Happy Sexy Health: Building Success from the Inside Out with Stephanie Taylor

As business owners and property investors, we are often juggling endless to-do lists, deadlines and the pressures of building or running a business. But when you are running on empty, so is your business. Your health has to come first. In this episode, Athena Dobson sits down with Steph Taylor to uncover why your health is not just a personal matter, it is the foundation of your success as a business owner.

Together they dive into the hidden truths about nutrition, what we often do not know about our eating habits, and why paying attention to what is really going on in our bodies matters so much. Steph opens up about her own health challenges and the surprising discoveries she made about fats, proteins and sugars, and how these can either support or sabotage our wellbeing.

This conversation is about more than simply eating well. It is about shifting outdated beliefs, enjoying food without guilt, and understanding the biological facts that help us perform at our best. Whether you are already running a business or dreaming of starting one, this episode is your reminder that prioritising your health is one of the smartest business moves you can make.

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Transcript

0:01

Good morning everyone and welcome to today's episode of the Girls in Property podcast. So if you're tuning in today, I imagine that you are super stoked and super excited because today we are going to be talking all about health, a really, really important topic as entrepreneurs and as people and things to ourselves. What does health even actually mean? How do we actually distinguish our health? What is it we need to know about health and what is it that we can learn about? in order to make sure that we're the healthiest version of ourselves that we can be. And as some of you know, we had the privilege of actually having this guest who is on the podcast today, who came in and did a session for the community. And what was so prevalent and so important was that like, everybody has different opinions and everybody has different ways in which they actually look at their own health and the way that they manage their health. But at the same time, there are hopefully some really fundamental ways that we can... give today to really talk about and help as many people today really think about, well actually am I looking after my health in the best way? Could it be better? And maybe just a couple of golden nuggets as well. So without further ado, I'd love to introduce today Steph Taylor. Hey Steph. Hi, I'm Theme, and it's to be back. I know so you are officially back on the podcast and we were just saying before you came on What was interesting was this is the first time you've actually been on the podcast where I have of course taken over it as uh lead, you know, chief CEO as it were um and host of the podcast because before you came on and actually we're talking about something completely different because you're always or should you know usually known as well with your sister Nikki as the rent-to-rent success girls women. So today is all about actually happy sexy health, isn't it, instead? It is Athena and I'm so excited to get into it because like you say, people are confused about what to do and people are out to confuse us as well, you know? uh So I think it's really important to have a clarity around certain things which are the biological things. And once you know the biological facts of how humans work, you can then decide what to do. And it might not be what I mean. suggesting people try, it could be something else, but once you know those facts, it really makes everything clear. I love that. And we're going to delve into those facts to date and have those eureka moments or those, my God, no way moments. And so that's what I really want to have. Cause I certainly had those myself and you did your presentation. thought, Steph, you're to have to come on the podcast and tell this to the nation. So before we sort of delve into it, I actually want you to reintroduce yourself to everybody because, know, people, people sort of, feel have known you for such a long time as the Rent to Rent success sisters, but actually who is Steph? Who is Steph Taylor? Like what have you been through? What's your life been like? And what has now led you onto wanting to go down this new path of creating the happy, sexy health and why it's so important to you? Yeah, my gosh, Athena, I feel emotional just thinking who is Stephanie Taylor and all of the trials and tribulations, every single person, every single woman listening will be able to think back on those trials and tribulations, those moments that you never thought you would get through. And there's been there's been many phases of life and each one has had its incredible highs, but also its lows. And um I was a young mama, Athena. So that was a very different kind of life to the one that I have now. And my son Alex is just a joy ever since a baby, one of those chatty little happy babies uh just grew up really like that. life was um a struggle financially and I didn't really have so much confidence as I have now. I wasn't really sure what was I going to do. And so that was, you know, in my 20s. and 30s really. And then eventually I found my way, this is probably where people might know, I'd worked my way up. I'd had a little hobby business in my, what age would I have been then? Maybe late 30s, early 40s. Organizing events. It was a business business, but I was really doing everything. I hadn't mastered the art about delegation. systems and all that. So it was really like a job with a terrible boss myself. So I did that. And then I'd, I sort of burnt myself out a little bit. And I decided I went back to work and got very just basic, basic administrative jobs. And I was nervous about going in. It's funny how I'd sort of gone backwards. And then And then I've worked myself up to where I was a financial services contractor. And that was, you know, a few hundred pounds a day instead of a few hundred pounds a week. And so that was an eye opening moment