Latest / Libido Lounge / Your Diet Might Be Killing Your Desire (Here's What It Means) with Jenn Trepeck
Transcript
- 0:00Our sexual health is really one of those indicators of our overall health and what's
- 0:08happening inside our bodies.
- 0:11Jen Trepich has been described as a force of nature in the wellness space.
- 0:16Recognition includes podcast magazines 40 under 40 and nominations for the 2023 International
- 0:22Within Podcast Award and two Earworthy 2025 award categories as well.
- 0:29Jen has won Earworthy's 2024 best health podcast and best independent podcast award and
- 0:36Women's Who podcast stellar interview in 2025.
- 0:40She's an optimal health coach, podcaster, and business consultant.
- 0:44Jen grew up as the skinny one in the family of dieters which was awesome until it went away
- 0:49and so began her weight management saga.
- 0:52Ultimately though, Jen learned that nutrition education were all supposed to know but nobody
- 0:58taught us.
- 0:58It makes everything no big deal.
- 1:00Eat what you like, don't eat what you don't like.
- 1:04But it's really protein and fiber at every meal makes sexual desire no big deal.
- 1:09And the truth is we don't want to live in either extreme.
- 1:12I followed the program, completely changed my life, like the only thing that allowed me to
- 1:16say I can't really choose.
- 1:26Hey, everybody.
- 1:27Welcome back to another episode on The Lounge.
- 1:31We are talking today about something that we haven't talked a ton about on this podcast,
- 1:36honestly, and it and it's an important topic.
- 1:38We're talking about nutrition.
- 1:40We're talking about weight, and we're talking about how these things actually influence your
- 1:45libido.
- 1:46So we're gonna talk about what you can do to improve weight management without crazy
- 1:50dieting.
- 1:51I will ask Jen her story.
- 1:52I know she has a story here, so I'm gonna bring her up in a moment.
- 1:55We'll ask her her story about how she got to this world of understanding weight and diet and
- 2:01nutrition so well.
- 2:02So we're gonna talk about all of that and more, and as always, relate that back to how does
- 2:07this actually make a difference in your sexual wellness picture, in your libido, in your
- 2:12relationships, and more.
- 2:14So I'm very excited to introduce you to a new friend of mine, Jen Trebek.
- 2:19Welcome to the show, Jen.
- 2:21Thank you so much.
- 2:22I'm excited to be here.
- 2:23Yeah.
- 2:24Thank you.
- 2:24And and I wanna jump in, you know, right away to, like, a lot of the content I know we're
- 2:29gonna give as far as value for the audience, but I know you have a really unique story on
- 2:35your health journey, on growing up and just being like, hey, this is no problem to, you
- 2:42know, to keep weight off, and then all of a sudden it became a problem.
- 2:45And I know this is a story a lot of people are gonna relate to, and so if you would tell us
- 2:50that and then everybody, we're gonna start making some links of like, why does this matter
- 2:54for your sexual health?
- 2:55But but if you would first just tell us a little bit about your story and and what the
- 2:59saga was for you.
- 3:01Sure.
- 3:01And I appreciate that you used the word saga because I feel like the word journey doesn't do
- 3:05it justice.
- 3:06You know?
- 3:07There was drama.
- 3:08Right?
- 3:10So, you know, I came to all this wellness stuff through my own saga of trying to figure out my
- 3:16health and my weight.
- 3:18And as you mentioned, you know, I grew up a dancer and I ate healthful foods, and it wasn't
- 3:26really a thing for me, but it was in my house.
- 3:30So every fad diet under the sun in the eighties and nineties that we all grew up with, I did
- 3:36too.
- 3:37So between high school and college is when I started to gain weight.
- 3:42I stopped dancing a hundred and fifty hours a week and, you know, birth control played a
- 3:47factor in that too and a whole bunch of things.
- 3:51Going to college, all of that.
- 3:53And so when I started to gain weight, I was like, okay.
- 3:57I know what to do.
- 3:58Right?
- 3:59And I did every diet under the sun, lived on that roller coaster, gained and lost over and
- 4:04over.
- 4:05And I remember by the time I was in my early to mid twenties, I felt like I would just breathe
- 4:13and gain weight.
- 4:15Yeah.
- 4:16You know?
