Nutrition Practitioner Cynthia Williams For Wellness Everyday with Linda Kreter
45:28 Share

Welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio with Linda Prater. Women are pressed daily to give more, learn more, and be more, often at the expense of mind, body, or spirit. Each week with intriguing guests and topics, we'll bring you fresh ways to view your limited time, encouraging a shift to new, healthier perspectives. Wise Health for Women Radio, helping women thrive. And now here's your host, Linda Prater. ♪

Good morning and welcome to Wise Health for Women Radio. I'm Linda Crater and we're very glad to have you with us today since we're going to be talking about health and wellness and goals and everybody knows what they need to do or I'll put this in air quotes, show

should do. But the best things that you can do are practices that you can actually stick with. And there's some things that handicap your ability to get yourself into good shape. And we're going to talk about some of those things today. And the point is always to become the healthiest version of you in the coming year. But we don't have to wait until next year to do that. We can start

And so that's what we're going to do. We're talking today to Cynthia Williams, an integrative nutritional practitioner, which is not easy for me to say, evidently. But she also specializes in women's hormone health, achieving weight loss, and redefining how to become the best version of you. So we will talk about how to help you heal your bodies, what you focus on first, and

And again, what is the best choice for you to make sure that you stick with whatever goals that you have? Cynthia, welcome to our program. Thank you. Thank you very much for having me. I'm excited. I'm very glad to have you on because I think that when people hear...

Healthy goals as we head into holiday seasons, and there's always a holiday. So, you know, if you're listening to this six months later, you'll understand. There's always something, somebody's birthday or something else to go celebrate and perhaps not eat right or something that gets in the way of your movement. And I tend to use the word movement instead of exercise these days only because it seems to be

Yeah.

Yeah, just that little thing. You remember that? Yeah. Yeah, right. That just exacerbated, you know, anybody's, I guess, bad habits, you want to say, you know, during that time, because prior to that, obviously, still, we're, you know, we're in the worst metabolic decline as a nation with our health that we've ever seen. So, yeah, so there's a lot going on. I'm with you. I, you know, I, it's about sustainability. It's about lifestyle.

Yes, I work on nutrition. Yes, I work on helping with exercise programming. But first and foremost, I always work on mindset, habits, and thought patterns. Because if you don't change those, the weight loss isn't sustainable. The exercise patterns you're trying to pick up aren't sustainable because you're not doing the deep work, the big work, the realistic work that helps you learn well.

what has caused you to get to the place where you're at. You know, we don't just put on 20 pounds. We don't just stop moving and cut exercise out of our life. Things happen, right? We have shifts, all that kind of stuff. So if you don't start to self-reflect and address and figure out what happened to got you to where you are, where you're unhappy and you don't feel good, you're not going to be able to shift back the other direction. Well, and I think you're bringing up the mind-body connection.

I mean, there's a very, very strong connection between how you feel mentally and what you do physically and vice versa. So the more you do to improve how you feel, the more committed you are generally, even when life gets in the way, to keep maintaining something because you've seen some progress. And I like to use we're working for progress, not perfection.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. I tell my clients perfection is the demise of making success. If you are trying to be perfect, perfect, you are going to burn out. You're going to end up binging. You're going to end up eliciting more negative behaviors than if you just focus on consistency and trying to be better. Mm hmm. I fully agree. So you talk.

Let's just do an imaginary client. An imaginary client comes to you and says, I just don't feel well. I feel sluggish. My metabolism seems to have cut in half. I know some of this is age related, but some of it I can possibly control with your help. You know, what does that client look like?

That is a very typical client. I do work, I will say, with a few men, but most of my clients are women. And I do, yes, focus on hormone and health. So typically, they've come to me, they're tired of doing the crash diets, the fad diets, they are now focused on their health.

