Andrew: Thank you so much. Hey, we’ve got a lot to talk about today, and it’s got to do with things that you might not connect with weight loss. You know, we think just calories. Just starve yourself, and things like that. But in this new book, you talk about detox a lot. So, I guess, first off the rank, how is detox connected to weight loss?

Sarah: Where do I start? That’s just such a wonderful and big question. So, first of all, yeah, “10:10 Kickstart.” I wanna start with more so talking about what I think detox is. And as we always know, like, you and I both know we’re in a constant state of detoxification, through our kidneys, our liver, our gastrointestinal tract, and sweating. So, we’re detoxing right now, but what “The 10:10 Kickstart” is about is about supporting those detox pathways.

And so, how it’s connected to weight loss is clearly when you do… For a few reasons. Clearly, when you start doing any kind of detox, and I kind of feel like sometimes “detox” isn’t the right word. It’s more like they’re like wellness programs, kind of thing, because what you’re doing on my style of detoxing is supporting detox pathways, as opposed to what people think detoxing is is, which is, like, drinking some kind of concoction, or living on lemons for a week, or starving yourself and being irritated, or drinking a whole lot of, you know, Chinese herbs and no other food, or doing…

So, people think of detoxing, when I say that, they think of it more like that. Whereas for me, it’s about supporting those pathways. And so, how it’s connected to weight loss is, first of all, the programs I run in “10:10 Kickstart,” I have a 1-day, 3-day, 10-day, 4-week, and they’re for different elements. And this is why that’s such a great question because it’s such a big answer.

But to start, first and foremost, now, I’ve just gone out on a little tangent. I’ll come back and just answer your question directly. When you’re doing my wellness program, first of all, you’re going to be on eating healthy food, nutrient-dense, and you’re having a really healthy diet. So, you would be removing alcohol, junk food. You’re just un-junking your life, basically. So, there is going to be, by default, a weight loss, because you’re eating a healthy diet with lots of fruit and vegetables. I also remove common allergens in there, so it’s a gluten-free program, so it ends up being low-carbohydrate because the focus is on our nutrient density, so I’ve got lots of fruit in there, and vegetables, and the good fats and smoothies, and different kind… Everything as much as bringing as many nutrients in as possible, as I said, to support detox pathway.

So, that is one reason why it supports weight loss. Another one is we’ve got a lot of fiber in my programs, and the fiber is in the fruit and vegetables, and there is some legumes in there. So, you’re feeding all that good bacteria in your gut. And that good bacteria in return is reducing inflammation by creating butyrate, so it’s bringing down your inflammation markers, it’s supporting the gut lining. It’s got that boost in antioxidants. We feel great. So, because we’re really supporting our gut health and bringing down inflammation, that way too, it’s making us digest better, and inadvertently we’re losing weight that way.

Also, I get people to focus on things like stress. So, in my programs, it’s a holistic approach. Stress and weight loss. Stress is a big one. It’s linked to cortisol. Cortisol, of course, linked to ghrelin. It’s a cycle. Sleep is another one I address. Lack of sleep is linked to weight gain. And again, in my programs, I focus on that lifestyle element of bringing sleep in there too. And when you sleep well, compliance is better. When your compliance is better, you stick to the program. And in turn, we know that, you know, lack of sleep is linked to weight gain. That’s just showing that people who will sleep five to six hours a night will lose muscle. People who sleep seven to eight hours a night are more lean, when they are doing a calorie restriction, they actually are more inclined to lose body fat.

So, as I said, like, it’s a few parts to that, answers to that question, that why these detox programs have minor link to weight loss. But, in general, just simply, you’re just taking a lot of fast food, processed foods, refined foods, takeaways. You’re eating on the fly, not eating properly, not eating all day because you’re in meetings, and then pigging out at night, which I see a lot of people doing. Too many liquid calories, coffee, soft drinks, artificial sweeteners that we know are linked to weight gain, people just grabbing Cokes and sugar hits throughout the day at the office, and people putting artificial sweeteners in beverages or…all that kind of stuff. So, all of that stuff is those things that people, bad habits, they’re removed, because you have to focus on the forefront of what you’re doing. It’s a detox or a wellness plan, which means food prep, which means regular meals, and therefore weight loss. I’ve given you a big, huge answer. Sorry, Andrew, but there is a lot to it.

Andrew: Well, and on that, I’ve got 20 questions.

Sarah: Okay.

