The Magic Bullet

Nine things you can do for your health instead of searching for the magic bullet.

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There is No Magic Bullet

When you’re actively doing things to improve your health – and ultimately feel better in your body – it’s so tempting to keep searching for The Magic Bullet. (No, not the mini blender.)

The Magic Bullet is that secret sauce, the obscure health hack that everyone hopes will be just around the corner. Diet culture promises quick fixes that are so tempting but don’t pan out in the long run, leaving you feeling worse than before.

In this episode, I’m sharing nine positive things you can do for your health that don’t involve searching for the magic bullet. I’m not going to lie, nothing on this list is sexy or trendy.

It’s all basicAF but oh so powerful when you commit to consistently applying them in your life. If you’re wondering where to begin, choose one and run with it. These ideas will catch you the bigger fish.

On Today’s Episode

• Why magic bullets don’t exist…
• And why they’re so very, very tempting
• 9 basic but powerful ways to start feeling better in your day to day

Resources Mentioned In This Show

• Diet Culture – Ep 142
• How to Stop Chasing Health Trends – Ep 178

Thanks for Listening!

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• Did you like this episode? Let me know what resonated for you in the comments below.

Transcript

Hey there, welcome to episode 196 of harder to kill Radio. I’m Steph Gaudreau, your host. And this is another fierce love Friday edition of the podcast. If you’re a new listener, welcome Fridays when I hop on the mic solo, and talk about whatever’s on my mind.

And Tuesday, I have an expert guest interview with somebody from the community who is sharing their expertise with us. Super excited for this show today, cuz

I don’t anticipate this getting too ranty. But I got some things that I need to say about this particular topic. And this is nothing that’s totally new for me to talk about. And I’ve talked about shades of this in the past. But I’m going to make sure you walk away with some really concrete things to come back to in your routine or implement in your life. So that you can start moving forward and making progress.

So this episode is essentially lovingly called by me, there’s no magic bullet, it probably morphed into a different title. Because that’s kind of a long title. But there’s no magic bullet. And I’m going to be talking about instead of search searching for the magic bullet what to do, instead. So hopefully you find this show useful. We’d love to have you after the show, head over to core for the book.com.

That’s the number four. So core for the book.com. This is the preorder bonus page for my new book that’s coming out in this summer, end of July. When it’s hot as Hades, everybody’s looking for beach reading, perfect. But the book is now on pre order. And I would love to send you the bonuses that I’ve created specifically for the book, so that you get the most out of it. I’m really proud of these bonuses, I worked really hard on them. And I think they’re gonna really help you get the most out of your reading experience. So it’s two easy steps. Core for the book.com. He’ll preorder wherever you love to get books, I’ve got to say Amazon right now is, at least at the time of recording this, which is April 10.

Amazon has a really low price, it’s something like 30% Off 35% Off the cover price of the book is something like $18. So just want to put that out there. It’s mega cheap. And when you preorder your card does not get charged until the book actually ships at the end of July.

So there you go, that’s kind of nice. But I’d love to send you then the bonuses. So you just put your name and email in the form at core for the book.com. And then I send it to you. And that’s as easy as it is so great. Okay, call to action done.

Today’s show, as I mentioned earlier is about magic bullets. And obviously, I have such an amazing community, so many people who are in my harder to kill club group on Facebook, on Instagram on my newsletter,

listening to this show. And the common thread that I hear a lot. And this is not judgment, because I’ve been there. But the common thread that I hear a lot as a nutritional therapist as a strength coach is people looking for, like that thing, the one secret thing that they didn’t know about, that’s going to make the biggest difference in their health.

And for a lot of people that’s weight loss, right? You know how I feel about this. You have to get healthier on the inside, before your body is going to release potentially any extra weight that you are carrying. But

you know, whether it’s weight loss, whether it’s achieving the next PR in the gym, all of that stuff, I like to just remind people that oftentimes when they’re talking about that, it’s that they want to feel better in their body in some way. But it’s As tempting as it is to believe that the next Magic Bullet thing hasn’t you know it that it’s out there, but you just haven’t heard about it.

Or it hasn’t been invented yet. And it’s going to come along and it’s going to be like the linchpin that’s going to make everything get better. I think that’s really a huge trap. Now I’m not saying that there couldn’t be a legitimate tests that you end up taking to figure out what’s going on with your gut, or there’s inflammation, you have Hashimotos thyroiditis and you learn about AIP

and is a game changer. Or you whatever, like, I’m not talking about that stuff. What I’m talking about is kind of like the magic pill powder potion, the like the protocol that no one’s heard about, like, all the things that fall under the guise of kind of FAD trendy. I mean, celery juice, can I just Sophia Bush, if I don’t even know what you’ve done to this

celery juice, I just want to go to sprouts and get celery to put in my soup. And I cannot find a bunch of fucking celery to save my life. celery juice is not a miracle cure. Literally, I saw a book that said The subtitle was it’s carrying milk is healing millions. And I was like, what a bunch of horse shit. So I’ve said it wouldn’t get super anti barrier.

