Episode 41: Toxins & Obesogenic Environments With John Rush of Rush to Reason
Have you been dieting for so long but just can’t keep the weight off? You may be doing it the wrong way. Health Strategist Haylie Pomroy is back in the hot seat opposite John Rush to talk about obesogenic environments and more about the correct diet. And this time, she goes into detail on how metabolism, stress, body changes, and natural body chemistry contribute to whether we lose or gain weight. If you are looking for an effective way to achieve your ideal weight or body, don't miss this episode and learn how you can develop correct eating habits and finally get the DIET right while keeping the power on your plate.
---
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Toxins & Obesogenic Environments With John Rush of Rush to Reason
Haylie, welcome back. How are you?
I'm great. Thanks for having me on. We always enjoy each other's time. We have a lot of fun, and we talk about a lot of good things.
I appreciate it. It's great. You are a celebrity nutritionist. You've had many successes. One of them is you're the bestselling author of The Fast Metabolism Diet, which we talked about last time. We're going to start doing this on a monthly basis with you, which I appreciate. For those that may not have heard you the last time you were on, let's start there. What is The Fast Metabolism Diet?
The Fast Metabolism Diet is a very strategic way to fall in love with food and heal your metabolism at the same time. I'm the Assistant Director of Integrative Medicine. In Integrative Medicine, we want to pull all systems together to get them working optimally. When you're talking about your metabolism and your rate of burn, you've got to turn towards food, not away from food.
We all think the opposite of that. We're like, "If I want to lose weight, then I got to quit eating. Do away with food, and don't eat. Because I'm taking in fewer calories, I'll lose weight." We've all seen these particular survival shows and so on where they're not eating anything. Over time, your body is going to use whatever it has to absorb that and keep you alive, but that's not the healthy way to do it. Is it?
It isn't. I was in this amazing medical biochemistry class where we were working on how terrible it's been this whole fasting and keto movement is slowing the rate of burn for the future. A lot of people will lose weight upfront, but as soon as they start eating again, it slows the resting metabolic rate and wreak havoc. It's crazy because you can get research to say anything in sports and human nutrition.
When you're talking about your metabolism and your rate of burn, you've got to turn toward food and not away from food.
Food is where it's at. In my programs, I use food very strategically to feel the mechanisms associated with burning food for fuel but also burning historical fat for fuel. We talked a lot about hormones and inflammation. It is so important. We talk about gut. We talk about ghrelin and leptin, the hormones that regulate hunger and the hormones that regulate feeling full and satiated because it's so important. When we have gained weight, there's a hormone cascade that happens. We're pro-inflammatory.
Our ghrelin and leptin are off, and our bodies are primed for weight gain. You've got to do something to flip that switch. All of my approaches are very prescriptive. They're very therapeutic. Most importantly, they are very healthy. They're also sustainable. When you do something that is some crazy fad yo-yo diet, it's hard to sustain, and it's also built on abstaining. People can't go out to eat when they're on this crazy diet.
If you do, you're ordering water and something that's hardly even cooked and no dressing and all these different factors that come into play. You can tell that I've been down that path more than once, so I know what you mean. It's very hard to go out and eat when you're dieting.
I don't know about you, but I've had a margarita fall in my mouth before. When that happened, I looked at it as an athletic event. I go, "How can I prime my body to burn through that? How can I prime my body to not store it?" As you mentioned, I have my celebrity clients, my professional athlete clients, or my clients that are not well and traveling across the United States to find prescriptive therapies that can get them well.
We feed everybody like an athlete, especially the person who has gained weight. We've got to treat their body very strategically. In our community, we run twice-a-month challenges because I take people through the process of cleansing and detoxing. It doesn't only mean your body. It also means maybe your pantry or underneath your kitchen sink. Maybe your cosmetics. These are all obesogens.
You said a word I don't know I've heard before, obesogen. What is that?
They are chemicals that are known to proliferate adipocytes or fat cells. They're fat-soluble toxins that cascade or create a cascade of hormones that have the body store or increase the growth of fat cells. Oftentimes, we worry about what's in our fridge or what's on the plate when we go out to dinner, but we forget that 20% to 25% of weight loss is not about what you put in your mouth at all. It's about what you put on your body, what you breathe, and what you're sleeping on.
