A method for achieving health and wellness goals focuses on individual objectives such as weight loss, metabolic health, or addressing hormonal imbalances. It centers on creating customized strategies supported by a team of experts, including therapists, nutritionists, and trainers, to offer holistic care tailored to each person’s unique needs.

The importance of sustainable diet and exercise plans is highlighted, alongside the role of medications in resetting metabolic systems. It also explores how addressing health as a family unit can foster lasting change, offering practical insights and expert guidance to overcome obstacles for a healthier, more fulfilling life.

Highlights of the Podcast

00:04 – Goal-Setting is Fundamental

01:15 – Specialized Teams for Support

04:48 – Customized Diet & Exercise Plans

07:48 – Hormonal & Metabolic Health

11:35 – Family Health Dynamics

13:21 – Team-Based Expertise

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:00:04] So questions from questions that Chalmers won’t like. There’s a couple of questions are very similar. The, you know, does everybody start in the same place and, you know, that sort of thing. So everyone does kind of start in the same place. And the reason for that is because we always start with usually people will call in and be like, Here’s my issue. Can you help with that? And will you say yes or no? Which the vast majority of it’s yes. And if we can’t, I usually hand that off. But typically, the first place we started our goals call because what people need to know is. What are we actually looking for? Like. Like. Like look. Calling. Like I want to lose weight. And I’m like, do you or do you want to lose fat? And they’re like, well, I think I want to lose fat. I’m like, okay, cool. The reason we have to differentiate is because it’s very, very important. Because if you want to lose weight, you’re like, Hey, no, I’ve got a wrestling match and I’ve got to be or I’ve got a bodybuilding match and I’ve got a show and I’ve got to be exactly this weight. Okay, that’s different. Then I want to look better in a bikini because that is that is typically like you want to lose fat and actually build muscle so that your weight, that’s not the right metric.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:01:15] So we want to make sure that we both understand the goals we’re trying to get to so we can create a path that is the most accurate for you. Like people tell me all the time, like, I want to be healthy. And I’m like, All right. What does that mean to you? Because what it means to you and what it means to me might not be the exact same thing. And then how far down the path you want to go, how long it’s going to take. So we kind of come together with what we call our goals call, like what are we trying to do, where the metrics we’re going to use to measure how well we’re doing these things. So that’s kind of where everybody starts because like I said, I tell you all the time, I’m like, if yeah, if I know where you are right now, the blood work and this is the Q, I work this other guy diet. And so they find where you are right now and I know where you want to go. Well, we could create a path that we point out in point B, but we’ve got to know these two really well. The better we know these two points, the easier it’s going to be for us to get where we want to go. And so that’s kind of where I starts. And then we’ll kind of figure out where we need to go and what team we need to build. That’s where the other things it’s, it’s funny because like I’ll talk about stuff and people are like, like, I don’t know, like, how are you so Great Depression? Like, well, depression is a physiological issue. And so, you know, it’s there’s certain things that we can do that from research that we know.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:02:28] So testosterone and then fixing the guy because for all your serotonin is made and there’s special exercises and things like that but people have called me up and then like, hey, I’m really depressed, like, bad, depressed and like, cool. Do you have a therapist? And then, like, now I’m like, I read a bunch of them. Like, how would I introduce you to some of our therapists, our therapy teams? We’ve got psychiatrists as well. So if you need, you know, short term medical help, we can do that as well. If you need long term medical help, they can take over, you know, because my job is not to do everything for everybody. My job is to make sure people get where they need to go. A great example of this is like, so my wife and I both do NLP and there’s a group of people that I am really, really good for like awesome for like one of the things that I do really, really well is we’ve done more and more of this is like. A lot of this is divorced parents, single moms who are taking care of boys, especially in that 12 to 20 range. They need kind of somebody like a mentor to kind of push their kids because, you know, mentors and men can do things for boys and for girls that single moms just can’t really do.