Andrew: So, one thing that you said early on was that we’re detoxing all the time. And, you know, I’ve gotta say, I’ve gotta sort of take up the naysayers of natural medicine here. And, you know, like, I’ve seen time and time again these people trying to dismantle naturopathic medicine as, you know, hogwash and things like that, that we’re doing detox all the time. Having said that, I will always remember this greengrocer next door to where I used to work. This was many years ago. And he was one of the naysayers, and he didn’t believe me that you can influence liver detoxification by certain supplements.

And so, on my days off, he apparently came in and he bought a “fat metabolizer,” which I think are poorly-named supplements, might I add. But anyway. But he bought one of these things which had choline, inositol, methionine, and a couple of herbs, St. Mary’s Thistle, blah, blah, blah. And he, without my knowledge, took way above the recommended dosage. So, instead of, like, 2 tablets to 4 tablets a day, he took 10 at once, and he almost immediately broke out in this massive acneic rash. Like…

Sarah: Wow.

Andrew: …just incredible, comedones everywhere. And he came in when I came back to work, and I went, “What did you do?” So, there was this whole realization, this stuff changes things. And I think there’s two things there. One, you don’t tell me it doesn’t work. It does. Two, it needs to be under the care of somebody who responsibly knows what they’re doing. Don’t do it without supervision.

Sarah: Oh, absolutely. One hundred percent. That’s such an interesting story though that he took 10. What was the whole idea of taking 10?

Andrew: He simply didn’t believe that it would do anything.

Sarah: Yeah. Isn’t that fascinating? Like, sometimes, you know, historically, I would debate more or I’d be more argumentative or I’d be trying to get my point across. And now, because I know it works, and because, as a clinician who’s been running these programs for 20 years, and I see it works, the… Like, a lot of people who will come in and do a one-on-one detox with me, where we do supplements as well as food and exercise and lifestyle. I always say to them, “Okay, great. Let’s start this on, you know, the 1st of March,” or whatever.

“Can you please go and get all your bloods done? And then let’s really look at your liver. I want to really focus on full liver studies. I wanna get all that done.” Then we’ll do our four weeks. And then I’ll say, “Now, could you please go back to your GP, go and get another pathology.  Let’s have a look at your liver.” You’ll see that the bilirubin’s down, you’ll see the… And I’ve even had pathology places contact me and say, “What have you done with that person?” You know, “What have you done?” And I have done a holistic detox, with supplements, with diet, with lifestyle, with everything. And yeah, they absolutely work.

And I just think it just comes down to… My response to people like that is, when people are like that, I just go, “Well, I don’t need to prove anything to you with this. The proof is there. It works. People keep coming back. People are getting great results, and the evidence is there.” So, you’ll always gonna get that.

Andrew: I like to ask them a question.

Sarah: What’s your question?

Andrew: I like to ask them a question. Well, my question is, so, if somebody said detox doesn’t work, I’d say, “Okay. So, N-acetylcysteine doesn’t help with paracetamol toxicity because it doesn’t help biotransformation of that chemical to a glucuronide.” Is that what you’re telling me? Because, see, that’s a drug therapy.

Sarah: Yeah, what do they say back? Yeah, totally. Yeah. No, that’s one of the things I use.

Andrew: because N-acetylcysteine is the antidote for paracetamol toxicity.

Sarah: Yeah. Correct. Correct. Absolutely.

Andrew: So, part of the issue is perhaps sometimes that we’re not using the same vernacular. Like, we talk detox. They talk biotransformation of chemicals. We say, you know, an erroneous comment, which has now been corrected by Dr. Brad Leech. And that was leaky gut “syndrome.” There’s no syndrome. We have intestinal hyperpermeability. You see what I mean? So, we need to be learning the same language and speak in their language if they’re gonna understand it sometimes. But anyway, we’re getting off track, and that’s me getting off track, not you, Sarah. So, let’s…

Sarah: I always say to you, “Keep me on track,” because I do love to chat, and I do go out on tangents and, yeah. If, anyway.

Andrew: Well, I’ll warn our listeners that Sarah and I had a brief… I say the word “brief” in vernaculars, but we had a brief prep chat a few weeks ago, and the prep chat is longer than the podcast, but anyway.

Sarah: But we were trying to work out what was important and what we needed to get across in our chat. And then we just couldn’t… It was exciting, because we have to share…

Andrew: And then we chatted.

Sarah: …so much amazing… And we chatted. And we love the industry, and we love what we do. We love sharing this information…

Andrew: We do.

Sarah: …and we wanna get the right stuff across.

