Things we dive into in this episode:
Weight loss drugs causing appetite suppression and disconnection from hunger and fullness cues
Asking yourself the deeper reasons why you might be considering weight loss drugs as a temporary solution for body image anxiety
How weight loss drugs suppress your sexual appetite
📘Resources
Learn more on my website about my In Real Life Retreat and sign up with the early bird rate for exclusive discounts & freebies until August 15
Silba Staffler (she / her) is a behavioral scientist, somatic coach & sensual arts teacher. She created: a 1:1 coaching practice, food & pleasure reclaming dinners, and the sensual salon & newsletter. Website | Instagram
📌Episode Highlights
Disclaimers!
If you are someone who desires weight loss and you're feeling drawn to weight loss drugs, I will never judge you, shame you, or invalidate you for wanting it.
We live in a weight stigmatizing world. My only goal is to help you make decisions with informed consent. So that means I want to provide evidence-based education on what I know to be true about using weight loss drugs.
I want to help you reflect on your own experiences with this and other similar choices about your health.
I hope the combination of the evidence that we have and the reflection on your own experiences with dieting and restriction and suppressing your appetite will help you make the most informed decision possible.
I get really fired up when I talk about this topic sometimes because it impacts my clients more than I could have anticipated when starting my career in this field.
It's made a lot of my clients, who made such beautiful progress on their relationship with food and their bodies, feel stuck in their healing and triggered by these types of conversations.
Please talk to your Registered Dietician-Nutritionist, doctors, or other healthcare professions about using weight loss drugs.
I will never tell anyone what they should or should not do. But it is important to say that there are other medical professionals that might have a something to tell you about it and help you make the most informed choice possible.
Q&A
I feel like I should just temporarily take Ozempic. My own wedding is coming up later this year. And I think how bad could it really be if I just temporarily do it. It feels tempting, but it also feels embarrassing that I'm even thinking that.
Don't be embarrassed about this! You can't shut off your feelings like a faucet, so dispelling any shame that you have around this thought is going to be really important.
Shame is a biologically potent emotion that fogs up and muddies up the brain. And if you want to look at this clearly and actually help you find some resolution and peace around this, shame's got to go first.
First thing to do before making a decision is to dissolve the shame.
Really get honest about why you want to take weight loss drugs. What are you actually trying to solve?
Is it that you want to feel more loved?
Is it that you want to feel more confident?
Is it that you want to feel more admiration?
Likely this feeling is not related to your body being the problem, but the body image being the problem. It's the way you are seeing yourself. You can work intimately with a counselor, with someone who can support you in navigating the different possible solutions to this problem versus the quick fix.
Even if you do decide to take the medication, the body image will catch up to you eventually.
Think about how you actually want to feel on your wedding day.
What is going to help you feel the way you want to feel on this sacred, special, once in a lifetime day?
If the way you want to feel is embodied, present, sexy, confident, we've got things that can help you with that. There are other tools that you can use besides weight loss drugs if you don't really want to take them.
Here are more questions to help you process which decision is best for you:
What differentiates for you taking it short term to long term?
If you're feeling embarrassment about potentially considering this, what are the things that feel embarrassing about it?
What are the reasons why you wouldn't take it long term? What are the reasons why you would be taking it short term?
Is it really a question of punctuality or is it a question of, is this a good enough excuse to start taking it?
Are you willing to change the way that you relate to your body? Is the risk of disconnecting yourself from your appetite with food, and maybe even your life, worth taking this medication temporarily?
Is it worth it to risk the potential side effects and to deal with the challenge of coming off of the medication?
How do I deal with my family and friends being on it and me knowing that I'm like not gonna do it?
The number one way that you can feel safe, seen and supported is finding community.
Speak to the people who aren't engaging in those behaviors who are around you.
People are a lot more open to having this conversation than we think.
Even if it is uncomfortable to talk about, it's serves everyone by bringing it to light.
A lot of people are finding this topic difficult to navigate, so remember that you're not alone!
Don't underestimate the value of feeling similarly to other people.
You don't have to solve anything. You can just talk about it.
How do weight loss drugs impact my sex life?
It's totally normal for libido to go down when we are in restriction or not getting enough nourishment.
When we don't eat enough our bodies are only thinking about how to survive, so reproduction and sex drive go out the window.
