Dr. Sherry Price: Welcome to the Health Habits and Epic Living Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Sherry Price. The goal of this podcast is to educate and enable empowered women to take the next step towards achieving their health, wellness, and lifestyle goals. Let’s get started.

 

Well, hello, friend. Welcome back to another episode of the Health Habits and Epic Living Podcast. I’m so excited you are here, and today we have an awesome conversation for you listeners. With me, joining me today is Jenn Trepeck. She has a new book out, which I am so excited to talk about. Just as a brief introduction to her, she is a force of nature in the wellness space. She is a health and lifestyle coach, podcaster, and consultant.

 

She grew up on the skinny side but later had some weight issues, which helped her really understand weight management so that she learned this space and what’s worked for her. And through all her research, all that she’s done, and coaching clients, she’s here to help women really understand how to be metabolically fit, how to be healthy, and I’d love to get into this. We’ll get there, Jenn. But talk about the difference between healthy and skinny. I think women still get their minds wrapped up about like, “Skinny is healthy,” and that’s not always the case. So, I know we are going to have a delightful conversation today. So, welcome in, Jenn.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Thank you, Sherry. I’m excited to be here to chat with you again. I know it was a little over a year ago that we last spoke.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: And so, should we start with this “healthy but skinny” thing?

 

Jenn Trepeck: We can. I actually like that. Because I think a lot of times when I’m talking about metabolic health and losing weight, not everybody needs to lose weight, but-

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Totally.

 

Jenn Trepeck: -a lot of people do. We know that there’s an epidemic about that around the country, but I just think women will hear weight loss and they instantly think skinny. And I know you and I are on this mission. It’s not to create skinny people. It’s to create metabolically fit people. People who can function in their 70s, 80s, and love their life along the way. And so, I’d love to get your take on what do you think about skinny versus healthy?

 

Yeah. So, one sentence. There are zero, zero diseases that exist only in bigger bodies. So, full stop, the size of your body does not determine your health or health outcomes, period. We have this perception that if someone is in a physically smaller body, they must be healthier. And that is one of the most misguided beliefs that people hold. And there’s a whole host of social implications, financial implications of living in a bigger body. But when it comes to our health, when it comes to our health outcomes, the size of your body or the number on the scale are not the determining factors.

 

And most of the time– I mean, we can even just say so, 88% of the population in the US is not metabolically well. What that means is that they do not metabolize food well. They do not take in and utilize nutrients well. And then that snowballs into a whole host of diseases and diagnoses and things like that. For some people, it ends up manifesting first in their blood sugar. For other people, it’s in their cardiovascular health and cholesterol. For other people, it’s a different organ. Your diagnosis is based on whatever organ system failed first, but the entire body is connected. And just because we maybe have been diagnosed with high cholesterol does not mean that your liver and your kidney and everything else are fine. And it’s just this one thing, because everything in the body is connected. So, it is systemic, it is system-wide. And we end up with these diagnoses based on the organ that has failed first.

 

And so, it really serves us to understand that all health or disease starts with our body’s capacity to do what it’s supposed to do, which requires nutrients, inputs, translating that into energy, tissue, neurotransmitters, hormones and all of the other pieces. So, skinny doesn’t actually tell us anything about our health. And by that token, neither does carrying excess fat.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: I love how you said that. And I remember the last time you were on the podcast, we had this big discussion around BMI and what a terrible marker that is for health. It doesn’t tell you anything. Yeah, so we don’t need to rehash that. They could go back to the podcast from a little over a year, two years ago to drum up that information. But you’re right, it’s not like cancer just affects overweight people. It affects thin people too. And some people may say, “Well, I get it,” but then I just want to ask, “What are your actions?” Are they supporting this? Thin equals healthy.

 

Because if you’re stepping on the scale every day and you’re monitoring your weight, your gravitational pull on your body, so, the taller you are, the more of the gravitational pull there will because you have more mass. Like, there’s just certain factors that will make the number be bigger or higher that doesn’t equate to less health.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Right.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: So, I just really want people to hear that because I’m sure in your coaching program, as well as in my coaching program, I still have women who, like, are married to the scale, and this number on the scale. I use the same statistic you’re looking at in that same study, the 88% who are not metabolically healthy, not, right? And we look at the number on the scale, that’s not one of the metrics for metabolically healthy.