because I thought actually when I was working as an office manager, it was on a temporary basis. I know most office managers will be paid a lot more, but this was more like a minimum wage temp job as an office manager. And when I was working as an office manager, it was a few hundred pounds a week rather than a few hundred pounds a day. Exactly the same person, exactly the same skills and experience, but just what you know changes what you get. Because just I never even knew that these sorts of jobs existed where you can be a contractor in financial services. It's called project, project officers, project support officer. Sometimes it's called data analyst, which sounds a bit more fancy. But basically, Athena is all admin. And I came across it by accident. And once I found out about it and got that first job, which was like felt like a message heard or getting over, I then, you know, I'd set up a limited company and all of that. hadn't done that before. Obviously it's quite straightforward, but for the first time had to do different things for my tax and so on. Even though I'd had a business before it was as a self-employed rather than having a limited company. And So that really set me up. And then I moved in different places in the country doing that. And I enjoyed it immensely. Well, I enjoyed immensely having that role, knowing that the value that I was bringing, but also knowing the income that I was now getting and feeling so lucky, you know. But then I was working in, I'd moved from Edinburgh to Bristol. I was working in Bristol as uh a data analyst. And it's not my ideal job because I'm a little bit more creative. ideas, words, maybe more than numbers, and my brain works a little bit less logically than perhaps would be ideal for the job that I had. And I would have just carried on with it because I thought, you know, this is a win here, I'm winning that. um But I started, yes, I had that moment um when my mum got ill. And I started to think, and I wasn't there for her. I was going to work and I really felt I would have liked to have gone to be with her and just given her more time. And I thought as I get older and she gets older, I want to be able to be more flexible. And I started asking myself the question, which many of your listeners who've gotten into property will have asked themselves, how can I have income without going to work? um How can I make money as they say while I sleep? How can I build investments that make money for me? And that was when I started going to all the property events and just again being blown away by what was possible, what had always been there and I didn't know about. And just as women do when they get into your network, Athena, talk to each other, get new ideas and start uh winning financially just because you knew something that you didn't know before that... makes you richer in so many ways as a person obviously and financially. Yeah, that's amazing. love that. And then what about the next bit then? So then you had that, you did the Rent to Rent. What was then the next part for you in life? so quickly just with the rent to rent, we managed properties. It's about managing property. So you're making money from the property without buying it. That's what we're doing with rent to rent. And we were making on each HMO anywhere between 500 and 1,200 pounds per month per property. on those properties and then we built that up and then we had someone come in and manage it. So they do the day to day in that business. We still do oversee it. could never, I think with that kind of business totally. So there are times where we are involved in it, but it's certainly nowhere near a full-time job, especially for me. I may be one hour a week on that business where I have a meeting with Nikki and I also have a meeting with the person who manages So how did happy, sexy health thing come about? Yes, so I got sick basically. So it's there going along minding my own business and then I started to as I was in my 50s I started to feel really tired and that was really a sign that I didn't know at the time but the sign that it was a sign that I had cancer and it was I just thought something's wrong here I don't know what's wrong and the only thing that I knew was an issue was that I had fibroids. Now apparently over 80 % of all women get fibroids. And I'll say, I might say later why I think that is, but I had fibroids, which I knew about, but I knew that sooner I would be going into menopause and apparently then the fibroids would calm down. So there was nothing needed to be done. So I says, well, let's have an ultrasound, see what this current status is. And so I had that ultrasound in October, 2023, then They found some growths that looked a little bit suspicious, thought. Cut long story short, January 2024, I was diagnosed with um stage four ovarian cancer, metastasized to the liver, the kidney, the spleen, the omentum, the bowel. So it was quite spread out. It was quite an advanced stage. Yeah, gosh. And I know you're not supposed to look Athena online to see what is the life expectancy of this diagnosis, but of course it's hard to resist. So I did go on and look and the life expectancy with this diagnosis is 15 % of women who have this diagnosis will be alive in five years. So it was quite a scary, em I just felt... are hopeless and just really, really sad. course yeah very scary very scary so did you then think to yourself no this isn't me and I've got to then look at my health I've got to look at how I can be a healthier person like what was the next bit The next bit was, um you hear people say you can heal cancer naturally, etc. And so I started to look into it. And of course the first thing you hear is go vegan. Eat plant foods, juice, there are lots of clinics set up and this is what they do with people. But a little bit before I got my diagnosis, I'd started to hear about primal eating. and it really made sense to me. It really seemed unusual because before this I used to have porridge for breakfast with fruit and a little bit of honey. thought that was super healthy and I made my porridge with water and I thought this was almost the best