Andrew: So, the next question that I came up with, your previous answer was, you spoke about food preparation, things like that. For people, let’s say, travelers, people are now traveling overseas more after COVID. You’ve certainly got people who, as an industry, as their job, they travel. So, salespeople, for instance. They travel, and these are typically the people that eat poorly. They eat restaurant food day in, day out. They snack on the road with poorly nutritious food. How can they eat better food on the road?

Sarah: I know. I get asked that question a lot, and it’s a fabulous question. And one of my first responses to that is, “Where there is a will, there is a way,” definitely. And I myself have been on the road, and it depends how much you want something, because, look, it’s very easy to wake up and just, you know, ad hoc your day, you ad-lib the day, you have no thought. And a lot of people just do that now. They wake up and I’ll say to people, “What are you eating today?” Or I’ll do a recall of just general patients, and I will get back to answering your question, and I’ll just say to them, “Can you just tell me what you ate in the last 24 hours?” “Oh, I don’t know. I woke up. Oh, I just ate the kids’ toast, and I walked past a cafe, and I just grabbed that.” So, they have not given any thought anyway to what they’re going to be eating.

It’s not just travelers. It’s people who are in their general day-to-day life who do not even consider what they put in their body as a priority. And I always say to people, first, they just don’t even think of it. And they can be eating ridiculous things throughout. They’re, “Oh, I had a bite of that. I had that biscuit,” or, “Someone was getting sandwiches, so I just grabbed a sandwich.” “Oh, we were just all getting Thai, and then I…” So, they don’t even know what they’ve eaten, and they don’t think of that. And for me personally, what I put into my body is something that I would’ve generally planned every day within, probably the night before. I’ll usually do a three-day prep cycle.

Now, I’ve been on book tours where I’ve been in and out of hotels, and I’ve been running around bookstores and jumping on and off planes for two weeks straight when I did my last big book tour last year. And I was in that exact position. So, I’m someone who, as a priority, will always put my health first in what I eat. I’m not gonna just eat something. And I don’t ever wanna get to the point where I’m starving and I’m then left with a poor food choice. And I think that there’s always a solution. So, first of all, the key to success is prep, first and foremost. And for me, you know, whenever I travel, I’ll look for local markets. I’ll look for, if I’m getting off somewhere, at the airport, there’s always nuts, there’s always fruit, there’s always protein bars if you wanna… There’s always a solution somewhere.

There’s always a bakery, not a bakery, a cafe where they make sandwiches, and you can just ask something, “Would it be okay if XYZ,” or, it depends where you’re traveling, you can take your food with you. I’ve always got nuts and fruit in my bag, and I’ve got different things like backup protein bars. I’ve always got backup protein powders. And then, if I walk past a supermarket, and especially when I was in the book tour, I would walk in, and there’s many times where I’ve been stuck somewhere. And if you’ve got a supermarket near you, you are completely fine. And I have walked in somewhere where I’ve had either fast food, or I go into a supermarket and I’ve walked in and I’ve grabbed a salad bag, and I have grabbed some salmon, hot smoked salmon, and I have grabbed a plate. I’ve even put smoked salmon in the salad bag, and bought a plastic fork and eaten it. And that’s because I wanna eat something that I feel good with, as opposed to just go walking past something going, “Oh, whatever. I’ll just get some Macca’s,” or, “Ugh, I’ll just won’t eat.” So, it depends on your level of motivation.

Andrew: Well, you know what’s really interesting to me is that by no means am I pure in my diet or lifestyle, right?

Sarah: You’re letting out your secrets now.

Andrew: Everybody knows. I take my hat off to these pure people, who choose to live that lifestyle, and breeze through. And I really do. I applaud them. Kylie if you’re out there, I applaud you. She’s this incredible, vibrant naturopath. Just lives, walks the talk. But anyway. I am not that. Having said that, without the thought process of, you know, needing pure food, or any of that clean lifestyle, without that process, I must have veggies. I must have fresh food in my diet. Like, it’s this thing. And it’s not a…

Sarah: Do you crave it?

Andrew: If I ever go without veggies, I’m missing something. I like my veggies, I love my mushies. And if I’m mixing something in with a protein powder, don’t give me a flavored protein powder. Give me vanilla, and give me berries, or mango, or fruit. Something natural. It’s really interesting how you can get nature similar, but you can’t get natural from a flavor.

