Stop Chasing Perfection: An Inside Look at Health Coaching - Session 1 Joanna
Session 1: Where Do I Even Start?
Joanna has done the research. She's read the articles, compared the studies, questioned who funded what. She's a scientist by training—she wants the data.
But here's the thing about health: the data that matters most is yours.
In this first session, Danna and Joanna sit down to map out the terrain. Sleep? Actually pretty solid (thanks, progesterone and a strict bedtime routine). Diet? A mix of good intentions and survival mode—lentils for the kids, delivery when no one feels like cooking, and chocolate stashed in every drawer.
The plan isn't dramatic. It's doable: protein at lunch, bulletproof coffee in the morning, eggs before the big meal.
The real shift? Permission to stop chasing perfection and start paying attention.
This is session one of Joanna's health journey. New sessions drop once a month.
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Mentioned in this episode:
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Organilicious - Danna, Functional Medicine Health Coach
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Check out Becoming a Health Coach
Want more? If you're curious about the coaching strategies being used in each session, head over to our other podcast, Becoming a Health Coach. Megan and Danna debrief after each session and break down what's happening behind the scenes.
00:00 - Discussing Health Concerns and Goals
01:43 - Personalized Health Approach
08:45 - Sleep and Diet Discussion
17:09 - Balancing Family Diets and Nutrition Concerns
18:11 - Intermittent Fasting Tips and Strategies
24:27 - Optimizing Intermittent Fasting and Final Thoughts
Speaker:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Joanna, how's it going?
Speaker:
What's new and good?
Sabra:
good, thanks.
Sabra:
I'm excited for some health coaching.
Sabra:
Um, have a lot of topics growing in the back of my mind that I'm interested to
Sabra:
talk about, but, um, also interested to get started and walk me through it.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: That's awesome.
Sabra:
I'm super, excited as well.
Sabra:
I was wondering we had a call, we had a couple of calls, before we
Sabra:
decided to work together and I was quite curious since our last call.
Sabra:
Did you have anything pop up?
Sabra:
Like worries, concerns, things that you were super excited to tackle
Sabra:
or things that you were like, Ooh, I hope this doesn't come up,
Sabra:
Nothing that I hope doesn't come up.
Sabra:
Um, I think just the same worries and questions that have been swirling for
Sabra:
the past, couple of years, just sort of intensified and, I'm excited to do this.
Sabra:
Uh, so there's also this little bit of anxiety of like,
Sabra:
what are we gonna talk about?
Sabra:
What is she gonna say?
Sabra:
Am I doing it all wrong?
Sabra:
I mean, health is so complex and there's so much information
Sabra:
out there that I sometimes.
Sabra:
Get a bit overwhelmed and you know, I, I'm pretty, have a scientific
Sabra:
training as a background, so I always think like, okay, I would love to see
Sabra:
the data on this, but there's so many aspects to it that I don't even feel
Sabra:
like I have the time to dive into.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah.
Sabra:
Yeah, and there's a lot more to that, right?
Sabra:
I mean, like with research, there's also who is actually
Sabra:
sponsoring this research and how.
Sabra:
Yeah.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: So I totally understand that.
Sabra:
Worry and concerned, and I love that that's something that you were concerned
Sabra:
about because that means that you really want kind of facts, right?
Sabra:
You want things that actually will work.
Sabra:
And I have an, I have exciting news.
Sabra:
Give it to me.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: What works for you is not gonna work for
Sabra:
someone else and vice versa.
Sabra:
And that is why when it comes to health, that's so convoluted.
Sabra:
It is because there's a reason why we have, different T thumbprints
Sabra:
every single person on Earth has.
Sabra:
A different thumbprint and there's no reason why our gut would be
Sabra:
different or our reaction to different things would be the same.
Sabra:
so that's the good news is you are your own scientific experiment
Sabra:
of one.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: and we will do it together.
Sabra:
Exactly.
Sabra:
And we're gonna go through it together and I will support you
Sabra:
through it and you know, we can see what works and what doesn't.
Sabra:
the other good news because I feel like you're like, oh
Sabra:
crap, what does that even mean?
Sabra:
the other good news is that there is definitely a baseline that
Sabra:
is helpful for everyone, right?
Sabra:
Eating more vegetables.
Sabra:
Everyone needs to eat more vegetables.
Sabra:
Yeah.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Everyone needs more fiber in their life,
Sabra:
or not eating processed food and processed sugar, obviously that's
Sabra:
going to just support our health.
Sabra:
But what we're gonna do is just take really small, slow steps forward and see
Sabra:
how you feel and see how you do so that the process doesn't overwhelm you either.
