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Nayeli’s Story: From 0 to 3 Strict Chin-ups!

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Robby:             Hey guys. Robby here from Crossfit South bend. Today I'm here with Nayeli, who just finished three months of one on one nutrition coaching, and did an amazing job. I have her most recent in body here, where she basically went from 134.5 pounds to 118.6. She gained muscle mass during that entire time, and her body fat percentage went from 34.9 to 23.9. It's now telling her, she actually had a little bit of body fat, and that's on top of getting three straight chin ups the other day, doing better in the gym. So, Nayeli, congratulations- Nayeli:             Yeah. Robby:             Did an awesome job. Tell us what you thought about this way of eating and programming before you got started, and kind of how you had been eating before we got started. Nayeli:             Well, I would try to eat healthy before I started, but I know I needed a lot of professional coaching. And, I would try to space my eatings out, but I knew something was wrong, especially with my gut problem that I knew I had. And, I tried going to my doctor and he basically told me it was constipation, and I knew it wasn't. 'Cause if I was constipated for the past six months before I started this nutrition journey, then I knew it had to have just been how I was eating or what I was eating in my diet. So, when we started, I was realizing that I was having less cramps. And, sometimes if I tried to reintroduce something, I knew my stomach couldn't handle it so I stuck with the whole 30 the entire time and, it's helped me so much. Robby:             That's awesome. So tell us about the three month process. Tell us about month one over transitioning, and then the whole 30. What sort of things did you notice, what struggles did you go through, all that type of stuff. Nayeli:             I noticed that my body was restarting, you could say. I felt my first month, I was slowly seeing progress and, my body was kind of shutting down at first because I could tell that when I slowly was taking out grains and whatever, and I realized at night I was still having some problems before we started the whole 30. And, I must stay, it'll be good. Robby:             I remember that you said you ran into some energy stuff- Nayeli:             Yeah. Robby:             At one point, and then like it dipped for a while and then around ... It was the middle of the whole 30? Nayeli:             Oh yeah. Robby:             It started to get better? Nayeli:             Yep. Before we started month two of the whole 30, my [inaudible 00:02:36] were kind of down and then, when I stuck with the whole 30 the entire month, my levels started rising up. So when I woke up in the morning from work, which was about 4:00 in the morning 'til 2:30 to 3:00 in the afternoon, I felt sluggish the entire day. And then, now I wake up and I feel just energized throughout the entire day. Robby:             That's awesome. So, obviously you had really amazing numbers where you lost a bunch of weight, and better percent body fat, and all the rest of that stuff. Tell us about some of the stuff in the gym. So, workouts, did you feel stronger? Tell us about the strict chin up progression, and you know. Nayeli:             Yeah, I was never able to do chin ups at all, and even if I tried, I knew I was gonna fail. And, I knew by the end of these three months, I'm just gonna try it so, I'm standing at the pull ups, and I know I just need to do it, so I did. And, now I can do three to four chin ups with tempo, three second tempo down. And, I feel like I have more stamina throughout my workouts, and I can last longer instead of being tired out early in the workouts. Robby:             Good, good. So you said your digestion was better, energy was better. Anything in terms of like mood, or cravings, or the way your clothes fit, or sleep? Any other non-scale [crosstalk 00:04:00] things? Nayeli:             Oh yeah. My favorite jeans don't fit me anymore. I used to wear them all the time. I put them on and they just fall down, which I mean, it's great but at the same time now I have to actually go clothes shopping. But, I know I get a lot of compliments, but I think it's been harder when I'm at drills- Robby:             Yeah. Nayeli:             For the national guard, because they don't eat well. And, for me people over there start to crave stuff throughout the weekend 'cause we don't have access to Gogurt or something when we're on a base. But, for me I don't ... when I'm there, or I'm at home I don't crave a lot of sugars like I used to at all. If I have to go into a gas station and fill up my tank, I used to have to walk through the isles and get a snack. Now I just look at it and my body's just walks away. My mind is like, you don't need it. And, I'm glad I don't crave any of that stuff anymore. Robby:             That's fantastic. So, now having gone through the process and thinking back to where you were before you started, what you say to someone who is kind of unsure of themselves, unsure of whether they could do the whole 30 and do all the stuff, what would you say to someone who's thinking about maybe doing this program? Nayeli:             I would say if you are really trying to make a change more physically and mentally, then you should first of all read about it before thinking about doing the program, and considering if you have the time and the effort mentality to do it. And, think about your support system because at the beginning I didn't have any, and now I realized a lot of people like to come up to me, especially my family. They come up and ask me questions and a lot of them realize that I lost weight, and I look more toned. But, if you're really thinking of doing it, I would really consider just ... It's only three months, that's what I tell myself, especially for the whole 30 it's only 29 or 30 days. If you can go 30 days with eating junk food, you can go 30 days with eating straight up clean food. Robby:             Absolutely. And, I couldn't agree with that advice more. Especially the support system, I don't think anyone's ever mentioned that in a video we've done, but I think that's absolutely true. Having a good support system, and people who support you. So, I can't say enough good things Nayeli. I'm super proud of you, I think you did a fantastic job. Yeah, this is just awesome. So, congratulations on your progress. Thank you guys so much for tuning in. Nayeli, thank you so much for being here, and we'll see you guys next time.