Sarah: No, you can’t. No. I have a punnet of blueberries every day, or strawberries, every single day. Without fail. I crave them, and I have fruit every morning. Now, it usually has nuts, and it will have yogurt over it. But, yeah, I’ll definitely have a bowl of fruit every morning, and I actually crave it. And I think sometimes when you think about, you know, why are we craving things, you know, that you can go that one step further and think about your gut microbiome and your gut-brain axis, and all of those microbes who absolutely love feeding, love feeding on all of that.

That’s their food. They thrive. All those good, gorgeous populations in our gut microbiome will flourish on all of that fibre from your vegetables and berries. And, I mean, they love that. And so, that’s that messaging. I believe that what we crave is very much from our gut. It dictates that.

Andrew: Yeah. And I think you’ve really harped on something there, and that is that we know that you can change a microbiota within days, at least, you know…

Sarah: Yeah, days. Yes.

Andrew: …of eating a vegetable-based diet, or a plant-based diet. So, are those people that crave fatty foods and fast foods, has their gut microbiota changed to a certain profile? And can that be changed reasonably quickly to a different profile with plant-based foods, such that… Here is the next question. How long does it take before you really start to get rid of those cravings for the fatty foods? Because there’s lot of habit in there. There’s a lot of psychology.

Sarah: Okay. So, I think that people who crave fast and fatty foods, first of all, first and foremost, I think that is, yes, it’s a way of life. It’s a taste thing. I think they fancy the taste. To me, when I think of that, that’s all that kind of mouth microbiome. People love eating fatty foods in there. No one loves the feeling of fatty foods in their gut, because they get bloated and distended. So, that’s first and foremost, and flatulent, and their stool smells, and all that kind of stuff, and it’s constipation associated with that.

So, it is also the microbiome to a degree, but I think it’s also, it’s habit. It’s taste. It’s a very much a mouth thing. And in the other part of your question, one of the first signs I see, and this is when people start doing any one of my programs, who are people who were living on processed, refined, fast foods, fatty foods, you know, all that kind of stuff. One of the first things I see is constipation. And people go, “Oh, I’ve started, you know, this diet and I’m constipated. Why am I constipated?”

I’m like, “Well, we’re feeding different bacteria, and they know we need to grow some good colonies. Right now, we haven’t got the colonies there who are going to… We haven’t got all that wonderful lactobacillus in there, those big colonies of that, and the Bifidobacterium that we want, because you haven’t been feeding them all the prebiotics that they love, all the bananas, asparagus, onions, garlic, leek,” all that wonderful prebiotic food isn’t a part of that person’s diet. Once you start introducing that, we need to feed them so they can grow and people can get those health benefits.

So, I will say to people, in about two weeks, you’ll start…everything will… So, I tell people two weeks, when they start to get that constipation, one of my first things is I say, “We just need to bring a bit of maybe just bring a fiber supplement in, bring some psyllium husk into the diet, to start getting some motility,” and drink lots of water, is one of my big encouragements. But, yeah, within days, we can see a change in the populations. And then, within about two weeks, I see the gut settling down, and I see people going back to regular bowel movements. So, that’s my clinical experience.

Andrew: Well, that parallels with what naturopaths who’ve specialized in liver detox have told me, in that the first two weeks you can actually see an uptick of liver enzymes if they’re out of whack. And then after the two weeks, they start to settle down. And that rings true of, you’re changing the microbiota, but the liver is yet to wake up and start to secrete bile, which is our natural body’s laxative, of course.

Sarah: Yes.

Andrew: So, that’s really interesting.

Sarah: I’m just saying what I’ve seen in clinic. Yeah, it is so interesting. Like, the body’s just… it’s fascinating. I love that. And this is why I love doing these podcasts. We’re just… Yeah. It’s amazing.

Andrew: Well, okay. So, the next question then is, when do we start detoxing? Like, when should we? When do we? Does the clinical part of a detox only happen after two weeks, or do you feel people start to wake up in three days and go, “Oh, my god. My life’s turned around.”?

Sarah: One thing I do know is we’re very individual with that, because it depends what our start point is. So, if your start point is someone who is, like, a banker, who, I have a lot of these patients, like, you know, men who are in their mid-50s, they’re at the big, boozy lunches every day. They’re having two bottles of wine a day. I mean, it depends. So, someone like that is going to notice significant… But they’re also going to go through… It’s gonna be harder for them. The symptoms are gonna be harder.

