100: Why You Need To Look At Your Health As A Whole & Not Just A Diet w/ Leanne Vogel

Our health is the most important thing we can have and nurture! And there are so many ways to obtain optimum health, but what our guest, Leanne Vogel, and I have in common is our love and support of the ketogenic way of life. Following a keto diet is one of the healthiest ways to lose weight, keep it off, and balance your hormones.

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Leanne is a nutrition educator, author, and podcast host. She has spent the last decade reshaping how she approaches food and nutrition so that you can feel happy, healthy, and in control with how you eat. 

When it comes to our health, it’s important to look at it all. What I mean is, we can’t just look at the physical part, but our spiritual and mental health is just as important. And above all, being able to laugh at ourselves is so healthy!

When we’re following a diet, we all need to remember that indulging in a sweet or dessert is absolutely okay. We don’t want to deprive ourselves, because deprivation can lead to binging, and ruining all the healthy habits we’ve developed. But that’s why we need to listen to what our bodies want.

Men and women have such differing body images. Did you know that you can adjust the way you think about your body? It might take a lot of inner work, but it might also look like leaving relationships with people who put you down.

Leanne talks about shadow and limiting beliefs in-depth and how you can recognize when you have them. These types of beliefs are deeply personal, but you have the power to overcome them. She also explains why you should make self-care a priority every single day.

Do you know the importance of listening to how your body wants to eat? How do you handle negative self-talk? What do you do for self-care every day?

In This Episode:

  • Why you need to look at your health as a whole, not just rules, and weight loss
  • How being able to laugh at yourself is healthy
  • Why indulging is okay when you’re eating a healthy, balanced diet
  • How to give your body what it needs
  • How you can adjust your body image
  • How you can establish healthy boundaries for you and your body image
  • What shadow and limiting beliefs are and how you can recognize and work through them
  • How you can work in your self-care into your daily routine

 

Subscribe to Couch Talk w/ Dr. Anna Cabeca on Youtube

Quotes:

“I’m more than Keto. I’m so much more than a diet, I’m so much more than this body.” (4:39)

“Nobody cares about our body. So many people are so wrapped up in their own stuff, that nobody actually cares about your body. The only person that cares about your body is you and you have the power to adjust that.” (17:46)

“There’s so much more to this than weight loss, there’s so much more to this than macros. Yes, the ketogenic diet is super powerful and will change your life but if you’re not willing to put in ‘The Work,’ you’re only going to go so far. Because those limiting shadow beliefs will constantly be behind you, ready to sabotage your efforts, and you need to work through that in order to gain a life you’ve always wanted.” (26:00)

 

Links

Find Leanne Vogel Online 

Find Leanne Vogel on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | YouTube | Pinterest

Join the KetoGreen Community on Facebook

Buy The Hormone Fix

 

Transcript

Leanne Vogel:
Everyone says to just eat less, work out more, and then it'll start again. It's like, "No. We need to just step back from those rules and we need to develop a program that's going to work for you. Your body. Your goals."

Leanne Vogel:
Something that I'm really getting into lately is the mental health. Mental wellbeing. Sexual wellbeing. Really looking at our health as a whole.

Leanne Vogel:
I think keto is great for that physical wellness and to light up your brain. But then I think a lot of us gets so stuck in those patterns and those rules that we forget to do a lot of other life stuff.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I'm excited to be here today and to have with me, Leanne Vogel. I have known Leanne for a while now. Let me tell you. She has been in this keto space, as Healthful Pursuit, for quite a while.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
She's come out with Keto For Women and I love her. I endorsed her book fully. We're going to talk about this today and how it's a great marriage with The Hormone Fix, y'all!

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
If you have one and not the other, get the other. If you don't have either, get both. They're perfect together, The Hormone Fix and Keto For Women. We'll talk about that. I'm excited to be recording this Couch Talk with Leanne.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
A little bit about Leanne, she, as I mentioned, is the founder of Healthful Pursuit and Happy Keto Body. She is the bestselling author of over 12 health programs and international best selling paperbacks from The Keto Diet to The Keto Diet Cookbook.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I actually met her on her podcast as well as then live at KetoCon a couple of years ago. She has been at the forefront of the space and really fine-tuning that.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
What you'll see today with Leanne is just her integrity and her desire to get the word out for women. But also what it means to have a healthy body, a healthy self-image.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
That's just something I love about you, Leanne. Welcome to my community.

