Dr. Hamilton is a Bariatric surgeon, author of two books, And the best diet is, and Transformation is a Mindset. Found of A Better Weigh Center and The 4 Pillars of Transformation approach, Chief Medical Office at Fresh Tri-goal to heal not just treat chronic medical conditions.
In this episode we discuss:
I was so impressed with Dr. Hamilton and her revolutionary ideas on weight loss. I highly suggest you go check out her social media presents and get to know her better.
You can connect with her:
Instagram: @drfhamilton
linkdin and FB Dr. Franchell Hamilton
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Show Notes
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AUDIO TRANSCRIPTION
(00:00):
This is episode 58 with Dr. Hamilton. She is a bariatric surgeon and an author of two books. One called the best diet is, and the transformation is a mindset. She is the founder of a better weight center and the four pillars of trans of the transformational approach. She is a chief ma medical office at the fresh try gold to help not just treat chronic medical issues, but to help support them. In this episode, we discuss mindset and hormones and weight loss. And how do hormones help play a role in our health, how it can aid in weight loss and how our mindset is part of the weight loss journey. You guys, this was such a fun conversation for me. I hope you enjoy this conversation just as much as I did welcome back to the thriving thyroid podcast, where we choose to become empowered patient and take our health into our own hands.
(01:05):
Hi, I'm Shannon Hansen, a Christian entrepreneur, a mom of three. And after dealing with my own health mysteries, I made it my mission to learn everything I could about the thyroid. I soon became certified as a holistic wellness practitioner, a functional nutrition practitioner and a functional diagnostic practitioner. And so much more after that, I founded the revolutionary thyroid program, the handsome method as a health professional and a mom. I fully understand the importance of having a fun, simple, and sustainable plan for achieving a responsive th grade. So I share actionable and practical strategies for developing a responsive thyroid so that the ambitious moms and women can gain freedom from fatigue and lose the thyroid weight once. And for all each week, I will be here for you along with my guest experts, we will be sharing simple and tangible tips that work for not only your thyroid, your hormones, your family, and your mindset, so that you can get back to living the life that you envision for yourself. Welcome to the thriving thyroid podcast.
(02:15):
All right. Welcome Dr. Hamilton. I am so excited to have this conversation with you because before we hit play or record, I should say, we were just kind of talking about your stance on, you know, weight loss and things. And this is something that I'm seeing a lot in my practice with women just having questions or concerns, or, you know, just different things when it comes to weight loss. So welcome.
(02:43):
Yeah. No, thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm happy to be here.
(02:47):
Yeah. So let's just dive in and why don't you give a little bit of background about yourself and who you are and what you do?
(02:55):
Okay. So I am a bariatric surgeon. I also do a ton of medical weight loss and overall wellness because I had initially started off as traditional bariatric surgeon. And then as my practice kind of grew, I realized you had to have the medical weight loss and wellness component. I am also chief medical officer at, at fresh tribe. And we're essentially a digital mobile app that also helps people transform through mindset and behavior. So I'm excited to have recently joined them because that was kind of the basis in my private practice. And that's what I saw as a bariatric surgeon. Like it was one thing just to give them the surgeon, but you really needed to look at like all these other different aspects. And that included not only like their lifestyle, their environment, their mental state, but hormones, thyroid, like other things that could affect their weight. And so I'm happy to talk to you about this because my own journey as a bariatric surgeon kind of shifted as I learned more about how to treat weight loss and, and all the aspects. There's so many things that go into that besides just being able to give them a pill or a supplement or even a surgery. So yeah. I'm glad to talk to you about it.
(04:19):
Absolutely. So I'm kind of curious what got you into bariatric Sur surgeon. what got you to that point?
