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Child: Welcome to my mommy’s podcast!
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Katie: Hello and welcome to the Fit Bottomed Zone Podcast. I’m Katie from fitbottomedzone.com, and I am here today with Shefaly Ravula, who is the visionary founder of Precision Gut Health, which is a virtual telehealth practice on a mission to unlock the secrets of gut health, nutrition, and longevity. And at the heart of her practice lies a powerful fusion of functional medicine, culinary nutrition, and a profound commitment to digestive and metabolic health optimization.
And in this episode, we talk about two uncommon vitamins you might not have heard of. Um, or at least in this context, vitamin C and not the typical vitamin C ascorbic acid type thing that you’re thinking, but a different vitamin C that might be actually much more important as well as vitamin J and I will let her explain what those two are and just how important they are to her, to all of our health. So let’s join her now. Shafaly, welcome. Thank you so much for being here.
Shefaly: I’m so excited to chat with you, Katie. Thank you so much for having me.
Katie: Oh, it’s my pleasure. And I think this is going to be a really fun and fascinating and extremely applicable to every single person listening conversation because we’re going to talk about vitamin C, which is not the one you’re thinking if you think you know what vitamin C is and vitamin J, which I’m guessing most people have never even heard of. And when researching for this episode, I absolutely love your approach on this and that you talk about this, because in my own experience, purely anecdotally, these things are actually massive needle movers and the huge missing pieces for a lot of people, especially I think in the modern world. And so I love that we’re going to tackle them today. Before we get there though, I also found in researching for this podcast that you were on the wheel of fortune and I would love to hear how that was, what your experience was like.
Shefaly: Oh my gosh, that was so much fun. I was, you know, in high school, yes. And my father, my dad was like, Oh, you know, there’s going to be a Wheel of fortune tryout here in Houston. So we were like, we grew up watching that, you know, every night. And, you know, Pat Sajak is now not on the show anymore, but of course this is, yeah, 25 years ago, more than that, I think, and we tried out, we auditioned, which is actually a big deal.
You go to this place, you have to do all these word puzzles and tests on paper, and then you actually have to play the game in front of everybody. And we, we made it. So then we flew to LA to record and it was pretty awesome. But, it was for sister. We did family week. So it was my sister and I together.
Katie: I love that. How fun. It sounds like you from a young age have probably been had like a ton of knowledge considering you were in high school, that’s impressive when you got to be on the Wheel of Fortune In this conversation I would love to jump directly in by having you define for us what vitamin C and vitamin J are. Because I think even the definitions are gonna disrupt a lot of ideas and I love that And then we’ll dive into talking about their importance and their application and how to actually nurture those.
Shefaly: Yeah, for sure. So they’re completely not, you know, real definitions, if you will, but they’re ideas of what I think is such a crucial element and nutrient, if you will, in our life, right, in our wellness journey in life. And so vitamin C for me refers to community and vitamin J refers to joy. And so, you know, I picked up these terms along the way in my functional medicine journey in an education.
And, you know, you can dive really deep into learning so much in science. And you know, I had a biology background. I went to PA school as grad school and then functional medicine and nutrition. Like you can really get into the weeds of the science, which is important, but not, you know, I think that big picture of life and joy and people and learning and purpose is so crucial to our wellness journey and, and just keeping that in the back of your mind as you’re going through your wellness journey, I think it’s just really important because you can get so into the weeds of, Oh, I’ve got to do this for my, you know, my, my gut.
And I’ve got to, you know, reverse my insulin resistance, or I’ve got to fix my hormones and I’ve got to exercise and I’ve got to eat right and I’ve got to sleep and all these things are really important, but we can get so, almost sometimes obsessed about them and then we forget that big picture of like, what is, what are we here for? Like, who are we here for? Our, ourselves, our families, our loved ones. And so I think both C and J go hand in hand together. And I can talk about like how, if you’d like to.