We know that in the professional athlete world. When we're working with an NBA or an NFL star, we're looking at their toothpaste, their mouthwash, and their bedding. All these things are because we know that 25% of our environmental influences affect our metabolic rate, the ability to build muscle, to get cut, and to get ripped. It's the same concept when a person is metabolically out of balance, and they have a propensity towards weight gain. It should not be easier to gain weight than it is to lose weight.
Why is it?
In my community, we fix the why. You've got to fix the why. We're the only species that use the word diet in content that does not mean to perform. You create a diet for your dog so that the dog's coat and skin are better. They'll have tartar on their teeth. I worked with the Denver Zoo in Nebraska, the division of wildlife. We're creating a diet. It's to enhance longevity, flexibility, mobility, the skin, the coat, and all of those things.
You have to eat to correct your metabolic rate.
We talk about diet in humans. We talk about reframing. I try DIET, which means, "Did I Eat Today to achieve whatever it is?" You might be eating in a way that promotes weight gain. There could be that. If I'm doing 2 or 3 pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, that might be conducive to putting on a couple of pounds. I should be able to cut it back from 3 pints to 1 pint and drop a little bit of weight. If that's not happening, we've got to fix the why. If it's easy for you to lose weight, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and those silly little tricks when you're not in metabolic dysfunction, you know you're okay.
We maybe have 1 drink, not 2 at night, and you're going to drop weight. If that's not the case for you, we've got to take time and look at your metabolism. We have to feed you to correct your metabolic rate, especially those people that gained weight two times in their lives, either in adolescence or during menopause. Those are two major hormone-shifting events in our life. The third would be during pregnancy when people have a hard time. I have a client. She came to see me at 56, and her intake form was she was ready to lose the baby weight. She had her kids at 28. What she's telling me is, "Somewhere, my rate of burn got hijacked." I'll tell you what. We were able to get it back.
I'm that same individual. As I told you, I lost over 100 pounds back in 2010. I did a good job at keeping everything off all the way through. Even at the beginning of COVID, I did pretty well. It seems like as I got to that 56 to 57 mark of age, it doesn't matter what I do getting those 30 pounds or so off. The reality is, in taking them off, you have to starve yourself to do it. I understand what people are out there thinking, and I don't want to do that.
I'm going to throw something that's crazy out there. In my world, the more you need to lose, the more you need to eat.
Some of that I remember from when I lost all the weight back in 2010. I was not hungry ever because I was eating enough to keep my metabolism going. That was a whole idea. I understand fully what you're talking about. I also know what you're talking about in regard to those life changes that come along, and this is where folks like you come into play. You need some professional help to help you get through life changes.
Have you done our 7-Day Jumpstart?
I have not. I ordered it. I'm in line to get it, and I understand things now. Let's say that I'm impatient because I understand everything that happens in the world along those lines, so it's not a big deal.
I'll do it with you. We have a 7-Day Jumpstart, and a 10-Day Cleanse. The thing is, it's all about creating these grocery lists, creating foods we do use. We don't have to, but you can. I use therapeutically infused shakes for some parts of some of the programs. You don't have to at all, but I have an autoimmune disorder. I had a rare blood disease.
Fortunately for me, I'm the opposite. I have no issues other than taking weight off. Health-wise, I don't have any other issues. I don't have high blood pressure, diabetes, or cholesterol. I'm good across the board. I just can't get the stinking 30 pounds off.
We look at it like this. There's the endocrine system which regulates all of the hormones, the sex hormones, the feel-good, and the thought hormones. We also have the structure. A lot of times we talk about structure, we think of muscle, unlike bone, teeth, and hair. Our structure is also our muscle-to-fat ratio. There is something that happens in the body. When someone tells me, "I have good metabolic health. I'm not having a lot of pain or inflammation," you're an individual that uses your structure as a path to create stability during imbalance. It can be difficult for weight loss. What we want to do is go in and feed the muscle. We want to tease out the fat. We do that not by starvation. Fat loss in a desperate state means rapid weight gain. Fat loss in what we call a steady state is sustained weight loss.
The more weight you need to lose, the more you need to eat.
I also understand the reality because it's a fact that if you do the wrong things, your body thinks it needs to hang on to every single thing it has, and that's why you don't lose weight.
That's stress. As you said, there are metabolic changes. We'd want to look at the testosterone level, especially getting into our 50s. We'd want to look at blood sugar. Even if you say, "My hemoglobin A1C is awesome. My fourteen-day fasting is average," but if you're using glycogen, which is the sugar that we store in our muscle for fuel, which means if you're storing fat, it's hard to, it means you are efficient at having a bicep sandwich.