(04:29):
Yeah, so essentially I always liked working with my hands and I was always a visual person. So I knew for me, it was probably gonna be some type of surgery me when I started doing my surgery residency, which is about five to seven years after med school, I saw bariatric surgery, which was not new, but it was still kind of cliche, not a lot of people were doing it. And I saw the effects that this one surgery had on people and their life. And it checked off so many boxes. For example, if I became an orthopedic surgeon, I would just be able to fix that knee or that hip, if as a general surgeon, I can fix their, that gallbladder or that appendix. And then I may or may not ever see them again. But as a bariatric surgeon, you truly see and follow those patients for a lifetime. And you treat depression, you treat anxiety, you treat sleep apnea, hypertension, diabetes, liver disease, like you don't just treat their weight or their obesity with the bariatric surgery you're treating and checking off so many boxes. And I felt like I could make a bigger impact. That's always what I wanted to do. Like how can I impact this person's life for the better? So that's why I chose bariatric surgery.
(05:47):
Amazing. I didn't know that. I didn't know that you kind of did so much with that. Okay. So this kind of poses another question that's probably a little controversial. What do you think? So I live in Arizona most to the border. What are your thoughts about people going across the border to get surgery at a cheaper price if you're doing follow up?
(06:11):
Yeah, no, I'm happy to answer that cause I live in Texas, right? So there's a lot of people that are, that are also doing the same thing. So I totally understand that. So my biggest thing, a lot of the only, the only there are some good surgeons in Mexico and I get it. It's significantly cheaper. I've crunched the numbers. I've tried to get bariatric cuz it's not a huge coverage. We've also, we always have had coverage issues for so such a life changing procedure still can't understand that. So I understand why people would wanna go across the border. There are centers now that are really good in Mexico. I say, do your research, the only problem with going across the border is a lot of surgeons on this side. Once they want to kind of deal with some of the complications. That's the only thing if there's a complication.
(07:04):
So what you would need to do is almost like get plugged in with somebody local because that person needs to follow you. They need to follow your vitamin deficiencies. If you have questions about supplements, if you have other questions about your hormones, your thyroid, your, the vitamins that you should be taking your blood pressure meds, like you are gonna have to have somebody on this side, that's gonna be able to manage that. So if you decide to do it, you need to get plugged in. At least with somebody here first almost come to an agreement. Like if I go over there and get this surgery where I need follow up for life and you, you guys know you're not gonna keep going back over there every six months or a year, you need to find someone that's gonna follow you and agree to follow you because there are so many things that can happen after bariatric surgery. So that's what I would say.
(07:52):
Okay. That is, that's really good to know, cuz I know friends from high school or college or whatever, they've gone over there. And then I've seen them kind of struggle on the front side with like what you're talking about, the nutritional deficiencies and just other other things. But I don't know if they knew that they needed to have that long term follow care.
(08:15):
Yep. Yep. That's key. That's key to success in a bariatric surgery. You can't just go get a surgery and think that you're gonna be done. I would say 80 to 85% of people regain. If that's all they do. So you have to have some type of follow up some type of community and some type of support.
(08:33):
I love that. Okay. So good. So let's kind of flip topics for a second and let's talk about how hormones play a role in being healthy and helping us lose weight. Cuz I know that's one of the things that you do now is helping women do that before going to the surgery.
(08:54):
Yeah. So I think hormones plays a huge role in so many things and a lot of people don't consider that. But when someone comes to me and they're like I wanna lose weight. That's actually one of the first things that I'll check that's. There's like this list of things that I kind of go through because there's so many reason and why people can have weight gain or fatigue or you know, start losing their hair. I mean, and especially as we get older and believe it or not, people used to think hormone replacement was for older people like 50, 60, 70, believe it or not because of the use of birth control pills in the younger population, teens, twenties, our hormones are getting thrown off earlier. So you'll start having people in their thirties that ultimately because they were using the synthetic kind of hormone replacements will ultimately have some imbalances in their hormones pretty early on.
(09:53):
And so I think balancing estrogen, progesterone testosterone D HDA are all things that need to be checked. And, and that also includes, you know, thyroid thyroids, a hormone adrenal, your adrenal glands spits out all these different hormones and contribute to stress. So I that's one of the things that has to be corrected in my opinion, before you can even move forward on whatever weight loss journey, because if that goes uncorrected and then you are like, okay, I'm gonna change my diet. I'm gonna take this pill or I'm even gonna get surgery. You'll still have this imbalance. That's almost fighting against what you're trying to do. So I think it's really important that if you're having symptoms of fatigue decreased libido, hair loss, weight gain irritation, depression, any mood changes that all of that needs to get checked out first.
