The Jill Cruz Podcast Jill Cruz

We can’t rely on punishing popular health practices to offer us the gentle healing we need. 

Dr. Stephanie Zgraggen is a chiropractor and a nutritionist who focuses on the clinical nutrition side of her practice and helps women heal naturally. 

Many women suffer from a variety of health issues and can’t get the help they need from standardized healthcare practices or commercialized products. Extreme dieting, intense training, fasting, and pills can be more detrimental to the body than helpful, but self-care practices that reduce stress and increase your positive mindset can do wonders. 

If you are having trouble making progress on your self-care journey, a certified nutritionist may be able to help you discover the root cause of your problems and put you on the path to success. Getting healthy isn’t a quick-fix, so stay positive and research the kind and gentle help that you need.
🩸 Dr. Stephanie is a chiropractor that focuses on clinical nutrition and helps women with hormone balance, adrenal fatigue, digestive disorders, and others: she had her own crazy hormonal story. 02:01🤷‍♀️ So many different parts of your body are talking to each other: when you take birth control, you tell your whole system to shut up. 07:09💅 The body always triages: it doesn't care about your weight or what your hair and nails look like. 10:29✅ The more cortisol you produce, the more nutrients you need to regenerate your gut: stress is not just coming at you from one place. 12:23💊 Many products we see on the market aren't even at therapeutic doses: treat the cause, not the symptoms. 16:20💚 When you fast too much and too long without having proper nutrients stored, you can start having negative effects: choose nourishment over punishment. 17:41🪫 If you barely have the energy to get through the day, you don't have it for workout routines either. 20:35🤩 Looking for progress, not perfection:  when your body works better, anything you take will be more effectively utilized. 23:30🍵 Drug absorption can vary depending on the type of therapy: we store a lot of estrogen and toxins in our fat cells - a true metabolic detox is helpful with balancing hormones and releasing toxins. 26:12🌸 If you're looking for a clinician, do the research and find somebody kind: hormones are important for osteoporosis and dementia. 33:35❤️ You can have the help and support to heal from the inside out. 37:21
Links:
Connect with Dr Stephanie: https://drzgraggen.com
Detox your morning routine: https://drzgraggen.com/morning-detox-ebook
Lose Weight for the Last Time: https://wynweightloss.kartra.com/page/lose-weight-for-the-last-time
"With Your Nature" Wellness & Weight Loss Blog: https://wynweightloss.com/blog
Connect with Jill: www.linkedin.com/in/jill-cruz-ms-cns-healthy-weight-loss

There is a lot of confusion out there about how much protein you need in a day. 
That is why I really enjoyed this conversation with Beth Lipton. Beth is a food and wellness writer and shares her tips on why it is important to have meat-centric meals. Eating is all about self-care and giving the body what it needs, so the most important eating habit we can practice is listening to our body. 
Our body requires a lot of energy to keep up with all of life’s demands, and the older we get, the more we need to maintain our physical health and muscle mass. Protein is an excellent source of what the body needs, and when paired with other self-care exercises, it can lead to a healthy and less stressful way of living. Making meat and fish a regular part of your diet can potentially elevate your health, energy, and muscles!
Shownotes:🍖 Beth is a food and wellness writer, recipe developer, and the co-author of a cookbook called Carnivore-ish: the concept of the book is that we should be centering animal protein on our plates. 02:09🏋️‍♀️ Beth's friend and co-author Ashleigh has a strong background in muscle building, especially for women. 06:33⚡ We need energy for our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual demands: energy is a thing that you build through your habits. 09:03🧘‍♀️ Meditation practice is not about clearing your mind: Jill is on a journey of getting out of being a hyper person. 13:20🤔 When we become more aware of the negotiations in our heads, we become more disciplined: meditation helps with discipline and keeps us from worrying about the future too much. 17:10👠 Women don't expect anyone else but themselves to be perfect, and we need to work on that: I'm the master of my own universe. 22:53✅ You need all 9 amino acids to have a complete protein intake: animal proteins are superior, but that doesn't mean you can't get enough on a vegetarian or vegan diet. 29:30👩‍⚕️ The protein you take in today affects your energy over 24 hours: our bodies are exquisitely designed to handle anything we put in them because we are omnivores. 34:55🥩 Carnivore-ish has 125 recipes and a ton of variety. 38:58
Links:
Connect with Beth: www.instagram.com/cookiepie0402
Carnivore-ish: www.amazon.com/Carnivore-ish-Protein-Rich-Recipes-Health-Muscle/dp/1628601477
Lose Weight for the Last Time: https://wynweightloss.kartra.com/page/lose-weight-for-the-last-time
"With Your Nature" Wellness & Weight Loss Blog: https://wynweightloss.com/blog
Connect with Jill: www.linkedin.com/in/jill-cruz-ms-cns-healthy-weight-loss

Take care of yourself to ensure you have the mindset needed to serve others. 