- 4:16And like, something doesn't make sense.
- 4:19I'm doing all the quote unquote right things and still not getting where I wanna be.
- 4:26And even it's funny.
- 4:29Even when I was introduced to the curriculum that I based my practice on, I was like, no.
- 4:34No.
- 4:34No.
- 4:34That's okay.
- 4:34I've got my thing.
- 4:36You know, my thing was the crazy roller coaster, but that's what it was.
- 4:40And I saw people who were following this other approach, and one woman in particular was
- 4:43telling her story of removing a hundred and fifty pounds and keeping it off, mind you.
- 4:49And anything she said after that, I didn't even hear because I was having a conversation with
- 4:53myself in my own head that was like, Jennifer, they know something you don't know because
- 4:59based on everything you know, that doesn't make any sense.
- 5:03And so I worked with a coach.
- 5:05I followed the program, completely changed my life, like the only thing that allowed me to
- 5:08say I'd kick my food issues.
- 5:11And from there, I sort of, I became this insatiable student of trying to understand like
- 5:16why isn't this the information that we learned?
- 5:19Because this is fundamentally human.
- 5:23And then how did all the things that we did learn come to be?
- 5:27So I became a health coach on the side of my full time job in 2007.
- 5:32Now eighteen years later, I work with clients one on one in small groups.
- 5:38As you mentioned, my podcast is called Salad with a Side of Fries.
- 5:42And my book, Uncomplicating Wellness, that recently came out in October 2025, we have a
- 5:50chapter that our sexual health is really one of those indicators of our overall health and
- 5:59what's happening inside our bodies.
- 6:01Amazing.
- 6:02I love that you included that chapter because I think it's so important.
- 6:06And you know what you're saying around your history of of these diet plans?
- 6:12I feel like this is so common.
- 6:13Right?
- 6:13I see this also in my own private practice of people that come in and they oftentimes feel
- 6:19like they're doing everything right.
- 6:20They've tried the, you know, like, whatever they read online around, this dietary plan,
- 6:26whether it's paleo, we could name a, you know, bazillion other dietary plans, and they're
- 6:30following it to a tee, and it's, like, not working.
- 6:33Like, it's very different when people are eating standard American diet and they're
- 6:36eating fast food out every day, but it's a completely frustrating thing for people when
- 6:40it's like, okay.
- 6:40Well, I think I'm choosing all the right things and still what's happening?
- 6:44So I love that you named that because I do think that comes up way more than people
- 6:48realize.
- 6:50And so, you know, let's start relating it a little bit if you would.
- 6:52Like, what do you talk about in that chapter of your book around, hey, this relationship of
- 6:57diet, of nutrition, and sexual wellness.
- 7:00Can you tell us a little bit about that?
- 7:02Absolutely.
- 7:03And I think I talk about it as an indicator of what's happening inside because everything in
- 7:09the body is connected.
- 7:11Yeah.
- 7:12It's just that most of the time, we ignore the whispers from the body that we get related to
- 7:22hunger and cravings and all of all of those other things because people have told us so
- 7:27many things.
- 7:29And we are, you know, overwhelmed with information that we follow those rules instead
- 7:35of paying attention to our body.
- 7:38However, when it comes to sexual health and libido, it gets our attention.
- 7:46And that's why I love talking about it as an indicator because it is inherently connected to
- 7:52blood flow.
- 7:53It is inherently connected to stress management.
- 7:56It is inherently connected to sleep.
- 7:59Right?
- 7:59Our hormones, all of these pieces work together.
- 8:02And so our libido is one of those whispers that we hear much clearer than other signs and
- 8:13symptoms from the body.
- 8:15So, you know, we can go down any one of those paths, but even if we think about, you know,
- 8:21for women lubrications and arousal, and for men an erection, it is blood flow.
- 8:29If we don't have metabolic health, if we don't have cardiovascular health, that blood flow is
- 8:34impaired.
- 8:36You know, when we are stressed, you know, cortisol gets a bad rap and there are pieces of
- 8:41cortisol that we really need.
- 8:43But when cortisol is high because we are stressed, you know what's not high?
- 8:48Our libido.
- 8:50So all of these pieces on a high level, all of these pieces work together, and we often think
- 8:58there's something wrong with us.
