Episode Overview
Episode Topic
In this episode of Holistic Health Habits, host Surani Fernando is joined by Elle Russ, a renowned health coach, author, and thyroid expert, to develop into the nuances of holistic health and wellness. Elle shares her journey from battling a chronic hand disability to becoming a leading advocate for paleo and primal eating. She highlights the importance of understanding one’s own body and dietary needs, especially when managing conditions like hypothyroidism. This discussion is perfect for listeners interested in the benefits of a paleo-primal diet, fat adaptation, and the transformative power of aligning one’s lifestyle with ancestral health principles. The episode offers actionable insights for those looking to optimize their health through diet and lifestyle changes.
Lessons You’ll Learn
Listeners will learn about the principles of paleo and primal eating, which focus on a high-fat, moderate-protein, and low-carbohydrate diet aligned with human DNA. Elle explains how fat adaptation can improve energy levels, reduce cravings, and support overall metabolic health. She also discusses the dangers of over-exercising and chronic cardio, advocating for a balanced approach that includes strength training and mindful movement. Additionally, Elle touches on the importance of honoring hunger cues, the role of intermittent fasting, and how dietary changes can manage or even prevent thyroid disorders. This episode is a deep dive into rethinking how we eat and move to achieve optimal health and wellness.
About Our Guest
Elle Russ is a prominent health coach, author, and thyroid expert known for her groundbreaking work in the field of holistic health. She is the author of “The Paleo Thyroid Solution,” which has helped countless individuals manage their thyroid issues through diet and lifestyle changes. With a background that includes overcoming her own health challenges, Elle is a passionate advocate for the paleo-primal lifestyle, which emphasizes natural, whole foods and ancestral health practices. Her expertise extends to fat adaptation, metabolic flexibility, and optimizing health through a balanced, nutrient-dense diet. Elle’s personal journey and professional insights offer invaluable guidance for anyone seeking to transform their health naturally.
Topics Covered
This episode covers a range of topics critical to understanding holistic health and wellness. Key discussions include the foundations of paleo and primal diets, the benefits of fat adaptation, and how to effectively manage carbohydrate intake. Elle explains the concept of metabolic flexibility and its importance in achieving sustained energy and weight management. The conversation also explores the relationship between exercise and diet, emphasizing the need to avoid over-exercising and instead focus on activities that align with one’s natural energy levels. Other topics include the impact of different foods on thyroid health, practical tips for making dietary transitions, and the psychological aspects of food cravings and diet adherence
Our Guest: Dr. Elle Russ
Elle Russ is a dynamic health coach, author, and thyroid expert renowned for her work in the fields of holistic health and wellness. She is the author of the bestselling book “The Paleo Thyroid Solution,” which has become a cornerstone resource for individuals struggling with thyroid conditions, particularly hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s disease. Elle’s approach blends cutting-edge nutritional science with practical lifestyle changes, helping people regain control over their health by aligning their diet and habits with ancestral health principles. Her expertise extends to areas such as fat adaptation, metabolic flexibility, and optimizing hormonal balance through diet. Elle’s personal health journey has given her a unique perspective and a passionate commitment to empowering others to heal naturally and effectively.
Elle’s journey into health coaching and thyroid expertise began with her own battle against a chronic hand disability and hypothyroidism. In her late 20s, Elle developed severe tendonitis from a high-pressure corporate career, leading her to seek alternative health solutions. She became an early advocate of the anti-inflammatory diet, inspired by pioneers like Dr. Andrew Weil. Later, after being diagnosed with hypothyroidism, she found herself navigating the complex world of thyroid health with little medical guidance. Through relentless self-education and experimentation, Elle successfully managed her condition using a paleo-primal diet and became a vocal advocate for patient empowerment and self-advocacy in health care.
Today, Elle Russ is a sought-after speaker, podcast host, and consultant, guiding clients worldwide toward better health through ancestral health practices. She is a leading voice in the holistic health community, frequently featured on platforms like Primal Blueprint and The Primal Kitchen Podcast, where she shares her insights on achieving optimal health. In addition to her expertise in thyroid health, Elle is also known for her work on confidence and personal development, authoring the book “Confident As F*ck.” Her multifaceted approach to wellness combines physical health, mindset, and lifestyle, making her a comprehensive resource for anyone looking to enhance their overall well-being. Elle continues to inspire with her message that true health is achieved through understanding, commitment, and the courage to challenge conventional wisdom.
TRANSCRIPT
Surani Fernando: Welcome to another episode of Holistic Health Habits, the podcast where we explore the latest trends and innovations in holistic health and wellness. I’m your host, Surani Fernando, and today our expert guest is Elle Rus. Elle is the founder of her own pioneering company in the field of holistic health. She’s a renowned health coach, author, and thyroid expert, and she’s here to share her incredible story and expertise with us. Welcome to the show, Elle.
Elle Russ : Hi. Thanks for having me. Important topic. Everyone wants to know how they can get healthier and live a better life, so I’m glad we’re here. Thanks for inviting me.
Surani Fernando: Exactly, exactly. Great to have you here. So firstly, you know, I was reading a little bit on your website and you’ve got an incredibly colorful journey that’s led you to where you are today. You know, lots of twists and turns, but I was wondering if you can maybe share some of the key moments that shaped your decision to get into the holistic health space.
Elle Russ : Sure. So I back when I was in my late 20s, I was. Well, first of all, the first thing that happened to me in life that was a health thing is that I had a permanent hand arm disability. I still have it. I have chronic tendonitis in both of my hands. I got this from a career in corporate technology, you know, just like 100 miles an hour on the computer. So, you know, the golden handcuffs were cut off of me. And that is a health thing. That’s inflammation. I was in chronic pain for at least a year. And so it kind of started with that. I was so in pain. I was searching for answers. And this was 1997. No, but there were no podcasts. Google wasn’t a thing. It just was not even a thing. So you’re looking around, you’re trying to find stuff. The only the only person out there was like Doctor Andrew Weil, do you remember Doctor Andrew Weil? He’s like, it looks like he’s very famous. He looks like Santa Claus. He’s got like a big gray beard. And he came out with a book called like, Optimal Health, and he had like a meditation CD. And I’ll tell you, it was the only thing that, like, helped me, that felt like I had somebody by my side and like, I listened to this and my arms would be on fire. I couldn’t even, like, go like that without pain or wipe myself without pain or hold a fork in my mouth.
Elle Russ : That was my first introduction into like, oh, and he was like, hey, anti-inflammatory, you know, olive oil fish. He was he was the pioneer beginning one of like anti-inflammatory. And then also had that meditation sort of CD on wellness. And I ended up interviewing him like 20 something years later. And I cried because I remember like he was my buddy. He was the only thing I had then. So that’s when I started to look into certain things. I started to exercise for circulation flow, but I couldn’t do anything with my arms. So I would like rollerblade or swim with the snorkel and a mask. And I started to kind of go along, and I always sort of knew how to eat healthy. My parents were pretty healthy and cooked full meals. , that was my first foray into it. Then I got disabled from my job. I’m like, oh my God, I only have my voice. There wasn’t YouTube or podcasts, right? So I went back to traditional acting school because I was like, there’s no other way to do this. And while I’m doing that, I’m like, okay, if I’m going to be on TV and film and it’s better now. But I was like, I’ve got to be fit, right? Like, I gotta I gotta look like a leading lady here, you know? I’m 27 and blond, right? Like, I gotta fit this mold, right? And here started the what I now realize in hindsight was on the wrong eating paradigm.
