybe not at four. Mine was the night before, but she called me like, I feel like all of our kids won't sleep in their own beds. They don't wanna go to sleep at night. Then they're gonna grow up and they're gonna have a husband. Then they're gonna wanna sleep in their own room and like Dev, I'll go in your bed like, you can sleep with Brandon. I'll go in your bed. You're delightful. We all have such similar things going on. Yep. And we don't all have the answers. Sometimes things work, sometimes these don't work and we don't all talk about it, which is we don't all talk about our weight. We exactly need to. Yes. No one wants to be friends with a thin girl at the table who says no to bread, and you don't know why. It's'cause you're on ozempic, right? That's why. But sometimes these medicines let you do it. So it's the first time in my life that I can have the bread basket and not worry about gaining weight, right? I used to weigh myself every day and I was like, oh, it went up a pound. Oh, I really shouldn't have had that peanut butter on the apple. That doesn't matter. Now, I tell my patients once a week, every time, the same week, once a week. And if it's gonna mess with your head, don't ever do it. And just do it here. Turn around. So some, sometimes that measuring is like unhealthy barometer, right? For people's success scale victories are great. One thing, non-scale victories are better, right? And we talked about those earlier, about lowering your cholesterol, all those other health benefits. But also the grandma who can now run around with her grandkids or the person who loves to travel, but never would because the airplane seat belt didn't fit them. Those are non-scale victories. Love having a, the reunion coming up and feeling comfortable going,'cause you missed 20 and 25 because you felt overweight. Oh. So like the, those are great. I love that term. Non-scale victory. And they're big ones. Like their knees don't hurt, they don't need to get knee replacements surgery anymore. Nick said for every pound you lose is 15 pounds off your knee. Mm-hmm. Or some like crazy. I'll give equation people a 15 pound weight and I'll be like, you were carrying that around for your whole life. And now they're like, wow. Yeah, I like that because then I, again, it goes back to what we were talking about the beginning of the episode where. There shouldn't be shame in wanting to change something about yourself if you feel like you need to. And I don't mean that from a look perspective as much as, I mean from a within perspective. Yes. And I like correlating it to this non-scale victory because you know you're gonna feel better and it impacts your day to day when you're feeling good about yourself going to the beach with your kids. Yes. And feeling comfortable in the bathing suit and building the sandcastle. Yes. Instead of wrap, being wrapped up and worrying about things. Yes. Like it is. So I love correlating that to the non-scale victories. Sometimes if you do things to better yourself, you feel better, and then you live your life better, yes. And you're a happier person when you feel good about yourself. And that's not, doesn't mean you're wearing a size four jeans. It just means you're doing everything in your power to make yourself better and to feel better. There shouldn't be shame in that. No. And you should share how you do it for other people so other people can do it. I love that. That's a great message to end with. Yeah, I love that. I don't know how we could have gotten, I feel like we squeezed all of our questions. This was great. Thank you so much for sharing. We're gonna close our episode with our pink spotlight. And our pink spotlight is a person, place thing, tip, mantra. Anything that we're doing to make either life a little bit better, or for t and i, it's the week a little bit better. So yeah. Do you wanna start out, Steph, do you have one that you can share? So I've been thinking about this for weeks. Oh my God. Since I was asked to be on the SI was like, what's my pink spotlight? So today my pink spotlight is my sister and I were in Cape Cod this summer. Mm-hmm. And we were walking around Chatham and they had these charm bars set up and you could make your own bracelet, your own necklace. And they had. Like religious affiliations and letters and animals. So we created these charms and I'm wearing one today that has like a beach and my horoscope and a ladybug. And so my sister was like, this is amazing. We need to start doing this. And she recently we started charmed. I love it. H-A-R-M-D-I love it. D is for our mother. Aw. And we'll be having parties around the area. So fun. Yeah. So I'm wearing a necklace and I, oh my God, I love this. Oh my God. Where can little, where can our listeners find you? So it's charmed by dd. Okay, perfect. And you guys, you said you were booking parties, like if somebody was having a birthday party or like a girl's party, you'll set up off to the side and people that's, and they can custom make stuff. Oh, kids size bracelets with the little Taylor Swift. I love it. Cowboy boots is, this could be keeper is the price point. Don. It's real. So they're 18 karat gold filled. It's not a fine jewelry line, but they're fun to mix and match. So I'd say the bracelets are around like.