2018 05 16

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How Digestion Works

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Today we're going to talk about a basic intro to your digestive system, and how it actually works. You don't need to be going into the medical field to know that this stuff is important. You should have just a basic understanding of how this stuff works, because it ends up being overall important. Not just for your digestive health, but for your overall health. So, let's talk about how things work when you actually eat food. What happens in between when the food enters your body, and then when it exits out the backend. First thing, your mouth. When you start eating food, your body produces saliva to basically coat that food. And, there are certain enzymes in your mouth, typically salivary amylase, which helps break down certain starches and sugars from the food that you're eating. And then of course, chewing is going to be a huge part of that start of the digestive process. You're basically taking whatever it is, whether it's a steak, or roasted vegetables or something like that. Which, by itself, if you just put it into your small intestine, wouldn't be very digestible, or absorbable in terms of extracting the nutrients out until you start this process. So, again with your saliva. You're kind of lubricating it essentially. And then with your teeth, you're basically grinding it up. Then with those enzymes, and the salivary amylase, you are basically getting it ready for future things down the line. And, that active chewing starts to activate that parasympathetic nervous system. Now, technically even though I started with the mouth. Technically, even before that there's going to be your brain. When your brain knows that you're going to eat, it starts to secrete digestive enzymes, it starts to anticipate the food. Things like smelling your food, or anticipating your food can kind of help start that digestive process. But technically, physically, it's going to start with the mouth. Once we get past the mouth, the food basically goes down your esophagus, and then it gets to your stomach. A very common misconception is that digestion takes place in the stomach. That is not the case. Really what takes place in the stomach is preparation for digestion, if by digestion we mean absorption of nutrients, which actually takes place in the small intestine. What happens in the stomach? Well, that stuff that you just chewed up basically gets down there, and then assuming that your stomach acid is sufficiently acidic, which it should be. It's typically about a PH of two, which is very acidic. Water is a seven. So, once it gets down there, that acid basically breaks a lot of that stuff down, and prepares it to be absorbed in the small intestine. Now, another thing to realize about the stomach is that, there really isn't that much in the way of bacteria in the stomach. We talk a lot about probiotics and stuff like that. That's going to be much more located in things like the small intestine, and to an even greater degree, the large intestine. Isn't to say that there isn't some bacteria in the stomach, but it's going to be a very, very small quantity 'cause it's obviously a super acidic environment. Okay, next point is really going to be the heart and soul of digestion. This is the small intestine. When we talk about leaky gut, or when we talk about a healthy gut, or we talk about are you absorbing your food. This is where the action takes place. So, your small intestine is basically where that food that you chewed up, and then was broken down by your stomach gets absorbed. And, if the acid from your stomach isn't sufficiently acidic, then your pancreas isn't going to release digestive enzymes to properly break down your food in your stomach. So, this whole chain is very important. n your small intestine, there is a lining basically of single cells called, "enterocytes," that help your body absorb nutrients from the food that you're eating, but also keep bad stuff out. This lining is incredibly, incredibly important. It's what allows good stuff into your body, and it's what keeps bad stuff out. Now again, going back to this notion of bacteria. We said that there's a very small amount in the stomach. There's definitely a bit more in the small intestine. But, you don't want too much there, because then that's going to interfere with digestion. Really where the vast majority of the bacteria is going to be, is in your large intestine. When we talk about probiotics, and healthy bacteria in the microbiome, that's really in your large intestine. Your large intestine is basically where three main things happen. You absorb water, a lot of the compounds that your body can actually absorb like fiber and other compounds get broken down by your bacteria in your large intestine. And then, you basically, you're preparing things to essentially exit your body. When we talk about probiotics, healthy bacteria, there's something like a trillion bacteria in your large intestine, and that's where you want bacteria to be. So, it's so important that all of these things are working together in harmony. And, if one thing is off, like if you have too much bad bacteria in your large intestine, or insufficient stomach acid in your stomach, or you're not chewing your food in your mouth. Any one of those things can mess up digestion. And, as we've talked about, digestion is incredibly important for the health of your overall body. I hope now you have a good sense of how digestion works, just a basic sense. And, in the next few videos we'll talk even more in depth about how this stuff works. All right guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.  