 

Jenn Trepeck: And it’s so interesting because I can appreciate that at times in our lives, we used how we looked in our clothes or how we looked in a swimsuit as that metric, as that self-check. I think that’s often what happens in our 20s or so, maybe even in our 30s. But there is a point where we shift into recognizing that health, vitality and longevity is really the objective over the aesthetic. Because the truth is, you could be smaller, you could end up with a lower number on that scale and do that in a way such that it takes away from health, vitality, and longevity.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes. And give me an example about that, because I think the listener is hearing that, but it’s like, “Okay, wait, how can I be thinner and be less healthy?”

 

Jenn Trepeck: Yes. So, when we cut out whole food groups, dramatically cut calories, live in a state of deficit, eat less, move more. Right? All of the things that most of us were told our entire lives, what happens when the scale goes down is that what we are losing is water, muscle, and bone. Losing muscle and bone, frankly, water too, because our body needs hydration. Hydration is also about more than just water. But losing those things deteriorates health. Muscle is your longevity organ. It’s not an organ, but it acts like one when it comes to our longevity.

 

Bone and bone density, bone mass is critical. I can’t remember the exact statistic, but I want to say if we break a hip due to osteoporosis, we have an increased likelihood of death of over 30% in one year following the break, and over 60% in two years following the break. Losing muscle and bone is the opposite of health. So, we can make the number on the scale go down. The question is, are we doing that in a way that meets our objectives longer term?

 

Now, some people might say, “I don’t care,” and cool, you could stop listening. We love you anyway. We still love you, but the rest of this conversation might just frustrate you. But if we’re all on the same page that our objective is to have energy, to show up as a person with capacity to be kind to help people, to contribute to this world, to enjoy life and activities and people and do this for many years to come, then we might want to think about how we go about getting to that number on the scale because it’s the how that really translates into health, not that number.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes, yes. So well stated, I do not want weight coming out of my bone. That scares me pieces to be osteoporotic, awful. And this just reminds me of something that happened last week. I was at Home Depot and my husband went in before me. I parked the car, I dropped him off to save time. And I’m parking the car and I’m walking into Home Depot and I see this lady, she’s got this huge box. And by the looks of her– you can’t really judge a book by its cover, but by the looks of her, I’m older than her and I’m looking at her and she’s just looking around the parking lot, like, really confused, her trunk is open and there’s this big box lying there. And so, I–

 

Jenn Trepeck: She can’t get it into the car.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Right. And I said, “Would you like some help lifting that?” And she looks at me and I’m sure she did the assessment of like, “You look older than me. Are you sure?” And so, she was like, “I, I, I kind of do.” So, she was hesitant for me to help her. And I said, “Well, I don’t mind lifting that. I would love to help you put that in your car.” And she’s like, “Can you?” I’m like, “I lift weights. I can get this.” I assessed the box, I saw what was in it. I’m like, “I think I could do it.” And lo and behold, she watched me put it in her car and she was amazed. And she’s like, “Oh my gosh, thank you.” And I said, “Yeah, no problem.”

 

So, I’m just thinking, “Wow, how limiting life becomes when you can’t do like simple tasks such as go to Home Depot and lift a box into your trunk of your car.” And what you said, my goal is not to shame her. My goal is to be kind. And so, by keeping care of my health, I’m able to spread more kindness to the people who need that help. So, in a way, by giving us our health, we are able to transmit that to others because we’re in a better position to help society.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah. And I think about it too. I remember, like, hangry, by the way, is real.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Real. Real. I’ve been there. [crosstalk]

 

Jenn Trepeck: Our blood sugar is what– We’ve all been there, I think. And so, when I think about being kind or showing up in the world and being able to contribute, “I am not showing up as that version of myself when I am hungry, when I am tired, when I’m super stressed or all of those other things that go on.” And to me, that’s wellness. Like, being able to do the things-

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes.