(10:50):
Okay. Now I love that. So if let's say I was to come to you wanting, you know, to lose weight, have surgery, whatever you would start with testing, hormones, testing, full hormones, sex hormones, thyroid, and then making adjustments there first.
(11:09):
Yes. So anybody who comes in the office, they all start off medical. First of all, I don't automatically put 'em in surgery until I think they're a candidate and that may be two or three months down the line because we start off trying to fix any medical obvious issues. And I also even took it a step further and tried to environmental issues because there are certain things in our environment or our community or whatever that will throw off our hormones or our energy that we have. You know what I'm saying? So you'd be surprised like all of this kind of things that we need to look at first and not just go straight into, you know, diet, exercise, plan, surgery, pill, whatever the case may be. So yes, hormone is one of thyroid adrenal. There's like a whole panel that I have get first. And then if that comes back normal, then we move on to the next thing. But those are all the kind of things that I look at almost like your first visit. We talk about a, get a, a good history based on your environment. What are you doing? How are you feeling? You know, what's going on in your life type of mentality. And the first lab panel that we get does include all those hormones.
(12:20):
Amazing. And I love that you bring in environmental things cuz a as practitioners, obviously we know that there are environmental triggers, there are endocrine disruptors, you know, and if it's as simple as chain cleaning products or changing the makeup products that you're using to re reduce, minimize, lose, whatever. And that can be the quote unquote fix or help support that it's so much less invasive .
(12:47):
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And even food triggers, I mean, and you were kind of talking earlier, but that's why that's first appointment is so like important because you almost have to look at everything. Right. I know, unfortunately, a lot of times when people go to a physician office now it's almost like you come in with your complaint, we're only gonna kind of narrowly see that complaint and then here's the treatment and then, you know, see you in a couple months or so, but it's really important that you look at everything big picture, cuz you're right. There's so many things that can drain our endocrine system. There's so many like different things that can affect even gut microbes and look at your medications that you're taking, that you may not even know that's affecting and the foods that you're eating. I mean, there's so many things that we can do on a daily basis to make us more, that doesn't require any meds or any surgeries, for example. Yeah,
(13:41):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So how do these hormones play a role in the weight loss?
(13:50):
Yeah. So a lot of times when hormones are off you have all, these is like secondary problems, right? Like people have low energy. So if you have low energy, you're not gonna wanna be able to do anything. You don't wanna be active. You don't want to work out. You don't want to really do anything. You can also have depression and depression will trigger cravings and make you eat all these like different mood changes can trigger cravings. And then you can have water retention if your hormone levels are off. And so all of those things will affect ultimately your weight, which is why it's important to not just see it as, oh, I gained weight, but what are some of the root causes? Right. I look at hormone or hormone in as a root cause for weight gain. And so instead of just kind of coming in and be like, okay, I gained 20 pounds.
(14:43):
It must be something I ate. Well, why are you eating like that? How is your mood? And this is why it's important to kind of ask all some of these secondary questions. How is your energy level? How are you sleeping? Right? Because sleeping can be an independent risk factor for weight gain. And when you have hormone imbalance, you're not sleeping well, you know, some people are having hot flashes and they can't sleep at night or whatever the case may be. Even if they're not pairing menopause, hormones affect so many things in our body. And that is why that's one of the first things that you need to look at before you look at all of these other things, believe it or not even hormone imbalances can ultimately lead to elevated blood pressure. It's not just weight. It could lead to prediabetes just because it, it causes so many of these other things and triggers to go on in your body.
(15:32):
Yeah. So with all of your clinical experience, and this is just kind of a curiosity question on my end, have you, do you see one or two hormones that are usually out of balance and then some other ones, cuz I know, I mean obviously a lot of, they all play into mm-hmm like the big picture, but I was just curious with the use of birth control and all these things, if you're seeing maybe some trends in that area.
