Ditch the Toxins, Lose Weight and Overcome overwhelm with Dr. Wendie Trubow

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January 26 2022 - Episode #89 - Ditch the Toxins, Lose Weight and Overcome overwhelm with Dr. Wendie Trubow

A toxic body can’t lose weight.  If you are frustrated from unsuccessful efforts to lose weight and you are weary from overwhelm, today's podcast is just for you.  I'm joined by Functional Medicine doctor and Gynecologist Dr. Wendie Trubow.  In this episode, we look at Dr. Wendie's health struggles from toxin exposure. And unpack how the body stores toxins to protect itself, where we are getting toxins, the process of detoxification and how to ditch the toxins to improve your health and help your body release the weight.  Dr. Wendie realizes that most women operate in a state of overwhelm and lays out practical advice on where to start in a detox journey.  We conclude with simple encouragement for moms.  You will LOVE this podcast!

Dr. Wendie Trubow is an experienced Gynecologist and Functional Medicine physician.  Her book, Dirty Girl - Ditch the Toxins, Look Great and Feel Freaking Amazing, is a fantastic resource! 
The book and Dr. Trubow’s approach has already captured glowing endorsements from well-known experts in the health and wellness fields.  She and her husband, Dr. Ed Levitan, have a Functional Medicine practice and can be found at www.fivejourneys.com.  Below are the resources that Dr. Wendie mentioned.....

    - Ditch the Toxins - Dirty Girl reference guide. Free download for our listeners www.fivejourneys.com/promo
    - Think Dirty app - app to review beauty and cleaning products
    - EWG Healthy Living app - Environmental Working Group app outlines healthy, less toxic items.  EWG is best known for the Dirty Dozen list, the produce that always need to be purchased organic

The line up of guests and the hot topics for the Healthy Harmony podcast for 2022 are tremendous! You are not going to want to miss anything.  Be sure and subscribe so you don't miss an episode.  While you are there, leave a rating and a written review! Let us know how much you love the show!

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

January 26 2022 - Episode #89 - Ditch the Toxins, Lose Weight and Overcome overwhelm with Dr. Wendie Trubow

Speaker 1:
A toxic body can't lose weight. You heard me say this before, a toxic body can't lose weight! If you're frustrated from unsuccessful efforts to lose weight, my friend, you're not alone. This, this is the topic that we're diving into today with an incredible expert. Dr. Wendy Trubow is a functional medicine gynecologist. In this podcast, you will hear about her frustrating health struggles. And then we dive in to the relationship between toxicity and weight gain, where we're getting toxins from and detox. But here is what I love about this interview the most. She provides simple places to start on the journey of detoxification to take control of your health and lose weight. What I love about Dr. Wendy is that although she's a brilliant expert, she's a wife and a mom. We have a great conversation about overcoming the overwhelm. You're just gonna love this. It's all today on Healthy Harmony.

Welcome. This is the Healthy Harmony podcast. I'm Jennifer Pickett Dietitian turned functional medicine, health coach. I help spiraling moms over come the overwhelm through functional wellness coaching for the body, mind, and soul so they can transform their health and live a deeply fulfilled life of freedom and harmony. Okay, let's get real. When it comes to your health, you know what to do. I help you make this shift from knowing to actually doing. The last 25 years of experience have taught me that the absolute last thing a woman needs is a lecture about self care and another unrealistic diet plan. I recognize the importance of compassionate and intentional health practices. So you can feel good because guess what, when you feel good, you are more likely to make better decisions for your health. If you're ready to take control of your complete health, address, the obstacles standing in your way and live a life of freedom and harmony, my friend, you're in the right place.

It's January 2022. And I have to say, I am so excited about the Healthy Harmony podcast. You guys are going to absolutely love the guest that I have lined up. They are so good, brilliant experts, but so down to earth and they explain things in such a simple manner and give very clear cut realistic strategies so we can take control of our health. Y'all these interviews are fantastic. You're gonna love 'em. So be sure to subscribe. So you don't miss a thing and listen, while you're hitting that subscribe button, go ahead and leave a rating and a written review. Let us know how much you love this show.