 

Jenn Trepeck: -go out in the world, contribute the way I want to, travel, enjoy– that’s wellness. Being able to show up the way I want to show up.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: I love that. And I have to interrupt you because it was one of my questions for this podcast when I was reading your book. It was like the first statement that stood out to me when I was reading. And I’ve heard wellness, I’ve heard wellness, I’ve heard wellness, but I’ve never stopped to think and define it for myself. And I loved the definition that you have in the book. “Wellness is the energy to live your life.” And I just know you were talking before we got on about perimenopause and stuff like that. And like, ah, the wonkiness, the energy, like the highs and the lows and just our phase of life. Welcome and it’s true.

 

If you don’t have energy, it’s hard to want to cook healthy for yourself. It’s hard to want to contribute to work, go to work, and do what’s required of you. It just gets harder to do life that way. And I think a lot of people think wellness is the absence of disease, which is a very low bar.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Very low. When I work with health professionals, one of the things that we put into their practice is a graphic. That’s a spectrum going from minus 10 to plus 10. Zero is the absence of disease. So, zero to plus 10 is our wellness. Zero to minus 10 is our disease process. So, we can then– if we think about this as a much broader, bigger spectrum, then we can start to say, “Wait a minute, I maybe do have some room for improvement.”

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yeah.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Or things could be better. And I bring it back to energy in the book and when I talk about it, because we might not be diagnosed with anything and dragging ourselves out of bed in the morning, we might not have a diagnosis, but really just be moody all the time. To me, we’re not well if it isn’t across all pieces of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, like what we think of as holistic. But then I think sometimes thinking about it that way can end up with a little bit of an eye roll or a little woo woo or whatever. It doesn’t necessarily resonate with anybody or everybody, I should say.

 

And so, when I think about it in terms of the energy to show up and live my life and do the things that I want to do, it then requires all of those other pieces to be in place.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: 100%. Yeah. And I call myself a holistic pharmacist, but that by no means means that I’m anti-drug. I’m actually for medication if you need it. If we’ve tried all the lifestyle interventions, if you’ve got everything else dialed in and maybe they’re temporary until you get the other things dialed in. So, I’m not like, “It has to be this way or that way.”

 

Jenn Trepeck: And there’s a time. I’m all about the “and.” And the answer is yes, this and that. There are times for pharmaceutical interventions, there are times for nutraceutical interventions, lifestyle interventions. If you break a bone, yes, we need a cast and potentially some other things and nutrients that help the bone repair. To me, modern medicine is an absolute miracle. And nothing we talk about takes that away. It’s more to me about recognizing that modern medicine is about disease states, disease processes and symptoms that 0 to minus 10 versus the 0 to plus 10, that’s how we live our lives. That’s the little, seemingly little stuff that we do every single day. How we fuel, how we move, how we manage our stress. What are we drinking, how much are we drinking? Getting those micronutrients as well. How are we connecting and finding purpose in our lives? All of those other things that we think are so little and secondary-

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes.

 

Jenn Trepeck: -but are really the needle movers for sure.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Because you can dial in the greatest pharmaceuticals and yeah, but if you’re not looking at how are you loving and being loved. Like loneliness. We know loneliness. Some studies show that it was equivalent to like 15 cigarettes a day. Like that’s the take. It took seven years off of your lifespan if you were lonely. If you didn’t feel love and were able to give love, like that’s just part of the human condition. And I think these softer skills, which are harder to measure, quite honestly, that’s why they haven’t made it into Western med and Western medicine has other attributes and diagnostic equipment and things that we can’t get from our neighbor. But these other things that we could get in society and from our neighbor, we’re not going to pay for that generally at the doctor’s office.

 

And when we talk about wellness, I used to work in a hospital. So, I just remember seeing all the patients that come out of a hospital, and if you drive by a clinic or a hospital, a lot of these patients aren’t, like, doing cartwheels coming out and jumping joy. They’re coming out in wheelchairs, on crutches. So, we fix them up. But they’re not epically living. Energy is flowing, the sky is parting. Like, they’re not on a high. They’re just like, “Thank God I didn’t die.”