There is no magic bullet. And it this is diet culture, ultimately is what this is, right? It’s like the belief that the there’s just one thing that’s going to make the difference. And you’ve been doing it all wrong. Instead of tuning into yourself.

Eating in a way that’s going to provide you with the nourishment to move forward, right doing the things that are so boring, and, but they’re effective. So what I’m going to share with you today are eight things, nine things sorry that you can do in your life, that will make a better impact than waiting for a magic bullet.

And I’m not saying that these are all easy. You all know me are simple, not easy.

Because we all have different lives, we all have different challenges, different access to resources, different time. And I know people are like everybody has the same 24 hours in the day. You know what?

I disagree with that on many levels. And that’s maybe a topic for another show. But instead of focusing on all like, just waiting for the next miracle thing to come along, like celery juice. Let’s try coming back to basics.

And I know like when I talk about this stuff, I’m kind of the person that’s walking the middle of the road sometimes. And oftentimes, I think people are like, just take a side like are carbs good or are carbs bad. And I’m like you guys, it depends. See the show called? Essentially it depends.

And so this stuff is, this stuff isn’t like the anti trend. This is so like the most boring shit. But it’s the stuff that when you apply it consistently in effect, it is effective. And it works. All right. Let’s dig into these nine things

that are the answer like the anti magic, the anti bullet, the anti magic bullet, the non magic bullet, I don’t know what you want to call them. But here we go. Number one,

right out the gate. Let’s just do this sleep seven to eight hours every night. Get a consistent sleep and wake time. Again. I know there gonna be people who object to these and they’re like, but what about what about what about I just had a baby.

Mama, I hear you. I really do. Being a mom. I’m not a mom, I can I just look at moms, especially parents, and I’m just in wonder and awe and I think hardest job in the world you guys, really. But at the same time knowing that your sleep might be disrupted for a while. It’s important to you know, give yourself grace in other areas, right? So you know how this goes.

So if I say something here you’re like, but what about I just asked you to listen open mindedly and remember that I’m here to provide this sort of steadfast, effective stuff that can help you feel better, even if it’s hard for you to implement right now. They’ll sleep seven to eight hours each night consistent sleep and wait times are helpful circadian rhythm but your circadian rhythms need to be in alignment. Okay, number two.

Eat a half a plate of veggies at your meals. And when I wrote this on Instagram, I said fiber yo, but seriously eat more vegetables. I know this is again, not going to be easy for a lot of people, but try to eat more vegetables when you can.

I mean fiber micronutrients, antioxidants, phytochemicals, all that stuff. Right? I think we can all agree. Number three, get adequate protein. Okay, I’m not here to tell you how much protein exactly you need because everybody’s going to be a little bit different.

The one thing I will say is that the RDA for protein is literally listed out as the amount that you need for basic survival. It’s not necessarily an optimal amount. So all my active go getter type folks suspect

really need to make sure that you’re watching your protein intake in terms of getting enough protein. It’s crazy to me, a lot of times, especially with female, working with female clients, they are way under eating way, way, way under eating protein for their their activity level. Not only that, but make sure you’re getting all the essential amino acids and know that in general, different amino acids, whether they’re essential or non essential, have different jobs. So the branched chain amino acids, leucine, valine, and isoleucine. do different things, then glycine, or tryptophan, right?

So it’s just important to know that the application of that is different for different things. I said different a lot. Okay. Number four, move your body daily, again. How could that like? How could that look for you, I don’t know it’s going to depend on you as an individual. But in general, what I see worked well for a lot of people is to lift weights two or three times a week. Make it challenging, it can’t just be like you’re going through the motions or you’re not going to get the intended stimulus.

Occasionally move fast. Sprint, do some hit stuff, some Tabata do some cardio. And a lot of the time, move, slowly walk, get up from your desk, putter around the house, right mobilize while you’re watching TV, but try to move your body daily. That being said, if you’re like smashing yourself every day, and not adequately recovering, you’re gonna feel it.

Okay, five, defuse your stress. So I like that term deep, like diffuse, like diffusing a bomb. Because it’s like, Oh, were like, let the pressure go. I think that’s really important. So we’re all going to feel stressed in some way, shape, or form. But what is your practice that you can do every day, to help you mitigate the effects of stress, creating a stress free bubble is just not going to happen.

So having a strategy that works for you, is really, really important meditation, deep breathing, box, breathing, journaling, prayer, like whatever works for you to get that quiet time is so so so critical. I like the idea of deep, you know, parasympathetic, breathing, or box breathing or whatever you want to call that

diaphragmatic breathing just because it’s free, you can do it anywhere, no one knows you’re doing it, you don’t need a mat. You don’t need to special equipment, you just breathe, wherever you are. Number six,

take breaks during your work day. Because I know last time I talked about this, some people got really mad because they were like, Look, I can’t just take a break. And I was like, Okay, I totally respect and understand that. So if you can’t take a break, or your break time is very tightly regulated, then I’d like to challenge you that on your break time you do something that is going to allow you to switch into a different mode of energy.

