LLP135: Surviving the Holidays Without Gaining Weight with Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie

 Introduction Dr. Berry: Alright and welcome to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I’m your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of drberrypierre.com, as well the CEO of Pierre Medical Consulting. Helping you empower yourself for better health with the number one podcast for patient advocacy, education and affirmation. This week we bring you a return guest who is here to help save us for the holidays. Guys, I know once holidays come around, we forget our eating lifestyle habits, right? And we start getting that feeling that peer pressure from the office, feeling that peer pressure at work, feeling that peer pressure around the dinner table. To eat stuff, to drink stuff, to nibble on stuff that we shouldn’t be actually doing. So we have Dr. Sylvia Bollie, America’s obesity physician. Here to help guide us in the right direction and to give us some tips on having made sure that this holiday season doesn’t end with the blues. Because we eat a lot more than we should have eat foods that we were staying away from for nine, 10 months. All of a sudden, it’d be last two months come around and we started nibbling on it. So we don’t want to do that. So again, I want you to check out another episode with our repeat guests and I love the repeat guests, because I think they come more energized than I do to talk to the Lunch and Learn Community because you guys give them the support that you guys give. So definitely shout out to you guys for that. Remember if this the first time listening, subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a five star review or comment or wherever. Tell a friend and tell a friend. In fact, tell 10 friends to listen to this week’s episode and make sure that for Thanksgiving and Christmas they stick to their lifestyle habits and make sure they don’t get the blues where come January to talking about a new year’s resolution that could have been avoided if they took care of themselves before Thanksgiving. You guys have a great and blessed day. And get ready for another amazing episode. Episode Dr. Berry: Alright Lunch and Learn community, we have a very familiar voice and guest on the podcast this week and someone that I’m always excited to hear from. It’s funny, we were just getting on before we started this conversation that we talked so much beforehand that we sometimes don’t get a chance to get to the actual interview. We have Dr. Sylvia Bollie here who’s coming to us for the holidays to get us right. To get us eating better because we already know how y’all going to do. We already know Thanksgiving coming up. We already know Christmas is coming up. We already know what’s going to go down. So we want to make sure we at least put that bug in your ear. Is that hey, there’s different options. Again, Dr. Bollie thank you for coming on the show with Dr. Berry. Truly, again, much appreciated. Again, both of your episodes are absolutely phenomenal. People love it. So I already know that there are times it’s going to be just as amazing. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Thank you so much Dr. Berry. So first of all, I was bragging on Dr. Berry. Because he’s been on his own fitness, weight loss journey and he’s done an amazing job. So kudos to him. So that’s how we started just talking about his transformation already. And so it’s so exciting to see you grow and learn in your own. Learn from what practicing what you preach. Dr. Berry: Honestly and it’s crazy because especially as physicians, we’re the worst patients. We already know that. And you say it enough, what you’re supposed to do and then when you finally get to the poit where you have to do it, it’s like, okay, alright, let me stop out here. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Exactly. You know my story is similar. That’s exactly what happens. So for me, my weight journey and I like calling it a weight journey now because so often we focus on the weight loss. So then when you actually lose the weight, then people think, oh, let me go back to everything I was doing before. And then that’s how we get the weight regain after that weight loss. So it’s a weight journey. So you’re constantly working on how to maintain it and keep that weight off. But for me, it started in 2014 and basically I, at that point was 50 pounds overweight because I had baby weight a year and a half later that I was still carried. Dr. Berry: Hey Lunch and Learn Community, you can’t see but she definitely hit us about the quotes. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: When your baby’s a toddler, it’s not baby weight no more. When your baby is no longer stricken milk and eat solids, you can’t call a baby. So that’s where I was. My baby was like about 18 months and I was stress eating, either learned through it. I was an emotional eater, so I was stressed and over eating, not sleeping, prioritizing work, prioritizing family. Everybody else than myself. And so basically I had gained 60 pounds actually in pregnancy and held onto 40 of it through those negative habits that I had. And so finally it was starting to affect my practice of medicine. I could not coach, could not talk to people. I couldn’t counsel them because I say, what did you eat for lunch? And then little voice, what you eat for lunch. Then you know, it wasn’t nothing healthy, it was like pizza. It was sort of the high carbs. Then I would say when did you, have you been exercising? A little voice said, have you been exercising? Nope, I had a bit exercises. So it