Elle Russ : Overexercising, which is a total nightmare. And I really probably over exercised myself into a state where then I became hypothyroid. And because of my journey, it’s like your test becomes your testimony. You know, a lot of health authors. We went through something. No one helped us. The only reason I got better from hypothyroidism I went to over two dozen endocrinologists in Los Angeles. It was through my perseverance and my own determination. I solved it myself. I actually dosed myself with thyroid hormones. I don’t have an MD. I shouldn’t have been in that situation. So through that perseverance and awful story, I was like, how? How are people in like Nebraska or other parts of the world dealing with this? If I’m in Los Angeles and I’ve got great insurance and access to, like, the most amazing experts and they can’t help me. So that led to a deep dive, right? And and thus came, you know, my foray into paleo, primal ancestral evolutionary health, which I do believe is the ultimate foundation. And you can make adjustments from there. So I’ll just leave it at that and see, you know, what you might want to ask from here. Yeah. Yeah.
Surani Fernando: I mean, that’s really interesting what you said about the overexercising part of it, you know, which I don’t think a lot of people realize how damaging that can be when you’re just especially coming from, you know, you mentioned going into acting, I guess, in the 90s. You know, I remember what it was like to grow up in the 90s and trying to fit a certain mold. But I also had an experience where maybe about eight years ago and I discussed this on another episode that, you know, the whole thing of like, if you want to get fit and lose weight, you know, you just got to pound, pound, the pound it at the gym, you know, the running, the sprinting, the weights, everything. But I actually felt in one month my body super inflamed because I had just stepped up what I was doing on a like, you know, an exponential level. I felt like irritable. I felt, you know, I mean, I looked and felt fatter, I felt heavier, and, you know, when I, when I tell people about that time in my life where I had this one month of just this gym pass that I had gotten and I just got really addicted to exercising, people don’t understand. They’re like, but if you just if you are exercising, then you’re burning calories and you should just be slim. You shouldn’t be getting fat. So it’s. Yeah. And I think, you know, I don’t think that I had a thyroid issue, but that, you know, it possibly could have led there.
Elle Russ : It could have led there. You know, so I want I want people to understand this because what you’re talking about is like, no pain, no gain. Like, and you’re talking about what we refer to in the paleo industry as chronic cardio. Okay. So this paradigm of okay, here’s the wrong paradigm that everyone got wrong. And, and experts and scientists like know now. But in the in the way in the past it was like glucose is our primary fuel which is wrong. But that was the. And so from that came the I’m sure people remember back in the day, if you’re been alive that long, like runners and marathons, the whole thing was like eat pasta the night before, load up on bread. Right? It was all carbs, all glucose. This was the paradigm. You, you you store yourself up with all this stuff. Then you go on the run and you’re and you’re burning it. This is a problem. And the reason it’s a problem is because our bodies actually don’t primarily want to run on glucose. We want it to be fat and some glucose. And so when you are on this paradigm, you’re on a hamster wheel to nowhere. And here’s the hamster wheel. You eat the carbs because you think that’s what’s supposed to fuel you. You can only store so much. Only a 200g and all of the organs.
Elle Russ : So then you go do a glycolytic workout, meaning you’re working out at whatever 185 minus your age is, whatever that nber is. If you go over that in heart rate, you are now in a glucose burning. So you eat all these carbs, then you’re like chronic cardio. Now you’ve just depleted them. And then after the workout, what are you craving? Carbs. You’re tired and you need carbs. And whatever the switch, the primal switch is no. We want to turn our genetic switches to go back to what we were really designed. Our DNA as han being was, was, was to draw from all of the the areas. Right. But we don’t want to be primarily glucose. Why? Everybody listening knows type two diabetes. Look at the diabetes obesity epidemic that’s carb driven. Do you know how you cure type two diabetes? You go low carb. There’s only one way to fix that naturally. Okay, so we just got it wrong. The 80s was like no fat. You know, eat pasta and chicken breast. Right. And then a lot of people that come to me are bikini body competitors because they are doing like the chicken breast and the broccoli. There’s not a lot of fat. Our cells need fat. The reason lifelong or childhood vegetarians or vegans have delayed menstruation is because they’re not getting enough cholesterol.
Elle Russ : And so that’s the problem. Like fat was vilified. That was a problem. Then it became, oh no, no, we want to do high carb. The best paradigm is what is aligned with our DNA. What is that? It’s pretty much a high or moderate fat paradigm with high protein or moderate protein and lower carb. What do I mean by low carb? Everyone’s got to look at their day. Okay. Unless you are an athlete and I mean like an NBA athlete, not like you go running every day for two hours. Unless you’re an athlete or like a bricklayer, you really shouldn’t go above 150g total of carbs every day. Most people are at 300 or more. That’s why we have insulin resistance. That’s why you have type two diabetes. So you. Right. So how do you look at it? Well, you need to start to look at your food because one bunch of asparagus cooked is 20 carbs. But asparagus is good for you. That’s not bad. It’s still carbs though. So if you’re going to drink the green juice and that’s 26 carbs of your day of 150 or 120. I’m five feet, two inches tall. I’m a small woman. I probably if I ate 150 carbs every single day, that might not work out for me. So maybe I need to go a little bit less. The key is to kind of be flexible with it.
Elle Russ : So the way that you would start out, as I say, don’t diet, don’t restrict you just get rid of the offensive things like bad seed oils. You switch them for good fats. Of course we take the packaging out, eat bacon, burgers, whatever you want, but just look at your carbs. I’d rather have people overeat protein and fat a little bit at first and start to manage those carbs. You know a pint of blueberries is 14 a a huge baked potato is 64g. So in a day, you know, and just start to gauge that, where are you kind of wasting carbs? And then people go, well, I don’t have a sweet tooth. And I go, do you eat breads and chips and things like that? That is sugar, right? People need to realize that the body doesn’t know the difference between three slices of sugared mango from Trader Joe’s, or a Coca-Cola. They both have 38g of carbs. Now one’s a better choice, clearly, but it does the same thing. So the reason you get like fatter and you keep working out, you’re on this hamster wheel is you’re never giving your chance, your body, a chance to pull from your fat stores. It’s too busy burning the glucose, refilling the glucose, burning the glucose when you get primal and fat adapted, as we say.
