Words of Wellness with Shelly

Fuel, Move, Sleep: Science-Backed Habits For Winter Wellness With Dr. Paul Arciero

• Shelly Jefferis • Season 2 • Episode 149

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Feeling foggy, run down, or stuck as the days get shorter? We invited Dr. Paul Arciero—renowned researcher in nutrition and exercise physiology—to map out a winter-ready wellness plan that’s simple, science-backed, and actually doable. We start by reframing “flu season” as a lifestyle season, then build a routine that protects energy, immunity, and cognition without extremes.

We break down bookend nutrition: why a protein-forward breakfast within an hour of waking, paired with prebiotic fiber and healthy fats, steadies blood sugar, supports the microbiome, and keeps cravings in check. Dr. Arciero explains how nutrient density has shifted and makes the evidence-based case for supplementation, highlighting the cognitive benefits tied to a daily multivitamin and the complementary roles of omega-3s, antioxidants, and adaptogens. We also get real about hydration: water is essential, but your brain, heart, and muscles depend on the big five electrolytes—sodium, potassium, magnesium, calcium, and chloride—in balanced amounts that go beyond trendy salt-and-lemon mixes.

From there, we design movement for the week, not punishment for the day. You’ll learn the four pillars—resistance training, short sprint intervals, mobility and balance, and easy aerobic work—and how to apply them with realistic timing, smart recovery, and the sweet spot of 4,000 to 7,000 steps on most days. Finally, we dial in sleep by aligning with circadian rhythms: consistent bed and wake times, morning and late-day light, a cool dark room, and a simple nighttime stack of magnesium (glycinate, threonate, or malate) with tart cherry juice to improve rest and recovery.

If you want a calmer mind, steadier energy, and stronger immunity through winter, this conversation gives you the checklist and the “why” behind it. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a boost, and leave a review to help more listeners find us. Which habit will you start today?

CONNECT WITH DR. PAUL: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drpaularciero
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaulArciero

https://www.amazon.com/PRISE-Life-Protein-Optimal-Performance

https://www.amazon.com/Protein-Pacing-Diet-Paul-Arciero

CONNECT WITH SHELLY:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellnesswithshellyj https://www.instagram.com/momswhoflourish
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShellyJefferis

A few of Shelly's favorite clean products:

High quality, clean nutrition and beauty products: https://shellyjefferis.isagenix

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Cayla Gray- Non-toxic cologne & perfume: https://caylagray.com/wellnesswithshellyj (10% discount)

JuJu Non-toxic candles & air fresheners:
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Coupon code for 10% off: ShellyJefferis

Thank you for listening to the Words of Wellness podcast with Shelly Jefferis. I am honored and so grateful to have you here and it would mean the world to me if you could take a minute to follow, leave a 5-star review and share the podcast with anyone you love and anyone you feel could benefit from the message.

Thank you and God Bless! And remember to do something for yourself, for your wellness on this day!
In Health,

Shelly

SPEAKER_01:

People think, oh, just, you know, get whatever you need from food. The science does not support that. The science supports you supplementing with these functional vitamins, minerals, adaptogens, antioxidants, and all these other things that we, you know, harvest and gather from around the world that are so healthy for us and concentrate them into a supplement. And a multivitamin is a great example. So if you're not taking a multivitamin, you should absolutely get on one as soon as possible.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you get confused by all of the information that barbards us every day on ways to improve our overall health and our overall wellness? Do you often feel stuck, unmotivated, or struggle to reach your wellness goals? Do you have questions as to what exercises you should be doing, what foods you should or shouldn't be eating, how to improve your overall emotional and mental well-being? Hello everyone. I am so excited to welcome you to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly Jeffries, and I will be your host. My goal is to answer these questions and so much more. To share tips, education, and inspiration around all of the components of wellness through solo and guest episodes. With 35 plus years as a health and wellness professional, a retired college professor, a speaker, and a multi-passionate entrepreneur, I certainly have lots to share. However, my biggest goal and inspiration in doing this podcast is to share the wellness stories of others with you. To bring in guests who can share their journeys so that we can all learn together while making an impact on the health, the wellness, and lives of all of you, our listeners. The ultimate hope is that you leave today with even just one nugget that can enhance the quality of your life, and that you will, we all will, now and into the future, live our best quality of lives full of energy, happiness, and joy. Now let's dive into our message for today. Hello, my friends. Welcome back to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelly, and I will be your host, and I am extremely excited to introduce my guest today. I am not going to try and share all of his accolades because there are a ton, but he holds an advanced graduate degree in nutrition and applied exercise physiology, and he has so many awards, and he is also a fellow in the Obesity Society, the American College of Sports and Medicine. Um, he has over 30, I'm guessing probably over 40 years now, of dedication to scientific research. He's he's published peer-reviewed articles, uh, well over 70 of them. And he just continues to be a leading expert when it comes to nutrition, metabolism, fitness, and I could not be more thrilled to have you on today, Dr. Paul Arciero.

