A World at War with Itself
The podcast will be for a year, where Julie Finch-Scally, writer and broadcaster can interview people about life and the current situation of the world. She will discuss how so many things have changed over the past 80 years since her birth, and what the world needs to change to improve and save the planet from ourselves.
A World at War with Itself
Wellness
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How well do you feel? Do you often feel tired? Julie was interested in the concept of wellness and discusses the subject with Anne who has become thinner and fitter by changing her way of living.
Hi there, this is Julie Finch Scalley with you for another Wednesday edition of A World at War With Itself. Today I'm starting a new topic: health. When it comes to living, our health is important. So I'm beginning with the subject of wellness. Today I have in the studio with me Anne Zinneman, who is an entrepreneur and an optimal health coach. Welcome Anne. Thank you for coming in. Thank you. I want to discuss wellness, but firstly, what does an optimal health coach do?
SPEAKER_00Okay, well, I help people to develop habits that lead to wellness, optimal health. So we we teach people daily habits. When you accumulate them, you become as healthy as you become for your body. And we call this optimal health.
SPEAKER_01Now to get onto the wellness bit, I know the word well-being, but is it the same as wellness or is it something completely different?
SPEAKER_00To be honest, I don't think there's any definitions out there. I think we all sort of throw these words around and pick up whichever one suits us at the time. Wellness can I think imply you're just not sick, whereas well-being has more of the overtone of being in optimal health is what I was talking about. Feeling good in yourself as well as being healthy and not sick.
SPEAKER_01It sort of describes to me that's the way the body should feel. But is it emotional as well, or is it an overall feeling of one's whole life?
SPEAKER_00I think it's an overall feeling of your whole life, but that obviously includes your emotions and your thoughts.
SPEAKER_01So it's an all-encompassing routine for the body, or does it just cover mainly the mind and work? No, we cover both. It works on an overall feeling. As you present and do whatever it is you do, you you sort of feel better in yourself?
SPEAKER_00Uh people definitely feel better on the programme. We usually start out by talking to people about what their goal is. And their goal might be that they've been told by their doctor they need to lose weight or they need to get their cholesterol down or they're at risk in some way and they they need to get their weight down. A lot of people come to us because of their weight. But we have other people who come to us who want to build their body up and get that strength and stamina. So we start by talking to people about where they're at and why they're interested in improving their health.
SPEAKER_01And so does wellness control the mind, which helps the body, or is it the routine for the body that helps the mind?
SPEAKER_00I used to be a psychologist, so I'm probably a little biased in this. I think when you're on a healthy routine, it certainly helps you to feel better and think more clearly and feel better about yourself. But it's much easier to stay on a program if you have a positive attitude from the outset. And I also think that we can make ourselves sick by the way we think. I think that's so. Yeah, I think negative thoughts and worries can certainly lead to ill health and being more prone to all the the things that are out there that impact on us.
SPEAKER_01When when I've got certain worries, I wake up in the middle of the night and start thinking about it. Is that the sort of thing you're referring to?
SPEAKER_00Well, yeah, I think your whole attitude to life affects your health.
SPEAKER_01This is where the word wellness comes into it, so it's an overall feeling. Yeah, it's an overall feeling.
SPEAKER_00When and where and why was wellness originally started? Well that's a that's a really good question, and I really have no idea when people started talking about wellness. I think people oh, maybe in the last twenty years or so. Yeah, I think that's where the world's world's starting to appear. Started thinking that hospitals and doctors and the drug industry are all focused on sick people. And I think there's m a trend through uh things like yoga and Pilates and a whole lot of different movements of more focusing on being healthy and staying healthy rather than curing something that's wrong with you. And I think that's where the idea of wellness has come from.
SPEAKER_01My dad used to say if the doctors were paid for you not to go in to see them, then they would make sure that you stay well. Well, this is what insurance companies do, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00You know, I yeah. I I think that's real wisdom. Very wise, my dad. Is it a routine that anyone can adopt? The whole program encompasses gentle exercise, diet, supplementation and mental health. In theory everybody can do it. In practice, if people have an existing health condition, we get them to check with their doctor. Particularly people with type one diabetes or kidney disease, the way our food program works, these people probably shouldn't be on our programme, or if they are, they would be need to be under very careful supervision with their doctor.