thing I could be eating. Then for lunch I would have spinach, all sorts of different veg on there. Loved it. Hummus on it, chickpeas in it, getting your protein, etc. And I really thought I was doing absolutely the best for my health. And actually, I wasn't. And when I heard about this primal eating, which is really meat based, meat is meat and the fat that comes with the meat is the majority of the nutrients. So they're saying things like have steak for breakfast, and I'm there having porridge and berries. So it really was a bit of a mind. It really blew my mind a little bit. But somewhere in my intuition I thought, I think this is right. And I found out three things afterwards that made me know that this was right. And I'll say those three things. The first one is that every animal, and although we have evolved and we're quite sophisticated now, we are still animals. And every animal for health, you mentioned health, what is the definition of health? What is the definition of healthy eating? It's getting in all the nutrients that we need to thrive. It's getting in all the nutrients that we need to thrive and be healthy. So for example, people really understand it with other animals like, cows eat grass, lions eat meat. And it's not that they never eat the opposite, sometimes they might, but predominantly for thriving health, a lion needs to eat a certain type of food, meat. And if we don't feed lions meat, if we were to feed them the food that we are eating, the lion would become sick. And this has happened in zoos and so on, where they've tried to have cheaper foods to feed the animals, but it doesn't work because the animals could only thrive when they eat what they're supposed to eat. And it's the same for us. And our biology says, and before I go into what biology says, just want to say biology is a bit like most kinds of maths. There's a right answer and there's a wrong answer. You can't swiz it. You can't buy a study. You can't buy researchers. Biology is a yes or a no for the majority of it and for the parts that I'm going to be talking about. So first of all, the essential nutrients that people need, humans need are essential fatty acids, that's fats, and I'm going to say animal fats, I'll explain why it's animal fats and essential amino acid, that's proteins. And that is especially animal proteins. So we've got three macronutrients, fats, protein and carbohydrates, and only two of them are essential. for us to live, thrive, reproduce and be healthy without being sick. Carbohydrates obviously also exist but they're entirely optional. That's the first thing, that we only need biologically protein and fat. The second thing is that we can only manage a teaspoon of sugar at any one time in our body. Now when we get more than a teaspoon, it's like a biological emergency inside your body. In ceiling the hormone comes up to press it down and that's not an issue if it's every now and again or here and there and not very much because, but we are eating on average in the UK, 350 grams of carbohydrates. and all carbohydrates are sugar and I know that's mind blowing to people so even our healthy quinoa, our bread, our sweet potato, our oats, our crackers, even if it doesn't taste sweet we all know that cakes and biscuits are sweet that's sugar, it's digested as sugar but all the foods I've mentioned that do not taste sweet they're all digested as sugar some of them turn to sugar in your mouth and some of them turn to sugar a bit later on but 350 grams of sugar we're putting in a day when our bodies can take six. And how do we know that's hurting us is that the high percentage of people now who are overweight, and the overweight is not the first symptom. Sorry, the overweight is not the illness. The symptoms are happening internally. Your body can't work properly. And then because that insulin is high when you're eating a high carb diet, what it does is it stops your body from burning fat. So because your body can't now burn the fat on your bum or wherever, it makes you hungry. Your body makes you hungry in these really powerful urges to eat and especially to eat energy. And so that is why people struggle. Most people, well, people are really intelligent, right? But they can't lose weight. And it's because of these hormonal reactions. It's not just I ate thousand calories or 1500 calories it really you really have to eat the foods like a lion um because we have to eat the foods we need we know what we need the essential fatty acids and the essential proteins so that's those are the first two reasons the first reason is because of what we biologically need fat and protein we don't need carbs the second reason is that when we we can only manage up to six grams of cardinal carb sorry sugar in our bloodstream at any one time. Otherwise it causes all sorts of problems. And the third thing is for me personally and for the one in every two people in the UK will get cancer in their lifetime. So 50 % of people watching this will either have had a cancer diagnosis or will receive a cancer diagnosis in their lifetime. And so the third secret is that cancer loves sugar. That's not a made up thing. Because when you go for a PET scan, a PET scan is different to a CT or an MRI because it will show you where in your body is the cancer active, where is the cancer growing, because sometimes you may have a tumor, if you're having treatment, may die. due to the treatment or the other things that you're doing. But it will still show on an MRI CT. On a PET scan, you will know what is an active cancer and what isn't. And what do they do on a PET scan? And what they do is they inject you with radioactive glucose. So that is radioactive sugar. And why do they do that? It's because active cancer eats sugar. at 4 to 9 plus times normal cells. So when you put sugar into the body, the cancer takes it in quickly to grow and it takes that energy that would go elsewhere. It takes it to grow your tumors. So when I heard that about the PET scan, which obviously the medical profession knows because they are doing the PET scan, why does the PET scan work? because cancer loves sugar. And many, many research