Episode 178:
Show Notes
Dr Lucy and Dr Mary commemorate three enriching years of the Real Health and Weight Loss podcast, celebrating a remarkable milestone of half a million downloads. This episode delves into the profound impact of consistent, incremental changes on health and emphasises that transformation is often more attainable than perceived, provided one embraces the right mindset and strategies.
The podcast undergoes a visual upgrade, signifying a reset and evolution. The doctors stress the significance of reflecting on achievements and recalibrating goals, drawing parallels between their podcast journey and personal health transformations.
In the spirit of this celebration, the doctors unveil the eagerly anticipated 7 Day Sugar Free Reset, commencing on November 25th. Priced at $7, this program promises a supportive community and expert guidance to empower participants in jumpstarting their health journey. The doctors passionately advocate for the belief that seemingly small changes, such as reducing sugary beverage intake, can yield profound improvements in health. The challenge not only presents an opportunity for transformation but also highlights the accessibility of change with the right support system.
For those eager to partake in this transformative experience, detailed information and registration for the 7 Day Sugar Free Reset can be found at www.rlmedicine.com/nosugar. This initiative invites individuals to embark on a journey of positive change, reaffirming that significant shifts in health are achievable through manageable, consistent steps. Don't miss the chance to be part of a community committed to fostering healthier and happier lives—one small, purposeful step at a time.
Episode 178:
Transcript
Dr Mary Barson (0:04) Hello, my lovely friends. I'm Dr Mary Barson.
Dr Lucy Burns (0:09) And I'm Dr Lucy Burns. We are doctors and weight management and metabolic health experts.
Both (0:16) And this is the Real Health and Weight Loss podcast!
Dr Mary Barson (0:21) Good morning Dr Mary, how are you today gorgeous one?
Dr Mary Barson (0:26) Really good, lovely Dr Lucy, we have got a celebration to celebrate, which is making me feel proud and reflective. Yeah, I've got a little bit of pride kind of swelling in my chest at the moment. I'm feeling, I'm feeling good. How were you feeling?
Dr Lucy Burns (0:50) Well, how am I feeling? Look like all humans, there's a mixture of emotions that I've got going on at the moment, I have a few things going on with my dad who's getting older and has just gone into an aged care facility. So there's a lot of stuff that goes on with that. A lot of difficult emotions that, you know, probably old me would have just shovelled down with a packet of Tim Tams, new me is having to feel them. So that's just, you know, percolating along in the background. But, you know, right at this particular moment, I mean, today we're recording this and it's Halloween. And, you know, again, for me, growing up Halloween was, was really not much of an event in my childhood. But I understand it's quite different these days, and you Miss, have little kids, so you will be in the thick of it.
Dr Mary Barson (1:46) I believe I may live with Australia's greatest Halloween enthusiast. I'm not sure. But I'm gonna put it out there that my daughter loves Halloween more than anybody else in the southern hemisphere. That's my paragraph. Yes, so Halloween has become a bit of a big deal. I am kind of grateful that you know, I live quite rurally. And so trick or treating aren't going to come here, so don't have to do the whole house decorating thing. But my goodness making Halloween costumes are, I think possibly more important than anything else. My bright little girl's got a lot going on in her life right now. She's got, you know, performances and exams and all of these great things happening in her incredibly busy, very creative little 10-year-old life. But the Halloween costume has been front and centre for weeks. So today is its show day. And I have to drive her into the nearest city with her friends so that she can go trick or treating and get lots of processed chunky Lolly crap. Indeed, indeed. So I too am filled with mixed emotions.
Dr Lucy Burns (3:03) And this is the interesting world in which we live is, you know, you've got your ideals, like what you would love to happen. And you know, in a perfect world, we love our kids not to be influenced by processed food companies and their mischievous marketing tactics. But in the real world, you know, we know that these things are going to happen and we can't shield nor is it practical to shield or potentially even helpful to shield them from everything.
Dr Mary Barson (3:31) That's absolutely right.
Dr Lucy Burns (3:34) Yeah, about being real.
Dr Mary Barson (3:37) It is real. There is no right or wrong way for the beautiful parents of the world to navigate this day, you know that you get to do it however you choose to do it. For me, when she was younger and she would get lollies from parties, Halloween, whatever, I would give her a few and then hide the bag. And then after a while, she'd forget about it. And once she forgot about it or threw him out. That definitely does not find out. So now it's about having conversations with her helping her understand how these foods are really addictive. And she gets it, she really does because she finds them so delicious, so hard to regulate. She can see it in herself that you know if there are some jelly snakes sitting in a paper bag in the cupboard, she really wants them and I do let her have them. But with this, you know talking about it, educating her and also wherever possible, my child nutrition med shots is crowding out the junk. crowd out the junk. I can't control the whole world but I can make sure that she has, you know, protein with all of her meals and some and she's she's nicely satiated before she goes out trading.