Sabra:
Because the last thing I want is for you to walk around
Sabra:
saying like, well, I don't eat.
Sabra:
pizza because Danna told me so, but rather, you know, I don't eat
Sabra:
pizza because I realized after doing some changes and blah, blah, blah,
Sabra:
blah, blah, that I don't feel well afterwards or something like that.
Sabra:
I'm just picking on pizza.
Sabra:
Everyone loves pizza.
Sabra:
Almost everyone loves pizza.
Sabra:
So I'm just picking on it, you know, I was just like saying broccoli for healthy.
Sabra:
but in general.
Sabra:
We're gonna take it slow.
Sabra:
We're gonna really make sure that the steps that we're
Sabra:
taking are sustainable ones,
Sabra:
Yeah,
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: uh, so that even if it's a little bit, it's going to make a
Sabra:
big impact at the end, regardless of what we're doing and how, how we're doing it.
Sabra:
excellent.
Sabra:
And I love the idea of regular coaching sessions as a sort of touchpoint.
Sabra:
Um.
Sabra:
I think like, just to keep me on track where, I can try something out for a
Sabra:
couple of weeks and then come back and we have a little bit of a structure
Sabra:
where we can look back together and say, well, how do you feel after trying that?
Sabra:
Is it something that you wanna keep?
Sabra:
I think I tend to try things on my own, but then I, I don't have the
Sabra:
discipline all the time to, keep up or even reflect on, Hey, does this help me?
Sabra:
Do I feel better when I do this or not?
Sabra:
Um, yeah, a little bit of, external, accountability.
Sabra:
An accountability buddy, let's say, is always really helpful.
Sabra:
Yeah.
Sabra:
Yeah.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Perfect.
Sabra:
Yeah, and please, please, please don't forget, we can communicate
Sabra:
in between these calls on WhatsApp.
Sabra:
So if you feel like something is, you know, I dunno, two, three days after
Sabra:
our call, you're like, dude, this is not, this is, no, it doesn't work.
Sabra:
Or it's too much, or it's not enough, or whatever.
Sabra:
Whatever comes in the way.
Sabra:
Make sure to let me know so those two weeks are not wasted in a way.
Sabra:
Okay.
Sabra:
So that we can kind of work through it and workshop it throughout the time that we're
Sabra:
in touch, um, and not just wait two whole weeks and go like, I'm such a failure.
Sabra:
I didn't do this.
Sabra:
You know, it's just all of those negative feelings come up and
Sabra:
that's the last thing I want.
Sabra:
You're going to do your best.
Sabra:
I'm gonna do my best, and that's the best.
Sabra:
Okay.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: So we don't need anything more than that.
Sabra:
Okay.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Cool.
Sabra:
Um, hey, before we really dive in, I kind of had a question around
Sabra:
like, getting the most out of coaching.
Sabra:
I wanted to know from your experience, what do your clients who really,
Sabra:
seem to get the most out of it.
Sabra:
What do they do?
Sabra:
I mean, what lessons can I learn from your experiences around how do
Sabra:
I get the most outta these sessions?
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah, that's a really good and loaded question.
Sabra:
Um, and I'll, I'll explain why.
Sabra:
because again, everyone's different.
Sabra:
And there's not one I, I've worked, I've, I've been doing this for like a decade
Sabra:
and I've been working with so many people and I really can't think of even two
Sabra:
that were kind of going in the same pace, the same way, tackling the same things.
Sabra:
So it is hard to answer that.
Sabra:
But what I can tell you is this, if you are in touch with me and you
Sabra:
just do your best and do your best, does not mean do a hundred percent.
Sabra:
Not at all, but be gentle with yourself.
Sabra:
So know that what you're doing is the best that you can do in
Sabra:
the given time that you have.
Sabra:
And with the other million balls that you're juggling in the air, like work,
Sabra:
like relationship, like kids, you have three whole kids, which is a lot.
Sabra:
with all of that considered, I need you to just be gentle with yourself
Sabra:
and try to focus on the things that you do manage to do rather than on the
Sabra:
things that you didn't manage to do.
Sabra:
Okay?
Sabra:
My job in all of this is to help you to find very reasonable goals to tackle.
Sabra:
Throughout the two weeks that you have coming up.
Sabra:
Okay?
Sabra:
So I'm never going to tell you, okay, listen, you have two weeks now.
Sabra:
Today you're gonna go into your kitchen, you're gonna throw away everything.