Liz Johnson is the owner and Care Planning Consultant for Seniors at Always Best Care Bergen & Passaic. She shares critical healthcare information and resources for seniors. 

When family members become ill, guilt and heavy emotional burdens can make handling the situation problematic. 

The key is to practice self-care during these challenging times so we can show up as our best selves and take on the responsibility of being there to serve our family members in need. 

Understanding the nuances of the healthcare system and how it applies to helping our aging loved ones can be a difficult and emotional journey, so we must seek professional help and resources. 

Take care of yourself to be the hero your aging loved ones need!
🧓 Liz is a care planning consultant for seniors: we attract whatever is happening, but not everything is our fault. 02:44🌸 Getting sick is part of life - nothing ever stays the same: take care of yourself to help others: there's nothing to feel guilty about. 06:38❤️ In the end, you want to say to yourself: "I did everything possible to make things well for my parent": don't wait for someone to pass away to be good to one another. 13:03🧑 Play the hero instead of the victim: we can go back to those wonderful moments that we had with our parents to give us the fortitude to deal with what is at present. 20:47🌺 There's a difference between skilled nursing and long-term care: Lisa offers help and advice to anybody who contacts her. 25:26💔 Even for a nurse or doctor, it can be too emotional to take care of a loved one. 28:36🌼 Self-care is health care. 31:11🌎 The world won't end if we go to the gym, meditate, eat, or sleep - make it a priority. 33:50
Links:
Connect with Liz: www.linkedin.com/in/lizajohnson1
Always Best Care: https://alwaysbestcare.com
Lose Weight for the Last Time: https://wynweightloss.kartra.com/page/lose-weight-for-the-last-time
"With Your Nature" Wellness & Weight Loss Blog: https://wynweightloss.com/blog
Connect with Jill: www.linkedin.com/in/jill-cruz-ms-cns-healthy-weight-loss

The key to balancing work and life is to take more time for self-care. 

Beth Ramer is a career counselor and professional coach who helps women balance the alignment of work and life by prioritizing their well-being. 

The unfortunate truth is that the concept of work/life balance is often an illusion because being a high achiever can push us into a state of trying to constantly manage unrealistic schedules. 

Being in a chronic state of hyper-mode and dealing with persistent stress will compound over time, eventually leading to dangerous burnout. 

To avoid damaging ourselves, we must take time for self-care, find moments to calm ourselves, and shift our energy to a relaxed state to recharge properly.

Prevention is easier than recovery, so make sure you are taking time to love yourself!
🔸 Beth works in the pharmaceutical industry and has a private practice: work-life balance is an illusion in many ways because we somehow always put ourselves last. 02:30💮 Pushing to do everything at work or home makes us stuck in a masculine energy: there's a way to do it all in a more feminine flow state and open up our creativity. 06:40🔥 Striving for that end achievement is perfect in small doses, but we shouldn't keep ourselves in constant overdrive: the pandemic had an enormous effect on health and nutrition because, for many of us, our bodies got used to overdrive, so we constantly looked for that rush. 12:50🟢 Emotional resilience makes us self-aware and shifts away from reaction mode: that control can help us stay calm and have a moment of choice. 20:26🌺 It's really about the holistic approach to our well-being: find something that you can add in today that's going take your energy up a notch and make you feel supported, cared for, and nurtured. 26:01🧡 Set boundaries within yourself, and not just at your workplace: prevention is much easier than recovery. 29:29
Links:
Connect with Beth: www.linkedin.com/in/beth-ramer-8685a2a
Lose Weight for the Last Time: https://wynweightloss.kartra.com/page/lose-weight-for-the-last-time
"With Your Nature" Wellness & Weight Loss Blog: https://wynweightloss.com/blog
Connect with Jill: www.linkedin.com/in/jill-cruz-ms-cns-healthy-weight-loss

