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Nourishing Victory: Gina Iovino's Quest for Veteran Wellness Through Functional Nutrition and Neuro Wellness · Your Thoughts Your Reality

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Michael is a dual elite certified neuro encoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuroencoding science, empowering these brave individuals to conquer universal battles procrastination, self-doubt, fear and more.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Together, let's uncover the strength within you to re-engage with families and society, forging a new path forward.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Hello, hello, hello everybody.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: Hey.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So today we have a fan favorite.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I have Gina Iovino on again because, again fan favorite.
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you, gina, for being here.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: So a little bit about Gina.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: She's a nutritional coach specialist and neuro wellness coach.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: She has three brothers who are Marines.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: And Gina, I mean it goes without saying you're so passionate about helping the military community, you know, with Project Refit and Guardians of Valor and all the other amazing things you do.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: So thank you for that.
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: It's an honor to know you and watch what you do.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: It's fantastic.
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: So Gina is a neuro encoding specialist as well.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Gina, why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself as well?
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so, as Michael was saying, I am a new functional nutrition coach and also neuro wellness is as well, and kind of you know, I help women.
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: That doesn't exclude is if, if you know, a guy came to me and wanted some help too as well.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: But my main focus is helping women, especially moms, because I can understand what it's like to have kids and want to leave a healthy lifestyle and how does all those pieces kind of come together and work?
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: And then I've recently just kind of actually niche a little bit more down into what we're gonna be talking to about today, which is pre diabetes and diabetes today, which is pre-diabetes and diabetes, because it's alarmingly the statistics are, you know it, this is getting, it's growing and it's becoming more and more prevalent in in so many, so many people that we know.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: So I decided to niche down a little bit and have a little bit more focus there.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: Fantastic.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: And you know, I think you're you're going to scare the shit out of people just a little bit with some statistics.
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: It's alarming, you know, and I'm glad you're coming on here and you're really focused on that.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: So again, thank you and I'm excited for this conversation.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: So, gina, tell us a little bit about how you got into, you know, the wellness arena, the neuron coding, and how that has happened.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: You know, briefly again, we've talked before, but for new viewers, yeah, sure, so I'll keep it really short so we can have more time to kind of get in the nitty gritty of all this fun stuff.
• 2:56
  Speaker 3: But yeah, but I got into it because, you know, first of all I have my bachelor's in psychology.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: I was always fascinated in how we think, feel, what we do, and then how we kind of rinse and repeat and do it all over again and why certain people can succeed and why other people kind of fall short.
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: I was just really interested in how, you know, people think and function.
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: So that was one part of it.
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: But then what happened was I went through, after I had my fifth child.
• 3:21
  Speaker 3: I went through, like my own health issues that were very debilitating.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: I couldn't understand what was going on and when I wasn't getting the full answers from my my doctor, I decided you know what, I'm not going to choose to go a certain route.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I'm going to choose something different because I know my body, I know how I was before.
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: This cannot be the rest of my life, because I'm a mom and I've had kids.
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: So when I dug down deep, that's when I got into this whole world of functional nutrition, I was able to not only heal myself, I was actually able to also get rid of eczema on my hands that I had very badly for over 20 years, that I was told wouldn't go away and I would only have to use creams or get radiation to get rid of it.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: Wow, yeah, and I've been eczema free for over six years now.
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Congratulations.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah.
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: And so when I started learning this stuff and really diving into what we put inside of our body communicates to this whole mechanism inside, I thought you know what?
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: There's so many more people and so many, so much more help that I can do and letting people know this information.
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: So that's why I got into functional nutrition and I also loved it too, because part of it is it is a psychology.
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: There you get to be kind of like a detective and figuring all this stuff out and then, with the neuro encoding, you know a lot of this too.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: This is behavior, it's patterns, it's taking action and so being able to help my clients and figuring out how to use that too as well, so that they're not only successful with their nutrition lifestyle but that they keep it up, because that's one of the things that I want for everybody is that this is a lifestyle and, yeah, and I want you to be very successful, because when we're in our 80s and 90s, I want to see us all having fun and a good time and just living life to its fullest for as long as we can.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: I love that, I love that and it's so important, you know, with brain health and just proper nutrition, and we're going to get into this obviously, how we just take it for granted.