(15:59):
Yeah. So it's usually yes. So when you talk about, so you have different areas that are hormones, you, right? You have your thyroid, you have your adrenal hormones and then you have your like, like libido, like accepts hormones. And so I will answer usually they're not all three off, it's usually one or two of those categories. And then within those one or two categories, it's usually one or two of those hormones that are off that needs to be replaced. So it's usually not a complete deplete across the board. It's usually, and in one of those areas and within that, it's usually one or two. So a lot of times, for example, with your sex hormones, progesterone is usually way low way low it's in almost all of my females, for whatever reason it gets really depleted. And that one is one that triggers a lot of sleep and a lot out of mood. You know what I'm saying? That is probably the one that I see is the most low, but I have seen people who have, you know, that one's low and their testosterone is low, you know, so, and believe it or not females do need some testosterone. It helps with energy. It helps with muscle building. And so there's so many like different things that you'll need to look at. So yeah, no, that's a great question. It's usually not all, it's usually a couple in each one of those categories.
(17:21):
Yeah. Yeah. That's kind of what we're seeing too is usually progesterone is low and then maybe the progesterone is so low that it's starting to try to steal the, the testosterone. So testosterone is low. So yeah, not till it makes sense for, for what we're seeing as well. Yeah. So how does mindset play a role in weight loss?
(17:44):
Yeah, so I think it's pretty pivotal. So I was finding out, which is kind of why I per made the transition personally to focus on more of mindset than just treatment. Because I have noticed that within my own patients, that they were able to out beat whatever treatment regimen that I gave them, whether it was so surgery, which is one of the most powerful tools, whether it was hormone replacement therapy, whether it was their weight loss medication, whatever it was, if their mindset wasn't in the right place, they were able to completely overcome whatever we were trying to do. And then they would continue to struggle. So I always made the comment that I realized my was much stronger than my most powerful surgery because I had patients who would get what we call the Taj Maha of surgeries. And then after a year they somehow overcame that because mentally they would have these spirals, they had outside triggers, which is why it's important to address us.
(18:49):
Those that just kept defeating them. And then they would go to food or they would go to alcohol. I mean, it's very similar to mental abuse or substance abuse where they have to mentally be able to get over those hurdles in order to succeed in these chronic conditions. So I feel like changing the mindset at first, being more positive to yourself, being more forgiving of yourself when things don't go the way you want it to go, if you gain regain back your pound, I mean, don't beat yourself up. It's not the end of the world. It's almost like being more kind to yourself and being thankful more thankful for multiple things going on, having a more positive mindset for sure. Will lead to better health outcomes across the board.
(19:37):
Yeah. Well, and as I think as women, I'm a woman, so I can speak to this I think we're just very critical of ourself. Yeah. Right. We look at other women and all her nose is better than mine and she's got bigger boobs and she's got a smaller waist and you know, well she had a baby and she bounced right back, you know, like we can always find all of these like flaws in ourself without recognizing the good. Yeah. And so I love that you address the mindset piece and start to talk about gratitude and talk about being grateful. Cuz I know once I started and I, a lot of people talk about, oh, keep a gratitude journal and I'm like, I don't have time for that.
(20:22):
Yeah.
(20:23):
Yeah. I mean, , I want to, but like to sit down, I've got three kids, you know, run a business husband mini farm, like just all of these things that are happening in my life. And so one of the small things that I did was during the day I would find what I call pinch me. This is real life and my kids would come hug me and oh my gosh. And I would just say to myself, this is real life. Right? Yeah. I'm so grateful that I have this beautiful daughter that comes and hugs me while I'm doing dishes, you know? Or I'm so grateful that I get pick up my kids after school and I don't have to put them in childcare or you know, just different things because keeping a gratitude journal just seemed like
(21:06):
Yeah.
