The “Magic Plate” That Ends Diet Culture for Women Over 40

Intro and guest introduction 0:00

Another misconception that people have, something you said made me think of this, is that eating healthy is expensive. And it doesn't have to be. The frozen section can be your best friend. Someone wrote to me the same comment, like you say, I wish I could eat that like that, but I can't afford it. I only access, calorie dense, unhealthy foods. You name exactly what they were, and it's really easy and quick. and I wasn't always a good cook at home. And it took years, but when you want something, you practice and you get better and get yourself grace and give yourself permission to make mistakes.

I mean, now it can make something out of nothing. Just see what's in my house and I can put it all together. Welcome to Take Back My Brain with Lori Hammer, where real healing starts in the brain. I'm Lori, a functional nutritionist and mom who's walked the path from anxiety and burnout to clarity and calm. Each week, we're going to dive into brain-based tools like amino acid therapy, gut health, fasting and faith to help you reclaim your energy, emotions and sense of self. Hello, welcome back. I'm really glad that you joined me again today.

So thank you for listening. This is a very special episode and we haven't had an episode on this topic before. Well, today we're gonna sit down with Melissa Abushakra and she is a women's nutrition and fitness coach. Yep, we are gonna talk about fitness for all you ladies out there. With over nine years of experience helping women over 40 lose weight sustainably without keto, fasting and tracking every single thing and without guilt. So I am so excited to have Melissa with us today. We're going to talk muscle metabolism, hormone, nervous system and everything that goes with that.

Welcome Melissa, thank you for being here. Thank you so much Lori for having me. This is gonna be a great conversation to dive into so Women will say like their metabolism has slowed down What is actually happening? When we feel like all of a sudden our body kind of like screeches to a halt and everything changes So as we age, our metabolism, it's not that it slows down, It changes, especially as a mom. Even as We progress in life, we have more responsibility than we did. And oftentimes we're trying to maintain that body that we had in our twenties.

And it doesn't mean that you can't be lean and build muscle when you're older, but you have to kind of let go of that 20 year old body that may have had

Why metabolism changes with age 2:56

because now you a woman's body, especially after having kids, things change, like even your skeletal structure, right? Your hips could widen a bit. It doesn' mean you are bigger. That's just how you'r structured now. So stress changes and all of tha,t it's not necessarily your metabolism. It is. I bring it really back down to the plate and maybe we'll discuss that a little bit later. But I think I hope that answered the question that it's not necessarily your metabolism. We just life changes and that's what we default to.

You think we're broken, something's wrong with us and it is not. Yeah, and I wouldn't think we're told that too, like, oh, it's probably your thyroid now because you're getting older or your estrogen has dropped or, you know, there's so many different things. And a lot of it, when I see with my clients is their life is just so full, so busy, to what their body actually needs. And so then we get stressed about that and the stress builds upon stress upon, stress, upon. Stress. Then we're trying to move and then the body hurts and they were like, I don't even know what to eat anymore because if I just look at this piece of bread, and I gain weight again.

So you just mentioned the plate. I would love to dive into the plates and your perspective on that. Yeah, so I coined this method of eating that's called the magic plate. And I have a magic blade building guide that you can download for free. It's basically the structure that helps you eat and give you that food freedom without tracking. I'll never forget that I was attending a family event and they had ordered takeout. This one woman was sitting on the couch and I said, how come you're not eating with them?

And she said, I have no idea how to track that. And it made me feel really sad. My plating method allows you to go to a restaurant, order a magic plate. You go into someone's house, you can build a Magic Plate with what they have, potlucks, all that stuff. Because when we're on a weight loss journey and we are tracking everything, there's a lot of stress around feeling like you've cheated. if someone invites you over or we're declining social events because we don't want to mess up or cheat. There are no real cheating days.

And some of the things that you mentioned before about how we categorize ourselves and saying that we're broken and it's kind of our fault. These big companies do a really good job at marketing that way because they want you to buy their product, join their programs. My work specifically is so personalized. I can't give up that one-on-one interaction because everybody's different and we are really building A lifestyle for you so a little background about me i lost fifty pounds two times first time in diet culture doing all the things diet pills under eating over exercising.

I lost the weight yes i did and we're always going to lose the way when we restrict and be hyper focus on our caloric intake and really micromanaging everything. but it's not sustainable. So I gained all that weight back. The first time I lost weight, it took me just under four months and I gain it all back after that plus 15. Once the scale went over 200, I didn't even get on the skill anymore.

