“You do have a choice in life to take that one small step and know that you are inherently worthwhile and valuable. And when you believe that, you’ll do everything possible to live a life that you love.” –Dr. Lori Shemek
“To eat or not to eat,” is NOT the question. The term diet has been overused but is often misunderstood. What you eat is really the issue. Your choices are so crucial in maintaining homeostasis in your body. Everybody wants to have an optimal health, age well and live long. Researches shed light on why we should think a hundredfold before listening to our sweet tooth. Today’s podcast gives you a list of the things you need to avoid and start doing NOW!
Listen to the podcast here:
Highlights:
03:38 Choices
11:24 Alone in the Journey
18:17 Shaped by Experiences
26:32 Moving Forward
28:00 Toxic Sugar
35:16 Diet for Your Mind and Body
38:41 Targeted Supplementation
Resources:
Expectation Therapy: Mastering Your Expectations by Art Costello
Quotes:
“We all have a story and there’s a reason why we all do what we’re doing, whether we like it or not.” –Dr. Lori Shemek
“It really is our choices that make the difference. One small change can have a powerful domino effect in everybody’s life, not just yours.” –Dr. Lori Shemek
“I think it really is a matter of how we choose, and how we expect. Because if we always expect things to work out, we tend to look at everything, all the events that our life is learning and experiences.” –Art Costello
“Those epiphanies are the precursor to our expectations.” –Art Costello
“You do have a choice in life to take that one small step and know that you are inherently worthwhile and valuable. And when you believe that, you’ll do everything possible to live a life that you love.” –Dr. Lori Shemek
Sugar can be toxic! So, before you grab your next twinkies, engage in this sweet conversation with @myexpectation and @LoriShemek #Choices #experiences #diet #sugar #targetedsupplement #agewell #livelong #qualitylife Click To Tweet
Trancriptions:
ART COSTELLO: Welcome to the Shower Epiphanies podcast. Today my guest is Dr. Lori Shemek, the best-selling author of Fire-Up Your Fat Burn! and How to Fight FATflammation!. I’m trying not to slay that word flat inflammation , but she’s leading health and weight loss expert is also now known as the inflammation terminator. She has made it her mission to help clients lose weight, educate the public on the toxic effects of certain foods and lifestyle choices and how they create inflammation in the body resulting in weight gain and leading authority on inflammation and its role in weight loss, preventing disease and optimizing health. The Huffington post has recognized that condition as twice as the top 16 health and fitness expert alongside such name as Dr. Oz, David Zinczenko author of Eat This, Not That! and the Huffington post has also recognized her as one of the top 35 diet nutrition experts. Lori, is a regular health contributor to Fox News, she is also a health expert for the ABC, TV show, Good morning, Texas. Dr Shemek a doctorate in psychology she is a certified nutritional consultant and a certified life coach. She has been featured on numerous radio talk shows as well as TV shows. She has been interviewed and Ladies Home Journal, Shape magazine, Woman’s Day magazine, Health magazine, Eye Village, Yahoo, Live Strong, CNN, Fox News, Ricki lake show, friends of Ricki Lake and many others. Lori, has authored numerous articles and is actively doing speaking engagement, engagements and events large and small. Thank you for being with us today, Dr. Shemek.
LORI: Well thank you so much for that introduction. That’s very kind of you, nice to be here Art, finally.
ART COSTELLO: –Finally.
LORI: Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah, you’re a, you’re probably one of the, a few people that I’ve trusted with my health stuff that goes on and you know that I, I text you often about stuff with sugar.
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: And sugar is, is really culprit in inflammation. But before we go there, I want, I want you want to tell your story.
LORI: Sure, sure. You know, we all have a story, right? And there’s a reason were, we all do what we’re doing, whether we like it or not. But my story really goes back to my mother and she was a single mother and she was raising three of us and I was the oldest and I had two younger brothers. And unfortunately my mother, you know, she had a constant string of different health conditions constantly. And I often remember walking into her dark room, seeing her laying there suffering and you know, and it broke my heart and I didn’t, I did not know what to do because I was so young, but I knew intuitively that she could make different choices. And so, you know, my mother, she was very overweight ordering on obese. She smoked a pack and a half of cigarettes a day, sugar was the focus of her diet. She was under enormous stress you can imagine raising three young children right on your own without any help from anybody. She was a strange from her family.
“We all have a story and there's a reason why we all do what we're doing, whether we like it or not.” –Dr. Lori Shemek Click To Tweet
ART COSTELLO: –Mm.
