[Ep. 341] GLP-1s, Obesity, & Emotions

Luis and Camille riff on GLP-1s. They are not a silver bullet, nor do they teach you how to relate to food, but they can be a great temporary auto regulator and bridge while a new food relationship is built. 

In an era of overfed and undernourished people, Luis and Camille talk about how to get nutritional needs met. Resmaa Menakem speaks about culture vs strategy. Diet culture is a strategy. Our six month Embodied Nutrition Slow group, starting July 7, slowly and sustainably shifts the culture of how you relate to your body and what you consume. 

https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/slow-practice-nutrition-group

Contact us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com if you have any questions about the Embodied Nutrition Slow Group. 

You can get instant access to all of the HLN webinars and video courses here: https://hln.thinkific.com/collections

You can order the book here: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/the-book

----

You can learn more on the website: https://www.holisticlifenavigation.com/

You can follow Luis on Instagram @holistic.life.navigation

Questions? You can email us at info@holisticlifenavigation.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Welcome to the Holistic Life Navigation Podcast. I am your host, Luis Mojica. I'm a somatic therapist and nutritionist who combines nutritional therapy with somatic therapy to help thousands of people around the world, including myself, recover from stress and trauma. This podcast serves as a way for me to teach you what I learned for free. How can food aid in the recovery of stress and trauma? What does it really mean to be embodied? And how can simple somatic practices help us better navigate this strange and sensational human experience? Let's find out.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

It wasn't about counting calories, it wasn't about tracking my food, it wasn't about eating the right ratio. It was truly from one meal to the next, or one day to the next, really feeling into where I was, what I wanted, and what was my capacity to actually articulate my desires, articulate my boundaries, really feel an embodied yes, really feel an embodied no. My relationship with food changed because I didn't need it, I didn't require it as much. And then the weight slowly came off.

SPEAKER_00 2:05

Hello everybody, and welcome back to the podcast. I am joined by my friend and co-teacher, Camille Leek, and we're gonna dive into a couple different questions and topics we've seen around food, especially because the book Food Therapy just came out, and because the upcoming Embodied Nutrition Program, which starts on July 7th, we have different questions concerning this topic, and we want to dive into them together. So I'm gonna look at my list you gave me, Camille. And actually, let's just start right off the bat, GLP was.

SPEAKER_01 2:46

There's just the proliferation of them. Um, like they are just even even as we're halfway through 2026, they're at least in my experience and perception, they're much more accessible or prevalent even than they were just a year ago. And I think with that prevalence uh and it and increased usage, there are just a lot of questions that that people have. Like, of course, the big one that at least I hear or see in spaces like, is this a good thing? Whether by which this being GLP ones in and of themselves, but then also the wide, wide usage of them. Is this, is this, is this quote unquote healthy? Is this quote unquote good?

SPEAKER_00 3:32

Well, one thing I see, I always love to look at patterns because there's always something new, right? Like as a society, as a culture, as a different civilizations, we always have a new thing we find, but it follows a similar pattern. And the pattern I see with GLP1s is the notion of this is it, like this is going to do it, or this is the safe way, or this is the new way, or you know, whatever, because it's it's so extremely effective for the majority of people that use it. And I've watched that through my whole life, as I know you have. Of I mean, I'm I'm going back to stacker two, right? Where it was these pills that revved up your nervous system and your adrenals, depressed your appetite, and caused you to burn fat. And people were losing like dozens of pounds very quickly. The so there's this pattern of we think we found the new thing, it's extremely effective, and like you're saying, now it's accessible and it's safe for the most part, in terms of you know, it doesn't tend to kill you right away. Now I don't know why I said it wrong. It's just true. It's true. If you look at most of the medical literature, if it doesn't kill you right away, it's like considered safe. Um, we're good. So the other pattern that I find interesting to our work that also is true for every miracle diet pill or drug I've ever seen, or even diet, is it doesn't teach you how to navigate your relationship to food. Yeah. Let's talk about that piece.