The magic plate method 6:38

And I just didn't know what to do so I can't kind of it's funny because I stopped trying in a sense like really trying to lose weight and I started to make lifestyle changes and i lost all of that weight. And i've been maintaining it for the past 15 years and there's no reason why I would regain weight because this is my lifestyle you know it says that foundation and that's what I really bring every client on on their journey with me is we reset the foundation in the beginning. So literally un-brainwashing them from everything they think they have to do.

And yeah. Yeah, I think that's so important. I love the magic plate. What does your magic So it's always making sure and I'll give a few examples that you have protein, fiber, carbohydrates. And for example, we love eating. Well, I shouldn't say we, but you know, a lot of people like eating chips and they think that if they're trying to lose weight, they can't have chips. So the magic plate method of having chips would be you have your plate, you put some chips on your plates, and I like to make a, like with ranch or even the onion soup mix, I mix it in Greek yogurt and make that little dipping bowl and then vegetables.

So when I finish all of that, I'm going to be full, but if I didn't have any of that and I just had the chips, I would eat more chips. Which is calorie dense, so you're naturally going help yourself go into a calorie surplus. So it's really important to understand because a lot of us blame our hormones, blame a lots of things, and yes, our sleep, can impact like make us hungrier and things like that. But at the end of the day, it is energy in versus energy out, which means your caloric intake and the energy is your movement, but you don't have to track it to create that natural calorie deficit.

You just have change your lifestyle and change the way you eat using the magic plate method. So another example, so I'm half Lebanese, half Italian, and some people would say, Will you don't eat pasta probably because you know you gain weight if you eat past and that's a misconception my magic play way would be that my pasta would b on the one side of the plate and then i would have like a caesar salad or oil and vinegar salad on one site or roasted vegetables. That's how i build my plate if i'm still hungry i go back for the same breakdown so if I have a little bit more lasagna a bit.

of the salad and non-starchy vegetables with it type of thing. And what eating like this does is it controls your blood sugar spikes, because when your Blood Sugar spikes and it crashes, that creates hunger, cravings, and for you to eat more. So when you balance it out with the protein and the fiber, which is what I like to focus on the most, you naturally start to create a calorie deficit. Yeah. Tell us about fiber. Why is that so important? It helps slow down your digestion and it helps move things along in your digestive tract.

So it keeps, helps you stay full along with protein. Right. And what about how much protein, like if somebody is going to look for like serving size or palm size, what are you suggesting? So for women, it's your palm. Okay. Yeah, for men it would be two, but for women it's one palm. And that's what we start to learn is to eyeball it. What I do with my clients is when they start, they send pictures and I give them feedback based on their plates. I mean, it works for a lot of women. They love the flexibility of it, the freedom that they get with it because I say the only two foods you should eliminate from your diet are the ones that you're allergic to and the one's that don't like.

There you go. Everything else can fit. Right. Yeah, because we don't have to be so dogmatic and strict and everything about it. We want there to freedom. I know even a lot of clients that work with like, I just can't eat anything. Well, cause a lotta times they're super sensitive to things because their gut is really messed up. And so we have take those things out, but that's never the goal to eat those foods out forever and ever and never, unless you have celiac disease or, you know, You really react to dairy or something like that.

So I love your plate method. It's really similar to what I teach. I loved that we want the good carbs and healthy fats and good proteins and stuff in there. When we're like, but if I ate like I'm going to gain weight or I am not going lose weight. Can you explain how your body is adapting and then your bodies just releasing that weight? Yeah, so it's a very slow process, too. I know a lot of women don't like to hear that, but the pounds that you lose going through this journey are forever. So if you loose two pounds, you're not going to gain those pounds back because you are really learning more about yourself.