Just things like our blood pressure will elevate, first of all, because there’s the stress, then there’s coming off the alcohol that can impact cardiovascular health. Like, it depends. So, what I’m saying is it depends where you’re coming from. Someone who is a healthy person, who 80% eats really well, does regular exercise, the transition’s not gonna be that big. They might feel a little bit of a headache, or they might feel a little bit of a struggle or some fatigue, but they’re not going to get those just, yeah, that bit of fatigue starting the detox around day three, day four.

But I always say to them, just, day one and day two are really quite easy because they’re just the adjustments. Day three, day four, day five can be really hard for some people, with low energy. Just, that’s when things are really starting to reconfigure. I always say to people by day six, by day seven, you’re gonna start to feel great, and then you’ll see all of those wonderful clarity of…the brain fog lifts, clarity of mind. By, usually within the two-week mark, most people will have better sleep, higher libido, gut working well, much better mood, happy, lowered stress, all of those kind of stuff. But there is that transition, but it does…

Andrew: Better skin.

Sarah: Better skin. Yeah, the glowing as well. But it depends on your start point, where you’re coming from, because there’s some people, I will make them take a B vitamin before they do the detox, just because I’m worried about their neurological system, especially if they’re big drinkers. The biggest one I find the struggle with is more coming off alcohol, because whilst… And one thing I’ve done with my detoxes is I haven’t stopped coffee. I used to stop caffeine, but the compliance was really poor. I mean, for a lot of people that have…

Andrew: a few therapeutic activities.

Sarah: Yes. Well, I’m very pro-coffee. I’m a very pro-caffeine. I love it. So, I love it. I mean, I could go on about caffeine right now, but I’m not gonna go on that tangent because I wanna come back to your…

Andrew: I will.

Sarah: …other question. You can in a second. I wanna come back to your other question. When do we do these detoxes? And I always say to people there’s, as a general thing, I always call them the stop, reflect, assess, okay? So, what I find is, and what I see, is no, people don’t really address their health until there’s a crisis. Crisis being a number of things, a diagnosis, the GP telling you you’ve gotta go on statins or medications or blood pressure medication. These are all the crisis that people get to. Or they’re pre-diabetic and they’re being told to go on Metformin, etc.

And so, what I wanna do as a practitioner, and with “10:10 Kickstart,” is I want people, a couple of times a year, I would say around four times a year, to spend anywhere from just two weeks, just to stop, get your bloods done. If you’re someone who’s highly stressed especially, get your bloods done, give up booze for two weeks, just focus on yourself. Focus on a healthy eating meal plan. Focus on some mental health. Address not only the toxicity in your life, toxicity from food and alcohol, cigarettes, etc. Toxicity in relationships, toxicity in your workplace.

Spend two weeks giving back to yourself, focusing on you, focusing on where you’re at, so you don’t have a crisis. And so, it’s I see them as self-love and self-care. So, when I do these programs myself, I sit there and I go, “What are my goals? Where am I at? What relationships are around me? What do I need to address?” I go out every day and I walk. I’m nice to myself. I take myself to the gallery, because I like that. I take myself for a massage, and I take myself shopping. I’m actually really kind to myself.

And I go in to the GP and I just think, “Do I need to go to the dentist while I’m doing this healthy diet?” And I do breathing exercises, meditations, affirmations. I set goals. I address the goals throughout it. And by the end of it, I feel really good that I’ve done something for myself and I feel great about my health. And then I will go back to my regular life, which isn’t far from that. I live mostly like that anyway. But then again, I’m in this industry and I’m presenting on TV, I’m thinking about it, I’m reading studies every day. So, this is my world anyway. But I take it that one step further.

And what I’m encouraging people to do is the same thing. Stop, as mothers, as partners, as employees, as employers. We put ourselves at the back of the list. And as I said, there is very few people I know who really focus on self-care holistically, and, as, until they get to a crisis, and it’s when… It doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got. If your health’s not there, you haven’t got anything. If you’re sick every day or just, you know, low mood, low energy, low libido, stressed, that’s not a life. That’s not life. That’s not living. That is just… Well, what would you say? I love everything about chi and vitality and feeling fabulous and energized, and nothing feels better when your systems are working well. You know?

Andrew: It’s a very important place to be in, like, this self-love. And we’re talking about vagal nerve stimulation here, so, when people are eating stressed, and they’re, you know, self-loathing and things like that, you’ve got that cortisol response. You’ve got vagal nerve inhibition. So, when somebody is there, how do you get them to be where you are? Like, that’s a big change.