over decades has shown that. the three things that made me realize, if I'm changing my diet, I'm going to do it to prioritize proteins and fats because those are the foods that we need the most. I'm going to keep it low in sugar because sugar is toxic to human bodies over quite a low amount. And three, for people who've got cancer or there's cancer in their family, they're maybe more at risk. Then eating sugar helps the cancers to grow. Certain cancers are very um sugar growers and other cancers less so, but still having a lower sugar diet will still help in all cancers. Hmm. Do you know there's so much I want to sort of talk to you about Steph, but first of all, just want to say like, I think you're so brave to go through what you've been through and talk about your story and to help others because I know that there will be others who can relate to what you're talking about and maybe haven't spoken about it openly or publicly, but they're listening to this today and they're like, Steph, I see you, I hear you. I've been through whatever they've been through. And so I think that sometimes people almost try and avoid these conversations because they're not glamorous conversations, they're not sexy conversations. And they're scary conversations, really, really scary ones. And I think that's what I love about this podcast is to have these conversations that need to be spoken about to allow others to feel seen and heard and to be really open about how are we actually treating our bodies? What is it that we're doing? And I tell you something that really stands out to me, Steph, is this, is I talk about this often and I tell everybody this and I, you know, I know why I did it, but now listening to you, I'm horrified that this is what I did for such a long period of time was when I was growing the business, um I just, mean, Steph, we've all been there. I I believed that I didn't have time to eat. I just believed that I had to skip meals because it wasn't even that I was trying to skip the meals, it's that I was so consumed in the work that I would naturally skip the food. It would be five o'clock before my head had lifted from the laptop screen or anything. But I felt I had these dips in energy, like my energy would dip. And what I had got almost, my body had got used to was... I knew to fuel my body even just for like a quick second that I needed that boost for was my diet for months and months and months was cans of coke, packets of crisps and chocolate bars. That's how I got through my day. It wasn't meals. It was just like cans of coke. Like, you know what I mean? I should have been like commissioned for the amount that I took and it would give me those real moments of energy. but I understand what you're saying about those moments of real dips and I could feel that my highs and my lows and I almost accepted that they were gonna come. And now when I hear you talk about sugar and I hear you talk about all of the things, I just think, oh my God, my poor body. What I did to my body when I needed it to be the fittest it could be so that it could build this business, I just feel. Like I can't believe that I put it through that almost. you know, there's an element of guilt, isn't there? Because you're like, I can't believe I did that to myself. you know, still it's, it's important that we're now talking about it and really thinking about what we do. And I really don't want people to feel guilty, you know, because some of us were eating crisps and coke. Some of us were... I did a mixture of both, don't get me wrong, but I had very focused times where I'd really got into a rhythm with my, you know, porridge and then spinach and what not what. But there were other times when obviously I was in a ditch with wrappers all around. Hahaha Exactly, we've all been there. I don't want anyone to feel bad, but just once you know you can then change it and the meat because there's two types of because people say well if I don't eat carbs or if I don't eat the way because we're told the government the NHS tell us to eat half of our plate as carbs in inverted commas healthy carbs include including that fruit and vegetables in that because it's all digested as sugar I'm not saying don't eat it. I'm just explaining biologically. That's what happens Then they're saying, of your plate as, um sorry, half the plate as healthy carbs, quarter as the veg and all that, and then quarter as a very small portion of lean meat without the fat. And they say, don't eat red meat, don't eat saturated fat. And so people then think, well, where am I gonna get my energy if I don't eat like that? But energy comes from two places. So the macronutrient of carbohydrates is sugar. Really it should be called sugar. Because then people would really understand what's happening. So the macronutrients of carbohydrates is sugar. And the macronutrient of fat. Now unfortunately we don't understand, and I didn't understand, that fat is nutritious. Fat has a lot of vitamins and nutrients in. Because how are we getting all of our nutrients met from meat and fat? is because all of those things that we're told are in vegetables are actually in meat and the fat that comes with it. And for the most part, they're not in the vegetables, or at least not in a way that humans can absorb the nutrients. So plant proteins are not the same. anyway, going back to the energy, there's sugar and there's fat, but fat gives you energy in a way that's stable. So when you wear a continuous glucose monitor, it shows how your blood sugar goes up and down. And like you were saying, Athena, when we eat those chocolate bars or anything like that, it goes up. Sometimes it comes down quickly, sometimes it doesn't, but often it goes down deep. And when it goes down deep, your body's really making you hungry again, so you want to eat again. that when all of the time that your blood sugar is high, it's glycating your internal organs and giving you eyes, can every every part of the body joints and arthritis it's more associated to a people with high blood sugar or insulin resistance. PCOS, endometriosis, fibroids even it's all connected to that glycation because