- 8:59And more often than not, whether it's the pounds on the scale or what we're seeing in our
- 9:04libido, it's a sign of something else going on in our body communicating with us.
- 9:09And so if we start to work with the biochemistry and recognize that it's
- 9:13biochemical, not a flaw in who you are as a human, we can really make some progress and
- 9:22take the pressure off and relieve some of that stress that, you know, when it's like, okay,
- 9:27take your clothes off, like that's the least of what's, you know, what our body is ready for.
- 9:33You and I share such a similarity on kind of our approach to this.
- 9:36I love it.
- 9:37Like, one of the things that I think is super important for people to realize and and to take
- 9:41the stigma out of any sexual health issues is that this is just a flag.
- 9:46Right?
- 9:46Sexual health issues are just like a flag, which means like, hey, this is your body just
- 9:50saying, hey, alert, something's out of balance, and we need to take the stigma off of it and
- 9:55just realize this is just the body communicating.
- 9:58And it could communicate a bazillion different ways and for a lot of people, a way that it
- 10:02does communicate an imbalance is through some sort of sexual health issue and it doesn't need
- 10:07to be any more than that, right?
- 10:08We need to get the taboo off and just be like, oh, wow, body's talking.
- 10:12Okay, let's listen.
- 10:13We accept Totally.
- 10:14Share that.
- 10:15And let's go into a couple of these that you mentioned.
- 10:18So metabolic health, circulation were, you know, two key ones that you you mentioned here
- 10:23that have a very clear direct relationship to sexual health.
- 10:27But let's break those down one at a time if you would.
- 10:30Can you can you talk a little bit about metabolic health and its relationship to sex
- 10:35drive and sexual wellness?
- 10:37And can you start because metabolic health is like a term that I think a lot of people know,
- 10:42but I think there's probably some people that are like, what do we mean by that?
- 10:46So will you start with what we actually mean by that and then kind of help us make those
- 10:50connections?
- 10:51Absolutely.
- 10:52So metabolic health by definition is a handful of functions that connect to how our body uses
- 11:03food and fuel.
- 11:05And that in turn connects to every system in the body.
- 11:11Because if we can't take in fuel and break that down, transport it through the body, get it
- 11:19into cells where it's needed, and use it, There isn't a system in the body that will work.
- 11:27So fundamentally, about metabolic health as that fuel uptake is how I like to think of it
- 11:35in a way so that we can all, no pun intended, but digest it.
- 11:39Right?
- 11:40One of the key factors of metabolic health is blood sugar balance.
- 11:48When we have blood sugar dysregulation or insulin insensitivity, our blood flow is
- 11:57impaired.
- 11:58Our blood can actually end up being very thick, and it doesn't move well.
- 12:04It doesn't transport nutrients well.
- 12:06It doesn't get to all the places that it needs to go.
- 12:11Well, we need that blood flow in our brains and everywhere to feel well, to have desire.
- 12:21We need it in our, you know, sexual organs, sensitivity, lubrication, arousal are all
- 12:29connected to that blood flow.
- 12:31So if we aren't able to move the blood around, if the blood is thick essentially and dense,
- 12:41it's not going to do what it needs to do for anything else.
- 12:45So when we focus on metabolic health, we're really thinking about that blood sugar balance
- 12:52and eating for nutrients.
- 12:53So how do we keep our blood sugar balanced?
- 12:55And by this, I really wanna be clear because a lot of people hear about insulin sensitivity or
- 13:01insensitivity, and they think, well, you just don't want it to be high.
- 13:06You want it to be low.
- 13:09And the truth is we don't want to live in either extreme, and a lot of people these days
- 13:14have constant glucose monitors.
- 13:16And I work with people all the time where they're like, well, it's still going up and
- 13:20down, and it's like, wait a minute.
- 13:21We want it to go up and down.
- 13:23That means it's responding to what we're eating and what's happening.
- 13:28We just want it to go up and down within a range.
- 13:32And if you don't have a constant glucose monitor, don't worry about it.
- 13:35You don't need to know the exact number to make choices that support our metabolic health, our
- 13:42overall health, and of course, our sexual health.
- 13:45So the phrase I like for everybody is protein and fiber at every meal makes removing fat no
- 13:52big deal.