Leanne Vogel:
Thank you so much for having me. This is such a blast. I just love seeing your face.

Leanne Vogel:
I couldn't agree more. Our books, it's like we sat down at the table and it's like, "You take this. I'll take this," and then we just made two books like compliment each other so well. They really do go hand in hand.

Dr Anna Cabeca:
I may boast on your book a little bit. Keto For Women. She's got so many beautiful diagrams and stuff in here too. I was highlighting. Because I'm a visual learner.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
It's so funny. My daughter is preparing for middle school. She got tested to show that she's a visual learner. I'm like, "They could've just asked me."

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
But visual learners, you are going to love this book because of all the diagrams. All the helpful do's and don'ts. And your myth-busting. But really I want to talk about your story, how you come to love your own body and why you promote that.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
People go crazy on keto. Call it keto crazy in so many ways. But it really comes down to we want a healthy life for life. A healthy body for life.

Leanne Vogel:
I couldn't agree with you more. I've definitely been there. I started eating keto in 2014.

Leanne Vogel:
At that point, I had been a pretty intuitive eater for a couple of years. I was really trying to get over my disordered relationship with food. I had been diagnosed with an eating disorder many, many years prior to that.

Leanne Vogel:
When I found keto I was like, "I need to follow the rules. I need to track. I need to count everything."

Leanne Vogel:
I started getting very disordered with my food again, to the point where I was watching my husband eat an Oreo cookie a couple of months into keto and I could hear it and smell it and tasted it in the air. I was just watching him eat this cookie. I was like, "I need to do something about this. I've become completely obsessed."

Leanne Vogel:
That's really like the keto craziness. We can get so stuck in our ways.

Leanne Vogel:
I don't know about you but, when I talked to basically every woman that's been doing keto more than six months, their main thing is, "I'm not losing weight anymore. I'm feeling really dizzy. My hair is falling out. What am I doing wrong? Everyone says to just eat less, workout more, and then it'll start again."

Leanne Vogel:
It's like, "No. We need to step back from those rules and we need to develop a program that's going to work for you. Your body. Your goals."

Leanne Vogel:
Something that I'm really getting into lately is the mental health. Mental wellbeing. Sexual wellbeing. Really looking at our health as a whole.

Leanne Vogel:
I think keto is great for that physical wellness and to light up your brain. But then I think a lot of us gets so stuck in those patterns and those rules that we forget to do a lot of other life stuff.

Leanne Vogel:
My whole thing lately has been, "I'm more than keto. I'm so much more than a diet. I'm so much more than this body."

Leanne Vogel:
It's exciting stuff for sure.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
That is absolutely true. I agree with you. People can get into this stronghold. "I have to eat this way," and we're not listening to our body again.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
The whole thing that I like about keto, and for me, it's keto green, is that we learn to discern what's working for us and what's working against us. Getting into our body and healing our body image.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
This is something you brought up. Actually, I'm going to read this because I can and I'm going to. I'm going to read your introduction. This is something that I brought up and I haven't talked about it and I probably will talk about a little bit more of my story too with an eating disorder in my next book as well.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Sometimes keto becomes so programmed it's an eating disorder too or it's just feeding or eating disorders. I want to read your introduction. Is that okay, Leanne?

Leanne Vogel:
Yeah. Do it.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Actually, I should have you read it.

Leanne Vogel:
You want the whole page?

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
The whole page. I want you to read page. I'm telling you, it brought up some stuff from my past.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
While you're getting that page, I had an issue with binge eating. Cravings to binge. Deprivation to binging. Bulimia for a short term. I haven't shared that. So you're making me sure that today, just with our loving community. Just you and me and are loving hundreds of thousands of people.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
This is powerful. Go ahead.

Leanne Vogel:
I think it's a beautiful thing when you're called to share and you open up your vulnerability and you share. Because generally in that space there's somebody, at least one person, watching that needed to hear that. So thank you so much for opening your heart to us all. It's a big thing.

