Episode 41 of The Living Life Well Show: Jumpstart your Wellness in this Holiday Season
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[00:00:00] Welcome to the Living Life Well Show, the intersection of God's Word, today's science, and healthy living with common sense application, all based on the truth of the Word of God. I'm your host, Dr. Jon Skelton. Now let's get straight to the truth.
All right. Welcome back to the living life well show today. I'm excited to go over some easy to implement changes that you can do during this busy time of the holiday season. Thanksgiving is two days away at the time of this recording. And I know that even prior to now, it's been a busy season. I know that after now it's going to be a busy season for the next month plus.
So I don't want to give you a lot of things that are going [00:01:00] to add a big lift to your day. What I'm hoping that you will see in this Podcast is that. Really, what we're talking about is things that you're already doing. Just tweaking it a little bit. This isn't anything with a crazy diet. This isn't anything. With a new workout program or adding a, a huge new thing to do to your daily routine.
So this should be easy to implement, but also really kind of help jumpstart that wellness heading into 2025. I know for most of us, we've got some goals. That we're looking at and hoping to accomplish by the end of this year, as well as going into 2025. So think of this as a way to help finish out those goals.
If you aren't already participating in these things. And a way to also potentially jumpstart. Those benefits of all the other wellness practices [00:02:00] that you're thinking of implementing in 2025. Portable wellness practices for the holidays. There's four things I really want to go over.
And so we'll start right there. The first thing is meditation in, when we see how God changes your brain associated with Dr. Andrew Newberg. In his book, he talks about how it really causes a lot of, of changes within the brain. We can see that on functional MRI, we can see that on lots of other things.
In addition, what we see is that we see down regulation of the nervous system. Let's face it during the holidays, we're all stressed to a certain degree, stress from the amount of activities, stress from. The potential interactions we are, aren't going to get to have stress from potentially traveling stress from a budget.
All of those things increase that, that nervous system, irritability and [00:03:00] stimulation. And so when we meditate, we help to down regulate that help to activate that parasympathetic nervous system where that healing. Nervous system, which reduces the heart rate, reduces blood pressure. Decreases. Stress, hormone levels like cortisol. And then we also noticed that really that it creates brain plasticity in a very short period of time, really starting to allow new, new neurons to form and really increases your ability to focus and to have memory.
And all of these things I think are very important as we go into the holiday season, we want to be present. We want to be active in our families and loved ones live. Lives. And so practice practicing meditation, starting that now is going to be beneficial. In addition, if you do have some cousin Eddie's. Coming or something else you, you can, you can [00:04:00] start this practice.
This isn't a
This isn't a Frank because stanza serenity now kind of a proposition. This is something that is best going to be accomplished early in the day when it's quiet preferably before anybody else's up, you can compliment this with deep breathing. And if you want more information on the specifics as to how to go about this, you can listen to some of our other podcasts where we. Discuss this as well. In addition, a really easy lift is to download the abide app.
It's free. They give you between two and five minute biblical meditations that really are going to help to. Help. Start your day off or any time that you're having this and, and really focus you on what's important, but also getting all the benefits of the truth of God's word while also downregulating that nervous system decreasing that heart rate, that blood pressure, all of those things that, that [00:05:00] can happen. With, with good meditation practices.
So you can start to see the neuro-plasticity and as little as two weeks of doing this. So if you were to start this this week by Christmas, you're already going to be noticing a better focus and attention and what better time to have better focus and intention. With all the things that we have on our plates. During the holidays.
That is the first one. The second one that I really wanted to discuss is fasting. So fasting really? And you, you think, oh my gosh, you said no crazy new diets or anything like that. What I am suggesting is that you shoot for a 12 hour fast every single day. As often as possible once you are out of that Thanksgiving window and in between going into that holidays, shoot for trying to do up to 16 hours several days a week, as often as possible. What you'll see with this is you'll, you'll get [00:06:00] increased insulin sensitivity, meaning we'll bring down your insulin levels.
We'll also bring down markers of inflammation. Just with doing this simple practice. So you're not changing what you're eating. You're just changing timing. Now, listen, Thanksgiving day whatever your typical routine is with your family. I want you to be a part of that. I want you to enjoy that.
I want you to really participate fully as you can, obviously, within reason. No, no need to have thirds. But. You, you do want to be part of that celebration in that time. And so you knew your limits and so practice those within reason. So the way I like to do it is I like to fast going into the holiday. Day and then I like to fast coming out of. That may be a 16 hour fast.
That may be longer depending upon how I am feeling or not. And and how much I indulge. Taking fasting with you [00:07:00] now is also going to help as you go into Christmas. And go into new year's and with those holiday parties and, and all of the extra things that, that we have that come along with that. Is anticipating these things planning ahead just a little bit, and then a fasting fasting that, that. That 12 to 16 hours, maybe it's one night you had a lunch work, a party.