It's also common to not get your period when malnourished.
Research is mixed on this topic...
Those who were taking weight loss drugs to help with underlying health issues, some noticed an increase in libido because they were not as sick as they once were.
Those who were taking weight loss drugs just for aesthetic reasons noticed a decrease in libido.
Supressing our appetite and hunger is ultimately disconnecting from ourselves as a whole, which impacts not only our sex lives, but also the way we experience life at large.
Thanks for listening! 💖 Stay tuned to Caitie’s website for more episode updates and other exciting programs and resources.
Transcript
Silba: And I feel like our entire society is starving for approval and we are willing to starve our bodies in order to get that approval that we think will give us what we want, which is actually, from working with many clients seems to always come down to we want to feel ourselves, we want to feel alive, we want to feel connected, we want to feel loved. Suppressing one of the loudest ways our bodies has to tell us if it's happy or not is not going to help us feel more of those things.
Caitie: Welcome to Whole, Full & Alive, a podcast helping you feed yourself, feel yourself and be yourself. I'm Caitie Corradino. I'm a Registered-Dietician Nutritionist, a body image coach, and the founder of Full Soul Nutrition, a method that combines nutrition counseling with a powerful toolkit of somatic healing modalities. I have guided hundreds of clients to freedom with food, their bodies, and every aspect of their lives. I've also been through this healing myself. So on this podcast, I want to help you eat with confidence, embrace your body, form aligned relationships, and create a life that you're in love with. I'll share actionable tools, no bullshit stories and interviews that will remind you why you have everything you need within you to feel whole, full and alive. Are you ready? Let's get into it.
Hey, welcome back to another episode of Whole, Full, & Alive, the podcast helping you feed yourself, feel yourself and be yourself.
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. It is a part two episode. So we are continuing the conversation about weight loss drugs and appetite suppression with Silba Staffler today. And if you didn't listen to part one, I really wanna encourage you, nudge you, kind of beg you to listen to part one first because it's very important to define what weight loss drugs are, we define why we're having this conversation, we give some essential disclaimers that I think are really important for you to hear. So listen to that one first and then come to this one. Because in this one, we're diving right back where we left off with answering some listener questions, going a little bit deeper into this topic. There was just so much to say on episode one that we had to do a part two.
I am so excited to have behavioral scientist, somatic coach, sexpert, and my friend, Silba, back on the show today to talk about weight loss drugs and appetite suppression and answer listener questions. Before we dive into part two, we are all gonna take a really deep breath together so that we can get back in our bodies because this is a fiery topic. And I also always want to encourage you to listen to the podcast episode with your body, make sure it feels good in your body and make sure you feel grounded and connected to yourself. I think a lot of people throw their opinions out there on podcasts and you can find an opinion on anything. And so when you're listening to something like this, I really want to encourage you to stay connected to yourself. So let's practice that by taking a deep breath before we dive in. Whenever it feels good, invite a nice inhale through your nose and feel your back expand as your lungs fill up. And exhale, feel yourself dropping into the ground that you're sitting or standing on right now. Kind of a grounding moment.
So, okay, let's dive back into this conversation. So we're going into listener question number two. Listener question number two is, I feel like I should just temporarily take Ozempic. My own wedding is coming up later this year. And I think how bad could it really be if I just temporarily do it. It feels tempting, but it also feels embarrassing that I'm even thinking that. Thank you very much to the person who asked this question. I kind of have been spending a long time lately on just like thanking the people who asked these questions, but I feel that it's so important because as Silba and I were saying at the end of part one, when you ask this question for yourself, you're really asking it for everyone who's thinking this, everyone who's dealing with this, and you're just underlining already exists out there in the world that we're all feeling kind of as a collective. So I really appreciate the vulnerability that you bring to my DMs. And I'm going to let Silba give some thoughts on this first.
Silba: Yeah, I'm just connecting with, with the question and again, just feeling, feeling a lot of compassion in my heart. And as Caitie said, feel like this is, it's our question, right? And our collective question is, is it okay to just take it for a little bit for a special occasion? And my question to you to start with would be, what differentiates for you taking it short term to long term? And if you're feeling embarrassment about potentially considering this, what are the things that feel embarrassing about it? What are the reasons why you wouldn't take it long term and really be honest with yourself? What are the reasons why you would be taking it short term? And be honest about yourself and, and see where the difference is and whether there is a difference. The question that I'm hearing and here I'm totally projecting and assuming, but the question is, is it okay for me to take this? And so the event, the punctuality of it. Is it really a question of punctuality or is it a question of, this a good enough excuse to start taking it?