Leanne Vogel:
Okay. "I'm in the best health of my life. But before you start thinking that I sport six-pack abs, go to the gym every day because I love it, never deal with sugar cravings, and have a dream marriage, let me tell you, you've got the wrong girl. I'm a size 10 with thighs that touch and arms that jiggle. I'd rather watch Netflix then go to the gym. I don't experience all-out chocolate cake binges anymore, and my husband and I argue over the silliest things often, but I've learned to take care of myself, know my limits and respect them."

Leanne Vogel:
"It took me a long, long time to realize that I don't have to love my body. I just have to accept my body. I don't have to force myself to do things I don't want to do in order to feel like I'm taking care of myself. I don't have to follow a diet perfectly in order to be in the best shape of my life. In fact, by relinquishing the control I held so tightly around how my body looked, the workouts I performed, the food I ate or didn't eat, I'm better able to feel my very best."

Leanne Vogel:
"So yeah. I overeat sometimes. I still get acne and you'll never see me participate in a belly boot camp ever again. But where I've said no to a lot of things, I've said yes to a whole host of others. Yes to dancing in a bikini, in public. Yes to dancing in front of the mirror naked and feeling great. Yes to doing wild things that scare me just because I can. Yes to some book slumber parties, wine, and non-keto treats. Yes to finally feeling free."

Leanne Vogel:
"I think it's important to tell this to you upfront because, if you're looking for guidance from a person who's got it all together, the that's not me. In fact, I don't think that person really exists. Thanks to social media, it's easy to believe that some people always have it together. But that's not the case. And when you think it is, we can have unrealistic expectations of what life should be like. No matter how often you go to the gym, no matter how much coconut oil you pound back or how little sugar you eat, life is going to be messy."

Leanne Vogel:
"I want to realize that you are already perfect right now at this moment. I want to provide you with the tools you can use to get closer to yourself, not change yourself. I want you to think for yourself, decide how you want to feel, what action will get you there, and then do that thing because you trust and respect your body."

Leanne Vogel:
Dang.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Yeah. That is good. That is gold, y'all. Just give us some light there because that is really good.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I'll tell you, Leanne, what really resonated with me is just that getting comfortable with yourself. I'm 53. I always tell people, "I'm 53 with an 11-year-old. I got to stay young."

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
So I'm 53 and these things like thighs touching, arms jiggling, I look at videos of myself and I just want to laugh. Before I would've been horrified. Do you know what I mean?

Leanne Vogel:
Yep.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I think that's the whole thing. Bringing humor to us. Bringing humor into our life. Being able to laugh at ourselves.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
So can relate. Being a healthy size 10. Healthy size eight. Whatever we are and be able to recognize the healthy component. That's key too. We're not just saying, "I'm eating a healthy lifestyle."

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
We're measuring. We're testing. We're looking at our lab work. We're looking at, "How is our energy level? How are we living our days? What is the quality of our relationships?"

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Not just with others. Because that's important. That's the joy, the juice of life. But with ourselves too.

Leanne Vogel:
Yes. Completely.

Leanne Vogel:
And another piece that kind of brings it all together, that really helps me understand what health is, behaviors. Really it boils down to behaviors.

Leanne Vogel:
Every time I do a little something or I think a little something or I hang out with somebody, anything, even down to the slumber parties ... I had a slumber party last weekend. I asked myself before-

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
You're inviting me to the next one. I'm just saying. I'm coming.

Leanne Vogel:
The debauchery is crazy.

Leanne Vogel:
But I think it's really important that you check in with yourself. "Are these healthy behaviors for me at this moment?"

Leanne Vogel:
It all comes down to behaviors and how we want to structure our lives. Really, at the end, that's really all we have. I think health can be really scary for some people.

Leanne Vogel:
As somebody who grew up with two disabled parents, health for them was a different level than what health could be for me. Understanding that health for a cancer patient is going to look completely different for health with somebody who doesn't have cancer. That doesn't mean that you have less validity to call yourself healthy or balanced.

Leanne Vogel:
I think it's really important that we look at just our overall behaviors. If I'm coming home after a long day from work and I'm going right to the wine and I'm drinking three glasses before I even realize I'm back at home, that's probably not healthy behavior.