SPEAKER_01:

Shelly, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00:

So excited to have you. And and for my listeners, a couple of quick things. Not only is he extremely smart, um, has a beautiful family, but he's just also a very, very good, good-hearted person wanting to make a difference in this world, in the lives of others, in our health, our nutrition, our longevity. And this man does not stop. He is continuing, forging ahead to do all he can to help us in this area, and is always doing research and science to discover the best protocols for all of us. And this is actually his third time on my podcast. I'm so honored, and um, I was just sharing with with him that I'm actually celebrating two years of of having my podcast. So I feel like this is a celebratory moment, and nobody else I'd rather celebrate with than talk at all.

SPEAKER_01:

That's great, congrats. That's a big um yeah, landmark. Two years of of spreading the word of health and wellness. Um good for you. Congrats. That's wonderful.

SPEAKER_00:

I I just I really enjoy it, and I've met a lot of wonderful people, and then I've gotten to know people even more like yourself, and it's just been a really, really rewarding experience. So I I know we need to jump in, and I just again I I will tell you again towards the end, but I I thank you so much for taking time with us today. It's wonderful. I appreciate it so much.

SPEAKER_01:

My my pleasure. This is a joy for me to be able to do. Yeah. And this topic that we're discussing um is uh a really important one. Um because everyone needs it. So yeah, I think uh that that's the the take-home message, is that um everyone, yeah, you know, and I think sometimes we lose sight of that. We we we sometimes um you know have that comparison, which is the the thief of joy, of course. Um, and so we look at what other people we think have, but even they, you know, need reminders, even they need to um stay committed and motivated and dedicated to this lifestyle. And um, you know, everyone uh at some point in time wavers. Um and so yeah, the the work that you're doing, um, keeping this on everyone's mind um is really important. And it's it's not just for a small group of people or a group of people that you know have not really ever had health in their life or wellness in their life. It's for everybody, even those that um, you know, look like they've all got it together, that they have moments and periods of life and phases of life where they struggle. And so I think that's really um, I think hopeful and reassuring that um, you know, we all need to be reminded of these lifestyle strategies that can get us back on track.

SPEAKER_00:

I think you're so right on that. And I I sometimes take for granted that I we have the knowledge, we have the education, we have the experience, but it doesn't mean, like you're saying, nobody's perfect. We don't always have it all together. And I and I think that people need to know that and hear that because that's real life, that's that's being authentic and that's who we are, and it's never going to be a perfect scenario, but we still will always put our health as a priority, our wellness, our longevity as a priority. And I think that's the that's the message I really work on driving home with others, and I know that you do the same. And it's just it's not gonna be perfect. There's gonna be days where it might not go as we had planned, and that's okay.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true. Yeah, I'm I'm ready to to dive in here and help remind people what you know what um what are some of those lifestyle strategies, especially you know, as we're moving into these these darker, colder, shorter days of the winter um in cooler months. And I know that some people are in different locations, but um nonetheless, it it's definitely for most people a colder, um, shorter day. So what are some of the things that we can do to stay on track?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think it's interesting because I think that you know you keep saying it's flu season. Well, I understand that, but it's to your more your point, I think that it's not so much that you know it's it's flu season. I we get sicker maybe more frequently because of the reason what you're saying. Like we're it's colder outside, we're inside more, maybe we're not as active because the weather isn't conducive to us getting outdoors and all of those different things. And I think that that I think bears reminding sometimes for people to think, you know, it's not just that it's yes, it's a season, but there's a reason kind of behind it, and and what can we do to kind of help ward off some of those germs and and the season of people having having issues. And so I know we wanna, you're gonna jump in with some suggestions and tips, especially through through our holiday season, Christmas, New Year, even though it's right around the corner. But I know there are some simple tips that we can incorporate if we can do it on a daily basis or at least as often as we can, will help.