(21:08):
So much. Wow. But the other thing that I love that you said is also forgiveness having forgiveness for ourself, right? Yeah. For the situations, the past traumas, the events that have happened. Right. Being able to, to forgive those things and I gonna get emotional here. I blame it on being pregnant, but
(21:33):
My mom was like, I'm so sorry for this. And I'm so sorry for that. And you experienced this growing up and it got to the point where I was, I just looked at her one day and I was like, do you not like who I am because I love who I am and all of those past things that you didn't have control over, I didn't have control over, you know, that made me part of who I am and I'm grateful for those experiences because I get to take my mess and turn it into my message and take it and make it something beautiful. And so I think that that's just a really big part of mindset and, you know, healing and the process of that. So I love that. , that's what you do as well as, you know, dealing with the, I'm gonna say conventional side of medicine, you know? Yeah. In that piece.
(22:25):
Yeah. No, I, I, a hundred percent agree and, and I just, just kind of wanna throw out that's one of the reasons I joined fresh try. So fresh try is this mobile app where it trains you in a mindset mentality to help behavior change. So almost some of the stuff that you like and we, and it talks about gratitude. It's almost like a more nap approach, which is the way I wanted it to be in my practice the way I think everybody should have it in their practice. Little things that you do. We're now trying to incorporate all of this into an app where you can have gratitude, you can have a community and it works on mindset and not looking at yourself as a failure, kind of what you mentioned year. Like not having that failure mentality, but having the forgive mentality and just trying something different.
(23:17):
Like even if you had goal like almost away from setting like standard goals, where if I fail, then I have this downward spiral instead. Okay. This is what I wanna do. And if it doesn't work, let me try another way. You know what I'm saying? And that's where the term kind of fresh try came in, where it's just try something else. You're not a failure, let's have gratitude. And let's have a different mindset on how we approach these cha and change our behaviors because that's ultimately what it is in forming our everyday habits and kind of like what, what you've been doing. So I think that's, I think that's great. And I think that's helpful for any long term journey.
(23:59):
Yeah, absolutely. That was gonna be my next question is tell us a little bit more about the app. So is this a free app? Is this a paid app or like what, tell us just a little bit about
(24:11):
That. No, I'd love to, so it's, it's a free app almost like download it on your, your iPhone or, you know, fresh try. It's literally spelled or T it's T R I instead of T R Y. Okay. And, and you can do download it and use it and would it's it's for weight loss. But I think the app will have so many different types of platforms, whether it's mental health and substance abuse, because the whole premise of that is a mindset change in order to have build better behaviors, better habits that are more natural and not blame yourself, kind of like we were and forgive yourself and then have gratitude. And you can do quick little gratitudes on the app. Like, what do you, what are you thankful for today? It doesn't have to be, I think in general, we're getting away from the, the journaling, like, you know, some people still have journals.
(25:04):
I'm, I'm fine with that. But if you can kind of do everything within an app and a phone that you're kind of, most people are always on. That's I think in general, a much better way to deliver care. I think in general, healthcare in general needs to go digital and you prob you probably are already doing this, but it, it needs to go digital and needs to go virtual, I think, long term, that's where it's gonna be. So I encourage everybody to check out the app, especially, especially if you're on a weight loss journey, you'll be part of a community you'll be given love. We send hearts to people who are struggling there's resources for people who want more help. And like I said, it's all about gratitude. And my more importantly, in order to change behaviors that ultimately become permanent because that's what I was seeing in my weight loss practice. And I don't know what you're seeing in yours, but if people don't have the right mindset, they're not gonna be able to tackle any, whether it's hormones, thro, whatever their condition is, long term, they're not gonna be able to tackle it and overcome it if, if they don't have the right mindset.