In the first four weeks, I say, we're just collecting data. We are paying attention to, can you make it to the next meal? without needing a snack and if you do we have to look back at that first meal and see what was on that plate and how much you ate and so it's a lot about discovering those things and you start to adapt slowly so we start by. You build one magic play today you know and that's not overwhelming cuz The all in and all out mentality is a little obsessive too and you don't want to

Protein, fiber, and blood sugar balance 12:44

change that fast. You want slowly make changes and start to build those habits that last. And even today, I'm not perfect, but 80% of the time this is how I am. You know, and that consistency compounds and helps you make progress. And that's how you start to adapt to it, you know. More water, starting to build your plates. A lot of the time, it's a lack of education and nutrition. You just don't know how to feed yourself. I mean, I've had some clients come from different programs where they're like, ''I can't have carrots and I can have zucchini.'' And I said, why?

sugar content is too high or they avoid fruit because it's too hot. And it really, you should only be avoiding foods if you have a medical condition that requires you to eliminate them or you don't like them. Right. You talked about sensitivity. So we do that too. I had a woman once discover that when she ate red meat, it drained her energy and she felt really tired. afterwards. So that tells us something about how your body responds to red meat, right? Yeah, absolutely. Well, and our food system is so messed up.

And so, you know, the perfect plate, we're not saying that you should have, oreos alongside your salad, but if you have an Oreo, it's not the end of the world. But those are not things that we really want people eating. So when we go back to metabolism, I'm all about calming the nervous system, right? So if our nervous is calmer, then the weight just kind of comes off or it doesn't come back, so things that we could do to calm the system. So I know you're big on just daily rhythms and habits and those kinds of things.

We've got the plate, you get in the habit of having this beautiful plate so that you are nourishing our body and when your body is nourished, It feels safe and then it can release the weight and it doesn't feel like it has to store the weights. And so that's a lot of what happens in our bodies is our body is just so overstressed. What are some other things that you teach your clients as far as like daily habits and rhythms to incorporate so their body's just happy? And that's a really good point because when I mentioned I lost a second weight, I stopped trying.

So when we stop trying and start being more curious about ourselves, you start to make these shifts. And as we age, and especially as moms, we have a lot more stress. You were talking about the nervous system, that is a huge piece of it all is calming the nervous system. And what I like to do even with fitness is we don't have this seven day gym bro mentality. If someone is not used to walking, I mean working out, we start with walking. We start mobility and I build that momentum. I have a client I've been working with for two years now, she's still walking and doing mobility with light weights.

she doesn't have to do anything more. If that's where she's happy and that something she can maintain, that really what's going to work for her. And the other thing, especially with moms is respecting the phase of motherhood you're in. So, so good. I had more time to exercise to myself when my kids were really little because they had long naps. I could wake up early at 5 a.m. and go down and exercise by myself. It's not like that anymore. My kids are between 12 and 6, and it's chaotic. If I get up in the morning, it is like my daughter knows, oh, mommy is doing something for herself.

So I better go disrupt it. And so I just accept that. And I swing with that and it's a chapter. There will be a time where I can get back into my rhythm of being more consistent, lifting weights more often. Right now I focus on daily movement, light resistance training and my mobility and that's where i am. Yeah. What is it, I know you focus on mobility and exercise and stuff after 40, what happens at 40 that we need to really pay attention and listen differently? Well, it's our shifts in hormones, we're getting older.

I mean, a lot of redistribution of the fat goes to the stomach area. And unfortunately, you can't spot reduce, but as you lose weight and strengthen your core, You start to lose way there. What a lotta women don't know, especially after having children, is that you're weak in the core. You carry babies, your used to relaxing and letting the the just hang there, So that continues after when you focus on strengthening your core, you look leaner, even if you didn't lose any weight. That is so true.

It's a body recomposition type of thing. Um, and that's really important to be aware of. Cause a lot of women are focusing a a on the belly and they w they keep wanting to lose that last 10 pounds. Sometimes you have no weight to loose. You just have to use your fitness to redistribute and redo a recomp position of the body. Yeah, because I know I hit like 45 ish. It was actually actually honestly after I did CrossFit. I'm like, where's all this cellulite coming from? Because I was like I always tell people like Crossfit was the worst four months of my entire life.

Like I had to stop it because i hurt so bad and I didn't enjoy it. Wasn't sleeping. it was just too much for my body and i gained weight and all of a sudden I Cellulite on my arms that I never had before and I weighed the same except for the few pounds that again I'm like so nothing drastic happened other than my body was so stressed right and so unwinding that stress and Getting I don't

Nervous system, movement, and motherhood 18:38

feel like I ever really totally recovered from that to be honest with you. It was just so much and So when you're talking about that redistribution, I think we focus so much on like I was just mortified that my arms were like lumpy at that point in time because I'm like, didn't do anything that I thought would be bad for me. And it turned out that body just kind of rebelled. Can you speak to that a little bit? And that's true. The body will fight back when it's under stress and your nervous system is just out of whack.