Elle Russ : And you switch this over and take about 21 days. What you start to notice is what I noticed. I was hauling ass up the mountain, right? The harder, the faster, the more I sweat, the better the weight, right? But then I’d be afterwards tired. Sore, hungry. So then I switched to the paradigm, which was let’s go at a pace 180 minus my age, a little lower. The hike felt a little slower. But you know what? It was more enjoyable. Okay. It was way more enjoyable. I was just taking my time and then I got back down. I wasn’t hungry, didn’t need to eat right away. I wasn’t fat and bloated. Later, I was lit up in the brain. And so if we look at our hunter gatherer ancestors, we have the same DNA as 50,000 year ago wandering hunter gatherers. This would have been a recipe for death if they were like sugar burners versus fat burners. Because at hour five, when the sugar drops and now they’re like, oh, I’m tired, I’m hungry, they would have all been prey. They wouldn’t have run up to the top of the hill because they had all the time in the world, they wouldn’t have exhausted themselves. It was more of a natural, like, hey, take your time. So this whole let me get on the bike, sweat it out, pp it out.
Elle Russ : And then another thing that my former mentor Mark Sisson, talks about is people at the gym and they’re on the cycle. And you, you know, you go up to them like, oh, what are you training for? And they’re like, I just like to eat. And here’s why. Here’s why. This is like a really bad paradigm to have. You’re spending all this stress for what, a few extra bites of something you really shouldn’t be having anyway. When you become fat adapted, you don’t need to work out every day to maintain your weight loss because you’re not on the hamster wheel. Because you didn’t fuel burn, fuel burn, you just fueled enough, right? And so I hope that makes sense. And if there’s anything that I can clarify about that, what I would say is if how do you know your sugar burner? If you cannot go for eight 24 hours without food and not have a hangry meltdown, you are not. You are definitely a sugar burner. , it is almost. It’s like 10:30 a.m. where I live right now. I have not had any food. I’ve been up since six. I’m fine. If I didn’t have any food for the next day, I’d actually be fine. I wouldn’t be because I’m fat adapted. My brain is going to go oh and start to fuel my body with my fat reserves.
Surani Fernando: Yeah, yeah. , yeah. That’s something actually, I’ve I’ve started doing really paying more attention. And we can also talk about this, you know, how you guide men versus women. But I’ve been doing, you know, learning a lot about how we have we don’t really talk about women and our cycles. And when we when certain hormones need certain nutrients and, and when they don’t need certain nutrients. And yeah, I’ve been doing 36 hour fast once a month in a in at the beginning of my cycle following a specific nutritionist advice. And I have to say like, it is incredible the amount of energy that I get from that. Like just doing that once a month, it’s like a detox, a cleanse, obviously making sure the the other moments of my month that I’m nourishing myself, eating well, I have to say that I’ve been more prioritizing in terms of the counting, because I find counting quite difficult, but just realizing that I’m definitely not eating enough protein. That, or the protein amount that I used to think, oh yeah, add this as your protein. It would be just probably a third of what I should be eating, because I’m also trying to change my body composition. Like I’m getting older. I want to build build muscle, protect my bones. So yeah, I think it’s a.
Elle Russ : Very good point. People really, especially when you when you reach 40 or above or even you have to my friend Elizabeth Resnick, who’s happy, healthy and hot on Instagram and she’s 57 and, you know, she’s killing it. And she’s always like, you prioritize protein and produce. It got tough for me. I used to eat a lot of protein. Then somehow I realized, oh my God, I don’t even think I’m eating enough, like half the amount. So when you prioritize protein, protein is so satiating. And if you are coming off of being a sugar addict, which is look, it’s tough. I’ve been there. , what I always suggest is look like stick with some like, non crappy dessert choices like fruit and whipped cream. Right? Fruit. Whipped cream and nuts or. You know what I mean? Like something like that. And eat that every day until you, you know, don’t eat the Twinkies, but one. And it’ll train your palate because those blueberries won’t be sweet enough at first. But then later on, you’re like, I don’t even think I need the whipped cream, right? So it’s like ISIL retraining your palate. The protein satiates you, and then if you eat it first, you’re less likely to make crappy choices. So if you go to a smorgasbord party and it’s like cheese and all this stuff, you’re like, oh my God, I don’t want to, you know, it’s so tempting. Go for the meat first. Like, get in. Get meat in your body immediately. , I don’t I naturally intermittent fast., just because I’m not a morning eater. But I honor my hunger when it does come up. The other day, I woke up at 4 a.m.
Elle Russ : for something., so I was hungrier earlier, and it was not a time of day that I prefer to eat, but I’m not going to go. I’m a person that fasts until I go, no, hold on a minute. My body wants a sausage right now. Eat the fucking sausage. Okay, so whatever your plan is, go with it and honor your hunger. If you’re not hungry for five hours, then don’t eat, right. You know,, my issue is that I like to eat my main dinner at, like, 3:00. Well, whose life does that work with? Not a lot of people, so I have to make adjustments for that. Sometimes if people want to go out to dinner at a certain time. But in general, I also honor that. Guess what? I’m not going to adjust my schedule to everyone else. I’m eating at frickin three, you know, most of the time. Like, I’m going to eat when I want to eat and I don’t care. I’m not going to suffer for three hours because I’m waiting for everyone in the house to have their dinner at six. I will occasionally I’ll not suffer, but I’ll gauge it right. I’ll throw some meat, you know, I’ll do a snack in between to hold off for that dinner. It’s just that your times may change as you go through this. I don’t recommend intermittent fasting If you’ve never done it and never gotten fat adapted, I’d recommend getting on a paleo primal. Get out of sugar burning, get into fat adapting, and then once you’re there, you can like really get down a little bit deeper. Mhm.
Surani Fernando: And with your eating cycles or you know your eating patterns, do you like are guiding your clients with this. Is it. How important is a woman’s cycle with that. Because when you were saying about Ayana my hunger I feel like I’m I’m doing that now. I didn’t understand before. Why like if you had asked me maybe ten years ago to stop eating at 6 p.m., I’m a late eater. I like, you know, I live in Spain now, so that fits perfectly for me. But I would have been like, no way. Like, I could not do that. I’m just going to wake up hungry. The one time I didn’t eat enough for dinner, I woke up and I slept like, sort of was sleepwalking and I ate a pl. I just opened the fridge. There was nothing there. And I was eating a pl, like, basically sleeping. And. But now I kind of understand that it’s it it’s kind of very much dependent on my on my cycle. And like that week before, like I’m week before you have cravings.
Elle Russ : Right. Or there might be something there. yeah.
Surani Fernando: And then I’ve learned to, to feed myself more of like the good carbs and, you know, really feeding myself those carbs sort of things, but obviously avoiding sugary, processed, fried, whatever. Especially fried if I’m out. You know, there’s a lot of fried food here in Spain that becomes a little bit difficult. But then in the beginning of my cycle, I noticed that I’m not like I’m very strong. Yeah, I’m not as hungry. So how like and I think that this is more new. I don’t know if you’re actually.