First and foremost, and that's one of my things that I always say is if you focus on your health, weight loss is a byproduct of getting healthy. So they come and we do it just it depends on the client how healthy.

how many issues are unveiled through talking with them and doing the initial consultation, whether we need to do blood work and do a deeper dive. Do we have thyroid issues going on? Do we have hormonal imbalances? How much inflammation do we have in the system? What's our cardiac health look like? So we have to go in and take a big view or a,

a collective view of everything that's going on and figure out, okay, what do we need to attack first? What is the biggest domino that we have that in order to start seeing the results, start feeling better, have increased energy, mood, libido, better skin, better hair, all of those kinds of things. Where do we start first?

So that's one thing that I highly encourage all women, people in general, but women, we have to be our own health advocates. There is a

a lot of preventative and educational care when it comes to women's health, their body, their cycles, their hormones, perimenopause, menopause, all of that kind of stuff. We are pushed to taking Xanax, Prozac, and going on control to control symptoms versus digging in and getting to the root cause of why we're having these issues. And we feel this way to begin with.

You know, and to your point, you said, yeah, aging is some of it, but you can still feel freaking fantastic at 50, 60 years old. Yes, you can. Yeah, I have clients that I work with in their 60s that look amazing and that have great energy. Their libido is still high. Their hair looks fantastic. It

It's just about taking care of yourself and figuring it out, though. You know, you've got to do a little digging like we talked earlier. You've got to do a little self-reflection. You've got to do some work on the mindset to figure out where your hurdles are that you've got to get over and start working consistently on changing your path with those hurdles to get you to where you want to be. Excellent points all. I call them limiting beliefs.

And those things that hold you back, I think that, you know, often, and this is both men and women, are told things that they take to heart. Well, you're the heavy one or you're, you know, you're not good at sports.

Or you're this, you're that, some label that usually labels are not terribly flattering. And so limiting beliefs can hold us back. So I often think it's not so much learning new things, it's unlearning those bad habits. How do you feel about that?

Both. I think it's kind of one and the same when we're talking to the habits. You have to learn what the habit is. People aren't even aware, honestly, of some of the habits that they have, the actions they have.

their thought patterns because they have been doing them for so long. It's just their normal in and out every day. So one identifying and learning what's going on. And then yes, to your point, changing that, unlearning that belief, building confidence. That's one thing I work on with a lot of my clients because I feel like confidence is lacking. And once we have confidence, they just seem to attack life with, you know, vibrance and just ready to get after it. And they see their full potential. And I think,

Try to help that because all of it is related to how we take care of ourself. 100%. You know, we are a reflection of what we think of ourself, if that makes sense. Well, I think self-talk is one of the most important things. If you find yourself being negative about yourself, you know, I'm so stupid. I'm so uncomfortable in my clothes. I'm this, I'm that.

that really your brain hears it and what you believe to be true will come true. And so I think one of the saddest things in life is if someone doesn't achieve their full potential. We were put here on earth to do good things and to take care of ourselves and take care of others. And it's hard to do that if you're not feeling your best self. Correct.

I believe there's six pillars of health. Okay. And I think you have to work on all six of those pillars.

at all times, maybe, you know, your focus shifts from one to another, depending upon where you are in life, but you do have to be working on them. And they are, it's financial, emotional, social, intellectual, spiritual, and physical. So all six of those pillars, we have to constantly be working to improve ourself. I feel in order to achieve our ultimate level of who we can be as a person and achieve just pure happiness. Does that make sense?

It does. And it's funny, I'm a life coach and I work in this space somewhat. And I like to think, and this is my personal experience, I like to think that staying in

curious and creative and seeking discovery and constantly learning keeps you young at heart. And it also teaches you a lot of things about yourself and about others. And I think who we surround ourselves with, what you talked about is the social aspect I'm imagining. And the spiritual aspect is also very important. There are so many aspects to life that if you take out one of those pillars, any of them,

you have truly handicapped yourself. Yes. Yeah. Yes. To your point. And then, you know, how I see it from when I'm working with clients is if, if we have a client that's working towards weight loss and balancing hormones and improving insulin levels, but are constantly plagued with financial issues or constantly plagued with toxic relationships,

Their ability to achieve success is very much harder because they have this weight on them at all times. So if you're not addressing these issues, you know, slowly or however it works in your family. And some of that is out of my wheelhouse. I just identify it for the clients that may talk to a therapist or a life coach or whoever it may be to help us progress. But if you have, yeah, you have to.