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: You know, I'm not saying everybody, I'm not making a blanket statement at all.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: Gina does not.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: She does not take it for granted.
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: But seriously, can we get a little more into what is functional nutrition compared to just nutrition?
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: Coach.
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, functional nutrition.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: I love it because it's actually getting to the root cause of why you're experiencing what you're experiencing.
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: And I know that there's a term that's thrown out there that food is medicine.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: But I like to say that food equals communication, because we've talked about this before.
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: I can eat nuts.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: My cousin is severely allergic to nuts.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: It's a good for me.
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: It will kill her Right there.
• 6:10
  Speaker 3: That's not medicine, it's communication, and what we, what we take in our body, is going to either tell our body is this good for me or is it bad for me?
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Is it going to help me, is it going to hurt me?
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: So that's how I like to take a look, look at that.
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: That's what makes it functional A little different.
• 6:28
  Speaker 3: Also, too, we do other things.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: We not only check for allergies, we take a look inside what's going on in your gut.
• 6:32
  Speaker 3: I also now, too, I can do neurotoxicity assessments to see if you have anything like mercury, lead, mold exposure, those type of things that also affect the brain and the body mold exposure, those type of things that also affect the brain and the body.
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: Wow, so I mean, it's not just hey, eat an apple a day, it's like get down to the science of it to really figure out what's going on to make that difference.
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and really too.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: You know, we went to school, we learned biology.
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: We know we have the body, there's the inside of the body, but really, when you get into this, this part is functional nutrition.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: I mean, there's so many layers, right?
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: So we have the body, then we have the inside of the body, we have the muscle, we have the organs inside of there.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: Then we have right, blood is flowing, we have oxygen, we have things going on at such a small cellular level and inside there is.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: Just the things that a little tiny cell can do is just to me it's mind blowing, wow.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: And it all starts from the cell level.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Absolutely yes, so it literally.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: I like the science part of it, so I'm just sitting here.
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: Okay, so so I can't wait for the info you're about about to uh, to mic drop on us.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: So, um, if you will, what let's just, let's just dive in, if you, if we can.
• 7:53
  Speaker 2: What are some of the?
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: How do I want to say this?
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: What are some of the main components, or, even more so, the warning signs for the things that you know you came on here to really dive into, which is diabetes, prediabetes, alzheimer's, and there's a plethora of other ones.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: You know these are just some of the main ones that get people's attention.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: I think so.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: Can you dive into that a little bit to help get veterans and their families some more information, and their family?
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: some more information, yeah, yeah.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: So I would will have to say is there a lot of these symptoms?
• 8:35
  Speaker 3: Cross, you know, kind of cross, you know.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Participate with each other, so to speak.
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: Right, you know brain fog can mean a lot of things.
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: You know being tired can can mean a lot of things.
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: Anxiety can mean a lot of things, you know.
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: So, when we think, when we do this, I always like to tell my clients to let's get blood work from a doctor, because that's going to also take a deeper look to see what's going on.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: Let's also check your hormones.
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: We know too that if our hormones are off, it can look at, look like so many of these other symptoms.
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: I would say too, for those that are transitioning out, you know, of the military into civilian life, for those that are transitioning out you know, of the military into civilian life, I think, honestly, nutrition is a key, key role in getting you into not only where you want to be, but the things that you want, because there's just so much more now too.
• 9:19
  Speaker 3: I mean, when I dived into this, I was like horrified, because we go into the grocery store and we think food is just it's okay, right, it it like?
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: You walk in you're like, oh, I'll grab this off, I'll grab that.
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: It's just about calories and it's really not.
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: And I it's very, um, it's sad and it's very horrific of the actual toxins and the poisons that are being put into our food.
• 9:40
  Speaker 3: And you know, and a lot of people are not, not even aware, you know I mean, I was one of those people too you just think food is okay and it's, it's not.
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: We really need to start educating ourselves, start saying no to certain these things and and that way you know, voting by our dollars, by what we're purchasing and not purchasing.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic and I want to dive into that more so.