when I said we can only have six grams of sugar at a time if most of us are eating 350 grams of healthy carbs i.e 350 grams of sugar We are flooding our body. We're not fueling, we're flooding. So that's why we don't want the sugar energy because it's very unstable. That makes us feel bad mentally. It makes us feel bad physically. It makes us tired. It ages our body. So you can see in some of the fruitarians, those are people who only eat fruit. That's basically a sugar diet. You'll see as they get older, and I saw an example earlier, a person five years later and they look as though, you know, 10 or 20 or more years have passed because they've aged because that's the glycation in your body. So that's why the sugar energy is not as good for us. And that's even saying nothing about what happens after the menopause, et cetera. But we'll just leave it at that for now. And then the fat energy, what does the fat energy do for us? Well, I'm talking about a special kind of fat. I'm talking about natural fat that comes with meat, eggs, and full fat dairy. Those are the fats I'm talking about. They're all natural fats. And what happens when you eat those fats is it's very satiating. You feel satisfied in a different way. um Eating and if you've noticed in nature, the protein, i.e. the meat, always comes with fat. The eggs always comes with fat. The dairy always comes with fat. All of the animal products that we are designed to eat always come with fat. And so what the fat does for us is it nourishes our body, it nourishes our brains, it creates our hormones. That's why it's terrible. All these low fat diets, especially low animal fat diets, really just cause hormonal chaos because we need that to create the hormones that we need to, you know, thrive and feel young and vibrant, you know, over 40, 50 and, you know, whatever age into the future. Yeah, gosh, you know, there is so much to learn and to know about, but I think these conversations as entrepreneurs are so important because I feel like, and I don't know if you ever got like this when you were doing your business with Nikki, but it's almost like we prioritize ourselves as last and we're growing our businesses and the businesses need to thrive and we've got to give energy to the business, but we don't give it to ourselves. And so I'm just trying to think about... all the entrepreneurs listening to this, almost thinking to themselves, do you know what, I don't prioritize my health, I don't prioritize eating well, I don't prioritize exercise. you know, this notion about, which I love the name that you came up with, happy, sexy health. You know, it's making health sexy again. It's really saying to ourselves, we should prioritize our health because it will make us better business owners if we understand how to fuel our bodies in the right way. You know, if fat needs to be the thing that fuels us, if all of these things. Steph, one question I've got for you is this, which is when we did this conversation within the community, quite a lot of the girls different opinions because they of course have their own um situations, allergies, uh intolerances that their bodies can have as it were. And so there was a lot of questions, for example, around, you you were talking about high fat diets with meats and things and milks and you know, but then we had some women in the community who couldn't eat meat or were lactose intolerant, so they couldn't have dairy. What would be your advice to those listeners who can't eat meat, can't have dairy? Where can they get their fats from? I would say to them, because I went through a phase for my health as a vegan, I went through a phase for my health as a vegetarian, so I would have done anything, well I say for my health, really I just wanted to be slim at the time, because I was quite fat and I've actually gone from, over time, but anyway let's not go into my personal story, let's answer the question. So what would I say to people? So I'd say first of all, What's your reason for choosing, for example, not to eat meat or what have you? Because most people can eat some kind of animal protein. Most people are not allergic to meat, fish, dairy, all of it. They're not allergic to all of it. There's something that they could eat to nourish their bodies. So I would say, if you're doing it for health, consider what you can eat to get some... animal protein and the fat that comes with it. Now for people who for ethical reasons choose not to eat meat and I see where they're coming from especially with the factory farming. I think we do need more sustainable farming methods but the animals are part of the whole circle of life. Every other animals rely on you know death. And even to grow plants, foods that vegans would eat, a lot of animals have to die. Insects, mice, whatever we do to eat, some animals will die. And I think we need to accept that that happens as well. And the animals are there and then they have their manure that fertilizes the ground. Now without that fertilizer, the ground, and that's already happening all over the world, that the ground is no longer fertile, no longer has the nutrients, so the plants don't have the nutrients, we're then reliant upon fertilizers which are very poisonous. So eating, especially a vegan diet, can be very detrimental to people's health because there's literally a list of lot of nutrients not just B12, creatine, carnitine, taurine, there's a list of nutrients and I'm sure they will find more because some of these have only been found recently that are missing if you go plant only. So I would encourage you to see what you can eat that's nutritious from the animal kingdom and if you prefer to only stay with plants then just know you're not doing it because it's healthier you're doing it for other reasons and you will need to be very careful with um obviously supplementing B12 but there are lots of other B vitamins that you need as well which are either totally not implants or which most people cannot convert or you know when your body is younger it's more resilient but what you'll find in vegans and what they have found is that their bones are less strong because