Dr Lucy Burns (4:55) Yeah, absolutely. I think one of our mantras in particular one of our philosophies is, a lot of people want to hang the blame on the individual, you know, or they're not healthy, it's their fault or they're overweight, it's their fault, when in fact, we know that there are much more complex forces at play. You know, individual things obviously include stuff like their genetics, their hormones, all those sorts of hoo-ha, that's one thing. But the more pressing thing, I guess, is the fact that none of the processed food industry is regulated at all and I know people that rail against regulation, but when you've got people making such a lot of money out of people's and playing really with people's health, then sometimes a little bit of regulation could be helpful.
Dr Mary Barson (5:49) It is. We humans have this natural desire for a ceremony and for marking occasions and the Irish part of me is, my family is from Ireland. We love Halloween sawin is this pagan festival you know, it marks the coming of the darker half of the year, you know, it's this beautiful, nature-inspired festival of which Halloween is part and it's it's big in Ireland. It's a really, really important day for a lot of people. And then the processed food industry has come along and slathered the whole thing in lollies or candy if you live in other parts of the world. And definitely, I hate that. But the actual, you know, wanting to dress up wanting to mark the occasion. That's beautiful. That's human. That's fun.
Dr Lucy Burns (6:40) Yes, it comes down to the balance, doesn't it? That's our thing. You know, it's easy to be a zealot, it's easy to be one-dimensional, finding the balance in life. That's the hard bit. And you know, that's the bit that we constantly navigating. But going back to your message Miss where you talked about marking ceremony, we have an announcement with marking our own ceremony.
Dr Mary Barson (7:07) We do. This is the celebration that we are celebrating that I'm very excited about is this little podcast of ours has now got 500,000 downloads.
Dr Lucy Burns (7:20) Indeed, indeed. So it's almost like a double whammy, because not only that it's our 3rd year anniversary. And we haven't missed a week. In fact, some weeks we've done every single week, we've produced an episode. Hopefully, that's been interesting and valuable. And, you know, we have half a million people who have listened to it. So it's like we're not there talking to either of nobody.
Dr Mary Barson (7:52) That's right. We've taken our love of, of being real, of promoting, you know, real food and feel advice and real changes so that people really can improve their life. And we've been doing it for three years, half a million downloads. It's a time of celebration and reflection.
Dr Lucy Burns (8:15) Absolutely. Absolutely. And that. I mean, as you said, humans do like to mark occasions, and quite often that occasion can be a time to reflect on what you've been doing, you know, looking at what's going well, and perhaps, you know, doubling down on that, looking at what's not going so well and working out? Can we improve that? Do we need to get rid of that? They're all techniques that we use, particularly in our coaching styles, but they're applicable to so much of life.
Dr Mary Barson (8:48) Yes. One of the greatest personal benefits of this whole beautiful Real Life Medicine Jedi that I've been honest, as I have learnt more and more to help people with their mindset to help people with their health. I mean, I just naturally got better and better at helping myself with my mindset and helping myself with my health. So it's been, it's been a beautiful synergy, which has made my life just so wonderful.
Dr Lucy Burns (9:19) Yeah, absolutely. And you know, any doctors who listen to our podcast and I know there are quite a few will remember the mantra that I remember learning right back when I was a junior doctor, which was the “See one, do one, teach one”. So you will see something being done. You do it yourself, and then you teach it and that's sort of what we've done. We saw what was happening to our own health. We fixed it. So we did it. And now we teach it.
Dr Mary Barson (9:46) That's right. And to celebrate this with you know, you may have noticed lovely listeners. We've given our podcasts a bit of a glow up we've changed our introduction. I hope you like it. Feedback is welcome, to get rid of a whoosh, you know, that's like our equivalent of checking on SimpliPhi and making it all look nice.
Dr Lucy Burns (10:07) And we've updated the artwork that you'll see when you log on to your, you know, if you're listening through Apple or whatever platform Spotify, you'll see there's a new cover. No, I guess, you know, we look at it as a reset. In some ways, it's certainly a reinvention. And all of that is possible with any part of your life. Like, that's what I just love that life and I know that you really do embrace this concept. But the idea of, you know, the Choose Your Own Adventure, like those books that were popular when I was a kid, where there were multiple outcomes. And the outcome depended on which page you chose, well, you get to choose your own adventure in in this great big thing called life.