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: How do the families, veterans, when they go to the grocery store, start reading a label and what, what and I know there's all left right.
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: We could spend half an hour just on this easily.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: But what are some?
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: Um, oh hey, that doesn't look good signs.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but I didn't buy that like yeah, yeah um, I did create a course of like three things that you should take out of your diet, two things you should introduce and like.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: So I do do have something like that.
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: Someone wants to sit down and I do have like pdfs, things for you to print out, because it is a lot, and I'm going to tell you too.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: They're getting very smart.
• 10:38
  Speaker 3: What used to just say like either sugar or, you know, sucralose or aspartame, is now like they have all these different new wordings for foods and it makes it even harder and harder now for the consumer to kind of understand.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: But I'm just gonna say the basics.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: You pick up an apple, there's no label on the apple.
• 10:58
  Speaker 3: The apple is the apple.
• 11:00
  Speaker 3: And if you pick up a, you know a package or process something, it is going to have stuff on the label.
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: And if you can read those ingredients and say, oh yes, I know what almond flour is, or oh, I know what vanilla extract is, I know what sea salt is, those are whole forms and that's going to be better for you than buying something where you're like hydrogenated poly, you, and you're like what the heck is this?
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: So those who just should just say no to.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: Fantastic, yeah, so can you just drop where people can get that course or that that information?
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, I'll put in the link you can go to on my page on Facebook which is health and mindset revolution on our GEV.
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: You know I have a link tree in there and you can find that there too.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: Fantastic, yeah, and side note, can you send that to me?
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Yes, I will.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: I will send it to you.
• 11:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: And you know, what's funny is, you know I yo-yoed before on diet programs and that kind of thing.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on this, but when I simplified my relationship with food and the less ingredients the better- you know if, like an apple there's, you know what the ingredients are.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: When you start picking up a box of anything, you start seeing all of these ingredients and it's really you can really simplify as well by just eating those whole natural foods, you know, and that that made a big difference for me.
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: So so what are some of the um signs?
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: If you will?
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: We started this and then got I got I got a sidetracked on the reading the labels, but great information, so thank you.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: So what are some of the warning signs?
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: What should people be looking for?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Uh, I know you talked about brain fog and you know, because they were, they cross each other some of the symptoms and so on.
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: So if you can continue that, yeah, I would say the easiest sign, too, is know your measurements, get on the scale.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: What does your weight look like?
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: Yes, weight is made up of more than just one number.
• 12:53
  Speaker 3: There are other numbers in there that you need to understand.
• 12:56
  Speaker 3: But what is your weight?
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: What is also your waist circumference?
• 12:59
  Speaker 3: They say for women it's if it's more than 35 inches.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: That puts you at a higher risk for a lot of different diseases, especially diabetes, alzheimer's, and for men it's 40 inches or above.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: So that's just something real simple there.
• 13:12
  Speaker 3: If you do it and you're like, oh my gosh, then I need to start doing something, I should probably talk to my doctor, reach out to a coach who can help me with getting me there.
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: Other things are like what's your quality of sleep?
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: Are you waking up feeling like you didn't, like you got, didn't even sleep at all, and you know you're very lethargic, you know is it hard for you.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Are you crashing at three in the afternoon?
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: I know with me, when I was at a low point, I'd get up in the morning and it would take everything for me mentally to just get up and take care of my kids and I would go to the grocery store.
• 13:44
  Speaker 3: It was almost like I had blurred peripheral vision where I couldn't really I couldn't.
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: It's hard, I couldn't understand kind of what was going to the left and to the right of me.
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: It was very hard for me and that was like severe brain fog.
• 13:58
  Speaker 3: So if you're experiencing like you know your cognitive ability, like I could, I could when I I read.
• 14:03
  Speaker 3: I couldn't remember what I read afterwards.
• 14:05
  Speaker 3: I would help my kids with their homework and I was struggling to help first grade kindergarten homework.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: Um, so those are some signs too.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: If you're just you know what you know you the best.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: And if you're like this is not how I was last year, a couple years ago, then address it excellent, and your first suggestion would be get blood work or contact you.