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:03:40] And so I do a lot of that. However, on the flip side of that, there’s a lot of a lot of professional women who have who have the jobs. Lots of these these women are also single parents. They don’t have to be. But, you know, they’re professional women. They have a real job. They’ve got a you know, they’re they’re going to work. They’re either executives or they’re, you know, they’re in the corporate America and they’re moms and their wives or, you know, they’ve got other issues. I can help those people. But the very best version of that is my wife. Your Lulu, was in corporate America negotiating high end deals with Microsoft for 23 years. She knows what great managers will do for you. She knows what horrible managers do to you. She understands the pressure of, you know, got to make the sale going to make everybody happy, trying to be, you know, the old, you know, woman in a man’s world type of thing. She gets it. She also has been a wife. She’s had to deal with me. And she’s a mom. She’s all that. And so a lot of those women, even though like, I could definitely help them, I’m like, look, the very best person for you is someone who’s been in your shoes, who’s who’s walked this road. Like, go talk to her.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:04:48] And so far, everybody who we’ve we’ve paired up with her has done phenomenally well, has really, really liked it. And and so that’s one of those things that, you know, you convinced me. And I’ll go, all right. You can vent to her. And she’s like, I feel you. Like, let me tell you the story about that same type of story that happened with me, and here’s how I overcame it. And so that’s the big piece, is getting people where they need to go. You know, just talked to somebody online, you know, about surgery and surgery. So it’s one of those things like I talk so much smack about and I hate the way the medical profession deals with long term health. But man, our surgical system in the West is unbelievable. You want to you want to avoid surgery as much as you can. Just because you’re gonna get surgery doesn’t mean things are gonna get better. Man, when you need surgery, it’s amazing. And I. I will. I’ve watched surgeries. I’ve been involved in surgeries. I’ve. You know, I’m just. It’s always amazing to me what these guys can do.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:05:41] So, you know, and I’ve got a whole host of surgeons like, hey, you know, like, what are the big things with like, easier of a whole bunch of women up? And getting that issue out surgically is really difficult. And so I had to find surgeons who do it. And there’s one in Austin that we’ve seen a bunch of women, too, and they’ve had great success. You know, Dr. McNutt, who in First Go is one of the best surgeons I’ve ever met. I met a lot of them. And we’ve got a bunch of spine to be used. And so getting people where they need to go is really, really important. But, you know, that’s where Ray starts. Yeah, we like what’s your issue? Where do you want to go? And then we start putting it together. Most of the time. Then we’ll do like a nutrition call. And this is right. This is one of my favorite things to do because I’m like, What are your ten favorite foods? What are the five foods you never want to eat again? And we’ll sit down and be like, Here’s how you can have your favorite foods and still hit your goals. Like, I want to build the muscle, I want to lose the fat, I want to do all these things. You can still have pizza, you can still have ice cream, you can still have cookies, you can still have, you know, all the things. Alcohol’s really hard to fit in, but we can kind of manipulate that one end. And so we have put the diet together where you can actually live with and then we’ll usually do some type of exercise thing.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:06:53] Now on the exercise thing, like I’ll build you workouts and I’ll send to you that’s in the app and it works out really well. However, like I talked about yesterday, especially in the beginning, if you’ve never worked out or worked out properly, what I like to do is pair you with or help you find a trainer because. I can give you the workout to do. That’s not hard. Like, I want to grow this muscle. I want to do this thing, you know, physically. Here’s my sport. Here are the exercises you should do for that. Watching you do them properly. I can’t do that. And so we need to find you a trainer who can stand there and be like, Your form is good. You’re you’re, you know, when you’re doing your biceps, your butt is in the right spot. Like that type of stuff, your shoulders in the right spot, what you do in arms. So, you know, those type of things. And so we kind of help kind of negotiate that. You know, every once in a while some little video of something and be like, What am I doing wrong? And I kind of point it out to him. But that’s not nearly as good as someone who’s as you’re actively moving mean like, nope, do this, nope, do that.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:07:48] So and it’s funny cause I work with a bunch of trainers like Trainer, similar people all the time for hormone work and, you know, you know, in group work because there’s a lot of times and this is the sad thing, we get people in all the time who they’re like, Here’s my diet. I switched to this six months ago and it’s just not working. And I’ll I’ll look at their diet. I’m like, man, this is like you’re running hardcore carnivore, you’re doing a great job. Or like, Hey, you’re running Kito, you’re doing a great job. The reason that things aren’t moving is because a lot of times the insulin resistance piece has kind of broken us. And again, that’s not really your fault. Like, I was like, you should just work harder. Or like, you know what? If you’ve been eating foods that you thought were healthy because the government and because your doctor told you they were healthy and they’re full of trash, chemicals that have damaged your hormonal system. And so diet or hormonal systems that work the way it’s supposed to. It’s not your fault. So your fault at all, you know, because you were eating the things that were healthy. Right. Because how long we’ve been told, you know, low fat is great for you, like eat low fat stuff for if you’re if you’re 40, if you’re my age, you were told that your entire life.