Sabra:
And then you're gonna start cooking from scratch, three meals a day,
Sabra:
and you're going to make sure to not eat this and not eat that.
Sabra:
Da da, dah da da da.
Sabra:
And you're like, oh my God, this is not going to work.
Sabra:
Right?
Sabra:
rather, we're gonna talk about very small things that we're gonna do.
Sabra:
And so it keeps the motivation up and helps you feel a little bit better so
Sabra:
that you're motivated enough to take on something else next week or, or
Sabra:
in two weeks where you can actually also tackle and keep what you've
Sabra:
worked on in the last two weeks.
Sabra:
Does that make sense?
Sabra:
be gentle with myself, small wins.
Sabra:
Okay.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yes.
Sabra:
Got it.
Sabra:
Yeah.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Exactly.
Sabra:
Exactly.
Sabra:
Just, just love yourself, appreciate yourself for even doing this.
Sabra:
Okay.
Sabra:
Because a lot of people don't, and I'm sure you were kind of stuck in in
Sabra:
that realm as well, where, oh, I need that help, but I don't know, and I
Sabra:
don't have the time, or I don't have the energy, I don't have whatever.
Sabra:
And so again, you come back to beating yourself up.
Sabra:
I can't do this, or.
Sabra:
I'm not good enough.
Sabra:
Dialogue is usually in our head, unfortunately, especially for women.
Sabra:
I'm familiar with that one.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: yeah, I'm sure.
Sabra:
So, you know, that's what I want to kind of eradicate.
Sabra:
I want us to focus on your wins and I want you to focus on just doing whatever
Sabra:
you can that's the best that you can and, and again, it doesn't have to be crazy.
Sabra:
Sounds good.
Sabra:
Yeah,
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Does that kinda like calm me down a little bit and, and.
Sabra:
absolutely.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: an answer.
Sabra:
this is the way that I would
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay.
Sabra:
um, not tackle my health, but approach my health, let's say.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: There you go.
Sabra:
See, you're already using gentler language, so that's really good.
Sabra:
Yeah.
Sabra:
more
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Excellent.
Sabra:
So
Sabra:
on
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: no more tackling Joanna?
Sabra:
So.
Sabra:
I remember when we spoke about your health history, when we reviewed it,
Sabra:
you were talking about generally wanting to feel strong, live without pain.
Sabra:
Uh, work on kind of like memory and concentration, uh, weight
Sabra:
balancing you mentioned a little bit about kind of sleep sometimes
Sabra:
not being able to go back to sleep,
Sabra:
So.
Sabra:
Let's talk a little bit about those things and see where we wanna start, because we
Sabra:
wanna come out of this call today with anything between one to three small goals
Sabra:
for you to work on the next couple of weeks, um, and see how that works for you.
Sabra:
Sounds good.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Um, I, I know it's not what you probably.
Sabra:
Thought I would start with, but let's talk about your sleep.
Sabra:
What can you tell me about your sleep?
Sabra:
How is it in general?
Sabra:
Um, so historically I've been a very good sleeper.
Sabra:
I like to get a little more sleep than I would say the average person.
Sabra:
I feel really good with eight and a half hours, sometimes nine of sleep a night.
Sabra:
Um.
Sabra:
And I have a pretty stable bedtime routine.
Sabra:
like to be in bed around 10, asleep between 10 30 and
Sabra:
11, and then up at seven.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay.
Sabra:
yeah.
Sabra:
and so that was always kind of sacrosanct to me.
Sabra:
Um, and then, yeah, after.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: And then the kids came along.
Sabra:
the, so the first one was not too bad.
Sabra:
Um, I think I even slept more after she came along.
Sabra:
but it was after the twins and turning 40 and sort of this time
Sabra:
and we did sleep train our twins.
Sabra:
So they are in general very good sleepers.
Sabra:
but yeah, I just found myself waking up around two.
Sabra:
I'd go to the bathroom and then I would.
Sabra:
Be awake for an hour.
Sabra:
I always, so even my bedtime routine is also very, I don't wanna say rigid,
Sabra:
but it's a, it's a very solid routine.
Sabra:
You know, I lie
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Spec.
Sabra:
Um, I've got my Kindle and I read my books, until I fall asleep.
Sabra:
So if I'm up in the middle of the night, I'll usually lie down and close
Sabra:
my eyes and try to go back to sleep.
Sabra:
And if after about 15 minutes I'm not asleep, then I'll read
Sabra:
until I do feel sleepy again.
Sabra:
And it was getting really bad about a year ago, and finally went to my gynecologist
Sabra:
and she said, try taking progesterone.