Leanne Vogel:
But if I come home and I pour my wine and I put on music and I'm shaking my hips and I end up drinking three bottles or glasses or whatever of wine.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
[crosstalk 00:11:33]

Leanne Vogel:
I've been there. I see that as being a healthy behavior. You're conscious and you're making conscious choices. So it goes a long way. For sure.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I talk about indulgences in my programs. It's always about feasting and fasting. There's keto green 80% of the time. Feasting 10%. Fasting 10%. So indulgences are okay. That strict deprivation to lead us up to binge or cravings or feelings of self-denial, that's not healthy either.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
In this whole keto space and making keto work for women, you also are on the same camp. Plenty of plant-based products here. Plant-based greens and vegetables to empower our bodies to have healthful, balanced physiology. It's beautiful to see all that in here too. By recognizing that women are different than men as well.

Leanne Vogel:
Really different. Oh my gosh. Like night and day.

Leanne Vogel:
It's funny. I studied nutrition. I worked with women for over a decade. It wasn't until I started keto and my husband started keto, around the same time, about a year later, and I was like, "Whoa. Your experience is totally different. Completely different."

Leanne Vogel:
So I think it's really important that we honor ourselves and our process and our hormones and making sure that we're giving ourselves what we need.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Absolutely. I agree completely. That's a critical point. That really is a critical point, that we're giving ourselves what we need and we have to have clarity to be able to discern that. So discerning what works for us versus what's not working for us.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Let's go into that difference a little bit of body image between men and women. I'm saying this tongue-in-cheek but it's really true. I guy will walk by a mirror and he'll be like, "Aw man! Look at my muscles! My biceps and triceps are looking strong here!"

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
He totally ignores his big pot belly or beer belly. Totally ignores it as he's walking by the mirror. Like, "Man, I'm looking good!"

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
A woman will walk by and say, "Oh my god. Does my butt look big in this dress? What's going on here?"

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
We've got to reframe this whole positive self-image, whole positive body image, as a key component to total, overall wellness.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I'm talking about this in this Keto For Women discussion. I've spoken with a lot of women. A lot of women in my keto green community online that have issues with this body image or are very dogmatic. "This isn't working for me."

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
A lot has to do with these layers of negative self-talk and negative self-body image. I'd love for you to talk about how you conquered that for yourself.

Leanne Vogel:
Unfortunately, over the last, I would say, 10 years, men are getting more bombardment of media images. We have to understand that, when we were born, when we were placed on this planet, our first couple of years ... You can remember.

Leanne Vogel:
I remember as a kid not understanding that I needed to be conscious about my body and just fully playing. I did this tummy roll thing when I was little where I would just make my belly really big and then make it really small and I thought it was the coolest thing ever.

Leanne Vogel:
When I was 16, there was no way that I would ever do that.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Right. Suck it in completely.

Leanne Vogel:
Suck it in.

Leanne Vogel:
We have to understand that, at a very young age, we have downloaded all this information either from media ... Even from television shows. From the toys, we played with.

Leanne Vogel:
When I looked at Barbie, what did I think about my body image when I saw Barbie with her chest and her legs and all the things? The waste was so small.

Leanne Vogel:
We don't think about that. We don't think of what we're subjecting ourselves to at that age. Our parents probably aren't thinking about it either.

Leanne Vogel:
My very first memory that I have about the fact that, when I have a smaller body, I get more awesome things was when my mom hit her 20-pound weight goal with Weight Watchers. She was so excited. My aunts came over and we made her a big poster and we had a big party.

Leanne Vogel:
I thought at that age ... I think I was maybe six. "If I lose weight and I look beautiful, I'll get a party."

Leanne Vogel:
That was a really, really big deal.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
That's so true. Those images that we're getting, the positive, that weight loss, focusing on weight, it's something I've made a really conscious effort not to do with my girls.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I have four daughters. I've made a conscious effort not to focus on body image as much as possible. Especially when I was losing weight when I lost 80 pounds and trimmed down.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
That's been a challenge. I will say, I think my daughters, thank goodness, have really positive body images for the most part. Maybe even a little bit too positive. I have to tell them, "Stop walking around the house naked. Get some clothes on."

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I'm like, "What are you doing?"

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
So that's a good thing.

Leanne Vogel:
It is a very, very good thing. For me, it was really about detaching myself from media. It's been very helpful because I live in the forest.