Elle Russ : Do you know Alisa Vitti? Do you know who Alisa Vitti is? Because her whole I interviewed her years ago, if you go to flow living.com and it’s just flow, her whole thing is about exactly what exercises and things you should and shouldn’t be doing at certain types of your cycle, you know, and I could be getting this wrong, but it was something to the effect of like in the week leading up to your period. That’s no time for cardio. That’s weightlifting. Right? Like there’s she goes through that. So that’s an interesting concept. There are people that swear by that. I haven’t done anything quote different with the exercise part. Meaning I do what I do what I do, and I don’t change it for, you know, like, oh, I just lift weights in the second half. , but when the cravings come up, there’s a couple of things. One of the reasons is women out there, if you don’t know if you’re craving chocolate, it’s usually because of the magnesi. So you know what I mean. You can get some magnesi in there. That’s good for muscle relaxation sleep. I also can find that there can be some constipation naturally around like ovulation, like just around this, this, this weird time. I’ll notice like oh, and so then I go, okay, hey be careful. Extra what you eat so you won’t have any trouble, you know, and I don’t have any bowel issues at all. I’m totally regular. But, you know, I just kind of noticed. Oh, things are a little off around there, so it’s like you have to have this awareness what’s happening with you.
Elle Russ : So when you’re craving that stuff before your period, I will carb up. I absolutely will. Will eat carbs, but they’re going to be good carbs. If I really want to be bad, I would eat a gluten free thing. So if I’m going to have pasta, I’ll eat gluten free pasta. So I’m still going to make the better choice for that. Even though I would say, of course, I’m a don’t eat grains, beans and leges and dairy and paleo primal is great. But again, you know, if you want something, it’s satisfying to the brain and everything and you need a carb thing or you need that texture. Sure, you could also go to, you know, cauliflower pasta, rice. There’s there’s all sorts of other options. So I just honor it I think before it’s overboard, you know, you’re going for Twinkies and donuts. I really try to stay away from that. That doesn’t mean that I don’t ever not have a donut. I want people to know you live your. Now, if I had an autoimmune disease, I wouldn’t eat gluten at all. Ever. But I don’t, so I occasionally will. It’s what what can you get away with for you. You know, for, for some people it’s two bites. And then after that that’s the end of it for me. I’ve got a sensitivity to garlic. Like I can eat a little bit in something or a garlic powder and something. But if there’s a clove like then, then I’m ruined.
Elle Russ : I know my limits. So I got to kind of gauge that, you know, with food. And it’s the same thing with anyone else, with anything else. I we all know if anyone did this experiment, if you just ate a bowl of pasta for lunch, you are going to want to be asleep by two. All you did was jack yourself up and now you’re down. What we want to do, and I guess this is the best way to explain the difference between sugar burning and fat burning. And this sort of comes from the Keto Reset Diet, written by Mark Sisson and Brad Kerns, my mentors. You think of fat as like the oak log on the fire. It’s going to burn slow and low and long. Not a lot of flames, not a lot of smoke. This thing’s steady. That’s fat. That’s running on a high fat, moderate protein, low carb paradigm or moderate protein, moderate fat, low carb. When you’re a sugar burner, it’s like throwing newspaper onto the fire. It burns real quick. Bunch of smoke and you’re done. What’s the smoke? Oxidative. Bad stuff going on there, right? So that’s the idea. You want to go steady when you’re fat adapted, you’re going strong. You don’t get food. You’re still fine. You’re still fine. If a sugar burner doesn’t get food, you’re having a hangry meltdown. And one of the biggest successes all of the success stories from Getting Fat adapted are usually this. You get the calls. I remember when one of my friends did it first they called me and they’re like, oh my God, this is unbelievable.
Elle Russ : I just woke up, went to the airport, took a six hour flight to New York. Normally I’d have to take snacks with me, you know, nuts. Something. I’d be dying midway through the flight. I was fine by the time. That was a total of ten. Yeah, yeah. , I did a hack once. I was going to Hawaii. Had to get up very early, fly there and then drive somewhere. And so I knew the whole ordeal was going to be like eight hours. It was in the morning. I was not hungry at all, by the way, at all. But as a medicinal biohack, I saw that they were serving like burgers over the thing. I got a meat patty with an egg on it and I reluctantly ate it. I was not hungry. I reluctantly did it because I knew that I was prepping myself for this, and I wasn’t hungry until 930 that night in Hawaii. I left at like 5 a.m. in the morning. That sustained me for about ten straight hours. So sometimes it’s advantageous to eat when you’re not hungry if you know. Right? Yeah. You got something going on and the other time, and I’ll just give this as an example. I was part of the Woolsey Fire in 2018. It burned 100,000 acres in Malibu. I lived right in the middle of it. Very stressful, horrible event. We’re at the beach. We’re all stranded. We can’t go anywhere. And some firemen brought over like a box they had, like, taken from someone’s house of their pantry.
Elle Russ : They’re trying to feed people. And there was muffins and some bagels. And then there was a jar of peanut butter. Everybody ran and went for the carbs, and I was like, no, no, no. Now, in this moment, I knew likely I would survive and see like daylight and modern society the next day, but I always also wasn’t sure we were trapped at the beach. We were literally landlocked, so my primal mind was like in survival, like, oh, I gotta live here. I don’t have any sustenance. I know I’m going to be okay because I’m in the modern world. I took the biggest scoop of that peanut butter. That’s what will sustain, because, see, I looked at that and I was like, no, no, you take that. That’ll last your shit for days. Those carbs. No, you’re gonna be sleeping in two hours. So these are the kind of things like that. That was kind of an emergency situation. I doubt anyone’s going to be in that. But even in that moment, I made that conscious decision surrounding knowing how that was going to affect me. That was based on my knowledge, my research, my book. You know, everything that I do. , would the bagel have been more fun and comforting in that moment? I’m sure, but that wasn’t the point. It was like, hey, I need to survive. I don’t know when I’m going to get food next. So let me make the best choice here. And the best choice there was fat.
Surani Fernando: Right? And it’s also, you know, those bagels would have put you to sleep, but at the same time make you more hungry, right? Like in Suffer More.
Elle Russ : Yeah. Suffer more from being hungry and all of that. And the way that it would affected my my glucose instead. I’m, I was pretty much probably in ketosis the entire time I was going through that, which is great. You know, low inflammation. My brain’s on fire. I’m alert. I’m in a troubling situation. You want to be alert. So those are just a few examples. Hopefully that all made sense. And if I can, you know, add anything onto this or clear any nuances regarding this, I guess I would say, you know, you’re a sugar burner if you can’t go five, 4 or 8 to ten hours, if you’re craving grains and carby stuff and sugar, that’s usually a sign. Yeah. And you know you’re fat adapted. If you can go without that and you don’t have the hangry. When I was a sugar burner, I overexercised and I ate a low carb, low fat paradigm. Very detrimental. And I had the hangry, sugar burning hypoglycemic meltdowns, and I would be literally just on a 45 minute drive from, like, Hollywood to Malibu, and I’d be so hungry my brain would feel empty. Like painful in there. And I would just be, like, dying. And I’d have to get off the highway, drive to a supermarket and, like, run up to the counter and, like, get some meat, grab an apple. This is destructive. This is destructive. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then to see that you can live another way.
