Speaker 1: 0:41

Welcome back to the podcast, and today is a treat. If you are struggling with your energy and you need some help in that department, you do not want to miss this interview I had with my dear friend, but also the amazing, wonderful practitioner, deborah Leiter. This podcast is jam-packed with super practical information that you can implement right away. And guess what? It has nothing to do with exercise and nothing to do with your nutrition, and you can have more energy. I started listening to Deborah talk about these strategies a couple of years ago. She just posted it on Facebook and I'm like girl, what are you talking about? And I started doing some of the things that she recommended myself and it changed. It dramatically, improved my health. So, anyway, we have a very candid, open conversation about that today.

Speaker 1: 1:46

And, if you haven't been here before, my name is Amy Ramsey. I am a midlife wellness expert, a certified life health and high performance coach, and it is my desire that you thrive. Thrive in your midlife, with energy, with vitality, living fully alive, living in assignment with you, in alignment with your assignment, living in your kingdom, purpose, that you are literally feeling fulfilled and you're making contributions and works of service that are changing the world and you and glorifying God all along the way, and the reality is is that it's hard to do that when you don't feel good and when you don't have any energy. It really will prohibit what you can do while you have breath on this earth. So there's you're going to just enjoy this. This conversation was from the last Midlife Metabolism Reset program that I hosted. We were having our wrap-up series talking about some more advanced strategies, and that program sold out. I will have another one in January. It is already booking up and it will sell out, and so I'm going to put the link here in the show notes. It's a, and you can also go to midlife metabolismcom and go ahead and join that next program. It is there's not another one like it for midlife and it's all about sustainable, healthy ways that you can move forward in your life.

Speaker 1: 3:24

I lost 10 pounds when I did it. The winner of it last night we were discussing it, it's a he, which that makes a difference, but he lost almost 20 pounds, but he was just like. I cannot believe how much better I feel and I've got my health back. I've got my energy back. I am, I feel, fulfilled again.

Speaker 1: 3:41

I'm reading again and I broke through some, through some health issues that he had had ongoing, some post-COVID issues. He had some serious issues and he's like the walking he goes. It was so hard it was almost even painful at first but I did it. I'm so proud of him. And I was just reading over the notes and one lady was like I've completely stopped night snacking and I lost eight pounds. Anyway, this program will sell out. And one lady was like I've completely stopped night snacking and I lost eight pounds. Anyway, this program will sell out and there's some benefits to going ahead and joining now so you can go to midlife metabolismcom and solidify your spot for the next one and enjoy, enjoy, enjoy, get a notebook, take some notes and enjoy this podcast. Okay, you guys.

Speaker 1: 4:30

Debra is a friend of mine and has been a friend for a very long time. We raised children together and we go back we do. But Debra started posting on Facebook a couple of years ago about going out in the morning sunlight and some of the differences it would make. And she was taking these certifications and she was using large words I couldn't pronounce. I didn't know what they meant, but I trusted her and she said go stand outside in the morning sunlight and you'll have more energy. I was like who doesn't want more energy? And that's simple to do. I can go do that and we I messaged her on Facebook.

Speaker 1: 5:16

I'm like what in the world are you talking about? Tell me why this works. We got into conversation. I'm like I need you to come and talk on my podcast. She's been a couple of times. We've partnered together on several things ever since. She's so smart and she understands like big, large words of why all of this works and I don't understand those big words. But what we shared that what I love is is that in the circadian rhythm and the quantum physics and all of this stuff, it's just so cool because she's a believer and it's all interesting how God created this whole universe and us and how all of this works. So, deborah, welcome, and I'm so glad that you're here and let's just jump right into some more advanced strategies for energy and midlife that we're all midlifers here and so tell us I'm going to toss it over to you.