SPEAKER_01 4:54

Yeah. Well, well, I think that's the that's the the key, a key piece of this, that of course, there is now research coming out showing that, well, once you stop the GLP ones, there is in we see that the weight comes back. And part of me is like, no shit, Sherlock. Like this is what we've seen in other cases, like talking about, you know, sort of the magic bullet, the there was a lot of that as it related to um uh you know, various forms of bariatric surgery where people could experience a lot of success with bariastriatric surgery, lose a lot of weight in the first one, two, three years, and then gradually over time the weight would would come back because the underlying relationship with food wasn't wasn't um addressed. Or I even a couple couple of months ago saw a headline that said, New research shows that intermittent fasting doesn't help you lose weight. And that's the headline. But as you read the study, what the study shows is that when you stop intermittent fasting, the weight comes back. So it's what we're seeing in all of these cases is an underlying pattern of these are great interventions to address the biological effect of excess consumption on the body. However, if the reason for the excess consumption isn't addressed, the weight loss will be temporary.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

Yeah, that I'm gonna highlight that word intervention. It's a really good word to use here. I see Ozempic as an intervention. I think the issue is when you get an intervention confused with an answer, right? It's completely unsustainable because interventions are temporary. And what's really important to understand about Ozempic or any of these GLP1 interventions is they are a form of hormone replacement therapy. It is a hormone that you're playing with because your body makes this in your in your in your system naturally, and it helps um balance blood glucose. And it's one of the reasons they discovered it worked because they were giving it to diabetics and they discovered, wow, they're losing weight and they have less food noise and their brain's less addicted to food. And what if we marketed this to people who didn't have diabetes, who just had weight issues or food issues? So this hormone changes your whole body. You know, you're I always like to explain hormones as like an orchestra, they're all working together. And when one hormone either gets removed or amplified, the whole thing gets a little off balance. So to intervene with a hormone is highly effective because hormones are so powerful, but long term it starts throwing off other hormones. So we don't have enough, you know, study studies, even long-term studies to show what happens when you're on it for a really long time. There's a lot of individual positive and negative results. But what really matters to me is this piece. If you're not learning to embody your food, if you're not learning to embody the sensations that drive food habits, and if you're not learning how to intuitively relate to food through a somatic lens, like we teach, there's no sustainability with being in a balanced body with your diet, regardless of what you take. And I think of I like that you chose the what is it called bariatric surgery? Yeah. Yeah. I I I I'm glad you brought that up because I had friends whose parents went on that when I was growing up. And I remember one friend in particular, her mother was hospitalized several times for severe malnutrition. Because when you get that surgery, you can't fit as much food into your stomach. Right. But because you're not taught anything about nutrition, you're still eating very low nutrient foods. So now you're getting a third of the calories you got before, and those calories have no nutrients in them, which will be a segue to our next conversation. So when you have these low calories with no nutrients attached, you actually have more vulnerability for malnutrition. Same with with those empic or GLP1s, you're less hungry, you're much more satiated. So you're eating way less. That means what you eat has to really count. Because when you overeat, part of what drives the mechanism of overeating is your animal body saying, Well, I just got 4,000 calories, but there's like no vitamin C. I just got 4,000 calories. I didn't get one antioxidant. And so your brain is like, you need more food, but because the food you're eating is highly processed, you just keep eating more malnourishing food. And I think it's an important part of the conversation. If you're not learning that piece, no drug is really going to change that for you.

