The Sista Circle Podcast
The Sista Circle Podcast
How to Lose Weight and Feel Great: Demystifying Stress, Hormones, Diet & Exercise w/ Dr. Firlande Volcy
EPISODE OVERVIEW: I interview Dr. Firlande Volcy, a licensed naturopathic physician with more than 15 years of experience in natural medicine. She serves as a leading expert in her field, and specializes in weight management, digestive health, thyroid disorders, depression, and anxiety.
During our conversation Dr. Firlande breaks down all the things you need to know about how to lose weight - from the effects of stress on your hormones, when and what to eat to achieve maximum weight loss results, to exercise tips to optimize workouts and so much more! It was like talking to one of my favorite girlfriends who has an engaging way of breaking down complex concepts into consumable, bite-sized pieces. I walked away with so many “Ah-Ha” moments, and am sure you will do the same!
ABOUT THE GUEST: Dr. Firlande Volcy is a licensed naturopathic physician. Having more than 15 years of experience in natural medicine, she serves as a leading expert in her field. She specializes in weight management, digestive health, thyroid disorders, depression, and anxiety. She is a nationally recognized speaker, bestselling author, consultant and sought-after expert appearing frequently on the lecture stage, print, podcasts, and radio.
Dr. Firlande consistently educates her patients via her personalized concierge and telemedicine visits, weight loss coaching program, and her various online masterclasses.
She earned her Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine from Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine (SCNM), a four-year accredited Naturopathic Medical School in Tempe, AZ. She completed an additional year-long study in Classical Homeopathy at the American Medical College of Homeopathy (AMCH) in Phoenix, AZ.
She is dedicated to her patients. She is ready to help you with all your diverse health concerns. She is comprehensive in her care. She is the doctor who listens and gets to the root cause of your health issues.
How you can connect with Dr. Firlande:
- Available on all social media platforms @DrFirlande
RESOURCES MENTIONED:
- Book: Courage to Lose
- 10 Ways to lose 10 lbs in 10 days Ebook PDF
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EP.21 | How to Lose Weight and Feel Great: Demystifying Stress, Hormones, Diet & Exercise w/ Dr. Firlande Volcy
Intro: Hey queen, I'm Faith Alaribe, the founder and host of the Sista Circle Podcast. Around here we have honest and real conversations about our health, mental health and wellness, topics that deeply impact our lives as women of color. And all with the mission to provide the information, tools and resources to fill up our wellness toolkits, make informed decisions and to allow us to thrive in every area of our lives. So, get ready to be enlightened informed and inspired. Go ahead and get comfortable queen consider this your official welcome to the Sista Circle.
Faith: Hey queen, before we jump into the episode, I wanted to make a quick plug. I don't know about you, but over the last month or so, I've been really missing communion with like-minded women, just like you. And as I like to really be intentional about the things that I do, I wanted to create a Sista Circle with intention. So coming Sunday, February 20th at 10:00 AM Central Time, I'll be hosting my first installment of "I Say Sundays". It's a curated space for women of color to commune, reflect and reset for the purpose of self-nourishment. We'll do some meditation and reflection, some theme, small group discussions, and even an activity to help you prioritize really caring for yourself. I know you may be thinking why I say? Well, I Say is actually a philosophical concept of the Yoruba Tribe of Nigeria, which essentially means call or to speak into existence or to affirm something with strength and power.
So, at I Say Sundays, we'll be affirming the power of self-nourishment and caring for ourselves. And I'll explain all of the details at the actual Sista Circle itself. In the meantime, after you listen to this week's episode, be sure to check out the show notes, head over to the Sista Circle Podcast website, or check out the link tree on our Instagram to register to attend. I haven't been this excited in a really long time, so I'm looking forward to communing with you and prioritizing our wellness together queen. Now, let's get into this episode shall we.
Sista Circle podcast community, I am so grateful to have today's guest with us. Dr. Firlande Volcy. Dr. Filande is a licensed naturopathic position. Having more than 15 years of experience in natural medicine, she serves as a leading expert in her field. She specializes in weight loss management, digestive health, thyroid disorders, depression and anxiety. Dr. Firlande, welcome to the Sista Circle, queen.
Dr. Firlande: Thank you so much. And thank you for having me.
Faith: So, let's get right into it. I always start my interviews by setting an intention. So for the women who will encounter your episode on the podcast, what is your intention?
Dr. Firlande: So my intention, when I wake up every morning, I set an intention for myself, and a lot of times my intention is to serve. So, how can I serve other today? How can I serve better? How can I serve myself? So my intention today for all of those listening is to serve you and hope that you will take action immediately after listening to what I say. And so, really getting your life back on track and get your health back on track.
Faith: So, who is Dr. Firlande? Where are you from? And what is your mission?
Dr. Firlande: Great question. Thank you so much. So Dr. Firlande, I ask myself that all the time, who are you today, and who are you wanting to be today? I am originally from Haiti. I was raised in the United States, Florida, and I have been on this journey to empower and educate women to take care of their health, whether it's like physical health, mental health, or emotional health, because without that, we don't have much. Our health is our greatest wealth. So, that's my mission to empower and educate women.
Faith: That's awesome. That's awesome. And you are so right, our health is our wealth, for sure. So, what was your journey to naturopathic medicine?
Dr. Firlande: So my journey was very interesting. Growing up, I spent the first part of my life in Haiti and I remember my mom going outside. Every time we get sick, she would go outside and pick like whatever herb was calling out to her. And then she'll make some type of brew for us, and before you know it, we were better. So when I got to the US and I went to undergrad, I was pre-med undergrad micro biology and chemistry. And I went immediately into the workforce, but I knew I wanted to be a doctor. So I took the MCAT, after I took the MCAT, I started getting a lot of different schools to send me their information. I received a brochure from naturopathic medicine, the Southwest College of Naturopathic Medicine, which is in Tempe, Arizona. And I was very skeptical because I had never heard of naturopathic school, so I immediately started doing my research. I was like, "Oh my God, this is probably a scam. I don't know who they are." And the more research I did the better I'm like, "Ooh, this is really for me. This is in alignment of what I want to do." Meanwhile, I also had a lot of close family members getting sick and then ended up passing away. I did not like the care that they receive and I really wanted to do something a little different, so really that's why I went into naturopathic medicine.