SPEAKER_01:

For sure. Yeah, I think there are definitely some things that we can do. Uh and and I always tell people the the lowest hanging fruit to keep us healthy at this time of year is nourishing our body as well as we can. And so, what are some of those things that we can do? Well, I don't think there's any debate. I think um the starting point is just making sure that um your your highest quality nutrition should come right at the beginning of the day when you wake up within that first hour, and then again at the end of the day, right before you go to bed. Those are two of the most critical time points. And I know a lot of people are moving into this time-restricted eating and only eating within a certain window of time. Long term, we know that that's not the best strategy. Um, short term, sometimes people can manage weight well with it. Um, they they might feel a little bit better. Um, sometimes people don't feel like eating in the morning, and you know, there's some research coming out that that is sometimes related to higher cortisol levels. So if you're somebody who's a little bit more stressed, you've got a little bit more cortisol circulating in your body, sometimes you're not as hungry in the morning. That's not a good thing. So, you know, one of the things that's a good sign that your body and your mind and your overall health is in a really good place is that you do have a drive to want to nourish your body when you first wake up. That's a good sign. And so, what are what are those choices that you should choose? Well, protein is without question the number one top priority of what we need to do when we first wake up in the morning. So choosing the highest quality protein that you can nourish your body with is priority number one. And I like to tell people to try to do that within within the hour of waking in the morning. Combine that with some healthy fiber. So we have lots of different types of fiber, um, but um fiber nonetheless is is really important. There is something called prebiotics, um, and those are a form of fiber, resistant starches. So when we consume prebiotics, and these can come from things like chicory, root, inulin, um, oligosaccharide, fructo oligosaccharides. So these are things that are sometimes found in foods. Sometimes you have to consume these uh as functional, functional nutritional ingredients in uh nutritional um products. Uh and they're very, very healthy. They they feed our gut microbiome, which then feeds our immune system. So combining that healthy fiber with protein is priority number one, and then some healthy fat, um, some omega-3, for example, omega-3 fatty acids, some conjugated linoleic acid, CLA it's called, um mono um unsaturated fats, things like olive oil and and um um avocado, but absolutely getting in some healthy fats. Omega-3s is always, you know, kind of the one I have people focus on, and there's two types. There's DHA and EPA, are the two primary omega-3 fatty acids. So that combination, Shelly, right there, first thing in the morning, if you can make an undenatured, grass-fed, whey protein shake, for example, um, with some um healthy fiber uh that contains some of the prebiotic um fibers, that's a huge win. And then put in some avocado, put in some coconut, put in some omega-3s, and you've got yourself one of the best starts to the day. What we're finding also, which is really important for people that want to manage their metabolic health and their cardiovascular health, their immune health, um, their cognitive health, what we're finding is that if people can choose foods when they eat with a protein fiber healthy fat combination, um, that's going to serve them much better from a metabolic standpoint, heart healthy standpoint, immune standpoint, so body composition. So, in all ways, um combining those three in foods, those three macros, if you want to refer to them as macros, is um the winning ticket for sure. We're we're realizing now that when people start with just carbohydrates in the morning or some grains, um a glass of juice with a multivitamin or something like that, it's not nearly as healthy for us as it is at all. It's not even close. So, yeah, that protein fiber healthy fat is the the sweet spot.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you see people too, or you hear about people running out the door, right? Grabbing their cup of coffee or grabbing a cup of juice and then out the door to school or out the door to work, and uh they're just not doing their health or something.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a better way.