Dr. Wendy Trubow is a functional medicine gynecologist. She received her MD from Tufts university and has been practicing functional medicine since 2000. After all these years, she is still passionate about helping women optimize their health and their lives. While her credentials allowed Dr. Trubow a solid medical backdrop to help women achieve vitality. It's her own health journey that has inspired and supported her methods of care. Her struggles with mold, metal toxicity, celiac disease in a variety of other health issues. Dr. Trubow has developed a deep sense of compassion for what her patients are facing when she's not helping patients in her practice, which is called five journeys. You can find Dr. Trubow alongside her husband and their or four kids creating a beautiful ecosystem in their yard that provides nourishment to both body and soul. We've got a really important topic today, and I am so honored to have Dr. Wendy Trubow joining us, Dr. Wendy, how are you today?

Speaker 2:
I am great. I am delight. Good to be here. Thank you.

Speaker 1:
This is gonna be a fun conversation, a very eye-opening conversation. Now you are a doctor, your husband is a doctor, and, but you've also said that you have learned more from your struggles that your struggles is what has truly inspired you. I wanna hear about those struggles.

Speaker 2:
Okay. So I've been in the functional medicine world for 15 years at this point 16 years, and I've been steadily working on my health. And back in 2019, we actually took a family trip to France and England. It was like the trip of a lifetime. And we went to France right after the Notre Dame towers burned. And what I noticed when we were in France, I said to my husband, it's so dusty here. And I mean, we were covered with dust walking around that area. And what, when I noticed, right when I came back from, from France, was that my hair started falling out in, in amounts that were horrifying. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So, um, when I said to my hairdresser, I'm losing 60 to a hundred hairs in the shower every day. She was like, oh yeah, that's a lot. Um, so I also gained nine pounds within the three weeks after coming back from, I didn't gain any weight in France, but when we came back, I gained nine pounds.

Speaker 1:
Oh, interesting.

Speaker 2:
I got this rash on my face that, you know, I tried antifungals. I tried antibacterials, I don't eat sugar. Anyway. I tried everything and nothing helped. And about, of course I'm going crazy. I'm like, what am I missing here? Yeah. And I already knew that I had mycotoxins. I did that test right before we left on vacation. So that was my welcome home. Present of welcome home. You got mycotoxins, which is, I had like four different strains of, of mycotoxins in my body. And I'm sort of spending the summer trying freaking out, figure it out. And late summer, I hear this report on the local radio station that when Notre Dame burned, it released about 500 tons of lead into the air and the surrounding communities. Oh my goodness. And the closer you were to Notre Dame, the more you got, and then the further out it sort of dissipated.

And I looked at my husband and I said, we were there, right. When that happened, it was super dusty. And then I started losing my hair and gained all this weight. So I did a metals test on myself and I had been mildly positive before for lead, just over the limit of where we start treating people. And this time I was three points higher, which doesn't really sound like a lot, but in the setting of how I looked and felt, I also had brain fog and I was like, oh my God, I got like a enough of a lead exposure in, in France that it moved the needle. And so definitely I started treatment in October of 2019, and almost immediately, my hair stopped falling out at that rate. I mean, I was freaking out, I lost about half the hair on my head at that point. And it stopped falling out at that rate. And I started to slowly treat this and retest and retreat. And, and what I noticed was that my hair stopped falling out. My rash went away and about a year, uh, year ago I started losing the weight. So interestingly, like I've, it'd been in this game for a while. And the weight I always say is like the first thing to go off the cliff. And the last thing to climb back over, because it's really the barometer, like, okay, you're on the right track and you've quote unquote made it. So it's, it's been a pretty long process actually.

Speaker 1:
Wow. And I think, you know, just a couple things that I took from that, first of all, the weight is what stands out the fur, you know, stands out first. Like you gained all that weight in a very short amount of time and you are on this journey of, okay, what else is going on here? And you really knew what you were doing. I mean, you know, you're a functional medicine gynecologist, like, you know, your stuff, and still, it took a bit to, to help come to conclusions, like what is going on with your body and putting two and two together, truly addressing the root of the issue. And I find it interesting that the weight was the last thing to really fall off. And I think sometimes, you know, how often do we have women come to us? Their main goal is weight loss. Like I just wanna lose weight. I just wanna lose weight. So can we dig into that a little bit? What is the relationship between toxicity in the body and weight gain?