Yes. Like you said, you just have to be curious and wonder what's out there, what can be better, where do I find the best version of myself, and what does it look like to get there? I'm so pleased to share our sponsor today, HelloFresh. As America's number one meal kit, HelloFresh delivers pre-portioned, tasty ingredients and recipes right to your doorstep.

Fewer grocery runs, farm fresh seasonal ingredients, and chef crafted recipes I learn from and thoroughly enjoy.

I love how HelloFresh gives me the option to not keep thinking up every meal and prompts me to explore delicious recipes to add variety to our meals. My family wants to know what the next meal is before the current one is finished. It's such a win for me when the inevitable question comes, what's for dinner? I now have great answers.

Plus, HelloFresh is more than delicious dinners. They also provide over 100 items to round out your order. Easy lunches, scrumptious snacks, desserts, and also pantry necessities. Most of all, I love seasonal fresh ingredients, and HelloFresh brings quality ingredients picked at peak ripeness that go from farm to your home in less than seven days. Pick your selected delivery date and enjoy.

Go to HelloFresh.com forward slash Y16 and then use code Y16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping. Go to HelloFresh.com forward slash Y16 and use code Y16 for 16 free meals plus free shipping. America's number one meal kit. I highly recommend.

Well, and I think if you are curious, like we were as children, we were curious about everything. Why this? Why that? You know, how does a caterpillar become a butterfly? You know, I'm being simplistic, but those were things that were magical when we were young. And I also have a theory that you need to keep your inner child alive because if you keep that, if you tune into that inner child, you really will experience

You can regress in a way that is very helpful to you because chances are good that you can have a memory here or there that you can go back to that you knew you were in a happy place. We all talk about now, you know, as adults, what is your happy place? And usually we can visualize it. We may not be able to go there, be there anymore.

or even visit, but we know what makes us happy. And it's funny, I tend to not use the word happy as much as I seek contentment. Because if I'm content, then I'm not feeling a lack of any sort.

And I think a lot of people feel a lack. You know, they don't feel they're the best version. That's what we're talking about. You know, the healthy mindset, the healthy nutrition and the healthy health and wellness in general. Because when we feel good about ourselves and we know we can walk stairs without huffing and puffing or we can pick up a grandchild.

or we're pregnant for the first time and you're 40. There are a lot of different changes in life come at different times for people, but it's really your health is your wealth. Yeah, very much. And I mean, you say that I was saying your inner child, I have a three-year-old and I didn't have my first and my only child till I was 41. There you go. Yeah. So it has been...

it yeah very much it's it's changed me for just so much for the better it has made me just such a it has just being a mom I think in general does you know you have this other life that you're now responsible for but just seeing things through her eyes and the way I was before her and now because you know having a child later in life you're a little set in your ways you know you do

Doing things your way for 41 years. And now you have to completely shift all that. So it made me not that I was selfish, but I realized, I guess, how selfish I was with my time until you have to share it or give it over to somebody else. But it just, yeah, it's completely changed my life and the way I view health, the way I coach. Just it's just been amazing.

It's just made me such a better person. Yeah. Well, I have a funny feeling that you're really, truly not selfish. It's just, you've now seen a bigger world, a world with more parameters to it. And there's something about the eyes of a child that just makes you laugh. Some people will get the same effect out of a puppy. You know, there, there are certain things, but having a puppy is not exactly the same training as having a child. You don't get a manual for that. Right. Right.

I know what you're talking about. Let's talk about one of the things that I think is so prevalent these days, and that is poor sleep. Waking up or not being able to fall asleep. That plagued so many people. Yeah. Yeah, that's that's definitely one of the key things I get down with clients is sleep because sleep.