SPEAKER_00:

Any favors. Yeah, it's a better way for sure. On that topic, real quickly, I know how we kind of both feel about the supplements, but I feel like, and you can correct me if if it's if it's not accurate, but in that morning time or even at evening, to get some of those nutrients in, supplementation is necessary, right?

SPEAKER_01:

It is, yeah, for sure. Just because our food supply is not what it um once was. And so we know that the quality, the quality, not the quantity, we have plenty of quantity of food available. And I think sometimes people, you know, misinterpret. They're like, oh no, our food supply is wonderful. We have lots of food. We do, we have too much, but it's a very poor quality. Um the nutritional density, the nutrient density is not what it once was. So um supplementation is very, very healthy and very advantageous. And one of the reasons, Shelly, why is because what we can do is we can um boost some of the functional nutrients in foods when we supplement. And what I mean by that is we can take things like omega-3 fatty acids, um, things like antioxidants, things like adaptogens. Um, I mean, I could go on with a long list of things in each of those categories. Um, those are functional food ingredients, uh prebiotics, for example, probiotics, postbiotics, resistant starches. So the list is very long. But what you can do is um when you do supplement, you can um bring those all together in harmony into a uh a supplement, and the health boosting potential is magnificent. And just on that point, which I think is really worthwhile to mention here, is that in the latest research that they've done with multivitamin users, so multi-mineral vitamin consumers, um, they've done some unbelievable long-term uh longitudinal perspective studies. And what they've shown, the data came out, you're probably aware of it. Um, if you're not as a listener right now, um taking a really high-quality multivitamin is the best thing you can do for your cognition. Um so I think that's a reminder that people think, oh, just you know, get whatever you need from food. The science does not support that. The science supports you supplementing with these functional vitamins, minerals, adaptogens, antioxidants, um, and all these other things that we harvest and gather from around the world that are so healthy for us and concentrate them into a supplement. And a multivitamin is a great example. So if you're not taking a multivitamin, you should absolutely get on one as soon as possible because one of the ravages of modern society is neurodegenerative decline. Um, it's ravaging through families and through large populations of people. And we're only getting older. So the rates of neurodegenerative decline are going to skyrocket more and more. And one simple, very simple strategy: get on a multivitamin.

SPEAKER_00:

I love that. And it is simple. You just, I mean, you just have to get in that habit that I say habit stacking. I remind my husband, put your vitamin next to your toothbrush because you know you're going to brush your teeth, right? Whatever it takes to remind yourself to take it every single day. And I think another great point you're making is you you mentioned all of these important nutrients and minerals. And my mind's going, oh my gosh, how much food? Nobody could even eat the food necessary to get all the benefits from all of those that you're mentioning. So supplement is where it's for sure. So crucial. Thank you for sharing all that. That's so, so important. So, as far as our immune system, that's huge. That's the way to start the day. What other tips, Dr. Paul, for an average day is going to help us keep our keep our immune system strong through these next few weeks and beyond, of course.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, yep. So great. So starting with nutrition, starting with that breakfast meal, ending the day with a very high-quality protein source with some um healthy, again, fiber, carbon um fats, and even some uh fruits if you wanted. You could put some fresh berries, but ending the day, I like to call it the bookends. You want the beginning and the end to be your highest quality nutrition. Because at the end of the day, you need to nourish your body so that it has what it needs during your recovery, right? Because it's during sleep that we're rebuilding, replenishing, rejuvenating, recovering from what we did during the day. And I think people lose sight of that. So super important that we consume that really high-quality, nutritious meal at the end of the day, too. And then in between during the day, you know, staying hydrated. And people used to think, oh, water is all you need, and nothing is further from the truth, right? Science shows very clearly that you need um much more than water during the day. And so the electrolytes, um, the sodium, potassium, magnesium, chloride, and calcium, those five, those are the big five, are essential. Um, and those are the things that you need to make sure that you're consuming throughout the day to keep your heart beating properly, your muscles contracting and relaxing, not just contracting, but relaxing in the way that we need them to. So our muscle tone. And then your nervous system. You know, I think people kind of forget that our electrolytes serve so many crucial our brain activity, our heart pumping and the electrical activity in our heart, and then our muscles, all of those work on electrical conductivity. They're called electrolytes, and so we have electrical charges that move through all of those really important places brain, heart, muscles, and the vital organs. So um electrolytes are key. So that's kind of the nutrition um component.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, and of course, I think real quick about that. I know you're we have to keep moving on. I I see people mixing water with a little pinch of salt and maybe fresh lemon. I personally have an electrolyte hydration drink that I drink every single morning. Can you stay on that for a second? As far as if you're doing the water and the salt, in my mind, I'm thinking you're not really getting all the electrolytes you're both.