- 13:53But it's really protein and fiber at every meal makes sexual desire no big deal, makes
- 13:58everything no big deal.
- 14:00So protein is clean, lean protein.
- 14:03Eat what you like, don't eat what you don't like, but clean, lean protein every time we
- 14:09eat.
- 14:10Fiber is vegetables and sometimes fruit.
- 14:16And then a meal is really every time we eat.
- 14:18The only difference between a meal and a snack is how much we're having at a time, and then
- 14:22therefore how long it's gonna last us till we need to fuel again.
- 14:26The other thing that we need a couple times a day is quality fat.
- 14:30So thinking omega threes.
- 14:33Your walnuts, your almonds, avocado, you know, are quality fats.
- 14:40By the way, a serving of avocado is half of the avocado.
- 14:45People are like, what?
- 14:46That's so much.
- 14:47Like, everybody tells me, you know, I had a quarter of a serving of a half an avocado, and
- 14:51I'm like, what?
- 14:52Like, just eat the avocado.
- 14:53We need the avocado.
- 14:55We need that quality fat for our hormones.
- 14:57We need that quality fat for our brain, for every piece, for stress, all of these things.
- 15:04So these pieces of nutrition that when we put them in place, a lot of other things start to
- 15:11take care of themselves.
- 15:14So protein, fiber, quality fat throughout the day and every time we eat.
- 15:19And I challenge you to watch and see what happens.
- 15:23Yeah.
- 15:24Thank you for that.
- 15:25And I do wanna emphasize too as you got you're talking about blood flow just for all of our
- 15:30listeners that you kinda you did mention this a little bit earlier, but there is, like, that
- 15:34direct link between blood flow and lubrication.
- 15:36So I just wanted to make sure everybody reheard that because when we're talking about this in
- 15:40blood flow and the importance and the relationship of metabolic health to blood flow,
- 15:44we're really saying, hey.
- 15:45This applies to both women and men.
- 15:48So I think there's just such a taboo out there around like, oh, blood flow is needed for men's
- 15:52sexual health that the ladies so oftentimes don't realize how important it is for them as
- 15:56well.
- 15:57I 1000%.
- 15:58And on that front too, you know, what I just talked about are sort of those macronutrients,
- 16:04and especially as we consider blood flow, micronutrients, in particular antioxidants, are
- 16:10incredibly powerful.
- 16:13So part of the fruits and vegetables also is getting those phytonutrients, those
- 16:18micronutrients, the nutrients that we need in smaller quantities, but in particular,
- 16:22antioxidants.
- 16:26Astaxanthin is one not just for it actually helps with eye health too and endurance, but
- 16:34cardiovascular health and blood flow is amazing.
- 16:41There's a doctor in New York City who wrote a book called The Hardness Factor.
- 16:49And in that book, he talks doctor Steven Lam, for those of you who know him, he talked a lot
- 16:54about OPCs or oligomeric proanthocyanins that are really powerful antioxidants that support
- 17:00blood flow.
- 17:00And the other interesting thing is for people who have higher levels of cholesterol.
- 17:07OPCs in particular can make the platelets more slippery, which supports blood flow and
- 17:17prevents or that's a strong word.
- 17:19Right?
- 17:20But can help those platelets not stick to each other or those arterial walls so that they are
- 17:28more slippery and can get through, and we see dramatic difference for men and women with
- 17:36blood flow and antioxidants.
- 17:39So that brings me to my next question then, is like, at what point with your practice are you
- 17:44emphasizing supplements versus saying, okay, well let's get these things from food?
- 17:48Like, what's your advice for people on, oh, we wanna improve cholesterol, we wanna improve
- 17:53blood flow, we want our platelets to be less sticky, all these things.
- 17:56Yeah.
- 17:56What are you saying, hey, let's get supplements on board?
- 17:59I have to take a break from what we were just talking about because I'm so excited to
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- 22:00Great question.
- 22:01And it's different for every person.
- 22:03But fundamentally, we cannot supplement our way out of poor lifestyle choices, out of poor
- 22:08nutrition.
- 22:10Supplements are designed to supplement.
- 22:13By definition, they add to.
- 22:17So we wanna fundamentally, first and foremost, get those nutrients through our nutrition
- 22:22choices.