• 14:28
  Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, absolutely, you can contact me.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: I'm also going to help work with your doctor, too, as well, because I'm going to want you to get some tests that I can't do out of my office, that I'm going to want to make sure that you get.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: So, yeah, absolutely I would love to help you, and if there is something very specific to you, I also know a plethora of other people where I can send you.
• 14:49
  Speaker 3: If there's something more specific that I need to send you to.
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: Fantastic, yeah, absolutely Fantastic.
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I want to tell people now I got about 15 minutes left Grab a pen and a paper.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: I'm making notes.
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: You should be too.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: So I'd like to kind of move more into how do we start looking at especially veterans and their families.
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: How do we start looking at solving the problems?
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: Helping to, you know, 10, 20, I believe you said 20 to 30 years is kind of the realm, if you will, and I can talk more about that.
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: How do we start preventing them or taking steps of action?
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, this is a very complicated thing because it's not just one answer.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: I just can't tell you just to go work out, that's a piece of it.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I can't just say just go out and eat healthier, that's a piece of it.
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: Also, a piece of it is we need to have connection, we need to have relationships.
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: That's another piece.
• 15:48
  Speaker 3: And then there's also the self care that you give yourself, and so there's it's all of it together that has to work harmoniously to make sure that you're in balance and that you are thriving Okay and not just surviving.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: I have, like my little guy here, my favorite little guy, colin Stewart.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: They like to show to my clients, but I really want people to understand that what we do to the body also we do to the brain and vice versa.
• 16:14
  Speaker 3: Whatever we do to the brain is going to have a reaction in the body, and this is our brain, is so magnificent I mean it is like.
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: I mean it's the super I would call it like the supercomputer of everything that regulates everything in your body.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: Starting from the back, from the cerebellum, we have the occipital parietal area, prefrontal cortex, our temporal lobes underneath, and there's just so much going on, and especially for those that are transitioning right, they might be experiencing a little bit of anxiety coming out, a little bit of depression.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: So if you're going to want to help yourself with that in transitioning, let's eat things that are not going to exacerbate those symptoms.
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: We do know things like excess sugar, highly processed carbohydrates, another thing that people really don't think about, which is MSG, which is monosodium glutamate, which actually triggers the difference of fluctuation in the firing in the neurons in your brain that can actually make you more anxious, make you more depressed, make you not motivated.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: And so I would say for those transitioning, if you can get as clean as possible in your health and in your exercise, like I said, in your relationships, your wellbeing, the better prepared and that you're going to be, whether whatever you're going to decide to transition into, into a career or whatnot.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: So if we can take each of those sections and talk a little bit about that, is that the work for you?
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and how each may or may not contribute to those, those diabetes, pre-diabetes and Alzheimer's.
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: So let's start with nutrition.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: I think you kind of just nailed that one Eat clean.
• 17:57
  Speaker 2: Is there anything specific that you would say is a cleaner diet or or I don't like the word diet, but nutrition that people should look at and focus on more?
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: so as a generalization, yes, yes, yeah, everything can be different.
• 18:14
  Speaker 3: All these, you know, different diets do tend to work.
• 18:17
  Speaker 3: The one that I prefer is the Mediterranean diet.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: The reason is because it uses more things like lentils, beans for protein.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: Also higher qualities of fish, like your salmon sardines, very rich in DHA and epa, which the brain loves.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: We have around each axon is a fatty layer called gray matter, and to keep that beautiful and plump and thriving it loves, it loves healthy, healthy fats and healthy oils.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: Um, and I did have, I did want to bring actually a statistic on because we are talking about diabetes, because I believe that when we say these, we know we're talking about things like nutrition and things like that.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: But this, this was really something that even I was shocked to see.
• 19:01
  Speaker 3: This new statistic, which is this is just came out in May of 2024.
• 19:05
  Speaker 3: And this is from the CDC.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Ok, 38.4 million people right now have diabetes.
• 19:12
  Speaker 3: Wow, that's eleven point6% of the population.