SPEAKER_01:

No, for sure not. Yeah, I think that's um kind of a little bit of a whimsical kind of you know social media, I don't know what you want to call it, fad. Um, but yeah, it has to be for sure much more than just table saw salt, the sodium chloride. And if it's more of like a Himalayan or a Celtic sea salt or something, sometimes they don't even have the chloride levels that you need in there. So um not sufficient. Lemon clearly does not have the electrolytes um that you need. So, you know, if you were to add um like coconut water to that mixture, that could help because that would provide you the potassium, but you're really missing out on the magnesium, um, which is not in there, and the and the calcium as well. So it's just not enough, Shelly. Yeah, so you really need to do um more than just that. Um, I know it sounds cool, it sounds natural, but it's not to the level that your body needs. No. No high-performing athlete or performer would use just lemon, salt, and whatever else they might be putting in there. It has to be very thoughtful and in the appropriate concentrations. And so, yeah, like you said, um a well-thought-out uh hydration electrolyte um supplement and powder is the best way to go, for sure. Yeah. So then, you know, there are other um strategies that you can do. And again, I know you and I have talked about this, my book that captures all of this in there, but you know, from the movement side of things, right? It's making sure that you're moving your body in the right um amounts and again, uh modes of movement. I think that people think, well, you know, just walk, um, go to the gym and lift weights, um, you know, do Pilates and yoga, you know, it has to be much more thoughtful than that. And I think that's where we're missing the target by a large um amount with people to help them navigate how best to incorporate movement into their daily lifestyle. Um, and so I break it down very simply that if you can just um include four movement um experiences into your normal routine on a weekly basis, and you just need one of them a day. I know it sounds um almost like it's not um uh not enough. It absolutely is. Um, and it's it it allows people to also not feel hostage to feeling like they need to work out, you know, really, really hard every day. You know, that whole no pain, no gain concept has been completely thrown out the window. Um, you need to give your body time to recover and recuperate. And if you look at the world-class athletes, they're exercising at a really high intensity, very, very limited amounts of time in their overall schedule. It's about 20%. I I know when I say that to people, they're like, what? 20% is all professional athletes are pushing themselves, you know, really, really hard uh intensity? Yes, that's it. Because they they can't push more than that because they have to perform. Um, and if they were training at a high intensity for more than 20% of their time when they exercise, they wouldn't have what they need to be able to perform at the level that they do when they're performing. So it's been a real miss um misinformed exercise recommendation, public health-wise, that we've given to the general public. So I like to tell people just think of four different movement experiences. The first one has to be a resistance type of movement, so where you're pushing and pulling against a resistance, so kind of traditional weight training if you want to use that, um, but more functional movement experiences that you can do even with just your own body weight, uh, modified push-ups against the wall, um, single-leg lunges and squats, um, planks and core type exercises. So those are all resistance type movements. Jumping, you know, one of the things that we've gotten away with, especially as people age, we've given them an excuse not to sprint and not to perform, you know, resistance type exercise or jumping type exercise. And just the opposite. Um, as we age, it's actually even more important. Um, and and if people are not in a position to be able to do that, they need to strengthen their muscles to allow them to start to