Faith: And so, a follow up question to that would be, what is the difference between naturopathic medicine and functional medicine?
Dr. Firlande: Good question. And I get that a whole lot. So naturopathic medicine, people who are naturopathic physician, they actually go to a four year accredited naturopathic school. As compared to functional medicine, where most functional docs are MDs or DOs, and then they do some extra CEs or CMEs - continuing medical education. And they end up doing more that functional medicine, which is basically functional labs. We have some specialty labs, they learn about nutrition and they learn about how to take better care of the patient. Now, some naturopathic doctors can also become functional Docs or integrative Docs. So, it really depends on what you do after you receive your degree.
Faith: So I know that your area of specialty is weight management, but a lot of your work also is kind of like this mind body connection. I'm really interested in learning a little bit more about your philosophy around the mind body connection, particularly as a relate it's to weight loss.
Dr. Firlande: Yes, absolutely. So we are not just a body, right? We have a mind and we have a spirit and sometime we call it the soul. And a lot of times when I look at weight loss and people will tend to gain weight, the bad thing about us, who we are showing up into this world and we show our feelings on the outside. As compared to a skinny person who is maybe anorexic, where people won't know so much what is going on with them. So when we think about weight gain, aside from hormonal imbalances that could be happening, lack of sleep stress, but it can also would be the mind body connection. So, this is where you are not aligning what is going on with your state of mind, with what's going on with your body. And within my program, I really focus on the mindset, how you see yourself, how you think about yourself, what you tell yourself on a daily basis, because the body's going to follow what the mind thinks. So if you are thinking those thoughts, the mind is going to follow and the body's going to do exactly that, which is, oh, I'm fat. Therefore, guess what's going to happen; I'm going to eat the food that's going to make me fat. Therefore I'm not going to exercise. Therefore I'm not going to take care of myself. So in a holistic way, there's no way to separate the mindset from the physical manifestation of what's happening, because the body is going to follow what the mind thinks.
Faith: You know, I think that as a black woman and a woman of color, I think that for so often, like the normalization of obesity in our community is like at an all time high. There's even some cultures who like the bigger that you are, the more that you are praised. And so, part of having this conversation is to really like have an honest conversation about the impact of obesity on our bodies and our health. And so with that being said, how in fact does weight impact our health?
Dr. Firlande: In so many ways, in so many ways. When we think about people who are more obese, they're putting so much more pressure on the organs, your internal organs. Many of them end up with fatty liver and it's not from alcoholic fatty liver, but from sugar fatty liver, which can lead to cirrhosis of the liver. But also, you get pressure on the heart. Most of those people end up with high blood pressure. Your pancreas don't work as much, soo therefore, you end up with diabetes. Your kidneys tends to suffer as well as your insulin is not able to regulate itself, so you end up with like insulin resistance. You can end up with kidney problems. And a lot do people end up in dialysis, going through dialysis. So when you think about every single organ, every single organ is impacted by being obese.
And when we think about in the black community how many women have fibroids, that is a great impact as well as so many women, black women are overweight and they are not eating the proper food and they are not doing the right - again, going back to the mind body. How many of us like actually wake up and say, Hey, you know what, I'm going to sit for meditation before I go about my day. Some people do pray and I do say that, but sometimes it's like really nice to it and meditate and get guidance just by silencing yourself. Again, that connection. So when we, on a global scale, you know, black women are suffering because of all of that black women tend to have hysterectomies more readily than the counterparts - the other women. And that's because again, we're eating all these foods that are high in estrogen, and it's not so much the body's producing more estrogen. It's like the exogenous estrogen that we are getting from the food that we eat, the products that we put on our hair, the products we put on our face and our skin. All of those things when we think about it, combining all those things and when we think about the things that we go through, that others don't go through, all of that can lead to that obesity, which can lead to diabetes, high blood pressure, fibroids, and so on and so forth.
Faith: Got you. So you touched on this a little bit, you talked about stress, right? And we know as black women, women of color, we often wear this S on our chest in this proud stands, but I think that as opposed to the S standing for superwoman, it really stands for stress the hell out. And so, talk to me a little bit about the effects of stress on your weight.
Dr. Firlande: Wow. That is really big. And as part of the program as well, we go into the stress relieving techniques or tactics that you need to do on a daily basis. So when we think about stress, so your body is very wise, right? So your body produces different hormones and those hormones are for whatever you need. Like when you go in the field and you watch, you know, or if you go to Africa, for instance, and you watch a deer running from the lion; that deer has a lot of cortisol ramping through its system because it needs a cortisol. It's a fight of flight. Fight of flight, which means that, okay, I'm going to be frightened and then I'm going to run away, run away from the lion. But if you notice, once danger is longer in sight, that deer goes back to doing this regular thing, whether it's like grazing or walking, right? It's no longer worrying about cortisol.
But unfortunately for us, we constantly stay in that state, whether it is our job, our relationships, being obese, we constantly in that fight of flight, so cortisol is tend to be a little higher than most people. So when cortisol is high, cortisol is this hormone that tend to lead into inflammation, it leads into obesity, it leads into the ability to sleep because high cortisol, your melatonin is low, so your melatonin is opposite, that's what helps you sleep. If you're not able to sleep, you can't lose weight either, right? So, if you always constantly running on cortisol, you're going to have the joint pain. You're not going to be able to lose weight. You're not feel good about yourself, because you're always running on cortisol. So therefore, it's really, really important that, like I mentioned earlier to find the stress relieving exercises, because stress is part of life and you can't remove the stressors out of your life. But just like that deer, once the stress is gone, you should able to go back to your normal life. You should be able to do the work that you're supposed to do, but most of us, we can't separate the two and that's when we have problems.