Sarah: Okay, so, first thing I say to people to get to where I am, you need to do what I do for three months. Because all the research shows that a human being, to create a way of life, needs 66 days. It’s not three weeks or two weeks. And you need to be doing something every single day for 12 weeks. That’s why my first book, “The 10:10 Diet,” which I’m actually rebranding “The 10:10 Plan,” because it’s not really a diet, it’s a way of life, I pick 10 weeks because I wanna help change people’s lives.

So, if you wanted to really make a change in your life, first of all, A, you have to want it, and it’s gotta be something that you actually personally want. That’s first. If you don’t want it, and you’re doing it for someone else, you will fail because you’re not doing… Everything you’ve gotta do is because you want it. And then, be every day you wake up. It’s not gonna happen automatically. Write down your food plan, get your food shopping done. I have my food, three days… I have a seven-day period.

Twice in a week, I will do my food prep. Now, I don’t sit there and prep food out, but I do the shopping I want for the, to prepare the food that I want. So, I always will have the food ready to go if I’m in a rush, and I can literally pour that into that, and have that, and bang, and I’ve done it in a minute. Like, I’ve always got quinoa cooked. I’ve always got chia seeds soaked. If I’m in a rush in the morning, I can just throw soaked chia seeds with a bit of berries, and I’m out the door, you know. I’ve got a healthy breakfast like that. Nuts on top.

So, I’ve got my staples all there, ready to go. And even got, I’ve got, like, everything that I work with gut health as well. So, I’ve always got sauerkraut in the fridge, and I’ve got kombucha to grab. I’ve got miso paste. I’ve got everything in there. And it’s preparation. It’s simple. And wanting it. It’s basic, you know, and being consistent. It will come naturally. It comes naturally.

Andrew: Yeah. But the gravitation to, as in “I want to move towards something,” rather than “I have to go away from that,” you know, to leave something that I love behind, rather than that mental picture, to gravitate something towards which you want to be. So, it’s more of a pull rather than a push, if you like.

Sarah: I wanna add something to that.

Andrew: It’s a really interesting flip. Yeah.

Sarah: It is. I just wanna add to that, that once a week… So, I love fine dining. It’s just, I love it. I love beautiful wine. I really enjoy that. I would still eat out, and at somewhere nice, you know, whenever I wanted to. And if I’m gonna go out and enjoy food, and I’ll have a glass of wine or two with it, I have no problem with that, because that’s about balance, and having a healthy balance too, so it’s not…I don’t live all one way. Like, if we were to go out for dinner, I would definitely be looking at the wine list and sharing a bottle of wine, and I would definitely taste some dessert.

I would definitely do that, because, to me… Now, I’m not gonna go out and order a pizza and a big carbonara, and eat garlic bread and that kind of stuff. I would probably do more just food that’s… For me, it would be about beautiful produce. However, whenever I would do that, that might be twice in one week. It might not be for two months. It’s not a regular thing, but I’m not… you know, I still eat out and enjoy, so, I… Yeah, reward. but it’s just balance.

Andrew: But it’s reward rather than punishment. I guess that’s where I was sort of going. That sort of pulling towards something that you want to do, rather than being hounded with a stick from behind, you know. I think it’s a really important mindset. And, you know, even if you think about the mind chemicals, you know, the cortisol and whatever else, vagal nerve stimulation, that’s got to do with this reward sort of thing. Dopamine, for instance.

Sarah: Yeah, the neurotransmitters. Yeah.

Andrew: But let’s move on, because we’ll talk for another hour. So, you spoke earlier about, you know, people can go through these, you know, transient sort of feelings of unease or disease, you know, the heaviness in the liver, the headaches, the rattiness, things like that. Do you give people a certain amount of time, and do you give them warning to say, “Listen, this well could happen because we know what you’ve been doing, you know, two bottles of wine at lunch for, you know, 30 years or whatever. You don’t clear that without payment.” You know what I mean? Do you…

Sarah: Oh, yes.

Andrew: Do you have a set sort of…

Sarah: Oh, honestly…

Andrew: …repertoire that you tell people?

Sarah: Yes. Absolutely. Like, people come in when they wanna do this or people would buy the book. And I write about it. Like, this is hard. Like, I will tell people, this is big changes. It’s withdrawal as well, for many people. I mean, withdrawal from sugar. It’s the cravings, and it’s the headaches, and it’s the… I say to people, “My advice is, it’s hard. Get through the first two weeks of anything in your home and, take it day by day, take it hour by hour.” There’s always herbal teas you can have, and there’s water, and you can have lemon in water.