Now I can just share experience of working with clients who are on it and trying to come off it. And some of which said they would only take it for a little time and then stop. It's not that easy. So beyond and definitely listen to part one, beyond all the risks that exist, which are actually risks that also exist in the short-term. They're not only long-term impacts, they're also short-term risks. There is the risk of changing your relationship to your body's cues for hunger and fullness. And actually there isn't the risk, there is the certainty that you will do that. And so the question isn't, should I take Ozempic short term or not, or is this a good enough excuse or not? The question is, what are the risks for you of disconnecting yourself for no matter how long of your own cues of hunger and fullness, AKA your body's way of communicating what it needs, whether it needs more.
AKA you're one of the main ways that your body has to be in communication with you at all. Sharing its appetite for food, but also for life.
And knowing that almost inevitably you will lose weight, is the initial reason why, at least from your question, I hear that you are considering taking and that has implications on your identity, on how you see yourself, on what you see as your baseline, as your norm. And I would say in a world where, if you lived in a vacuum or if, if, if you lived in a world where there wasn't so much frigging societal pressure making you think that thinner and fitter is better, then I would say it's an objective question and you can just ask, do you want to try this or not? But in a world where literally there are trillions of dollars that are invested in us questioning whether our bodies are right or wrong. And the answer is they're always wrong, by the way. When I was at my skinniest, I wanted to have more boobs and more bums and more belly. And I felt like I was a little girl. And then I was at my biggest and I was like, my God, I just wish I was skinnier. And there was just never, never the right. Cause rightness is not about a look, rightness is about a feeling. What just right is for you is a feeling. It's an experience.
But all that to say, we don't live in a vacuum and you may get compliments. This is sad to say and it's humbling to say, but it's true to say you may get compliments for looking different because we are all indoctrinated with this idea that thinner and fitter is better. It's very, very hard to look back from that, to not get tempted to stay. So I think the question of whether to do it just short term, even if you have very strong willpower, I would just ask yourself the question for the long term. The question is, do you wanna start taking this medication or not? Knowing that for most people, it's quite hard to get off it once they start seeing like, yeah, results, if we can call them results. Except if you have really bad side effects, which is also not good. Not a good experience. And then really ask yourself, why would you take it? And I'm not saying this with a judgment or with an assumption that I know what's best for you, but really get honest about why. Really get honest about why. Is it that you want to feel more loved? Is it that you want to feel more confident? Is it that you want to feel more admiration?
And I'm going to share a tiny bit about my experience of being in a very, very skinny body because I was undernourished and not unbeknownst to me or unbeknownst to my inner system was actually very, very restricted. There's this sentence that kind of came up for me, which was that I was starving for approval. What I was really hungry for was approval. But what I was really doing was depriving myself of food, thinking that would give me approval. And the truth is it never did. It really never did. And I feel like our entire society is starving for approval and we are willing to starve our bodies in order to get that approval that we think will give us what we want, which is actually, from working with many clients seems to always come down to we want to feel ourselves, we want to feel alive, we want to feel connected, we want to feel loved. And in my own personal, and this is actually my opinion, in my own personal opinion, suppressing one of the loudest ways our bodies has to tell us if it's happy or not, is not going to help us feel more of those things.
I work so hard to help clients move from outsourcing to insourcing, outsourcing their value and their worth, outsourcing their life, their decisions outside of themselves to cultivating an inner sense of self so they can insource all of that, so they can live from the inside out rather than from the outside in. And then this medication comes in, which literally cuts us from being able to insource. Literally cuts us from having enough information to be able to know what our bodies need, desire, long for, hunger for.
So I'm coming quite strong actually with my opinion of just what I feel in my experience and experiencing a lot of people around me and my clients and also girlfriends and guy friends speaking about. But in a nutshell, the question is not whether it's okay to take a Ozempic because your wedding is coming up, which again, super valid to consider it in this current environment. The question is, are you willing to change the way that you relate to your body? Why are you doing it? Yeah, what do you really wish to stand for?