- 22:23Now with that said, we all live in the real world and the reality is also that our food
- 22:30supply is just not what it once was.
- 22:32The other piece of the equation is that most of the time, by the time somebody's coming to have
- 22:37this conversation, they don't have a fire in their toaster.
- 22:41They have a house fire.
- 22:44And by the way, even if it was a fire in the toaster and you poured a thimble of water on
- 22:49it, you would say, water doesn't put out fires.
- 22:54Right?
- 22:54But if we have a fire hose, the water becomes really powerful.
- 22:58So sometimes the supplements can play that role to help us put out the house fire that's
- 23:04currently going on, and then on an ongoing basis, we may not need that.
- 23:10But I do say to people too, you know, if we aren't willing to make those nutrition choices,
- 23:16if we aren't willing to make those lifestyle adjustments, then we might need a greater
- 23:21commitment to the supplementation in an effort to balance, but we will never out supplement
- 23:29what we do in our daily lives.
- 23:32Yeah.
- 23:32It's kinda similar to like, we will never, like, out exercise what we put in our mouth.
- 23:37Right.
- 23:37Exactly.
- 23:38Similar analogy is that.
- 23:40So let's talk about hormones now because that's another when we're talking about root causes of
- 23:46of libido issues from a physical perspective, obviously, everybody or most people, I think,
- 23:51are aware of hormones being a big factor.
- 23:54So from a standpoint of nutrition, can you help us make some of these links as far as what you
- 23:58see from nutrition and food choices and hormonal balance?
- 24:03Yeah.
- 24:03So most people, I mean, there's so many pieces.
- 24:06I'm trying to think about where to start.
- 24:08So my brain started, we had mentioned before, quality fats.
- 24:11Right?
- 24:12We need these quality fats in order to make our hormones.
- 24:15Our endocrine system requires this.
- 24:19And so the other piece of a lot of people are way out of range in the balance between omega
- 24:28sixes to omega threes.
- 24:31And that disreg you know, that imbalance snowballs into other dysregulation with our
- 24:37fat.
- 24:38So we really wanna focus on adding more omega threes to bring that back into balance so our
- 24:43body can do what it's supposed to do.
- 24:45One of the things it's supposed to do is produce these hormones.
- 24:50Now here's the other thing because this really ties into stress in a couple different ways.
- 24:55Right?
- 24:55So cortisol, the stress hormone, when cortisol is high, our, in particular, our sexual
- 25:04hormones are not high because cortisol, that stress response, like think back, you know,
- 25:12caveman era, saber tooth tiger, we are being chased.
- 25:18Cortisol is designed to save our lives.
- 25:20It is fight or flight.
- 25:22Right?
- 25:23That response is designed to be twenty minutes.
- 25:28Like start to finish, give or take, fifteen, twenty minutes.
- 25:32So we see the saber toothed tiger, we run from it, we find a place to hide, we hide, we watch
- 25:39the tiger pass, our body calms down.
- 25:43When that's when cortisol is high, when we're in fight or flight, any body system that is not
- 25:49critical to survival of the next twenty minutes turns off because none of those things matter
- 25:56if we're not alive in twenty minutes.
- 25:59So that includes not just our immune system, not just growing hair and nails, not just your
- 26:08digestive system and metabolism, but your reproductive system.
- 26:15Because making babies doesn't matter if we're not alive in twenty minutes.
- 26:21And so I think we underestimate the role that stress plays biochemically, not just in terms
- 26:31of the mood and saying, oh, this is what I feel like doing right now.
- 26:37You know, there's really so much involved in the body.
- 26:39If we're never able to turn off that stress response, trying to feel in the mood for
- 26:46anything sexual is potentially going to feel like someone asking you to climb Mount Everest
- 26:52naked and barefoot.
- 26:53And you're like, how?
- 26:56It's not possible.
- 26:58Yeah.
- 26:59Yeah.
- 26:59I was out to lunch with a couple friends yesterday, both of who are having digestive
- 27:03issues, and one of them who is also having blood sugar issues, and I was going through
- 27:07some possible root causes with them to explore.
- 27:10And one of the things I was telling them is, this is gonna sound really cliche.
- 27:15That's what I was saying to them.