Leanne Vogel:
Well, I used to live in a forest. Now I'm on a boat and I have these periods of time where I'm not connected to anything. I'm not connected to social media and I don't have to worry about how my body looks.

Leanne Vogel:
But it was interesting. I was in a bathing suit in the middle of nowhere and I had so much stuff that I was dealing with. Like, "What if somebody sees me? What if somebody sees my belly? What if? What if?"

Leanne Vogel:
There was no human around for days. We sailed for days. It's a really interesting concept to kind of look at what were our first memories of our body. How did our body look in that point? How did we feel about our body before that point? How can we adjust back to that playfulness where I can move my belly in fun ways? Where I can wear I'm belly top in public or in an interview and not worry about the way that I look or feel?

Leanne Vogel:
That's a super powerful thing and I think we can all do that. It just comes from a place of working through that shame and understanding, honestly, nobody cares about our body. So many people are so wrapped up in their own stuff that nobody actually cares about your body. The only person that cares about your body is you and you have the power to adjust that.

Leanne Vogel:
It's taken me years to get to the point where ... I still have these inklings. If I'm in yoga class and I'm wearing shorts and a bra and my belly does something weird, I'm like, "Look at those rolls right there. Isn't that cool?"

Leanne Vogel:
If I didn't have those rolls, I wouldn't be able to stretch because my skin wouldn't stretch that way. It's understanding those rules are there so, when I'm standing up straight, I can stand up straight. Or when I realized that I could never be a size zero because I'd literally have to cut off one of my hips.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Exactly.

Leanne Vogel:
It's taken me years to get to the point where I'm just very comfortable in my body. That is much easier done when you just block out all that noise.

Leanne Vogel:
It might not be moving into the forest for you. It could be just removing certain social media people, people that, when you see them on Instagram, don't make you feel good. Why are we following people that don't make us feel good? Why are we doing that?

Leanne Vogel:
So going through. Cutting out people that don't make me feel good. Cutting out friends that no matter how much I say, "I don't want to talk about diets. I don't want to talk about my body. I don't want to talk about how I've lost weight or gained weight or how you've lost weight or gain weight" ... If they don't respect that, I don't want to spend time with them.

Leanne Vogel:
The strongest form of self-care is saying no and understanding that no is a complete sentence. You do not need to describe how you're feeling. You don't need to validate anything. You can just say, "No. I'm worthy of so much more than this and I don't want to be around this energy."

Leanne Vogel:
A lot of people say, "That's so hard because it's my aunt. It's my mom. It's my dad. It's my sister."

Leanne Vogel:
I've been through that. I've cut out actual family members from my life because I can't be around that energy. It's hard. But at the end of the day, I knew that I wouldn't be happy if I couldn't distance myself from that energy.

Leanne Vogel:
It might not be like that for you. But it definitely was for me. And I feel so much better because of it.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
That's key. Again, discerning what's working for you and what isn't. And it may not be for life. Because you're establishing healthy boundaries for yourself. That's a really big thing. You have to set up healthy boundaries for yourself.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
When we're around people that take us down a road that is negative for us or has consequences for us, negative consequences, we can't keep going down that road. No matter how much we love that person, we have to set up some healthy boundaries, tough love situations, and say, "This isn't good for me. If you respect me, I would appreciate you to respect that. We can talk about anything else but this angle I've the conversation."

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
That's important. So many people don't realize how often they're talking about body image or really superficial crap. We want to get deep. We want to get into the deep stuff. We want to really understand our souls. Our connections. Our missions in the world.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
We're here really advocating for a wide body of women. We have to dig deep in order to have an authentic community. I love seeing that develop. I think that's so critical. That authenticity. Being off honest with what we will and won't allow as well as what we will and won't tolerate. That's huge.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I like how you said no is a complete sentence. Exactly. No is a complete sentence.

Leanne Vogel:
Done.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
In my book The Hormone Fix, marrying Keto For Women, Leanne's book ... This is a union right now.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Your whole part three is this healing your body section. I love how you've put in your images because they're joyous. They're fun. They're healthy. We're not stick figures on keto. You and I are not stick figures on keto. I'm happy with my body at 53.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Could it be one way or another? Sure. But I'm happy with my body at 53. That's a big thing. So I love how you go into healing your body. And you do touch on the mind and body aspects too.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Talk about that section of Keto For Women.