Caitie: That was such a fire quote, I think. I feel like such a Gen Z sometimes the way I talk, because I counsel so many Gen Z people. Hey, fam. That was a fire quote. I'm snatched. No cap. But that was an amazing quote, what you said about suppressing our body's ability to tell us when it's happy is not going to give us more of that, like in essence is what you said. I think that that was just, that's just such a beautiful and succinct way of saying it. I'm so grateful that you offered some consideration when you started going into your own opinion, because I think it is important, as we are speaking to this listener to say, Silba and I refuse to tell you what to do. Like, you're not gonna be like, here's what you should do. Here's the advice from Silba and Caitie, like it is holier than thou. We will offer our opinions on this though, considering it was solicited. And we will distinguish like, you know, it's more important that we offer the questions that you need to begin asking yourself about this. I think that's the most important thing that we can serve anyone in relation to this topic and a lot of topics is rather than direct advice, the right questions that help you come to a conclusion that feels authentic to you.
And so that's what I really hope to provide in response to this question. I think that Silba did an amazing job of answering it in a really holistic and well-rounded way. So there isn't too much more that I have to say. But rather I just want to reinforce that questions are the best way to go about finding some peace with this, asking yourself some more questions. First of all, what is the actual problem here that I want to solve, right? So the actual problem that you're feeling might be, I don't feel comfortable and confident in my body right now. And I'm afraid that I won't like my wedding photos. Maybe that's the problem. Maybe that's all there is. And so, okay, what are the presenting possible solutions or the presenting possible interventions that we can implement to work on this problem? So I'm just giving this as an example, right? Perhaps you do identify that that is your main problem. Your main problem is I'm having body image distress and I'm uncomfortable about how I might look or how I might be judged or how I might see my own wedding photos. That's your problem, right?
If we look at like, okay, possible solutions here. Number one solution that I'm thinking of is Ozempic. That's a possible solution to this problem. Okay, but what are the costs of trying to use that? And is that really gonna solve what's actually happening here, which is not related to your body being the problem, it's body image being the problem. It's the way you are seeing yourself, right? And is is Ozempic actually a solution to whatever you identify the real problem to be? I think is another important way to look at this. And it's like, okay, maybe another possible solution is working intimately with a counselor, with someone who can support you in navigating the different possible solutions to this problem versus the quick fix, right? The bandaid on the bursting pipe, like maybe it's gonna work for a second, but it's like, is this actually going to solve whatever I'm identifying to be the deep rooted problem here? And because it's deep rooted body image, we've got to heal from the root. We've got to get down in the soil and actually figure out what's really going on there. And so in addition to everything Silba said, I want to offer that.
And I also want to offer how do you wanna feel on this incredibly special day in your life? This like, where like a wedding is an incredibly special day in your life. It is a holy sacred ceremony. It's a party. It's a once in a lifetime, hopefully situation. And you want to, you want to remember this day. How do you wanna feel in your body on that day? And what will help you feel that way? Most likely, and here comes Caitie’s opinion, most likely suppressing your appetite is not going to help you feel the way you want to feel on this sacred, special, once in a lifetime day. If the way you want to feel is embodied, present, sexy, confident, we've got things that can help you with that. There are other tools that you can use. There movement classes that you can go to, there are nervous system regulating tools, there are meditations that you can engage in. And this is not me saying like plug in a bunch of new agey wellness tools and you'll solve all your problems, right? I also think that it's important to figure out the right recipe that works for you, right? So I'm saying that there are a lot of different tools out there and you can work with someone or really work intimately with yourself to figure out what is the right mix of tools that are gonna help me feel the way I wanna feel on this day.
And I think the last thing is don't be embarrassed about this. I can't shut off your feelings like a faucet, but I wanna say that dispelling any shame that you have around this thought is going to be really important because shame is a biologically potent emotion that fogs up and muddies up the brain. And if we wanna look at this, clearly and actually help you find some resolution and peace around this. Shame's gotta go first. So let's work on dissolving the shame, like step one. I had a client ask me the same exact thing about her brother's wedding. So it's like, just, I've literally heard this exact quote from another human. So I already know that there's one person considering this and you just, you're so, so, so not alone.