Sabra:
This can help.
Sabra:
If your progesterone is low, it can cause you to, have trouble going back to sleep.
Sabra:
So I did that for one month and it really helped with the sleep.
Sabra:
And then I sort of, Well, you're supposed to start on the 15th day of your cycle,
Sabra:
and my cycle is not always regular.
Sabra:
And so then the second month it like took extra time for,
Sabra:
you know, me to get my period.
Sabra:
And then I noticed that I still wasn't having trouble going back to sleep,
Sabra:
so I just stopped taking it and it seems to have evened out somewhat.
Sabra:
Now.
Sabra:
I say, I would say maybe once a month I'll, be up for an hour.
Sabra:
in the middle of the night due to, having gotten up to go to the bathroom.
Sabra:
Um, sometimes if I'm woken up by the kids and then, like someone has vomited
Sabra:
in the bed enough to clean the carpet or whatever, then I'm really awake.
Sabra:
So,
Sabra:
but I
Sabra:
say that's like, um, caused by my body.
Sabra:
so it's been okay so far.
Sabra:
I think the last couple
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Mm-hmm.
Sabra:
you know, I've got my little, uh, sleep tracker, my wearable here, so
Sabra:
I've been getting, good, solid, sleep.
Sabra:
So
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay.
Sabra:
of where I'm at.
Sabra:
Yeah.
Sabra:
Uh, I'm not feeling like sleep is an urgent problem.
Sabra:
could be improved.
Sabra:
My watch says I don't get enough REM sleep, but I feel rested in the morning,
Sabra:
so I'm not gonna live by, my watch saying you didn't get a good night's
Sabra:
sleep when I feel like I got a good night's sleep, if that makes sense.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah, sure.
Sabra:
So, excellent.
Sabra:
I'm, I'm glad that we put that aside.
Sabra:
You're saying like, I get good sleep, kids are asleep.
Sabra:
We don't need to put anyone down, we don't need to kick anyone out.
Sabra:
And we're, we're happy waking up.
Sabra:
So that's really, really good.
Sabra:
and I do love your sleep routine.
Sabra:
it's very supportive to, to good, solid sleep.
Sabra:
So let's move on.
Sabra:
Excellent.
Sabra:
I just wanted to say just one thing or, or ask just one thing.
Sabra:
Do you feel that when you, that once a month, and I'm quite curious
Sabra:
if it's always on the, around the same time of your cycle or
Sabra:
the moon cycle or whatever it is.
Sabra:
Right.
Sabra:
But that's something just to, to investigate on your own.
Sabra:
Just kind of see
Sabra:
it probably is, but I haven't tracked it.
Sabra:
I mean, I could probably go back into
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah.
Sabra:
into my, um, tracker data and have a look and see, I think
Sabra:
that it's probably, related to hormone fluctuations, but,
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay.
Sabra:
but I have the sense it
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay.
Sabra:
I also try not to drink too much water before bed, so that can also affect
Sabra:
it if I'm, thirsty at night or something.
Sabra:
But I don't know, sometimes I get up
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Sure,
Sabra:
and then I fall back asleep.
Sabra:
No problem.
Sabra:
So I, I'm leaning towards the
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Well, I mean,
Sabra:
culprit.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: probably, probably, but let's move on so that
Sabra:
we are tackling, more juicy stuff.
Sabra:
tell me a little bit about how you.
Sabra:
Feel about your diet.
Sabra:
And of course when I mean diet, I just mean the day-to-day eating experience.
Sabra:
We don't really do diets.
Sabra:
what is your focus around food?
Sabra:
Is it okay energy, we need to feed, you know, a whole bunch of people now?
Sabra:
and we need to do it, I don't know, maybe cheaply or make sure that there's all the
Sabra:
components on the plate and every meal?
Sabra:
Like how does that, how does that organize in your head?
Sabra:
Yeah, it's a whole thing, really.
Sabra:
I mean, there's food for me.
Sabra:
There's,
Sabra:
how I feed my kids, how that not really necessarily what I wanna be eating.
Sabra:
Um.
Sabra:
I will say, so first of all, I prefer to eat more home cooked meals than I do.
Sabra:
I think that we crutch a lot on, delivery or going out to eat,
Sabra:
but we don't feel like cooking.
Sabra:
I'm not as good as I wanna be about packing a lunch for work, for example.
Sabra:
So.
Sabra:
luckily there's a bakery just down the road and I'll run down
Sabra:
there and they have really nice salads, which feels pretty healthy.