Speaker 2: 6:19

Okay, thank you. Thank you, amy, for having me. You know how much I love and admire you and am motivated by you, so thank you for your kind words. So honestly, this I mean you know this, Amy this changed my life, like when I found I mean it sounds weird to say when I found sunlight and grounding, which I'm going to talk about I was probably at the lowest. I was at the lowest point of my life and really struggling with my health. I was already a health coach, I was already doing the nutrition, the exercises, I knew all the things, but I was still very much struggling with my energy levels, honestly, with my mental health. It was not good, was not good. And so when I found out about going outside and getting morning sunlight and going outside barefoot and started doing this and had such tremendous changes in my life, I mean I get emotional when I think about it sometimes because it's such a simple free, like what? Like how could this change your life so much? But it absolutely changed my life.

Speaker 2: 7:23

So so then I went on to get a certification. So I I didn't, I didn't know all the big words before that, so I did learn um about why, because I wanted to know why. Why did this work for me when nothing else was working? So I did get a certification in something called applied quantum biology, so, um, so I'm just going to talk. I won't, I'm not going to get into a whole lot of the uh, just very intricate details. I'm going to kind of give big picture stuff and I can point you guys to resources if you want to know more. Um, but yeah, so let me just tell you what this is.

Speaker 2: 7:55

So, circadian rhythms we all kind of know what that is. In a way, a lot of times we think it's just having to do with sleep, but it's actually having to do with your body, the connection that our bodies have to the 24 hour light dark cycle that happens every single day, and how that all of our cells in our body have a little circadian clock on them, and that means that they need to be synced up to this cycle in order to be optimal. You know, we don't want to be just getting by, we want to be thriving in midlife, and so in order to do that, we really need our bodies to be synced up with nature, and the truth is, in our modern life we are disconnected from that, like I'm used to, would go long periods of time. I live in North Carolina. I would go outside occasionally. You know I'm walking to my car, but I'm working indoors. I'm going to do things.

Speaker 2: 8:48

Most of my life is built around being indoors and most of our modern life is we're insulated. We're inundated with blue light from our computers, our phones, our overhead lights. We're insulated with even our temperature control. I'm not going to get into too much of that, but we need to be exposing ourselves to natural light in order to let our body sync up and get, you know, into rhythm, in order to heal. So when we're out of sync, so think of your body like being an orchestra and we want, you know, all the instruments playing together to make this beautiful music.

Speaker 2: 9:24

So we've got all these hormone processes and we've got thyroid hormone, we've got our adrenals, we've got all of our sex hormones. We've got our metabolism. We have leptin, which is responsible for a lot of our fat on our body and our brain, knowing how much energy and fat we have on our body to burn. Cortisol, the stress hormone you guys know about that. Melatonin, which helps us sleep, like all of these are related to our circadian rhythm and we need to be synced up and for this to be optimal and I am a 100% believer in the fact that our bodies are designed to be self-healing if we give it, give our bodies what they need.

Speaker 2: 10:07

So, um, it starts with light. Um, we can be doing all the things, but we need to start with light. So, um, I'm just going to kind of move in and just tell you kind of how the sunlight works. So, if we think about the sun, you know it's moving through the sky in an arc throughout the day and as the sun is moving it is emitting different light frequencies. If you guys remember from, maybe, elementary school, the color spectrum red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, indigo. So the sun is moving through that light spectrum. There's also different frequencies moving throughout the day.

Speaker 2: 10:43

If we think about most of the light we're exposed to, which is blue light, again, from our phones, our computers, overhead lights, that is just one light spectrum, okay, and it's isolated and we're getting that in such a large dose In sunlight. There is blue light but it's never isolated like we get in our day-to-day life Blue light and the natural light always has, you know, a red, orange, yellow spectrum in order to balance it. So we're never. Nature does not have isolated blue light. So just let that sink in for a moment and realize that the majority of the light we're getting is not natural and it is disrupting so much in our health. I think all the inflammation we have in our body that is contributing, the rise of cancers, the rise of so many things I really think can come back to this.