$30 and then each charm is like seven to 10. I love it. So it's a very good price point. Yes. And they look, they're fun. I love it. They're beautiful. I love it. Like change. And I like fun. That you like can tailor it to Yes. I know.'cause I feel like I'm all about like the customization of things and I feel like that's just really fun. Yes. I just thought it look so cute on all the Cape Cod girls and I was like, I need to do this. Oh, what a good idea. I love that. And I love when people lean into their creativity. Yes. That's all Emily. But like you said, your sister Emily, she's great, is very creative. She loves creating things and making things for people. And and this is cool. I feel like this is just another example of having an idea, putting it out there I'm surpris, I'm shocked do, she's putting it to fruition. I love for her. Yeah, I was say Emily, I support you. I do not wanna be a part of any of the admin. I Oh no, I think you're gonna help her. You're gonna help her. You're gonna help her go to all the parties. I would love to help her behind this. Behind the scenes. Yeah, Christina does jewelry. I know. I would love, that's I know like a little collaboration. She has a charm on now. That's what made me think of it. That's beautiful. I have a little tennis track. I love that. Perfect. And a got piece for my tennis team. Perfect. Aren't they cute? It's beautiful. I love that. And I love that. That's something that's like coming back. Where I feel like when we were growing up, it was what did we have? I feel like, why am I blanking on the Pandora bracelet? Pandora, you would just have stuff that you would like. Alex and Ani bracelets were huge in college. The charm was a big one. Yeah. Like where it's like you build your collection around things that matter to you and I feel like this is fun. Or just a good old fashioned like charm necklace. Yes. Or if your kid's going to have her recital, you'll get her like an extra belly charm to add. Like you can add things. So it's fun. That's really fun. Okay. That's adorable. I love that video. I love that great pink spotlight. Thank you for sharing us. What about you? So I just started putting out all my pumpkins and Fall girl, which inspired me is that I am a huge Mackenzie child. You are. Oh, you're girl. I walked in. I know. I'm a huge Mackenzie child collector. And I that's been my go-to for gifts for you love. I'm gonna give you a little backstory. So when Joseph was born, I think he was like. Three or four months old, I started collecting Mackenzie Child and I would go down the only store in Connecticut at the time, other than Lux Bond and Green, which only had the black and white check was Middlebury Consignments. My girlfriend Vanessa and I would drive down to Middlebury and we would like, there was a little cafe there and we would get like one piece, we would pick it out.'cause everything is hand painted. So we would pick out the one we wanted. And we met the owners of the store, Dean and Rachel, who are our age, who had just had a baby. And we, they are best friends, they have four kids. So we've been friends now with them for over 12 years. And so I love to get all my pieces at her store and I still now I, you're so Maddy down there, I get like one at a time. Yeah.'cause it's like a keepsake. It's like a nice, yeah, it's like special and they're expensive pieces, but I'll get they have great gifts too though. They're like such a nice gift to Reese. Have spoon to get, yeah. It goes with every, it's great, but I just, you're the, you like the black and white jack. She has the pink and white, right? Yeah, I have the ster. I like the sterling, which is like the pretty gray. Yep. I'll sh I'll post pictures. I just got the pumpkins are really cute. I just got a sterling pumpkin. I have the green in my bar downstairs. What about the pink, pink green pinks right here. I know what pink is right here. I just got a pink. The girls have a butterfly. The butterfly ones. I see that in there. I love the picture as a gift that I have. I like the floral