 

Jenn Trepeck: Right.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Like, which is different barometer or “Thank God that surgery was available to me and it’s now going to help me. But there’s so much more to my recovery that’s on me.” And I love in the book that you talked about this concept of, like, health is our responsibility.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Yes.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes, we utilize coaches. Yes, we utilize therapists. Yes, we utilize pharmaceuticals. Yes, we utilize casts. Yes, we utilize MRI machines and CT scans and doctors and people with the knowledge and hormone replacement therapy and all the things. But ultimately, there’s not somebody out there saying, “Sherry, Jenn, come on my office. I see you’re operating at a five when you should be operating– [crosstalk] Like, that’s our responsibility to say, “Wait, I know I could be doing better. I know I could be feeling better. I know I could be doing stuff.” And maybe I do lack the knowledge, maybe I do lack the how. But that’s on us to discover that, learn about that, and then seek a tribe of people who influence us. I don’t want to say convince us. Because I don’t want to convince anybody. Don’t work with me if you want me to convince you. That’s not going to work well.

 

Jenn Trepeck: You have to– You have to want it.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Right.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Because it’s our responsibility. So, recognize, I think, the people that we rely on, aside from coaches, we can add that into the mix in a second. If our assumption is that our doctors will keep us well, then let’s just take a look at that objectively and say, “Well, what are they measuring?” They are measuring for disease process. They are measuring for imbalance to find disease or fight disease or manage symptoms. And half of the time/almost all the time, what our doctors do becomes a function of what health insurance will pay for.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: 100%.

 

Jenn Trepeck: So, now health insurance is actually determining, yes, your health. If we are 100% outsourcing it to all of these other people. And if we sit here and say, “Well, unless the doctor says something’s wrong, I’m not going to do anything.” Fine. You will wait until you get to the point where you’re potentially– Your only option is to rely on some of these other interventions that work faster and manage a disease process or manage symptoms rather than addressing the underlying root cause to prevent, to show up with that energy.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Right.

 

Jenn Trepeck: What’s that old saying, like, “We make time for our health or eventually we’ll have to make time for disease.” Whatever that old quote is. But that’s– If we’re always relying on these other people or other experts to tell us when we need to do something that is a reactive state.

 

You could choose that or you could choose to say, “I know something’s off because I don’t enjoy getting out of bed in the morning because I have to pull myself up, because I have to convince myself to do things all day long, because I am exhausted at 3 o’clock. I could fall asleep for the night at 7, and then at 11 o’clock midnight, I am wide awake.” Like, we know when something’s off. And a lot of times that is way before it shows up in a blood test that our doctor can do.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yeah. Yes, we know ourselves very well. Like you said, just to expand upon that, I know going to some Western medical docs because I had insurance. So, I want my labs covered by insurance. You get the labs back and you’re like, “Well, nothing’s wrong, you’re fine.” And you get dismissed and you don’t feel like, “Wow, they really heard me. I’m not feeling fine.” Thank goodness. There’s this whole movement to talk about perimenopause because my mom didn’t know anything.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Right.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: This is the first generation, I think, shedding so much light to it-

 

Jenn Trepeck: Totally.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: -because we’re totally sick of silencing ourselves. And now it’s interesting, [crosstalk] like data, right?

 

Jenn Trepeck: And on that token, to your point, like, the doctor will say, “You’re fine,” and you will go, “Okay.” And I say to my clients, “But what was the number?” If we’re in this– you know, especially metabolic health, we talk a lot, not just about the cholesterol, cardiovascular side, but also the blood sugar side. So, well, “What was the fasting glucose? What was the A1c?” I want to know not just that you were in some range that they have decided is “normal.” I want to know what the number actually was so that we can respond to the facts rather than the judgment of that range. Because the normal “range” in Western medicine is based on typical people, your age, maybe, and gender. But your age, which normal doesn’t necessarily translate into well either.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: No, not when 88% of the people are metabolically unhealthy, and I don’t want to be compared to that. I want to be compared to optimal health. And you’re right, it’s not optimal levels, it’s average levels and average is scary–

 

Jenn Trepeck: And knowing what our normal is too.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes, true.