Faith: Wow. So the cortisol, talk to me, you mentioned this - a little bit and you talked about like the stress impact on hormones. So, cortisol is a hormone?
Dr. Firlande: Yes.
Faith: Okay. And so, talk to me a little bit about like stress and hormones and how they interact aside from just like cortisol. I think about when I was actually first introduced to naturopathic medicine and the number one thing that, you know, the physician that I was working with, she was like, well, first things first, we got to balance out your hormones. And so, we balance that through nutrition, primarily, and supplements and things of that nature. And so, when I think about the balancing of hormones, part of what she also had me do was to figure out ways to minimize my stress. So, can you talk a little bit more about that connection between stress and hormones?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah, absolutely. So when you are stressed, so for instance, like I mentioned earlier the melatonin, but let's think about other hormones. So let's think about your thyroid hormone, right? So a lot of times, your thyroid is your metabolic hormone, so this is what helps you burn fat, this is what helps you give you that energy. But if your body is like this, it's high on cortisol, it's going to suppress your thyroid, so that's why a lot of women end up with hypothyroidism. They may or may not have the autoimmune, which is like Hashimotos or graves, but because the thyroid hormone is under functioning because cortisol has been taken over. So therefore, you will gain weight automatically because again, that's metabolic hormone. The other factors are your estrogen. So estrogen, so when think about women, we have all those different hormones and women tend to have testosterone as well. That's what helps us go to sleep really well. You know, our libido is high sometimes, so that's important as well.
But when your cortisol is high, it's going to grab that estrogen and say, "Hey, let's go friend. Let's go together." So when your estrogen is high, that can lead to, like I mentioned earlier, your fibroids, but also it can lead to suppression of your progesterone. Now your cycle is out of whack, but also it can suppress your testosterone. So you see men where they start developing breast tissue because of the food that they're eating. A lot of times they have a lot more estrogen and they have low testosterone, which means that they cannot perform in bed, they're not able to lose the weight, and so we want to balance out the cortisol because if it's not balanced, all the other hormones are going to be affected, especially your sexual hormones and as well as your thyroid hormones. So, we want to make sure that those things are balanced out.
Faith: That is fascinating. You know, it's like, I always hear about estrogen, right. Estrogen and testosterone. But I'll be honest and say that I haven't heard a lot about this cortisol thing. So, I think that along those lines, you mentioned about like the controlling of the cortisol. Can you talk to me a little bit about ways in which you can actively your cortisol levels?
Dr. Firlande: Oh, absolutely. So you need cortisol, right? So you need cortisol to wake up in the morning. I work out, I do really hard workouts, strenuous workouts, so I need that cortisol, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it. Some people go into adrenal fatigue because they've overused their cortisol, so the body is like, "Eh," so they are fatigued all the time. I don't want to paint it to be bad because cortisol is necessary. But when you have too much, you can't sleep at night and your hormones are not regulated, that's when it becomes a problem. So to help with the cortisol, the first thing is making sure that your circadian rhythm is okay. So meaning that, you go to bed at a particular time, so 10 o'clock for instance, so you have the best sleep between 10:00 PM and 2:00 AM.
If you are up laly-gagging around those times, most of the time, like your melatonin is going to be low and your cortisol may be high. So, one, making sure you're going to bed on time. The second thing is food. So when we think about food, it's not just what you put in your mouth, but the effect of what the food has when you eat, how you eat and how much you eat. And those are the things that I really focus on in the coaching program, because people say, "Well, I'm going to going to just control my portion size." It's not just about the portion size, because the other factors when you eat, if you are eating at midnight, guess what? That is causing cortisol to surge. Because again, if you are sensitive to those food, like potato chips, for instance, if you are sensitive to those foods, you are going to surge that cortisol, and you're going to cause your insulin to go up as well around that time, which is a stress factor. So, controlling what you eat, how much you and when you eat.
When I say that, I think about whole foods. A lot of times when people go on the diet, there's like, "Okay, it's a diet, I'm going to do it just to lose weight. And then after that, I'll go back to my regular eating." So like you have the keto diet, you have the paleo diet, you have all those different diets out there; really the thing is about eating whole foods. And if you can get organic, even better, because again, our foods are sprayed, our animals are injected, so it's best to go into the organic. So organic food, whole foods so you want to focus on that.
The other part is like other stress relieving exercises, simple things that you can do. Waking up before you turn on your phone and go on Instagram or Facebook, whatever your social media platform is; get up out of bed and really have some type of morning practice. Like, your practice in the morning is the best thing that will help you throughout your whole day. So first, you have to set an intention. What is in my intention for my day? So whatever that is, set that intention. The second thing is you really have to kind of sit still because when you go to sleep, you stop momentum. So whatever arguments you had the day before, whatever bad things happen to you the day before, it stop while you are asleep. When you wake up in the morning, don't bring those things back up, don't go on social media and bring the drummer back up. So if you are able to sit for like 15 minutes, it doesn't have to be 30. I sit for 30 minutes every morning. Doesn't have to be 30 minutes; you could start with 10 minutes for 10 minutes just to allow your mind to quiet down.