Speaker 1: 11:34

So when we go outside, go everybody's super clear, yeah, every time we pick up our phone and look at our phone, we get a massive dose of blue light. And I know that you're about to go into timing and all of this, but most people when they wake up, immediately they pick up their phone and it is massive chaos in the brain right away. Right yeah.

Speaker 2: 12:08

Yeah, absolutely so. Not only is it isolated blue light, also the strength of the light we're getting from most of our devices, like if you. When you say we wake up and the first thing you do is pick up your phone and look at it in the morning, whether it's before sunrise or post sunrise First of all, that's immediately going to spike cortisol in your body. So that's your stress hormone, guys, the one that's responsible for so many things. You know we need some cortisol.

Speaker 2: 12:47

Cortisol is not bad, but we don't want to have these big spikes, floods of cortisol in our body. I mean belly fat, all those things come from spiking cortisol at wrong times of day. So ideally we want that cortisol to rise naturally in the morning and the only way that's going to happen is to not, you know, look at your phones or anything. Going outside first thing in the morning is going to start to set off these processes in a normal way, so that your cortisol can kind of start to rise naturally. So yeah, let me maybe just kind of talk through the different spectrums of light and what kind of how this works. So pre-dawn light, like if you, and first of all let me say this you may go, I don't know when the sun rises. I don't know when all these UV frequencies you're going to talk about happen. Um, I didn't know either, but there is an app called circadian Amy. Do you still use this app?

Speaker 2: 13:42

um, thank you for reminding me I've got a new phone and I need to get that bad boy open and going again because it tells it sends you a notification yeah, and it tells you exactly in your specific area, like when the sun rises, when UVA light comes on, and I'm going to explain why that's important to know when UVB light comes, it's just great. So you're going to want to download this, so you're going to know exactly when the sun is rising, because it definitely changes throughout the year. I'll put it in the chat. But that pre yeah, it's just throughout the year. I'll put it in the chat. Yeah, it's just called circadian, that's, that's it and it's uh, I think you pay for it, but it's not much to have it for the whole year. And there's, there's so much this information I'm sharing with you. There's a lot of this in this app. It's a very educational app, so you will love it.

Speaker 2: 14:26

But so you get that pre-dawn, pre kind of sunrise light. This is that infrared light that's extremely soothing, very anti-inflammatory. So if you, you know, can get up and you know, catch that pre-dawn light, it's just going to feel really good to your body. Then you move into sunrise, like actual the sun coming over you know the horizon. We're starting to see that this is light that is red, just that wonderful, soothing, again soothing red light. So right now there's such a popularity with red light devices. And this is the same light in the red light devices or what you get at sunrise and also sunset, and that light is very healing, very anti-inflammatory, it kicks off nitric oxide and it lowers your blood pressure, like it is just feel good light and that's definitely. You know you want to catch that light. As you know, during the sunrise time, blue light starts to come in as the sun gets a little higher. Again, it's never isolated, it's balanced with that red light, um, and this is what starts to kick off hormone centers in your body. Also, this is what starts to help that that slow, gradual rise of cortisol, instead of that flood that you would get from looking at your phone. So that's super important light.

Speaker 2: 15:44

And then we move into I mean it really depends like could be anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour, hour and a half we move into the next frequency of sunlight, which is UV light, particularly UVA light, and this is the magic light, this is the. I think this is the light that actually changed my life, because and so UVA light comes when the sun is 10 degrees in the sky and again, that circadian map will tell you exactly. But this is the light where the magic starts to happen in the brain. So when you go outside with naked eyes and it's very important that you're not wearing your contacts If you have to wear glasses, okay, but it's better with no glasses, just naked eyes what happens is when we view this light, you know, light enters into our retina. That signals to an area of the brain called the superchiasmatic nucleus, and so I was talking about our body being an orchestra. This superchiasmatic nucleus is the conductor.