Sabra:
or there's a nice sort of restaurant, they make vegan food and, it feels
Sabra:
like very nourishing, like these bowls with, chili and brown rice and stuff.
Sabra:
That like a good option.
Sabra:
I would like to be at packing my own lunches and cooking more.
Sabra:
When I do cook, I try to, also cook very nourishing meals.
Sabra:
and luckily I have kids who really like lentils and they really like beans and
Sabra:
they like peas and edamame and stuff.
Sabra:
but they also really like noodles with butter.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Oh, who doesn't?
Sabra:
Normal kids.
Sabra:
exactly.
Sabra:
Exactly.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: What, what about, meat and fish?
Sabra:
Do you guys consume that or not so much?
Sabra:
I try not to eat too much meat, but I do eat fish and so we try to do, tinned
Sabra:
fish, mostly small fish, not big fish.
Sabra:
and my older daughter has become vegetarian for the
Sabra:
past eight, nine months.
Sabra:
little bit worried about.
Sabra:
Her nutrition, she started getting like some sores on her skin that
Sabra:
are taking a long time to heal.
Sabra:
And I'm thinking, oh, maybe you're not getting some
Sabra:
vitamins that you need to get.
Sabra:
so we're
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Hmm.
Sabra:
that as well.
Sabra:
My little ones love meat, so they eat a lot, but I don't tend
Sabra:
to cook it too much at home.
Sabra:
So, yeah, and we switched from cow's milk over to oat milk.
Sabra:
So I mean, I try to be a little bit, I guess like, uh,
Sabra:
climate conscious with food,
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Mm-hmm.
Sabra:
um, I don't know.
Sabra:
There's all this stuff, like you need more protein when you get older and I
Sabra:
kind of feel like this is overblown, but I don't know really what to think about it.
Sabra:
I recently.
Sabra:
Yeah, no, I, I started doing intermittent fasting and so I'll stop eating
Sabra:
around six 30 and then, um, wait until lunchtime and just have, you know,
Sabra:
coffee and water and tea in the morning.
Sabra:
and.
Sabra:
I think that has been, it's been very interesting because I
Sabra:
noticed, I just stopped craving sweets and chocolate completely.
Sabra:
so I saw that it had this impact on my sugar cravings, which
Sabra:
was good because I used to
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: That's great.
Sabra:
really, or I do have a really strong sweet tooth.
Sabra:
Like chocolate tucked in every little drawer.
Sabra:
so yeah, I,
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: How long have you been doing that?
Sabra:
How long have you been doing the intermittent Lasting.
Sabra:
six weeks maybe.
Sabra:
Yeah.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: And is it daily or is it just a few times a week?
Sabra:
during
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: I.
Sabra:
and then usually on the weekends from like Saturday
Sabra:
to Sunday, I, I don't do it.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay, great.
Sabra:
So you tackled a couple of things that, that I would love to bring up
Sabra:
and then maybe we can focus on those for, for the next couple of weeks.
Sabra:
so you did mention, I don't know about the protein.
Sabra:
Is it necessary, is it not?
Sabra:
it's very necessary.
Sabra:
So one of the, uh, let's just say that our bodies, what they actually need.
Sabra:
Is protein and fiber and you know, like vegetables and whatever source
Sabra:
of protein, you choose to have, whether it's like quinoa and beans
Sabra:
and lentils and, and whatever, or it's meat and, and fish and eggs.
Sabra:
You guys consume eggs.
Sabra:
yeah.
Sabra:
so I really like
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Not so much, or,
Sabra:
are.
Sabra:
So, so on them.
Sabra:
So
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: nah.
Sabra:
don't
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay.
Sabra:
them with meals, but yeah.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: But you can enjoy them.
Sabra:
Okay, perfect.
Sabra:
So, so that's also really good information.
Sabra:
and, and about your daughter as well.
Sabra:
I am gonna just put it out there just because I've gone through the process
Sabra:
that you're going through with the whole like, you know, environmentally
Sabra:
conscious stuff and, and everything.
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And unfortunate for me when I was nearly vegan, so I was eating butter and I was
Sabra:
eating eggs because I'm egg obsessed.
Sabra:
but otherwise we were pretty much, pretty much vegan, healthy vegan, right?
Sabra:
So we were, I was at home cooking.
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This was over a decade ago.
Sabra:
And then I found out that I can't break any of the other proteins except for meat.
Sabra:
And so for me, it, it brought me to this realization, and again, it
Sabra:
doesn't mean that it's right, it's correct for you or your family.
Sabra:
I'm just kind of bringing you another kind of direction to think about.