Katie: Yeah. I think to your point, that’s such an important thing to remember because if it were only about the information and the learning and the knowledge, like we have access to more information than we have ever had in human history, but exponentially more. And we all have probably more knowledge on a lot of random topics than the human population ever has. And yet we aren’t having better health outcomes than we’ve ever had. It’s not that we lack knowledge necessarily to get there. I’m guessing like something in this piece that we’re going to dive into in that deeper connection in that actually, um, like integrating those things within our lives, within our bodies, within our community and how I would guess there’s science here too.
I would love for you to talk about how, because I can just guess even topically. When we’re in a state of joy or gratitude, our nervous system is also in a different state. Our digestion is different when we’re with people. That was actually what stood out to me in all the blue zone studies, which I know are controversial and hotly debated,
Shefaly: Yeah.
Katie: their diet wasn’t the same.
They didn’t eat the exact same things. They didn’t follow the exact same lifestyle. There were a few commonalities, but the one that seemed the strongest to me was they did all those things in community. They had really strong community in their lives. So yes, they were walking, they were walking with people they loved.
They were eating, they were eating with people they loved. And so I really wondered if that was the message we kind of missed in the blue zone studies, but I would love for you to talk about how these in particular can have such a far reaching effect on our health.
Shefaly: Yeah. So I think you, you highlighted so many cool little aspects of this, like absolutely your nervous system and the nervous system regulation for your digestion, which then also impacts your hormonal health and your metabolic health is really important. And I love that you talk about the blue zones because when I, well, before it became a documentary and was very much involved in the interested in the blue zone work, and I have all the books and I did feel like what you’re saying is that it is, it was about purpose and community, not necessarily one part of a food or one, one specific aspect of a diet.
And I think to me, honestly, if you, now that you bring this up, the blue zones was my first realization to, yes. And yes, it’s controversial and whatnot, but having people and belonging and purpose in society and this is, whether you’re an extrovert or not, introvert, introvert or whatever, you know, it is really quite crucial to your overall longevity. So. I think we know now there’s some, there’s research and scientists that talk about the science of happiness, like Arthur Brooks, who wrote a book with Oprah Winfrey, and I think also had his own book.
I think he’s a, he’s a PhD, in the science of happiness, and so we’re talking about the fact that we actually have research based in this fundamental concept of like, we really, we can’t be lonely because loneliness is an epidemic as we know from some of the discussions in the last, you know, decade or so now that that’s coming out, we can’t be lonely.
Like, that’s going to be a big part of our death and demise per se, you know, we can work on longevity with like all the other things like we just talked about exercise, nutrition, sleep, et cetera.
If you’re functional, but you don’t have people or purpose, what are you left with? And so I think, you know, Dr. Peter, he had talks a lot about that marginal decade. Uh, but he also now starts talking about happiness and loneliness. And so I think these are definitely, there’s a lot of science there. I can’t quote you on specific studies necessarily, but I do know about the researchers that study this and I think, you know, it’s just common sense to be really thinking big picture beyond just all these things and be thinking about like, how can we use and incorporate those things in our day to day or maybe week to week. It doesn’t have to be every day, but maybe, you know, picking this is where I bring this into our practice is like, I’m reminding my patients like, okay, yes, we want to like work on our exercise, your specific exercise.
Yes. But can we do that so that you can also maybe do it with, with somebody you like or want to meet or a group or a membership that you want to join? Like maybe it’s a pickleball league, you know, or something like that. And you’re killing two birds with one stone because one, you’re getting some movement.
Two, you might be getting some vitamin D with the sunshine three, you’re getting that community, and then there was a fourth piece that I’m not, I was just, it just slipped my brain, but that you’re getting by. Oh, you’re working on your neurons. You’re basically creating a new activity that you are rewiring your brain for because you’ve just not done it before.
And I say pickleball, but it can be mahjong or it can be chess club, you know, it can be tennis. Tennis was for me. That’s where, that’s where I found my community. C and J, um, you know, six years ago, seven years ago. So, yeah, I don’t know. Did that answer your question?
Katie: It does, and I feel like this is such an important piece to hone in on, and I feel like it’s really can be elusive in the modern world, especially. I don’t feel like the modern world sets us up for, like, the actual kind of community and the depth of joy that we’re talking about, um, because we’re connected digitally, but we’re much less proximately connected than we used to be, and we also have less of that sort of, like, carefree timelessness downtime where we actually by nature just naturally connect with people or get to go in introspective or have just moments of silence because so many things make demands on our time.