LORI: And, you know, I never saw my grandparents or I think a couple times in my life had I ever seen them. And she did not have a husband. We had little money to live on. We were often hungry you know, I remember just eating grass and, and flowers and dog food even because we didn’t have enough money to eat and so, you know, the struggles are real. My mother’s choices and men were horrible and so, you know, it was pretty much I became the substitute mother for my two younger brothers. And, uh, that meant that I was taking care of them I would protect my mother because I didn’t want her to suffer any more than she was suffering. So any of the problems that were brewing with them were not addressed early, right. Because she never found out about these things and so as time went on, my mother’s health began to dwindle, began to dwindle and dwindle. And she died at the very young age of 36, leaving behind three young children with literally nowhere to go. And so it, you know, I just, and I always emphasize choice when I talk to people because it really is our choices that make the difference. One small change can have a powerful domino effect in everybody’s life, not just yours. So my mother is not alone though there are so many people that feel like this is their lot in life, this is the hand they’ve been dealt. So they throw their hands up in the air and they say, it’s not in the cards for me, but that’s not true. And there’s always hope and there’s always change available, choices are key. And so my brothers and I never, we were separated and we never lived together again. They found my father and my well, one of my brothers went to go live with him. I went to go live with my grandparents that I never knew hardly. And then my other brother, youngest brother went to go live with a family friend’s daughter and so that was that. And that is why I do what I do because I was always interested in health. And it was funny because you know, my mother was in the nursing industry and she had a ton of medical books and health books. And so you could just see me as a young girl just perusing those books, right. That was my entertainment and she just walked by and shake her head. But you know, and it, so that, you know, I always had an interest in health. It doesn’t mean that I always chose healthy foods by any stretch of the imagination and, but that’s my mother. It was at her memorial service that I decided what I wanted to do with my life for the most part. I knew I wanted to help others make different choices, better choices, and I wanted to make them, I wanted them to understand that they have choice to make because again, so many people don’t feel like they have choice. And so that’s been my mission and it’s, it’s all because of my mother. I dedicated my last book to her because she was really a great example of people that, you know, try really hard, but they’re not looking on the other side, right they’re not looking on the flip side, which is what can my life look like? It was, it was very entrenched in the sickness.
“It really is our choices that make the difference. One small change can have a powerful domino effect in everybody's life, not just yours.” –Dr. Lori Shemek Click To Tweet
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. What amazes me is how similar some things are in our backgrounds in mine and yours, –
LORI: –Oh, wow.
ART COSTELLO: -because I grew up, when I grew up, well, when I was from born until I was nine, –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -my parents moved to a, a very rural area from the city. And my mom and dad split up and my mom had to go work and she left us on this farm and we had no neighbors within three miles. And, and we had, I had to take care of my sister and we fended for ourselves. And we, –
LORI: — Oh no.
ART COSTELLO: -we used to have a truck that used to come down the road. And this is in the 50’s –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -we had a truck that came down the road and he was a bread truck and he had all these pastries on, on there.
LORI: –And don’t, didn’t that smell good if you ever got close enough, –
ART COSTELLO: –because –
LORI: –I remember those bread trucks and wonder bread trucks. Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. And when you’re hungry.
LORI: –Oh yeah.
ART COSTELLO: As we were, this gentleman that had that root decided he was gonna set us up on where we could get things off the truck and then he would bill my mom at the end of the month. And my sister and I used to eat junk food we didn’t buy good stuff, you know, or it gets good stuff off him we used to buy the junk food.
LORI: –Most kids don’t.
ART COSTELLO: Host is –
LORI: –Left to their own.
ART COSTELLO: Twinkies or whatever they were.
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: I don’t remember, but we bought them. And I honestly believe with me, that’s where my sugar addiction started. Because before that we, we didn’t have a lot to eat but what we did have a lot of is because we raised some cattle on, on our place. We always butchered a, a hog and, and a calf or veal and a cow for, for, you know, stay in. I ate tongue. I mean, I, –
LORI: –Oh yeah, so did, we did too, yeah.
ART COSTELLO: So I loved all that, the meat so, and then to have the sugar introduced, I believe it really messed us up because my sister on the other hand and when she became older, became a severe diabetic and has had massive health issues, but I –
LORI: –Oh wow.