2018 05 12

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Eating Healthy at Local Restaurants

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Today, we're gonna talk about how to eat healthy at local restaurants. The first idea I wanna give to you is this idea that look, if you're only doing this once in a great while, don't worry about it so much. It's not gonna be that big an issue as long as you're eating healthy, real whole food the vast majority of the time. But if you are eating at restaurants on a regular basis, that's something you need to potentially consider cutting back on and some of the tips in this video will hopefully help you pick some healthier fare. Tip number one, when it comes to eating healthier at restaurants these days, it's a whole lot easier just because menus are online so you can actually check out this stuff before you go. You can see what stuff fits in the dietary template that you're following. A lot of restaurants tend to have really good gluten free menus now. They have a lot of options and healthier fare for people when you actually go to the restaurant. Another thing to say is when you get there and you're actually looking at the menu or if you're looking at the menu beforehand, most entrees at most restaurants are meat or quality protein plus veggies plus healthy fat. Let's say steak, broccoli, and baked potato. Or salmon and rice and some sort of vegetable. That's the way it is and the nicer restaurant you're eating at, the easier it is to eat healthy. A lot of times, when you're actually looking at the menu, look at those entrees and those are gonna tend to be in a pretty healthy mold. Now what do you do about the waiter or the waitress? We have to balance between two ends of the spectrum here. On the one hand, you don't wanna be that jerk who orders the Cobb salad and then takes everything that makes a Cobb salad a Cobb salad. But at the same time, you're the one paying for and ordering the meal. Try to be nice and appreciate to your waiter and waitress but at the same time, if you have dietary restrictions, don't be afraid to ask for that and don't be afraid to say something if you wanna make the food a bit healthier. Now, here's some practical tips for eating out at certain places. If you're going to a Mexican restaurant, try to emphasize meat and veggies and then try to cut down as much as you can on the beans and rice and to the lesser extent, some cheese. If you're going to a Japanese restaurant, some sushi, you can get some sashimi, white rice isn't the worst thing in the world, and get some vegetables there. If you're going to an Italian restaurant, most classical Italian cooking doesn't actually involve gobs of carbohydrates. That's really just American Italian cooking so don't be afraid to get something like chicken with some vegetables and some tomato sauce. Hopefully those tips gave you a sense of how to eat healthy but remember, at the end of the day, if you're not doing this terribly frequently, enjoy yourself when you're out and it's not that big an issue but if you are doing it frequently, either cut down on the frequency or try to involve these healthy tips as much as you in your healthy eating when you're eating out. Alright guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.