• 19:16
  Speaker 3: So we're thinking about like so, when you think about it in percentages, that's like 40% of the population right now have diabetes.
• 19:24
  Speaker 3: Get this other part that means that 8.7 million are undiagnosed and don't know that they have it.
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: Wow, this is, this is alarming, right, and now from 2021, it was at twenty nine point seven million.
• 19:41
  Speaker 3: So with everything that we know, it has risen from twenty nine to thirty eight.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: That is a huge jump.
• 19:49
  Speaker 3: Yes, we have things like up there Right For for insulin resistance that we can take like metformin, but that is not solving the problem.
• 19:57
  Speaker 3: It's putting a Band-Aid on it.
• 19:59
  Speaker 3: The way that we solve the problem is like what we're talking about it is through nutrition, fitness, self-care, your relationships, getting back to holistic practices, okay, and feeding the body, the communication it needs to thrive and survive.
• 20:19
  Speaker 3: Uh, so I thought that was just alarming.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: And then, uh, if we think about, too, this, this statistic too, because we're talking about and now that was from people 18 and over, now this one is going to have a little bit in there as far as with kids that that are 18, because it says from 20 and younger, 352,000 children right now have type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
• 20:37
  Speaker 3: Wow, and that's 40%.
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: So, if you think about it, I mean really, if we combined it like, 80% of the population is sick and it's increasing and Alzheimer's is increasing.
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: That's, that's, that's literally staggering, cause I, I mean, I heard statistics a couple of years ago.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: One in two people that you can be in a group with.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: One out of those two is going to either be pre-diabetic diabetic, and you know, or, if they're even older, they they could be even experiencing alzheimer's which is like three diabetes is what they're calling it and the reason that is before too.
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: I want people to understand that this you know, we have our beautiful brain, but what happens is when we eat overly processed carbohydrates and sugar, okay, our bloodstream, right, the insulin helps take that sugar and it brings it to all of our cells, because we do use that glucose as a form of energy.
• 21:39
  Speaker 3: So it brings it to the cell.
• 21:41
  Speaker 3: The cell is only going to grab so much that it needs, because the cell, each cell, knows how much it needs for energy.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: Our muscles, right, they grab glucose that needs energy because we need to be fast, we need to move, and that pumps out glucose.
• 21:52
  Speaker 3: But then what happens is is the truck keeps coming around and if all the cells are filled, the truck's going to keep building Right, keep piling on all that sugar, sugar, sugar.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: It's going to stay in the bloodstream.
• 22:09
  Speaker 3: And what do we know about sugar?
• 22:10
  Speaker 3: Sugar deteriorates, you know.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: That's why a lot of people start to get problems with their vision.
• 22:14
  Speaker 3: There's heart disease, heart attacks, strokes.
• 22:17
  Speaker 3: The sugar starts to eat away at our beautiful vessels inside of our body.
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: If you've ever seen that experiment where someone took a soda and they dumped it on a battery and it started to corrode it.
• 22:36
  Speaker 3: That's what it does inside of your system.
• 22:37
  Speaker 3: If you have have too much of this and insulin can't keep up, insulin can't keep up, that mechanism gets broken down, and so now you have this whole catalystic storm that's going down and infecting not just one area, but it's starting to trickle in other areas, you know, inside of your body, different organs, and obviously in the brain too as well.
• 22:52
  Speaker 3: So it's it's very serious.
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I can tell I feel your passion, my friend, it's, it's, it is.
• 23:01
  Speaker 3: You know, people just don't really think about it because they're just too busy not being present for themselves you know, and and real quick too, like commercials, aren't going to come on right and not going to say say, talk about what we're talking about and give you the resolution to it.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: Their resolution is the new pharmaceutical pill.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 23:22
  Speaker 3: It also has all these side effects on top of it, right?
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: You literally sit there for about eight minutes listening to it.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: So people, I think, feel like they don't have an option.
• 23:33
  Speaker 3: And when we do want to spend our time, right after a busy day of work, who wants to sit down?
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: Usually besides me, because I love this stuff, but people normally don't sit down and go okay, what do I need to do XYZ for my health or my organ or for my liver or, you know, for brain?