Leanne Vogel:
Totally. I've been both on the spectrum of being a stick figure and then being a plumped voluptuous woman. I think it really comes down to, "I'm Leanne and I have a body," regardless of what that is.

Leanne Vogel:
When it comes to part three, I started by talking about healing your body by understanding restriction versus choice. What's holding you back from moving forward?

Leanne Vogel:
Because I think a lot of us have the ability to be that person we've always dreamt of being but it terrifies us so much that we specifically sabotage our efforts because we're scared of having that life. Especially working through this work, talking about fear and self-doubt.

Leanne Vogel:
When I up-level, when I bust through a new blockage, I get sick until I am not sick anymore and then I'm totally fine and a new human. It's funny. I've been getting sick every three to six months and every time I have this realization and it just up-levels me. It's really interesting.

Leanne Vogel:
So talking about fear, self-doubt, and we do these things and we sabotage ourselves just because we're afraid of what life would look like if we were to move beyond that.

Leanne Vogel:
A lot of the times women will get started on this keto thing and they'll be doing really good and then all of a sudden they'll fall off the "wagon" and say, "I don't know what happened. I just need to try harder."

Leanne Vogel:
Nine times out of 10 it has nothing to do with trying harder or doing better. It's all because we don't believe in ourselves and we're terrified of the person we'll become. Who's doesn't have those fears. Who doesn't have those relationships that are holding us back? Who says no as a complete sentence.

Leanne Vogel:
That piece is all about getting beyond our limiting beliefs. I talk a little bit about shadow beliefs in away. I don't call them shadow beliefs but I've really been working through a lot of shadow stuff recently.

Leanne Vogel:
We all have that little bit of darkness, a lot of darkness inside of us, of like fears and limiting beliefs and a lot of things. For me, it all comes down to, and for a lot of women this is the same, I am not enough. I do not have enough. I couldn't possibly be enough.

Leanne Vogel:
That lack of abundance, both in our ability and the energies that we have in our lives. I talk a lot about that and understanding our "why" behind things.

Leanne Vogel:
A woman will say, "I want to lose 50 pounds," and I'll say, "Why?"

Leanne Vogel:
"Because I think I'll feel better."

Leanne Vogel:
"Why?"

Leanne Vogel:
"Because my pants will won't be as tight."

Leanne Vogel:
"Why is that important to you?"

Leanne Vogel:
"Because I'll feel more comfortable."

Leanne Vogel:
"Why?"

Leanne Vogel:
"Because at work I don't feel comfortable. I feel less than."

Leanne Vogel:
"Why?"

Leanne Vogel:
"Because I feel" ... You just keep asking why. Why? Why? Why? Why? And then turns out that she's not happy in her marriage because her husband hasn't touched her in 25 years or her partner hasn't touched her in 25 years.

Leanne Vogel:
You associate weight loss with your partner now enjoying being around you physically. That's a big thing. When you start to lose weight, all of a sudden you're thinking maybe your partner will touch you and they don't. It's been so long and there's this awkwardness and this shame around it.

Leanne Vogel:
So then you sabotage your diet because you're not ready for that movement. There's a lot more to this then counting your macros and looking at your calories.

Leanne Vogel:
There was actually an image on Instagram that I shared yesterday. "Count your orgasms and not your calories."

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I love that. Of course, I love that. Orgasms increase oxytocin, the most powerful hormone. Whatever we can do.

Leanne Vogel:
Exactly. I think it's really important that we understand that there's so much more to this than weight loss. There's so much more to this than macros.

Leanne Vogel:
And yes. The ketogenic diet is super powerful, will change your life. But if you're not willing to put in the work, you'll only go so far because those limiting shadow beliefs will constantly be behind you, ready to sabotage your efforts. You need to work through that in order to gain the life that you've always wanted.

Leanne Vogel:
The dieting industry doesn't get into that. They just say, "If you eat less, work out more, it will all come to you."

Leanne Vogel:
That's just a very, very small piece of the puzzle. There's a lot of shame. Specifically, I find with women and men that have been in relationships for a long time, they don't feel good about their body so they stop exploring one another or they stop exploring themselves.

Leanne Vogel:
All of a sudden we're left with this maybe respectful marriage. Maybe there's love there but there isn't intimacy.