Um, and in my field, you know, it affects our hormone levels. If we don't get good rest at night, insulin levels are up. Cortisol levels are up. It causes increased cravings. It causes moodiness, causes brain fog. We don't make the best decisions. Um, so that, yeah, sleep is just, it's vital for recovery. Um, you know, we just have to get sleep. And if I hear one more person say, I'll sleep when I die, I'm like, do you? And I don't mean to be rude.

How stupid that's how dumb that is. No, you're going to be you're going to die earlier because you're not sleeping now. You're not taking care of yourself now. So you have to get good rest. And I see that with clients. It's one of the first things actually that improves when we change our food and we either change up our activity level or we add in activity level. But those two and water getting hydrated. Right. Those three things right there.

Sleep and energy are usually the first two things that I get comments back from my clients that they've noticed the biggest difference. And it only takes three to four days of just cleaning up your food to honestly start seeing a difference. Well, and I think that we had so much uncertainty during the pandemic and so much conflicting information. And I've said this on other shows.

with a company's name of Wise Health, I sit and wonder why we didn't use that period to also inculcate some healthier habits, immune boosting, knowledge for people, because we missed an opportunity with a captive audience. I know I kept trying, but I'm just one podcast in a sea of podcasts. And I think that

Sleep is like gold. There's now a tie with sleep and dementia and Alzheimer's. If that doesn't, you know, snap you into wanting better sleep hygiene and better health, I'm not certain what will. But also you just feel better when you have rested. Your brain has had time to recover and you relax your muscles too. I mean, we are so

driven and rigid, although perhaps I'm wrong. Tell me what you're seeing among your clients.

No, it's, yeah, it's poor sleep. It's high stress, poor food choices, poor stress management, poor mood, low libido, low energy. All they all go hand in hand. Which one started first? Was it the poor diet that led to the poor sleep that led to the poor energy? Was it the poor sleep that led to the poor diet that let, you know, it doesn't matter. It's one or the other. They're all intertwined. But again, you know, just working on

foundations, foundations, developing a good circadian rhythm, a circadian cycle. I preach to my clients going to bed at the same time every night, having good sleep hygiene, doing this after night.

In the mornings, waking up at the same times in the morning, having your routine set in the morning, teaching your body to go to bed and wake up at the same times every single day is also part of getting good sleep and having those hormone levels start to regulate and balance because it knows like cortisol. Okay, we're getting close to bedtime. I'm going to start down regulating the production of it so that this person...

sleep. Okay. This person typically wakes at 5 a.m. I'm going to start up regulating the cortisol at this point to help stimulate them and get them up and get them going for the day. But when you have these people that are, you know, going to bed and waking up at different times consistently that, you know, the hormone levels just get jacked and then hormones travel in packs. So if we get one off, others are going to start to come off. And then we just have this cascading effect of our health starting to decline. Well, and talk about how the gut is the root of many of the hormones.

Well, yeah, yeah, that is for sure. Yeah, if you've got poor gut health, then you definitely have issues. But again, the poor gut health, did it come from starting with poor sleep? Because that could have been affected. You had poor gut health and that affected the sleep. It's the chicken or the egg when it comes to that kind of stuff. And it's, yes, you have to get it all together.

It's all tied together. I mean, we have an amazing system in our bodies, but it is delicate on one hand and very sturdy on another. But talk about the dreaded molecule sugar.

So, yeah, I mean, sugar, it depends on, again, it depends on the person and where they are as far as the tolerance for sugar. You know, someone like me who is very healthy, low body fat, exercises, eats great most of the time. If I have some sugar, you know, a cookie a day or something like that, is it going to affect me to someone? No.

who has poor sleep, who is overweight, who doesn't eat great, you know, throughout the day. No, it's not. Our glycemic index responses are going to be two totally different things. So that, you know, yes, sugar, we want to avoid it just like processed oils and refined grains and all that kind of stuff. But

I don't want to put like the sole focus. No, it's not an evil. Right. It's the, as my mother used to say many years ago, you know, everything in moderation. Correct. Everything in moderation and to the client. Like I work with a client, the first thing I'm not going to do is say, you have to pull all your sugar. That's unrealistic, especially if you have somebody. It's not going to happen. Right. It's going to happen.