really starts to affect my ability to counsel and like I’ve shared, there’s studies that show that. So doctors who are overweight or have obesity are less likely to diagnose their patients with obesity or to counsel them on it. So I was actually living in that. And so I started making these small changes over time, little by little. And it really is how I kicked off my weight loss journey. And over five years later, another baby have lost that 50 pounds that I gained from the second baby. And I’ve already lost it. She’s going to be one next month on the second. And so, from the lessons I learned from that, I’m just really excited and passionate about helping people identify like what I call their weight gain triggers and so that they can get to their happy, healthy weight and have lifelong weight loss. Because we’re grown. At a certain point, grown folks don’t need crash diets, we don’t need crash diets. We need something that’s going to last that you can do for the rest of your life. And also when you try to put a grown person on a crash diet or something quick be it. I’m going to step on toes. And I’m not saying any of these are wrong which other people would disagree, but I’m saying trying to put everybody in one square peg into one box and say you be, everyone needs to be Quito. Everyone needs to be paleo. Everybody needs to be measured. It doesn’t work because everybody’s a little bit different. So we need to help grown folks figure out what works best for them and so that you can have lifelong weight loss. So that’s my passion. That’s my goal. That’s my soap box and I’ll get off of it. Dr. Berry: Especially with the second baby. Was there any fear that you know what, alright, it happened the first time. I learned from the first time but like alright the second time around, let me make sure that I’ll not fall into that same trap. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Absolutely. I think I posted one of my Instagram posts about that actually, yeah I was worried. I’m like okay I talk all this good game but am I going to keep this weight the same weight on too? Because my spacing between my kids, my son was about five and a half years between my daughters. So I’m also five and a half years older too. So there are a lot of things that contribute to our weight gains. And so when I talk about like weight gain triggers, my approach is to look at it holistically. So physiologically what’s going on in your body that is making you gain weight? So for women, pregnancy is a big one. In my family, we gain weight during pregnancy. It’s funny because there was recently a wedding and all, my mom, my older aunt, they were all talking about how much weight they gained during pregnancy. I was like, oh, so this is a familial kind of thing. So heredity, do people have excess weighting your family once they hit 30 things like that. So looking at it. So that’s one of my triggers. So knowing that I had that trigger, but then I knew what could keep it on. So the lifestyle things, which are the habits, which also contribute to it too. Like I said, that emotional eating. So pregnancy, I couldn’t really control. I did try. Y’all go look on my Instagram page you’ll see. I try to exercise the whole time. I ate healthy, not the first trimester. There were a lot of carbs for first trimester. I couldn’t stay in first trimester. So second trimester I was back on my salads and third trimester. But I still, when all was said and done, I gained 50 pounds by the end if I’m very honest. I was a little bit, I was like, oh, am I really going to be able to lose it? But I knew what to do. I knew I was an emotional eater. I knew that my triggers were stress and sleep deprivation because sleep deprivation will make you crave carbs, which is for me, refined carbohydrates, processed carbs. And not all carbs are bad. Let me say that right now because a lot of people get into trouble, but refined, processed carbs, those things are really triggers for people’s weight gain and especially for me. If the expiration date is like two to three years, just know that it’s probably going to hang around to your body and affect you. So everything like that a little bit longer too. So just know that. So knowing that, I was able to apply what I had learned from the first time and that really helped. And I like to say, people like, oh, you bounce back. I was like, I ain’t bounce back. I dribbled back. (I loved that.) So that means I had to work for it, I learn. And so that’s the whole thing is that you need to know, learn yourself, learn your body, learn what helps, what works, what does it work for you. And the same thing and I think that’s why working with a physician whose obesity certified like myself or other people that it’s helpful because we can help you see the whole picture of it. What we offer outside of a coach per se is the understanding of that physiology of the body and also the other tools that a coach may not have. So like the medications, what are some of the medications that you are given that cause weight gain and what are medications we could give you that can help with weight loss too. But that’s a whole another topic for another day because we’re still trying to get to the holidays. Dr. Berry: Let’s get to the holidays. I love it. It’s definitely one of those, the time of the year, right? (Yes.) As I can tell you in a hospital setting, anticipate certain patients that come to doctor. Anticipate our heart failure patients to come to the hospital. We anticipate our diabetic patients, they come to the hospital because we know they’re not going to be very good around the time of the year. We know that the salt content is going to rise. We know that the sugars and carbs are going to, we just know that’s going to happen. This is just as me as a hospitalist takes care of these patients in the emergent setting. What is it about the holidays that gets us in trouble, especially someone in your field, what do you think gets us in trouble and why? Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: I think if we look at it holistically, so not just looking at it just for just one perspective, but number one, we are conditioned from the time we were a child to associate the holidays with sweets and treats, right? It’s a time of decadence is a time of indulgence. Be it from the glittery Christmas trees to the menorahs, whatever it is you celebrates. It’s opulent. And so all those decorations are out. But along with it comes along the food portion of it too. And so it doesn’t matter what social economic class you’re from is just a time of indulgence. And that mindset gets into people and even if they recognize, especially you mentioned some people with chronic medical conditions like obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, hypertension or heart failure. Even if you recognize that it’s maybe not the best thing to be doing that emotional connection to the season and the foods that come along with it, really draw people in. So it’s not even as simple as saying, I’m on a low sodium diet or supposed to be doing that is, what does this boot really represent? What feelings or happiness as it create inside of me? Dr. Berry: I love that. I love the emotional tie in really tying in the emotional aspect, food, especially around this time of the year brings. Okay. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Yeah. So I think that’s what really pulls people in and then there’s less restriction. And then as we talk about the actual science behind some of these foods, which the industry doesn’t like us talking about it. These foods are a really addictive. Dr. Berry: And they’re not just talking like they, some people really can’t resist. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Some of these high sugar foods. Essentially these process food, they hit the same parts of the brain as drugs. So if you’re someone who’s already crying to these type of things or to being prime to addictive behavior, so to speak. And I hate because once we say addiction, people are scary. It’s a scary word. So I don’t want to scare people away, but if you really think about it, there are certain foods that do make you create that because more craving, because they hit these receptors, pleasure reward centers in our brain that open the reward centers in the brain just like cocaine would, just like any other drug would. And so once you have activated, you want more and more. Now most of us will be able to turn it off. We’ll be able to say, okay that’s enough. I should not eat the whole tray of cookies. But if you’re already in one of those high risk groups it might just keep going. Especially if you’re in a social setting that is conducive to eating more and more like that. Such as the holidays, those holidays’ dinners, those office parties, the treats that come into the office. So all of those things and that condition with the two things. So the emotional aspect and then also the physiological aspect that a lot of these processed high sugar foods really have on the body that make you want more because it stimulates that pressure reward cycle as well. Dr. Berry: When we talk about, especially the social aspect, because obviously I’ve, especially over the past three months is definitely something that I have definitely recognized more and more being in an office setting and someone brings cookies and someone brings something that I’m not supposed to eat. How is it that the peer pressure. And I hate to call it peer pressure because it’s not like someone’s forcing eat some food, but really the fact that let’s say you look around the table and everyone’s eating a certain food that you know you want, but you gotta try to fight not to, how is that aspect, especially when we talk about the emotions associated with food? Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Exactly. As human beings, let’s take it way back to caveman times. We are socialized and we are wired to belong, to fit in with the group. So it’s a thing about belonging and doing what is the group doing and trying to group thing because there was a survival advantage to doing what the group did. You didn’t want to be the time where the T Rex was out a year out fortune thing, you need to do with the group. So it’s kind of bad. We still have that innate desire to be doing what the group is doing. I think what is helpful is how do we develop the tools to navigate those situations where we are comfortable in our own skin. Number one, that we don’t feel the oddball or feel weird. And two, where we’re not coming off as rude because we want to make a difference choice from what other people want to. And so that’s what makes those social situations awkward so to speak because we are socialized to think, okay, the polite thing to do is eat the cookie regardless of how I deal or what my individual needs are at that time. So I think the hard thing is overcoming that discomfort within yourself that hey, I know that eating this cookie is not the best thing for me, but I’m not being rude by telling him I really appreciate it, but I just can’t have this cookie right now. And also hopefully being in an environment where you have coworkers who respect that kind of your boundaries as well. Dr. Berry: Now, especially for the patients you take care of, do you find that much easier to do in the work scenario where it’s more office workers or holiday party versus when you’re at home? And it’s mom, dad, aunt, uncle. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Definitely. And that’s part of what made me want to come on to talk because I was getting at this question is so much from my patients and from different people, how do I navigate this? And I think it really, again, usually I would say family is great or struggle for some people than work. But also, it depends on, again, identifying your values and having them buy into. Your family loves you for the most part. So mostly they will respect your wishes and understand what you’re doing. But I think also developing some tools. So I feel like, again, if we deprive ourselves too much, especially during key things that are important to us, what’s going to happen is we’re going to revert back to the behavior we had before. So any lifestyle change that you make should be a true lifestyle change. It shouldn’t be a diet. I hate the word diet. Diet has the word die in it. It was meant to die, it’s not going to last. It’s going to terminate. So what I’m hoping is you could cultivate a lifestyle change where it is that you can indulge for one meal, but it doesn’t lead to a whole week of indulgence. Because really you’re not going to gain that weight from just that one meal that you decided to share with your family. You’re going to gain that weight from eating the leftovers for seven more days from, and then eat all the holiday cookies that come in the office. So that’s where the weight is going to come from and stick around from is from that continuity of it. So I basically tell my patients what I say is, go ahead. This season is going to be real, is going to be hard. So don’t find it. Dr. Berry: Interesting. It’s going to happen so don’t find it. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Well Dr. Berry, don’t get too happy. You’re running with it. You are getting way too happy here. Dr. Berry: I’m already thinking of the meal. So I can do that. Okay. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: No, let’s take a step back where you get too happy. So step back. What I propose is that you acknowledge it because number one, I think people try to be into now, right? And be a good price. So number one, just acknowledge that it’s going to a difficult, but don’t feel like you have to cheat. I never agree with cheating because cheating already sets up like a negative, sneaky connotation on it. I want you to treat yourself. You are allowed to treat yourself. You’re allowed to indulge, but only three times during the season. So go ahead and predetermine what are those three times that you’re going to have a treat. So what is most important to you? So what that causes you to do is really prioritize and think about what is most important to me. What do I value most? Is it that Thanksgiving meal where I’m with the family and everything like that. Because I know that being with my family and us eating some of our favorite foods together is most important. So then, okay, then it’s the Thanksgiving meal. The office party is always lit and they have the best food if that I will never spend on. So let me go ahead and indulge on the office party. Alright, I have one more thing, a third event that I want to indulge on. What will it be? So that you can be mindful and make a conscious decision about where are you going to spend that? Now every other time in between, you continue what you usually do. For my people I proposed eating clean and having a reduced carbohydrate eating plan and we track our carbs. But every other day you’re doing that and in those carbs that you decide to check, you can decide if you want to have an indulgence. The American dietary guidelines say less than 50 grams of added sugar a day. Now, honestly, from a weight gain perspective, that is going to lead to significant weight gain at the end of the year at least the pounds of five pounds. If you do follow that 50 grams added sugar. So I don’t advocate for that every day. But during this season, if you say, okay, well I have what, 150 carbs that I’m going to eat every day, so I want to do, I decided that I will make someone brought a cookie in. So I’m going to go ahead and allow myself 25 grams for that one cookie. I think that is fine because you’re making a conscious decision and you’re not sneaking, you’re not cheating yourself and you’re not pretending that is not an issue. So that’s what I mean when I say being real and identifying ahead of time what you’re going to do. Dr. Berry: Well and I love that you talk about, because I know a lot of people will definitely use the phrase like cheat meal. We’re not cheating here. We don’t want you to feel like you’re doing something wrong indulging at Thanksgiving. Because we know it’s happening. Lunch and Learn Community I’m taking down notes like as we speak, it’s going to happen is going to be hard next Thursday or Friday come around, I know is going to be some difficult. But now that we know how to plan and you feel like the planning stage is very important, especially for us going and say this holidays is that where if we’re going to fail where we typically fail at, in this stage right in the beginning? Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Absolutely. Because rather than preparing yourself for it, you just thinking you’re going to go in blindly and be able to undo what 30 plus years of eating habits. It’s going to be so hard because you don’t have a game play. So I think if you go in right now, your preparation for Thanksgiving Day and I’m saying you, but our preparation for Thanksgiving Day starts today. It starts at the beginning of the week because already you should be thinking, what am I going to eat on Thanksgiving and do is it Thanksgiving is one of your indulgence. I’m not sure when you’re going to play this but so it may be after Thanksgiving, but is it going to be Christmas day? Is it going to be that Hanukkah? Whatever is going to be, but what is your indulgence going to be? What’s your temptation time going to be in? Is that a time that you want to choose to indulge? Because again, it really may end up being that when you think back on it, you may not really like Aunt Sally’s green bean casserole, but you always just put it on the plate anyway. You may not prefer the yellow box Mac and cheese because now your tastes have refined and you prefer yours with Gouda and truffles and you don’t really want that kind of Mac and cheese anymore. So I think it’s taken a step back also in evaluating what is important to you. What’s a good indulgence for yourself instead of just given into what you’ve already always done? And if you don’t plan or prepare, that’s what’s going to happen. You’re just going to give into what you’ve waste done. Dr. Berry: So we got our plan, we’ve plotted out our three meals that we know that if I’m gonna enjoy myself. (I’m going to treat myself). Now how about after those three meals? What is the thought process, especially for your patients who understand like, okay, I can only do those three meals. So leftovers, I can’t. All of those other temptations that we know because especially when we talk about the holidays, it starts Thanksgiving, but Christmas is right around the corner so we have trouble. I hate to call it trouble, but we’ve got a month for some, I think that they deal with. What type of feedback are you getting especially during the process, as far as, I did slip in instead of three. I might’ve had four. What type of feedback are you getting? What type of feedback are you giving for patients who may fall into that category as well? Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Well, I think it’s all about reflection, so I encourage everyone to keep a weight journal. So in that weight journal, actually it’s a little bit interesting because I have everyone start by writing one compliment to themselves. So it doesn’t have to be weight related, just has to be something about yourself. Like, man, I have the best taste in shoes. These shoes are so cute. Well, you don’t say something about yourself because one, during our weight loss process, we are so negative. I also tell everyone what unlocked my lasting weight loss journey was one of my good friends said, be nice to Sylvia. I like her because you know, I was really beating myself up. I was like, man, I always say I’m going to exercise and never exercise. I say, I’m not going to eat that chocolate cake. I ate three pieces. She was just like, look, please be nice to Sylvia. I like her and really once I was kind to myself once I was nice to myself, that unlocked everything because then I was able to say, hmm, well why am I not exercising? Is it because I actually have to take care of this 18 month old and my husband commutes for two and a half hours? I actually don’t have time, but what can I do? Maybe I’ll do a YouTube video for 10 minutes every day. That’s something I could do. And then on the weekends I can work out. And so it really transformed has that. So I have everyone keep a weight journal and in a way journal you can put these reflections like even thinking about, hmm, why did I have that fourth meal? Was I not realistic in saying that I only needed three? Maybe I needed to really, and was that fourth one really that important to me? Was I really tried to please somebody else during eat in it? Did I really want to eat that? Okay, maybe I did really want to eat it. So four, that’s okay. So where can I make up for as something else? So really part of this process is learning yourself and identifying again the why, the why, the why. So often we’re focused on what, which is the weight that we’re not focused on, the why behind it and that why’s everything. Because once you understand your why and your motivation, as I said for myself too and everything I’m saying, so you guys is stuff that I’ve done. So I have not gained weight during the holidays because I have followed this same approach. Now that being said, once again, it’s, it’s about you. I don’t want to say put everyone in a cookie cutter box, but in general this will work. But if you find you have four things that you need to indulge in, you need to think about it. And then I can go even deeper because I say, well, in that indulgence, especially if you’re adding a fourth, then you need to choose one of three categories. You need to choose sweets, savory or spirits. Which one are you going to indulge in? (Spirit? Hmmm, okay). I don’t drink, but I have learned that people like this, they’re spirits. I love alliteration because I’m such a literary and geek. I love books, I love literature. It’s just everything has to have like three S’s. It has to have the same letter. If I can help it. So sweet, savory or spirits, which one do you, and which one do you want to indulge in for that meal? That particular meal. So that’s to say if you’re going to go hard on dessert, and I’m not saying go hard, like eat a whole cake, but if you’re going to have an Ethel’s famous pie, then go ahead and cut back on the actual meal. So maybe instead of that rice, you’re going to go ahead and do a salad instead. Or instead of that Mac and cheese, you’re going to go ahead and do this, the sweet potatoes or something like that. So just balancing it things out a little bit. Dr. Berry: I already know someone’s going to ask, is there certain foods that you’re just like, come on, like don’t kid yourself avoid it or you’re like you can eat it, where do you kind of fall in line? Because someone’s gonna ask should I just go ahead and avoid the fried Turkey or should I just have a look? They’re going to ask this, there are certain foods that they should probably just stay away from this holiday season so they don’t get in trouble. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Well it depends on, again, what your goal is. If you look at the literature, one meal is not going to be the thing that is going to and the deal on your weight loss. One meal isn’t. So I say, is that Turkey really that important to you? Have you been dying to try the Popeye’s fried Turkey? If you have and you can’t stop thinking about it, you just really, really wants to taste it, then go for it. So, have a sensible piece, two hands, so then portion control it. If you know that you love macaroni and cheese, that’s your indulgence, then okay, you can have the macaroni and cheese as part of it. Now, is it high in carbs? Is it high in fat? Absolutely. Is it something that you should be eating for a whole week? No, if you want to have that, you can have it. But what one of my patients that, one of the things we talked about is actually maybe putting them in muffin tins so that you already have portion control for you or maybe in small ramekins, as opposed to dip it in that big ladle or something like that. Some people are actually doing, bringing in a portion control plate that they bring and then no leftovers too. So they are taking a portion control plate with them to Thanksgiving. So that helped them put everything appropriately too. So I again don’t like do’s and don’ts for adults because I find the most that the more you try to tell people don’t do this. It creates the craving. They’d be like, hmm actually I do want that a little bit more. So I read there you really think about how much do I value that? Is that something important to me? And then make that determination. Dr. Berry: I love it and that’s so true because once you put folks in a category saying, no, I want you to not do this, not do that. They become so intrigued, they almost want to test the water. They almost want to say, what is one piece? That’s okay. I love it. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: So that’s my approach to it. And I think the data supports that because again, one of the benefits and I’m a nerd, I’m a culinary and I love the science and everything about it. So I say that to say that the science and the data does support that. It’s okay. So I just read a study looking at what is the average amount of weight gain that we have during the holiday season. And interestingly enough, now granted it was a very small study in a bit homogeneous as all these things usually are. But the neck weight gain was just a pound for the holiday season. But this was very interesting. But this was in patients though who had a BMI less than 29, so people who had a BMI, so body mass index. So that’s again, your weight in kilograms divided by meters squared. And this is what we use and that’s a whole another conversation. But in general, that’s what they use in this study in general. So once you get over 30, everyone has obesity and it’s fine regardless of gender culture. So yes. So the people who had obesity, they gain five pounds on average. So people were overweight or had obesity to gain more weight during the holidays and their spread was higher. So that is to say, again, thinking about the kind of foods you eat during the holidays, really for these people who already have cells prime in a sense for weight gain. So when we talk about obesity and talk about the accumulation of sick fat, so unhealthy fat cells that have wreak hormonal havoc throughout the body and cause more weight gain. So these people tend to gain more weight when exposed to these kinds of foods. Now they didn’t look at everybody’s school skill. So before craft and before all the big industry come after me, I was just saying they didn’t call any names. I’m just saying in general, I find it interesting that the people who already had obesity gained a lot more weight during this time than the people who did not have obesity overweight in this study. Dr. Berry: That’s very good. Very good. Okay. I love it. Before we let you go, because obviously we know the holidays is around and your time is busy. Any kind of parting words for the Lunch and Learn community? Because obviously, like I said, you had been such an amazing asset to our community. Just really getting us in the mindset of what obesity, especially guys, I remember Lunch and Learn community, I will put in the show notes all the episodes she’s been a part of. She’s helped out the working mom. She’s helped us get an explanation of what obesity is. I definitely follow her everywhere. She’s definitely an inspiration, the key on how to do things correctly. So as we get primed and ready for the holidays and we know what’s coming, is there any parting words for Lunch and Learn community? We know it’s gonna be tough for some and they hear the obesity expert on the podcast and they want to say, alright, if the obesity expert tells me this, I think I’m going to be okay. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: The pressure is so high. Oh my goodness. Well, I just wanted to encourage everyone and say, you don’t have to be perfect on this journey. You just have to be persistent. Dr. Berry: So Lunch and Learn community we’re gonna splice that and have that posted somewhere. I love that. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: You don’t have to be perfect. You just need to be persistent. So that is to say if you have one bad or let’s say unhealthy meal, instead of calling it bad, unhealthy meal that is not in alignment with your goals. Don’t feel like then tomorrow you have to wake up and do the same thing. Get back on track and be persistent in your goal to lose weight. So don’t feel like you have to continue in doing the same thing. And that’s to say if you choose to treat yourself or indulge on Thanksgiving, great. Tomorrow you get back to what you started doing. If you choose to do it at the office party, tomorrow you get back and to start what you’re doing. So just remember perfection is not required. Persistence is, and so be persistent in the goals that you have for yourself. Also during these holidays, choose your values. Choose what matters. Most of you choose those three treat meals that you’re going to indulge in and know why you’re indulging in it. If it’s because you want to do it with your family, because you want to be with your friends, because you actually enjoy an Ethel’s chocolate pie, whatever it is. But know your why behind whatever you’re doing. Because it’s not just about the number on the scale, it’s about the story behind it and why you’re doing what you’re doing. And that’s what’s going to help you and get to lasting weight loss. So that’s basically what I have to say. Dr. Berry: I told you Lunch and Learn community, I knew she was gonna knock it out of the park. I surprise that question I went to. I already knew, I was confident she’s not gonna let me down. Obviously on a past episode we’ve talked about it. Where can people find you, follow you, get into your motion game, into your world of what you do and how you do it? Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: Wonderful. Well, you can find me on all social media platforms, but especially on Twitter, on Instagram, and also on Facebook. So I give you inspiration and share my own weight journey. And I definitely am not perfect, but I am persistent. And so you get to see what a fit foodie looks like. Because I do like my food but I try so. Balance it with fitness and also with healthy food too. So seeing that variation in, and I have a website www.drsylviagbollie.com and you can find me there and I enjoy speaking. So people want me to come out and speak. I’m happy to do that. And also I like writing so if there’s things you want me to write for you, I’m happy to do that as well. Dr. Berry: Yes, I love it. I’m saying she’s not lying because I think she dropped the picture and I think it was today I’m recording this on Monday. It was like a salad with some avocado. It looked so good. I like salad. My salads never look, I’ll eat the salad and it’s unreal check in and throw a little color and her blue food just looks amazing. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: I’m a foodie and that’s the thing. So that’s another episode. We just stack it up episodes. I’m a foodie and because my parents are restaurateur. My parents catered and everything had a restaurant growing up. So I grew up just immersed in food culture. And when I was trying to lose weight, it was very challenging because so much of what I enjoy is food. But what I did is challenged that energy into how can I make the healthy food as delicious as possible. Because even if I’m trying to lose weight, I’m not going to punish myself by eating gross food. So I just need to figure out what are new spices I can use? What are new flavors? What are different things that I can do to make this healthy food tastes good? And so that’s just my approach to it. So it needs to look appealing and it tastes good. So I deck out my point each day because I find cute little containers to put my lunch in because it just makes it more appealing, especially if you’re eating a kale salad when everybody in the lunches eating Popeye’s. True story. So you know, you really got to make your food look really good. Dr. Berry: I tell you, I’d be so jealous. I’m like, how this salad look… Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: But you’ve got this social media got the angles and the lighting. Dr. Berry: Thank you Dr. Sylvia for amazing episode. As always. We’re going to get this out before the Thanksgiving so they can be ready. Temptation is on the way, but Dr. Sylvia is here. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: You can do it guys. We can do it. This is going to force me to be accountable and posting so that you guys can know to what I’m doing as well. Dr. Berry: Okay. Thank you. You have a great night. Thank you again. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: You too. Thank you Dr. Berry and keep up the great work on your end too. Dr. Berry: I appreciate it. And again, you’ve been a motivating factor and that’s why everyone for those who know, I’m on Instagram. When I usually go to the gym, I’m starting to go back to the gym again. I always tag the people who inspire me to go to the gym. Man, she’s definitely, when I got to say, hey, I’m here. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: And you’re usually there when I’m like, just getting up in a bathtub. Like, okay, let me go and work out now because that he’s there, I guess I roll out of bed and put on this YouTube video. Dr. Berry: Yes. I love it. Have a great day. Dr. Sylvia Gonsahn-Bollie: You too. Bye Dr. Berry