 

Jenn Trepeck: So often, even for women saying, “Okay, you don’t need a mammogram until.” Well, would it not be helpful to get a baseline to know what our normal is? To know what our body looks like?

 

Dr. Sherry Price: [crosstalk] DEXA scan. Oh, yeah, the DEXA scan. Insurance won’t pay for it until you’re this age. Well, you make your peak bone mass in your 20s. You would– It would be so good if we had that as baseline. I hear you.

 

Jenn Trepeck: So, it’s all of these little things that come back to your point of that ownership of our health-

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes.

 

Jenn Trepeck: -is ours. And if we’re willing to take that ownership, then everything is possible. And I think one of the other things that I talk about, and we’ve touched it on it, is in addition to deferring to a lot of the “experts”, we believe them and dismiss ourselves.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes.

 

Jenn Trepeck: You are the expert in your body. No matter what I say, what Sherry says, what your doctor said. You are the expert in your body. And so, if you are working with any professional who dismisses what you know to be true for you, it’s time to find somebody else to work with because you are the expert in your body, full stop. And even as patients, we have the right to say “Thanks, but no thanks.”

 

I actually had this with a client yesterday. He’s working through a protocol for some gut health things and had some reactions, went to his doctor because he was nervous. The doctor wanted to do two different types of scans and then gave him an antibiotic. And I said, “Well, what’s the antibiotic for?” I said, “Is it precautionary? Like, why are we taking the antibiotic?” And he said, “Well, the scans are precautionary.” I said, “If there isn’t a bacteria, the antibiotic could create more of a challenge that we then need to repair.” Because part of all of this was a focus on what’s happening in his gut. And he said to me, “Well, I can’t tell the doctor I’m not going to take it.”

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Oh.

 

Jenn Trepeck: And this is something he and I work through all the time. I let him, didn’t say anything. He was thinking through a few things anyway. And then he sent me a message a couple hours later and said, “The doctor agreed, I don’t need to take the antibiotic. It could be counterproductive. Let’s see what the scans say.”

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Wow.

 

Jenn Trepeck: And so, sometimes it takes us to push back a little bit and ask some questions. Be willing to be your own advocate in that way or work with somebody who can help you figure out what those questions are to ask. Especially Sherry, with your background in pharmacy, like to have you in, in your back pocket to be able to say, “Okay, what am I going to ask?” “What else do I not know about this situation that might be helpful?”

 

Dr. Sherry Price: So true. I’ve coached so many women already on, “Hey, I don’t know if I’m the right age for hormone replacement therapy. Did I miss the boat? I hear about this ten-year window.” Or “I want insurance to cover it. Now I’m hearing about compound or what’s bioidentical and what’s not.” And I have this one lady who’s like, her doctor put her on hormone replacement therapy. And I said, “Okay, what are you on?” And she said, “Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. That’s what my doctor said.” I said, “Okay, just make sure it’s bioidentical.” And she goes, “How will I know?” And I said, “Well, tell me the name of the product or take a picture and text me.” So, she takes the picture and texts it to me like, “This is not bioidentical.”

 

And when she called the doctor’s office and said that she’s not on a bioidentical, the doctor’s office said, “Yes, you are.” So, she had– I had to educate her to educate the doctor’s whole entire staff and the doctor because they were using a synthetic version, not a bioidentical version. And it was important to her for safety concerns that she was on a bioidentical. So even though, “Hey, we’re all flawed, I don’t know everything, correct me if I’m– but I’m humble enough to receive the feedback and the correction and I will apologize for it and certainly totally own it” And I just want to educate others so that we’re not dispelling misinformation or inaccurate information.