your body over time because the nutrients aren't coming in, they start stripping your bones, they start stripping your muscle, so your body is sort of eating itself from the inside out for long term vegans if they're not eating any of these, if they're only eating plants, strictly. It's very, very detrimental over a long time. um Just thinking about dairy for people who lactose intolerant, what can they do? I would say don't eat or drink it. But some people do find that after their gut has healed, because plants can be very bad for the gut, we all know about the damaging impact that wheat can have, that gluten can have on the gut. And um some people are very sensitive. And as well, because there's a lot of toxins in our environment, I think over time we've become more sensitive. But if people were eating a mainly meat diet and they were having a little bit of veg here and there, a small amount, I think it would be fine, but we're actually filling our whole plate and trying to keep our whole body going on plants. And when you look at the calories in a plant, 11 calories or something along those, you know, a small amount of calories, that's why we like them. There's not the energy in there to fuel your body, but there's more than that. There's not the nutrients that your body's calling for. It makes, your body makes you hungry for nutrients. Your cells understand when you eat food, they digest it and they say, there's nothing in here. I'm hungry. There's nothing in here nutrient wise. Carbohydrates are very poor in nutrients compared to meat and fat. But so if you can't eat dairy, don't eat it. But you may find, some people do find when their gut heals, they can try again and get back into it. Some people find that raw dairy works better for them. Some people find that goat, raw dairy is unpasteurized because the pasteurizing process kills a lot of things that are actually quite helpful. So if you have a good supply of raw dairy, that might be one way. Another way is that some people find they're allergic to cow dairy, but goats and sheep dairy is okay. And so I would say just give yourself a piece of a period of healing and then try again and see if you can, if you can. And other people find that cheese, hard, hard aged, proper cheese, not the plastic cheese, um American cheese, if you will, whatever that is, it's all chemicals, actual cheese. Some people find that if they can't do milk and cream, they can do proper hard cheese. Some people can't. So I think it's just that's quite individual on the dairy. I find I'm a little bit sensitive. I do enjoy dairy. I don't have it on a day to day at home. But if I go out sometimes I'll have some cheese. And what I do love, which is a lovely treat, is double cream or um actual Greek yogurt. Not the stuff that's got all the sugar and chemicals in it. The actual Greek yogurt can be really nice. So I think Dairy is quite individual. There's some things that are for everyone. We need those essential fatty acids and we need the essential amino acids. And we know that in a plant-based diet, you can't get all of them. You simply can't. It's not me trying to be awkward or anything. It's just the biology. So people vegan will really have to try hard to get all of those nutrients from supplements and other places. Do you know when I was younger, so I used be really into my fitness when I was younger, I did like Tough Mudder, I used to work out quite a lot, I used to dance when I was 18 and I remember somebody introduced me a long time ago and I did it and I think it's the same thing but it was called two different names and I think they're talking about something similar which was the Paleo diet and the Atkins diet. Yes. Is this similar to that where what that was was effectively I got rid of carbs, carbs just left my entire diet system and I just ate protein and fat. That's all I ate really for a long period of time. Well, that is one way to do it. that's, we talk about primal eating and I would determine that as real food, meat based. So for some of our ladies, because people come in and they are bemused. You know, what the hell is this? I thought I knew I was eating my chia seeds and doing this and the next thing on my breakfast and... They are people generally who are really, who have been focused on health but haven't necessarily been getting the results or are just curious and they just want to try it out and just see if it really works and if it works for them. And I think there's a lot of women who get to the age of 50 and they've always been fit and healthy and then they find, wow, I can't lose the weight, I'm feeling tired, I'm not feeling myself. gosh, Athena, I've gone off peace so far. can't remember what the question was. that's okay. actually you just touched on it. So I'm actually going to talk about something else because what I was referring to was the fact that I used to be on the Paleo diet and the Atkins diet, which was around being a meat based diet. But you've just said something there, which was really interesting, which was I had a conversation with my mum recently who's a very fit active person, keeps herself very fit and very healthy. And I'm very proud of her for that. But we had a conversation the other day because obviously she's, you know, she's over 50. I won't say her age, but she's really now struggling to lose her her like, not that she's large, but just her lower belly fat. And she is chia seeds, flax seeds, berries, nuts. Like she is somebody that I would constitute a healthy eater, if you like. But she says, Athena, I just can't shift this fat. So what would you say to a listener in a similar position? I say try this for a short period. Whether you do it on your own, as you know, Athena, we've got our 21 day primal body reset and every single person who's been on it, well apart from one maybe, is over 40, many over 50 and they've all had incredible results. And the reason is when we eat carbs, which will be what most people, if they're doing a healthy diet, they're eating carbs and possibly a bit of lean meat. Typically it's not somebody who's on a heavy red meat diet because that's what we've been