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: You know they want to sit down, they want to relax, they want to take their shoes off.
• 23:52
  Speaker 3: They might want to sit down, they want to relax, they want to take their shoes off.
• 23:54
  Speaker 3: They might want to watch, you know, the latest netflix you know show or jump into a podcast, and so, um, yeah, and so you know we're not.
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: I think that's that's also part of it too.
• 24:04
  Speaker 3: Is that educational piece?
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: Because you know?
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: so?
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: So how?
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: I know the answer, I know what you're going to say, but I want you to say it.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: So you're tired, you know your patterns, right here, let's go neuroencoding.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: We know our patterns.
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: So what is some ways or a way that people can, if they know their pattern of Monday through Friday?
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: I am tired, I just want to check out.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: I don't want to make dinner for five people, I just want to relax and check out on Netflix or Zoom scrolling or whatever they call it with your phone.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Give us a tip.
• 24:47
  Speaker 3: Okay, I have a couple of tips, okay.
• 24:49
  Speaker 3: So the first one is there are, which is really great.
• 24:53
  Speaker 3: There are some more companies out there that are more being more health conscious.
• 24:57
  Speaker 3: One of those I do know that I find in my store I'm sure it'll be everywhere.
• 25:01
  Speaker 3: It's called Amy's.
• 25:02
  Speaker 3: They have like in frozen foods.
• 25:04
  Speaker 3: If you're like you know, I got to put something quick on the table has more healthier, organic ingredients in it.
• 25:10
  Speaker 3: The second thing I would tell you is, if you know, if you want to, if you're like I got to, I got to.
• 25:16
  Speaker 3: You know I want to listen to a Netflix or listen to a podcast.
• 25:19
  Speaker 3: Put your earbuds in.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: We can take these with us everywhere.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: Right, put it on, go outside and just go for a walk as you're listening.
• 25:27
  Speaker 3: That will help you as well.
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: You'll get some exercise in.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: You're also going to get those natural feel good chemicals that are going to inspire you when you come home to keep, you know, keep going as far as you know.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: You know living this different lifestyle than if you were just to plop down because there's no reward in just sitting.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: But yeah, go ahead.
• 25:50
  Speaker 2: No, you're good.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: You're good.
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: So, also, like I know me, if I do a workout that day, I'm making healthier choices, whether it be a walk and just enjoying nature, or I'm on the treadmill and then doing full body exercises, whatever the case may be.
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: But if I've invested in myself, I'm thinking how I'm going to eat differently that day, because I don't want it to go to waste.
• 26:10
  Speaker 2: So I just wanted to throw that in there.
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: What about, like meal prep?
• 26:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, this is I'm going to say.
• 26:20
  Speaker 3: If you really want to hunker down and you want to get really good at this, meal prepping is going to be definitely the way to go.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: And meal prepping the way that I do it, I'm telling you it's a fun way.
• 26:33
  Speaker 3: It really is fun.
• 26:34
  Speaker 3: I am not the kind of person that says, no, you can't do this or no, you can't have this.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: I always sit down with my clients and say what are your favorites, what do you like to have?
• 26:46
  Speaker 3: And then we make meals based off of all of their favorite things, but in a healthier version.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: So it's not about taking anything away.
• 26:50
  Speaker 3: It's actually about adding in lots of flavor, good, healthy sources.
• 26:55
  Speaker 3: But with meal prepping there's different types.
• 26:59
  Speaker 3: Even with my busy moms, I do a thing where I call them transition meals, which means we prep one meal but then also from that one meal, we can get two to three other dinners out of it, which is saving you time.
• 27:10
  Speaker 3: It's saving you money right now at the grocery store and less disposal.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: You can even make those meals.
• 27:16
  Speaker 3: We freeze them.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: I teach women how to constantly make up a stock of meals so that way on your busy days you have a month in the freezer, ready to go for you, and you can just pull out and use.
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: And I love the transition meal.
• 27:30
  Speaker 3: Yes, and once you start doing this, it gets easier and easier and it gets a lot more fun, because I really want everyone to love being a part of a culinary experience again.