Shefaly: Yeah.
Katie: the community piece for me was something at various points in my life, especially as a new mom, that I felt like I was missing when my community shifted and I had now had kids in it, I was like looking for a community that I could really relate to in that. And what I learned was I actually had to build the community in a sense.
I felt like what I realized was everybody actually we have that innate deep want and desire for community and because modern life doesn’t set us up to easily just have that naturally sometimes, I had to build it and people were so receptive to it because we all have that that deep core desire for it. But I would love to you for you to speak to kind of maybe the pitfalls of modern society that make these things harder And maybe why that’s contributing to these shifts we’re seeing in, even though we have access to so much information and to so many tools and to so many things, we’re still not seeing the health outcomes or the happiness measurements that you would expect.
Shefaly: Yeah, well, I think time, you know, time is a problem, which is why I think combining multiple things into one is a great way. So I gave the example of picking maybe a new hobby or, or sport or activity, which can accomplish multiple things at once. But another one would be something related to your health goals.
So let’s say you’re working on your nutrition and you’re trying to eat out less. So can you compact, how can you combine that goal with something that can involve community or people or joy? So, for, for me, cookbook club was a way that I did that. And, and that’s, that’s another example, but here’s another more simple example is like, having, you know, in the pandemic, I think a lot of people got to a point where, you know, we all had to move inwards and do our own thing.
And then we were, there was a lot of alcohol, people were drinking more, et cetera. And then slowly now, post pandemic, people are coming back to like, oh, you know, I need to get away from drinking so much or, and socializing, being social in our world, like people, Friday, Friday comes around, it’s like, Oh, I want to go to happy hour because I want to unwind and that alone, like brings an opportunity to go have some alcohol, which is, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing because you’re maybe with people too, and so that’s great.
But I think. You know, what you could be thinking about is maybe having that happy hour where you’re revolving that goal of nutrition around that. So maybe you’re getting together with a small group of people and cooking together, or maybe you host potlucks and make it simple that way so that you’re getting, and there’s like maybe some rules in the food, like, let’s make it a simple meal that’s homemade, nothing fancy, you know, doesn’t have to be specific ingredients, but just that gets away from already eating out too much or maybe even drinking, you know. So you can kind of like create communities like you’re talking about building those communities for what you need right now, but combine it with that other purpose.
So I, I don’t know if I answered your question because I think your question was, what are the pitfalls? And I think, okay. Back to that. The pitfalls are time and energy. I think people are so darn tired by the end of the day and, you know, working in this rat race of a world. So combining is, I think, really a great thing.
Like, just like we combine foods on a plate, you can combine these things to achieve one goal. And I think that’s something that I feel like can be a time saver. I think time and energy are a big one. I think to fix the energy, there’s a lot of things, you know, you got to sleep better for sure.
Make time for self-care and breath work and all that, but that might help the energy. Of course, doing functional medicine and sort of working on, you know, your health journey with a provider would be great too. But, um, at the end of the day, I think that is a major pitfall, just not having the time and the energy.
Katie: Yeah, I feel like that’s an almost universal struggle in today’s world. And I don’t know the exact statistics either, but I remember reading recently that like loneliness for our health even is worse than smoking. That like, this is such a massive factor that this is actually like can drastically shorten your life if you don’t. this piece like integrated and not to make that a to do list item or a source of stress for anyone, but just an acknowledgement of how these pieces are so entwined in our nervous system health and our human survival, truly.
And I feel like also in the modern world, it can feel hard sometimes to cultivate joy when I know having gone to journalism school, if it bleeds, it leads. And if, you know, it’s the new cycle is curated to be much more fear based or urgency based than slow and peaceful or to nurture joy. And so I feel like that too, in the modern world probably requires much more intentionality than it used to. When parts of our day, we were walking outside in the sunshine to get somewhere and we got all of those inputs and we got the, all the hormones produced by the natural light and the walking and all of the habits that you, you know, suggested so beautifully stacking together.