Elle Russ : So I used to be a food addict. I thought I’d have to go to Overeaters Anonymous. I thought, is everyone thinking about food all the time? Like me? And they’re just not talking about it? I get it, and I’m here to tell you there’s an end to it. And that is switching over your paradigm to one of one that matches your DNA. We no one has ever fried up a ribeye steak and given it to a horse. We don’t do that because horses have their own DNA that expects certain things of them. The only reason we’re suffering right now, or you might be suffering with health, is partly due to you’ve gotten away from what your DNA expects of you. That’s to eat plants, animals. You don’t have to eat red meat. You can eat fish and eggs. You know there’s alternatives. But but that’s really the paleo primal paradigm. And when people go, oh, it’s a gimmick. Eat like your ancestor paleo. Primal is not just an eating strategy, it’s a lifestyle one, because we talk about don’t ever don’t exercise that much over that heart rate. Maybe one sprint session a week, otherwise fat burning right? Lift heavy things right, get sun, get sleep. But people will follow like a list of paleo foods and go, it’s not working for me. I’m not getting fat adapted. And you’re like, oh, are you still running 30 miles a week? You know what I mean? Yeah.
Surani Fernando: So people don’t realize how detrimental that part can be because they’re just like, no more, more, more, more, more. Yeah, I need to do like these two hour workouts. Heavy, heavy, heavy. And they don’t realize that actually your body needs the opposite.
Elle Russ : I used to suffer so much surrounding. I used to like have to go to the gym. I was always ahead, you know, you’re always like on you’re on the hamster wheel. You’re trying to you’re taking two steps backwards. You’re trying to get. You know what I mean? You eat the thing, now you got to go work out. And it’s not like that when you are fat adapted, you literally don’t have to work out for a few days. You’ll still maintain the same body weight because you have eliminated that dependency on glucose. All that type two diabetes is is a carbohydrate dependency. You have eaten yourself there now. Sometimes it happens because of other things, but for the most part in our society and it could be unbeknownst to them. I’m not blaming anyone. I also was headed towards type two diabetes at one point. You know, I think everyone, everyone can be a victim of it, but that’s where you really do need to look at it. And for anyone really curious about that, that the blood test for that is the Hba1 C test, and that is a three month glucose tolerance test no matter what anyone says to you, 5.2 and below is what you want.
Elle Russ : So when it’s at 5.7, you’re pre-diabetic. When you’re at six, you’ve hit type two diabetes, okay. If you’re at 5.7 and your doctor is like, it’s fine, it’s not 5.2 and below. So athletes who are our fat adapted who are really good, have good body compositions. They’re going to be at like a 4.8. You know, a 5.2 is fine. It’s not a it’s not a race of who can get below it. It’s just that you want to be 5.2 or below. So that’s a great marker. Insulin resistance type two diabetes. You can’t lose weight. You’re struggling. Get that test. And then if that test sucks carbs okay. Cut them right. And get to a paleo primal paradigm. And life’s so much more enjoyable when you don’t feel like you have to work out every day or stress yourself out, be exhausted, or like you said, and I’ve been there too. Your story about struggling through the hunger. Like just sucking it up.
Surani Fernando: Yeah, definitely. And so when did you I asse your thyroid issue is all controlled now? , and when did that happen? And like, what did tell me about the initial diet that you sort of had like a typical day, what you sort of ate.
Elle Russ : You mean before I knew I had like when I was suffering and didn’t know.
Surani Fernando: Yeah. Like so possibly like before that, you know. And then what you had to change and what that initial diet look like. And also what it looks like now because assing that you’re maintaining that, you know, steady. Yeah.
Elle Russ : So I do take thyroid hormone replacement every day. So you know, but the dietary but but here’s the thing. The only reason it works great and perfectly is because I have this primal fat adapted baseline to receive it. Okay. So that’s part of the reason behind the paleo thyroid solution. It’s not oh, you got fat with hypothyroidism. Eat paleo to lose weight. And that’s certainly part of it. But it’s also about paleo primal and what I just told you about how that works with like, you know, the fat being more of the predominant, you know, fuel, , what you’re doing there is you’ve got this trifecta of adrenal glands and like glucose and thyroid in order for thyroid, whether your own hormones are being pped out, right, or whether I’m swallowing them every day to save my life, they need to get to where they need to go. And the best environment for that is a fat adapted, primal baseline. We also know that with Hashimoto’s, the autoimmune disease that affects hypothyroid, that makes you hypothyroid, 100% gluten ignites the antibodies. So another argent for going grain free and paleo. We also know gluten affects lots of autoimmune disorders. It’s one of the immediate first best things you can do as a hack if you have an autoimmune disorder is to completely eliminate grains, but absolutely gluten. Okay, so my diet before I was overworking out. So I was eating a low fat, high protein, low carb paradigm.
Elle Russ : The low fat part was probably the biggest problem, okay. Because the low the high protein and the high fat would have been great. That’s essentially keto or paleo, but I wasn’t getting enough fat, so my brain wasn’t being as satiated and I was overworking out. So what did that look like? I would get up. I would go for about a 45 minute hike with a friend. Then we would go to the gym and lift weights, and then I would swim 36 laps every day. And you know what? I gained weight and I’m like, well, how is it? How is this happening? It backfired. At some point. At first, people would come up to me and be like, oh my God, you know, what do you do at the gym? Right? Like, you know, I mean, here’s the thing. I had the body. I wasn’t getting away with it on the back end. This is why we find so many pro athletes are like diabetic or headed towards diabetes. And they always go, wait, wait, wait, how did this happen? I work out every day. I run 20 miles. I’m an adventure racer, you know what I mean? Look at my body, I look, I look amazing, I’m on a magazine and they’re like, why is my insulin screwed up? Here’s why. Because they wake up in the morning, they drink a shake. Maybe it’s got 120g of carbs. I’ve already told you there’s a threshold.
Elle Russ : So here’s what happens. The pancreas, which is responsible for releasing insulin. Every time you eat a carb, the pancreas goes, oh, okay. And does something. But if you keep punching it right, you keep punching it, it gets exhausted. So that’s what that is. They’re they’re fueling themselves. They’re burning themselves. They’re fueling themselves. They’re burning. They’re burning it. But when they eat the glucose and then they’re burning it, the pancreas is like, what are you. I’m going to stop doing this job. I’m getting exhausted. The same things happen with the adrenal glands. When you don’t have thyroid hormone. The adrenal glands are trying to save you by shooting off cortisol and trying to get you out of bed. And then they go, I can’t. I’m out. And then you get adrenal fatigue. So that’s poking. The bear is living a high carb life. You will end up with a 5.7 6.0 HBA one C even if you exercise every day. And that’s why they don’t get away with it on the back end. So they look good. And on that note, everyone listening. Next time you see a woman or a man, you know, I wish I had his body., check their blood work. Maybe you don’t. Right? Maybe you actually want the body of the person that’s a little bit, you know, got a little bit of meat on them. Trust me, a lot of these athletes and people that have perfect bodies are inflamed messes when it comes to the blood work.