SPEAKER_01 9:20

Yeah. And um particularly as it relates to the GLP ones, uh, we've seen this sort of dovetail with the the protein craze. And now don't come for me because I say protein craze. I definitely believe protein is um important, but I am noticing a trend, a hyperemphasis placed upon protein. Um, but there there have been studies, um, observations where uh due to the dynamic you just named, that people are losing a incredible amount of weight, but a significant portion of it is muscle mass uh because the protein isn't in their diet, because they're full after eating three Oreos. And so they're not getting the protein that they need uh to maintain that skeletal muscle mass. Um, and then unfortunately, or consequently, when they do go off the GLP ones and they haven't addressed the underlying issues for the overconsumption, the weight comes back, but it's not necessarily the muscle that comes back, it's only the fat. So then they have a dis there's a a disproportionate amount of fat to muscle ratio even prior to when they first started the GLP one.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

Yeah, that's important to understand. And this is even where lifestyle comes in because if you're using a GLP one and you're losing the weight because of how it's affecting your chemistry, you're eating less, you have less cravings, that also doesn't mean you're creating a new relationship to movement. You know, right? You're not actually creating a holistic relationship to your body and food and movement and space. So your life stays the same, your habits stay the same, but this medicine is changing you from the inside as long as you're using it. And like you're saying, when you stop using it, if nothing in the environment changes, your body's gonna have the same response, even in this case, a disproportionate response.

SPEAKER_01 11:05

Yeah, I mean, I think what what particularly when I think about the use of GLP1s, I like to think of it in the context of the three types of regulation we talk about, you know, auto-regulation, co-regulation, and self-regulation. And here, you know, we don't put auto-regulation on the bottom tier and self-regulation on the top tier. If anything, when we talk about auto-regulation, it can be a bridge to co-regulation. And I think, at least for me, my recommendation for those who do choose to use GLP ones, it can be a great autoregulator. It can be a great way of bridging your capacity to be able to co-regulate with food or have or have a form of self-regulation when it comes to whatever comes up when it comes to the things in your body that you use, that you used to use food to auto-regulate. But when there's not conscious awareness of using the space that the autoregulator, that the GLP one creates, to me, that's the missed opportunity.

SPEAKER_00 12:06

Yeah, that's exactly right. I that's what I teach to people who come and they are using a GLP one, but they want to do the work that I teach, or the work that we teach together in this program. I always say you're welcome here. It's not like you have to get off this to do this.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

In fact, it would be way more successful. If you're using something that creates more satisfaction, that creates less cravings, that changes your chemistry so you're not addicted to food or thinking of it all the time, and boosts your metabolism, helps your blood glucose. Imagine what that body will feel like if you're also eating nutrient-dense foods that are also doing all those things. Because what's so cool about the quiet diet, the protocol I developed, is it the foods in there actually uh, what's the word I'm looking for, stimulate your body's own production of GOP1s. So you're not making nearly as much so we get in a shot because it's a big synthetic amount, but you're getting this constant output to your brain of we're taking care of, we have enough nutrients, we have enough security with food, the body starts settling, you're not activating the adrenals as much. So if that's what you're feeding your body while simultaneously taking a GLP one, that can actually be a shortcut, not just to weight loss and better health outcomes, but it can be a shortcut to getting to a place where you have more capacity to then without the GLP one, right, go into the future of having a new relationship with food. So it really can be like a hand holding, which I think is very useful. And when people say to me, What do you think about GLP1s? That's usually what I say. I say what I think about them, which I already did, and I suggest do three to six months of using one with modifying your diet and doing some nutritional counseling work, which is different from dietitian work, where you're getting curious about the emotions attached to your food behaviors and your food cravings. And then, I mean, six months from now, you'll you'll be in a whole different place. So I I wanted to switch to this other conversation that I started talking about when you brought up the Oreos, actually.