ART COSTELLO: But I think a lot of it goes back a lot too. Um, and when you were speaking, I was thinking about how you overcame all of this and you’ve become a PHD, you’re on TV, radio. Your expectations must have really been focused and you know, did you have intuitiveness about it, about what you wanted to do and how you want to do it? Did you ever think about your expectations or even have Epiphanies like I talk in the show, you know, have opinion about what you wanted to do. And if you did, how did you have him, you know, did, did you daydream outside on a hillside or sit in a chair and, and fantasize –
LORI: –No.
ART COSTELLO: -stuff you were reading?
LORI: You know, um, I hate to disappoint you, but no, you know, I’m one of those few people that I honestly, it didn’t come to me really until I was in my twenties what I wanted to like, you know, what the, the kind of impact I wanted to make and the, the type of career I wanted to have. I went into psychology counseling psychology because as I said, you know, I wanted to help people and help them make different choices and, but my love for health brought me back to school. So I went back and got my nutritional certification degree and, and then I did that for a while and then created my own company, which has health works and, so that’s, that’s how that started. But, you know, it’s interesting. It’s, you know, my mother, she never, you know, ask me, what do you want to do with your life? What do you do? You want to be a fire woman or you know, anything like that. But, you know, I just, you know, so it was pretty much, I was left to my own devices. She wasn’t available, and so that there was no push you know, I remember even the SAT’s in school, you know, my friend, my best friend was taking them. I said, what are you doing Saturday? She goes, Oh, well I’m taking the sats and I’m going, Oh, you are? She says, you’re not. And I said, no. Uh, she said Sh, I said, should I be? And so that’s how we were just, my brothers and I were really left to our own devices. We didn’t have anybody there to really take care of us and I have to say too, that when my mother was, well, during those few times, she wasn’t there okay. So it was pretty much the three of us, my brothers and I.
ART COSTELLO: –Yeah, I can –
LORI: And, yeah. So, you know, I ended up going with my friend to take the SAT’s and took em, thank God for her. But, you know so it’s really when you have an absent parent, whether the parent really is still there or whether there, they’re literally absent. Um, it’s hard for the children in many ways and the ramifications are seen later in adult life. But in my case, I think I have, I was born with inability to not…really focus on it too much. It’s more about moving forward in life and I’ve always been that way, you know, I’ve never been what now my brother’s a different story. He, uh, was a very angry about not having a father and about not having a close relationship with his mother. So there’s a whole with me, it was like more I love my mother, you know, I don’t know who my father is. I do now, but I didn’t then and it was okay with me, you know, it was just the way I was, I guess.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah, I understand it because, uh, with –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -myself, I, I was pretty much the same way. You know, my parents, uh, my dad was away and he used to come home maybe one day a week, uh, and, –
LORI: –Oh wow.
ART COSTELLO: -and then go back out and work at a town. But, uh, I had played baseball all my life up until I was nine years old at long life ahead until nine. And then when we went to the farm, I had no one to play with them. What my refuge became for me is I went to the top of the hill and laid and had these conversations with God and the universe about what was going to become a me. And I heard this voice just said, you know, your job was to be faithful and just keep doing the right things. And that became, after many trips up that hill, that became my mantra. I mean, I lived by it, I believe –
LORI: –Wow.
ART COSTELLO: -and I have believed that all my life. And I went in at 17 when I graduated from high school, I went in the Marines and got the discipline and the structure that I needed in my life. So I know how I got mine uh, in my comparison is my brother and sister. My brother was older, eight years older and my sister is two years younger and my sister has all these physical issues. They’ve never left the area where we grow up my brother passed away last year from brain cancer.
LORI: –Oh, I’m so sorry.
ART COSTELLO: Uh, it –
LORI: –Was it Glioma?
ART COSTELLO: No. What happened was, is they think that he had prostate cancer and it metastasized-
LORI: –Okay.
ART COSTELLO: -into his liver and kidneys and then just everywhere and got into his brain.
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: But you know, my brother, uh, God love him I loved him, but he’s, he was, I don’t want to say he was angry, but he, he didn’t have filters –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -in the things that he did and said he’s married numerous times, always in relationships and you know, I mean, just one thing after the other and it just, he was so hard working and he worked himself three and four jobs. I mean, so he was really, really driven that way, which really up my sister and brother and I both were, we got a good work ethic from somebody in our family. But one of the things when you were talking that I was reminded of when I was in high school, it was so bad for us that I went to high school and when I was a freshman and I asked one of the prettiest girls in school if she would go to school, dance with me, and she said to me, I wouldn’t go anywhere with you because you stink –
LORI: –Aah?