Elle Russ : Yeah. So we have to look at how someone achieved a thing. That athlete body and how he achieved it was detrimental. You can achieve it in another way. And that’s what athletes are learning. And they’re learning that through, you know, Mark Stimson’s work on primal endurance, changing that whole paradigm. In fact, the guy Timothy Noakes wrote a book years ago called, like, was it Not Born to Run something where basically his whole thing back 20 years ago was glucose is the fuel. You got a glucose, you know, for runners, you got a glucose. You eat the, you know, pasta and the breads. Then he gets type two diabetes and he’s like, hold up. And he comes out publicly and he’s like, oh my God, I was wrong. I’m so sorry. I was wrong. And he got so much heat for this, I can’t I mean, his colleagues at the universities in South Africa, he’s famous for it. And o k e s is his last name, Timothy Noakes. And he he came out and was like, this is all wrong, you guys. This is the wrong paradigm. I thought that it was glucose. It’s not. And here we are. So even a fit athletic person can become diabetic, not look like it. And again that’s the thing. You can’t judge what someone looks like because you don’t know what the blood work is.
Surani Fernando: Yeah, yeah. And when you were exercising, you know, that huge morning routine, were you also like in a massive calorie deficit as well?
Elle Russ : Yes. And I think it was really just not enough fat. So I’d have like I’d restrict and then I’d kind of binge, you know what I mean a little bit. And then I felt like I’d have to go work out even more. , it was working, but it was stressful, and it felt like if I didn’t do all those things every day, then I would it would, it would take five steps backwards. And that’s the thing I want people to get out of their mind. When you get fat adapted, you don’t have to do that because you are not two steps forward, five steps backwards. You’re just, I’m here, I’m good. And if I just eat right, 80% of your body composition is diet. So if you are but primal paleo, I’d say is the one I would adopt. If you don’t want to work out if you want less stressful workouts, if you’d like to just take a walk, lift some db weights, and have that be the thing that does it, you can do that, but you can’t do it when you’re a carb addict, right?
Surani Fernando: And just to dial back a bit with the definition of primal paleo, what are the foundations of that?
Elle Russ : So this is the way we look at it. So we as hans, some people don’t know this. We have been evolving for 2.5 million years. We only started to do agriculture and farming around 10,000 years ago. You and me, our genetic makeup is the exact same as it was of a hunter gatherer ancestor 50,000 years ago. Okay. The Bible is only 5000 4000 years old or something like that. So we’re talking like a really long time. By the way, 50,000 years ago, they were communicating like us. Okay, these are not like, you know, the like whatever you see in some cartoon. So they have the same genetic makeup as us and it hasn’t changed. What has changed? Well, autoimmune disorders and things like that started to come on the scene, meaning archeologists, paleontologists and archeologists only saw it in the record around 10,000 years ago when people started farming, eating grains and all that stuff, then the diseases of modern society showed up. We had high stature. You look at skulls of hunter gatherer ancestors from 60,000 years ago. Teeth perfect, head perfect. And then you look at one of a farmer 10,000 years ago. Corroded. It’s because of the grains. It’s because of the difference in diet. So we as hans have our own prescriptive DNA that tells us what we need, right? We need sunlight, air, like all these things and a certain dietary paradigm, a certain list of foods. Everyone’s going to be individual, right? I might have a thing with tomatoes that I can’t eat, right? We have individual stuff, but basically it’s plants, animals, anything with a parent, plants, animals, good fats where a good fats, butter, ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, beef tallow, duck tallow, any of that stuff.
Elle Russ : And then we want to go with like low glycemic fruits. But all fruits are available. You just need to watch carbs. So berries are going to be better than bananas. But but eat the banana if you need the banana. It’s just that those are the lower carb fruits and it’s the elimination of grains, beans, leges, and dairy. Except for maybe full fat dairy like heavy whipping cream. But about 65% of the population of the world has an issue with dairy. So that’s a big issue. If you have Scandinavian heritage, you might be one of the lucky ones who can actually really tolerate it quite well. That has been seen in the archeological record too. So it’s really plants, animals, good fats and the seeds and elimination of grains, beans, leges. And then people are like, what am I going to eat? Because grains is rice, grains is corn, grains is wheat. Yeah, grains is flour. Now luckily there are grain free things out there. There are grain free breads, grain free pieces. Against the grain is a company that makes them. I would still say that if you’re starting the journey, don’t go for the fake stuff first, right? Like the the pizza. That’s not grain free. Like, just just get used to that and then treat yourself to something like that. So there are great options now.
Elle Russ : And so it’s like what I said about that, that horse. You’re not going to feed a cow a steak. Definitely not. That would be really rude. But you know what I’m saying. And so we have our own DNA too. And it goes off track when you go against it. Seed oils are very offensive. And so even if it’s just changing the oils in your house, don’t use corn oil. Don’t use canola oil. Don’t use sunflower oil. Just switch it to avocado oil. Olive oil, anything beef fat is better. , and getting back to again what our ancestors would have found an eight. Now, there are people that live by the paradigm of I do seasonal eating. What’s in season around me. Look, there’s lots of those things. It’s like with flow living, like you were talking about with the the periods, you know, there’s all sorts of different modalities to adopt. You could try that. I don’t go for it because if I want a watermelon in January, I’m going to eat the fucking watermelon. You know what I mean? Like I don’t care. Yeah., yeah, but there’s something to that. Like winter root vegetables, maybe more protein and fat. More of a keto paradigm in winter because there’s less activity. You’re kind of storing it a little bit, keep it warm and then, you know, smer and spring, right? Fruits. And you know what I mean. But if you live in Hawaii or you live somewhere like I do in California, where you get this stuff all the time, I don’t I don’t have a subscribe thing like seasonal eating, I just, I eat also what I crave.
Elle Russ : It’s hard to gauge cravings when you are not fat adapted. So you get fat adapted first and then you realize that the craving is real, right? You know, like craving donuts isn’t necessarily. I mean, you might be craving some glucose and then make a better choice with fruit, but like usually with with with cravings, like, I’ll just be like, I need cucbers or like, I hate chicken one week and then next week I’m obsessed with chicken. I eat the chicken. I just go with, like, my body needs chicken right now. Oh, it turns like I need a burger every day for the next three days. So it becomes kind of fun because then you sort of are more intuitive about what you need, and then something crappy comes up. You know, of a good substitution or what you might like. Hey, maybe my body just needs glucose, you know, and needs some kind of sugar. And which form am I going to give it? An apple. You know, maybe that’s the better choice than the Twinkie. Of course. Back to. So I was eating a low carb, low fat paradigm over exercising. Then I changed it to a paleo paradigm, and then exercising at that fat burning rate and only once or twice a week doing like a sprint session, which, by the way, is way more fun. Who wants to run on a treadmill for 30 minutes? Kill me, kill me.