I love, I’ve talked about habit stacking before, and you know, if you can take a phone call while you’re going for a walk, or get sunshine outside while you’re going for a walk, if you can combine things, and I feel like that, your concept takes it even a step further, and like, and if you can do it with people, then you’re also nourishing that community need for yourself, and for them, in that as well.
I wonder if you have any specific tips for, um, more space for nurturing joy in the modern world, whether it be reserving time for more quietness and stillness and like a practice of some sort to do that, whether there’s a way to like really build that into a beautiful, harmonious community as well. Um, or what, what’s worked for you personally with kind of stepping out of the urgency and fear of the modern life and all that kind of is thrown at us and moving into more of a state of joy.
Shefaly: Yeah, I think that that little bit of self-care for me looking inward is really kind of crucial to my start of the day. So I think morning routines and evening routines are really helpful for…. Routines are helpful, right? It’s part of habit stacking, like you mentioned. Like, building a routine or adding something.
Like, maybe you already have a routine. Everybody already has some kind of routine. They wake up, brush their teeth, probably. That’s kind of the basics. Maybe have coffee. But other people add stuff to that. Like a stretch or their exercise or taking their vitamins or, you know, so when we talk about how about sucking in our health coaching part of our practice, we are building on those.
So for me, every New Year’s resolution, every January, I come up with some new things and I kind of don’t do like I do the things you’re not supposed to do, which is like, write 15 resolutions and you know that if you write 15 resolutions, you’re not going to get all of them down. But I do make a dent in them every year.
And what I do is I just add a little thing to something I’m already doing. So, you know, apple cider vinegar in my water, uh, that was a new one for me this year. And I was able to build that into my existing. It’s just like one little thing. So, um, but for me to bring me to center and quiet to be able to create that space and energy later for the joy in the community, is gratitude journaling.
I love doing that. I have one for many, many years now, and it’s literally just writing. The seven things that gave me that give me gratitude in that moment. And it could be as simple as like the beautiful mug that I love that I just have. And it just makes me feel joy just by drinking out of that mug, you know, or, um, a memory from the night before or the fact that I slept, um, you know, and had no dreams or whatever it could be.
So that act of gratitude journaling really helps me, I think. And yeah, what was your other question to that? Katie? You had another second part, I think.
Katie: It’s just around like the mindset shift of realizing that modern life often throws so much urgency and stress cues at us and like re-centering and more peace and joy
Shefaly: Yeah. So I think the gratitude journaling and then I think that’s really simple because it can take five minutes, or breath work. And breath work, we really use that in our, the gut health part of our practice because of what we, you talked about, which is the nervous system regulation. So I think, you know, just calming the sympathetic so that the parasympathetic can be more at play. And breath work helps so much. So even just simple breath work before sitting down for a meal can set you up for success for the rest of the day. Or when you’re driving, like that’s another time where you can be like, oh, I’m at stoplight.
Stoplight means I do a 4, 7, 8 breath. Like putting those things and wiring those things in your brain. For me over time, like at a stoplight, I do a 4,7,8 breath, you know, it took a while to build that habit, but I do that. And so, you know, carving these little things, I do love the atomic habit book to help you create those, which maybe I’m sure you’ve talked about Katie before, because you know, about the habit stacking.
Katie: Yes, and I’ll put a link in the show notes to that book as well I know many people have found it super helpful and I think of my friend Dr Lauren Lax who I think is a great example of some of the things you’re talking about where she of her lines I love is humans are nutrients, but she goes for walks all the time and almost every time she’s with somebody, so she’s getting to connect and catch up with someone and she’s getting so, I mean, she’s maybe the most active person I know and she’s also one of the most joyful people I know. So I love that she’s like a walking example of this.
Shefaly: I love that you mentioned that because she’s been on my list to reach out. She’s in my community and like, she’s, you’re right. She’s always ready for a walk. So, yeah.