- 27:16But, honestly, we gotta talk about stress because it's exactly like, it is a cliche to
- 27:22you know, thing to say, and I just wanna name that here because I know people hear it over
- 27:26and over and over again as stress impacting you, stress is impacting you, stress is
- 27:30impacting you.
- 27:30But I think sometimes we hear that so much, and it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 27:33Well, there's nothing I can do about it.
- 27:34I'm just stressed.
- 27:35But I think it's, like, just essential for people to understand, like, no, there's
- 27:39actually these these chemical processes, like what you're describing here, that are actually
- 27:44impacting us on a cellular level, on a hormonal level, on a weight level, and all these
- 27:48different things.
- 27:50So you're hearing it, you know, people I think are hearing it so much because it's just like
- 27:54the elephant in the room around, like, you could fix a bazillion other things, but if
- 27:58you're not fixing the stress, it's you know, we we might not get where we need to go.
- 28:03And the other thing that I think is so complicated about it is our perception of
- 28:09stress intellectually and emotionally compared to the body's perception of stress.
- 28:16Yes.
- 28:16So, like, you remember the old posters about, like, it was it had some quote on it about
- 28:24success, and there was the picture of the iceberg and the waterline?
- 28:28Oh,
- 28:28yeah.
- 28:28Mhmm.
- 28:28Right?
- 28:29Yep.
- 28:30I think our perception of stress is that waterline.
- 28:35The actual stress is the iceberg.
- 28:38So we think that we're not so bad because our perception is just the tip of the iceberg over
- 28:44the waterline.
- 28:46Yeah.
- 28:46And the reality is that our body's perception of stress is that entire iceberg.
- 28:51So including in every single day things that chip away at that iceberg.
- 29:00Even when we don't feel like we're stressed, we need to do these things to help continue to
- 29:06send signals to the body that it is safe, that it is okay, that all of these other systems can
- 29:12come back online.
- 29:14And it's a continuous thing because our bodies don't know the difference between the email,
- 29:23the uncomfortable conversation, our phone buzzing and not, you know, for anything, and
- 29:30that saber tooth tiger that's threatening our lives.
- 29:34So then let's talk about a little bit about what we can do about it.
- 29:36So Yeah.
- 29:37I mean, you balance blood sugar, right, and and do some of the things you're talking about,
- 29:41your protein, your lean fiber, your couple fats a day.
- 29:44But what else are you recommending for people as far stress?
- 29:48I mean, think I do think there's like a huge point of it that you're right.
- 29:51It's like there is this awareness of, hey, this is actually impacting your body probably
- 29:56dramatically more than a lot of people realize, so that might be the first step is just like
- 30:01acceptance and awareness of it.
- 30:03But beyond that, beyond some of those things that you already suggested from a, you know, a
- 30:08dietary perspective, what else are you recommending people to to work with this?
- 30:13Yeah.
- 30:14I mean, we can talk about movement.
- 30:15Right?
- 30:16Now movement helps with blood flow and our cardiovascular health and that stress response.
- 30:22So think about when we are in that stress response, that saber tooth tiger is coming,
- 30:29fight or flight requires us to use that energy.
- 30:34So movement and activity can help us use that energy that the body is perceiving as that
- 30:41fight or flight.
- 30:43Another interesting thing is even our breathing.
- 30:45So think about what happens.
- 30:48So we're running, we hide, we watch the saber tooth tiger pass, and then what would happen?
- 30:54If we imagine the scenario, maybe you're watching a movie, right, and somebody's hiding
- 30:58from the bad guy, whatever.
- 31:01The bad guy passes and then what happens?
- 31:04Your breathing gets deeper.
- 31:06The breaths get longer.
- 31:09So if we can remind ourselves, set an alarm a couple times a day, whether it's what we've
- 31:17heard of as box breathing or just a couple longer deeper breaths, in through the nose, out
- 31:24through the mouth, breathing from the diaphragm, so lower down in the body versus
- 31:30breathing from the chest.
- 31:32So to do this breathing, instead of as you inhale thinking of the chest coming up or down,
- 31:41think of the ribs expanding and contracting like an accordion, and that helps us get the
- 31:48breath into the diaphragm.
- 31:49It's a physiological signal to the body that the stressor has passed.
- 31:56Great way to add it in, do it before a meal.
- 32:00Right?