Speaker 2:
Okay. So just, just to preface this, I wanna say two things. One is you really highlighted how hard it is to treat yourself mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I highly recommend that people work with a functional medicine provider. Yes. As a coach, you know, to really help them, cuz it's super hard to be out on your own doing it. So I don't recommend you treat yourself cause a it's lonely and B you wanna make sure you're on the right track. Okay. So, um, so for wait, <laugh> wait. When your body starts to get toxic. And when I see toxic, there are, there's a huge bucket of things that fall in that. So mm-hmm <affirmative>, that can be as simple as food. You're eating that your body really doesn't respond too. Well, it can be sugar cuz too too much sugar can be a toxin. Too much. Alcohol can be a toxin.

It could be toxins like lead and mercury mycotoxins, which are the mold mold toxins. Mm-hmm <affirmative> it can be environmental toxins like plastics, styrene, um, beauty product toxins. It can be gasoline fumes. It can be pesticides, herbicides and insecticides, a huge bucket. Okay. And when you start to get exposed, your body tries to get rid of it through all kinds of things, sweat, urine, stool, your liver gets involved. And sometimes for people that comes a point where it's too much and you can't compensate. And that a often happens in the setting of a big stressor or you're not sleeping as much or you've changed your diet or you're traveling a lot something lifestyle that's really got you going really does put a stressor on the body's ability to get rid of toxins. So when the weight starts to creep up often, it's because your body's trying to get rid of these toxins.

But if there's too many to get rid of it, stores it, your body's really smart. It says, okay, well I can't get to you right now. I'm gonna just store you in the fat and bones and, and organs until I can deal with you. Except for women. When we store stuff in our fat, then we can't get rid of it. Cause the body knows. If you just got rid of the fat, you'd have nowhere to store the toxins and then you'd be toxic. So weights off in a barometer to say to you, oh, Hey, something's going on here? Yeah. And we, every single woman who comes in says, I have a thyroid issue. I'm like, well you might, but that's not the only reason that you are gaining weight. Let's look for really what's going on.

Speaker 1:
So, so many good takeaways they, or, you know, um, first, you know, addressing what you said, don't try to treat yourself. This is, it's just too much to try to go through a journey like this on your own. So no matter what's going on with you and your health, it's important to get some help. And a functional medicine practitioner is the one who can do that testing and really help you dig deep and address those root issues. And then of course you mentioned a health coach, you know, a health coach can help you implement all of those lifestyle factors that the, um, the practitioner just told you, you need to implement. Yep. So it's so important to get the help you need. And I loved hearing you say that because you know what you're doing, but it's too much to do it on your own. It it's just, it's very ineffective. So I'm so glad you said that. And it's so interesting to me how the body is very protective. And so all of these toxins, the body's trying to protect itself. And so it just moves it into the fat cells, uh, when it's, and it's storing it there. So if someone's on, so I want us to talk about, um, detoxification in a moment. Uh, but I want us to talk first. You, and you mentioned this, where are we getting these toxins from? <laugh> this is a big question,

Speaker 2:
Isn't it? Oh, I know. You know, it's for, I really try to be inspirational and empowering, especially for women, cuz I feel like we all operate at such a high level and it's overwhelming. And so when I say where you get the toxins from, people usually get upset. So like, oh it's everywhere. So the first thing I'll say is it is everywhere and it's fixable and Rome wasn't built in a day and you're not gonna be either. So don't have to worry about fixing everything at once. That's not how it goes. So toxins are really sort of throughout our world and how the easiest way I find to think about it is to separate it into sort of three broad categories. One is what's the stuff you're putting in you that could be toxic or, or bringing toxins into use. So that's your food, your alcohol, your water drinking from plastic, water bottles, drinking coffee that might be moldy. Anything you're putting in your body can expose you. And that's one reason we say it's really important too, as often as possible focus on minimally processed food and organic, if possible and even better would be organic local. We'll see, you know, yes. I don't know how many people have access to that. But I mean, I live in new England and we don't have local organic year round. We have local organic for two months. So that one category is what you're putting in you. And then another category is what are you putting on you? And that's your clothing and your personal care products. It's estimated by the time a woman's done getting ready in the morning that she's been exposed to up to a hundred, to 150 different chemicals. These can be immune disruptors. They can be pro cancer causing agents. These are all nasty things.