Dr Mary Barson (10:53) Yes, and you can change, you get to choose where you're going. If you're heading down a path, with your health, with your work with your relationships that you are not liking, you can change. And change may sound big and scary. But it doesn't need to be particularly with your health. I feel so passionate about this, that small changes actually add up to huge changes over time. And something that could seem quite impossible. Like, you know, living without coke. I'm talking about the canned Coca-Cola. Actually, when you actually just start and give it a go and support yourself with the right mindset changes, and the right advice, it can actually be really easy. And something like that is a real-world example of how you can completely change the trajectory of your health, your weight and your whole life. It really doesn't have to be that hard, it really is doable. And all of us are able to make the healthy little changes that we want and need to live the future life that we want. To be the future cells that we want.
Dr Lucy Burns (12:07) Absolutely, absolutely. And again, if I bring it back to our podcasts, we're up to nearly whatever it is 180 episodes. If somebody had said to me – Listen, you need to go and do 190 episodes, like and you've got to record them. And you've got to then write all the notes and you've got to publish it on a website. And you have to do it 180 times– I would have meant in your holy hell. That sounds hard and big and undoable, so yeah, no thanks. But instead, we just focused on one episode at a time. Sometimes we record a couple in a row. It's not perfect by any stretch, you know, we know that. That's okay. Yeah, have you for people to tell us. But it is absolutely consistent, absolutely consistent at imperfectly consistent. And that's that is just the key isn't it Miss.
Dr Mary Barson (13:05) it is, is it's what you do most of the time that matters. And you don't need to be perfect. You can stumble over your words, you can have podcasts where you're less than completely articulate and start by saying I want to celebrate the celebration, for example, which is how I started this podcast episode, beautiful people.
Dr Lucy Burns (13:26) I know perfect, absolutely perfect. Yep, one of the things that we talked about was this idea of reflection, and you know, a glow-up of the podcast, for example. And, you know, you can do that with your health, you can have a glow up of your health, you can have a reset, you can pivot at any time, you can make changes that are helpful. And I know you said it earlier in the podcast, Miss. But the sum of those changes is it's like compound interest. We always have a little joke in our house about compound interest, because once upon a time, my mother-in-law told the story to my kids about compound interest. And they sort of it was way above their heads. So whenever we, whenever I hear the phrase compound interest, we always, there's always this sort of knowing wink and a nod in my place, which is just a little side note. Families often have that, don't they? They'll have little phrases or little things that are just pertinent to that particular family that no one else knows what you're talking about, but you can have the effects of compound interest on your health.
Dr Mary Barson (14:31) Yes, and things can compound quite quickly and we need to be not afraid to make small changes. You know, if you've got a big health goal, I want to lose 30 kilos or I want to reverse my diabetes or you know, I've got this heart disease so you know, it's just it's too big. I need to make too many changes. You might have this big lofty goal and think that something as small as reducing your sugary beverage intake, well, that's just too small, why would I even bother with that. But that reaching for the goal that you can grasp reaching for what you can actually grab hold of, is a very powerful first step. And if you just take those steps, they do add up to big changes quickly, don't be afraid of small changes.
Dr Lucy Burns (15:30) Absolutely, and we call that the low-hanging fruit. You can make changes with the low-hanging fruit, get this foundation set in and have monumental effects on your health, which are wonderful. And then you know, for some people, they want to go that next step, and it's a little bit more nuanced. And again, that's also important and helpful. But sometimes people get worried about the minutiae when they haven't actually done the low-hanging fruit yet, they're right up the top getting all worried about the tiny bits up the top, and how am I going to manage this? And what am I going to do about this? But what about somebody else said this? And it's like, how about we just focus, take a step back and get the low-hanging fruit? So I guess, for us, if I asked you what will you know, what is this low-hanging fruit? What would you describe it as.
Dr Mary Barson (16:19) Ah, it's easier than you might think, start with the processed foods, start with the highly refined carbohydrates, that's definitely where I would start. And if you start there, and you start to get some wins, you'll start to feel better your metabolism will change your world quite literally change your biochemistry, you'll increase your metabolism, you could turn your body into a healthy fat burner for better energy. And then that better energy improves your motivation and improves your mental clarity, all of these things can start snowballing in a really, really positive way when you start small. So that's where I'd start. And you know, you may think that it's impossible, but it's not. We've got our 7 Day Sugar Free Reset coming up, it's on again, yay! This is a really popular program. Absolutely. And you're in a beautiful supportive group. I could do it all together, you have that added motivation. And people are often shocked and surprised at how easy it is. And it can be incredibly motivating to keep going. So start off with seven days, of course, you're not going to change your life in seven days. Except you actually probably can. If you start with seven days, and then you learn that you can keep going. And it's easier than you think.