You break down your muscle before you break down your belly. We don't want that. We look at some fun testing during our challenges. We do digestive reserve and lemon challenge tests. We do pH testing, but the other thing is we do post-meal blood sugar testing. It's super easy and fun to do. What it tells me is what sources of energy are you going after first? I want you to be going after fat, not just because of weight. It has nothing to do with weight. It has to do with the fact that when you burn fat, it gives you three times more energy than if you burn carbs to keep on muscle.
We're going to have you on so we can continue this journey and talk about it. That's why you're here. For everybody reading, if you're somebody that wants to be involved in all of this, take part in the challenges and the things that are going on. Know that this isn't a commercial. I want people to live healthier lives. Go to HayliePomroy.com. Everything she's talking about is, in my opinion, the more the doctor likes. That's probably why I say that. I apologize, but the reality is you've got to figure it out, which we appreciate very much.
All of our challenges are free. We even have a free fifteen-day membership where you can come in and ask all kinds of questions. I'm there. Our team is there. If you want to do a product with any of the challenges, we always have, as a bonus, a discount for those products. We also have a donor. Talk about free. One of our medical supports at one of the hospitals purchased a whole bunch of hardcover books.
We've sold millions of copies. It's translated into over 40 languages. If you go onto the website, the shipping is $9. If you want to check it out, get the book for free. This isn't a commercial. Get the book for free. Join another thing for free. I want to change the language around fasting and keto. We have to be proud of what we're putting on our plates. We have to put power on our plates. With everything that's going on, we have got to nourish ourselves.
I appreciate you. We're going to have you on a monthly basis. We've got Haylie. We've got The Fast Metabolism Diet. We have her booked all the way through the end of 2022. That will be a continual journey. If you want to join in, feel free to do so. Haylie, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
I love it. Next episode, we're going to be talking about our detox process together.
Let's do it. It sounds great to me. I appreciate it very much.
Important Links
About John Rush
John Rush has been hosting live radio since 1998. He is the host of Rush To Reason, Drive-Radio, Fix-It Radio, and Ready-Radio. All of which are on KLZ560 in Denver. John is your ordinary, average American guy with a microphone! With guests, such as congressmen, senators, state representatives, pastors, authors, economists, attorneys, and even fitness experts, John and his call-in audience engage in lively discussions that ultimately put reason back into the issues of today. Over the last 40 years, John has been a business owner and is a successful business coach. During 2020, when many businesses were struggling, all of John’s coaching clients watched their businesses grow. Find John at rushtoreason.com.
Have you been dieting for so long but just can’t keep the weight off? You may be doing it the wrong way. Health Strategist Haylie Pomroy is back in the hot seat opposite John Rush to talk about obesogenic environments and more about the correct diet. And this time, she goes into detail on how metabolism, stress, body changes, and natural body chemistry contribute to whether we lose or gain weight. If you are looking for an effective way to achieve your ideal weight or body, don't miss this episode and learn how you can develop correct eating habits and finally get the DIET right while keeping the power on your plate.
---
Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Toxins & Obesogenic Environments With John Rush of Rush to Reason
Haylie, welcome back. How are you?
I'm great. Thanks for having me on. We always enjoy each other's time. We have a lot of fun, and we talk about a lot of good things.
I appreciate it. It's great. You are a celebrity nutritionist. You've had many successes. One of them is you're the bestselling author of The Fast Metabolism Diet, which we talked about last time. We're going to start doing this on a monthly basis with you, which I appreciate. For those that may not have heard you the last time you were on, let's start there. What is The Fast Metabolism Diet?
The Fast Metabolism Diet is a very strategic way to fall in love with food and heal your metabolism at the same time. I'm the Assistant Director of Integrative Medicine. In Integrative Medicine, we want to pull all systems together to get them working optimally. When you're talking about your metabolism and your rate of burn, you've got to turn towards food, not away from food.
We all think the opposite of that. We're like, "If I want to lose weight, then I got to quit eating. Do away with food, and don't eat. Because I'm taking in fewer calories, I'll lose weight." We've all seen these particular survival shows and so on where they're not eating anything. Over time, your body is going to use whatever it has to absorb that and keep you alive, but that's not the healthy way to do it. Is it?
It isn't. I was in this amazing medical biochemistry class where we were working on how terrible it's been this whole fasting and keto movement is slowing the rate of burn for the future. A lot of people will lose weight upfront, but as soon as they start eating again, it slows the resting metabolic rate and wreak havoc. It's crazy because you can get research to say anything in sports and human nutrition.