Surani Fernando: Right.
Elle Russ : Yeah, I you know, I know people love it, but I’m like, I don’t, you know, and also look at all the injuries that come from the chronic cardio too. You know, people running every day. Hot yoga’s not great, guys. I did hot yoga five days a week because I thought that’ll burn it. That that’ll sizzle. Sweat it off of me. It’s glycolytic. It is. It also is just it’s an adrenal puncher. So any 2 or 3 level or hot yoga is not great while you’re trying. It’s hard at first to go slower. It feels weird because you’re in the like, I gotta do it. But now my hikes are like so enjoyable with my friends because we’re just chilling and we’re, yeah, we’re burning fat every minute. Not glucose.
Surani Fernando: Right.
Elle Russ : And that’s what you just need to know. If you switch and understand you’re actually going to burn more fat if you slow down. It seems counterintuitive. I hope this is making sense. It is.
Surani Fernando: Making sense. And I think like it’s just I think probably I mean, it’s a lot for someone to take in if they’ve just, you know, I have a couple of friends who are going go through this pattern of, you know, they lose weight very quickly. You know, they’ve got a goal. And, you know, for them, it’s just like starvation is the only way, you know, for like me to just do a heavy calorie deficit and you know, but then they that that goal may be reached or they reach that day or they go on their vacation and then they gain it all back in like a few days or a week, you know, and it’s like, that doesn’t need to happen if you, you know, build it up. Right. If you’re if you’re building up and you’re eating more and just trying to educate on that level, which seems simple once you’re in it. Now, you know, I’m heavily in the algorithm listening to people like yourself and know a lot about, like, you know, being fat adapted and, you know, the sugar fat burner. And, you know, the biggest thing for me, which I, you know, I try and tell, you know, friends that are not in that world is the protein is like no one is eating enough protein. Like, you know.
Elle Russ : I’m glad you even gave me the reminder today. I probably need to take a look at it again.
Surani Fernando: It’s like hard work, but at the same time, it’s so true with the cravings, because I’ve been doing that consciously, just more prioritizing. If I’m going to count protein and fiber and then the carbs and the fat sort of make it in there, you know, if I’ll have an avocado that’s fat, but it’s fiber, you know, so I’ll, I’ll, it’ll end up working out well if I’m just more conscious about the protein and the fiber. But the sugar cravings, like, disappear. It’s like amazing. I’m like trying to save this one. These, you know, cookies that I got from London, my favorite. And I’m like, yeah, I’m going to have that on on the day that I, , really this day, you know, I’m going to reward myself. And then I’m like, I don’t feel like it. I’m like, wait.
Elle Russ : I don’t want it.
Surani Fernando: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Elle Russ : And look, you know, I’ve been doing this a long time. Has there been a moment where, like, I ate donuts one day, and then the next night I was like, I need another donut. And then I went back. And then the third day, I was like, hey, what? What’s going on here? You’re going right back down this train, right? So look, I mean, we’re all susceptible to it. We’re looking for we’re looking our brains are looking to be, you know, pleasure and reward.
Surani Fernando: And dopamine is important, I would say, like, you know, because if you just are just good all the time, then, , you know, there will be a, it’s a slippery slope and you will fall off that fall off the wagon.
Elle Russ : You’ll fall off eventually. Yeah. What else can I say about the. There’s so much to say on this. I mean, I feel like I could talk about this for days. Obviously, I wrote a book on part of it. You read some of these books and you, you look at, like, the health stuff and you feel like you have to have the rainbow of the grocery store, you know, garden section, like in your plate. Every plate has to be 15,000 colors. And then what you do, you end up wasting food. I’ve been there. You buy all the things, you’re like, I’m going to make a salad with 15 things so that my salad is like the best. Okay, stop right there. Just look at your week. You can do one day, bok choy one day. Like, you know what I mean? Let’s look at your week. How’s your week and your month looking? Is it colorful enough? Because I used to waste a lot of food, and also every meal doesn’t need to have all three different things. You don’t need to have protein, fat, and carbs for every single meal. There are days when I just eat meat. I mean, literally there’s days where like, I you know what I mean? And just switch it up. You you can have meat at one meal and then a salad at the next. It’s okay. How’s your day looking. So I think that that’s another misconception. I don’t know if that you’ve you’ve gotten sucked into that. But you know, you feel like and then you waste food and you’re like, oh my God, these vegetables are going bad.
Surani Fernando: I would say that, yeah, I’m pretty conscious if I’m having the meal. Apart from, you know, if the protein part where I’m just like protein, but then, you know, with lunch, like, okay, I’ve got my if it’s a salad, I’ve got my fiber, I’ve got my protein, I’ve got my fat. Like I’m usually thinking about that not necessarily counting but I yeah. Yeah. And I would.
Elle Russ : Say to get out of the counting like I learned initially the, the foods you eat and what their carb content is. So you kind of know if it helps you to track macros, like there are people that are like, I. The only way I could do it is if I track it, I hate it. I don’t have time for that, I really don’t. So and I would like to impart on everyone to get a little bit more intuitive with it, learn a little bit stuff up front so you know that that potato is that many carbs and don’t worry about specific nbers. And then the other thing too is get off your freaking scale, everybody stop. And my argent for this is, you know what your body is like. You’re naked every day. At a certain point, you pull on your underwear. You know, if they’re tight, you know, if they’re slim, you don’t need to go disappoint yourself. Don’t self-sabotage yourself by looking at that nber. I suffer greatly with hypothyroidism. I gained so much weight it was horrible. I could cry right now thinking about it. Let me tell you how bad it was. I have a pair of jeans in my closet right now. When I was hypothyroid and so fat I couldn’t even pull one of the legs past my calf.
Elle Russ : It was like I was putting on an 11 year old’s jeans. Wow. I didn’t go on that scale. I didn’t put on those jeans until years later. I was like, hold on a minute, I think, I think, I feel it, and I slipped them right back on. I didn’t need the scale to tell me that. Right. So. So when you’re on this journey, especially if it’s fat burning or weight loss, please don’t trip up yourself. I mean, I know for some people it helps to see the weight, but let me just say this you could poop out 2 pounds, guys. Okay, so like what are you gauging? And it’s not weight, it’s body percentage fat. That is what you want to track. So anyone really curious about this? There’s an ABC show that a friend of mine, Abel James, was,, he’s another he wrote a book called The Wild Diet, and he was one of the coaches on it. And it was a show called My Diet Is Better Than Yours. And they had these trainers with their people, and they were like, let’s compete and see who’s diets better. Guess who really won that? My friend Abel’s guy, because he put him on a fat, primal paradigm.