Speaker 2: 16:38

Okay, that's the, that's the center of the brain. That's like going, okay, now we're going to release thyroid hormone in this amount, you know, go, we're going to release um, particularly in UVA light. We're going to um, it's going to. There's a process with some other um hormones, but it basically is going to release that serotonin which takes you from being groggy to a little more focused, dopamine which makes you motivated and curious. Um, and also, we know dopamine is kind of that hormone that's responsible for a lot of addiction. So when you're viewing this UVA light, you do become addicted, you, you become. It gets to a place where you're like I've got to get my morning light because you feel so good. It starts to make you feel good Cause. You have a norepinephrine which kicks off. You've got endorphins that runners high. Those start to release and circulate in the body. So it is meant to be addictive.

Speaker 1: 17:33

It is so addictive, Like I, now that the sun is rising a little bit later you know it's shifting already I'm up, I'm totally up and I'm like waiting. I'm like where is it? Where is it, when is it? I gotta get out there, I gotta get out there and I'm just waiting for.

Speaker 2: 17:54

So it's, you know we think about, like the crisis of mental health we have now, you know, with our kids. But, like I said, I was in such a low place when I started this and so I really do feel like, you know, I just had some chemical imbalances going on in this light. Just, really, I attribute that to my mood improving, to, you know, the reduction of anxiety and depression I was dealing with at the time, and I'm not saying, get off medication if you need to be on that, but pairing this with whatever else you're doing in your life is only going to help you because, again, you're balancing your body. You're giving your body the signals it needs to do what it was designed to do, which is, you know, for you to thrive, and so all these hormones and these amazing things are happening. The other thing that happens with this morning sunlight, which is so interesting, is that your pineal gland actually produces melatonin because of the exposure of morning sunlight. So you're producing that melatonin that you're going to use later at night in the morning, by getting this morning sunlight. So all of these things are happening during UVA lights. So when we think about the magic properties of that, then I go back and think about all those years. I never got morning sunlight y'all never. I mean, I was having babies and doing things and I might step out here and there and we might take the kids out to play, but for the most part I was skipping this because I was sleeping in. And adding this into your life is going to be, it's going to change your life, Even if you feel like you're relatively healthy. You're only going to improve by adding this.

Speaker 2: 19:43

So then, after UVA light, then we're moving into that UVB light later in the day, and I just mentioned this because this is the light that allows our bodies to produce vitamin D. So you can't make vitamin D year round unless you live in the tropics where you have UVB light year round. So for most of us in the United States we can only make vitamin D, you know, for certain portions of the year. So that's kind of good to know that during the times of year we do have UVB light. That's good to get out there, you know, for 15, 20 minutes a day and expose your body to allow it to make that natural vitamin D. So and then the sun continues to move through that spectrum and it goes back down UVB light, UVA light, back into sunset where you've got, you know, the soothing uh the same kind of soothing red light frequencies you get um in the morning, so how this kind of looks practically. I guess you want me to. Just I'll just what this means is that, even like you need to.

Speaker 1: 20:43

Deborah, even like kind of begin, if somebody is like, ooh, I'm feeling like, so like baby steps and evolve like baby. And then somebody was like, yeah, you know what I'm a like, so like baby steps and what evolved like baby. And then somebody was like, yeah, you know what I'm a morning person. I wanted, I want to do this, tell me more information. So maybe like one, a step two, a step three.

Speaker 2: 21:02

Absolutely Um so like. Like I said when I started this, I was not a morning person. So for me, to even get up and catch sunrise was a big deal. Like I was like oh crud, Sunrise was a big deal. Like I was like, oh crud, okay, going to try it. And so you do. You know, set an alarm or get your circadian app going and at least try to hit some of that sunrise light.