The healthcare system needs to view obesity through a more compassionate lens. Dr. Beverly Tchang is an endocrinologist who works with a medical team to help support patients seeking obesity management in a holistic and individualized way. Weight issues have historically been viewed by society and medicine as a problem that is centered on lifestyle and reflect an individual’s poor choices. Modern medical research proves that the inability to lose weight is a multifaceted issue linked to hormonal problems that require individualized treatments. We must stop identifying obesity as an external physical issue and have compassion for the mental and hormonal issues that impact people suffering from the disease. Let’s end the stigma around obesity!
Show notes: 👩‍⚕️ Dr. Beverly is an obesity medicine physician who says obesity is a medical disease, not a morality issue: only 1% of people eligible for obesity medicine medications are offered medications. 04:35❌ Media is pushing a false dichotomy that people with obesity are taking away the medications from people with diabetes. 11:15📈 "Calories in - calories out" is a description of our current weight, but it doesn't give us an explanation as to why the body continues to gain weight. 14:02🍔 A study showed that given the same meal with the same amount of calories and fiber, people who were given an ultra-processed meal ate 300-500 kcal more. 18:02✅ If you're overweight, you have a higher risk of developing obesity in the next 10 years: BMI doesn't count for body composition, ethnicity, or comorbidities. 21:29🧠 US statistics from 2015 show that 60% of people have overweight or obesity: most people have obesity because their hormones are out of whack, but that's not always possible to prove. 25:01👍 Dr. Beverly works as an endocrinologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York. 31:11💊 Medications are not for everyone - the approach has to be holistic and individualized: there are options to help mitigate the damage our modern environment imposes on us. 33:44🟢 Obesity is a neuro-hormonal disease, and we should treat it like that. 36:07❣️ Female physical appearance doesn't determine female worth: it's a struggle that has lasted centuries. 38:53
Links:
American Board of obesity medicine: www.abom.org
Lose Weight for the Last Time: https://wynweightloss.kartra.com/page/lose-weight-for-the-last-time
"With Your Nature" Wellness & Weight Loss Blog: https://wynweightloss.com/blog
Connect with Jill: www.linkedin.com/in/jill-cruz-ms-cns-healthy-weight-loss

It’s time to stop putting our ambitions on the back burner and find our true passions. 

Samrah Kazmi is an entrepreneur, trend hunter, and startup advisor in the fintech industry and shares her thoughts on staying true to yourself and your passions in your professional life. It’s so easy for us to lose our true nature in the working world, and we often lose focus while climbing the corporate ladder instead of pursuing who we really want to be. 

The key to building the confidence to chase our dreams is disentangling our identities from our work accomplishments. You must change your mindset and appreciate who you are outside of your titles and professional milestones so you can learn to live with passion and enthusiasm. No corporate labels can trump your own badass identity!
Show Notes:⬆️ Samrah’s career path: we sometimes go up the corporate ladder or a particular path at the detriment of our ambitions and aspirations. 03:27👔 Women often lack confidence and audacity and tend to be more people-pleasing, while men are more straightforward. 07:08🔶 Samrah lacked female mentors so now she makes sure to be one for others: sometimes you need to go through a particular process to understand what you're capable of and understand your passions. 10:06❣️ It's an unhealthy mindset if you're not impassioned to be who you are: you don't necessarily have to be passionate every day, but you should have a general level of enthusiasm on an ongoing basis. 13:18🟡 Be open-minded during the early part of your career so you can become your own person and disentangle your identity. 16:50📊 Samrah went through multiple layoffs: you should constantly think ahead - be a trend hunter. 21:26✅ Identifying future trends takes away an enormous element of uncertainty and anxiety. 25:22🤗 Appreciate yourself: Reflecting back on our wins and accomplishments helps us to continue to be even moderately productive. 27:49🌷 Samrah quit corporate and does things on her own because she is confident that no corporate identity could trump her identity. 30:09
Links:
👉 Connect with Samrah: https://samrahkazmi.com
🎯 Lose Weight for the Last Time: https://wynweightloss.kartra.com/page/lose-weight-for-the-last-time
🌼 "With Your Nature" Wellness & Weight Loss Blog: https://wynweightloss.com/blog
😍 Connect with Jill: www.linkedin.com/in/jill-cruz-ms-cns-healthy-weight-loss