 

Jenn Trepeck: 1000%.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: And so, all the time I deal with this, and I did in practice is like calling doctors back and saying, “This is– Are you sure you wanted to do this? This looks like a safer option.”

 

Jenn Trepeck: Right.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: I wrote a text book of 2,000 plus medications. So, I know a lot about medication and that’s not everybody’s specialty. I get it, I get it. Yeah.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: But advocating for yourself is critical. And I’ve shared, Jenn, on this podcast, even the past year of me finding people to help me with my struggles during perimenopause and all my symptoms and wanting to get to the root cause. And I shared with my audience. I’ve fired at least five or six physicians that I’m like, “Yeah, I won’t be back. This doesn’t work for me. And I don’t believe in the philosophy that you’re following.” And the crazy thing is I go in with these studies, like, 16 pages of documents and studies and say, “This is why I want to be on this one and here’s why.” And I go in with the evidence. And I only had one doctor take those studies from me and read them and want to read them.

 

Everybody else just, like, looks at me like I’m a crazy woman. Go ahead. It’s my health. It’s important for me to advocate for it. And it’s important to me that I want to live healthy, strong in my 90s. I really do. Yeah.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Absolutely.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: So, if you want to look at me like I’m an alien from outer space, bring it [crosstalk] because here I am. I can take it. I’m a big girl. I could take it. So, I just love it that we are advocating for the listener, that you can do that, too And you can question and you can say, “Hey, here’s what I’m thinking. What do you think?” And it’s not an attack. I don’t do it in a disrespectful manner. It’s not an attack. It’s like, “Here’s how I educated myself.” It’s way beyond Google.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Right.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Like, I’ve actually looked into the research, and I will actually give articles to some of my clients who feel like they want to have that discussion with their provider or maybe find a new one. But you’re right, that’s the nice thing is we have that autonomy. And I don’t know if we knew that that was available to a lot of us, but it is.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah. And I think it’s a progression. There’s sort of a tangent, but there’s healthcare 1.0, 2.0, and now 3.0. And that idea of the doctor on the pedestal.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yes.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Knows everything. Is this healthcare 1.0 thing that worked for a time and just isn’t our reality anymore?

 

Dr. Sherry Price: No. Not with the Internet and not with the amount of information coming out. It’s just the information age. All of us are outdated.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Exactly. As soon as you learn something.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Absolutely. All right, so as we’re wrapping up, I do want to get into some pearls. You delivered so many great pearls in the book. I just resonated with your writing style. I’m a very direct person. I like, cut to the chase, give me what I need to know. You talked a lot about habits, building good habits. Because if it’s not going to last, it’s not going to be as helpful. It’ll be helpful, but it won’t be as helpful. And we really want to get maximal benefit of the effort we put into things. So, can you give us just a few pearls on wellness strategies that you have in the book? And you could take that any way you want to go.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Yeah, I think– so, fundamentally, the book outlines what I call the bio stack as an alternative to the biohack. So, we hear a lot about biohacks and all these things. And the foundation is that we can do all the cold plunges we want, we can do all of the peptides and all the things. Those tools are by definition an incremental improvement. So, if we’re doing those at the expense of or instead of foundational pieces, they’re not going to get us to where we want to be in the way we think they are. So, what we really need to do is put the foundation in place, put these pillars, the bio stack together, then you can add these biohacks on top and go, “Wow, I noticed the difference when.” Right?

 

So that bio stack comes down to fuel, movement, hydration, stress management, sleep, and connection. Those six pieces. Now within each of those, there are strategies for things that we can do. It really and this is sort of dissatisfying, but where you start, you know. It’s the one, where, like when I said the list, you went, ugh right? That’s the one that you probably want to start with. And it means choosing one piece of that you can do every single day on your most hectic, wild, chaotic day. So often we build these plans for ourselves based on this textbook day that does not exist in reality or exists like once or twice a year.