Speaker 2: 21:21

So I would say like, if you've got to go to work, if you just even get up before you look at your phone, before you turn on the lights in your house or you know whatever, just really try to step outside. I mean I immediately get up, let my dog out, I go out with my dog, we go on the front porch before I do anything. And most mornings for me, because I work from home now my kids are grown I have the luxury of spending a lot. I mean I spend an hour to two hours outside every morning, but that was not the case for many, many years. But any amount of time you can spend outside is going to be helpful. Any amount of that natural light getting into your eye is helpful. So, even if you're having to get ready for work, step outside for two minutes, get that sunrise light You're going to see on your circadian, okay? So I've got 45 minutes before UVA light. If you need to go in and do breakfast, whatever you're, you know, get ready. Then try to step back out with naked eyes with UVA light. So even if that's again two to three minutes is better than nothing. I would say 15 minutes is great, you know, because that's really going to give your brain some time to. You know, get all of all of those processes going.

Speaker 2: 22:28

If you're on your way to work, crack your window in your car. A lot of our glass and all of the car windows are going to block UV light. So you do need to crack it. And here's the cool thing about light. It's kind of like water If there's a little space, it's going to pour into it. So light can bend around buildings, around trees, get through little cracks, you know, move around your glasses, that kind of thing. So you're going to get light, even if you feel like you're not getting much, as long as you're cracking a window or thing. Did you have a question, amy?

Speaker 1: 24:10

I do, deborah, let me ask a question. So when you say step out, you really mean get just, even if you just step outside, because we also talk about grounding, we also talk about grounding and so that would be a benefit too. But you're saying literally, the atmosphere has electrons, neutrons, protons floating through and even if you're not grounding yourself in the earth, just being outside is effortless energy.

Speaker 2: 24:42

Oh, yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, step your full body outside. I mean I have a, you know, covered porch, so if it's raining I still go out. So how you know, physically put your body outside. Like and we know this we might think that light is bright inside, but even if it's on a cloudy day, you're still getting so much sunlight and you know all these frequencies I'm talking about can penetrate clouds and we also have light receptors in our skin. That's called melanopsin and that's so interesting too. So when our skin gets that sunlight, you know this is happening also.

Speaker 2: 25:14

So you got physically stepping your body outside, if you can, is ideal. If you can't, then crack a window, you know, roll a window down in your bathroom while you're getting ready. Even if it's across the room that light is going to reach you in some form or fashion. So the idea is you want to increase your natural light and mitigate or decrease the artificial light if you can. So yeah, in the morning, if you don't need lights and all of that, don't use it. But you know we're coming into a time of year when you're likely going to need to turn a bunch of lights on your house and that's fine.

Speaker 1: 25:47

But just get outside, if you can overhead lights, like maybe not the overhead lights, the lamp, like even that's better than the bright lights. I mean, you, you've got me all like I'm a little psycho around my husband. Don't turn the overhead lights on, just what it's. It's it's 5, 30 in the morning. It's not this bright, you know, um. So okay, isn't this interesting? Y'all isn't this like no idea, don't you think it's fascinating? Are y'all loving this? Give me a thumbs up. Okay, awesome, okay, tell us about outside, but sticking your feet in the ground.

Speaker 2: 26:23

Okay, so grounding. I mean this is not like it can sound hippie dippy or whatever, but there is so much science. If you go to PubMed and just type in grounding, you are going to see a plethora of research articles talking about the benefits of grounding. The reason we don't hear about it is you can't make money on it right, I mean you can.

Speaker 2: 26:44

There are grounding products, but for the most part this is not. You can't patent the earth, okay, so it just doesn't get a lot of attention. But there are so many research studies and so many amazing benefits to grounding. So, yeah, if you compare your morning sunlight and I do like when I say I spent a long time outside, I am usually barefoot, putting my feet on dirt, grass, dirt, sand, moss, you know any kind of natural surface. If you have mulch, you need to kind of move it out of the way and put your feet on the earth, because it does. You know, anything dead is not going to conduct.