So for example, if you have a highly physical job, during your break, going and doing an orange theory, workout is probably not going to be very recharging to your energy. Likewise, if you have a very mentally demanding job, then answering email during your break is probably not going to help. Totally I totally do this as well. Today, I went out and got a walk when got something to eat and came back I left my phone in the house.

Because the temptation is there, right to just go on social media and scroll around and like answer people and talk to people on email and do all this stuff. And you get done with the break. And it’s like, oh my gosh, I don’t feel any better. So ideally, if you can take a break roughly every two hours. That’s great. Again, not everybody can do that.

But a lot of you can and you’re not utilizing that. Even if it’s just every 30 minutes to an hour you get up Stand up. If you’re sitting a lot, you do some stretches, move your body low key, I mean, do whatever you have to do, but just know that the more you can just move around probably the better you’re going to feel at the end of the day.

Okay, seven, this one is my well I don’t know if I can pick favorites here but number seven is one that’s

true to my heart is to chew your food to it well to your food into a wellness like seriously slow down. Slow down again if you can only in five minutes. I’m not here to argue with you there. But just to say that if especially if you’re feeling digestive issues, your foods not digesting well you feel like you’re getting heartburn you are getting bloated, you

Keep burping your belly is just feel swollen, I mean, all of that stuff, that’s a huge indication that you’re not completely digesting your food. Number one, and you’re just into swallowing huge bites.

When you chew, you send satiety, you get better satiety signals. And satiety is that sense of being, your hunger is taken care of, right, it’s, it’s that feeling that you’re well fed.

So if you’re eating by, like, if you’re three bites, and you’re swallowing, I would challenge you to start maybe increase to 10 bytes, and then 20, and maybe even 30 Go from there, it’s gonna feel weird. At first, you’re gonna think, oh, my gosh, I’ve never chewed anything completely in my entire life. But it does make a huge difference. Number eight, Okay, this one’s pretty big too. And you might think, Okay, this is gonna fall under the idea of a fad.

But it’s not. And that’s to block blue light when the sun goes down.

So I’ll talk more about this. In my upcoming book, as I talked about most of this stuff in my upcoming book, the core four, but blocking blue light, I mean, we didn’t have to block blue light, before we had backlit fucking screens pouring this wavelength of light into our eyes at night.

While we’re in bed in the phones, literally three inches away from our eyes, we didn’t have that. until relatively recently, this is a relatively new problem. Now, we’ve always had not always, obviously, we’ve had ambient incandescent light for longer than we’ve had backlit screens. But if you think about human beings, for so long, you know, the sun went down, and it was candle light, or the moon.

And that was about it.

And you would be shocked at how much better your sleep gets when you reduce the amount of blue light coming into your eyes at night. So you can do that in multiple ways. Get a pair of amber glasses on Amazon, they’re like eight bucks for the cheapest pair, I promise you and you only have to buy them once.

If you’re gonna do one thing after this show, go buy yourself a pair of cheap Amber glasses, put them on be amazed. You can use F dot Lux, you can use night shift, I mean, however you’re gonna do this. But for us, even when we’re just at home, and we’re not using screens, the sun goes down, the glasses go on. So much better for your sleep.

And then the last one, number nine is hydrate.

So many people are super tired and just fatigue and there it is because they’re dehydrated, you’re dehydrated. Now it doesn’t mean that you’re going to just walk around with two gallons of water every day and like chug and you’re always in the bathroom, you might need to add some kind of pinch of sea salt or Himalayan salt, some electrolytes, something like that to make sure we’re actually retaining some of the water that you’re drinking.

And you’re not just pee and clear all day every day. But you’d be surprised again, how much dehydration affects how you feel. You just feel kind of lousy. So pay attention to your hydration levels. All right. Obviously, this is not an extensive list of every single thing you could do. But I think if you can start taking it back to basics, making more of an effort.

That’s not to say you need to run out tomorrow and start worrying about all nine of these things. Pick one or two to say okay, well, what could I do, I could write out get on Amazon, get a pair of amber glasses, put them on when it gets dark done.

Right or, you know, check out a meditation app that you’ve been wanting to look at. I mean, just take some kind of action promise me that that you’re going to try one thing, at least from this list and just make it a priority in your life and see what happens. And so I’ll recap those really quickly. Sleep 78 hours a night, eat half a plate of veggies at your meals, get adequate protein. Move your body daily, diffuse your stress. Take breaks during your work day two, your food, block blue light when the sun goes down, and hydrate. Would love to know what you think.

Send me a direct message on Instagram. We’d love to hear from you. Or better yet, join harder to kill love on Facebook, and let us know what you thought of the episode there. We’d love to have you join. It’s an amazing community. And we’re always welcoming new people into the fold. All right, this is Steph Gaudreau thanks so much for joining me on this episode The fierce love Friday edition of harder to kill radio. Stay tuned for Tuesday. And in the meantime be well