Cause burnout. It's going to cause binging. Right. Again, we're trying to work on lifestyle and sustainable changes. So the first thing like we just spoke of is I would work on sleep and I would probably work on like steps, increasing steps. Um, to your point earlier in the day, I, I work on exercise and I work on activity levels. I think they're two totally different things. Um,

And so we work on those kinds of things to help control insulin levels. I teach clients like a trick that you can do when you're eating food to help blunt some of the glucose response is when you have your plate of food, if you would consume your proteins and your vegetables first and then finish your plate with whatever starchy carbohydrate source that you have, that has been shown through research to blunt the glucose and insulin response.

So I just start making small changes that are easy to do. Right. We can easily pick our meat first versus the bread. Right. Just those little small changes to help start reducing the glucose response. And then they start to feel better. And when clients start to feel better, they start to make better decisions. Those better decisions tend to lead to results. Those results tend to lead to continued motivation to continue to make better decisions. Right.

I agree with all that. One of the tricks I did for myself years ago after my children left, so I was cooking for a family and then I was cooking for a much smaller group. So is that I do meal prep on Sundays because if I don't have things ready to eat when I get home from work, that's where it can be dangerous. That's where the chunk of cheese, you know, a piece of toast, whatever,

And a beer comes in. And so I'm not joking. That's real. But I do normally cook on Sundays and it gives me the foundation for meals for the rest of the week. Not usually all of it. You know, I'll improvise, you know, toward the end of the week by not having surprises. It really did help me because I used to have a huge sweet tooth.

But when you eat sugar, you start to crave sugar. And so, you know, I moderated and back that out. And now I just don't do that as much. So that's...

For me, the pandemic offered a wonderful time to actually focus on, all right, what are my habits? And what can I do to make myself feel better? I've always been healthy, like you are talking about. And I've always moved, exercise and otherwise. But it's always a focus on health. My son...

is a flight paramedic, you know, flying trauma patients places. And he talked about the highest comorbidity factor during the virus was obesity or overweight even.

And he said, there's one thing about feeling comfortable in your skin and we've normalized certain looks. He goes, it's another thing to die at 40 because you overindulged. And I thought that was very mindful of him because he was taking into account what people think and can manage and what they couldn't manage. And I think that was, again, one of those kicks in the butt.

that could make you change your behavior because it was necessary. Right. I mean, you know, I'm not, you can't be healthy at any size. I'm sorry. I was going to say it. I've seen the blood work to prove it. You just, you can't be. You can't. No, you're right. You're absolutely right. I just am trying to not be terribly controversial because I think that in terms of

As he said, you can be comfortable in your weight, but not if it's unhealthy. And I think that's the difference. It's not so much about how you look. It's how healthy you are. What are your sugar levels? What is your shape of your body? Whether apple, pear, all of those sorts of things. Poor sleep. The cortisol levels. I know that I learned something recently.

maybe only six months ago because of my age I was starting to put weight in the middle and I'm not okay with that

And I was eating only protein, vegetables, and some fruit. Well, once I added back good fats, complex carbohydrates like sweet potatoes and good fats like avocados and almonds and things like that, it peeled right off. I honestly didn't have to do anything else. I just kept my movement up and then I stopped starving myself because some people go the other way. I was the person that went the other way.

My body thought it was starving itself. Sometimes that happens to people who go on intermittent fasting. Again, I'm one of them. And so it's interesting to know yourself and to know your body. And I think you probably help people tune in to their self-awareness. Am I right?