Elle Russ : The guy had a neck injury. He couldn’t even really exercise. He lost 20% body fat. Now the weight didn’t. The weight went down, but the weight wasn’t as great as the woman next to him who was on the carb. Like the bad paradigm. You just, you know, starve yourself, don’t drink water for three days, whatever, to affect the scale, right? That’s some fake ass shit. That’s some fake ass weight loss. That’s why those people get fat right away. Because it’s not sustainable. That’s the kind of stuff you and I were doing and we didn’t know what we were doing. That’s what they’re doing. So you can achieve. So the weight, the nber is not what you want. Get yourself a scale that measures body fat percentage. That’s really what you’re looking at. And that’s the health. Because a body that’s 180 pounds with high body percentage fat versus a body 180 pounds with low, it’s a different look. Same. Yeah. So don’t trip yourself up like you start to lift weights. You’re like, wait, why am I gaining weight? Relax. It’s just muscle. What’s the body fat doing? Because I guarantee you the body fat percentage is like going down. Yeah. So people are mis gauging their diagnostic tools, if that makes sense. Yeah.
Surani Fernando: Yeah, for sure. And I think, you know, you said get off, get off the scale. I have a scale, I have a smart scale. And the thing is, is like now because I my goals are a little bit different. It’s not about just losing that nber. It’s about I want to gain that muscle nber and I’m not really I look.
Elle Russ : At mine too because of that.
Surani Fernando: Yeah, yeah. I’m not really sure how accurate it is. I know probably not a perfect science, but I have seen like where I’m going, like the nber overall nber is going down. The fat nber is going down, the muscle is going up, the protein, whatever. However, they measure protein. Apparently my age has gone down, which is like not sure how they measure that. , but they measure that. But then it becomes.
Elle Russ : Kind of fun because then you’re at a point where you’re already at a certain place, and now you’re just trying to tweak and enhance, tweak, and then it’s fun. So I don’t mind looking at the scale now because whatever. But I also I also know that let’s, let’s say I, let’s say I injured my ankle and I don’t know, I got a little chunky because I couldn’t extra whatever. I probably wouldn’t get on the scale because I’d be like, I know my body. Like, don’t disappoint yourself. Like, wait a few days and then get back on and make sure you’re at your set point. Yeah, yeah.
Surani Fernando: Well, it was interesting with, with, you know, went on a holiday, indulged whatever. , was curious to see what the damage was. And I actually had lost the nber like the lost weight, which I was surprised about, but not as I was more disappointed when it was expected that I lost the muscle. So and like, you know, the the nbers. Even though I lost the weight, a lot of people would be like elated by that. I was quite like, you know, oh, well, you know, you don’t use it, you lose it. So got to just get back and get on those the weights and you feel it as well. You do feel it. So.
Elle Russ : And you don’t want to be skinny fat right?
Surani Fernando: Right.
Elle Russ : Because because I mean I’ve been in that situation, right? It’s like you fit in all the clothes. Your weight is good, but you’re kind of sloppy looking, you know, like a little sloppy. And again, it’s a higher body fat percentage. And it’s just not as we want to become as metabolically flexible as possible. So that and the way to do that is through primal, you know, get off the sugar burning train. And then from there it’s like, I feel like you’re supportive, you have a bad week and you know, you can lose weight on a vacation, okay, you lost the muscle, but you didn’t come back like, oh, for 10 pounds, like, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the other thing too is, , it’s interesting that vacation is a thing where people are like, I’m going to go nuts, right? Like vacations are a thing where people are like, I can’t wait. I’m going to go to town, I’m going to stuff myself and all that kind of stuff. So,, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that. Like, enjoy yourself, but just take a look at that mindset, because I don’t have it anymore. Only because I feel good. I still would probably indulge. If I’m somewhere, I’m in Italy, I’m going to eat the pasta like I’m probably have a dessert. That’s I don’t get here. I’m going to do it if I want it. But I also know myself now where like, I wouldn’t just go nuts and blow myself nuts. Yeah, yeah. And probably have a level of like newfound self respect and and joy in this new body. And also, as you know, like we talked about with the palate, you almost kind of can’t at a certain point go to the old place. So yeah, I would just take a look at that because a lot of people just go on vacation and it’s all they do is just like overindulge in, you know, alcohol and all this kind of stuff. And again, like, hey, no judgment on it, go to town. But yeah, you get a little bit better at it. And yeah, and.
Surani Fernando: I think, I think that was the case with me. You know, being in this sort of recent journey, like three months, going on this vacation, being more conscious, even on holiday. I mean, I was in Spain, so there’s amazing food options, you know, lots of seafood. So I’m like, oh yes, this big plate of octopus, like, I’m going to like go to town on that. It’s going to hit my protein goals. And so I think like that helped. And we walked a lot like, you know, 20,000 steps a day. That sort of all measured up to me losing. But, you know, I wasn’t doing the weight part like so that that was, you know, it all. Everything made sense. But it didn’t it wasn’t as as bad as it would have been if, you know, ten years ago. And I’m like, oh, I’m going to go to town because I think.
Elle Russ : It’s more measured. It’s like a measured debauchery, you know? And and I’m all for some debauchery. Enjoy your life. Yeah.
Surani Fernando: Measured enjoyment. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. Well, this has been super great. I know that we’ve talked longer than we were supposed to, and this has been super insightful. El, thanks so much for sharing your valuable insights and expertise with us today. And we didn’t get to really dive into your books. But for listeners who want to dive into everything that we talked about, most of what you were talking about is in the paleo thyroid solution that’s behind you.
Elle Russ : Yeah. If you don’t have a thyroid problem or you don’t think you have a thyroid problem, this is not necessarily your end all be all paleo book. If you would like to learn about Paleo Primal, I suggest going back to mark Sisson’s bestselling book, The Primal Blueprint. It’s in its fourth or fifth edition at this point. If you want, like a full on foray into paleo primal living, then I would go get that book. If you have thyroid problems, just come find me. But L russ.com is my website and I’ve got free stuff. I’ve got a free thyroid guide. I have a book on confidence as well. I’m a confidence expert. I’ve got a free confidence workbook if you want to hear more about me talking really about thyroid. I mean, I’ve got a masterclass, you know, a course and also just free interviews out there. So lots of free information. Yeah. You know, also to Aside from Markson’s book, if you learn better from hearing someone talk, just Google interviews with Mark Sisson and just Mark Sisson. Primal interview and stuff might come up from 7 or 8 years ago. Listen to it. He was really great at describing this, and he is my mentor and pretty much taught me everything I know about it. And he’s sort of like, that’s a great resource. And there’s tons of interviews out and he’s very he’s so good at relaying the information. The other resource would be Brad Kerns, who is Mark’s co-writer on a lot of these books. Brad Kerns comm. Mark’s doesn’t really have a website. Primal kitchen is his website, but those are some resources there, especially for the dudes. But in general, paleo, primal. Like, what is it? Those are the guys.
Surani Fernando: Yeah, yeah. Great. Well, definitely. Everyone go check that out again. Elle russ.com is the website for more free information and tips. And finally, don’t forget to subscribe to Holistic Health Habits for more episodes featuring experts in the field. Until next time, I’m Surani Fernando. Take care and stay healthy.