And when you mentioned that you feel like you're still recovering from it, that can happen too, right? So when asked before about the nervous, I wanted to add to that you know, regular breathing exercises, you have something called the five, five seven, where for two minutes you breathe in for five seconds, hold and then release for seven. And that's really helpful when you get stressed out. Something happened in the day, a lot of it is default to food. The walking helps with the nervous system.

And you just want to take in a lot of that, those calming activities, honoring no's and things like that. I had a huge life change and that was when I was very consistent with my weight training. And then like I explaining, my kids now they're older, there's more demand. my fitness life and accept it that that's okay. That's the phase that I'm in. And then we're going to move on to the next one. The other thing about as we get older, like we lose elasticity in our skin and that where ensuring we are building enough protein, I mean eating enough proteins and light strength training is really, really powerful.

I think you asked before about how do you know how much protein If you use my plating method and you eat like that three times a day, maybe even two, you will get enough protein. I think we're also in a society where we are protein obsessed. You just want to build your meals, make sure that you have all that there, but you really don't have to count it per gram. When I became a certified personal trainer, I learned that it's 0.7 per pound. Yes, but, you know. Overtake. Yeah, I've never, that would mean.

that I need, I think about 140 grams. I've never eaten that. And I have muscle mass in my upper body, especially. Do you also feel that the protein needs change with your cycle as a woman? I feel like once I bleed into day three, four, maybe even five, then I'm like, oh, need more protein right now. But when I into maybe that last half of my cycle, that luteal, specially towards the end, the last seven to 10 days, I don't really want a ton of protein. You know, your body needs the more carbs for that hormone cascade that's happening at that point in time.

And they're healthy carbs, and I still want to a little bit of a protein, but I feel like your needs change. I see that with my clients, too. So I think we stress ourselves out, you know. We've got to get 140 grams of proteins in. Well, a whole lot of women who can do that unless they are doing protein shakes and bars and those kind of things. No. Do you find that as well? Yeah. And I like that you brought that up because that's something else that, you start to learn about yourself, how you feel from week to week, that those few days leading up to when your period begins, You have this sweet tooth, want chocolate?

Eat the chocolate. right even if you overeat it who cares eat it overeated and move on to the next day honor your body honor its needs and yes if You feel that you want less protein that's why I don't like meal plans I Don't Like tracking that another reason because your energy needs change from day to day. As an example, if I go and do lower body or I do a longer workout, I may be hungrier that day than I will on a rest day, so if you're having to abide to this X amount of calories per day It's just not realistic, you know, and we don't want to be punching all of that in.

And I like that you mentioned that, wanting more carbs and stuff like, that. You really, really have to go with the ebbs and flows of your own body. Once you do, calm your nervous system, because you're like... And you really start to get to know yourself, which is really powerful. Yeah, it's so important. We have to breathe, we have that Sabbath rest. And to feel good about that. To feel really, really good and embrace it. I mean, that's just the way we were created. I have a friend, she has eight kids and she wants to be at the gym all the time.

And I told her, if this may not be the phase right now, you will be able to have that time when all your kids are in school and you have time to yourself and can get to the. But for now just walk and focus on your meals. Yeah. Yeah, just, you know, and just accept that that's good for now because that builds once you have that foundation and you keep building on that, there's nothing that can break it down. No. Yeah. And like I said, it's just keeping that movement. I know when my kids were little, we did a ton of walking.

We walked and we walked, and it was always great because we were always just playing because home schooled, went out to the woods and those kinds of things. But I just concentrated, what can I do in my living room while we're doing math? We would all just do planks as we are learning multiplication tables or something like that. So just creating movement around your family life at the moment. I think just creating that family lifestyle of movement I Think is really key for a lot of people, you know, and we're so so busy So busy all the time

Hormones, body recomposition, and recovery 24:58

like we always have to have something to do We forget that we can just sit and sometimes that's the best exercise you can do is to rest 100%. And sometimes we, especially as moms, we feel like we shouldn't rest or there's always something to do, you know, and the whole at-home thing, like I lost my way both times at home, it's time consuming to get to the gym. You know that whole period could take up to three hours out of your day, right? Yeah. Instead of the money invested into the gym membership, I would invest in equipment at home.