taught. Don't ease off on the red meat. So what I would say is try this and it's meat based. You can have a little bit of veg if you're going to get, if it's going to freak you out to have no meat, sorry, no green veg on your plate. Have a little bit, but I would say have that as a garnish. The reason why this works is when you eat a high carbohydrate diet which is what most of the healthy diets that we've been taught in this country in the UK and many parts of world are. When you eat a high carb, your insulin goes up. When your insulin is up and your blood sugar is high, you can't burn fat. You just cannot burn your own fat. And it makes you hungrier because your body doesn't have the nutrition it needs. It can't burn its own fat. It's looking for nutrients. And the more decades you've been doing it, which is why it hits us when we get to this age, when we're younger, our body is resilient. It can still do things even though it's not being treated correctly inside. um But as we get older, our body's less resilient and we actually need the protein. We're made of protein and fat. And actually the protein and fat of meat and other animal products is an exact match. So it heals us. Have you heard of so it heals us say what I would say to your mom or any other woman out there because I was the architect archetypical, you know Overweight person always trying a new not that you'll that's not your mom. Sorry to say that's not your mom But this was it I was the archetypical many others like me who've struggled with their weight for decades They try everything then not we're not out here eating the wrong food all the time. We're eating healthy But it just turns out that the healthy that we were taught is not the healthy that our biology needs. So I really encourage. what would you encourage her to switch her flaxseeds, chia seeds, berries, porridge to on a morning for example? a morning, whatever she can do, everyone's different. So when people come in, we actually have this discussion with them because some people just say, that's too much. couldn't. if I'm not having my cereals or they're not hungry in the morning, if they're not hungry in the morning, they don't have to eat. But basically at every meal, I'll just list the foods. Then I'll say the actual meals that you might do from it. So you've got meat, you've got fish. You've got dairy, you've got eggs, and you've got the fat that goes with them. But there's so much variety within that because if people, know, bacon and egg, sausage and egg, in Britain, that's the kind of thing that's easy for people to say, okay, that's a normal breakfast. Salmon and egg, you could have egg and cheese, you could have an omelette, could have scrambled eggs. And within the WhatsApp group on the reset, people are putting their pictures in of what they're eating. So it just gives people the best foods to eat though. especially for women who usually have not eaten a lot of red meat, the most nutritious foods are red meat. that steak, minced beef, we show you, you can make it into little steaks and things like that. That is really an incredible value for money and incredibly nutritious. And it goes really lovely, know, cheeses like halloumi and if people can eat dairy or eggs, not everyone can eat eggs. But just start where you are. If you're not in a position where you want to go all the way, just bring more protein. I have to say animal protein because vegetable proteins are not the same. They're not, we can't digest them. So, so eat more animal protein and the fat that comes with it. But if you're going to do that, do do it in a low carb context, if you eat a lot of animal protein and fat and a lot of carbs, that's a terrible combination. So I go more towards the animal protein and fat and lower the carbs down. You don't need them for nutrition and once you start eating the protein and carbs, you will feel so nourished and so full that you actually find your cravings drop off the Facebook clip and for some people their cravings go altogether. Wow, it is incredible when you sit and you really talk about it. Steph, you've been doing this for some time now and doing talks for others and speaking about it. What would you say, just out curiosity, because I love this for the podcast, what would you say have been your challenges that people have come to you with or things where people have pushed back on you to be like, with information that you've given, what have you really struggled with from a challenger's perspective with this? I think obviously if people are vegan, that's not something you do lightly. It's something you do because you've researched, you've read about it, and you care about your health and you care about the environment and you care about animals. So I think that's difficult because I don't, I mean I do because I am plain speaking say that this is the biology, this is what we need. you can obviously choose to do something a bit different. So that can be challenging. Also religion, because um some people believe that originally we grew up and God intended us to eat plant foods only and then after the original sin in the Garden of Eden, then we were eating meat. And so obviously I don't argue with people's beliefs, but The situation now is that biologically we do require the protein and the fat and the nutrients that we require are in the animal proteins. All of them are in the animal proteins and the animal fat. Yeah, tricky isn't it when people have got, I never even thought about religion, of course, religion would be a really big one as well. But this is what I said on the on the community call and this is what I say to all the listeners is, is, you know, we're here to just give an idea, we're here to give um information, everybody has their own bodies, everybody is different and everybody has the right to do with the information what is right for them, as it were. But the bit that I'm really taking away from this Steph is you're so right in the way that what you're saying is like how we're conditioned throughout our whole life to believe what is healthy. Like, you know, when you see some of these really thin girls, example, models