Silba: So one point on this, one more tool I would add is community support. This wedding day is gonna be all of the people that you care about, I hope, that you love coming together and they're coming because they wanna celebrate you. So if there's something that you need in order to feel more of that confidence and beauty and joy and whatever it is that you wanna feel on your special day, don't hesitate asking for those that you love to support you in that and to find ways together of, how can they help you with the photos? How can they help you with the dress? How can they help you with just feeling loved, feeling supported and really trust that community can be a very big part of that puzzle. We often think that we got to do it all by ourselves and then get to the wedding day and feel fixed and beautiful and perfect. This again, it's collective stuff and your community, your loved ones can support you in having the most dreamy day that you desire to have.
Caitie: I love that you said that because I think that it's a really good lead in. We have two more questions, but the first one I want us to answer really quickly because the last one is going to be juicy as fuck. So I want to answer this next one pretty quickly because I think that in many ways we've already answered it and you kind of already answered it just in what you just said. So the second to last question that we have: How do I deal with my family and friends being on it and me knowing that I'm like not gonna do it? In essence is what it says. And the number one way that you can feel safe, seen and supported is finding community. Silba and I are humans talking into the microphone right now. We're real people, we're out there. You can find us, you can talk to us at any point. We are breathing beings here to talk to you and it's like, if you're feeling like, well, where do I start in terms of like finding community that is not doing this, right? And is feeling like they want to acknowledge the complexities around appetite suppression and really connect to their natural bodies and intuitive eating and all these different things. Like I've built community and Silba has built community and teaser, we're going to build a project together soon. So I think that's the most important first part to answering this question. Is there anything else you want to say around that?
Silba: Yeah, I would say to also speak to the people who aren't engaging in those behaviors who are around you. Cause I've realized from clients, but also from speaking to friends that actually people are a lot more open to having this conversation than we think. A lot of people, even though it's been, at least in the US it's become this kind of like easy solution. There's still a lot of inner conversation going on and the sense of something's not aligned. A lot of people are struggling with whether they're taking it or not, with how that interacts with their values and their morality and what they really stand for. So really, yeah, inviting this conversation with everybody to bring it to the light, bring the discomfort to the light. Yeah, and also being ready that some people may not be ready to have this conversation.
Caitie: Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much for saying that. And I just, really want to remind you how not alone you are. I have so many family members that are on Ozempic. Granted, I have a big extended family. My dad's like one of seven. My mom's like one of nine. So like there's a lot more people to work with, much bigger sample size. But still I have quite a few family members who are on it. And it's very difficult that some of them like follow me and they see my content and they see what I'm saying about appetite suppression and the pursuit of rigid weight loss at the cost of health. And why can't we just let weight loss be a byproduct of the pursuit of health rather than letting health maybe be a byproduct of the pursuit of weight loss? And it feels, it feels that like they don't respect my opinion or even interested in like what I have to say at all. And that's kind of been the hardest part about this is kind of I mean, in so many ways on the black sheep and my family, but I also feel like I'm swimming upstream in my own family unit, much less the larger culture that I live in, wherein the pursuit of intentional weight loss at all costs is normalized. And so I just want you to remind you that you're not swimming upstream alone and we're all doing it together and we can find ways to make it more peaceful and easeful by just doing it together. I think so many people underestimate the value of just like someone else saying like, yeah, I feel that way too. And just talking about it, like we don't have to solve anything.
I find sometimes my clients think we need to like come together and like draw this like grand conclusion and like have this like official toolbox for like what we're gonna do next time someone says the word weight loss drug or Ozempic. it's like, but there's so much value in just being heard and being seen, supported.
So let's go into our last question because it's a really important one. And I feel like I'm just taking so much of your time today. So wanna make sure we start to wrap this up, but I'm so excited about this question because we have been mentioning again and again throughout our answers that appetite suppression is the biggest risk that you're taking when you do ozempic suppressing your appetite is suppressing a really important body cue. And this may have a ripple effect on every aspect of your life, in particular, your sensuality, your sexuality, your sex drive. And with Silba being someone who is a tantric meditation teacher and sensuality coach, what do we call it? Someone who taught me a lot about my vagina. I think that it's very important to have this conversation about how suppression of appetite suppresses our sexual appetite and why that matters, honestly, and why it's not just like a silly little sexy thing, even though I can be kind of funny when I talk about it. Yeah, what would you like to share with us about
Silba: Yeah, what's coming up is a conversation I had this morning, which someone asked me, it's a very close friend, and he was like, I just feel like you experience life through your body. He's like, you don't think about life, you like, like, sense it, you taste it, you smell it. And it's mostly that, and touch it. And he was like, have you always been like that? And it was really interesting to have that reflected back. Cause I, I mean, I mostly know my own experience. And as I said in the previous episode, I'm, I'm, I'm a researcher of the human experience. I'm very curious about other people's experiences. So I have a lot of data on, on what people say their experience is, but I've only ever experienced being in my own body.