And so you fast in that evening or. Maybe it's that you've got a holiday party that evening. And so you are going to maybe fast during that day going up to that time. Or maybe you just do it before and after. And, and don't really think about it much differently. But we start to see benefits with those. Short-term metabolic changes just even between 12 to 16 hours.
Now there's other, other benefits that will get, longer than that, but you're [00:08:00] going to start to see blood sugar shifts. You're going to start to see shifts in cholesterol within just a few days of adopting some sort of, of fasting over time. We see even. More benefits. Of course, with weight loss, we see blood pressure changes and, and those things as well.
Now, if you have if you're pregnant, if you're breastfeeding if you are on diabetic medications of any sort, I obviously I recommend. That you don't fast. And if you're, if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, for sure. And if you do have diabetes or are under weight or some other chronic medical condition that causes you to be low weight or to have very rapid changes in your blood sugar. I do recommend that you follow with your primary care physician. Prior to instituting any type of changing routine Even fasting for more than 12 hours, especially if you're having those swings in blood [00:09:00] sugars. Okay.
So the next theme that you can do is you can slow down and chew. Okay. When we chew our food, what that does is it helps to release amylase and lipase as well as lysozyme so amylase is really associated with the breakdown of those carbs, making sure that we get those simple sugars. Reduced down right as a, are going into the stomach and then into the small intestine so that they can be. Utilize as appropriately as possible.
And then the lipase really works on that fat aspects of things. And so it really helps to decrease. The size of the particles that are making it to the stomach
And then helps really further digestion as it's already breaking down fats, as it makes it to the stomach and then allows for that acid that's produced in the stomach to fully break down. Those fats and proteins [00:10:00] and carbs even more so that we can get full benefit from everything that we're eating. And then third, the lysozyme is really designed to kill bacteria. To kill bacteria and viruses that may be on our food. Now when we eat quickly and drink water. All, all the time. Or any substance for that fact. We bypass some of this benefit when you're an ER doc, like I've been for the last 20 plus years. You tend to eat on the run.
You tend to eat fast and you don't get that benefit from the amylase that lipase that lysozyme. And when things aren't fully digested, that's where we can start to see issues with leaky gut and these things. What I'm suggesting you do is you slow down and savor your food. This holiday season that you slow down and really to try and chew. Each bite about 30 times try not to. Drink any liquids? With your meal or [00:11:00] as minimal as possible.
And for 30 minutes after your meal. This helps too. Continue that saliva production so that you can get all those God given benefits from the amylase lipase and the lysozyme. So we got. Meditation. We've got fasting and now we we've got chewing. So digestion. So the last thing I wanted to cover is cold plunge.
So cold plunge. We've heard a whole lot about we know that it's had lots of benefits, especially. And the arena of recovery from workouts and those things, but we're seeing a lot more benefits. Even neurotransmitter benefits, releases of endorphins associated with this. Insulin sensitivity benefits, better sleep benefits. All things that we can definitely use during the holiday season.
So I am not suggesting you go out and buy a cold plunge and take it with you everywhere. I do [00:12:00] expect that you're probably going to be showering or bathing daily. And so when you do that, Just turn on the cold water, turn all the hot off. Just leave the cold on. Take a cold shower. We're typically going to see benefits when we get down to about 65 degrees or so. And so you can start getting those benefits just from doing a cold shower.
So three minutes in a cold shower. Can produce lasting effects all day. It can help to. Utilize and remove that that fat that's contained in our body. It can increase our metabolic rate. Allow us to even get benefit when we are fasting even more so than we would, if we did not do the, the, the cold shower or cold plunge.
These are all things that I think could be useful to you. And in my opinion not a big of lift to do so if you are interested in employing these now and getting a jumpstart [00:13:00] on 2025. Go ahead. Get started. Let me know. email us at [email protected]. I'd love to hear from you. See how you've used these during the holidays, if you've noticed any, any help or difference as you're going through. And I pray that you have a tremendous Thanksgiving.
So thanks. and God. Bless.
That's it for this episode of the Living Life Well Show. If you like what you've heard and want to learn more, or want to know how to put this into practice for yourself, go to livelifewellclinic.com. Until next time, this is Dr. Jon Skelton saying, go out and live the truth so you can live life well. The preceding is for entertainment and educational purposes only. It is not meant to be used to prevent, diagnose, treat, or cure any condition. The information contained in this show does not substitute the need for a qualified medical professional, [00:14:00] nor is it meant to provide medical advice or services.
If you feel information presented in this show may apply to you, we recommend you seek out the help of a qualified medical professional who can evaluate and treat your specific concerns.