Yes. Yeah. Just, yeah. Creating. I have a, one of the tools that I use is a, it's a weekly check-in and I make the clients review their week. I make them go back and look at all their triggers through the week because we can...

We're always going to have triggers. What we have to work on is changing our response to triggers, right? So we go back and we review everything over the week and help them identify again. Okay. This went on this week and I ended up overeating on Thursday night, you know? Okay. So now we've identified it, that this is a trigger.

was your said response to trigger. So next week when this same trigger approaches, because it's always going to be there, you're more mindful of it and maybe you still overeat, but maybe you don't overeat as much, right? We're just trying to be a little better than we were the week before.

You know, and like, yeah, to your point of, you know, under eating and, you know, thinking that's the way, and that's what a lot of women do as they age is they cut carbs because that's what they think is supposed to go. Carbs are what's making us fat. And it is not one food group that makes you overweight. It is an over consumption of calories, period, that will make you put on weight. But they chronically under diet. I mean, under diet. Right. Yeah.

Most of them over exercise and they're doing a lot of these HIIT workouts and all this, you know, high metabolic work. Because again, they think this is the answer. And what, to your point, all that does is crank on your cortisol, which again, cranks on your insulin, which then will affect estrogen levels, progesterone. Yes. And your ability to store fat or burn fat. Trying to help educate women to not be afraid of food. Right.

Start to learn your body again, using this check in to be reflective of behaviors and how those behaviors have in turn either caused weight gain or poor sleep or stress or any of those health markers that, you know, that we need to work on to improve your overall health versus just focusing on a scale number.

I think the scale is very deceptive. It really doesn't help. Scales are for fish. I really find that how your clothes fit, how your energy level feels, how are you mentally, are you able to dodge and weave when stressors come? Because they will come. I mean, that's sort of the way of the world. Talk a little bit about immune boosting.

Because that's hot on people's lists these days, how to keep your immune system functioning and high.

Uh, yeah. So, I mean, that's just like anything we've talked about is getting good sleep is first and foremost, right? We want to keep our sleep up. We want to eat lots of nutrient rich foods. We want to be hydrated and we need to move our body. Those are the best things that you can do. Um, I'm kind of on a, cause we're getting close to, um, January one. And so of course we see all the right.

But the big thing that we see and I've been seeing a lot is like detoxes and cleanses and all these these five day things that you can do to get ready for your holiday party or, you know, whatever it is. So I've been on a kick here lately with my social media of how to naturally detox our body, which is how we boost immunity and the food.

to eat, the supplements that you can look at to take to help and boost it. But none of that stuff works unless you're getting good sleep. You're moving your body. You're eating good food most of the time. You're staying hydrated. You're working on stress management outlets, whether that's yoga, warm baths at night, deep breathing, walks. Like I can't tell you how much I love walking for stress management. And when I get...

for it. I just think walking is one of the absolute best things that we can do for our body inside and out. It's one of the best ways to help you lose weight and maintain weight and maintain weight loss. It's just such an underrated exercise with so much highly regarded health benefits to it. Well, it also grounds you. And I'm a big, I love working in my garden. And I, I,

I found that that really kept me sane during a time when we really had much less freedom to move about or it was just too much trouble to move about. And so grounding and being out in nature, that's why walking is fantastic if you're in an area that's safe to walk.

There are certain areas that I was grateful that I was not in because we all went through the pandemic, but we did not all go through it the same way. If you were in a high rise in New York City, that's one thing. If you were in Montana in the open plains, okay, that's a different one. So we all...

We all took a look at our habits at that point. And some people had healthy coping skills and some people did not. And let's face it, we thought it was a sprint and it turned out to be a marathon.

And so mental outlook was very, very important. So to boost mental outlook, obviously the obvious one is surround yourself with people who are positive. Set boundaries that are healthy for you if certain people are toxic. Remove yourself from toxic situations if at all possible. What other things do you suggest to your clients? I will set goals that...

