Why Now is the Best Time to Take Control of Your Health Podcast

Taking Control of Your Health Podcast Transcription

Please note this transcription is generated by software. There may be some errors. I hope you find it useful.

Hello, Hello. Hello. Welcome to fit and fabulous with me, Dr. Orlena Kerek. I hope that you're feeling amazing today. We're talking all about taking control of your health. Now, before we get into that big, big and exciting. I have super exciting news. My proof copies of my book are going to arrive today.

Drum roll, please. I'm super excited about that. And quite amazed given that I live in Spain and it's only taken a few days for them to arrive. So that's super exciting. Now the book is going to be available April the 27th. Now, if you want to get a pre-order of it, I'm doing a special deal, which is you can order it, but obviously I can only sell it.

Order your PDF Version of the Book Now

The PDF version of it. So you'd need to print it out yourself, but it's coming with a free half an hour coaching session. So that is an amazing deal. And I'm going to tap it, cap it to camp. I'm going to start by giving out a few, seeing how I go seeing if I get really inundated with lots and lots of calls if not, that will be a standing offer.

So you can buy the book as a standalone, or you can buy the PDF, which you will then obviously need to print out because it's a habit tracker. You can read it obviously as the PDF, but if you want to use the habit tracker pages, then you'd need to print them out and get half hour coaching session with me.

Order here: https://www.drorlena.com/offers/9zZyD6my 

Acknowledging My Amazing Sister

Hooray. Hooray. Okay. Moving on. I just want to take a few moments to acknowledge my sister who has invited a lady from Ukraine and her daughter to come and live with her. And I think that's an amazingly generous gift from my sister, and I've just want to acknowledge her. And she's also inspired me to have a think about it.

Oh, my goodness. Have we got space in our ham family and I'm not quite sure what's happening with our town hall. So I'm making moves to find out what's happening in our little part of the world. But I think being generous and opening our homes is one of the biggest, biggest gifts that we can give people.

And I would just like to say, I come from refugee stock. I, my father was a Hungarian refugee, and I don't normally talk. You know my background, but I am super proud of my father. He moved over from Hungary to the UK in the fifties, and I've always been super proud of my sort of mixed heritage, Eastern European, British, now, living in Spain and super proud of my dad as well, and the journey that he went on and the stories that he tells.

So my sister, you are amazing. And I just want to acknowledge you. And I am amazing.

Building New Habits

I have exciting news. I have run back from school four days in a row, which is a new goal that I am setting myself. So I I'm a swimmer. If you've not heard me talking about swimming, then you must be new to the podcast. But at the moment it's really cold and I'm not swimming as much as I normally do.

So I did make it to the pool. I normally swim in the sea, which is why the weather affects us and we've just had bad, bad weather in Spain. Spain is broken. So I do a five kilometer run at the weekend and I thought, you know what? I could run back from dropping off the kids. It's like a kilometer and a little bit.

Now the issue I have is that I eat breakfast before I take the kids. Normally at the weekend I run before I have breakfast and having had four children. I have a very weak pelvic floor. Now my pelvic floor has improved heaps over the last few years, but I still find it a little bit challenging. So when I'm running back and if you're not sure what I'm talking about, I'm talking about stress incontinence and, you know, leaking little bits of urine, which is unpleasant and not very nice.

Stress Incontinence is Very Common (And Often Triggered by Running)

So that is the issue for me when I'm running. With the kids. Now, my pelvic floor is much, much stronger as I say. So I'm super excited that I've managed to it for four days in a row. Now, if you have not heard before I have done an entire podcast, because do you know what stressing continents and pelvic floor weakness is such a common problem.

One out of three women have it. And I am one of those. I had three pregnancies, one of them being twin pregnancies, which really does impact on your. So, if you haven't heard the podcast that I did about stress incontinence and your pelvic floor, it was back in the first season, episode eight to go and listen to that.

And I, and there's a program that had a program that you can sign up, which shows some of the exercises that you can do. So if you are somebody who suffers from stressing continents, you are not alone. It is super, super common. Go and listen to that podcast. And then sign up for the exercises. There's a week of them, which are totally free.

Hey, there's a seagull. Let's just landed in our tiny swimming pool.

Why Now is the Best Time to Start Taking Control of Your Health

Okay. So today what I wanted to talk about was taking control of your health. Now here's the thing. I talk to so many people and people who are looking to either get healthy or lose weight. And when I say to them, you know, what is it you want.

