This Is Why You're Still Tired, Even When You Eat Healthy | Dr. William Li

1. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:00

   I love eating out as much as the next person, Dr. Li, but I will say that I've become a lot fussier these days, and I actually prefer eating in. I much prefer eating in because when you really tune into what good quality food tastes like, often when you're out, not always, there are some great restaurants out there and great cafes for sure, I just don't feel that good afterwards a lot of the time when I go out. It could be the oils they're using to fry or whatever it might be. So again, I'm not saying that applies to anyone else, but for me, I much prefer to eat in these days when I can.

2. WLDr. William Li0:37

   I, I totally agree. And, and by the way, I think the, the, the companion piece that I add, 'cause I'm like you, I, you know, I sort of, I, I, I try to find what makes me feel good, uh, and, and stick to that. But I also think that, you know, having some self-compassion is an important-

3. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee0:58

   Yeah

4. WLDr. William Li0:59

   ... component to that as well. So if you've decided that you're gonna just try to be as healthy as you can, um, don't feel like it's a strict religion or a s- you're not in a military camp where you can-

5. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:11

   Yeah

6. WLDr. William Li1:11

   ... only do one thing. We're all human. We have to enjoy ourselves. We have to have enough compassion to realize that it's okay every ni- every now and then-

7. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:22

   Yeah

8. WLDr. William Li1:22

   ... to, you know, kind of wander off the path. As long as you get back on the path, you're gonna be just fine. And I try to kind of lower people's stress level-

9. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:30

   Yeah

10. WLDr. William Li1:30

    ... in trying to live a healthy life by also saying, "You know, look, these are guidelines. Y- you know that they're good for you. You, you should feel, you should feel better when you're doing them. Um, it's up to you to actually take that path." And, and rather than make people feel fear, guilt, shame when it comes to food, I try to give people permission to live a little, you know?

11. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee1:51

    Yeah.

12. WLDr. William Li1:51

    Every now and then, you're gonna do something you're gonna really enjoy. Listen, if you spend more time doing things that are good for you, your body's gonna be strong enough to be able to rebound from something occasionally you do that's not so good for you. It's like driving on a road, right? I mean, look, you know the rules, following the rules of the road are actually gonna help keep you a safe driver so that you're gonna be accident-free. But look, who doesn't speed every now and then? And you know speeding can kill you, right? So, but every now and then, you need to get some place quickly.

13. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:20

    Yeah.

14. WLDr. William Li2:20

    You're gonna go a little bit faster than the speed limit. It's okay.

15. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:23

    Yeah.

16. WLDr. William Li2:23

    It's okay. And so I, I kind of try to give people permission to, um, and I encourage them to be self-compassionate and give them permission to feel the liberty to choose-

17. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:34

    Yeah

18. WLDr. William Li2:34

    ... with the en- with the encouragement to make more good choices more often.

19. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee2:39

    Yeah, I completely agree. It's a great point, and j- just to be super clear, I've only got to that point about eating in compared to eating out, I would say in the last couple of years. You know, I've been on this journey to improve my health with my lifestyle for, you know, 10-plus years now. So you start off where you can, and bit by bit, that builds, and you go off track, and you go, "Ah, you know what? I actually feel better when I'm like this." And you know, last week, I was away for work between Monday, uh, afternoon and Friday evening, so all my meals were out. And I was completely fine, and I was able to function and d- and do what I had to do. But since I got back at the weekends, I'm like, "No, no, no, I just wanna eat in." I cook my own food now. So I think that's a really, really important point. You mentioned, uh, blood vessels before in relationship to olive oil. Now, we've spoken a lot about stem cells.

20. WLDr. William Li3:30

    Hmm.

21. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:30

    If we could just shift the focus to blood vessels, olive oil is a food that can help us with our stem cells and help us with our blood vessels.

22. WLDr. William Li3:41

    Hmm.

23. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee3:41

    Let's just set the scene again like we did with stem cells. Why is the health of our blood vessels so important? What do we get wrong when we think about blood vessels? And then how can we choose specific foods that, that are gonna enhance the health of those blood vessels?

24. WLDr. William Li4:00

    Okay. So I mentioned earlier 60,000 miles worth of blood vessels-

25. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee4:05

    Yeah

26. WLDr. William Li4:05

    ... are packed into our adult bodies. That is so extensive that if we were to pull out all the blood vessels and line them up end to end in your body, you'd actually form a line, a thread, that would wrap around the Earth twice. All right? And these literally are the highways and byways of everything, oc- oxygen we breathe, the nutrients that we eat, they deliver to every single organ in your body. Really, really critical. And in fact, no matter what you, e- else you think about, uh, in terms of your health, if your blood vessels are healthy, you are at a really great starting point to optimize the rest of your health. But if your blood vessels are unhealthy, you're gonna be far behind. In fact, it'll be impossible to optimize your health in any other part of your body. And this is true when you're a child. This is true when you're a young adult. This is especially true as we get older, like 40 and above. We need to start paying super attention to how well our blood vessels are functioning. Now, the good news, and what people don't get right sometimes, is that- Are you tired of waking up exhausted even when you've technically had enough sleep? Do you feel like you're constantly doing everything right, yet you still feel stuck? You're not broken. You're just running the wrong habits. I've taken everything I've learnt from helping thousands of patients and boiled it down into five tiny daily habits that can transform your life in just 30 days. No overwhelm, no pressure, just small shifts that reset your energy, mood, and mind. If you're ready to stop surviving and start feeling like yourself again, download my free guides now. Just click on the first link in the description box below or scan the QR code on screen. You've got absolutely nothing to lose except the version of you that's been running on empty for far too longWe think about our blood vessels as passive and like plumbing, and then they get clogged, they get narrowed with lipids or plaque or atherosclerosis, you know, and this is what ultimately leads to a heart attack or a stroke or for, you know, leg dysfunctions when you've got clogged arteries in your legs. "My arteries are hard." You hear this all the time. Well, our blood vessels are anything but static. It's not just piping under your sink that if you keep pouring grease down the sink, it's gonna clog up, uh, your, your, your sink, and then you gotta call the plumber in to, to o- open it up with a wire. Nope. It's not like that at all. Our blood vessels are incredibly dynamic, and that-- what that means is our body manages to maintain our blood vessels to try to keep them optimized all the time. Now, something that keeps our blood vessels healthy and dynamic is the inner lining of the blood vessels. Our blood vessels have a sleeve in it. It's like a layer of, um, plastic wrap-

27. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:08

    Mm

28. WLDr. William Li7:08

    ... that is extraordinarily slippery. We call it the endothelial layer. Um, if you think about like a, a garden hose, and you were to cut the garden hose in half and look down the middle of the hose, you're looking down into the hole, and, and if you were to actually take, um, plastic wrap, the kind that you would have in your kitchen, and coat the inside of the garden hose with the, with the plastic wrap, so that when water is running through-

29. RCDr. Rangan Chatterjee7:32

    Hmm

30. WLDr. William Li7:32

    ... that the water is slip- slipping through-

Episode duration: 28:36