ART COSTELLO: -and I will never go anywhere with you and it devastated me.
LORI: –Oh yeah.
ART COSTELLO: And I went and talk, talk to a friend, one of the few friends I had in high school, and he said our, I mean, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about it. Hasn’t anyone ever told you about deodorant? My parents never even told us about the odor.
LORI: –Oh, that is so sad. Oh my goodness.
ART COSTELLO: They never put any expectations on for our health and fitness or our –
LORI: –Social so that you’re socially acceptable.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. Anything –
LORI: –Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: -anything like that. And I know that they love this and I know that they cared about us. They were just, I don’t want to say, I hate using the word, they were ignorant, but they were socially ignorant maybe?
LORI: That’s a good way to put it right they just didn’t know any better.
ART COSTELLO: They didn’t know [inaudible]. I think they, they knew personally, socially, they didn’t know how to transfer the information that they had in their head to their children. They never –
LORI: –Yeah, and that’s really a great of so many people, you know, parents out there, they’re really trying to do the right thing, but they just don’t know, they don’t know any better.
ART COSTELLO: That is true. So, you know, those kinds of things really. When I got ones up on that hill and I started to believe and have faith that everything was always gonna work out and it, –
LORI: –Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: It’s always been that way all my life I’ve –
LORI: –That’s how it, it’s has been with me too and I always felt like everything’s gonna be fine, you know.
ART COSTELLO: No matter what we do, it’s always gonna –
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: -I mean, Vietnam was that way with me. The death of my wife, Vicki, of 35 years when she passed away from ovarian cancer, I fell apart for three, three years. But after I laid back down a long at the ranch and looked into the sky and heard the voice say to me again, get up, get done, and I’ve given you all the tools and so many good things have come at it at that, you know? I mean, –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -there are so many positive things and I think it really is a matter of of how we choose and how we expect. Because if we always expect things to work out, we tend to look at everything, all the events that our life has learning experiences.
“I think it really is a matter of how we choose, and how we expect. Because if we always expect things to work out, we tend to look at everything, all the events that our life is learning and experiences.” –Art Costello Click To Tweet
LORI: I love that, and that’s why you wrote that book, correct?
ART COSTELLO: That is correct. That is expectation therapy came out of those events of my life and that I look at everything as a learning experience moving –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -us forward to get to where we are. What’s the worst thing about any of that is if you don’t learn and you keep making the same mistakes.
LORI: Right, exactly. I’ve done that.
ART COSTELLO: Well, I think we all do it to some degree, –
LORI: –Yeah, right.
ART COSTELLO: But you know when you, when you make the same mistake over and over again, there’s some, –
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: -something going on.
LORI: –Something, yeah your right.
ART COSTELLO: But that’s, that’s about, you know, our backgrounds are so similar.
LORI: Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: –And –
LORI: They are, you know, it’s it, but I knew that about you are you, you’re just seem, you seem like a very, I always have a sense about people and you know, I get a feeling of there their sensitivity and their authenticity. If that’s such an overused word though. But you know what I’m trying to say, right? That there’s some sort of feeling that I get about people that I can tell that have most people who are very kind and sensitive. And I mean it in only the most powerful sense I have had a background where they’ve had to endure and then overcome. And so –
ART COSTELLO: You know were, were I noticed it. I went, I went to Croatia, I was in Croatia and you know, in 1990 they had the Bosnian probation war.
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: All this stuff that went on over there. And that was one of the things that I noticed about that is that people that have lived through traumatic experiences of war, death of some sort you know, can be, parents can be any kind but, –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -lived through that has a heightened sense of the value of our lives.
LORI: Yes.
ART COSTELLO: How thin the line is, –
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: -between living and dying. It’s such a thin line and I think we choose to, to we make a conscious choice in our head that says, okay, I’m gonna throw all that fear aside about nine because I want to live. I could still remember in Vietnam saying that.
LORI: Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: You know and wanting to live in want, wanting to live to the fullest.
LORI: Right and that’s that determination that, you know, puts some people ahead of others in terms of success in life, you know. But yeah, it’s, you know, I was listening to somebody or I was reading something online somewhere and the, it was a tweet in, the guy said, you know, some people had plans later today and they never made it they died that day. And some people had plans earlier that morning and they just, you know, we’re never able to really do what they had planned on doing you know, so we have plans on having dinner with our loved ones tonight. But that thin line you’re talking about, right?