Sabra:
For me, it was a huge realization.
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I would walk around with my kids and go like, oh, look at that cute little lamb.
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Poor thing.
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Someone's gonna eat it.
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you know, to consuming mainly meat as protein intake.
Sabra:
And for me it was just this scale of like, it's great that I
Sabra:
need to take care of the world.
Sabra:
But if I'm not around or if I'm sick, or if I'm, inflamed and I'm
Sabra:
miserable the whole time, am I really doing good by, by eating lentils?
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Not really.
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So for me, it was just this kind of like wake up call of, okay, wait.
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Yes, it's good for the world, it's good for the environment.
Sabra:
But for me, through rigid testings and working with a lot of functional medicine
Sabra:
experts, I just realized it just wasn't.
Sabra:
True to my world.
Sabra:
I'm just saying all of that because you did mention your daughter and that
Sabra:
you kind of see a correlation maybe to, you know, healing and, and her
Sabra:
becoming vegetarian, stuff like that.
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So I. Literal food for thought.
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I'm not gonna go into that more.
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I'm just gonna say yes.
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Protein has a lot of weights that we need to really make sure that
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we're getting enough protein in our diet more than anything else.
Sabra:
of course fibers are important obviously.
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but a perfect meal would be rather protein and vegetables
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instead of carbon vegetables.
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But
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: Do you see what I mean?
Sabra:
but let me dig into this a little
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: I.
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you're talking about, um, you were feeling when you couldn't.
Sabra:
Digest, or you said you couldn't break down anything other than meat protein.
Sabra:
So I'm assuming this means you couldn't, you couldn't, break
Sabra:
down the protein chains and make use of them in your body, right?
Sabra:
Is that, is that, do I understand that
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yes.
Sabra:
But the was it You do, but it wasn't my digestion that was showing it.
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what does it look
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: I was showing up
Sabra:
me, tell me what were you, what were
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: for, yeah.
Sabra:
It's different for every person.
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would a person
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: It's,
Sabra:
are not getting the amount of protein that they need?
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: it's different for every person, so it could manifest
Sabra:
itself in many, many different ways.
Sabra:
Some people feel it with inflammation.
Sabra:
Okay, just low grade, constant chronic inflammation.
Sabra:
Some people will feel it with brain fog, some people will feel
Sabra:
it with, do you see what I mean?
Sabra:
So, yeah.
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But, but if I, if we name all of the things that you can say, like these
Sabra:
are my, symptoms, we can correlate it to a hundred different things.
Sabra:
And that's why it's so difficult, and that's why I started the call saying
Sabra:
like, it's so freaking difficult to figure out what is what, what's the
Sabra:
chicken, what's the egg, what's the cause?
Sabra:
We can find out by doing a lot of expensive tests, but I don't think
Sabra:
we need to do that at the moment.
Sabra:
I think we can take it one step at a time and I'm just kind of like putting some
Sabra:
seeds in your head to see like, okay, you know what we're doing all of that.
Sabra:
I didn't necessarily see or feel a big difference with the 10 things that
Sabra:
are on my top list of, of symptoms.
Sabra:
Okay, let's now think about what we can do next.
Sabra:
Okay.
Sabra:
So it's, again, it's more kind of for the long run, but I just wouldn't be doing my
Sabra:
job if I didn't tell you, like, you know.
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Yeah, I, I would love for the entire world to be vegan.
Sabra:
Honestly.
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I think it's a beautiful movement and I think it's a beautiful, I idealism
Sabra:
behind it and everything, but it's not for everyone, unfortunately.
Sabra:
And a lot of people get sicker, so it's just, you know, it is just to keep
Sabra:
that in mind, You also mentioned the intermittent fasting, and I would love
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for that to be maybe the goal for the next couple of weeks because there's
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definitely great ways to do intermittent fasting and definitely ways that
Sabra:
kind of don't necessarily, help you.
Sabra:
So we need to know how to go into the fast, what to do during the
Sabra:
fast, and how to break the fast in order to make the intermittent
Sabra:
fasting the most effective for you.
Sabra:
Yeah, let's, let's talk about that.
Sabra:
That sounds like
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: Uh,
Sabra:
goal for the next two weeks.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: excellent.
Sabra:
I'm glad.
Sabra:
so I'll give you kind of the idea and the gist around it.
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And then we can talk about the how's.
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in intermittent fasting, if we wanna support our body properly, we wanna
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make sure that our meal before.
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Going into the fast is rather low on carbohydrates,
Sabra:
especially simple carbohydrates.
Sabra:
So if we're talking about more brown rice rather than white rice, that's better.