And I always say to people, it is challenging, but the rewards are tenfold when you have actually accomplished a complete dietary overhaul and you’re feeling, just like you and I spoke about before, about berries and vegetables. You feel the wonders of those foods in your system. You feel alive. You feel rejuvenated, regenerated. You feel healthy and energized and fresh, and the lifting of brain fog, and the bowels working well, and the clarity. And so I would just say to people, “Just get through it, and once you’re through it, you’ll be fine.” And so, no, I pre-warn them. Absolutely. Because they would drop off. If I didn’t pre-warn them, they’d drop off. Their compliance would be really.

Andrew: Yeah. I think it’s really interesting though about, you know, culture, and where we’ve come from in the past, mom and dad and all of that sort of thing. What you grew up learning. Thankfully, you know, my dad particularly loved his vegetables, and it wasn’t a conscious thing that I’ve taken on. Like, I’ve had my bad fast food times. As I said, I’m by no means pure, but there’s this gravitation to fresh food. It’s really interesting to me when I see people that simply don’t eat fresh food.

Like, it’s so alien to me. But I guess this is more and more why they need your book. So, can you do us a briefing? I know this is, like, gonna be like a shotgun question sort of thing. But you’ve set it out into chapters. Can you go through what you cover in your chapters of your book for us, please?

Sarah: Yeah, absolutely. So, “The 10:10 Kickstart” is a book. It’s in two sections. So, there is one section, which is… and I loved writing this book so much. So, there’s one section which is all smoothies. It’s an A to Z of smoothies, okay? So, the A to Z, it starts from arthritis and asthma, and then it goes through to menopause, and bloating, and migraines, and osteoporosis. And all through the alphabet. I’ve got an A to Z of smoothies for basically, to treat every ailment.

Now, the reason why I did that was I want people to see food as medicine. So, I want people who grab this book to go, “Oh, god, that’s really interesting. I’m someone who’s got arthritis. Oh, Sarah’s got a arthritis smoothie. I’m gonna start my day with this smoothie,” which is just full of all these… It’s got anti-inflammatories in there. I can’t remember that smoothie off my heart, but I know I would have turmeric in there. I’d probably have avocado in there. A whole mixture of ingredients, so that kind of stuff, right? And some nut butter.

And so I want people to start their day with that. And I want them to kind of look at that like a prescription pad, like, for treatment of disease. So, that’s for people who are picking up this book, who have got, like, an ailment that they can work into any of the four programs. So, I do talk about, in the book, about rest and retest and reset and stop, reflect, assess, all that kind of stuff about health in general. And then I’ve got these four programs. So, one’s a 1-day, one is a 3-day one is a 10-day, and then there’s another 4-week program in there.

So, the one-day program is for the people, say, for example, who went out to a wedding the night before, and they ate like they had moments to live. They’ve woken up, they’ve just gone, “Oh, I can never eat ever again. I feel absolutely dreadful,” and whatever, or hungover, and it’s a one-day reset. So, it’s all about keeping back into your healthy self. So, just waking up, going, “Okay, I’m allowed to do that. I’m allowed to go to a wedding and eat like I’ve had moments to live. That’s okay. But, the next day, I’m gonna compensate. You know, I am gonna compensate and do these one-day detox.”

The next one is a, and I’m gonna ask you why you were laughing in a minute, but anyway. The next one is my three-day detox. So, and when I say detoxing, what you’d be eating is you’d be waking up in the morning, you’d have one of those gorgeous smoothies. Lunch would be a fabulous detox salad, just with loads of chopped vegetables in there, and maybe a bit of salmon, and dinner might be a beautiful soup with lots of vegetables in there. And you might be snacking on things like a bit of apple cider vinegar in water, or you might be having some nuts, lots of fruit.

And they’re all very low in sort of complex carbs. So, it is a big focus on fruit and veg and lean protein. So, for example, let’s just say between Christmas and New Year, you went out every day, and you were at here and there, and Boxing Day, and you’ve gone, “Oh, I’ve put on three kilos. I just feel gross. It’s like, my new year, new me, what am I doing? I’m gonna do the three-day. Oh, Sarah’s got a three-day detox. I’ll do that for three days, and it will get me back on track.”

The 10-day one is for people who have, probably are pretty stressed, drinking a bit, not focusing on themselves, not really feeling that great, just thinking, “I just don’t feel great. I’m a bit discombobulated. Work’s not great. I’m not managing stress. I’m this sort of, oh, I’m just gonna do this for 10 days.” And that one, you know, you’ll lose a couple of kilos, two to three kilos doing that one. And it’s just that nutrient density. It’s more holistic, it’s more lifestyle.