And once it quiets, maybe have a journal nearby and do like a mind dumping. So this is where you dump everything that's on your mind, because a lot of time we ruminate or we think about all those things that we have to do, remove them from your brain and dump them on the paper, so that's going to relieve the stress because you don't have to think about those things anymore. Okay, well let me just make a checklist from all of those things, so then I don't have to think about them. So meditation, exercise, we haven't even talked about exercise yet. Exercise is such a great stress relieving technique. And it doesn't have to be like, you know, people do like high intensity interval training like myself or you get on the Peloton or you know what I ever bike you have - a treadmill.
It doesn't have to be that. You can just do like 10 minutes of yoga. You can do 10 minutes of just stretching. You can do like one minute. You could start with just one minute of like doing some squats or some planks. It's going to set your day up, but also it's going to help you balance out your hormones, balance out your cortisol. And the last thing I would say is that, go outside, go outside in nature. People don't think about like, "Oh, I'm going to sit in my house all day, every day", especially since COVID and this pandemic, people afraid to go outside. If you just go outside for five minutes, go outside in nature, take your shoes off, take your socks off and plant your feet on the ground and ground yourself and take some deep inhale, in and out; this will actually change your day.
Faith: Listen. It is nothing like the grass between your toes in the morning. Yes, I am here for it. Yes, indeed. It's like healing.
Dr. Firlande: Yes.
Faith: Yeah. I'm noticing more and more like the importance of having that morning routine because it literally does set the tone for how your day goes, right?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah.
Faith: Oh my gosh. I'm learning this so, so much, so much. So, you talked about eating whole foods, right? Like the importance of eating whole foods. So for my birthday, I gifted myself a hundred days of self-love of optimal health and wellness. And so, what that has meant is that I've been waking up at 6:30. I've been working out, doing the journal and meditation, the whole shebang. And so last week I was like, okay, now I want to tackle my diet. I want to clean it up a little bit. I want to incorporate more vegetables and fruits and things like that. So I'm thinking that I'm adding vegetables here and there. But how much servings of like vegetables and fruit should we be having a day?
Dr. Firlande: Good question. Well, so when I think about whole foods and servings, so I don't really go with servings, but I will give you a ballpark of what that would look like. So when think about vegetables, we think about five to seven servings per day. So or instance, a couple broccoli could be like couple of servings. So you can do five or seven servings of plant food. So when we think about plant food, because grains are plants and beans are plants, but we want to really when we think about vegetables, we want to include those vegetables that are grown above ground. So aboveground vegetables, like your broccoli, your cauliflower, your lettuce, your spinach, you know, peppers and things like that below ground, like your potatoes and carrots, those have more energy. So you want to do more of those in the fall and winter when it's cold outside, if you know cold environment, but mostly, you want to do above ground vegetables, so five to seven servings.
When it comes to fruits, I'm a fruitarian. I love fruits. I could just be in an island and just eat fruits. When you think about fruits, a lot of people think about fruits as just the fruits, the sweet fruits, but there are like a lot of savory fruits because fruits is just basically the seeds is embedded side. Like a pepper is a fruit, cucumbers are actually fruits, but okay, we're not going to go too much into that. However, so we talking about the sweet fruits; three servings for weight loss, three servings, probably the most you want to do. And that's because fruits turned immediately into sugar. So you'll body is that particular food; fruits have like water and sugar and some fiber, right? So it depends on what you're eating. So apple has fiber, has the sugar and the water. It can spike up your blood sugar. So if you're diabetic, you want to be mindful how much of fruits are you doing. But if you have a lot of weight to lose, you want to be mindful how much fruits that you're taking in a day. So most of the time I tell people; you have one serving of fruit in the morning, and then you have another serving of fruit in the afternoon. So, you don't want to eat fruits after three, four o'clock
Faith: Oh, interesting.
Dr. Firlande: You don't. And again, that's because weight loss is what you're aiming for. You want to be doing more of your vegetables or if you tend to go more into the savory fruits, you can do those, but the sweet fruits like bananas, no one should really be eating bananas after three o'clock again, because that's sugar. Your metabolism tends to slow down in that late afternoon, evening time. So everything that is sweet, your cakes, your sugar, your cookies, all of those going to go into more into storage form. So storage, meaning that your body turned those things into fat or triglycerides for later use. We have plenty of storage, your body, that's all it's doing is storing. That's why a lot of people tend to end up with like the fatty liver, because your body's just storing, storing for later, just in case there's famine; about three servings of fruits, five to seven servings of vegetables.
Faith: Got you. And so you mentioned like not eating a banana after three or four; when you're thinking about weight loss, are there some fruits that you would suggest people eat more of because maybe they're low glycemic, and if so, what types of fruits might those be?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah. So first I want to say that I do recommend people eat according to the season, especially if you are in an area where you have four seasons. Every season provides you with the opportunity to be healthy and to support your system, your immune system. So for instance, in the winter, we have lots of oranges, Kiwis, you know, fall, we have the persimmon, we have apples, and pears because particular season helps you with whatever elements. Like for fall and winter, you have the flu, so those fruits are high in vitamin C which is going to help you fight off whatever's going to come to you during those winter months and fall. So that being said, with weight loss, I don't recommend a lot of bananas. Bananas are very sweet fruits and they are high in sugar. So if you're diabetic, I already say, no, no. If you are not a diabetic, but you want to lose weight, I would say, you can eat your banana first thing in the morning, like for breakfast, for instance, instead of with your lunch or dinner. So I tend to have people go more towards the fruits that are higher in antioxidants and higher in fibers. So your berries, right? So your blue blueberries, blackberries. Cherries are okay, but they tend to be on the sweeter side as well, but if it's summertime, have yourself some.
Faith: I'm about to say, you know I love a good cherry at summertime.