Sabra:
carbs in form of lentils and legumes, those are actually carbs as well.
Sabra:
Those would be better because they're, a protein as well.
Sabra:
Um, and a lot of fiber and good quality fat.
Sabra:
Okay.
Sabra:
Those three things are gonna keep you satiated and going to keep
Sabra:
your body happier and your gut happier, and your glucose levels.
Sabra:
more.
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Steady and help you through the fasting.
Sabra:
Okay?
Sabra:
So when you know that the next day you're going to fast and you're
Sabra:
now, having your last meal, right?
Sabra:
You wanna focus on that, you wanna focus on making sure that you have.
Sabra:
You're protein of choice.
Sabra:
You have a poop load of vegetables, poop, load of protein, really
Sabra:
nice, good quality, fat.
Sabra:
So if you're cooking with ghee or coconut oil, if you're drizzling olive oil on your
Sabra:
food, those are all gonna be supportive.
Sabra:
If you're taking Omega-3 as a supplement, that would be good
Sabra:
to take in the evening before.
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you
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay?
Sabra:
All of those things are going to help.
Sabra:
Sure.
Sabra:
When you're fasting, that's just extra supportive.
Sabra:
You can also take in the morning, it, it's not, it's just like if you're taking,
Sabra:
it might as well take it in the evening.
Sabra:
That's an extra form of, of good, healthy fat.
Sabra:
I don't
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay.
Sabra:
day, but I can, I can definitely look into taking it with dinner.
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: During the fast you're doing it right.
Sabra:
So coffee I assume was just black coffee, no sweeteners and no milk.
Sabra:
bit of oat milk in there.
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay, so the oat milk is a carb, oats are are carbohydrate.
Sabra:
So if you can try, um, I can send you a recipe of something
Sabra:
called bulletproof coffee.
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I dunno if you've heard of it or you've heard of crazy people putting butter.
Sabra:
Mm-hmm.
Sabra:
So, I know it sounds terrible and it took me probably like, it literally took me
Sabra:
like seven years until I got into it.
Sabra:
I, I, it takes me a really long time.
Sabra:
I don't do fads.
Sabra:
I just research the shit out of things and then finally try and then fi, you know?
Sabra:
Took me a very long time to get into Bulletproof Coffee.
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I'm addicted so I have it every morning.
Sabra:
I have like half a liter adding butter, coconut oil, MCT oil to
Sabra:
the coffee and frothing it A, makes it basically milky, right?
Sabra:
So it's as if you're adding milk, but you're actually adding fats.
Sabra:
Right.
Sabra:
So you're adding good, healthy fat, which gives you energy.
Sabra:
Our brain is 70% fat.
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It needs fat.
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So we need to make sure that that fat is healthy and that
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we're getting sufficient amounts.
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And it sounds counterproductive, but fat does not make us fat.
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but that's.
Sabra:
A version of a coffee that you can have.
Sabra:
I usually tell people, add some cinnamon, add some cardamom, some I
Sabra:
don't know, like just extra flavors in there that will not make it.
Sabra:
Oh my God, she just ruined my coffee.
Sabra:
I hate Danna, which you will for a couple, couple of times
Sabra:
during our, our work together.
Sabra:
That's totally fine.
Sabra:
from my
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: I'll always love you.
Sabra:
So it's fun.
Sabra:
I know, right?
Sabra:
So, so listen, get, try.
Sabra:
Try to see And don't do it during the fast today.
Sabra:
if you have a second coffee during the day, try that.
Sabra:
Instead of doing it when you're like, oh, I need my coffee, and now
Sabra:
it's different and uh, I hate her.
Sabra:
Just try it today as a snack in a way and see how you feel.
Sabra:
Just make sure to froth it because if you don't froth it, you have hot
Sabra:
coffee and very hot fat laying on top, you're gonna burn your mouth.
Sabra:
You're gonna hate me even more and it's not gonna be delicious.
Sabra:
You have to make sure it's fraught, like kind of, uh.
Sabra:
Yeah, one of those five Frank.
Sabra:
10 Frank ones is the best that you can find.
Sabra:
Um,
Sabra:
here?
Sabra:
Like a spoon table, spoonful, teaspoonful.
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: uh, yeah, like a tablespoon, I would say a
Sabra:
tablespoon of even each, you can do so coconut oil and butter or MCT oil.
Sabra:
the.
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Water doesn't have to be boiling hot so that the butter doesn't
Sabra:
lose some of its good components.
Sabra:
But generally, yes.
Sabra:
Just a tablespoon of each.