- 32:00What better time to turn on rest and digest than before we eat?
- 32:05But it's also that idea of habit stacking where we can attach it to something that's hopefully
- 32:09already happening throughout the day.
- 32:12Right?
- 32:13So it just gives us a reminder, pause.
- 32:16Take a deep breath.
- 32:18You know, slow down the breath to send some of these signals to the body.
- 32:25Connection.
- 32:27Connection with your partner, connection with friends, having those conversations.
- 32:32Like, there's actually a lot of recent research about how having that vent session with your
- 32:36best friend is a de stressor.
- 32:39Do it.
- 32:40If you have that voice that's like, I don't wanna be the Debbie Downer, you're not.
- 32:46Say the things out loud.
- 32:48Get it out there.
- 32:49If you're not one to say it out loud, then figure out a journal or type the note on your
- 32:54phone that you maybe delete later or whatever it is.
- 32:57But getting all of that stuff out of the body is incredibly powerful.
- 33:03I I took Pilates years ago from a woman who's an original student of Joseph Pilates.
- 33:09I don't know if this is true, but she's, like, older than God, and so I think it's true.
- 33:13She said the phrase working out originally came from the idea that you were working the stress
- 33:20out of the body.
- 33:22So if you need a walk here and there instead of that one hour intense session, do it.
- 33:31Three minutes, five minutes, stand up and sit down 10 times.
- 33:35All of that is so incredibly powerful, and I think it's underappreciated because we hear so
- 33:44much about how if it's not intense enough, if it's not long enough, it's not sweaty enough
- 33:48for all of these things that it doesn't count.
- 33:50And so I encourage everybody to do the little things throughout the day that seem like
- 33:55nothing because they add up to something really powerful.
- 33:59Yeah.
- 34:00Tiny habits are the ways that go.
- 34:01They're totally the ones that that last for sure.
- 34:04But what else have we not had, like, said today that you think is really important in this
- 34:08conversation of nutrition, of wellness, of food, of sexual health?
- 34:13Yeah.
- 34:14I think
- 34:15and this connects to everything, but we haven't talked about sleep.
- 34:20And, you know, humans are the only species that deprive themself of sleep for no good reason.
- 34:26Like, fundamentally, we are also animals.
- 34:29You know?
- 34:30And it's interesting because similar to stress, what we think of or what we tend to experience
- 34:36on a daily basis as sleep versus what our body experiences as quality sleep are often
- 34:44dramatically different.
- 34:48So deep sleep that frankly can only happen from 11PM to 3AM is required for detoxification, is
- 35:00required for healthful aging, is required, period.
- 35:06So it means if we're going to bed at midnight 01:00, our max amount of deep sleep is limited.
- 35:17And I say this with all of the compassion and love in the world because I am with you.
- 35:23Sleep, we are all a work in progress.
- 35:26Right?
- 35:26Sleep is one that I work on all the time too.
- 35:30And all of those pieces are connected.
- 35:34Right?
- 35:34Without quality sleep, we don't have that hormone reset.
- 35:40Our libido drops.
- 35:42We cannot make enough testosterone and estrogen and progesterone, and that all the balance of
- 35:50the hormones essentially gets scrambled when we aren't getting quality sleep and enough of that
- 35:57quality sleep.
- 35:59Right?
- 35:59Our energy tanks, our mood drops, our libido follows.
- 36:05And when we think about all of those things too, like even the glass of wine that we think
- 36:11is really helping us sort of unwind and relax really impairs that sleep.
- 36:16So we just wanna make some choices again so that most of the time we're getting great
- 36:22quality sleep.
- 36:23And that also helps us make better choices throughout the day because in addition to the
- 36:30detoxification, in addition to the hormones, in addition to everything else that happens when
- 36:35we sleep, if we don't sleep well or enough, we are less sensitive to the hormones that tell us
- 36:43when we're done eating.
- 36:46And so it snowballs back into where we started with the quality nutrition choices.
- 36:52It will be infinitely more difficult to make those quality choices about anything and
- 36:57everything without that sleep.
- 37:00And it's all this biochemical soup that's happening in the body.
- 37:06It's not your fault.
- 37:08You're not broken.
- 37:09And in fact, what you're experiencing is the body doing exactly what it's supposed to do.
- 37:16Yeah.