• 27:38
  Speaker 3: You know we really have moved out to just give me grab, you, do it for me, I'm going to sit down, I'm going to, like you know, disassociate myself from the real world and we need to get back into actually touching the food and, you know, tasting it along the way and all of that greatness.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: And I just want to add to that, you know, gina, great information.
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: Because especially transition meals or meal prep, you know, I know this is a thing for Susan and I where, if it's oh, we got to figure it out every day, we got to figure out what we're going to do, we're going to figure out what we're going to do.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: It's not any fun.
• 28:16
  Speaker 2: It's a lot more fun to have it already kind of figured out and then you're sitting there cooking together, you spend time with your spouse, whatever the case may be, but especially the transition meals I've not heard it called that, somebody use that, thank you.
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: But if you have that and half your meals already made for the next day, especially meats, you know that kind of stuff, I know we do that a lot Salads, you know, for a day, it makes it so much easier.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: And if you already have a plan, you're not going to go, you know, pick up the Cheetos and say, okay, well, I'm just going to eat this tonight.
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: You know so, fantastic advice.
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: I love that truly.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: So, if we can, because we're getting a little on time, big surprise, let's talk about Alzheimer's.
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: It's a baby.
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: So what are some of the same thoughts, tips around that that you've already kind of given for the pre-diabetes and so on.
• 29:07
  Speaker 3: Well, first of all, there's that thing if you don't use it, you lose it.
• 29:10
  Speaker 3: So we always want to be stimulating the brain to keep it active, keep it strong, keep it engaged.
• 29:19
  Speaker 3: Obviously, the next important thing is your nutrition has to be on because, again, whatever you bring into your body is going to communicate either wellness, or you know health, you know health longevity or it's not OK, or it's going to age you and deteriorate you.
• 29:32
  Speaker 3: So we have to be very mindful of what's coming in and out.
• 29:35
  Speaker 3: Is this whole now new realm of neurotoxicity, which comes from everything from our skincare products to even in the air that we breathe, to the water that comes out of our sink, to the chemicals in our food.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: There's just so much, and I can understand why it's.
• 29:53
  Speaker 3: Maybe even somebody that is trying to lose weight is like I don't know what's going on.
• 29:56
  Speaker 3: I think I'm eating healthy.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure why.
• 29:59
  Speaker 3: All of this can kind of be overwhelming because there are so many components, and that's why working with, like a functional nutritional coach who understands these pieces is a great tool to have to learning this stuff.
• 30:11
  Speaker 3: And so I would say to everybody, as far as like even with with Alzheimer's, is starting small.
• 30:22
  Speaker 3: You know what can what.
• 30:24
  Speaker 3: What are the things that each week I can start maybe one thing taking out that's going to benefit me, you know, on top of that, too, we need to make sure that we're having sleep.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: People underestimate hydration.
• 30:33
  Speaker 3: Um, you know, we're we're, you know, anywhere from 60, you know, to 70 percent water all over our body.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: So staying hydrated is definitely going to help.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: Um, and you know, it says, as the as your weight, which is another statistic as the weight of your body weight goes up, the size of your brain shrinks interesting yes, so you know if you have a big plump brain, then you, then you know losing weight will definitely benefit.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: Wow, which I can see why because people that are more overweight you're having problems with blood flow.
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: Okay, okay.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: You know, and those kind of things.
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: Interesting.
• 31:12
  Speaker 2: I have not heard that before.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: I always learn things from you, Gina.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, but Alzheimer's is just so big.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: There really is so much.
• 31:18
  Speaker 3: I know we don't have much time here, but there I mean we could even spend a whole podcast just talking about that.
• 31:24
  Speaker 3: There's just so much.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: Everything is such these little intricate pieces to it, um, but but basic, basic is basic is we have to start with nutrition.
• 31:35
  Speaker 3: We have to.
• 31:36
  Speaker 3: I just read those statistics to you.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: They're not.
• 31:39
  Speaker 3: They're not lowering, they're getting higher and higher, and the scary thing is is it's not going to come down unless you decide that you want to live a healthier, happier life In the long run.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: And so you have to make make those changes and you can do it.