Sabra:
I'll send you the recipe.
Sabra:
What's most important about the, uh, intermittent fasting
Sabra:
is how you break the fast.
Sabra:
Because if you break it with high carb, you're not doing yourself a favor.
Sabra:
idea about breaking a fast is either having some bone broth to sip on.
Sabra:
or having some protein, even hard boiled eggs or whatever form of eggs
Sabra:
that you want, even if it's half an hour before your actual meal and
Sabra:
then you're eating your rice and, whatever, that's already going to
Sabra:
be better for your body and how you.
Sabra:
Introduce food because if we go into a whole meal, or worse, even as a salad
Sabra:
after the body didn't eat for so long, then it's very hard for it to digest.
Sabra:
It's not able to absorb nutrients and.
Sabra:
We're just, again, we're not really doing ourselves a favor.
Sabra:
So starting with something a bit more simple like eggs or, like chicken breast,
Sabra:
and then within the next 20, 30 minutes you can have a meal, that would actually
Sabra:
be a lot more supportive to your gut.
Sabra:
All right.
Sabra:
I'll
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Danna Levy Hoffmann: What do you think?
Sabra:
Is that something, something good to, to kind of focus on
Sabra:
for the next couple of weeks?
Sabra:
That sounds doable.
Sabra:
I think I can bring, I'm just thinking like, how am I
Sabra:
gonna do this at the office?
Sabra:
But I mean, I think I can bring myself a little, uh, and some
Sabra:
coconut oil and some hard boiled eggs to keep in the fridge there.
Sabra:
And
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: luckily in Switzerland, they sell hard boiled eggs,
Sabra:
little picnic
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: boiled eggs year round.
Sabra:
Right, exactly.
Sabra:
And for the coffee, what I sometimes do is I, I just have a thermos.
Sabra:
And I just, I, I will froth it before I leave home.
Sabra:
But then before I open the thermos to drink, I just shake it like
Sabra:
a mad woman and let it, and, and really gently open it so it doesn't
Sabra:
spray hot coffee all over you.
Sabra:
So just do it gently, but it works as well.
Sabra:
It will re froth it.
Sabra:
So it is definitely doable.
Sabra:
Um, just try it first, tell me if you love it or hate it, and then we can,
Sabra:
we can move forward and I'll send you an idea of, of how that could look.
Sabra:
Yeah, let's try that.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: cool.
Sabra:
So Joanna, how do you, how do you feel after our first call?
Sabra:
So I feel relieved, that, you know, I'm not gonna have to turn my whole
Sabra:
life upside down to, um, be healthier.
Sabra:
I dunno, sort of the analytical side of my brain really likes to have a
Sabra:
sort of simple and concrete goal.
Sabra:
And, um, I think I wanna know what should I be focusing on in
Sabra:
terms of seeing whether these changes are making an impact?
Sabra:
Like, what can I expect, a protein rich lunch, to do for me?
Sabra:
Or, or like a proper meal before my fast and a proper meal after my fast.
Sabra:
Like what changes should I be looking for?
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: So you wanna see what your energy levels are like.
Sabra:
You know, if you usually have that slump in the afternoon, or if you usually
Sabra:
feel heavy after a meal, you know?
Sabra:
So those are the things.
Sabra:
We'll also talk about, I don't usually talk about portion control,
Sabra:
but we'll talk more about kind of like how we eat our food.
Sabra:
Also the order in which we eat our food.
Sabra:
So there are still a lot of changes to be made, but I think just with
Sabra:
that, to see how you're digesting, how you feel after your first meal.
Sabra:
after breaking the fast, And how your body is reacting to it.
Sabra:
You might not feel much because again, I don't know how different
Sabra:
it is right now, so it might be that you're doing it relatively okay.
Sabra:
But, just I would say more energy level and digestion really at, at the moment.
Sabra:
Yeah,
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Okay.
Sabra:
those.
Sabra:
All right.
Sabra:
Yeah, I feel like we have
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Awesome.
Sabra:
have some doable, changes here and now I have some concrete
Sabra:
outcomes to look for and yeah.
Sabra:
I'm excited to continue our conversation in two weeks.
Sabra:
Danna Levy Hoffmann: Awesome.
Sabra:
Me too.
Sabra:
Lots of luck, Joanna.
Sabra:
I'm sure you'll do fine.
Sabra:
But don't forget, just be in touch with me throughout and just let me
Sabra:
know how things are going and uh, and yeah, we'll tackle more next time.
Sabra:
good.
Sabra:
See you then.
Sabra:
Bye.