one. That was like I don't know if that was limited edition, but I like, like the floral one for my stuff outside. They make a little kids' tea set. They, I, oh, we have tea set. My friend Ally has it for a girls. I love it. We have the tea set, but I love Mackenzie Childs and if you are in Connecticut, you should go down to, and actually, I think that they changed the name of their store. I don't think that they're like Middlebury consignment anymore. Yeah, I just wanted just Middlebury Furniture. Middlebury Furniture and Home Design. They have a 40,000 square foot. Warehouse and they moved the gift shop to there. Yeah. Their gift shop is out of this world. If you wanna just go down and just tell my sister and I'll take a ride. Yeah. Oh my. And they have a vineyard across the street. But anyways I'm in my fall Mackenzie Child era. Yeah.'cause that's when you typically bring out a lot of the stuff. Yes.'cause my the pumpkins are my pumpkin favorite pumpkin. Yeah. I know. I just saw somebody unboxing a bunch of those and I was like, those are so pretty. That's an investment I keep wanting to do. I know. I'm like at Home Goods getting the plastic ones, but one day I'll do that. Oh, they're beautiful. I love it. One a year. One a year. Yeah. But it's, yeah. But now you, but over time it's like you start to build a little collection. Yeah. And that's so nice. And I love that the stuff, it's just the same pattern, so you just keep adding Yeah. It doesn't look old. It's like very timeless looking. Yeah. So there you have it. I love it. So mine this week is I have been on a rebuying denim kick. Oh. Because for the first time in four or five years, I am a consistent size and I thought this was a appropriate place to share this because I've been postpartum out post just like all over the place. And so now I have a consistent size. So I've been rebuying my denim and I am obsessed with the pair that I'm wearing right now because I went back to investing in some denim pieces because I finally feel like, okay, I'm a consistent size, so this makes sense to do it now. So I have a pair of mother denim, I believe these are called the Rambler, and I don't know if I've just been out of the denim world for so long. They're great, but things are like stretchy, but keep the shape. Now they look like the Levi, the main one today. Yes. Are those mother? Mother? These are mother. I bought them for my sister, but I bought them for myself this morning. And they are an investment. Yes. But. They always will look good. Yes. And they keep their form. I've always been like in love with denim, like I'm a denim girl. But then when I just, I was either like pregnant or postpartum mm-hmm. and wearing leggings and so I was really like, out of the jean came for a really long time, think time. Very expensive. Over years. I think they did this. So first of all, the prices shot through the roof. Like ag used to be like one 10, everything went up. Like mother at least$50. 50. Yeah. They used to be 200 and now they're two 50. So it, again, it was not the time to invest in those pieces.'cause I was like, I can't even stay a consistent size right now. But I feel like the stretchy jeans that we used to wear, yes. The jegging five plus years ago used to lose their shape a lot more. Yes. And then I feel like then the rigid styles became a little bit more what you wanted not comfortable for because you could, like they do have a time and a place like they suck you in. Yes. You feel like they, you get a little bit more shape maybe with them, but you cannot stay in them all day long. No, those you could wear day, all day. So now I feel like I'm like reentering denim and wearing denim and I'm like, wait a minute, where did you get them Locally? I get, I bought these from Revolve. I had gone into anthropology. About a month and a half ago and I did another denim, like I went, I was looking for a different pair of denim and that kind of started me off where I was like in there actually trying on jeans and I tried these on, but a different wash. And so I knew that they fit and I was like, okay, if I see a different wash somewhere else I'll buy those too. And so I had already tried them on. So I feel like my first pink spotlight,'cause I had shared that I went into the store and actually tried on Cho in stores. I think online is wonderful, but oh my god, going in and trying on jeans, I find myself at the mall. All the sees you the headache time. Yes. So that was huge for me was like finding the size and the style and like the brands that work. And trying them on and having fun with that. But then now that I know my size and a couple different brands, I'm like