SPEAKER_01 13:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

As the example of low fiber, low protein, low nutrients. We are so focused on calories that and the the the I think the processed food companies really think about that. They put calorie counts on things like these three Oreos, only 150 calories, or you know, those 100 calorie snacks, snack wells at the company. I don't know what it is, but it's no disco, there's only exactly right. And so people are seeing 100 calories, and people who are trying to lose weight think, great, I'm gonna eat the you know, right, nacho Doritos, whatever it is, 100 calories worth. But what we don't understand is calories are not calories are different in your body based on what's attached to them. So when you have a calorie that the only thing attached to it is starch or sugar, then you have a food that's completely void of nutrition because that sugar gets stored, it doesn't do much, it fuels your cells, but when you have too much of it, it gets stored as fat. So you're not getting any vitamins, you're not getting any minerals, you're not getting any antioxidants, you're not getting fiber. These are all the micronutrients. The macros are the fiber, carbs, fats. I'm sorry, protein, carbs, fats. But the micronutrients are these antioxidants and these vitamins and minerals and trace minerals, like really important actual nutrients for your body and your cells. So when you're eating less, but the food you're eating is not dense in nutrients, it's just lower in calories, you're actually going to be malnourished. You can have enough calories for the day, but not enough nutrients that go along with those calories. And the way that impacts people through the work we do is that a low amount of nutrients actually means your body has a harder time recovering from stressful events. Because when you make adrenaline, when you make fight or flight, it takes a certain amount of nutrients, certain amount of minerals, vitamins, antioxidants. Almost like if you think of uh firefighters responding to a fire, those nutrients come in and they repair different tissues and nerves and parts of your brain and your stomach, and they really help balance your system after the traumatic event or the stressful event. So if you're just having nutrient depleted calories, you're actually increasing fight or flight response, then you have none of the the let's say raw materials to actually put off the fire.

SPEAKER_01 16:20

I always uh like going back to the phrasing that we are at a point, a unique point in history where we generally speaking, as a as a people, as a society, are overfed but undernourished. And that can be such a hard concept for us to put to grapple, especially because we are in the midst of an obesity epidemic. How can we possibly be obese and be undernourished at the same time? But it's the dynamic like you you just described. Um, and I I find that part of, I mean, there's so many reasons that feed into it, but I think part of it is exactly what we're tapping into. That one, we tend to only be fixated on the macros, fat, uh, protein, um, and carbs. We don't really know or understand the value and role of the micronutrients. But even when it comes to the macros, it's like this rotating trend of what's in and what's out. And it's never, at least in my experience, it always seems to be like, what's the one I should be focusing on, or what's the one I should be avoiding? So there's the, like you said, there was the low cal craze that went hand in hand with the low fat craze, and then that transitioned into the low carb phase. And then we're now at a place where it's it's the it was the high fiber uh craze, and now we're in a place where it's the high protein phase, and it's never what if it's all of that? What if and what is it? But that's not sexy, you can't sell that, you know. But what if we understood the role that each of these macros played? And it's not so much that one is more important than the other, or that one has to be demonized and completely avoided, but really have an understanding of the different role that each plays in our bodies, and then use that to help guide our consumption of them.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah, I love that. I think that's the issue with focusing on macros, is you isolate these nutrients. And if you think of, like, for example, if you think of a protein powder, let's say, depending on what that protein powder is made of, it could be completely loaded in protein, but completely devoid of micronutrients. You think of fats, oils are a perfect example. When I was growing up, people would brag if something was fried in peanut oil, you know, because peanut oil was thought of as better than butter or lard, right? Because it was not a saturated fat the same way. So they would think this is healthy. Well, peanut oil is pure fat. There's no antioxidants, there's no minerals, there's no nutrients. Whereas if I have an avocado, which is also like loaded with fat, it's also fibrous. There's some carbohydrates in there, there's a little bit of protein, not a lot, but a little bit of protein. And there's trace minerals, there's antioxidants, there's vitamins, there's minerals, electrolytes, you have this whole spectrum. So the thing that we teach a lot in this program is we I actually will go through the macros for people because it's what they're so used to, but I'm teaching macros through a whole food philosophy. Correct. So, what's a whole version of protein? What's a whole version of a fat? What's a whole version of a carbohydrate? I just reserve the right to believe that if you eat whole unprocessed foods, you don't really have to think much about calories or macros. You don't. Because if your meals are diverse and it's mostly whole foods on your plate, you're going to be getting a beautiful spectrum of all these micronutrients. And this is why I love the quiet diet, because the baseline of the quiet diet is beans, which are a high fiber and protein, lots of micronutrients as well. A protein, and again, we speak of whole food proteins, animal proteins, or a combination of grains and beans for um uh vegans, and that's also loaded with nutrients, and then greens, which we know are loaded in nutrients and fiber. So just on that plate, if that's the baseline, not the only thing people eat, but that's the what it's based in. You have fiber, you have fat, protein, carbohydrates, you have vitamins, you have minerals, you have antioxidants, trace minerals, electrolyte, you have all the spectrum right there. Anything else you put on top of that, like you want some pasta, you want some macaroni, you want to have cake for dessert, that's all just pleasure and enjoy it. But you have your needs, you're getting your nutrition uh nutritional needs met with these simple whole foods. And again, the reason why it's such an important conversation with our demographic of people that are really working on stress and trauma recovery and emotional stabilizing, is when you have a diversity of those nutrients and those needs being met with each meal, just like you're saying, so many different parts of the body are responding to that. Like when I have my pro when I have that quiet diet meal and I have, let's say, a piece of fish. Well, the amino acids from that fish are turning into neurotransmitters for my brain. Now, those neurotransmitters are able to be made in my gut because of the fiber, the soluble fiber from the beans, which feeds my microbiome. And then the greens are stabilizing my blood sugar levels. So in that one meal, these different systems in my body are all being tended to. But if I was just focused on protein, I would miss the fiber. If I was just focused on fiber, I might miss the fat. All these things start being demonized instead of what in a whole food balanced way, they actually work for my body on many levels.