Dr Lucy Burns (17:40) Absolutely. Because when you start with seven days, you get a little win, you will absolutely feel better. You'll feel better by the end of that seven days, your brain will be you know, it'll be settled initially. It'll be resistant. That's normal. We know that. But that's why we're there in your pocket with you for the seven day challenge. It's so, so easy. People go – I thought this is going to be hard. I really did. I really thought it was going to be hard. And then they go – Oh my God, it was easier than I thought. And again, it's because you're not trying to create 180 podcasts in an afternoon. Just start with a small thing. You just start. And then my favourite word, word of the moment is you build momentum.
Dr Mary Barson (18:28) You do. You could give your health a glow-up by joining us on November 25th for our 7 Day Sugar Free Reset. It costs just $7. Add it this health glop. Y'all were with you. Absolutely. Dr Lucy and me, we are with you. We have a beautiful fun group challenge. And we're there helping you each step of the way. And it does help you build momentum.
Dr Lucy Burns (18:55) Ah, I know which just reminds me actually, that's just a side note, because you know, I love to pop in with a side note. My other little bit of news, which I forgot about is that I'm heading off to our momentum retreat in two days. By the time this podcast airs, we will have had it, but it's our first. So the inaugural again, more ceremony, the inaugural momentum retreat. So we'll be talking to you lovelies about momentum, which is our membership, which is a women-only membership. Plug. So we do have a program for you, but it's not momentum. So it's a separate little thing just to let you know that we haven't forgotten about you. But for our gorgeous women. We have this ongoing membership in this club where we all belong. It's so beautiful. Anyway, they asked for us - could you organise a retreat? It was right at the time that we were organising the Low Carb Roadshow and making sure one more thing eight events at a retreat, no problem. Anyway, the good news is it's sold out in about a second and now we're off tomorrow. Not tomorrow the next day to the Hunter Valley with 20 beautiful members for a glorious reset.
Dr Mary Barson (20:02) Yes, I've, I'm not going because I have to stay home and look after my kids. But Lucy, it's going to be a beautiful retreat, and I have serious FOMO like it's a palpable amount of FOMO like a kind of like a knot in my gut FOMO. But I know this great time.
Dr Lucy Burns (20:20) Yes, exactly, exactly. And being our inaugural one, it's good because, what basically I'll do, like I do with everything, is we will just experience it for all its wonderfulness, but also reflect and reset and see what works. Well, what doesn't work well, because we'll be running again next year.
Dr Mary Barson (20:40) That's right. Reflect reset, beautiful ceremony. I really do. I love being human. Yeah, I'm grateful that I get to spend this life as a human being.
Dr Lucy Burns (20:55) Do you know what though, I just think I'm so grateful that I get to do this job, like this job is the best job in the world. And, you know, since we're celebrating, I think that we should, you know, we have created this life for ourselves, you and me, Miss from scratch, not quite as fundamental as, say, making breast milk from scratch, but still, from scratch, through the process of refining, reflecting, correcting, innovating, we have kind of, you know, whittled it away. You know, I was listening to some other podcast recently about how the Statue of David was created. And basically they said, –Oh, you know, they, they just took away all the marble that wasn't David. And I kind of think sometimes that's a bit like this, this Real Life Medicine gig, we have been able to create, you know, a job from nothing, but in a way that serves people really well, which is one of our fundamental principles, and create, you know, employment for other people. And I don't know, I'm just going to bang my own drum and blow my own trumpet for a second.
Dr Mary Barson (22:09) I love it. It's a lovely example of ikigai, who we have been able to take our passion for empowering people to be well and create this Real Life Medicine that, you know, we can do it in a way that fits in with our lives, that serves our purpose that helps people that we've created this beautiful community. And we do our 7 Day Sugar Free Resets. And we do our 12 Week Mind Body Rebalance, and we have a beautiful Momentum club and group coaching for men. We have all of these wonderful things that we get to do that. Yes, helps people. Yeah, and I get to work from home most of the time and spend time with my kids.
Dr Lucy Burns (22:56) I know. It's a perfect win-win when fills our cup by doing good. And I think you know, huzzah!
Dr Mary Barson (23:03) That's right. And boy have we done it imperfectly. Which is just the only way you do anything. It is imperfectly and consistently.
Dr Lucy Burns (23:13) Exactly. All right, my lovely friends. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of the Real Health and Weight Loss podcast. That sounds a lot like an outro. But you know, we would love love love to see you in the Sugar Free Reset and all the notes as usual in the show notes including all the links, so we'll see you around as a result
Dr Mary Barson (23:36) Bye bye gorgeous listeners.
Dr Lucy Burns: (23:41) The information shared on the Real Health and Weight Loss podcast, including show notes and links, provides general information only. It is not a substitute, nor is it intended to provide individualised medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor can it be construed as such. Please consult your doctor for any medical concerns.