Speaker 2: 27:22

So how this works, okay, so every time lightning strikes the earth there's like eight million lightning strikes today that lightning deposits electrons into the earth and so when we put our bare skin on the earth, those electrons flow into our body, because electrons are a negative charge and the negative charge always flows from a higher charge to a lower charge. So the earth is like a giant battery. We can stick our feet on there and they flow into our body. And I'm not going to get into like all the crazy science of it, but basically the electrons go into the body. They move through that electron transport chain, if you remember from, like you know, high school biology that are in the cells and that creates ATP, which is the energy source of our body and our mitochondria use that. The body needs a certain amount of electrons just to be healthy, and so also, if you're sick or dealing with any kind of inflammation, any kind of illness, you need more electrons.

Speaker 2: 28:24

Ok, and we are losing electrons with our modern life. So blue light steals electrons, poor nutrition steals electrons, stress, electromagnetic frequencies that we get, you know, from Wi-Fi and these devices. They steal the electrons in our body and so we need to be replenishing that as much as possible. Just some of the benefits of it it is so anti-inflammatory and what's so cool is when your body is gathering electrons, your body will take those electrons and shuttle them to the areas of your body that need it. So if you've got pain in your knee and you can go out and ground for a good period of time like it's y'all, it's, it's crazy, like I have had injuries that I have just grounded. I'm not saying that healed it overnight, but I can get pain reduction from grounding as opposed to just going and popping you know an Advil or something. Um yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:22

It's so amazing, just like you're saying. But like Chuck was talking about circulatory issues and yeah, absolutely Circulatory issues I have Raynaud's. I don't know if y'all know what that is Like my fingers turn white. They've been doing this for so many years. I haven't been able to figure out what to do. I realized last year I didn't have any flare ups, which is last year I didn't have any flare ups, which is unbelievable. It was probably in December.

Speaker 1: 29:50

I messaged Debra, I'm like I always am like this time of year my hands stay wide. It hurts too. It doesn't? I'm not. And the only thing I have changed is I started grounding religiously. So, debra, I didn't realize it's even better, like Rainy and I will go out every morning and stick our feet in the grass, even just for a few minutes. But you were saying it's really better if you could do it for, like, if you can, 15 minutes. Now all I've done is two, just to be like fully transparent. So some is better than none, you know, really letting go of all or nothing. Now, debra, this may be so silly, but I visualize this. So now, when you told me that I kind of I've got a little area and I walk around in it and I just visualize these electrons popping into my body. I don't know, I feel like it is somehow. It probably is Right, but I walk around. If is it better if you walk around? Because you get more electrons, because it's a fresh spot.

Speaker 2: 30:47

Walk around. Is it better if you walk around, because you get more electrons, because it's a fresh spot? No, it doesn't matter. I mean, that's not a dumb question, it doesn't matter. Like you can literally just put your like pinky on the ground, those electrons are going to flow in.

Speaker 1: 31:02

So you know whether it's your whole body, your foot, your like when it's cold here I cover up a lot of my body, and just my toes are the only thing that really touches the ground.

Speaker 2: 31:12

Yeah, I mean, I try to ground your round. So, yeah, it is definitely anti inflammatory and there's an antioxidant property happening with that because it, you know, neutralizes those free radicals, it thins your blood. So, like, if you've got any kind of, you know, issues with blood pressure or other blood issues, that's going to be helpful for that. So it's just to me, a very powerful tool to get sunlight and grounding together are, again, this is the combination that healed me.

Speaker 2: 31:41

And because I was so unwell, I did spend a lot of time out there every morning and I really kind of haven't stopped like unwell, I did spend a lot of time out there, um, every morning and I really kind of haven't stopped Like and you know I have busy mornings or times when I can't do it and I just grab what I can. You know it might be a minute or two Some days. I don't you know if it's raining a lot we've had a lot of rain in North Carolina. You know the storms and all of that. Um, I'm not grounding as much and that's okay.