And that's the shampoo, the lotion, the perfumes makeup, all of it, nail Polish, all of it contributes to our being exposed to toxins. And then the last thing I would category I would say is the things we're putting our body on and our environment. So that would include our furniture. Beds are a huge source of toxins. If they're treated with a fire retardant, chemical. And so we spend, you know, a lot of our lives in bed. And so we breed in these chemicals and then the, if we're spraying our yards with pesticides, if we use cleaners in our home that are toxic to us and off gas, there's a lot of different ways that we're exposed to chemicals around us, if your neighbor sprays their yard. So that's the third category. And so what I usually work with with people on is how do you start to identify the biggest ticket items, either the biggest ticket items that are causing trouble or the lowest hanging fruit that's easiest to change

Speaker 1:
I like that. I really like that strategy. So what's the biggest ticket item or what's that low hanging fruit that's gonna be really easy to change. So what would you say is that for a, a ma you see a lot of different, uh, ladies, but what would be the one of those things that someone could consider as one of the things they, they need to look at first?

Speaker 2:
So I think beds are huge because they've been treated with chemicals that most of us don't really need. Um, unless, so I would say if, if you live in really crowded housing where it's a possibility that someone could set the building on fire, or if you're a smoker, then you really do need to be sleeping in a bed. That's treated with fire retardants, but otherwise you probably don't need those chemicals in your bed cuz your, your absolute risk of, of being in your bed when there's a fire is statistically very improbable. Mm-hmm <affirmative>, it's like not likely that'll happen. So the big ticket item is like, oh, could you get a bed that doesn't have fire retardants in it? Um, and then the low hanging fruits or things like, how can you make so, so I'm not about perfection, I'm about just leveling up and making an improvement.

And what that means is pick one thing, is it your milk? Can you make your milk organic? So you're not getting any, uh, any milk from cows that have been treated with any growth hormones. Cause that does get into our, our milk. Sure. Or can you, um, make your fruit organic? So pick one thing that you could improve and level up on and get comfortable with that and then pick something else again, you don't have to do the whole, you don't have to throw out your whole pantry, but what you do is as you use up stump, get something that's, I'll call it a better choice.

Speaker 1:
I love that because I think so often we operate in a state of overwhelm <laugh> and it's like, oh goodness. Now you're telling me all this stuff I'm using is toxic. I don't even know where to start. So I really like what's that low hanging fruit. What's what is one thing I can change today? And then in the future I can change something else. And, and you're right. We spend a lot of time in our bed and it's one of those things it's not discussed a whole lot and our body needs to get that, that restoration. I mean, we detox when we sleep. So. Yep. Um, I'm curious. Do you recommend, um, any sort of tool? So if someone has a question about the cleaner they're using the skincare they're using and they wanna see how toxic that is, do you have any, any tools that you recommend? I do.

Speaker 2:
It's so great. I use there's two different tools. I use. One is there's a company called the environmental working group. It's a not for profit. And they test in a value oh eight products. So you can go, they have an app and a website and you can go on their website or the app and look up a product. And then you can go the other direction too. If you're like, oh, I, I want a new cleaning product. That's clean. You go to their product, go to their site and search under cleaner and, and it'll help drill down into what kind of clean you're looking for. And it'll tell you, what's their, what is, has their EWG seal of approval? And then the other side I really like is think dirty. It's an app and you can plug in, uh, I use it more for makeup, but I believe it also does cleaning supplies too. So you can plug in there and look at what's the quality of it, you know, cuz it is kind of overwhelming to pick every that's in your cleaners and look every ingredient up. I don't know anyone who has the brain space for that. Right. So I don't have doing that. And now my God, no. So I recommend what I recommend is make it easy on yourself when you use it up, go to environmental working group and look for what has their seal of approval go to that company and buy it.