ART COSTELLO: –Hmm Mm.
LORI: You never know when it’s your time to go and it, but when you have a respect for it and you’ve been through loss in your life, then it changes everything in my opinion. I mean, I learned about loss at a very young age from, uh, very, very, uh, from a toddler and, and then on up. But so it always made me appreciate life and I’m so grateful for it.
ART COSTELLO: It is, it, it, you know, people would be crazy if you said that that was a blessing,
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: But it really is a blessing because you haven’t let it inhibit who Laurie is. You’ve used it to catapult you to becoming a PhD uh, you know, and just an influencer in so many areas. And that’s the, one of the things that always intrigued me is what is that little space where somebody goes to the dark side of things and the other person goes to the light side and sees all the positive and the negative, you know, and not the negatives, –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -the negatives, and none of the positives.
LORI: Yeah it’s in, it’s really interesting, isn’t it? And I sometimes I think it’s, it’s not something, it’s definitely something that we choose, but I also think it’s something that’s innate.
ART COSTELLO: –You know what, let me throw this in.
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: I believe it sets in in the, in our vie, our, uh, view of expectations, how we expect, because I believe that God planted the seed of expectation in every man, woman, and child.
LORI: I agree with that, yes, yeah.
ART COSTELLO: At, at birth.
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: And somewhere along the line in my research, I’ve noticed that we’d see our expectations through two lenses and sometimes it vacillates but one is faith in the other fear. If we see things in fear, of course it stops things. But when we see things in faith, in faith, not always being a religious faith, it can be –
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: -faith in yourself. That can be faith in a mentor, a pastor. I mean, there’s any number of different, I mean, I always tell people there’s as many variations of faith as there is fear because it’s always just [inaudible].
LORI: It’s true, there yeah there was uh, I was interviewing a health expert yesterday on my podcast and she says, you know, she’s, one of the first things you have to address, you, her clients have to address about themselves trying to lose weight is, is their belief in themselves, if they really believe that they deserve it. And if there’s that, that thin person in there, right. You have to have that belief, that faith.
ART COSTELLO: Yup. It’s just the way that we, we view, view our expectations. But in my research, I’ll, I also know that, and this is why I started the Epiphanies podcast, is because I believe that we have a Epiphanies all the time. Some of us have them in showers, some of us w I interviewed a girl this morning on a podcast on my podcast, and she was telling me that her Epiphanies come when she’s blow drying her hair. And she said, is that possible? And I said, you, you telling me? I said, when did. She said, I get this flood of ideas when that warm air is going over my hair and it’s blowing. And I said, that’s when you have your Epiphanies they’re different for everybody.
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: But those Epiphanes are the precursor to our expectations.
“Those epiphanies are the precursor to our expectations.” –Art Costello Click To Tweet
LORI: I love that.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. –
LORI: I love that.
ART COSTELLO: There are the precursor.
LORI: –Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: So, and what happens is most people that have Epiphanies don’t do anything with them.
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: They let them set in their head. Some people move forward with them, and be, they become expectations and they don’t do anything with them. The key to all of it is to do something with them and start living them, moving forward and becoming who you’re meant to be. Because I believe those are true, that’s where you find your authenticity, your, your gratitude, all these things that were named Brown and all the experts talk about, –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: I think are found in that area of the brain where we have these Epiphanies and expectations and they don’t act upon them. An action is what, you know, anything that we think in, in stays in our head is merely a thought. But anything we act upon becomes an action that we take and move forward. It always is, moves moving us forward.
LORI: Right? And then we activate that reticular activating system in our brain, the RA’s, and that keeps the, it’s like a snowball effect.
ART COSTELLO: Right. And it just keeps us going and moving and, and doing things, which gets me to a point.
LORI: –Hmm.
ART COSTELLO: What do, what do you feel the effects of sugar are on the brain?