Dr. Firlande: You know, have yourself a couple cherries, like just sit there, eat that. Watermelon is great in the summertime if you spending more time outside. Again, if you sedentary and you're sitting in the house, don't eat a bunch of watermelon because it's water and sugar. Watermelon doesn't have much fiber in it, so water and sugar melons again, summertime, all types of melons in the summer, but make sure that you're going outside and sweating as well. So berries, like I mentioned, and then in the fall you definitely want to do those foods that are more fibrous. So that's going to be your apples, your pears, persimmon, those are more fibrous. And then winter, you want to do your oranges. I love mango because I'm a Caribbean girl. But mangos are super sweet as well. They're high in vitamin C, so you want to do mangoes for breakfast, instead of for lunch or dinner pineapples are also good. You can do like one serving a pineapple. Again, pineapples are sweet, but they do have enzymes. So you can do them in the morning and early afternoon like one o'clock. So you can tend to add those fruits and vegetables according to the season, but make sure that if they are high in sugar, you want to do them the earlier part of the morning.
Faith: Really good to know. So when you are aiming for weight loss, you know, black and brown folk, we love some rice. I know Haitians, you all love the black rice. My husband is Nigerian, they love the jollof rice. And so, is rice something that we could have a part of our diet? Like, what are your thoughts around that? And are there alternatives?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah, so yes, absolutely being Haitian, that's a staple in our culture. But when I think about how I grew up eating a lot of rice as compared to when I got here and I started eating rice and I'm just like, it doesn't have the same effect again, because not cultivated the same, not manufactured the same. So to answer that question, you can have rice. So in my program, what I do is when people first start out, you want to move those things. Again, you can have your grains, you can have your fruits and you can have your potatoes, but move those earlier on the day. So you can have a cup of rice for breakfast. And even if you like the sweet rice, you can have that for breakfast, but don't have two cups of rice for dinner. And that's where the problem is; a lot of people don't know when to eat and what to eat in the evening.
So if you think about how important it is to remove grains in the evening when you first start out, you'd be like, oh gosh, I'll never eat grains for dinner again. So it doesn't mean that it has to be this way your whole life, but at least until you get the weight off, and then you can do like maybe a quarter cup to one cup of rice in the evening. And I do recommend whole grain rice. You can do right rice and that's fine, but if you can do more whole grains like brown rice, black rice, you can do quinoa; those things all tend to be higher in protein and they affect your glycemic index as much as the white rice would. So have your right rice in the morning if you're going to have it before noon.
Faith: Got you. That's super interesting and really good to know. Really, really good to know. So we talked a little bit about what you should eat and you have a heavy emphasis on when to eat what. That cues in my mind, like sugar and salt for a couple of reasons. So talk to me about like - so I know that there are certain like fruits, they automatically turn into sugar in your bloodstream, but what about the pastas? What about the breads and things like that? Does that too turn into sugar in our blood? What are the effects of that?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah. So again, carbohydrates, when we think about carbohydrates, people think about carbs as just the cookies and the cakes and maybe pasta, and potatoes. But they don't think about carbs as in general, carbs are all plant foods. Carbs have energy and that's what they are. They have energy for you to do work. As compared to protein, protein turns into amino acid to help with your muscles, to help you move and all of that. But carbs are just energy, energy production foods. So when you think about carbs and when we break it down, and that's one thing that I teach people, let's break this down because I think there's like this misconception that fruits are not carbs, or certain are not. So your pasta, that's just carbs - your carbohydrates. So you have complex carbs and you have simple carbs.
So complex carbs; that means they have multiple sugars attached, so they can be oligosaccharide or they can be polysaccharides. Poly means it's mainly sugars attached. So depending on how many sugars are attached, would depend on how fast that sugar goes into your bloodstream. I'm going to give you an example; I'm going into a little bit of chemistry here, so I'll try to keep it as basic as possible. So complex carbs, you have multiple sugars attached; your body will break those sugars down, so everything really is going to turn in to glucose. Glucose is what the body utilizes, what the brain utilizes, because a lot of time it's to feed your brain and then to feed your muscles, so it turns into glucose. But this is the caveat; when people thinking about, oh, I'm going to have my cup of rice, your cup of rice may not have fiber in it like your right rice as compared to your brown rice.
So when you eat something that has more fiber, so when you eat, for instance, a cup of broccoli versus a cup of noodle, that broccoli has more fiber. The broccoli slows down the rate at which your body turns that particular food into sugar. So you don't get a high from eating broccoli as compared to like, oh my God, I want to bounce off the wall when I eat a piece of candy. Because that piece of candy, which is a simple carb, turns immediately into glucose. That broccoli, your body has to go through many processes before it turns that into glucose for your brain to utilize. So, that's the main difference. So when you are choosing, you want to choose something that has not been digested per se, right? So that means like, okay, your wheat has turned into flour. So even when we think about almond flour, we think about coconut flour, this is a flower, it's a process, a product. So your body doesn't need to process it as much. So therefore, it breaks it down a lot faster than if you had the whole plant, the whole food.
Faith: Dr. Firlande, you over here breaking stuff down. No, seriously. That was such a good example, now like it's clicking in my brain. That's great. That's great. So, to talk to me about sodium, and I want to talk a little bit about sodium because I'm actually really curious to know, like I know that it has like inflammatory properties, right. But I'm curious to know like, is sodium something that we should really be mindful of just in the way that we are of sugar? And if so, what do we need to be like flavoring our foods with instead?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah, good question. So when we think about - so salt and sugar, so water's going to follow salt and sugar. That's why people whose diet is high in salt, they tend to be more in flame or thicker or they have more water because again, water is going to follow. That's why when you eat something that's really high in salt, you're like, "Oh, give me some water." You can drink a gallon of water because your body gets dehydrated and your body starts holding onto that water. So salt is not necessarily bad, but the salt that we eat, the iodized salt is not the best for you. But also when you think about the food that you are eating, so if you are having like potatoes and steak, you don't need a bunch of salt for that. You could be flavoring your food with herbs. Herbs are like one of the best things to flavor your food.