Speaker 1:
Oh, love it. We, we level dot up to Aspen clean about eight months ago, once we used up, I tend to buy in bulk. So when we used it all up, we leveled up to Aspen clean. That's so helpful. And I, I really do like, I like both the environmental working group and the think dirty app.

Speaker 2:
Again, I just need quick and easy. I don't, I don't have time to research every single ingredient cuz it gets very, and even though I am a little bit of a science nerd, I don't have time to dig into every single chemical, you know, their listing. But again, these things make it very, very easy on us. And guys I'll just reference you too to the environmental working group. Um, when it comes to organic fruits and vegetables, they have identified the dirty dozens. So they have identified, these are the fruits and vegetables that you always wanna make sure you purchase organic. So they have a, a, a list called the dirty dozen and those are the ones you wanna be. Sure, cuz they're the dirtiest crops, heavily spread crops. You wanna make sure that you're buying organic when it comes to that dirty dozen. So they've made it very, very easy on us. Uh, um, now when going back to your toxicity and you recognize, okay, I'm gaining weight, my hair is falling out. If a woman is sitting here questioning, am I toxic? What are some of those symptoms that reveal that her body is dealing with toxicity?

I think inability to lose weight is the number one thing because you know, so let's, let's back up a step. Detox is what I'll call a higher order or thriving behavior. And if your body's in survival or fight flight or freeze, you won't lose any weight. And you also won't detox cuz you have to be, your body has to feel safe and cared for in order to then say, okay, let's get rid of the toxins. Okay. So that's the first thing. So I don't start with detox when I start with women, unless, unless they sit to me, you know, I tore my house down and then I got really sick or I built a new house and then I got really sick. Those, those are the, uh, cues that say to me, oh, you got a toxic exposure. Or they said, oh I had a huge leak in my house and I've been sick since then.

That makes me think of microtoxin. So if, unless there's something that's cuing me to think about it. I'm really a huge proponent of let's get the foundations intact. Are you eating the food and diet? And I hate the word diets. I'm gonna say, are you eating on a program that works for you? Mm-hmm <affirmative> it should be sustainable. It should be manageable. It should not feel overwhelming. It's just the way you eat. And are you sleeping? Are your relationships intact? Are you moving your body? Start with that stuff. And then if you don't lose weight after doing that, then you go, oh, okay, well I should have an evaluation and make sure that my thyroids in order that my adrenals are in order, that's a functional medicine evaluation to do the cortisol stuff on, on yourself. Mm-hmm <affirmative> for the adrenals. And then if those are all intact, then you go, okay, you know, we've ruled out all the other stuff. So clearly now we're looking at toxins. So it's, it's almost the last thing I look at for most people, because I don't know, like at least 50% of people will respond to eating in a way that works for their body and, and taking care of their themselves. And then, you know, I say the other 50%, it's like, oh, we really do have a toxins issue here. Let's address that.
 
Speaker 1:
So very important. And I really love your approach. And it's affirming for me as a, a health coach because I never, like, I never do detox first because I'm working, uh, to own those basic lifestyle factors that can make the biggest difference with a woman who is often operating in a state of overwhelm and hasn't prioritized sleep. Hasn't really been managing the stress really. Hasn't focused on what she's been eating because she's in survival mode and it's just, she'll take whatever she can get. But I love how you kind of drill down and say, Hey, let's get the basics outta the way first are we addressing the basics? Okay. If you still can't lose weight, step two is let's look at the thyroid and the adrenals and the hormones and, and do that very specific testing, which way you guys heard her say functional medicine testing. There's a very different way that functional medicine looks at lab values versus traditional medicine. So this is why functional medicine is so very important. And then after that, if there's, if we're still not making progress to really get into the additional testing, to see if there's a toxin issue, um, like in what you saw, you had obviously some toxin, um, issues. So as we let's move into the subject of detoxification. Mm so where do we start? And um, and how does our body detox?

Speaker 2:
Okay, so, so let's start with that second part first. How does a body detox?

Speaker 1:
That's that's a loaded one, right? That's a loaded question.