LORI: Oh, detrimental really toxic. And you know, I just recently took the 23 and me DNA test and they, you know, they’re like, you know, do you, you’re, they want your permission before they show you your tests of breast cancer or Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s and a, I forgot what the other one was. And I’m like, do I want to know? You know? So I, uh, I tested positive for having one copy of the, yeah, the Apoe four, right? Which is for Alzheimer’s. And so, you know, many people have two copies, which means you have a higher percentage of getting it. But even with that, if you have one, you have two, it doesn’t mean you’re gonna get it. It just means you’re at a higher risk. And so the people that seem to be most at risk are those with diabetes and the those, uh, also who have diets that are really high in processed, refined foods like sugar, right? Sugar and white flour and what happens is there’s a process, and this isn’t the only reason, there’s there, it’s a complex issue, but there are other reasons which I can get into, but one reason is called glycation. So when we eat sugar, we changed the nature and the structure of the tissues in our body. And this means that they stiffen, okay? It’s called crosslinking. And that means that’s not just in happening in the brain where this, the tissues are changing, it’s happening throughout the body. Wherever you’re most vulnerable, it’s going to probably set up there and that even affects skin. So it’s like a, it’s also called caramelization of bodily tissue. So if you, you know, you’ve seen how you take a piece of steak and a caramelizes turns dark brown on one side before you flip it over, right?
ART COSTELLO: –Right.
LORI: Well that’s an example of caramelization and it’s called the browning effect. And that same effect is happening in the brain when people are eating an excess amount of this. Even a little bit of sugar causes this glycation reaction. And I produce something called ages advanced glycation end products, right? So apple, name ages because it’s a, it’s aging. It’s, you know, like I said, it’s causing sagging and wrinkling skin and other age related diseases and illnesses. So the other issue that goes along with this type of food, if you can call it that, is spiking your insulin. And when that happens too much, uh, you get to the, the brain essentially isn’t able to take hold of insulin and you know, insulin is, it’s like the key to a lock, if you will, to the neurons and it delivers the glucose, the brain loves glucose. But eventually the cells, they have too much glucose going on and become resistant to insulin’s effects. It’s kind of like, you know, insulin’s knocking at the door of the cell and the cell stops answering the door completely. So they’re thinking that Alzheimer’s is a type of type three diabetes. It’s more complicated than I’m saying here, but you know, suffice it to say that sugar is one of the major contributors to Alzheimer’s disease.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah, yeah. You know, one of the things that I’d like to add to that is a lot of people think eating sugar is the culprit. I happen to believe with soft drinks that people drink sugar.
LORI: Oh yes, absolutely. Right.
ART COSTELLO: Just to give you an example, I told you about my sister and her medical issues, –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -my sister and her and her husband, right so much diet Pepsi, –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -that it just floors me. My sister has Scleroderma, she’s a diabetic, she has major issues, skin issues, you know, because of the Scleroderma and all the other things.
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: And Oh, she continues to drink I have tried to get her to drink water, they do not drink water. They drink nothing but diet Pepsi.
LORI: It’s addictive. I, I, –
ART COSTELLO: –Yeah.
LORI: -she’s not alone, –
ART COSTELLO: –No.
LORI: -you know, they’re not alone. I mean, the majority of my clients are either addicted to diet soda or they’re addicted to soda, the mid, I would say 99% of them. And so it’s really, you know, to get them to do, that’s why coaches and consulting and you know, these types of people helping you in your life are really important because some doing it on your own is hard. You know, it’s, it’s, it takes, sometimes it takes two.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. And that’s why I thank you because you know, I read your book, you sent me your book flat inflammation.
LORI: –Thank you,
ART COSTELLO: And you know, I was having the knee issues and all the joint issues and all that kind of stuff and the fogginess in the brain and all that.
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: And I want people to know that if you start changing your diet, you actually can reverse some of these problems that –
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: -has.
LORI: And you know, yeah. And that’s really a great point without medication, right? You can start reducing the pain, you can start reducing the toxic, what, the visible toxic effects and then obviously the invisible toxic effects that are going on.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah,I’m 71 years old, I’ll be 72 this year and I do not take any medication.
LORI: –That’s great, that is so fantastic Art. Yeah, you’re rocking it.
ART COSTELLO: You know, I mean, but it’s a constant battle. I mean, –
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: This timing –
LORI: –Oh well, in this time of life, you know, once you hit, I would say your late forties, but really once you hit your 50s things start to slide and let you know you’ve got it. You have to make sure that you’re staying up to, you know, because the metabolism slows. It doesn’t have to, but if you’re, you know, it’s a really good time to start, you know, keeping fit and it doesn’t matter what age you start, but better earlier than later. And I’m taking care of stop the sugar because obviously that’s going to age you quicker. It’s going to cause joint pain and health issues and whatnot. Uh, but yeah, so the earlier the better. But once, you know, I would say once you get into your 50’s, you know, things start to go downhill unless you’re staying one step ahead.