do some of those types of activities. But yes, in an ideal world, we want our 80, 90, 100-year-old men and women inhabiting the earth to continue to be sprinting and and jumping because that's really important for us. So it's not just about walking. So that would be the one, and then the second, of course, would be the sprinting type movements. We need to engage in a high level of exertion at a very short amount of time, 30 seconds to 60 seconds, and then resting for two to three minutes in between. And then we do about five to seven of those excursions within uh workout, and we do that one day a week. And then we do um, and then we can take a day off for recovery, and then we do a stretching, um, something like Pilates, even, or Tai Chi or Yoga. I know there's a lot of these stretch labs that are coming up now all over the country here in the United States. So um those are really helpful, but going to one of those once a week would be super important to maintain your joint mobility. Because I think sometimes people think, uh, I don't want to stretch my muscles. I heard it's not good for me. It's not just only about your muscles becoming lengthened and stretched, it's also about your joints becoming mobile enough to safeguard you against the fall. It's really good to work on your balance. Um, and so I think people need to be made aware of that when you engage in a full-body, um, I call it a stretching routine just for simplicity, um, but it incorporates um muscle flexibility, but then also joint mobility and uh balance, um, and so that you're working on your balance. So that would be the third form of movement. And then the fourth one would be um cardiovascular aerobic. So things like walking. Um uh that's really important. I think people don't need to always walk for 10,000 steps a day, as so much we hear about. The science shows very, very strongly and clearly that it's somewhere between four and seven thousand steps. That's the sweet spot. So if we can have people achieve that on most days, even the days that they're doing the resistance training, the intervals, and the uh the stretching, uh, that's really important that they still aim for that four to seven thousand steps. And then one day a week they they might want to extend it a little bit longer because that longer period of aerobic cardiovascular at a very low level, we're talking like a um a level three or four on a scale of one to ten, um, is really helpful for our blood vessels. It's really helpful for the brain to receive that blood flowing through it. Um so it's really healthy for our brain, our mood state, um, and the blood flow through the brain, and it's really good for our blood vessels to keep them elastic. Um, those are the benefits of that endurance exercise. So those are the four types. So that would be the second kind of lifestyle strategy. Nutrition is first, then movement is second, and then third, of course, would be uh sleep and recovery, you know, making sure that we're getting the proper sleep that we need over these winter months. Because as we were talking about, you know, we we hear a lot about um flu season and COVID and different viruses going around in the winter. A lot of that is because we're hunkering down inside a lot more. Um, and it's so important to really get out into sunlight, um, especially during those early morning hours or the later evening hours. Those are the ideal times to be out there. It's um very conducive to helping with our hormonal status when we can get out in natural sunlight early in the morning and then later on at the end part of the day before the sun sets. So those are the two critical times, um, and we just need to make sure that we're we're seeing that sunlight, getting out there to keep our circadian um rhythms and our hormones um operating in a healthy way, and allows our body to maintain proper uh what we call light and dark cycle. So making sure that we're winding down at, you know, revving up at the right time of the day, and then winding down at the right time of the day to prepare us for sleep. Um so that's that's really important.