 

So, choosing a couple things, if we start one thing in one category is incredible and build it in so that it becomes this thing that happens whether we think about it or not, and then build the second and the third. Ultimately our objective is to have a couple things in each category that happen every day. We get there more as a stair step than as a flipping the switch. And so, what you’re talking about in terms of habits, looking at what some people might call setting the bar low, I call it living in reality. And to say, “I know that the piece that I can do on the fuel is a protein and fiber-packed breakfast.” Fantastic. Let that be the thing.

 

“I know that the thing that I can do for my stress and my sleep is not have coffee before food.” Fantastic. These are all things that don’t necessarily have to take inordinate amounts of time in our day, but recognizing that they are steps in the direction of our total health and well-being puts it in a place where it becomes a priority. And over time, that habit becomes something that’s just what we do and how we operate. And then the inevitable outcome is living well, however you define that and showing up however you want to show up in the world. But I think I don’t even necessarily want to give you a thing to do in every category because you also have to find the thing that works for you.

 

Like, I’m the kind of person where every time somebody says journaling, like, I roll my eyes. Like, “I’m not a journaler.” I didn’t used to be a meditator, but I worked with the meditation coach. I still see her every week because that’s what helps me do that thing and include that in my life. But maybe the thing for you on the stress front is that one song that you remember from high school or college that, like, no matter what you do, when you hear it, you have to sing it. Play that once a day while you empty the dishwasher, whatever it is, but finding the things that you will truly do on the most hectic day and find the consistency in there because that’s what really gets us to where we want to be.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: I love it. And I just had the song pop in my head. I instantly knew it. Livin’ on a Prayer by Bon Jovi.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Perfect.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Anytime I see that or hear that in a bar, we’re all just singing and you just know exactly– When I was born. Yeah, I love it, Jenn. I love it.

 

Well, I really appreciate you coming on the podcast to share your wisdom, empower us, inform us to live our epic wellness and our epic lives. I know you and I are so aligned in that we really want to grow that 12% number of metabolically healthy people and so we can tamp down the 88% and change– get people converted over the 12% and make that number go up. So, I love your mission. I love that we’re so aligned. I love that we are empowering women to get involved with their health, to know what to aim for, to build healthy habits, to make it a lifestyle and to take that ownership on.

 

And it’s so encouraging and so fun when you can do it from a fun and not deprivation like you mentioned in the book. Not about deprivation or becoming smaller or becoming skinny, like, all the ways we think we have to hide, shrink, not do. No, this is about evolution and about expansion. So, we can do more. We can lift the boxes into our trunk. We can help others. It’s about expansion. It’s not about being smaller. It’s about being healthy and strong. So, I love your mission and thank you so much for coming on the podcast.

 

And before we part, I want to give you an opportunity to tell our listeners about your wonderful podcast, your book Uncomplicating Wellness and where they can find you.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Yes. Well, first of all, Dr. Sherry, thank you so much. I adore talking to you. Yes, my podcast is A Salad with a Side of Fries. Website is asaladwithasideoffries.com. On social media. I am at @jennntrepeck J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-K. I really love hearing from you, so please send a message. And then of course, the book Uncomplicating Wellness available wherever books are sold. A lot of people, especially internationally. Amazon tends to be easy, so you can just search for Uncomplicating Wellness there.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: It’s a fantastic read.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Thank you.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: I highly recommend it. Very easy to read, very actionable steps. I’m an action taker, so I really enjoy that. And I thought it was written a little bit tongue in cheek, which I appreciated. It’s a bit your personality totally coming out in the book.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Yes.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: And yep, I hear Jenn in my ear when I was reading it. So, I love the book.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Well, thank you.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: Yeah. Thank you for putting out such a great wisdom for us and a great resource for us to live by. Thanks so much, Jenn.

 

Jenn Trepeck: Thank you, Sherry.

 

Dr. Sherry Price: All right, listeners, thank you for joining this awesome conversation and I will see you next week.

 

Thanks for listening to the Health Habits and Epic Living Podcast. If you’re ready to take the next step to improve your health, wellness and lifestyle goals, head over to www.epicyou.com and sign up for my weekly newsletter. Again, that’s E-P-I-C-Y-O-U dot com. Please note that the information in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice.

 

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