And then the four-week one is for people who have had a diagnosis of some kind, or they’re just massively stressed, they’ve got issues with liver, issues with gut. That’s more the really hardcore liver/gut, and really people who do need to make more of a drastic change. So, they’re the programs that are within that book. And as I said, all of those programs, if you’ve got an ailment, and it might be hypertension, or anything, as I mentioned, you pick one of the smoothies and you work it into the detox wellness program.

So, if that’s an ailment, and that would be more for the four-week one. And I’ve had so many wonderful stories of people writing to me, “Oh, Sarah, I did your four-week.” Oh, like, a lady in Adelaide. I actually opened an email this morning. “Hi, Sarah. I live in Adelaide. I just wanna tell you that I did your four-week detox and I’ve just completed it, and my cholesterol’s back into normal range. I’ve lost seven kilos.” Of course, which we know three to four of it would’ve been probably a bit of body water in the beginning, because all of, you know, the glycogen and blah, blah, blah.

And then she, and, “I feel really great. I feel so energized, and can I do the 10:10 diet? Should I do that?” And so, like, I get stories like that. I’d get a thousand emails a week, I think, right now, from all my programs, like from the diets and stuff. And my brand has got its own community, called The Sarah Di Lorenzo Community, where all these people, because there’s, like, 100,000 people right now doing my programs, they all interact with each other and share their successes and their before-and-afters, and for me, the biggest win with this is not people going, “Oh, I look hot in a bikini.” My biggest win for me is when people go, “I don’t need pharmaceutical medication anymore.”

I do warn people, if you are on blood pressure medication doing any of my programs, and you start to feel dizzy, you gotta go straight back to your GP. Like, I always tell people, any signs and symptoms, go to the… because unless they’re my one-on-one patient, I always make sure… Because what you’ll find is you won’t start needing these medications, and I don’t want people taking medication that they once needed and then don’t. So, yeah, there’s a lot of that stuff. And it’s very rewarding. It’s a solution for everyone, for all different, you know, life events and festivities and, yeah.

Andrew: Now, obviously your book’s for sale, but have you got any sort of, you know, guidelines or templates, or things that people can at least whet their appetite with, like, from your site, from your website?

Sarah: Okay, so, I do have a YouTube channel, which has all of my TV segments on it, which we do some book stuff on there as well.

Andrew: Oh, okay. Great.

Sarah: So, there’s a YouTube channel where people can actually see me. Well, this podcast will go up on my YouTube channel, for example, and every time I’m on TV, it goes to the YouTube channel if I’ve done other things. So, radio, all that kind of stuff. I try and filter as much onto there as possible, for people who are interested. So, the books are spoken about there. And then, obviously my social media platforms have got… I talk about the books. If people wanna know real-life stories and if they wanna feel that if what I do is right for them, they can join my Facebook community and just ask the community. I’m interested in doing this

Andrew: But that’ll be really good about the… Forgive me. Sorry to cut you off. That’ll be really good for people to see what you do, what you cover on your TV segments, because it’s practical stuff. So, you know, it’s very short, sharp, and, “Yep, I can learn something from that. I can learn something from that.” I think that’s a great little introduction. And then people can go, “Okay, now I’m ready to buy the book and embark on the diet.”

Sarah: Yeah. Yes.

Andrew: And I need to say, just as a closing remark, what I was laughing at was when you said eat like… What is it? Eat like you’ve got moments to live. And Sarah Di Lorenzo, I hope that we can change people to, if they did have moments to live, they’d be picking up a punnet of blackberries or raspberries rather than lining up in a fast food store. But thank you for joining us on “Wellness By Designs,” and giving  You know, it’s always great to chat with you, but I learned little tidbits along the way. It’s wonderful.

Sarah: Oh, look, honestly, hand on my heart. Thank you so much for having me. And I really, I always enjoy our chats. I know you and I could talk for hours and hours and hours and hours, and I really do hope that anyone is listening, that they feel inspired somehow by our chats to live their best lives, and you’re always a lot of fun, and I do love your little anecdotes as well. So, thank you so much for having me.

Andrew: My absolute pleasure, Sarah. And thank you, everyone, for joining us today. You can catch up on all the show notes and the other podcasts on the “Designs for Health” website. I’m Andrew Whitfield-Cook. This is “Wellness By Designs.”