However, this is a caveat. There's always a caveat for the disc, right? So when you think about the ketogenic diet, with the ketogenic diet, you are removing a lot of those carbs. Again, carbs, water, carbs inflammation is a dirty fuel. So when you're removing all the carbs and you're removing all the things that can cause inflammation, now your body is actually cleansing and purging itself. So a lot of people who are on the keto diet, they tend to salt their food a lot more because the body is... you are always, like when you start ketogenic diet, you're peeing all the time. You're losing potassium, you're losing your minerals. That's why a lot of people tend to do electrolytes and they tend to do a lot of salt because your body's not holding on to that salt and you are peeing all out. So, it really depends on your diet.
If you have a SAD diet, which is a standard American diet, you don't need to be salting your food as much, use herbs as a way to season your food. If you are doing a keto diet where you're not having a lot of those junk food, then you can generously season your food - I mean, use salt. And when using salt, you want to do like sea salt or Himalayan salt, the pink salt, and that's because they tend to have a lot more minerals than the iodized salt that you get like a big jar of it. Because all of those properties have been removed, you don't get a lot of those good properties of that salt, so you want the sea salt or Himalayan salt. So, salt necessarily is not bad; it is how you use it in your food and what your food is that you put it in it.
Faith: Got it. Yeah. I'm a user of the pink Himalayan sea salt, for sure. So I know that we've talked in grave detail about food, so now let's talk a little bit about exercise. I'm excited. And the reason why I'm excited - so I have a Peloton and I enjoy my rides. But now I'm like, I think that I need to start incorporating a little bit more than just my cardio. So, talk to me. Well, one question that I'll start with is, what do you think is my else important? Is it food or is it exercise?
Dr. Firlande: Ooh, that is so great. So number one is nutrition. Nutrition has to be number one. You can actually lose a lot of weight without exercising. Like I had an injury like three months ago and I was not able to move at all. I did not exercise at all. I lost like 10 pounds. The first month I lost five and then the next month after that, I lost another five pounds and that's not doing anything. So in the end, I end up like using like close to 12 to 15 pounds, not exercising at all. I'm really big on exercise. You can give me exercise, I'll do that every day. I'm saying all this to say, nutrition has to always be number one. The problem with exercise is that people tend to substitute like, "Oh, I just burn 500 calories, now I can take in a thousand more calories." That's bad. We substitute. Well, I'm going to exercise my way out of a poor diet. And I do that. That's why a lot of people, they start an exercise program and they're like, "Ooh, I'm not seeing results much." How's your diet. So, diet has to be first.
So when we think about exercise though, again, love to exercise; you have to kind of mix and match. Now, if you are on the 30, a lot of people are under 30. They can do cardio and they'll lose the weight with no problem. You get above 30 and all you are doing is cardio; you find that it takes a lot longer for your body to recuperate, if not a lot longer for you to actually lose the weight. And one of the reasons is because we talked about this earlier, which is a cortisol. Anytime you work out, it's a stress factor. Now, if you're above, if you're like 35, 40, like my women 40 and above, and all they are doing is cardio and you already overweight, you're not going to lose the weight. Or you are going to see it slowly falling off because now you are giving your body too much stress, so you need to actually add more. So you need to add the resistance training, which is like, get some three pound dumbbell and do some bicep curls. You want to use your own body to exercise as well. So you want to do a lot more calisthenics, so your pushups, your squats, wall squats, your crawlers, so using your own body weight, because if you are using your own body weight, you're going to stop burning the fat. As compared to doing a bunch of cardio, all you're doing is, of course, you're improving your heart, which is great, but you are just dumping a bunch of cortisol, you're not able to cooperate well, and then that leads to more eating.
That's why people do more cardio, they tend to eat more and they start craving more sugar because the body now needs like more sugar. "Hey, I'm hungry, give me, feed me, feed me, feed me," because you just ran like five miles. So as compared to, if you did strength training, your body's like, "Well, can I get some protein, please? Can you feed me some... can you give me some water please?" Or it starts asking you for those things that are good for your body as compared to if you just did a bunch of cardio. It's really good to mix your exercise routine, so maybe you can dedicate like three days a week to just cardio, and then you can do strength training. But the other part that people don't think about, and sometimes I'm like, I have to remind myself, "Hey, I know you just had a great workout. Can you take five minutes to stretch? Can you take five minutes to bring your body back into balance?" So after a good workout, you want to take five to 10 minutes to do some stretching, to kind of bring yourself back into your parasympathetic mode, instead of sympathetic. Sympathetic is actually fleeing fight or flight. You want to bring everything in. So take 10 minutes to do a bit of that yoga, that's stretching, or if you're doing strength training, even after your strength training, you want to take some time to really get your body back into parasympathetic, which is rest, digest, and burn.
Faith: Really interesting. Really interesting. So wait, does that mean that I have to stop my four to five times in which I'm riding or does it just mean that I should add or include some strict training and things of that nature?
Dr. Firlande: So, yes, to both. Let me just say this. If you are doing three days of heavy, you want to do two days of low impact. So some people do seven days of heavy. You don't want to do seven days of heavy. Sometime you want to get on the bike and grab one of those lower impact rides. Because again, that's going to even help you balance things out, but also it's going to get you more into that parasympathetic when you are done. The second part is that for every single one of them, you do want to stop and stretch and then get yourself back, get your mind and body realign. So if you are, like I said, if you are 30 and above, you definitely want to incorporate that. That's the part that is always missing with a lot of people. It doesn't mean that you have to stop; it means that one, you have to be very strategic. Don't do exercises every day, seven days a week. And if you decide to do those, you want to make sure that you take at least 10 to 10 minutes. Now, if you're doing it every day, then you have to increase the amount of time that you stretch and then do yoga. But if it's like three days a week, just take five to 10 minutes to kind of like stretch and do some yoga.