(26:10):
So, yeah. Right. Cause life is always gonna throw us a curve ball. Something always, always bad is gonna happen. And you know, I've gone through some challenges over the last year, two years, and I think everybody can kind of resonate with that. But I think because I had so much of the mindset work ahead of time. Yes. But it didn't drive me into the depression or the anxiety or the, the need to have medication to deal with that. Yes. Because I was like, okay, this is a situation. How am I going to, you know, figure this out? How am I gonna work through this? You know? And I was able to stay in kind of that rational brain versus that impulsive, like panic freak out, you know, thing. And won't even pretend that I'm near perfect on that. Yeah. Yeah. But it's
(27:01):
Every day, everyday process us and, and that's kind of where we all are. And we sometimes we just need help. Like you like saying you're you're you got to that point at some point, and now you're better equipped to handle things. And so whatever you wanna tackle, like after you're you have your baby, I mean, there'll be other things you're like, okay, now I wanna lose this baby with, you know what I'm saying? There's always gonna be the, to tackle. And if you have the right mindset, like you said, you're just better equipped to tackle whatever it is or overcome, whatever it is that you're trying to deal with. So I definitely think in general, that's the way to go. And that's been kind of my whole new platform, but I learned that while being a bariatric surgeon. So
(27:43):
It's, that's just, is kind of interesting that being a surgeon led you to mindset. Yes. You know,
(27:50):
Yes. And it, and it led me to that because that's what it was like, my patients had this huge surgery. Right. And then a year or two later they would wait regain. And I'm like, oh my gosh, this mindset is stronger than my surgery. Like, there's gotta be a piece here that I'm missing. I need to teach or train mindset and not you mindset first and then have them tackle this huge life change of a surgery or whatever program that they're gonna go into. So that's, I that's what, that's why I got into it because I feel felt like my treatments that I were giving were failing because they didn't have the right mindset.
(28:30):
Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you, Dr. Hamilton, is there anything else that you would like to share regarding weight loss, bariatric surgery, or your book, the transformation is it transformation is a mindset, is that yeah,
(28:46):
So yeah, that's my book transformation is a mindset. It goes through a lot of it goes through my own journey. And it goes through a lot of patient's journey on kind of things that people are telling yourself, like how to stop self sabotage, how to stop blaming, how to stop complaining, you know, just different things that I've seen in my own in patient's journey. And it can be related to any journey. It's not specifically to weight loss, but as we were talking about before, in order to tackle in general being healthier, a healthier version with you, I truly, at this point feel like it has to start with the mindset. So I really appreciate you bringing on here and helping, you know, hope I can help educate your audience. And, and I really appreciate you bringing me on the show.
(29:32):
Yeah, absolutely. And so I'm gonna link up just so everybody can, I'll put in the show notes fresh try with an I, right? Yes. Uhhuh okay for the app. And then also is the book on Amazon or where can they get your book?
(29:48):
Yes, yes. The book is on Amazon. The book is on Barnes and Nobles. And then my website www dot Dr. F hamilton.com, everything that they will need about mindset and all the other projects that I'm working on will be on that website.
(30:04):
Amazing. I hope you guys really take advantage of connecting with Dr. Hamilton and just trying to take in, you know, the mindset piece, because in any journey, thyroid weight loss hormone, what, what, whatever your journey is mindset is gonna play a big role in your, not just short term success, but in your long term success. And I, I'm just so excited. I hope you guys gained tons of value today. And is there anything else you can think of? I don't even wanna end this epic, so don't be honest.
(30:46):
Think you hit,
(30:46):
I need to know
(30:48):
Yeah, no, I think, I think you hit it on the, on the nail on the head. So like any long term sustainable health journey, it has to start with mindset. So I will just kind of end it there, but I think that's, that's, that's kind of, I'm preaching now. Like that's the only way having been in this field for a decade now in private practice and seeing thousands of patients. That is my conclusion. So yes, no definitely mindset first. And there's different tools out there now that can kind of help you with that. And now there's this new digital app with I'm so happy to be part of that, that company. And that's why I was happy to jump on because they do focus on the mindset in order to change behaviors.
(31:31):
Yeah. Amazing. I am. I'm excited to go check out what resources are available through the app. Just so I can better help other people, although this will be really good for you or, you know, whatever. So thank you so much for sharing this and we will, hopefully you guys go follow her on Instagram and connect with her and, you know, get her book and download the app and all the things cuz there's, there's always so much that we can learn about mindset. So thank you. Thank
(31:59):
You. Thank you for having me.
(32:03):
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