And the truth is that I definitely had this as a kid. I was born with just this ability to smell and taste and feel very, very deeply. Some people would say I was a highly sensitive person, like maybe many listeners relate. And I felt life sensorially, viscerally. And I remember going into shops when I was shopping with my mom and she would look at clothes and I would go and touch pieces of fabric and I remember loving the like texture of velvet and then I would smell it and anyway weirdo child but a really really beautiful experience until I hit puberty, until things got really heavy in my family ecosystem, and until I developed an eating disorder which started as control of food and basically just went into 15 years of mostly restriction, but with a lot of different labels. At the start, it was really bad. Like you could see, obviously I had lost a lot of weight, people were quite concerned. And then it just became a slightly more functional way of, was just extremely focused on health and what people would call orthorexia.
And throughout that entire time, I lost that ability and I genuinely just thought that was becoming an adult. I was this like very viscerally sensorial child and then I became an adult and it's almost like the light was turned off or like the colors disappeared from my inner screen and everything became black and white. And that was actually one of the main drivers that brought me to tantra and to exploring sensuality, is that I was realizing that one place where this was really becoming quite obvious was my sexuality. I felt very disconnected from my body. I felt disconnected from my desire. I felt like often my sexual interactions felt pleasing for my mind because I was happy to be making love with this person, but my body felt like it wasn't in on the game. It felt like there was a lot of forcing that I had to do in order to be in the mood. And sometimes I would be in the mood, but it was very inconsistent. And so because sexuality is something that is actually still seen as, at least in the circles I was in, as something that people were really proud to speak about, even if just a little bit, because I was living in the UK. So it's like when people are drunk, they speak about sexuality. But I started to really ask myself, like what is going on? And I started typing into Google because I felt like there must be more to this entire field. And I actually had started meditating at the time and was into like exploring consciousness. And so I typed into Google conscious sexuality. And what came up was tantra and a lot of different ways of exploring sensuality.
Anyway, this was now five years ago, six years ago, and it launched me on this entire journey of really coming back to my body first with this idea of, I need to be more embodied in my sexuality and then realizing, no, no, no, I've just lost the ability to taste life. I've lost the ability of smelling, of hearing life, of feeling life is moving through me, of really being filled with life. And for me, it was actually the reclaiming and rediscovery of my pleasure, of my savouring of life, of my appetite for life that completely melted away my disordered relationship with food because I had started tasting the depth of life at such a high volume, that it just didn't make sense anymore to actually repress that appetite in other ways.
It wasn't an easy process and I could do a whole episode about this. But all that to say that these are very, very, very interlinked. And I got really curious actually when Ozempic came out of like, but what does this do then for our sex life? Because of this experience that I had had and so I started doing research and trying to understand, and side note, it's totally normal when we are in restriction or in not enough nourishment that we don't feel sexual and that our libido is low. Professor Gaudiani speaks about this, Dr. Gaudiani, she's an amazing eating disorder specialist. And she speaks about the cave brain and how, when we are in, ingesting less food that we need in order to feel totally nourished and full, we go into what she calls the cave brain, which is a brain that is trying to optimize at all times because there's not enough resources. And so we only need to engage in the activities that really matter. And reproduction is not one of those. When you're focusing on survival, reproduction goes out of the window. This is also why a lot of people don't then bleed and whatever. So I was in a cave brain. And so of course, I didn't want to have sex because I was malnourished and what I had to focus on was survival. So totally normal. And so I started asking myself, well, probably this happens with a Ozempic too, since a Ozempic often brings a state of near starvation or at least of heavy restriction, but it's chemical. So you don't actually feel the hunger that ensues from it.