• 31:58
  Speaker 3: I have, I have tons of families that didn't think that they could, with the thickest of eaters, and their lives are changed.
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: It's really interesting.
• 32:07
  Speaker 2: I'm going to attest to that.
• 32:10
  Speaker 2: So if you just like, like you're saying earlier, make one change a week or you know whatever, so if 2% change, so if you change one little thing, it's like steering a ship people have heard me say this before where you're starting and you see a vision of where you want to go and you just make these little incremental, little incremental pieces, where that ship goes in two days, two weeks, two years, and what that changes for your life and your brain and your body.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: You go to a whole different destination with just these little changes, like Dana was saying.
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to add to that because it's really important to understand.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be that overwhelming thing of I'm changing my diet, I'm going to exercise, I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, you know.
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: Just little changes become the new you.
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: So I love that, if I can, gina, how do people reach out to you?
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, you can find me, gina Iovino, at Health and Mindset Revolution.
• 33:13
  Speaker 3: I'm on Facebook.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: Also on Instagram at, gina will show you.
• 33:17
  Speaker 3: You can find me on LinkedIn and yeah, and you know what, if you need to speak with me and you're not sure what is going on with you or where you need to go, I do free consultations and I will be happy to sit down with you, absolutely for free.
• 33:31
  Speaker 2: You rock, so, if we can, you know that.
• 33:35
  Speaker 2: You know you're a repeat guest here.
• 33:37
  Speaker 2: So three tips to get veterans further faster.
• 33:41
  Speaker 3: Yes, three tips.
• 33:42
  Speaker 3: So tip number one that I'm going to actually go do something, I think, a little little bit different with them.
• 33:48
  Speaker 3: One one number one is I want you to go to your doctor.
• 33:50
  Speaker 3: Let's get your blood work, let's get your panels done, let's get that physical and let's see where you're at internally.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: Then from there, that's going to give you a better idea of where you need to go from there.
• 34:00
  Speaker 3: Then from there, that's going to give you a better idea of where you need to go from there.
• 34:02
  Speaker 3: The second thing is I want to encourage them is movement.
• 34:05
  Speaker 3: You know to even when we exercise, how much creativity comes to light when you are moving Right.
• 34:12
  Speaker 3: Sometimes those are the best times that I think of a new plan or an email I want to send out to my clients or something I want to teach comes in those moments where I'm working out.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: So if you want to feel inspired or not sure where you need to go, and you need that moment of like, you know when is the universe going to kind of tell me what I need to do?
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: Go, move and you'll be inspired.
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: So I would say movement.
• 34:32
  Speaker 3: And the next thing is to get involved in a community.
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: So that way too, you have other people maybe they're going through this with you people you can lock arms with and you know that can get you exactly where you are, so that you're not at home to your own devices and then pondering and wondering what you need to do.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: Love it.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: So yeah, jump on a treadmill, put on a podcast.
• 34:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying so.
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: You brought up something I just want to add really quick.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: On the top right-hand corner of your screen there's a blue QR code If you are listening on podcast forums later on empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: Again empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 35:16
  Speaker 2: All kinds of veterans and family resources.
• 35:19
  Speaker 2: I've written a couple of books.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: There's Facebook groups to join, Get part of a community, like Gina was just saying.
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: So please use those resources.
• 35:27
  Speaker 2: Gina, it's a pleasure, as always, and let's jump off here and let's schedule the Alzheimer's one.
• 35:35
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and even another good one, really quick.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: I think might be a good way to discuss is what bad toxic food does to judgment, especially like prefrontal cortex, what's going on, and also too, like with veterans, you know you'll see a higher instance in either substance abuse, right, um, or you know whether it's gambling, those kind of addictive behaviors, and that's also related to food too.
• 35:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: That's a great point.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Thank you for saying that.
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: So with that we are out of here, oh bye.
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on another insightful journey of your thoughts your reality podcast with your host, michael Cole.
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: We hope the conversation sparked some thoughts that resonate with you.
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: To dive deeper into empowering your thoughts and enhancing your reality, visit empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Remember your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: Catch you on the next episode.