Then, you know, sometimes people just come up with this. Yeah. I want to lose 30 pounds or whatever it is, but I make no, let's dig a little deeper and really find out what is going on there. Not just this surface question. And I'm asking you that now. So hopefully you have been listening to this podcast for awhile, and I hope that you find it inspirational to keep you going, but here's the question.

What do you want? Now, here are a few things that people say, people say, yeah, I want to lose weight and put the question is why do you want to lose weight? Well, I want to feel good. I want to look good in my body. And I feel that I will feel better about my body shape when I have lost weight. And there is some truth in that I love my body.

I love being able to move my body and I feel proud of my body as well. And in the. I don't know however many years since having kids. I think since quarantine, I've done a lot more exercise and I can really see that in the tone of my body. And I'm super proud of that. And I enjoy my body and think, wow, my body is amazing.

All the Amazing Things You Can Do WIth Your Body

It allows me to run. It allows me to swim. It allows me to cycle and I really enjoy that movement. That freedom of moving. I think the flip side as well is when you are overweight, it is far, far, far more difficult to move your body. And to do exercise. I was talking to a client yesterday and she was saying, she's just joined a new exercise.

I can't remember what she called it now. Pickleball and somebody went to. There's pickleball club and they were significantly overweight and running around and going, oh my goodness, this is really hard work. Well, one of apart from being unfit. So, you know, obviously there is a, a bit that you have to learn to get fit and that it's not actually as difficult as everybody says.

I think the problem is when you're unfit, you do some exercise and you go, oh my goodness, it's really hard work. What? It's hard work for the first few weeks. And then it stops being hard work and it actually starts being enjoyable. Once you found the exercise that light. But the point is if you're carrying extra weight, it's so much more hard work because you're moving all that weight around.

Being Overweight Makes It More Difficult to Exercise and Move Your Body

So this lady was 50 pounds overweight. Five large babies that you're carrying around. Now. I struggled with too when I had my twins. Oh my goodness. It was difficult carrying them around. But think about that weight that you're carrying around all the time. Even if it's just a small amount of weight, it extra 10 pounds or an extra five pounds.

That's still five pounds is carrying around a small baby all the time. Now. If you have had a baby, you know, that carrying a baby around all the time is hard work. So that is going to make it more difficult for you. So looking good in your body and being able to wear the clothes that you want. And again, I think this is a reasonable thing to want.

Enjoy Wearing Clothes that Make You Feel Good

I love being able to basically wear, and I think my mum. Before COVID hit would loves to travel and would go off to Thailand and to do various traveling. And she would always come back with clothes for me. Now I have to confess, I love wearing some addresses. I think part of the reason I moved from the UK to Spain was that I had so many summer dresses that I just never got to wear because the weather was too cold.

But I mother can, she knows what shape I am, so she can go and buy a dress and I can try it on and go, yes, it looks good on me. Now I may or may not like the dress. Normally I do like the dress, but I don't think, oh my goodness, I have to choose clothes that accentuate this or hide this wobble. Or I just put on clothes and enjoy wearing clothes and looking at how I feel, looking at how I feel.

I don't think that makes sense, but I hope you understand what I'm trying to. Now another aspect is feeling good within yourself. So not just your physical feeding it's okay. It's, it's more of an emotional thing. And I think really the big, once you dig down and have a think about it, it basically comes down to confidence that when you are sat there going, I don't like the shape of my body.

Now I, on a side note, I do think there's a lot of work to be done in accepting. It is a body and bodies are great. They help us do all the things that we want to do and accepting your body rather than fighting against the image that you perceive of your body. When you're having this constant draining thought of, I wish I wasn't looking like that.

I wish I wasn't looking like that. If you can get rid of that, then the flip side of that is confidence. I feel amazing in my body and that gives me confidence to do other things. Now, there are other ways around this, but essentially that is what people say to me. I want to actually look good, but I also want to feel good inside myself.

Having Loads of Energy To Do the Things You Want to Do

And I think a knock-on effect of this is energy levels. So another big piece of the puzzle is energy levels. I want to have good energy levels and I am always astounded by the people who come into my group program or do one-on-one coaching with me, how quickly their energy levels change. Once we start applying healthy living energy levels go up so quickly.

And I always think of it. Like you're building on a platform. So you put one stone in another stone in another stone, and you're building this little tower, this round tower that goes up and up and up. Now the converse of that is what I call the negative plug holder. You know, you don't eat well because you're tired or you're not thinking.