We'll set short-term goals during our process of working together for, let's say, the next four to six weeks. I want you to either read a book, find a podcast, join a group, whatever works for you, your lifestyle, and your time that focuses on self-improvement. How can we get, and it depends on, you know, a client, depending again, whatever they're going through, but things to improve mental strength in business.

So that that carries over. Yeah, it carries over in the weight loss stuff, but it carries over into life. It carries over into their ability to cope with life, handle life and not let life knock them down and kick them in the butt. Right. Or if you do get knocked down, you get right back up. It's not the poor.

Everything happens to me. Why doesn't anything good, happy to me happen to me? You can't be in that kind of a state. You have to be a fighter in life if you want to enjoy life and get the most out of it. You have to fight for it. There's the 1% of our population where things are handed to them. But for the most of us everyday common folk, you have to fight through life.

And so we work on different skill sets and things to help them, again, come back to building up their confidence to make them a strong person and have a good mindset and constantly working on self-improvement

in different forms, whatever that looks like or works for that client. You know, some people like to read, some are audio, some like to go in person and take a class, whatever. But I also set goals and have my clients work on that part of it as we're working on health and weight loss.

Well, they're all connected. And I think that's extremely important that we know that there is connection between mind and body, a very tight connection. So along with the negative self-talk, which is best to be eliminated, finding how to calm yourself down.

It's funny. I never used to believe in mindful breathing. I'm like, it's just breathing. I just do that. And then I realized, no, no, there's these certain breaths that will help your parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems to calm down. And it's a tool you have with you right then and there. Now, if you need an app to make you do it, go ahead, download the app.

But we have a lot of tools right in our cell phones. Now I'm going to go to the third rail. Social media can be a stressor for people. Yeah, that's, you know, I've had it with a few clients that have brought it up that, you know, they, the less than feeling from watching everybody else's highlight reel. And so, you know, for telling clients to just jump off of social media and blah, blah. That's not realistic either. Right. Right.

They're going to come back to it. So what I typically suggest and what I do, I mean, I, my, you know, my, I'm on social media. That's how I build my clientele and things like that. But as far as actually sitting on social media and scrolling through it, I don't do it. I will go. Does the time suck? Well, time,

But even, you know, there's times where we like to decompress and just look at things. And so I make sure that when I am looking at it and the people that I have followed on social media or when I go to YouTube are things that I enjoy and have zero comparison base. So when look at how to do a cute ponytail or a recipe.

Or things like that that have no, that provide, don't make me feel lesser than in any sort of way. They give me enjoyment and they actually inspire me to want to try something new or do something different. So that's what I'll suggest with clients is looking, you know,

going through your feed, cutting out anything that makes you feel less than or that you're comparing yourself to, just get rid of it and then fill up anything with the things that you love, whether it's outdoors, cooking, makeup, hair,

hobbies, whatever that may be, but things that will actually contribute to you as a person versus trying to take away from you. Well, it's true because a lot of people lost their filters on certain parts of social media and it became a cruel place. And you seek out the pages that find

balance for you as well, because it really, it is possible to be on social media and not get off it and have your stomach in a knot and your brow furrowed. I mean, it really is a choice. And then the other thing that I often tell people is that, okay, if you're going to tell me that this, this, that, or the other thing is disturbing to you,

Well, are you going to change it? Because anything you don't change becomes a choice. Yeah, I agree.

And, you know, it comes back to like discipline, working on changing, changing the thought pattern, changing the mindset, switching the channel. You know, you can either stay there and get sucked into it and have the poor pity me mindset, or you can flip to another page and find something that inspires you and continue to move on and move forward in your life versus being stalled out by somebody else's life. Well, what you're really talking about is empowerment.

Self-empowerment as well as surrounding yourself with people who are empowering. And I think that goes a long way. I belong to certain groups, online virtual groups, one international entrepreneur group. And I swear, I look so forward to it, even though it's at a very bad time of day for me. But it's uplifting. And these are people who are innovative and creative and creative.