SPEAKER_01 21:37

Yes. I mean, I I adore the way you just described it. Yeah, like it, I mean, just to reiterate, if I'm only focusing on one, if I'm only focusing on the protein, I'm missing the benefit of the fiber. If I'm only focusing on fiber, I'm missing the benefit of the fat. Um and I know that just like we've experienced with other forms of either diet culture or nutritional advice, there can be that desire in us to want to dissociate, just tell me the one thing I need to eat, or just tell me the one thing to not eat. Because that is somewhat relatively easier than being with the the wholeness of all three of those macros together and really feeling into how all three of those macros are impacting you and supporting you.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Yeah. And what's so important when you learn the somatics of this, because I'm teaching the nutritional piece and they understand the biochemistry, the nutrients themselves, how to prepare some of these foods, what it looks like on a plate. Like we walk them through all that in the program. But then there's the really important piece, what makes this stick? Because how many times on this podcast have I talked about the quiet diet? You know, people can listen to these episodes and literally do the whole book without buying the book or any program I do. What will keep anyone From doing it is their untended emotional landscapes. Their trauma, their stress, their fears, their childhood repressed memories, all those things live in our bodies. And from there, we eat or don't eat. So so much of our disordered eating, so many of our eating habits, our dependency on stimulants and depressant foods and ultra-processed foods. These are not a result of people that have no willpower. It's a result of people that use food to find safety. So the 50% of our program is yes, teaching you about food, but the other 50% is teaching you how to be in your body. So when you find that safety in your body in other means, you don't rely on food the same way. So food gets to be pleasurable, but it's not kind of your lifeline.