Great thoughts about yourself and then you don't exercise and then you eat badly and then you have more bad thoughts and you just spiral down this negative plug hole. So you can either spiral down the negative plug hole, or you can start to build up this amazing tower and what you gained when you start putting in these habits systems and routines of healthy living is energy, but the energy to do things and energy to just.

Enjoy your day, essentially. So looking good, having confidence, energy levels. And now when I say to people, okay, I really want you to dig deeper. Say we could change all of those things. What is it you really, really, really want and deep down it is about health. People want to feel in control of their health.

And again, the flip side of this is fear of all of those other things, and it's not surprising. We live in a world right now with so much going on so much uncertainty and human beings like to feel in control of. No, there are some things we can control how we turn up. And there are some things that we can't control.

You can Avoid Heart Disease, Diabetes, Reduce Your Risk of Some Cancers

And I always think we want to control as much as we can whilst having this balance of being able to say, okay, there is something that I can't control and I'm just going to be able to cope with that. But let's have a look at health and think about health. What are the things that we can affect by the way that we live, we can affect our chance of getting heart disease.

Now, if you haven't listened to this podcast, I spoke to Dr. Zarrin right back at the beginning, and we talked about how to lead a healthy life, to look after your heart and clue tip. It's all about the four pillars. It's all about the four pivots, but if you haven't listened to those podcasts, I think that episodes two and three go and listen to them.

Right, right. At the beginning, you can reduce your risk of cancer. There is a certain amount of lottery involved in cancer, but there are certain things that you can do to minimize your risk of cancer. Again, the four pillars, and I spoke to doctor very about this and I can't remember which episode it is, but it's right at the beginning.

It's in the first 20. What about diabetes? Another really, really big illness that we're seeing so much. Again, We can do so much to prevent ourselves from getting type two diabetes, obviously type one is different, but type two. Yes, we can. Now another big lottery is COVID at the moment, but we can again think, okay, well, I can be the healthiest version of myself.

And again, we can't predict for the lottery of cancer and COVID and certain other things, but what we can do is go, I am going to make sure that I am leading my healthiest. And that's going to give me the biggest chance of being a person who lives into old age and leading and amazing, amazing life. And I think what people don't really realize is that with a few tweaks, you get an amazingly different outcome.

The Best Time to Make a Difference to Your Health is Now

So you could be standing here and I'm always talking about crossroads. You're standing at that crossroads and you're thinking, okay, I can carry on. What am I looking at? And we never know exactly what we're looking at. Well, you may know if you have the beginning of diabetes, if you don't change stuff, you're going to carry on having diabetes.

You may have a family history that you want to avoid of certain illnesses and yes, you can avoid them a lot. I mean, it depends on the illness. But often the family history isn't genetic. Sometimes it is. But sometimes it is to do with habits that are ingrained in your family. So how does your family eat and how does your family exercise essentially?

Does your family live a healthy lifestyle? So you're standing at this crossroads and thinking, okay, I am going to carry on. What's going to happen. I'm going to get the same results. We know that you've done that. Look back and see. The results that you have got up until now are a consequence of the actions that you have been taking.

And now you can think, okay, I'm going to make changes. What does that look like? What do I want? I want a life where I've got all of these things. I look good in my body and I feel great in my body. My energy levels are high. I can do all the things that I want to do, and yes, I cannot control every single disease that is out there, but I know that I am giving it my best shot and I'm doing everything I can in my control.

And the difference between those two is not actually that much, you're still eating. And I would say you're eating healthy foods that you love. You're moving. You're still sleeping. And you're loving your delicious sleep. You're still having a life. You're still doing everything. And the other key, my pillar four is that emotional aspect.

So thinking about stress levels and how, and your mindset essentially, so you can make tweaks to all of these things. They're not big tweaks, but the difference. That you get is enormous. It's huge. It's a bit like, okay, what geography can I think of hands up? Who knows where Barcelona is? Yeah, Barcelona. And you want to boss around.

It's not a great idea. Let's take like Liverpool. So you you're going from Liverpool on a boat and the boat is heading for New York, like they used to do in the olden days. And you're going on a line now, right at the beginning, you make a very, very small degree turn. And actually now you're going to end up down in south America, not in north America.