The research is kind of mixed on this. They haven't found any good conclusions. What they found is that some people's libido increases. And my understanding of that is that it's for people who were in a state of very, very high unhealth. This health, miss health. Hi, Caitie, help me. What's the word? That were really unhealthy. The minimal effects of this drug is allowing them to feel a little bit more healthy and so it gives them a sense of being... Wait, let me say this again.
Caitie: Well, I appreciate that you're being mindful of this, because I can tell why you are, but don't worry about it.
Silba: So the research is quite mixed on this. There's no good conclusion. They have seen that for some people, and this is more qualitative data, so people's experience, they say that they end up having more sexual interactions. And that might be, yeah, a factor of, they don't really know what, but it might be a factor of, I assume, potentially a little bit higher self-esteem if they feel like they're seeing results that are helping them with that esteem or if they felt like they were really unhealthy and they're seeing some health benefits. This might help them just feel a little bit more able to connect with somebody else. But there's actually a lot of research that's also showing the opposite. Not only that it's impacting libido, but that it's actually having some impacts on our reproductive system, especially on men who are non-diabetic. There's now more and more cases that are showing erectile dysfunction. And from just my testimonials of the people around me and the clients that I'm working with, I actually have started working with a client who is on Ozempic and has reduced her dose and by reducing her dose, her sex drive has come back or at least slowly come back and she's realizing she hadn't realized that it had completely gone out of the window.
So this intuitively makes sense to me based on what I shared of my own experience and of what happens when we suppress our appetite and our hunger that disconnecting ourselves from our appetite also has big impacts on our sexuality and our sexual life, but mostly on this ability to taste life, to really live viscerally, to live from the inside out and to live inside of our bodies.
Caitie: All of the best moments of our life are experienced through our body, right? Like all of the best moments and all of our, all of the moments when we let go of what's not good, right? When we really pass through grief or like release anger, like that's also embodied. And so it's really sad to think about how we lose the capacity to lean fully into the most joyful moments of our life, like those moments where we're like so embodied in joy that we just like want to our hands up in the air and be like, my God, like you and I do all the time together. And we lose our capacity to let go of emotions that we want to release in and through the body. We also lose our capacity to access the wisdom of our emotions, right? Because emotions are an embodied thing. In addition to the appetite suppression and the undeniable connection between inadequate energy intake and decrease in our sex drive, it's also just like, yes, this sensual experience of life, this sensitivity.
I recently decided that the mission of my retreats is to help people get their sensitivity back because I feel like that's what I've experienced in testimonials. People have said like, I feel so touched by things all of a sudden. And it's just like, yeah, that's like, that's it, right? And when we treat our bodies like technology rather than like parts of nature, and we engage with things unnecessarily, we take this medication unnecessarily. We do run this risk of losing our sensitivity, losing our appetite for life. Make no mistake, appetite is a beautiful thing. Fullness is a beautiful thing. To honor your appetite is a beautiful thing. I was speaking with a client not that long ago about how I feel like appetite is part of self-expression. Like allowing yourself to like have an appetite is part of expressing yourself fully. Like when you're like, I fucking love chocolate. Like I want a bowl of pasta right now, or I have an appetite for sex right now, or I have an appetite to be in my like sensual, like sexy energy right now. Like that's part of embodying the full spectrum of your self-expression and your personality.
And so it is so important to consider that, yeah, that's the risk when you appetite suppress. And I really appreciate that you've provided this like PSA for us, like PSA, like Ozempic and your sex life, like there's a connection. I don't think anyone's saying that at this time. I haven't seen it. Plenty of people are talking about the impact of disordered eating, restricted eating, decreased calorie intake and sex drive like Dr. Gaudiani. And that is also something I love about you, Silba, is that you are like, here's the research and also here's the like, you know, sensory like story from my life. I think you do that so beautifully. And it's something that I think a lot of people need that grounding in research and researchers and medical experts are saying, and then also like the, Hey, here's what's going on in my life. And here's been my experience. And the way you weave that together is your superpower or one of your superpowers. And I feel lucky to have you on this show and, for our upcoming project together is going to be amazing.
Silba: Can I share one more thing?
Caitie: Yeah, go ahead.