When you're talking about your metabolism and your rate of burn, you've got to turn toward food and not away from food.
Food is where it's at. In my programs, I use food very strategically to feel the mechanisms associated with burning food for fuel but also burning historical fat for fuel. We talked a lot about hormones and inflammation. It is so important. We talk about gut. We talk about ghrelin and leptin, the hormones that regulate hunger and the hormones that regulate feeling full and satiated because it's so important. When we have gained weight, there's a hormone cascade that happens. We're pro-inflammatory.
Our ghrelin and leptin are off, and our bodies are primed for weight gain. You've got to do something to flip that switch. All of my approaches are very prescriptive. They're very therapeutic. Most importantly, they are very healthy. They're also sustainable. When you do something that is some crazy fad yo-yo diet, it's hard to sustain, and it's also built on abstaining. People can't go out to eat when they're on this crazy diet.
If you do, you're ordering water and something that's hardly even cooked and no dressing and all these different factors that come into play. You can tell that I've been down that path more than once, so I know what you mean. It's very hard to go out and eat when you're dieting.
I don't know about you, but I've had a margarita fall in my mouth before. When that happened, I looked at it as an athletic event. I go, "How can I prime my body to burn through that? How can I prime my body to not store it?" As you mentioned, I have my celebrity clients, my professional athlete clients, or my clients that are not well and traveling across the United States to find prescriptive therapies that can get them well.
We feed everybody like an athlete, especially the person who has gained weight. We've got to treat their body very strategically. In our community, we run twice-a-month challenges because I take people through the process of cleansing and detoxing. It doesn't only mean your body. It also means maybe your pantry or underneath your kitchen sink. Maybe your cosmetics. These are all obesogens.
You said a word I don't know I've heard before, obesogen. What is that?
They are chemicals that are known to proliferate adipocytes or fat cells. They're fat-soluble toxins that cascade or create a cascade of hormones that have the body store or increase the growth of fat cells. Oftentimes, we worry about what's in our fridge or what's on the plate when we go out to dinner, but we forget that 20% to 25% of weight loss is not about what you put in your mouth at all. It's about what you put on your body, what you breathe, and what you're sleeping on.
We know that in the professional athlete world. When we're working with an NBA or an NFL star, we're looking at their toothpaste, their mouthwash, and their bedding. All these things are because we know that 25% of our environmental influences affect our metabolic rate, the ability to build muscle, to get cut, and to get ripped. It's the same concept when a person is metabolically out of balance, and they have a propensity towards weight gain. It should not be easier to gain weight than it is to lose weight.
Why is it?
In my community, we fix the why. You've got to fix the why. We're the only species that use the word diet in content that does not mean to perform. You create a diet for your dog so that the dog's coat and skin are better. They'll have tartar on their teeth. I worked with the Denver Zoo in Nebraska, the division of wildlife. We're creating a diet. It's to enhance longevity, flexibility, mobility, the skin, the coat, and all of those things.
You have to eat to correct your metabolic rate.
We talk about diet in humans. We talk about reframing. I try DIET, which means, "Did I Eat Today to achieve whatever it is?" You might be eating in a way that promotes weight gain. There could be that. If I'm doing 2 or 3 pints of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, that might be conducive to putting on a couple of pounds. I should be able to cut it back from 3 pints to 1 pint and drop a little bit of weight. If that's not happening, we've got to fix the why. If it's easy for you to lose weight, take the stairs instead of the elevator, and those silly little tricks when you're not in metabolic dysfunction, you know you're okay.
We maybe have 1 drink, not 2 at night, and you're going to drop weight. If that's not the case for you, we've got to take time and look at your metabolism. We have to feed you to correct your metabolic rate, especially those people that gained weight two times in their lives, either in adolescence or during menopause. Those are two major hormone-shifting events in our life. The third would be during pregnancy when people have a hard time. I have a client. She came to see me at 56, and her intake form was she was ready to lose the baby weight. She had her kids at 28. What she's telling me is, "Somewhere, my rate of burn got hijacked." I'll tell you what. We were able to get it back.
I'm that same individual. As I told you, I lost over 100 pounds back in 2010. I did a good job at keeping everything off all the way through. Even at the beginning of COVID, I did pretty well. It seems like as I got to that 56 to 57 mark of age, it doesn't matter what I do getting those 30 pounds or so off. The reality is, in taking them off, you have to starve yourself to do it. I understand what people are out there thinking, and I don't want to do that.