Leanne Vogel:
I think that a lot of women specifically ... I was 30 when I realized like, "Wait a minute. This is not the way that this should be."

Leanne Vogel:
So 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, and beyond, where we started to really get frustrated with the space that we're in right now. Again, no amount of eating a ton of fat or preparing rocket-fuel lattes are green smoothies is going to change that. There's a lot of work that needs to be done.

Leanne Vogel:
That's really the beginning of part three. And then I get into more of how to support auto-immunity and inflammation and gut support. We talk about candida and food-sensitivity testing and intolerances and gallbladder, lymphatic system. It goes on and on and on and on and on.

Leanne Vogel:
The next piece is all about hormones. I talk about the types of hormone imbalance. What sorts of hormones we're looking at. How to test for them. The symptoms of hormone imbalance. If you don't have the means to test for it, you can kind of go off how you feel.

Leanne Vogel:
An introduction to the endocrine system. We were going to cut this out of the book and I'm so happy we didn't because you should probably know how all the things work in order to figure out what's best for your body.

Leanne Vogel:
Regulating your cycle and understanding, at different times of your cycle, what macros you need and why. If you're still ovulating, menstruating, all the 'atings', you find that, on the ketogenic diet, you require different things at different times.

Leanne Vogel:
You might find that you really crave carbs at a certain time. All you want to do is eat protein at a certain time. I talk about why that is and how to adjust for that. PMS. PCOS. all the things.

Leanne Vogel:
Part one and two are really the introduction to keto. How it all works. How to adjust it for yourself. And then part three is really using the ketogenic diet to heal your body from a practical, supplement lifestyle, food sort of perspective.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I love it.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Give us a day in your life, Leanne. A day in your optimized keto life.

Leanne Vogel:
So we're on land right now, meaning our boat is at a dock, where I can go off and have a car and do the things, which is such a treat and I'm really enjoying it.

Leanne Vogel:
I started the day with water. I take my supplements. My probiotics. Specifically my vitamin B. Then I'll go to yoga class. I'll come home. It'll be about noon by the time I get home and get started with my workday.

Leanne Vogel:
I'll work for a couple of hours and then usually break my fast. Generally with a snack plate. I've been really into snack plates lately because it's summer and you have all the vegetables and meats and fats and I'm dipping things and just picking at things.

Leanne Vogel:
I find and I eat less that way because of just a bunch of little picky things than sitting down and having a meal. So I'll have that. Drink a bunch more water and then I'll usually have dinner around 7:00 PM.

Leanne Vogel:
Lately, my eating window has been ... I don't know. Six to eight hours. Sometimes less.

Leanne Vogel:
And then there's other days, like a couple of days leading up to my period, where I'll be having breakfast. Lunch. Dinner. Snacks. I need that. But generally speaking, I eat a lot of vegetables, a lot of fats, and a lot of meats. It's pretty boring.

Leanne Vogel:
I also do eat out a lot. We go to restaurants at least five times a week for dinner because we are on land and it will be going away to the point where ... My life on the water when we're not around other humans is kind of the same. Only I'm doing yoga by myself and I'm swimming a lot more. I'm naked a lot more. I'm around a lot of private beaches a lot more. We do a lot of walking. Sunbathing.

Leanne Vogel:
When we're out cruising ... And you can do this at home too. I just prefer it when we're out cruising. I'll sit in Sphinx pose if you're familiar with that yoga pose. Basically, you're on your stomach and your hands are like this so your chest is open and I'll watch the sunrise that way. It really, really stimulates my energy. It gets me going.

Leanne Vogel:
Sometimes I'll do smoothies. If I really need a boost, I'll add some exogenous ketones into that smoothie. But it's a pretty rare thing. I've really gotten into the picky plate in the morning.

Leanne Vogel:
Morning. It's like 2:00 PM.

Leanne Vogel:
And then some sort of dinner, which usually involves meats.

Leanne Vogel:
If I'm doing a carb up, my favorite carb-up item is either cassava or sweet potatoes. Sometimes apples but pretty rarely.

Leanne Vogel:
So it's a lot of yoga. I also salsa dance and do [pachada. 00:31:27] If I'm doing that, I usually enjoy having fat bombs before class. I just find that that's helpful for my energy. I don't overthink it.