Because the little tweaks, aren't that big. Now, obviously, if you're at New York and you make those little tweaks, you're still going to end up at New York. But if you make them right back at the beginning, I now then in 20 years, time, your life is going to look enormously, enormously different. And I promise you that those tweaks aren't that big.

Like I was talking to people in my group program yesterday and they're saying, oh, I kind of feel like I need to be doing something else and I'm like, no, no, you're living your life. That's fine. That is your homework. There isn't anything else you need to be doing. You just need to carry on and you need to keep doing it.

Now, the other piece that I see standing there is, well, two things, one, one people going, I'm not sure if this is going to work for me, that big doubt that. It's your right hand of your brain going, I'm going to protect you. I'm going to protect you. I want to keep things the same as they are. Is it going to work for you?

Well, here's my question in response to that, do you have a human mind and do you have a human body? And if the answer is yes to the two of those, then the answer is yes, of course you can make these changes. Now, the other big piece I see, and it's kind of the same, but another way of putting it is. So actually people feel scared of letting go of what life feels like now of this body that we have, which is your identity and moving into this different identity.

Yes. On one level, you want to do it, but on another level, there is this big fear holding you back. And I've seen this time and time again people get excited and then fear kicks in and they just go, I can't do this. So. You can take control of your health. You really can. If we look at, I think it's the top 25 causes of death in the world, 18 of them all due to lifestyle.

It's incredible. And when I look at my life working in a hospital now, I didn't do very much adult medicine. I did mostly children's. But for those that short time that I was working in adult medicine, and I looked around all those people who were in hospital unwell and thought, if I could just get back 20 years and show you how to live a healthy life, you would not be here.

The vast majority of people. In the hospital at that time when I was working and I'm sure things haven't changed heaps were there because of lifestyle choices that they made now, I'm not blaming them. They didn't make, they didn't make those choices thinking, oh my goodness, I'm just going to choose this.

And I know what the consequences are. They were habits that built up and they didn't realize the consequences until it was too late, which is so sad. And I think about my uncle who died of diabetes type two diabetes. So I didn't know my uncle very well, but he died of type two diabetes a few years ago.

And I just, my heart breaks because I think it could have been a different outcome. If he had done things differently. If he had been educated to do things differently, there would have been a different. But the same is true of all of these lifestyle illnesses. People leave it too late. You can't go back in time, but what you can do is make changes now.

So again, I feel like I'm giving you a little bit of heart love, but whatever your reason is, and I'd love to know your reason. I do find this absolutely fascinating. What is it that motivates people to either stay the same or change? So if any of this resonates with you and you think, yeah, I really want to take control of my health and yes, I want to lose weight, but it's really about health.

The work I do is really about health. I help people lose weight. In a way that is healthy in a way that is going to get them along and healthy life. So if you're interested in making those changes, then come and book a chat with me this week. I have a few free slots next week. I am on holiday. Hurry, hurry.

I've got friends coming from the UK. I have so, so, so excited about that. So come and book a chat and talk to me and chatting is just exploring what is going on for you. And if you're interested in finding out about myself, We'll book another chat, but here's my message for you today. You do not realize how control in control you are of your health, your actions that you take really, really have a huge impact on how much energy you have.

And. Your health outcomes, not necessarily right now, but 5, 10, 20 years down the line. And you can, you can just avoid all of those lifestyle illnesses. Have a fabulous week. I hope I haven't put you in a doom and gloom. State of mind. I think I want to tell you, you can change things. It is easy. It really is easy.

It's easy to carry on doing what you're doing, but it is easy to change. Now, your brain will tell you it's not easy to change, but I promise you it is easy to change. So as I say, if you're ready to make those changes, come and chat, have a fabulous week. I will see you next week. Bye-bye.

Book a call here: https://bookme.name/drorlena/dr-orlena-chat 

Other Episodes You'll Love

 Episode 145: One Simple Tip to Make Healthy Living Easy

Episode 98: How Alexis Transformed her Life to Fit and Fabulous

Episode 134: How to Make Weight Loss Easy After Menopause

Written By Dr Orlena

Dr Orlena Kerek (MBChB from the University of Bristol, UK) trained as a pediatric doctor. She is now a family health coach. She helps busy mums who want to feel amazing by eating healthy food, enjoy a healthy life, get back into their honeymoon shorts and teach their kids healthy habits all without thinking about it.

Want support and help in your weight loss journey?

Book a chat with Dr Orlena: https://bookme.name/drorlena/emotional-eating