And I mean, it works for me. It still works. Yeah, me too. I don't like working out with other people. a calmer place, I love just walking by myself. I walk one day a week with another person, otherwise I don't walk with anybody. That's just my time, you know? And so I've learned that about myself over the years. And I think men don' necessarily understand that. You know, my husband would love me to go to the Y with him and do this, do that, and he tries to get my daughter to do the same thing. Thankfully, she's listened to my podcast interviews, gone to all these conferences and stuff with me.

She's like, no, that's not how we work out as women. So it's too much. It's just too. And you can't sustain it. You know, I get messages all the time that, you know I lost 10 pounds and now I gained it back. I hear a lot of I'm just going to do it until I lose the weight. Whatever you do to lose weight, You have to maintain it, so if it is not something you see yourself doing for the next 20 years, Don't even start it and you don't have to. A lot of women, if you pay attention to the ones that maintain the weight, they eat intuitively, They've built a lifestyle.

And I think too with social media, we follow a lot professional athletes, bodybuilders and so on. I sent out an email actually to my email list yesterday about this that Who should be counting the calories? And it's them because they have a very specific goal. Their body has to be at a certain specific weight. And what the general public doesn't know is that they go through bulks and cuts. They don't do that all year round. It's like for a period of 12 weeks, you know, I'm 12 week out from my bikini competition.

Then after that, they do something called reverse dieting where they slowly increase their calories back up. Unfortunately, they never stop counting calories because I think they want that control. To me, it's no way to live. Yeah, I'm with you there. I did that a long time. It was bulimic for 12 years of my life and I was on every diet imaginable and calories and all that kind of stuff. And it's a prison. We want freedom, right? And I know so many women feel like they're in a present in their body because they don't like the way it looks, the It's not who they want to be.

And so my heart's desire is that everything that I teach, you know, everyone and every guest that i have on like you today is empowering them to embrace the seasons of the life that they're in, embrace their hormone changes. If something is off, let's figure out what's off and then help to shift that so that you do feel more like yourself because your body, it feels like it betrays you a lot. And that's no fun. It does. Yeah. And one more key thing about social media, it's really hard because every time you scroll, you seem to hear a different opinion.

So my biggest advice is to unfollow people that one, make you feel less than. or that doesn't align with you. If it's something that you don't want to do, don' even follow that person. Be picky with your follows. Yeah, like if you don't want to eat all meat, then don''t follow that person who's telling you to Eat all meats. Exactly. And you know what we see in that I watched a video and I wanted to kind of make a Video response to it because she came on with her cutting board and her meat and butter and eggs talking about how for the past two months she hasn't been eating carnivore.

Sustainable habits, sleep, and social media boundaries 29:28

Now she's back on track because it's not sustainable. We can't eat just steak and butter and eggs and you see a lot of people who do eat carnivore, they start to, now it's okay to have fruit with it. So they have mango and things like that. And when you cut out fruit, you're cutting out a lots of micronutrients, the fiber, water that your body needs and your bodies craves. Right. That's what hydrates your body. Exactly. And you mentioned something before that made me think of, you want to focus on nourishing yourself.

How can I feel better? And when you change the way you eat, your face clears up, feel prettier, have more confidence. This snowballs into making better decisions for yourself where when you decline something, say you don't want a piece of birthday cake and it's okay to have birthday cakes, but sometimes when our palate changes, it may feel too sweet and you just don t want it because you do not like it anymore. Yeah, and that is okay. We want all of our habits, our rhythms to be nourishing, or sleep patterns.

Do you work with sleep pattern with people? I like a nighttime routine and getting enough hours in type of thing because it is important. And I have to also always coach myself because especially when the kids go to bed, it's like me time. You're like, yeah, I want to check out what's going on on social media. All of a sudden, five minutes can turn into an hour. What I'd like to do is put a timer on my phone. I go 20 minute timer. When that beeps, they turn it off. Yeah, because we don't have permission.

Yeah. You give yourself permission because otherwise you'll binge on social media, just like you're binge-on foods that you restrict, anything you restricted in life. So give your self permission to have a little bit of everything. You want that chocolate to have the chocolate. Yeah. Just try to make it a better chocolate, that's all I gotta say. Exactly. Eventually you're like, these ones are too sweet. You gravitate towards maybe dark chocolate or a company brand. All those things matter, but baby steps.