ART COSTELLO: No one ever believes I’m 71. I mean, really. I mean, they, they don’t, they just don’t believe it, you know? And I’m blessed I guess with that but –
LORI: –Did your parents look young? Do you have, is it genetic? Partly.
ART COSTELLO: Um, no um, my mother was very obese. Um, but both of my parents lived long lives. My Dad lived at think it was 88 and my mom was –
LORI: –Wow.
ART COSTELLO: -87. It is –
LORI: –That is wonderful.
ART COSTELLO: You know, so they both –
LORI: –Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: -during the lifestyle they live because they smoked, they drank.
LORI: –Right.
ART COSTELLO: You know, they say –
LORI: –Can imagine.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah, but that’s why I keep saying I’m gonna live to be 130.
LORI: –Yes, I know it’s true. You know my grandmother, she just, she just passed away in March and she was 104 –
ART COSTELLO: –I remember.
LORI: -and it, she, I’m not kidding you. I said when she was 90, I said, grandma, I said, just, exercise a little bit. Just move your body just a little bit, you know, every day. And she says, honey, if the good Lord me to move at this age, I’d be moving. So that was the end of that conversation. But you know, think about if she had done some things differently, she would have been around longer and had a better quality of life in the end.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. It’s just amazing. I mean, you know, our diet is so important to, to our overall not only our physical health, but our mental health.
LORI: Yeah. It really is. You know, the world would be a much nicer place. We wouldn’t have, you know, angry drivers and you wouldn’t get angry at drivers as much. You know, if we had the right neurotransmitters floating around.
ART COSTELLO: –Oh men.
LORI: You know I’m telling you if people ate right and they stopped eating the junk that they’re eating, uh, they yeah.
ART COSTELLO: I thought it was we were going to have to build more freeways.
LORI: Yeah. We might just to put the bad drivers there.
ART COSTELLO: Well, I just was reading an article about global warming and that the scientists at Harvard, you know, just came out with it. He doesn’t believe that global warming is a real issue, what the real issue is overpopulation. That we actually have become so populated on earth that the weight of all these human beings in their buildings and everything else has shifted the axis of the earth.
LORI: Oh, that’s an interesting perspective.
ART COSTELLO: Boy, it really is.
LORI: –Wow I’ve never heard that.
ART COSTELLO: And they, he’s backing it up with actual data on how the access of the earth is changing. But the good thing about it is that he said it’s gonna take about 50,000 years before we all kill ourselves, accesses we go into a deep freeze and it’ll be so cold, we’ll you know just be gone but you know.
LORI: Right.
ART COSTELLO: So unless –
LORI: –That’s interesting, Art.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. Unless we accelerate our birth rate again.
LORI: Right. Which we may, you never know. But yeah, I think, you know, it’s very, very important for people to take good care of their health. You know, I do that, you know, I feel that way and you know, whatever you can do, it’s even, you know, if it’s just taking, you know, like you just, you know, adding some Broccoli sprouts or you know, some type of sprouts or adding some leafy Greens to one meal in your day, it’s going to have a huge effect on your cellular health. And that’s really what it’s dow, what it boils down to is your cell health?
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. I’m pretty fortunate with being able to, I do change very easily.
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: I always say that I work on the all or none principle that either I go all in or all I’m all out.
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: But with my eating and stuff like that, I, I actually enjoyed vegetables. I love them, call it out flower Broccoli, avocado, –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: I mean, those are all favorites of mine. Lean meats and fish, I’m just big on and you know.
LORI: Will you have it, you have it down pat then. That’s pretty much what it is, you know? And there’s also I believe in targeted supplementation depending on certain health conditions and or anti-aging. So if, you know, so the combination of a healthy diet movement in your day, less sitting, more standing. Like right now I’m standing, uh, in this interview and walking just, you know, the combination of all of that is very important. We, especially as we age, it is crucial that we keep our muscles strong and we keep our muscle mass intact. So that’s just something else that I think really needs to be said. A lot of people don’t realize that, you know, day by day they are losing muscle mass and it starts in our late twenties, but becomes huge. It becomes, you know, I’m just, what’s the word? Uh, just in an avalanche if you will, of loss after the age of 45. So, uh, it’s very important for people to keep it because it’s our muscles that keep us active, upright, independent when we’re older. But it also boosts our metabolism. It reduces, um if you’re actively doing strength training or resistance training in any form, it’s reducing your blood pressure. It’s promoting a better insulin sensitivity, which is a key marker of optimal health. And you know, and it’s anti-aging.