Speaker 2: 32:08

So, like, like you said, forget about trying to be perfect, let's grab what you can, but, but if you are struggling with something. The more time you can spend, you know, getting the sunlight, doing the grounding, you're going to receive so much more benefit from it. Um, it's also we were talking about, like uh, you mentioned something at the beginning, I think about stress or about mental stuff. I'm sorry I can't remember. I was going to refer back to what you said, but it's also very calming for your nervous system. And, oh, talking about your life and and working with me and finding out how you're handling your, how your body, oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 32:38

So, yeah, debra, we did some functional labs and she was like uh, I've never seen cortisol levels this this high, which forced me to deal with my emotions instead of dismissing how I felt and avoid. Yeah, I was. I was an avoider and and let me just work, because I feel productive when I work, I love my work, I enjoy my work, but I was a workaholic, so if I felt pain emotionally, I would dismiss the feelings and work, do something productive. And I was raising my cortisol and I was at a place where I couldn't do that anymore. I can't do that.

Speaker 2: 33:24

I don't want to do it.

Speaker 1: 33:24

I want health overall, and it forced me to deal with that in a healthy way, and so Debra really helped me with that all together.

Speaker 2: 33:33

Yeah, but that, yeah, the grounding is very healing for the nervous system and you know, nervous system dysregulation, like it's being in nature, is healing. So, like hearing bird song is like a signal to your nervous system that you're safe, you know, like predators, you know, and predators around the bird stop singing, so and that's a signal there is danger. So we're hearing, we're going out each morning, we're seeing the sun, we're getting the electrons from the earth, we're hearing birds, you know, we're looking at trees. All of these things are calming our nervous system and you know most of us have very stressful lives. So even if, like I said, you have five minutes to go, do this, you're going to really set yourself up, you know, put your body in a state to where what you're syncing your circadian rhythms up and you know, gathering all the good things and you're just going to feel more grounded to move into a stressful day. And so also throughout the day, you know, I work on my computer, I'm on my phone, a lot with clients. Um, I try to step outside in between all of my calls, even if it's just a minute, I just I run outside and get some sunlight, get some grounding. Um, it's just a part of my life now. I mean I wish I could spend more time outside, but I feel so much better, like we all do this.

Speaker 2: 34:46

When we go on vacation, we're spending time in nature, we're going to the beach or going to the mountains, where outside, and we're like, oh, we feel amazing. You know why do you feel so good? And there's a lot of reasons, but one of those reasons are because we have spent time in nature and we come back and then we just go right back into the grind and we start to just be disconnected, I think, more from ourselves and other people and God. I mean there's there's a whole spiritual stuff with it too. For me. That just really changed me. But I do need to mention I don't think I said this, amy the other part of getting morning sunlight that you really need to do in order to get the full benefit is when you get to the evening, you need to be blocking that blue light once the sun goes down.

Speaker 2: 35:27

So that means I ran out here to get my blue light blocking glasses. These are so gorgeous. They're orange lens, but you need a pair of these, either red or orange lens, because once the sun goes down, when we're, you know, looking at our phones, our TV, all of that, we're still producing cortisol. When we're, you know, looking at our phones, our TV, all of that, we're still producing cortisol. As long as blue light is coming into our retinas, our body is producing cortisol. And I'll tell you what we want to shut down the production of cortisol at night so that melatonin can start to come out and do its job. And melatonin will not be released in the presence of blue light. It needs at least three hours of no blue light for melatonin to be released.

Speaker 2: 36:09

And melatonin is not just about sleep. Melatonin is responsible for processes of apoptosis, which is programmed death of sick cells in the body. So think of cancer, pre-cancer, growing. We want the body to take care of that and our body is fully able to do that again when we give it the signal. So we need melatonin to be released so it can do the apoptosis.

Speaker 2: 36:34

Um, just all the things that need to happen of fat burning happens when we're sleeping. Well, and melatonin is, you know, doing its thing. Uh, leeptin, which is again that hormone that signals to the body how much fat is stored, can dock to the hypothalamus at night and say okay, the next day you've got so much fat on your body, we're going to regulate your hunger hormones based on that. So there's just a lot going on. So you need to be blocking blue light in order for these things to be happening. It is not happening if you're not blocking blue light. Even if you're like, oh, I sleep fine, I promise you your body is not getting the benefit that it could be getting.