Faith: Wow. Dr. Filande, you're over here dropping gems, for sure. For sure. For sure. So, are there any tricks or tips that you would suggest for like enhancing whether it's the amount of calories that you during an exercise?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Great question. So there are different things that you can do. What I recommend if you go to the gym and if you're training at the gym is always best to do your strength training first and then do your cardio last. So when you do strength training, again, you are using more of those muscles, especially the heavy muscles, and then you burn more calories during your cardio exercise, so you don't want to do it the other way around. I mean, you can, but if you want to optimize and burn more calories, you want to definitely strength train first and then run or do like some type of interval training after - so one way that you burn more.
The second thing is that fasting cardio or fasted cardio. If you are doing cardiovascular exercise and you really want to tap into your residual fat, you want to do fasted cardio, so that's before you eat anything in the morning. Now, you can have some black coffee, you can have some green tea without sugar. You can have some water, you can even have some of your supplements, but you don't want anything that has energy or calorie in it before you do your fasted cardio. And you're going to notice that you're going to lose a lot more and you're going to have a lot more energy. Like, the way that I lost the most weight was my fasted cardio. So, every morning I'll do about, you know, I'll do my strength training and then I'll do some type of fasted cardio. The last part and I'm just going to give you three. The last part is what should you before and after your exercise, as far as like nutrients are concern. So if you don't do fasted cardio, you really want to do like some type of protein before your workout. So you can do like some type of pre-shake and then you can do post-shake as well.
So some something that has a bit more protein, I like vitamin D; I would do some vitamin D before my workout, as well as CLA, which is conjugated linoleic acid, so it's some type of like oil that I'll do before my workout. It helps me to burn a bit more calories and it helps me to tap into my residual fat. And then after my workout, usually I would tell people, don't wait too long to eat. So if you work out, you can wait the most like an hour after you work out to eat, because you know workout is really breaking, so you're doing a lot of breaking down of muscle fibers. So you want to replenish, you want to actually give your body what it needs after your workout, so that's also going to maximize how much calories that you burn. You can do your fiber after you workout. Don't do a bunch of fiber before you workout. After you workout, you do your fiber, you do your carbs, and then you do your protein. So your workout, protein and carbs. After you workout, you can do your fiber, protein and carbs and oils, of course. I love my oils before my workout. That gives me the energy that I need to be able to have a really good workout. So those are the three things that you can definitely do. Go ahead.
Faith: Really quick. So you said oils, are you talking about like an MCT oil? Like, what kind of oil are you referring to?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah, so you can do MCT oil. You can do fish oil. You can do that CLA that I mentioned, which is conjugated conjugated linoleic acid, you can do, if you do liquid vitamin D, usually it comes in the oil form. So all those things are the oils that I'm talking about. I'm not saying go drink a bunch of canola oil, so thank you for that clarity. So you want to do MCT, fish oil, CLAs, as well as vitamin D if you're doing the liquid form. Vitamin D will give you a lot of energy, actually.
Faith: I never would've known that. Never would've known that. So what about like pre-workout, should we stay away from the pre-workout; what are your thoughts about it?
Dr. Firlande: Pre-Workout food?
Faith: No, like the pre-workout, the little stuff that you mix with water?
Dr. Firlande: Oh, oh, okay. So it really depends. So when I think about athletes, they go heavy, so they have to do pre-workout or they feel like they're going to fall out. Now, if you already have like a bunch of weight to lose, you don't need to do no pre-workout. Just do some fasted cardio or some fasted workout. Now, if you're going to be lifting heavy, because for me, if I want to lift heavy, I have to have something in my system. Like, you know, 30 minutes to an hour before. I cannot eat too much right before I work out, because I'm going to throw up and I don't feel good and I'll have like gas pain and all of that. But if I give myself an hour to two hours before my workout, I can have some type of pre-workout shake or some pre-workout meal. But only if you're going to be doing heavy stuff.
Faith: Are you familiar with what I'm talking about, the pre-workout, you know, like the powders? It's like the, you know...
Dr. Firlande: Yeah, the pre-workout shakes. Yeah, absolutely. Now, that's what I said, like you don't really need something. Most of those pre-workout, they may have some caffeine in them, they may just have protein, but it depends on which one you get. But most of them going to have definitely some protein, so it's could be whey protein or soy protein, whatever people use, then they may have some type of caffeine. So like I said, with your pre-workout shake, it's not necessary unless you are going to be doing something heavy. So if you're going to go for a one hour jog or if you're going to do be lifting heavy, then go ahead and do your pre-work because that's going to sustain you. But if you're just going to do workout for 30 minutes or you're going to go walk outside; you don't need no pre-workout.
Faith: Okay. And especially now that you talked about like the fasting cardio, so having a cup of black coffee or something instead. Because a lot of times that pre-workout, it also has a lot of sugar, and some other stuff that I can't necessarily pronounce either. For real, like what is [unclear53:30], like I have no idea. I just made that word up by the way.
Dr. Firlande: Some of them have amino acid and I'm not going to discount. I just want to make sure that I am clear. Some of them are good. So some of them have some great amino acids, they may have like some branched-chain amino acid that's going to help your muscles and all of that. Some of them have really good protein. They may have like about 20 grams of protein. Some can be very low in sugar as well. So if you feel like you need it because you're hypoglycemic, you feel like your blood sugar tends to run low, then have some. But like I tell most of my patients, if you have a lot of weight to lose, you have to allow your body to tap into your reserve fat. If you're constantly putting food in, how is that body's going to like get rid of what's already there? It's like having a trash can and all you do is fill it up. If you constantly fill it up and never removing, it's never going to empty yourself out. So, think about your body as a trash can, really. You have to empty it out sometime, and that's one of the things that we have not gone over, which I am really big on, which is intermittent fasting, which is basically giving your body a break from digesting and giving it a chance to heal.