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:08:51] Your entire life, it was like high carb, low fat, like you’ll be healthy, which is a complete lie. They do it the entire time. But they told you anyway. And so that’s not your fault. You were doing what you were told to do. How many people ran their diet on calories? Calories in, calories out? Again, not the right way to run a diet, but that’s what you were told. So this is, again, not your fault. And so a lot of times we have to go back through and use the GLP like Ozempic or something left side to recover your liver. And by the way, we really need to start real assessing how we look at those because those are not necessarily as horrible and terrible and synthetic is the right thing to do is it activates the glucagon system. Your body runs on glucagon. That’s why you eat a high protein diet. So each macro is attached to a hormone. So carbohydrates are insulin, protein is glucagon. The reason high protein diets work is they activate glucagon. Glucagon is what tells the body to burn fat. That system can be damaged. That’s where the GP’s come in really handy.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:09:48] Now the problem is, is that people can throw up his own problem and then the person loses the fat. But they don’t change the lifestyle, they don’t change the diet, they don’t change the surrounding factors and or change the. Hey, here are the toxic chemicals you’ve been eating that created this problem. That’s where the problem comes in. Again, that’s the difference in medical, which is you have a problem. Here’s your Band-Aid. We’re going to we’re going to cover up the problem. We’re not going to fix the problem versus a more holistic viewpoint of. All right. You’ve got a lot of problems and most of them aren’t your fault. Your testosterone is too low, your exercises are screwed up, your stress is too high. Like, here’s all the things, but here’s the things we can start changing. And when you use the gaps while we change all the things over the next 3 or 4 months, as we’re resetting the way your body actually functions when going to use these gaps, we can actually break through the metabolic. Process that has been damaged. Reset everything and get you back where we need to go. Which is why GP’s are so great at fixing diabetes. Diabetes is nothing but a metabolic problem. It’s a it is a chemistry problem that is not as difficult to solve as people think it is.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:10:53] And so type two, type one is a little bit different story, which I think with GP we won’t be able to break breakthrough as well. But anyway, a lot of this type two diabetes, I was like, Look, you’ve been in this process for too long. We like, we need to use the GP’s to break the metabolic system and pull you back where you need to be. In fact, what’s funny is there’s a lot of obese people who have not been diagnosed with diabetes who are actually diabetic. There’s a lot of people who come in there like I can’t lose the weight and I look at their diet. It’s pretty good. And we pull our insulin like your fasting insulin. 17 You’re in such high insulin resistance, none of this is going to work. So we have to go back through and use something to overcome. Like I said, the damage done from the trash foods that we’ve all been eating for so long.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:11:35] So there’s a lot of process that we go through on that one. And so that’s kind of where everybody goes now, you know. As we fix the gap, we do the things we take the sums, we fill the bucket, and we get everything back where it needs to go. But that base stuff is pretty normal. And so a lot of people are going to be doing that, which makes it really easy to work with couples. So like, you know, and I love doing this one husband wife team comes in and they’re like, We want to get healthy together. I usually give discounts for this because if I can get husband and wife better, I can always get the kids better. Because with this husband we find success in something because they’re going to change the food that’s in the house. They’re going to change their lifestyles. And guess what? Now that trickles down to the kids. And so I can change initially, make the kids healthier by making mom and dad healthier. Plus, it’s just fun to watch the relationship get better because inevitably, because these guys, you know, most these people are 35 to 45. And so she’s had stress her whole life. So her testosterone is trashed.