SPEAKER_00:

And that that relates to, and is I guess it would be the uh probably the same as our circadian rhythm, correct? Where you're you're kind of matching the the the daylight with you know, you start to wind down when it starts to get dark. Even the bike where I am now, it starts to get dark at five. That's a little early, but I get the I you know, I get the idea that's what's going to be conducive to your sleep. And then also going to sleep and getting up around the same time as much as possible, I think is another, another helpful. Is that another helpful tip?

SPEAKER_01:

Very much so, yeah. So in terms of specifics with sleep, yes, it's about um creating and sticking to a pattern of waking in the morning and bed at night as much as possible. We know that that's one of the first things that we want to um educate people with in terms of helping them sleep um better with deeper sleep. And then number two would be making sure that you're in the darkest room possible. And that means kind of taking out anything that has an electromagnetic field, a phone, a TV, a radio, a you know, anything with a device, computer, you know, removing that from your sleeping environment is uber, uber important. Um, and just you know, putting down the the LED light devices as much as possible for at least an hour or two before you go to sleep, that would be number two. Um, and number three would be keeping the room cool. The the ideal temperatures are somewhere between 60 to 64. Some people would go up to 68, but if you can keep it on the cooler side, that's actually better for our body to sleep in that cooler environment. Of course, you'd have covers to keep you warm, but keeping the room in that cooler, darker environment is really important. And then from a nutritional standpoint, there are a couple of things that you can do. Number one would be uh magnesium. Um, so there's magnesium threonate, magnesium glycinate, and magnesium mallate. Those would be the three different forms of magnesium that would be really helpful at night. So threonate, umate, and glycinate. Um, you don't have to do all three of those. You could choose just one. But taking in some magnesium and putting it into some tart cherry juice. And I know that sounds kind of funny, but it's not. Um, it's been scientifically proven that tart cherry juice has natural melatonin because we know we're moving away from supplementing with melatonin for some people, but using tart cherry juice with the magnesium is really, really helpful. Um, and then I like for some people um to give them a little bit of um um gratification of chewing on something, some pumpkin seeds, if um you feel so inclined. That also helps with um the the brain chemistry in a better place. So those those strategies are are game changers for people, Shelley. Dark room, cool room, bedtime, same, um, and wake up time, same, and then the tart cherry and the magnesium.

SPEAKER_00:

I love you sharing all that. I it reminds me, I'm making myself a note to get tart cherry, cherry juice because I've heard you say that before, and I got out of it, and now I need to grab some and get back in the habit of doing it.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know what it would be like to not have that before bed.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, right. So you're doing all you're you're you are the perfect example of you walk to talk and that and just to talk, but it's all the science behind it. And I so appreciate you sharing all this, and it's so interesting as far as the sleep goes. I, you know, I notice we keep our room cool, but I even notice a difference when when summertime ends and it starts to get cooler at night, all of a sudden I'm like, hi, I feel like I'm sleeping better, which is so interesting because we keep our room cool and pretty much the same, but uh it makes such a difference. And and I I will say the blackout curtains are just the best convention ever.

SPEAKER_01:

Game changer, yeah, those are mandatory.

SPEAKER_00:

Sometimes though you don't want to wake up in the morning, you think it's like you know, it's in the middle of the day. It's like, oh wait, it's time to wake up. But those those are game changers for sure. I just I appreciate this so much. I I know you, I'm sure you have to hop off to your next appointment, but I can't thank you enough. And I just I want all our listeners to really really take what Dr. Paul is saying to heart because it is all backed by science, and that's the wonderful thing about everything that he shares. It has been proven to work, it has been proven to bring about the results that we all want with our health and our our energy, our longevity. And he does have two books, and I will share them in the show notes: The Protein Pacing Diet and The Prize Life. And I mean, I just can't say enough good things about you, Dr. Paul. I thank you so, so much for your time today.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for having me, Shelley. I feel the same about you, and I as we talked about before we we came on the air here. Yeah, we we you you're doing such great work, and we we need to stay committed to this. Um, more and more people need it. Everyone needs it. You know, that's what we were talking about. It's not just for a select few. And so uh you taking the time to bring on people like me and others um that can speak to these topics, uh, you know, thank you for doing that because um everyone needs it. And so these are great reminders and um great ways to get us back on track to leading a healthier life. So thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. It's just an honor to have you on, and thank you so, so much. And to all our listeners, take note, take this to heart, like I said, and and really put put all of these suggestions into play. They're they're simple tips that we can all incorporate. So I encourage you to do so. Take time for yourself and your wellness on this day, and have a beautiful, blessed rest of your week, everyone. We'll see you next time on Words of Wellness. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you gained value and enjoyed our time together as much as I did. And if you know someone who could benefit from today's episode, I would love and appreciate it if you could share with a friend or rate and review Words of Wellness so that more can hear this message. I love and appreciate you all. Thank you for listening. And if you have any questions or topics you would like me to share in future episodes, please don't hesitate to reach out to me through my contact information that is shared in the show notes below. Again, thank you for tuning in to Words of Wellness. My name is Shelley Jeffries, and I encourage you to do something for you, for your wellness on this day. Until next time, I hope you all have a healthy, happy, and blessed week.