Speaker 2: 37:12

So these feel annoying at first, like maybe the first two or three nights you pop these on. You're like, oh, everything's orange. But very, very quickly you become addicted to this, like I am looking for my blue light blockers as soon as the sun goes down, because it's calming, it's soothing. If you think about our ancestors before electricity, what did they do? They? They, they made a fire. Fire is orange and red and it's. You look at a fire and everybody's chill and relaxed and you feel good and you start to, you know, get sleepy, like this is how we're made. Okay, so you can get these on Amazon, you can. There's price points from like $200 to like $40.

Speaker 1: 37:52

Um, yeah, I would start with a cheap pair. I bought some for 12. Yeah, yeah, you don't have to spend a lot of money on that. It's so powerful, you guys. I, I just I can't. This helped to change my life too, and I know it sounds so simple and like, okay, it can't be that powerful, but I believe that it really really is.

Speaker 1: 38:14

In fact, the other day, deborah, I was exhausted. You know, some days you just hit that, you hit, hit the wall, I hit the wall and I was absolutely exhausted and I cried a little bit and then I was like I needed to run some errands and there was something in me that I've never done this before. I found an old blanket, I threw it outside and I just laid on the ground. It was kind of wet. I just I have this innate need to be on the ground.

Speaker 1: 38:45

I fell asleep and I woke up with the sun in my face. I was like, oh my gosh, the shade had moved over. I'm like, oh my gosh, I have been out here for hours, hours, lordy mercy. I grabbed my blanket. I went back inside, feeling all ready to go. I felt so much better.

Speaker 1: 39:04

It had been 20 minutes. I fell asleep for a few. I was like 20 minutes. I felt like a new person. Our time's running out. So I just here's real quick too, because I think this is really interesting and I'm actually leaving for Italy soon. So traveling and Debra's taught me this as well is that when you travel and you're in a different time zone and and as the time zone is getting ready, I mean as our we're about to lose daylight savings time man, that trips. The older I get, the longer it takes me, the more it's important to reset your circadian rhythm. But get outside, I mean the first thing Randy and I all do when we hit the ground in Italy. We did this when we went to Ireland last year. We fell apart and we both plugged our feet in it and she's like, if it's just a tree, put your hands on a tree.

Speaker 2: 39:57

I'm so glad you do that. Yeah, it will really help. It will help your body go find where it is in time and space on planet earth, like it will help your body go. Okay, this is where we are and you know, try to stay awake all the whole thing. You know, get your blue light blockers, do all that and you'll you'll adjust and not have jet lag as bad for sure.

Speaker 1: 40:17

Amazing, amazing, deborah. Thank you so much. Isn't that literally fascinating? I'm so grateful to have Deborah back. I'm so grateful that she's a friend. She's just wonderful. But for all of her knowledge and passion on this, it's really helped me.

Speaker 1: 40:42

And if you are looking for kind of that next step to get your health back on track Debra and I actually work together and if you're looking for some help in whether it's fat loss, weight loss or just overall wellness, I do this one-on-one. I'm only able to take a handful at a time, but I do have some places now available and it's a very integrative, holistic approach. It includes that higher touch points with. I have an umbrella team built out that will help with midlife metabolism and how to do nutrition and manage it during all of the shifts that we have and are facing in our lives and our bodies with functional labs. It will change your life.

Speaker 1: 41:26

So if you're stuck maybe you've even tried to get some help before and you're just not able to get where you want to be know that I do take one-on-one and you can look in the show notes here and book a free call. We'll just hop on and I'll tell you what I have and we'll see if it's a good fit for you. And until then, get out first thing in the morning, get those tootsies in the ground. I'm telling you it's going to change your life. All right, well, I will see you guys next time. Share this Sharing is caring. Share this podcast with someone and have an amazing day. My friend, go walk worthy.