And just so supportive. So if you don't have someone locally, because many of us don't have a lot of people around us that are easy to see in person, you can now do it virtually, which is also a plus. Yeah. Yeah. Then you're not...

Well, there's no excuse at that point because you have an option and you've joined it and you've often paid for it. So it gives you a reason to be on there. But being able to share your thoughts in a trusted group is and you're all equals is very interesting.

So I have found that the viewpoints from around the world, because this particular one I'm in is global. So it's UK, Korea, New Zealand, South Africa, America, and many, many people. And so usually there are about 10 to 15 people on the Zoom call. And

And it's always uplifting. It's something that I do for me. And I think that's partly what you're talking about, too. Make choices that work for you. And so if you feel a lack on the social side or the spiritual side or physically, if you want to go play pickleball somewhere, find somebody who will do it with you. You know, having buddies or people that you can call on really does help.

Yeah. Or to your point, if you don't and these are things that you want to do, go join a group. Right. Well, that's exactly what I did because I just didn't have people who were entrepreneurial in my world. And so I went and sought this group out and it's it's been a real godsend for me. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we have to.

Nobody else is going to do it for us. These are things that we have to do for ourselves if we want to actually be happy and live a fulfilled life that is propelling forward. We have to take those opportunities and grab them and go. Nobody else is going to like say, here, Cynthia, push, go, go, go. No, because you're not always going to be there at the weak moments. So for people to find out more information about you, your website is Cynthia.com.

C-Y-N-T-H-I-A WilliamsWellness.com. Did I get that correctly? Cynthia Williams Wellness. Yep. Perfect. And I think that it really is important at this time of year that we take a look. It doesn't matter. One thing I did relearn in my life is that I don't have to wait for a Monday to start to make changes. I don't have to wait for the new year to make changes. I just have to pick a time.

And then write it in a calendar. I do believe in personal accountability. So I will tell someone, please remind me that I said I was going to do this and check in on me to make sure I did. Because a little supportive help works. Yes. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, you have to...

Again, that's something I do with clients is you have to talk to somebody. You have to tell somebody what you're doing and what you're wanting to do so that you have accountability and you've made it real. So you have to work towards it.

Well, I think it really does help as a supportive measure as well as an accountability measure. So, I mean, we have heard for many years now, you know, I need an accountability partner. Well, what better place to have an accountability partner in your health and wellness goals? And so I'm certain that on your social media, you have, you know, groups and posts and things that you put up that do promote that, you know,

You know, how are you all doing? Here's something inspirational. You know, what will you do with your weekend or your day off or something like that? So talk to us about anything I haven't asked you about. You have about two minutes. Oh, I think we've talked about quite a bit today and covered it all. Just like you said, you can find me at Cynthia Williams Wellness.com.

and I focus on all the things that we talked about today, um, as well as really doing deep dives with women on their hormones and their gut health. As we again, mentioned earlier today, because they are very much intertwined and you can't have one off without the other being off. Um, and just helping women. My big mission with working with women is to help them not feel dismissed anymore when it comes to seeking treatment for whatever their symptoms are. Um, there's a lot of,

When women visit doctors, like I said earlier, you know, being dismissed. Oh, that's part of aging. Oh, yeah. And it does not have to be that way. You can feel absolutely fantastic at whatever age. Just don't settle. Don't don't let them dismiss how you're feeling. You can feel better.

I love it. Again, you can find out more about Cynthia at CynthiaWilliamsWellness.com. And thank you for sharing with us about balancing life and health goals and some tips for really learning how to relearn or unlearn habits.

and setting a positive mindset so you can achieve your goals and to become your best self. Cynthia, thanks for sharing your wisdom with us. For the rest of you, please have a wonderful week ahead and go to CynthiaWilliamsWellness.com for more information. We'll talk with you again next week. Make it a great one. Thank you for tuning in today. You can find more shows at WiseHealthForWomenRadio.com.