Silba: So I love to think of things as equations, right? And we have hunger, right? And then we have something that comes and feeds that hunger. And then we have the result of, that increase our hunger or decrease the hunger, right? So it's the hunger minus whatever we're having, and then what's the hunger on the other side. And when looking at that equation, we have our hunger, right? Which, many of us don't trust our hunger for life, our hunger for sex, our hunger for food, our hunger for meaning, our hunger for purpose. We've learned through our society to mistrust our bodies and mistrust our hunger and mistrust our cues, right? But the real problem is not the hunger. The real problem is what we're trying to satiate our hunger with. If we're trying to satiate our hunger with things that don't actually nourish us with foods that aren't actually food and are produced by, by, yeah, by like big interests that are trying to sell us something that is not food as food. So we become addicted to that thing. If we are trying to feed our hunger or satisfy our hunger with connections that aren't meaningful, that aren't deep enough. If we're trying to satisfy that hunger with achievements, with boxes that we're ticking, rather than with deeply nourishing moments in community with ourselves in our bodies. These are just some examples of the fact that we're still hungry on the other side doesn't mean that there's something wrong with our hunger and that we're dysfunctional and that we need to fix our hunger. What it's showing us is that the things that we're trying to satiate our hunger with are not up to the standard of our very wise hunger.
But what we're doing with things like Ozempic is that we're saying the problem is the hunger. Let's suppress the hunger, keep all the things that are not satisfying us, but at least we won't feel on the other side that we're still hungry. I believe that our hunger is one, is literally one of our solutions to getting out of the mess that we're in as a society. Because as long as we're hungry, as long as there's a part of us that says, I'm hungry for more, my appetite is not satiated by this shit, by this way of living, by this way of eating, by this way of having to perform in this world. As long as we feel this hunger, it will feel uncomfortable, but we will keep on seeking for an answer. And in my opinion, the answer is not to suppress that hunger. It's not to question the signal that says something is wrong, but to look for better ways of actually listening to that signal and feeding ourselves and satisfying ourselves in ways that truly, truly nourish us.
Caitie: So well said. You are so wise. And yeah, it's not trying to suppress the hunger, it's trying to get to know where the hunger is coming from, right? That's a piece of it, right? Because sometimes we have hunger for something that's informed by an experience we had and we can understand like, where did this hunger come from? Why did I not get this one need met? Like understanding that and then understanding how we can fulfill that so we are not left starving, physically and metaphorically starving. I love the term wise hunger. I think so many people say, what's wrong with me? I'm so hungry. What's right with you that you're so hungry? What's right with you? What are you hungry for? And where did that hunger come from? If we're talking about food, maybe your body needs more food. Maybe you’re not eating enough. Maybe you're not eating enough balanced meals. Maybe you just had a banana for breakfast. Like maybe it's that your body needs more food or we're talking about a different kind of hunger, right? There are different experiences that inform a wise hunger and we can trust it. And I love that. And I'm so grateful that we had this conversation. I know that someone needs to hear it and I think I needed to hear it. I think I feel more informed by this conversation or grounded in the work you and I are gonna do together and in, yeah, coming around the bend, guys. Stay tuned. tuned. Yeah, and with that, can you please just share with everyone where they can find you and love on you and yeah, whatever you wanna share.
Silba: Yeah, you can find me on my Instagram. My name is, it's just my handle is Silba Staffler. So my first name and my second name S -I -L -B -A and then Staffler S -T -A -F -F -L -E -R. I have a newsletter. Sign up. I send not so frequent emails, but they're always really juicy and they're a mix of personal story, science, and useful tips and practices. You can find me on this podcast on a very fun project that's going to come with Caitie very soon. And yeah, reach out if you want to explore what it's like to work with me. I offer one-to-one journeys that are tailored and designed to you. I always have a free conversation for us to see if we're a match. And if I'm actually the person who can support you on that, and if not, I'll just give you a bunch of resources and share your info, share the info of trusted practitioners. And that's it. And I hope I'll see you in real person as well. In the wild. Come find me in the wild.
Caitie: In the wild, come to Lisbon, come to London, come to the places that we may be floating around. Yes, if you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who you think could benefit from hearing this conversation. That is the most important thing is that we grow community around these conversations. And if you're open to it, please leave a five-star rating on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts, because that is something that gets this podcast in the ears of more. Take a deep breath before you move into the rest of your day. And I'll be back here next week.
Silba: And thank you so much, Caitie.
Caitie: Thank you. Thank you so much for being here.
Comments