Leanne Vogel:
I used to lift a whole bunch way back in the day where I had to really pay attention to what I was doing. How I was doing it. Like I said in my intro of the book, I just don't have time or energy for that. I find a good salsa class, where I'm really moving, feels just as hard as when I was dead-lifting.

Leanne Vogel:
I've really made it not about food anymore. I was having this conversation with a friend recently and she said, "I lived to eat. I just love eating and I love looking forward to eating."

Leanne Vogel:
I'm like, "Food. Nah."

Leanne Vogel:
A couple of years ago I was obsessed with food and obsessed with making food. Smelling food. Talking about food.

Leanne Vogel:
Now it's sort of this ... It's not an inconvenience but it definitely slows me down. So I don't think about it too much. And for me, that is such a gift. I love that.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
It's giving you freedom. There's freedom.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Again, stages in our life. Different places in our life. Different settings. From our monthly cycles to we're menopausal to what's happening in our life. We're raising children. We're busy. We're wearing five hats on this one head.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
How we can work in the self-care, into our routine, these principles that really work for me, I pretty much like to eat dinner by 6:00 PM and breakfast by 10:00 AM. For me that works the best. Maintaining weight, energy, and my schedule. I'll work out in the morning and then breakfast.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Mostly. I'm like you. Not really fond to the gym. What's that? But doing things you like. Doing things you enjoy. That makes the difference.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I think we can all commit, listening right now onto this Couch Talk, to commit to doing things that you love and really playing with keto for you. Keto green, right? We want to really be keto green.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Playing with that for you. What it feels like for you. If you've hit a wall, why? What's your body telling you? What's going on? Why is your energy plummeting?

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
In both my book and Leanne's book, we talk about other things that could be getting in the way of your success. That's really critical. From toxins to hormonal imbalance to mindset. And then we'll commit to empowering oxytocin, which it sounds like you're getting a lot of oxytocin on that boat.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Where we're in the world are you now?

Leanne Vogel:
We are in Fort Lauderdale. We're just preparing for my book tour that starts August 20th. So we're here, back stateside, where there's food and humans.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Are you going up the intercoastal?

Leanne Vogel:
No. Our boat can't fit.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Okay. Because we're at St Simons Island. We've got ocean. If you're ever this way, you got to come to stop by.

Leanne Vogel:
Deal. That would be lovely. We can't fit under most of the bridges on the intercoastal. So we do the ocean side and kind of duck in.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
That works for us. We've got the ocean marina. So come visit, Leanne.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Now tell our audience, other than when Leanne comes to visit me on St Simons Island on her boat, how can our audience get in touch with you and where can they get your book?

Leanne Vogel:
You can find me at healthfulpursuit.com. That's my blog. I have a podcast, The Keto Diet Podcast and you can find my book at ketodietbook.com. All three books are there and you can decide which one is best for you.

Leanne Vogel:
And I'm going on tour starting August 20th. You can find more details at kitodietbook.com/tour. Healthful Pursuit. Instagram is Healthful Pursuit.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I love your Instagram too. I'll have you put those links in the show notes so we have those too. We'll have those in our show notes for our podcast and Couch Talk

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Leanne, for our viewers and listeners, I want to thank you so much for being part of our community. Optimize into keto at least periodically. And Leanne talks about this too. Cycle in, cycle out. Challenge your body. We want that metabolic flexibility. We find that's really important.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Women do keto different than men. Leanne's book, Keto For Women. My book, The Hormone Fix. Two essentials for your bookshelves, for your bedside reading table, and let us know below how you like it and any questions that you have.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
I want to encourage all of you to share this episode. This is a fun episode and lots of good information elicited today. I want to encourage you to share your stories with me. I love reading them. Keep it up.

Dr. Anna Cabeca:
Thank you guys for being with me and I will see you next week. 

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Dr. Anna Cabeca

Dr. Anna Cabeca

Certified OB/GYN, Anti-Aging and Integrative Medicine expert and founder of The Girlfriend Doctor. During Dr. Anna’s health journey, she turned to research to create products to help thousands of women through menopause, hormones, and sexual health. She is the author of best-selling The Hormone Fix, and Keto-Green 16 and MenuPause.

Learn more about my scientific advisory board.