2018 05 09

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Easy Home Remedies for Digestion

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Today, we're going to talk about some super simple home remedies that you can use to help improve your digestion. In other videos, we'll talk about more advanced things but today we're going to talk about the super simple ones that pretty much anyone can do at home and these are things that you would want to check off the list first just to make sure that it's not something super simple that you've overlooked. Number one is a huge one and I would readily admit that this is something that I work on myself, but it is really an important issue. Chew your food. Chew your food. There are a couple of reasons why that's important. One of my favorite sayings when it comes to digestion is there are no teeth in the stomach. What does that mean? It means once things have essentially gotten to your stomach, there's acid to help break things down, but if you have a piece of food that basically hasn't been chewed properly and it's making a way down to your stomach and then your small intestine, it's not going to be absorbed properly if you didn't break it down sufficiently in your mouth. You want to chew your food. Chewing your food sufficiently also helps activate certain enzymes in your mouth that help start to break down certain compounds in the food and it activates the parasympathetic nervous system, the so-called rest and digest nervous system that's necessary to help you digest. If you're in a constant state of sympathetic, kind of go, go, go mode, then it's going to be very hard to digest food. Along with that same idea of chewing your food, you want to sit down and eat your food. This is something, while the chewing I'm still working on, sit down and eat your food I've gotten pretty good at. Most of us today eat on the run whether it's in our car or we're answering emails. I routinely get emails from people who tell me I don't take a lunch or it's 15 minutes or they're just gobbling down food. Again, if you've activated that sympathetic nervous system, it's going to be very hard to digest in that mode. You want to sit down. Take some time out. It doesn't need to be all the way to French culture where they take an hour and a half each day for food, for lunch although that would be nice. But it shouldn't be five minutes where you're scarfing down something and answering emails and driving somewhere either. Take some time out and sit down and eat your food. Number three, water. Water is great, super healthy for you, but at the same time you shouldn't necessarily be drinking it during your meals. There are different reasoning you hear behind this. Some people suggest that it dilute stomach acid. Some people suggest that if you have cold water it's going to reduce the rate at which enzymes are going to be breaking down your food. But just in general, you want to try to eat your food and not drink it, so one of the most compelling reasons I've heard is this idea that people use water as a means to swallow otherwise improperly chewed food. If that's your reason for drinking water when you're eating, then you probably want to slow down, chew your food and not drink a bunch of water to have it go all the way down. Number four, you want to try and express gratitude or de-stress or maybe it's 10 deep belly breaths or maybe if you're religious, maybe it's praying or maybe it's meditation or maybe it's a quick laugh before a meal. Something where you're activating that parasympathetic system and you're not constantly in this go, go, go mode where you feel like you can't really properly digest things. Then number five is going to be that you want to try and cook your food or mash it. If you really are having digestive issues, one of the best things you can do is, A, cook your food. That's going to "predigest" it for you. Then in addition to that, the more you mash up the food, the easier it is to digest so something like, I don't know, white potato fries are going to be harder to digest than baked potato that has basically been mashed up. Hopefully, those things can help you with your digestion and you definitely want to try those things first before you go deeper down the rabbit hole and we'll talk about some alternative strategies for improving your digestion in later videos. All right, guys. Thanks so much for tuning in. See you next time.