SPEAKER_01What's actually the routine consist of? Is it consists of people being spoken to and discussed matters with them?
SPEAKER_00Okay, so we're helping people develop habits. We have a nutritional program where we have a list of particularly for people who are wanting to lose weight, but we suggest everybody sort of detoxes their body by going on the program for a month or two.
SPEAKER_01And it can just do detoxing the that means you would you say everybody should go on a special diet to remove all the the nasty bits inside you?
SPEAKER_00Yes. In our modern society, most people get their energy from eating carbohydrates. And by eating lots of commercially produced foods, we tend to get an awful lot of sugar. And I think sugar is one of the most addictive substances out there. You have sugar, you crave sugar. And this is where I say people who go on our program get that clarity of thinking. People say to me they kind of come out of that sugar haze. Right. And by about day three on the program you start feeling your thinking more clearly. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, it's fascinating. So we have a a nutritional program, but it's based on real food. So you're eating real food with plenty of snacks and the focus is on getting enough protein because your whole body's built of proteins, and if you don't get enough protein, you're going to lose your muscles. And none of us want to lose our muscles.
SPEAKER_01No, that's true.
SPEAKER_00So we focus on people making sure they get enough protein and reducing their carbohydrates. What happens is that your body, if you're not getting very many carbohydrates, your body thinks, oops, we better go into our storage tank, and you start getting your energy from your stored fat. So that's how the weight loss aspect of the program works. So you're choosing from real foods. So for breakfast, for instance, you might have grain serve and you get a protein serve. So you might have cereal and milk, or you might have an egg on toast. And you can choose. And our food list is uh basically chosen so that you're not going to eat too much fat. Obviously, if you're eating stacks of fat, um, that's going to kind of you're not going to use your own fat, use the fat you're eating. And then we recommend supplementation with plant-based supplements because you're restricting your carbohydrates, you're also restricting your fruits and vegetables. We're not cutting them out. For lunch and dinner we have a protein, a salad, and a fruit. But the recommendations these days are that you might need seven to ten serves of vegetables a day plus five serves of fruit. Yeah, but I've always thought that was a bit over the top. Well, the problem is that what they've found with our modern farming practices, which we've been trying to create more food to feed all these people, is that the soils have been leached of a lot of the goodness. And when you look at fruits and vegetables and even meats across the years, the vitamin content has really, really dropped. And if I think about a tomato for my grandmother's greenhouse, compared with what I buy at the supermarket these days, you know, you can believe the quality's not the same as it used to be. And so we have some supplements that are grown on organic farms. They don't use any pesticides, they use natural ways to make the soil really healthy, and so the supplements have concentrated food in them. But they don't have the carbohydrates that are going to put the weight on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so the protein, of course, is more important in the long run.
SPEAKER_00And the protein, of course, is more important in the long run because we need the protein to keep our bodies going. Absolutely, yes. And then we add a walking element to the encourage people to walk more, and that boosts your metabolism, strengthens your muscle. When you're walking, if you increase your exercise, your cells need more nutrients and they need more food and water and oxygen. So your blood supply builds up. And the number of little things in your cells are called mitochondria. They burn the food and turn it into energy. And when you're walking or exercising, or if you're a long distance runner, you obviously need more energy. And those little mitochondria that build up, they don't go away when you stop walking. Over a number of weeks you get more of them, and so you find that your metabolism is actually boosted from the walking. If you go on a low calorie eating plan for a certain length of time, your body goes into starvation mode, which means that it slows your metabolism because through evolution we know if we're not getting enough, we need to slow down. But only having four weeks of weight loss and then eating more food, this boosts your metabolism is the opposite effect. And I was so fascinated when I finished the program, to maintain my weight, I need to eat so much more than I used to. And I only conclude it really did boost my metabolism. How often do you have to practice it? It's all the time, is it? Yes, we count steps all the time. You record what you've been eating and you take your supplements. And in addition, we have a a series of audios for you to listen to for the first twelve weeks of the programme. And you listen to those at home? Well, I listen to them when I'm walking.