And when your palette changes, you start to take these decisions on your own. Yeah, definitely. And then you're going to want the healthier versions, which is a beautiful thing. People say, I could never eat the way that you eat or buy the groceries you buy or whatever. Well, it didn't start out that way. I started shifting here and then like, okay, that was easy to do. And this fits into our budget. So now what else can I do? You know, and so you learn that like if you're going to start buying organic grass fed, whatever, or, you know all those kinds of things that over the years, like, well, I'm not buying all this other stuff now because I feel more satisfied because i'm buying better quality food.

And so then you are not wanting the other stock. I mean, so it really does end up kind of, balancing equally now in the long run, which is beautiful. Yeah, and another misconception that people have, something you said made me think of this, is that eating healthy is expensive. And it doesn't have to be, you know, the frozen section can be your best friend. Someone wrote to me the same comment, like you say, I wish I could eat that like that, but I can't afford it. I guess calorie dense unhealthy foods should name exactly what they were, And it's really easy and quick and I wasn't always a good cook at home.

I didn't know how to cook in fact, and it took years. But when you want something, you practice and you get better and get yourself grace and give yourself permission to make mistakes. Now I can make something out of nothing. Just see what's in my house and put it all together. The frozen section, for example, if you bought a bag of frozen vegetables, mix that with rice and a protein. That's great. Yeah, I buy for convenience sometimes the stack of grass fed beef patties from Korea. And I use them as burgers too.

I personally like to season mine and make my own, but I always have those in the freezers, one for burgers and one, for a quick lunch. Sometimes I pop one of those out. add vegetables and rice, break it up, like you start cooking it as a burger and then you break up. Bang, magic plate ready in 15 minutes. Yep.

Affordable healthy eating and practical meal ideas 33:58

Absolutely. I think society has scared people away from rice and potatoes and all those things. There's a time and a place if you're diabetic and your glucose is really off, we might want to monitor that stuff for a little bit, right? Yeah, those are amazing. They're full of goodness. And you combine that with, you know, some frozen mixed veggies and a piece of chicken, or like you said, just hamburger like, and it doesn't have to be organic grass. But of course, I would love for you all to move that way because it's better for You just because our food system is so messed up.

If you're just starting out, that's really fantastic. Right? So it doesn't have to be super complicated or even like a can of salmon, or if you have another fish that you like, just try to make it as easy as possible. I always said, one of my favorite things is canned salmon with an avocado. That's like the fastest food I have in the house. Yeah. Slice the avocado, you open the can a salmon and some of you probably cringe on this, but I put sauerkraut on top of it too. So I love- That sounds good.

It's not healthy too, the saurkrauts. So now me so i mean you can really it doesn't have to take you a lot of time to cook like i could eat that every day of the week for lunch and never have. And that's the thing when you find something you really like. Repeat, repeat, if you talk to a lot of people, they have the same five things on rotation for breakfast, same things for lunch and the dinner shuffles around. Sometimes maybe you go out to eat, the other times you eat at home. I mean, very simple.

Today, for example, it's dinner time now where I am and I made in my instant pot beef and broccoli with rice. Oh, yeah. Because nobody complains about that in my house. Everybody loves it. So I'm like, I am making something that everybody is going to enjoy. Yeah, and I had a mom that I was coaching. She asked, you know, my kids are picky eaters and things like that, or She'll make chicken nuggets. So, you know, I told her maybe you can try the brand bear, for example. And then you take those chicken nugget, so you're eating them with your kids, but you build your magic plate.

You have the chicken, nuggets, whatever else you want to add on there to build that balance. so, You can literally eat everything. There's room for everything! Yeah. Yeah, that is so good, Melissa. Anything you want to leave the audience with? I wish I had like a good ending slogan, just that, you know, food freedom is the key. And you can have that. You don't have to track everything, count everything. That doesn't to be part of your everyday life. It really doesn' for weight loss. Awesome. Well, thank you, Melissa.

I really appreciate all your wisdom nuggets that I know everybody's going to love today. So thank So make sure you send this on to them and bless their day as well. So I will see you in the next episode. God bless. Thanks for listening to Take Back My Brain. If today's episode helped you connect with hope or direction, I want you to follow the show, leave us a review and share it with someone who needs it. And if you're ready to start your own healing journey, explore our courses and our coaching programs at lorihammer.com backslash store.

So until next time, remember you cannot medicate away a nutrient deficiency and healing your brain isn't just possible, it's powerful.