I'm going to throw something that's crazy out there. In my world, the more you need to lose, the more you need to eat.
Some of that I remember from when I lost all the weight back in 2010. I was not hungry ever because I was eating enough to keep my metabolism going. That was a whole idea. I understand fully what you're talking about. I also know what you're talking about in regard to those life changes that come along, and this is where folks like you come into play. You need some professional help to help you get through life changes.
Have you done our 7-Day Jumpstart?
I have not. I ordered it. I'm in line to get it, and I understand things now. Let's say that I'm impatient because I understand everything that happens in the world along those lines, so it's not a big deal.
I'll do it with you. We have a 7-Day Jumpstart, and a 10-Day Cleanse. The thing is, it's all about creating these grocery lists, creating foods we do use. We don't have to, but you can. I use therapeutically infused shakes for some parts of some of the programs. You don't have to at all, but I have an autoimmune disorder. I had a rare blood disease.
Fortunately for me, I'm the opposite. I have no issues other than taking weight off. Health-wise, I don't have any other issues. I don't have high blood pressure, diabetes, or cholesterol. I'm good across the board. I just can't get the stinking 30 pounds off.
We look at it like this. There's the endocrine system which regulates all of the hormones, the sex hormones, the feel-good, and the thought hormones. We also have the structure. A lot of times we talk about structure, we think of muscle, unlike bone, teeth, and hair. Our structure is also our muscle-to-fat ratio. There is something that happens in the body. When someone tells me, "I have good metabolic health. I'm not having a lot of pain or inflammation," you're an individual that uses your structure as a path to create stability during imbalance. It can be difficult for weight loss. What we want to do is go in and feed the muscle. We want to tease out the fat. We do that not by starvation. Fat loss in a desperate state means rapid weight gain. Fat loss in what we call a steady state is sustained weight loss.
The more weight you need to lose, the more you need to eat.
I also understand the reality because it's a fact that if you do the wrong things, your body thinks it needs to hang on to every single thing it has, and that's why you don't lose weight.
That's stress. As you said, there are metabolic changes. We'd want to look at the testosterone level, especially getting into our 50s. We'd want to look at blood sugar. Even if you say, "My hemoglobin A1C is awesome. My fourteen-day fasting is average," but if you're using glycogen, which is the sugar that we store in our muscle for fuel, which means if you're storing fat, it's hard to, it means you are efficient at having a bicep sandwich.
You break down your muscle before you break down your belly. We don't want that. We look at some fun testing during our challenges. We do digestive reserve and lemon challenge tests. We do pH testing, but the other thing is we do post-meal blood sugar testing. It's super easy and fun to do. What it tells me is what sources of energy are you going after first? I want you to be going after fat, not just because of weight. It has nothing to do with weight. It has to do with the fact that when you burn fat, it gives you three times more energy than if you burn carbs to keep on muscle.
We're going to have you on so we can continue this journey and talk about it. That's why you're here. For everybody reading, if you're somebody that wants to be involved in all of this, take part in the challenges and the things that are going on. Know that this isn't a commercial. I want people to live healthier lives. Go to HayliePomroy.com. Everything she's talking about is, in my opinion, the more the doctor likes. That's probably why I say that. I apologize, but the reality is you've got to figure it out, which we appreciate very much.
All of our challenges are free. We even have a free fifteen-day membership where you can come in and ask all kinds of questions. I'm there. Our team is there. If you want to do a product with any of the challenges, we always have, as a bonus, a discount for those products. We also have a donor. Talk about free. One of our medical supports at one of the hospitals purchased a whole bunch of hardcover books.
We've sold millions of copies. It's translated into over 40 languages. If you go onto the website, the shipping is $9. If you want to check it out, get the book for free. This isn't a commercial. Get the book for free. Join another thing for free. I want to change the language around fasting and keto. We have to be proud of what we're putting on our plates. We have to put power on our plates. With everything that's going on, we have got to nourish ourselves.
I appreciate you. We're going to have you on a monthly basis. We've got Haylie. We've got The Fast Metabolism Diet. We have her booked all the way through the end of 2022. That will be a continual journey. If you want to join in, feel free to do so. Haylie, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
I love it. Next episode, we're going to be talking about our detox process together.
Let's do it. It sounds great to me. I appreciate it very much.
Important Links