Faith: So intermittent fasting is like all the rave right now. And so, do you intermittent fast? Like when do you suggest? Is it at night? Is it in the morning? What are your thoughts around it?
Dr. Firlande: Yeah. Oh my God. I love intermittent fasting.
Faith: Your face lit up.
Dr. Firlande: I know. I know we don't have a lot of time, we should do a podcast just that. So intermittent fasting is a way of cycling between periods of fasting and feeding, so people have a misunderstanding or misconception on what it is. It's just cycling between those two periods. I'm going to give you a brief example. So for instance, there's like 16/8, which is the most popular way to intermittent fast, but there's not many other ones. It's like once a day eating, which is they call them OMADs. So 16/8 is basically, the first number is usually your fasting window. So you fast for 16 hours. And then your second number is usually your feasting or your feeding window. And I said a window because it's not necessarily you have to eat every hour on the hour. It is just the time that you are eating, the length of time.
So for instance, if you start eating at 11 o'clock and you're doing a 16/8, eight, you are stopping, you are eating at seven, so nothing after seven; that's eight hours. The rest of the time, which is 16 hours. So from 7:00 PM until 11:00 AM the next day you are fasting. Most of your hours are fast or spent really sleeping. So for me, I tend to do either like a 16/8. Most days I do a 16/8. Sometimes I do 18-6, depending on what is going on. But most days I do 16/8. I knew we were going to meet today, so I broke my fast around 11 today. Most days I break my fast between 11 and 12, so I tend to keep the same window. One of the reasons people fail is because, oh, today I'm going to do nine, next day I'm going to do 10, next day I'm going to do eight. They kind of really move their fasting window and their feeding window. So you want to keep those the same as much as possible. So if you break your fast at 11, o'clock try to break your fast at 11 o'clock every day.
And then if you stop your eating at seven, try to end your eating at seven o'clock every day, unless of course like on the weekends, things tend to happen like you're hanging out with your friends, then get back on that window again. It's really important that you do it properly, otherwise people's like, oh my God, it's going to affect my hormones. Maybe! You're going to hear that as well. It may affect your thyroid because you fluctuating too much, but I find that there are many more benefits to intermittent fasting than not intermittent fasting.
Faith: And I think I might have to take you up on that offer to do a deep dive into intermittent fasting, because it is a topic that I will say is coming to the forefront more and more. And think that it's important that people know how to properly do it and how it impacts your body as well. So, one of the questions that I have for you is around like tools and resources and or support communities that for people who might be more interested in taking a holistic approach to managing their weight and just having a more healthy lifestyle.
Dr. Firlande: Oh yeah. Okay, great. So, one specific tool is the naturopathicmedicine.org. Wherever they are, they can find a practitioner who can help them on their journey. Resources, you have to start from the basic; like really learning about what nutrition is. So I have some great books and once you put this up I can have the link. I have nutrition from Mars, which is a really good nutrition book. I have some of the ones that they can actually just pick up from Amazon just nutrition books, like textbook of nutrition, where they can just like start learning about nutrition. Where communities are concerned, I have a great community on Facebook for support. But really, you have to, and that's why I love Google. I love doing searches on just Facebook to find those groups because it really depends on what will resonate with you. So whatever you are looking for, you can do a search and join that group.
A lot of times we don't do what we want to do because we don't have the support that we need or the support that we feel like would be necessary for us to continue in our journey. So if it's just health, go to naturopathicmedicine.org and find the organization or the practitioner who can help you on your journey. If it's way weight loss, start doing your own search to figure out, like what do I need? Whatever it is. Like, I will say, what does Firlande need right now? So, if particular groups resonate with me, then I'm going to hop on and see what they have. But they have the keto community, they have the paleo community, they have the vegan community, they have the vegetarian community, they have pescatarian. So really, for nutrition-wise, find a community and see if that is what you want to do.
Faith: So I know that you mentioned your program, and so for people who are interested in connecting with you and some of the programs and offerings that you provide, how can they do so? And I also will ask the question, do they need to be based in Georgia or the Atlanta area in order to tap into that as well?
Dr. Firlande: I have an online coaching program, weight loss coaching program, it’s called Courage To Lose. And we are onboarding now for the program. It's going to start October the 11th. I really love my program because when I'm like, "Oh, I would definitely do it." So we start on the 11th with orientation and it's so deep the way we go into the week long orientation, clean your house, clean your space, clean your body before we even start the program. Right now the best way to really connect is to join my master class. But you can connect with me on all social media platforms at Dr. Firlande because it's like easy to find me on Clubhouse, on IG, on Facebook, and so those are the best ways to connect with me.
Faith: And she is super busy on Clubhouse you all. So, for folks who Clubhouse is the thing, definitely check her out on there. And she also has a really interactive Instagram page too. So listen, Dr. Firlande, it has been an absolute pleasure to have you on with us today. And I thank you so much for you're taking the time out and thanks for joining the Sista Circle.
Dr. Firlande: Yes, absolutely. It was such a pleasure. This is my passion, so every time that I start talking about this things, like my passion just like comes out. Absolutely, it's been such a pleasure as well.
Outro: So I hope you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, be sure to follow or subscribe to the show to make sure that you never miss a new episode. And also be sure to share the episode or podcast with another queen who might benefit. And before I go, I need your help. Please be sure to leave me a five star rating and review wherever you consume your podcast, this way more women are able to find the show and access the information that we share here. Also, if it's on your heart to buy me a coffee, any support that you're willing to provide to help me sustain this podcast is greatly appreciated. In the meantime, you can always follow us on all social media platforms at the Sista Circle Podcast, as well as via the website, thesistacirclepodcast.com. With love, Faith.