Katie: Well, I hope you two get to connect and you had to build on what you said. I feel like so often it’s easy to, like, let the busyness of life push out the little things and not create space for them. And that we often have a human tendency to underestimate the simple things because of their simplicity. And it, I was a slow learner, but what I’ve learned over and over again, in these last ten years especially, is that those foundational simple things actually, especially over time as they compound have the most profound impact on health. And yes, the biohacking stuff can be really helpful. And yes, supplements can be really helpful. And these like core foundational things you’re talking about make all of those things more impactful for your body because they’re addressing that like deep core level. And so for me, I would say echo a hundred percent yes to all the things you said and gratitude journaling, journaling and building in little healthy habits throughout your day that become automatic.
And for me, some of the really impactful ones have been as simple as getting morning sunlight and people are probably tired of me talking about that and I’m going to keep talking about it because it was so impactful. Truly just getting 10 to 20 minutes as soon as possible after waking up, even if it’s cloudy, even if it’s raining, just going outside and getting exposure to nature immediately, it feels like it sets the tone for my whole day.
And in the same way, anytime I can get little like sunlight breaks, I feel like I’m charging. Like I joke that I’m solar powered, but I don’t think it’s a joke. Like I feel my body is charging. Um, and then of course, I’m sure with functional medicine, you talk a lot about sleep and how that is like a master switch for everything.
And it makes your digestion, your metabolism, your hormones, everything is happier when we get the right amount of sleep. Um, and then Breathwork, too. I feel like that one is so underestimated because it’s not like the shiny silver bullet, it’s not fancy, it’s not some biohack, and I think it also works better than most, you know, thousand dollar devices that people want to try to address their nervous system or to address their health in some way.
Shefaly: Yeah, and you know, I think I am very like data driven and type A and go, go, go. So it is hard for me to like, I, it’s, it’s really hard for me to slow down and, take care of my adrenals and take care of my stress. So I have to carve this out and I’m not the best at it. So don’t by any means and you and listening, don’t think that I’m like, I’ve perfected this.
I just think that I’m also on the journey that everyone else is on. And data does help. So like I wear a whoop and that really watching some of those numbers respond to some of the things I do, like especially the breath work. I’ll just see some of those numbers respond, you know, over time.
And so if you are into data and you really need that to influence and drive, you know, your behavior change, that’s okay. You know, that, that’s okay. Like maybe you want to know if going out in the morning sunshine is changing you, like, you know, you can check on sleep tracking. You can check your cortisol curve, all that stuff if you ever wanted to, some of that gets expensive though. So, um, I love that you bring up that these are simple things that are free. It’s just that it’s hard for people to, I think it’s hard for people to invest in free stuff sometimes, right? That’s what we see, and I feel like, I wish that weren’t the case, but sometimes we don’t give the free stuff enough credit.
Katie: That’s a great point. I had never thought to word it exactly like that, but yeah, it’s so true. It’s like, sometimes we miss the value because it doesn’t have a monetary association with it. And yeah, like you, I think those things can be so impactful.
And I also, for anyone listening, we’re going to get to record another episode together where we’re going to actually get really sciencey on gut stuff and all things fiber, which I’m really excited for, because I haven’t done as deep of a dive into all the different types of fiber and how they are similar and different. So I’m excited for that conversation. You guys stay tuned for that one. But in, for this conversation, if people want to find you and keep learning from you and nurture more of these things we’re talking about in their life, where can they find you and learn from you?
Shefaly: Oh, I’m at precisionguthealth.com and if you, there’s a newsletter that we send out great. Again, free information. I think it’s just like me chatting about some of these topics in a very big picture way. It’s not just about gut health all the time. It’s where we start in my practice, but we talk about everything. It’s very big picture. So, yeah, that’s our website. We’re there at Instagram as well. Precision gut health. And I’d love to chat with anybody.
Katie: Amazing. Well, those will be linked in the show notes and for this episode, I’m so grateful for your time. I love that you are talking about these concepts. I think they are pivotally important, especially in the modern world, and I hope our conversation has inspired some people listening to nurture more grace and joy and community in their lives and stack them in a way that makes them fit without stress in a modern lifestyle.
Thank you so much for your time and for everything you shared.
Shefaly: You are so welcome. I’m so glad to be here.
Katie: And thank you as always for listening and I hope you will join me again on the next episode of the Fit Bottomed Zone podcas
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