SPEAKER_01Oh right, okay.
SPEAKER_00Via my phone. It's an in a app. Or when you're doing the housework. For the first four weeks, the audios are mostly about nutrition and teaching you about how your body works, what you need and how our program works. And then there's also audios about what to do when you get discouraged, when you get stuck. And there's in the later part of the program there's more about how to maintain a good mental attitude and inspiring stories from people who have overcome challenges and achieved. So it's a it's really an all-round program and you kind of fit it in where you can to your routine, which is one of the things we chat to people about.
SPEAKER_01So it's not really something that's practiced with a group, it's more a s you do-it-yourself type thing.
SPEAKER_00You certainly do it yourself, but we put you in a little WhatsApp group so that you've got a coach and you've got two supporters who are there to encourage you, people who've done the program themselves and are there to be encouragers. And then once a week we have a walk and talk, which is a zoom on our phone, and we all go out and walk, and we talk to each other, and we hear about like people in New Zealand and people up in Brisbane and how the the how they've been losing weight and what benefits they've got from the program and hints and tips and so this is mostly for people who are overweight? The program was developed in the States by a team of bariatricians who are medical people specially trained to help people with their weight. And they had thirty years experience before we inherited the program here in Australia, which was in 2002. So it's been here a long time. But what we found was what they were actually teaching their clients was how to be optimally healthy. And w when you're healthy, then if if you're walking enough, if you're eating the right foods, if you're restricting your carbohydrates, you lose weight very safely and naturally. Yeah, it started its life as a weight loss program, but these days we have people on the program who are wanting to build up their muscles. Or people who are just feeling they want more energy.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I've noticed I I've m mixed with a lot of people who are in their eighties. They don't have the energy, which they probably should do, but I always understood that when you got older you needed more protein anyway.
SPEAKER_00Yes, I think that's very true. You do. Because our muscles do tend to deteriorate and so we need the protein and the exercise to keep strong and healthy as we age. Very true.
SPEAKER_01Do you feel that the support of the group helps one achieve more, or do you still need to practice bits and pieces at home?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it definitely keeps you encouraged. I think in two ways, for me particularly, there were the two benefits. There was I know I shouldn't eat it, and I'm gonna have to confess it to the group tomorrow. Maybe I won't eat it at all. That's one way it helped me, and I know a lot of people are stronger willed than I am, but I think a lot of us find that being accountable helps. And the other thing that really helped was it doesn't matter what you do, you come to sticking points, don't you? And I was at one weight for just so long. And my coach was saying to me, it'll work, just stick to the program, you're doing fine. And someone else suggested to me I actually do some measurements, like and I hadn't been neglecting to. And then I discovered, well, actually, yeah, I'd lost some inches.
SPEAKER_01I might not have been I'm not lost weight, but you've lost.
SPEAKER_00But I'd lost some some Yeah, and so just that encouragement when you're down, I think is really helpful.
SPEAKER_01So do you really see an instant improvement over weeks or does it take long time to develop? That mental clarity seems to come in the first three days.
SPEAKER_00Oh right, yes, that's for the lack of the sugar. Yeah, and I think in the first week people definitely develop more energy. And I think a lot of that's due to the supplements because I've I I had a girlfriend who said, Oh, look, I'd love to lose weight, but I'm much too tired to go on the program. And so I said to her, Look, why don't you just take the supplements? And she rang me a week later and said, I'm ready to start the program. Now I'm feeling much better. And I've heard so many stories that just I think we don't realise we're lacking in basic nutrition.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And that makes us tired.
SPEAKER_01What's the expected outcome of when you follow one of these programs?