and pageants, and they're all like at lunch eating salads and you're like, I could never do that. And I tried it for a long period of time. I remember when I thought I'm going to go to Nando's. I'll never forget the day I went to Nando's and ordered a salad. It was like the worst day of my life. a salad in Nando's but I was trying to be like really healthy and really chic and really cool no just order my chicken I want my chicken wrap with my halloumi and my peri chips that's all I want and like it's important to listen I think I liked what you said earlier be intuitive with your body I think not enough of us actually listen to our bodies or we we hear the intuition but we choose to ignore it because it's convenient ah I think that happens quite a lot and so also I tell you what Steph in terms of you know you talk about happy sexy health just coming back to this happy sexy health I remember there was a time in my life where I didn't enjoy eating because I was on such a strict diet and I was dancing and I was ah Working out all the time and I didn't actually enjoy eating because it was seen as quite a functional thing Whereas I think to myself well if you're gonna eat enjoy it if you can have a piece of cake enjoy that piece of cake. Like life is too short as we know Steph with everything that happens life is short to not just be happy being present with what you're doing at that moment. Like if you're have that glass of red wine enjoy it. Like if you're gonna do it enjoy it and I think that's what we've got to say more of is make sure what you're doing you actually enjoy doing it as well and not just you know eating the steak because staff tells you to, like, eat what you want to eat but be healthy. Yeah, yeah. And on the theme of happiness, the high protein and high fat diets are known to help mentally. Like when you go on a low carbohydrate diet, most people feel better because they're not getting all that sugar mentally. And Dr. Georgia Eade has just uh written a book. She's a psychiatrist and it's an exceptional book. And she... she's used it, she used it on herself, not for a mental problem, but she found that her anxiety went. And so she started prescribing it over time, doing some research and later prescribing it for her patients. And even psychiatric ones who hadn't been, had been resistant for decades to the drugs would go on these, it's more of a high fat, but meat with fat diets and sometimes with veg as well, and sometimes not. and they would have great leaps forward. So it really works for your brain and it prevents people from getting dementia because the cholesterol that we are made of is in those foods as well. So it protects your brain and your nerves. So I know that we're near the end of our time and I do tend to go on a lot. So I'll wrap it up with a bow at that. Thanks. I love it, Steph. And I think again, these conversations are so important to have. And I know that so many people are gonna wanna get to know you as well, so much more after this podcast, because they've probably always known you as the Rent to Rent Success sisters, know, Nikki and Steph. But it's like, well, actually, there's so much more to you as you've beautifully said in this podcast, your story, what you've been through, why it is that you're now taking your health so seriously, and why it's important for others to do the same. So Steph, with the happy, sexy, ah part of the business. Where can people find you to have this conversation with you? Yes, well our main paces, if you want to see people's stories of healing, we're on YouTube at Happy Sexy Health. And if you want to get in touch, we're on Instagram at Happy Sexy Health. And we've got all the little clips, like it's called Reset Success of our 21 Day Primal Body Reset that some of the girls in property are going to be doing. So um yeah, if you want to get in touch, just DM me at Happy Sexy Health. Love to hear from you. Amazing. Thank you, Steph. And then as always guys, I'm Athena Dobson underscore official on Instagram and girls and property on Instagram as well. So come and find me. Let's have a conversation. And as always come and join the girls and property community, an amazing, amazing group of women. We're over 120 members now and we have great conversations in there. know, Steph came in to do a conversation all around this within the community because it's all on personal development as well as business development as well. And really thinking how you can better yourself and your health as a person. And then don't forget also, we have also just announced our winter party, which is going to be in Birmingham on Saturday the 15th of November. So I hope to see all of you there. The link to book your tickets is in the show notes. If you're a community member, then you are welcome to come free of charge. And if you're a non-community member, you just want to come and get involved, see what it's all about for girls and property, then it's just a small fee to cover the cost to have you there. um But Steph, I'd love to leave you with the parting words today for this podcast and to impart that wisdom. So what would you love to say to all the listeners listening today? I would say it's easy. It's actually easier to eat this way than it was to eat before and be sick and not feel well and be tired and actually feel, many of us feel addicted. There are certain foods that we can't have around but not everyone but most people feel that way. So my advice would be eat primal, live primal. Live longer, live stronger. Be happier, sexier, healthier. beautiful. Just like that. Perfect. Oh, Steph, thank you so much. Always appreciate your energy. Always appreciate your wisdom and having a conversation that is so different. And I love that we've actually spoken about health today as opposed to property and I had a different type of conversation. So thank you for your time. Thank you for your energy. Love everything today. And as always guys, get in contact with us. Let us know where you're tuning in from. Have the most amazing week and thank you so much for being here with us today. Have a great week everyone, take care, bye.