Speaker 2:
So there's a lot of ways that you get the toxins out of you. So, and by the way, hormones can be toxic if you've got too many of them. So depending on what the toxin is, that drives how it gets out of you. Some of them are fat soluble, they need to be bound and you often poop those out. And then some of them are water soluble. So you could either sweat or pee them out. And then, uh, how we work on detox is to bind to a lot of the toxins and to encourage the liver, to do its job. It has two phases of detox, uh, and what it does in phase one counterintuitively, it makes, it makes that substance more toxic and in phase two, you then bind it and put it in the stool to get rid of it. And so that's how we do detox. And then I've already forgotten your other question, cuz I wanted to make sure we answered how it happens.

Speaker 1:
Well, that's so very healthy, just, I mean, just so very helpful how that happens in the body, how de detoxification happens. And I don't think we fully grasped, um, like how, how our body detoxes, you know, and I love how you brought up the fat soluble, the water soluble toxins, very important that there's two phases of, um, in the body, two detox pathways. So where would we start? What's the most important starting point. Um, if we wanna embark on a detoxification journey.

Speaker 2:
So I'm a huge fan of data. I always say I'm a data hog. Yes. So I, I think that you can't treat something properly unless you know where you're starting and where you wanna get to. So when someone says to me, you know, I wanna lose weight. I wanna know, well, what do you weigh now? And where do you wanna be so that you can track it, but not also transitions for toxins too, that when you're looking to get rid of toxins, you have to measure them first. So this is where you need to work with a functional medicine provider, because they're gonna do your toxins testing for lead mercury, microtoxins environmental toxins, herbicides, pesticides. So you have to get the data first and then you have to decide if you're someone who, so, you know, you said to me that your audience is women who live and overwhelm.

So I wouldn't recommend that you go whole hog into detox. If you feel overwhelmed because it's kind of challenging and there's a lot of steps to doing detox. So what, I'm a huge fan of, I think I've mentioned, this is just level up. So if you're someone who's, you get the data and you go, oh my God, where do I start? So first you start by think of all these toxins as filling up your tank. You don't wanna fill your tank with too many toxins. So look at what's the highest level of something and work on, not getting exposed to that. For me, it was actually gasoline fumes, uh, that the metabolite of gasoline fumes, I had really high levels of like ridiculously high levels in my body when I measured it. And I said to my husband, honey, I need to tell you, I love our Costco membership and the deals we get, but I'm no longer my own gas there because I'm, I'm not only getting exposed to, but, but retaining these toxins and interesting. So I'm gonna have someone else be pumping my gas from now on. And he was like, but it costs more money. And I said, you know, you're completely right, but I'm this quest to, to look good and feel good and get healthier than I've ever been. And we're either gonna pay to get it. We're gonna pay to keep it out of my body or we're gonna pay to get it out of my body. And I would rather keep it out than get it out. So that was for me, a very easy change that I made like, okay, I don't pump my own gas anymore. Cuz I'm someone who clearly doesn't detox that well from it. Mm-hmm, <affirmative> good. So really focusing on what's something easy that you can do and that's not even getting it out of me. It's just preventing it from getting more in.

Speaker 1:
I hear you. I hear you. And I think it's just being a aware, you know, as women, I think we're so focused on listening to everyone else. We're not listening to our own bodies. Mm-hmm <affirmative> and you know, practicing that mindfulness and, and just realizing in the first place, Hey, I have some opportunity here to just level up. I can't change everything at one time, but you know, I can start here and starting to review, what products are you, um, where could you be getting some toxicity and then what can you do about it? And I love how you say, you just can't do everything at one time. It doesn't work. So, you know, let's kinda speak to that. You know, both you and I see that women are operating in a state of overwhelm.

Speaker 2:
Let's talk about that for a second, Jennifer, because I, I mean, I only see women in my practice cuz I'm a gynecologist. And one of the things that we work on constantly is how do you put your own air mask on first? You know, the airlines ,really nailed it. You can't help others if you are not healthy. And so I always pull out, you know, when I've gotten to everything and I can't make a difference for a woman, what I pull out is, okay, let's talk about your kids. Would you be proud if they were treating themselves the way you're treating yourself? And of course the answer's always no, right? Yeah. Like, oh, I'd be horrified if my daughters were doing this or I'd be horrified. If my son was dating someone who didn't take care of the so, so as a parent, the most beneficial contribution we can make to our children is to be women who set good boundaries care for ourselves and do what it do, what our bodies need to be.