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:12:30] So you bring her testosterone back up. Now all of a sudden, her energy gets better, her sleep gets better, her orgasm functions a lot better. And now she’s enjoying sex, which means the husband’s happier. And so then he can kind of lean in the husband to be like, Hey, have you read the five Love languages Now? Like, I got your only homework this weekend is that you guys have to go home and read this book and talk about it. And so you can watch the relationship start to get better. And it’s always funny because the women always get past always. I’ve never I don’t think I’ve had two a couple come in. They both ran the program where she didn’t get mad because he’ll lose fat, he’ll gain muscle way faster. And she’s like, I don’t understand. We’re eating the same food and he’s lost 15 pounds and I’ve lost three. And I’m like, Yeah, he’s got a lot more to sjöström than you do. He’s got more muscle mass. That’s how it works.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:13:21] So, you know, but that’s one of those things that as we kind of go through, it’s fun to kind of put things back together. So if you guys are if you guys are looking for that type of thing, when you when you’re picking your health coach, it doesn’t have to be maybe just make sure that you’re evaluating the team that this health coach has because no health coach. These men will do everything themselves and they shouldn’t. Like I do a lot of neuro work, I do a lot of mental work. I do a lot of, you know, you know, like I said, I work with teenagers all the time about how they’re thinking about themselves in the future. And, you know, that’s one thing. But there’s a lot of stuff that I don’t touch, and I’m glad that I have. I think the last count I have I have about 40 therapists I work with because it’s mental health is such a massive piece of it and so handy. Being able to hand that off is great. I’ve got you know, I’ve got a whole medical team, you know, I’ve got a couple MDs, I’ve got several mid-levels like in pieces like that that I work with. We’ve got, you know, surgeons we work with all the time. I’ve got great plastic surgeons, I’ve got great maxillofacial surgeons. Like I said, we’ve got to have a region surgeons, orthopedic surgeons, neurosurgeons, spine surgeons.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:14:30] You know, I’ve got, you know, chefs. And so they work. So we have a giant team of people. So when you’re picking who you’re going to work with, evaluate your team to because it’s like, no, I do everything that guy or that woman is probably not going to be the best tech. You know, the whole the expression, you know, master of Master of all Trades is Jack. A jack of all trades is a master of none, that type of deal. So make sure that, you know, whoever you’re working with has has a team they’re working with because, you know, and sometimes it’s one of those things where, like, I have to hand you off to somebody, but I always can call, come up with like, Hey, what you think of this? Which is, by the way, in case you guys are wondering, when you send me MRI’s or I have an MRI and I’m trying to make a surgical decision about it, I’m don’t make that decision I sell to my surgeons to make. What do you think you’re like, you should send this doctor. Cooper I’m like, Great. Or you should send this guy my great. Like, this is what they need. And then I come back. I’m like, This is what you need. And you go to the doctor, You’re like, You’re so how did you know that? You’re so smart. You’re not a surgeon. I didn’t answer the question I asked my surgeon. So, you know, that’s how a lot of this works.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:15:33] So if you guys are looking for something to work with, check out their team first because that’s going to be that’s you make a really, really big difference on how they will help you. So that’s kind of the genesis of that question. We’ve gotten 4 or 5 different types of ways, but that’s kind of where everybody starts. We just, you know, what exactly are your goals? How are we going to measure those goals? What’s the path we’re going to take? And then there we go. The other big thing is like, sometimes people give me goals that are probably two years out. Like they’ll come in assuming that like, this is what I want to look like, you know? And I’m like, Cool. That’s a year and a half out. Like, let’s make some let’s make some three month goals, let’s make some six month goals. Let’s next thing you know, three week goals, you know, as in a process of getting there, that’s a really, really big thing too, is understanding health how far away you are from your goals and what you need to do between point 18 point B.

Dr. Matt Chalmers [00:16:21] Again, that’s part of the metrics. And we’re like, okay, this is how we’re going to measure success. That’s kind of how that one goes. So that’s kind of the point. You know, people call up 15 minutes, Here’s what my problem is and like, here’s what I would do. Let’s, you know, here’s a pathway to get started. And then we do your goals cause, you know, this is what we’re trying to get. You know, here’s where we are here. We’ve got your blood. We’ve got your. You’re right. We’ve got whatever we’ve got your diet and your favorite foods. Here’s where we are today. Then we figure out where we’re trying to go and we create the path. And then we just start figuring out what the best way to walk that path is. So that’s the way that we do it. If you guys have any other questions, is up questions at Swanscombe, drop in the comments or hit us at Pillars of wellness.com and we’ll we’ll chat. Thanks for your time. Yes we have a great day.

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Dr. Matt Chalmers

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