reordering things and I'm like, wow, okay. So even in five years things have improved and I am wearing these jeans and I will not take them off. I put them on first thing this morning, like before the kids got up, be in them all day long. Like what? Like usually I can't get out of them fast enough. Like when I come in it's like we do not wear jeans inside. And now I'm actually like, the jeans are like sweatpants now. I like they're more comfortable than some of my sweatpants. Okay. I love that. That's a stretch. So in just like shameless plugin Avon, there's a store Coco Lily. And she sells mother jeans there. I was gonna say Kimberly Boutique in West Har. They do. So Nordstrom has it. Yeah. It's nice to be able to go locally. And try on jeans. I love trying on. Yes. I feel like jeans are one of those things where you need to and I feel like with ordering, how many jeans are you gonna order at 250? The jeans in the same wash looks so different On different, yes. That's a good wash. It's so true. Same thing. Medium wash. So which one is that? What style is it? This is the ankle pipe jeans. The jeans pipe. Those are cute. I like those too. I love those because I'm like not so tall, but I could wear'em with all shoes. I love those. Yes. That's what I got these,'cause mine hit at the ankle. When I'm standing and there's, I can actually wear them with like boots. I can wear them with flats, with heels. It's that's why when you make an investment in jeans, make sure it's something that you can wear with a lot of different things. That's, you just gotta pull the trigger. You gotta just do it. But yeah. But then you won't buy another pair for a while. That's why I feel like I'm like, or I could buy a bunch of different kinds and I'm still not happy or invest in these trends. I go to the same too. Anyway, I feel like this trends, like I love a wide leg right now, but they might go out, so I might go to Gap or somewhere quick and stuff. But like staple pans that you like always can go grab. I agree with you. Yeah. So that was, I wanna be a wide leg jean garage. I love a pair of brown ones from Zara. And I wanna, we need to Zara here, you can do anything. Get us a Zara. I cannot on Zara feel like I'm too a short for them. You're not a tailor. Growing up my mom would bring us to the tailor there. Nothing. Think sometimes they can be elong, maybe need to bring them to the tailor. Yeah. I try, you know what, I didn't, I boxed them up and I was gonna return them, but I've been driving around with a box for two weeks.'Cause I'm like, no, I think maybe Spanx makes a really spank. I try, I want a brown pair and they look and feel so good. Spanx. I could bring mine over for you to try because I have them, I and I love them. Those, that's a good recommendation. Spanx for wide leg. Spanx, if you're like on the fence because they hug you and all the way know a jean. Yes. But they're like a fake gene. It's like a chino denim. Yes. Like a navy that's want to work and stuff. Yep. They have brown, they have black. Yep. They're just like, they look really good on heels. I'm in my brown era. Hug. Same. I love brown. Love it. On that note, guys, this was such a good one. Thank you for coming on. Thank you. Was easier than I thought. It was very, I know that when we had asked you, you were like, no, I don't like public speaking. Yeah no. And I was like, we need you to share your voice and your knowledge here on this podcast because if you turn on Instagram, just people don't. What to know what they're talking about or they think they do or they're sharing some, they're not sharing the whole story. And we want our listeners who are so invested in this to hear everything. So thank you for sharing it. Great. We appreciate all the knowledge and you're on camera. Awesome. You did great. Thank. Shut up you guys. You came in blow. Oh my God, you got your hair blown out. I love you and I love this. Oh, I know. And we got, I feel like me and you get rejected sometimes when we ask people to come on and they get so nervous and I'm like, you're gonna come on and you're gonna do great. And we've just, we're so lucky that we have these voices, like in our pockets of people that we can have come on and share their knowledge. And we're just so grateful for you. So thank you for being brave and doing it. Thank you. Getting outta my comfort zone. Yes. Thank you for doing this. We really appreciate it. Alright. We love you. Thank you guys so much for listening next week. We'll see you next time. Bye bye. Did it crushed it? That was I always say every time I have someone on, I'm like, that was amazing. We're always like, this is gonna be the best episode.