Well, well taken care of and healthy. And so when you drill into what that means, that means that if you have a toddler and it's hard to sit down with them, cause they're all over the place, but it's really important that you sit down and eat with your toddler, a cuz you need to eat B. They need to understand how do people interact at the dinner table. And what does it look like when people are sitting at a meal and being civilized essentially. Yes. But making sure that you take care of yourself in the game and that way your children will understand, oh yes, I need a break and yes, I don't need to push through this. I need a break. It's okay to say you need a break. Yes. I only learned this like three years ago. I'm 51. I just learned it's okay to take a break. And so if I could offer that to women, you know, we, we, we need downtime and, and brain space in order to function well, and it could be five minutes, but you need a break during the day to reset.

Speaker 1:
It's amazing how we don't give ourselves permission to take care of ourselves, to listen to our body. And we don't give ourselves permission to take a break.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. I think it comes to our expectations. You know, we expect that the picture of a successful woman and a good mother looks like X and that X includes pushing through, getting everything done, having a spotless home. And a lot of that's really just a construct. It's fake. It's not real, you know, we're, you're the only one grading yourself and you're super hard, greater. So nobody else really cares how our house looks. Well, maybe your mom cares. You know, my mom cares. She was like, oh, it looks like a bomb went off. I'm like, yeah, I got four kids and two businesses. A bomb went off. Yeah. <laugh> a bomb. Went off <laugh> um, so it is what it is.

Speaker 1:
It is, it is what it is. Um, so I, I loved hearing you say, sit down and eat with your family. Our kids are gonna learn about nutrition from us. No one else is gonna teach them about nutrition. And so they're really gonna mimic what we do. And I think there's so much value, you know, not just from a nutrition standpoint, but mentally and emotionally of a family sitting down to eat. And I know I've you teenagers. It's really, really hard sometimes, but I wanna, uh, I wanna ask you, what else do you guys do as a family with four kids? I mean, both you and your husband are doctors very, very busy, but what else are some of those healthy practices that you've implemented in your family that you've seen the most benefit from?

Speaker 2:
So we always have dinner together. Now I have, so I have four kids. They range an age from nine to 17 and the older two are teenagers and they have really rich and busy lives, but we always have dinner on the table. They don't always make it at dinnertime, but we always sit down as a family with whoever's around and we make it a point to eat together and eat well. So that's one thing that we've done as a family. And then we really prioritize is that sounds weird. We prioritize movie night and we prioritize sleep. So those are two things, you know, movie night because it brings us together and sleep because you mentioned it that you detox when you sleep and it's so important to let your body rest and recover.

Speaker 1:
I love it. And just so simple, right? Like you didn't give us any kind of complicated recipe here to, for healthy families, but just those basic things, sit down at the dinner table, eat together, prioritize, sleep, prioritize fun. Things like a movie night. I think that's just so very, very valuable. And I think you've done such a great job today of helping us kind overcome the overwhelm in identifying some of those small things that we can make some adjustments in so that we can take control of our health and feel better.

Speaker 2:
Yeah. And there's one more thing I would say about dinnertime or any mealtime mm-hmm <affirmative>. If you have your partner there with you, I would recommend that you pick the seat farthest from kitchen, because if you're in the seat closest to the kitchen, you're the one who's gonna pop up and get whatever you forgot on the table. And if you're in the seat farthest from the, the kitchen, it makes more sense for the other person to go get it. And I have noticed this when we eat in our dining room, that if I sit at the far end, the I'm a lot more relaxed than when I sit at the close end, cuz every time we're missing something, I'm like, oh, I gotta go get that. And so true. So change your seat.

Speaker 1:
<laugh> I love it. I love it. So, so simple. So practical. So I want you to tell our listeners about the book that you wrote, cuz it mean encompasses so many of the topic that we covered here today.