ART COSTELLO: How about cholesterol?
LORI: Cholesterol? Uh, now there’s two different camps and there’s all sorts of fights all the time about this between experts, right? Cardiologists, a top cardiologists in fact. And so there’s one camp that says, you know, you can eat all the saturated fat you want and all of the cholesterol you want. And then there’s the other camp that says, don’t do that because you know, your, you’re going to occlude your arteries.
ART COSTELLO: –Hmm Mm.
LORI: And so um there is quality research out there showing that cholesterol, dietary cholesterol has a negligible effect on our blood, okay in our, in our, uh, lev in a level in our blood. So you know, you can eat eggs and you’ll see just as a smidge rise in LDL, okay. But then there is a group of people too that need to be very careful and it’s a genetic condition and it’s called familial hypercholesterolemia and it’s a defect in a gene that they’ve inherited and it, it happens to about 10% of our population and, uh, they have dramatically high cholesterol levels. And so there, uh, they’re required not to eat any cholesterol in their diet because they’re bo, your liver can’t get rid of it you know.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. I must be pretty lucky because my cholesterol levels have always, always, no matter what, my diet was –
LORI: –Hmm Mm.
ART COSTELLO: -very low. Matter of fact, some doctors have said to me, it’s too low. You gotta you gotta –
LORI: –That could be a problem too.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah.
LORI: Too Low.
ART COSTELLO: Like it runs around 1/19, 1/20 you know.
LORI: Okay.
ART COSTELLO: Which is more –
LORI: –Yeah,
ART COSTELLO: -low.
LORI: –Right. It is. Well, what is your HDL? Do you remember?
ART COSTELLO: Um, it’s good. I know that.
LORI: Okay. That’s all we need to know.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah, yeah as I always –
LORI: –And I know. I remember you said your triglycerides were good as well, so, –
ART COSTELLO: –Yup, yup.
LORI: –Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: Yup, yup. Yeah.
LORI: So those, if those two markers are good, you’re good.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. We already knew I was good but, –
LORI: –Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: But anyway, we’re nearing the end of our time together, which I hate, but.
LORI: Yeah, it was such fun talking to you, connecting with you finally.
ART COSTELLO: Yeah. Is there anything that you can leave our audience with that you’d like to leave our audience with before we say goodbye?
LORI: Yes. I would love for anyone listening to know that you do have a choice in life, to take that one small step and uh, know that you are inherently worthwhile and valuable and when you believe that you’ll do everything possible to live a life that you love.
“You do have a choice in life to take that one small step and know that you are inherently worthwhile and valuable. And when you believe that, you'll do everything possible to live a life that you love.” –Dr. Lori Shemek Click To Tweet
ART COSTELLO: Where can we find out about Dr. Lori?
LORI: Well, you can find me at drlorishemek.com or you can find me on Facebook and Twitter I post every day health tips. So nutrition, health, sleep, fitness. Anything to make your life healthier. And on Facebook, I’m Dr. Lori Shemek and on Twitter I’m Lori Shemek and I’m on Instagram as Lori Shemek as well.
ART COSTELLO: Thank you for being with us today and –
LORI: –Thank you.
ART COSTELLO: It’s been a pleasure and I always enjoy talking with you and you always leave me with such good tips on my health.
LORI: Oh well, you know, I enjoy it. So just uh, appreciate you my friend.
ART COSTELLO: Yep. You’ve been a blessing in my life too, Lori.
LORI: –Same here. Yeah.
ART COSTELLO: Well let’s, let’s say goodbye and –
LORI: –Goodbye.
ART COSTELLO: Bye. Bye everybody.
LORI: Bye everybody.
About Dr. Lori Shemek
Known by her title, ‘Inflammation Terminator’, Dr. Lori Shemek has a good reason for promoting health and weight loss. Orphaned at a young age, she couldn’t wish for more, than for her mom to have made different choices. This incites her burning passion in helping people consider their course of action. Dr. Lori is a leading health and weight loss expert, best-selling author, certified nutritional consultant and certified life coach. People should realize that they are ‘inherently worthy to live their life happily’ and that is her mission.
Connect with Dr. Lori
Website: https://drlorishemek.com/
Email: DrLori@dlshealthworks.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrLoriShemek/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/LoriShemeK/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lorishemek/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lorishemek/
Feed: https://drlorishemek.com/feed/
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