SPEAKER_01 23:40

Exactly. And I mean, I can, as I've shared in in other episodes, like I experienced that having shed 125 pounds over five years. But this is the first time in my life where I've lost weight by not focusing on my weight. Like my focus was to get my adrenals in balance. And that some of that was through nutrition, but some of that was also being with well, what am I using food to suppress? What am I using food to repress or soothe? And how do I potentially begin to address those things? Um so that my adrenal levels begin to decrease and that I don't necessarily have to use food to try to depress my body. I don't have a highly adrenalized state. And it wasn't about counting calories, it wasn't about tracking my food, it wasn't about eating the right ratio. It was truly from one meal to the next, or one day to the next, really feeling into where I was, what I wanted, and what was my capacity to actually articulate my desires, articulate my boundaries, really feel an embodied yes, really feel an embodied no. And as I was able to have more capacity to express my authentic desires, express my authentic boundaries, my relationship with food changed because I didn't need it. I didn't require it as much. And then the weight slowly came off. That's the other aspect I will acknowledge that it was much slower than in my mind, again, according to diet culture, than it should have been. It shouldn't have taken me five years for 125 pounds to come off. I should have been able to do that in one year. But I also feel that having done it over five years is going to make it significantly more sustainable than compared to other experiences I've had where I've lost weight in a very short amount of time and the weight came back because again, the underlying issue uh regarding my eating habits had not been addressed.

SPEAKER_00 25:51

That's right. I mean, you're a perfect case study of intervention versus actual answers or culture. You know how Resumed says strategy versus culture. It's like the things you did in the past were a strategy, and strategies do work very quickly in the short term, but if it doesn't take root into your life and become just your natural way about things, it doesn't sustain. So you're half a decade, over half a decade into weight loss, and that already is sustainable. Like for five years, you have sustained weight loss. That is probably more than you ever have in your life consistently, because you're focused on your adrenals, you're focused on your emotions, you're focused on your relationships, and you're focused on your food. Like they're all interwoven, they're not these separate pieces. And so I want to really welcome everybody and encourage them to join us because this is the last six-month group we're gonna do with nutrition, at least for the next two years. Uh, the idea would be to do it in 2028, but you never know what's gonna happen. I could die, who knows? But so never, I could. But so uh 2026 is what we're in right now. You know, we're talking about 2027. I'm like, what year are we in? Um, but yeah, this is the last one we're gonna do for two years. So if you want to join this program, it's really gonna dive deep into the food therapy philosophy for my book. It's gonna dive deep into nutritional counseling and into whole food nutrition, but it's gonna go really deep into somatics, the emotional landscapes, the unmetabolized trauma, how stress drives a lot of these decisions. And if you are doing both of these, if you're working with the somatic element and the nutritional element, it is an incredible duo. Um, and I think the important thing about the six months is they have you one-on-one the entire time on circle, and they have unique Hammond, who's a beans bona fide bean specialist. Yeah, and she can work with you with the bean protocol and help you with it. Even if you can't eat beans, she can help you tend to your body in other ways. So you're gonna have a nutritionist and an incredible somatic practitioner who has lost 125 pounds over five years doing what we're teaching, helping you the whole six months. It's a pretty comprehensive package. Is there anything you'd say about it before we close?

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Um it, I mean, yeah, it's great. Joy is a comprehensive package in that. Yeah, like I'm there, unique's there. The only other thing I would underscore is that it is a six-month program. This is not, you really do have the space and time to go slow. This is like I shared with my experience, part of what's really helpful is not trying to find that quick fix, just tell me the one thing not to eat, let me lose 25 pounds in in a month. This is a six-month program. And so really allow yourself, you get the chance to really allow yourself that space to explore your relationship with food, to experiment with your relationship with food, while also having the co-regulation of your peers, myself and unique.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Yeah, and I'll be clear too. I didn't really say this, but every other week I teach a live session. Yeah. So bi-weekly I'll be teaching a 90-minute session, and Camille will lead an integration in addition to all her other support she gives. So we look forward to you joining us. Let us know if you have any questions. You can send an email to info at holisticlifenavigation.com. You can go to the website or you can click on the link in the episode details, and we'll see you then. That's the end of today's episode. Take a moment to notice where you feel the episode. Take a breath into that place. Maybe even put your hand over it and let whatever wants to come up come up. And remember, our bodies speak through sensations. What's yours saying right now? For more information on any upcoming events, please visit holisticlifenavigation.com. And feel free to check out my YouTube page where you can watch any of these episodes, leave a comment, and even request a future topic for me to dive into. I'll see you next time.