Speaker 2:
Yes. So when I did all this testing on myself and realized how many toxins I had, I looked at my husband and I said, I am such a dirty girl. And then I said, and that's the book we need to write because if I'm so dirty and leave, I'm like the poster child for clean living. But I have all these toxins. What does the rest of the world have? So we wrote this book called dirty girl ditch the toxins look great and feel freaking amazing. And it's all about how do you identify and then get rid of and all the different, various ways we're exposed to. And how do you guard your guard, your backside, right? Cuz we have, all of us are, are determined, but we're not our genes. We're much more than that. So how do we take our genes into account, take our lifestyle, our food, our exercise, our exposure, and how do we start to level up and improve and get healthy. So good. That's what we did. Basically a blueprint for life.

Speaker 1:
I love it put in a very simple manner. That's not gonna overwhelm us, which thank you for doing that. You know, there's a lot of experts out there that um, they seem so intent on just showcasing how genius they are, that they don't break things down. Very simple. And so you're one of these doctors leading the way and making this very simple for women. So I thank you for that. Thank you for being a leader in that. That's so very important. So I cannot wait to check that book out. Um, uh, let me ask you, as we wrap things up, what like word of encouragement would you give our listeners today?

Speaker 2:
So if you have young children, it can feel like there's no light at the end of the tunnel cuz they're so all consuming and I will say they grow out of it. That's the first thing to remember. And the most important thing is to just do your best, you know, don't drop 'em on their heads, don't hit 'em and be nice to them, right? You're gonna get through these days, they'll pass. And then if you're the parent of teenagers, um, like you and I are, it's uh, it's a different game. It's really, how do you, how do you love and cheer them on at a very challenging point and, and maintain your sanity when, when, you know, get the games and the stakes get a little bit bigger when they're teenagers mm-hmm <affirmative>. So what I would leave women with is every, the there's always hope wherever you are. There's always hope and possibility to level up. And it's just important to work with someone who can help you identify what's the most important thing. And then what are the things you cannot worry so much about? So they don't cause a stress for you?

Speaker 1:
Oh, I love it. I love it. Such a great conversation today. Such a, a really good convers and I'm excited for my listeners to follow you. So let, um, let everyone know, uh, where they can, uh, get in touch with you and connect with you online.

Speaker 2:
Sure. So our website is five journeys.com. That's F I V E journeys, J O U R N E Y s.com. And then our Instagram there's two there's five journeys health for the company. And then my personal Instagram is Wendy Trubow and then our Facebook is five journeys and that's, I don't think there's health after that. Actually I gotta check on that. And then I don't know that I mentioned to you that we actually wanted to do a giveaway for your, for your listeners. We we've spent a lot of time putting together the resources for how do you clean up your, your environment, your home, your, your, your beauty products, your home, all of that. And we've put them all together in a guide and there's like, it's, it's all linked up. So you can just go in the guide and go, oh, okay. Oh, here's the mattress. I should buy great click. So we'd we normally sell it, but we'd love to offer that to your listeners as a free gift. And that's five journeys.com/promo P R O M O. And they can get the free guide to start leveling up on anything that they pick.

Speaker 1:
That is so very, very helpful. Cuz like you said, it's just very overwhelming. It's like, oh my goodness. You're telling me my mattress is toxic, but I don't even know where to go to look for a new one so that I'm excited to check out that guide. Thank you for making that available to, um, all of my listeners and guys, I will make sure that Dr. Trubow, all of her, um, links that she gave you her website. And of course the links to that, um, that freebie that guide that that will be, uh, in the show note. So you can just click on it very, very easily. Dr. Wendy, thank you so much. This was such a enlightening conversation. I learned a lot, but also very encouraging. So thank you so much for joining me today. 

Speaker 2:
My pleasure. Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1:
Okay. Wasn't that great. I loved that interview. I just, I was so impressed with Dr. Wendy and I'm really excited about the ditch, the toxicity tool that Dr. Wendy is providing to us. So again, that link is, uh, five journeys F I V E five journeys.com/promo. Uh, so be sure and take advantage of that and remember friend, if you need support, I've got your back. So you know how to get in touch with me. I'll have all of this in the show notes and until we meet again, have a healthy and happy day. Bye y'all