SPEAKER_00I guess increased energy is one of the things that we promote. As as a weight loss program, we say that you can lose weight safely. They reckon in the first six weeks men are likely to lose seven kilos and women five. Gosh. But unfortunately people our age I think our metabolism's slower, we tend to lose it a little bit slower as you get older. But it's amazing when you just get that hormone switch in your body so that your body's using your own body fat instead of the carbohydrates that you're eating. How quickly you lose weight without being hungry.
SPEAKER_01So who who would benefit more from this, an older person or a younger person?
SPEAKER_00I think anybody can benefit personally. And one of the reasons I love teaching the program to young mums is because I know they'll teach healthy habits to their kids.
SPEAKER_01That's a good one. That's a very good one, isn't it? Yeah. So can you expect the same outcome for an older person as a younger person? Or is there would there be a difference?
SPEAKER_00I think there would be a difference. I have found that older people tend to lose the weight more slowly. I was I was losing about two kilos a cycle, which is six weeks, fairly consistently. Whereas I hear these people on our walk and talks who they say, Oh, I lost five kilos, I lost ten kilos, and y so I think it's the weight comes off more easily when you're younger. And I think an older person does have an older body, you can't really be expecting to have the stamina that a young person might develop. If you're twenty kilos overweight and you're twenty five and you're twenty kilos overweight and you're sixty-five, there's going to be a difference in the outcome, the improvement in health, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well you're not carrying all that weight around though, that's the main thing, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. Yeah. And we find that yeah, you're talking about the mental aspect of the program. So many people get to the end of the program and think, and I was included. I c I didn't think I could do that. Well what am I going to tackle now? Oh, really? Yeah. It develops that confidence in yourself that you can actually d achieve things.
SPEAKER_01That's great. What has it actually done for you personally?
SPEAKER_00I lost over the last eighteen months or so, it was probably in a twelve month period, I lost ten kilos. And I didn't think I was hugely overweight, and I'm not actually down to what I was when I was twenty-five, but I'm getting getting close and I think having a little bit of a buffer doesn't hurt. I think it actually makes you look healthier when you get to a certain age. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Well I always thought that it might not be right.
SPEAKER_00So that's one thing it's done for me, but it's given me the confidence to coach other people in the programme, that's for sure. But it's also given me the confidence to expand that into developing a business in helping people, helping people lose weight and do what I've done and help other people. Not only helping people, but helping people to empower others. And I see this weight loss program as something that potentially does that.
SPEAKER_01And so did all your friends say to you that, wow, you've lost a lot of weight, what did you do?
SPEAKER_00No. I have one friend who we were losing weight together before I went on the program actually, and suddenly I lost 10 kilos and she was still struggling at the same weight. And she said to me, Anne, what have you done? I think I better do what you're doing. So back when I first started the program, when I went on it the first time, I went on it with three friends, and we lost the weight of a whole person between us. Once you've done the program, you've got those tools available to help you all your life.
SPEAKER_01And you make friends, I should imagine, out of the way. Absolutely, yes. Well you've all gone and suffered together, haven't you? Exactly. Now I have a final question. Can you please tell me the type of person who will benefit most by following this wellness routine?
SPEAKER_00It's the people who really, really want to lose the weight that benefit the most or who really, really want to get healthy for one reason or another. It's like anything else, it's uh disciplines and routines uh aren't easy. They're simple but it's not easy. And unless you've got some uh really strong reason for learning those routines, once you've got them in place, it it's easy. But it's it's that initial stage of being accountable and remembering all the things you have to do. So it's doesn't matter who they are, it's that determination and that Yeah, you've got the you've got the desire to do it, yeah.
SPEAKER_01You've got to have the desire to do it. But they always say it takes three months to develop a new habit.
SPEAKER_00Exactly. Yes, yes, which is why we encourage people to do twelve weeks of coaching.
SPEAKER_01There you go. Thank you so much, Anne, for coming in to speak to me today. I have been talking with Anne Zinneman, an entrepreneur and an optimal health coach. And that brings us to the end of this week's episode under the category of health. Do please join me next Wednesday when I will be back again with another in the series of A World at War with Itself. Until then, this is Julie Finch Scaly wishing you a great week.