- 37:17Yeah.
- 37:17Thank you for that.
- 37:18I think it's such an important thing for people to hear because I think so much we are judging
- 37:23sleep by hours, and they're like, okay.
- 37:25Oh, I got six, seven hours.
- 37:27It's gotta be good enough, and and it's not.
- 37:29And it's not just the the amount.
- 37:31It's the quality.
- 37:32I, like, I see you have your aura ring on just like me around, like, okay.
- 37:36Tracking every day.
- 37:37Like, what is sleep like?
- 37:38What did I do to change it?
- 37:39Like, it's a really, really useful tool to be monitoring this and just be like, okay, are my
- 37:44decisions keeping me on track for a really deep and good night of sleep, or are they not?
- 37:50And, you know, and I think these tracking devices are just so helpful for letting us
- 37:55know, like, did I eat too late?
- 37:57Did I not eat enough dinner?
- 37:58Did I have more fat at dinner?
- 37:59Did I have more protein at dinner?
- 38:01Like, how are these changes actually impacting sleep positively or negatively?
- 38:06So Yeah.
- 38:07I like looking
- 38:08at the data.
- 38:09The thing that I say to everybody too is let it be one of the data points so that we're not
- 38:17outsourcing.
- 38:18Like if you wake up feeling energized, go with that.
- 38:23Be careful that we don't let the ring or your watch or whatever tell you or like, you know,
- 38:31pop your balloon and take the wind out of your sails and say, oh, well I thought I, you know,
- 38:36felt amazing, but now I feel gross because my watch told me that I should be feeling gross.
- 38:43Yeah.
- 38:43That's a really important point too.
- 38:45Well, tell us a little bit about how we get ahold of you.
- 38:47I know you have a free gift for everybody, so I wanna make sure everybody knows about that free
- 38:51gift.
- 38:52Give us all those goodies.
- 38:53Absolutely.
- 38:54So all social media, I'm at gentrEPECK, j e n n t r e p e c k.
- 39:00Website is a saladwithasideoffries.com.
- 39:05Wherever you're listening now, salad with aside of fries podcast is there.
- 39:09We love hearing from you, so send a message on your favorite platform.
- 39:14And my book, Uncomplicating Wellness, is available everywhere books are sold, Amazon,
- 39:20all the places, and my website as well.
- 39:24And then the free gift for everybody is a guide called It's Not What to Eat, It's How to Eat.
- 39:31Because as we talked about today, we talked a lot about the what.
- 39:35Right?
- 39:36But truthfully, you already know a lot of that.
- 39:39Nobody needs to tell you to eat a cucumber over a Twix.
- 39:42The question is how do we make the cucumber the desirable choice, and then how do we eat the
- 39:49Twix so that it doesn't impact us the same way that it might right now?
- 39:53So all of that is As everybody was not paid.
- 39:55Yeah.
- 39:57Yes.
- 39:58Making people, like, want the cucumber over the twigs is a very, very good good angle for this.
- 40:03I think
- 40:04it's So just so
- 40:05thank you for that.
- 40:06And we'll have links to you guys on everything she mentioned, book, website, podcast, and this
- 40:12free giveaway as well.
- 40:14Yep.
- 40:14All of that will be below the the video.
- 40:16Also, wherever you're watching it, it'll be just below the video on the platform.
- 40:20And thank you all for listening.
- 40:22Thank you, Jen, for being here.
- 40:24I really appreciate everybody's attention today.
- 40:26Remember that nutrition really is one of the most critical foundations as well as sleep, as
- 40:32well as water, as well as hormonal balance.
- 40:34But we're talking about some of these critical foundational pieces for sex, for libido, for
- 40:39wellness on all fronts.
- 40:42And we can do so many lab tests and so many things to find out other root causes which are
- 40:46many times essential, But if we don't have the foundations, nothing's gonna work.
- 40:50So thank you again, for being here.
- 40:53Thank you, Jen, and I'll see you all real soon on another episode of the lounge.
- 40:57Ciao for now.
- 41:01Thank you for listening to the Libido Lounge.
- 41:03Please don't keep me a secret.
- 41:04Please share this with your friends.
- 41:06You can find me on YouTube, on Instagram, as well as how to work with me at mylibidodoc.com.