2018 05 05

Top 5 Fat Loss Myths

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  Today we are gonna talk about fat loss myths. The overwhelming majority of people who come to see us are very much interested in weight loss and health. Usually what people mean by weight loss is fat loss. Presumably someone doesn't wanna lose muscle, they wanna be losing fat and building muscle or keeping muscle. Let's talk about some common myths that we tend to see when we work with people. Myth #1 If you work out enough you can eat whatever you want.    I would say number is working out can not fix a crappy diet. We tell people this over and over and over again. Just do the math on the situation. At most, you're gonna be at the gym, what, five hours a week? Let's even say six or seven hours a week. Just mathematically that's gonna be a fraction of a fraction of the time that you're gonna spend eating food, sleeping, distressing, all these lifestyle things that are absolutely necessary for health. So while we think working out is tremendously important, we wouldn't be in the gym business if we didn't, for your overall health and fitness it is not enough to overcome a crappy diet and it's especially not enough for fat loss. Myth #2 You can always lose fat if you burn more calories than you consume. Another thing I would say is the notion of calories in, calories out. Now, let me preface this by saying I do think calories are important and I do think they can be important when you are talking about fat loss. One common thing that gets confused is the notion of actually trying to decrease your calories versus tracking your calories. Ideally you would want some way of eating that spontaneously leads to a calorie reduction in the food you're eating without having to worry about it. The type of eating that we recommended here, namely real wholefood that's nutrient dense, that gives you even blood sugar throughout the day, that is not psychologically addictive, tends to lead, generally speaking, to fewer calories without having to track calories. Now that isn't perfect, people can eat tons of bananas or jar of coconut oil and that will mess things up. But generally speaking, that approach, at least initially, will tend to yield more benefits, than trying to get a 1,000 or 1,500 calories with not so good food. The best of both worlds is of course food quality as the base, and then building on top of that with some calories in, calories out and maybe some macros. Myth #3 If you eat less and workout more you always lose fat  Another thing I would, in regard to both of those, is this idea of eating less and working out more. I've seen this over and over and over and over again backfire on people. You may have seen this person in the gym running on the treadmill, 45 minutes to an hour a day, and he or she is eating a 1,000 calories and they're wondering, "Why am I not losing that last 10 pounds?" Well you're stressing your body out. Working out is a stress on the body, in particular excess cardio can be a stress on the body. Too few calories and too few nutrients is a stress on the body, and if you're already stressed that can lead to more stress. It's not to say that there isn't a time and a place for eating less and working out more, but in general we've seen even more benefit from eating more, real whole food and eating adequate calories, and working out less, but smarter, working out more efficiently in a way in which is going to help you overall. Myth #4 You can spot reduce fat from different locations on your body Another fat loss myth that I see is the notion of spot reducing. Sometimes we'll see people who said that they wanna spot reduce on their triceps, or they just wanna spot reduce belly fat or their legs. To a certain extent you can do this, belly fat tends to be more associated with cortisol and stress issues, excess leg fat particularly in women can be related to estrogen and hormonal issues, things like that. But you're not gonna be able to zoom in and sniper target each of these things, it's going to be something where overall you're going to need to lose fat in your body, and then something that will be even more important to your fat loss is gonna be getting those hormones in line to even reduce in those areas. It's not like you can cut your calories a certain amount and it will specifically go to your legs or specifically go to your tricep, it's going to go more broadly over the rest of the body. Myth #5 Fad diets are a great way to lose fat long term. ​​​​​​​ And then the last fat loss myth I would say is the notion that fat diets work. We see this over and over and over again. I suppose if your goal is very quick, short term weight loss that's not gonna stick, then yeah, a fat diet can work certainly, you can lose 20, 30 pounds. But presumably most people want to lose weight long term and keep it off long term. They don't wanna go through this yo-yo. Fat diets may get you some quick water weight loss, they'll probably even help you lose some muscle, which that's not so good either, and then you'll get some temporarily fat loss, but it's not gonna be long term sustainable, 'cause you're not eating adequately in terms of nutrients and calories for your body and your body is just gonna balance back. What we propose here is real, wholefood for a more sustainable, long term way to lose fat, and we've seen that be incredibly effective. If you guys are interested in losing fat, please hit us up, contact us, we'll be happy to meet with you. Thanks so much for tuning in and we'll see you next time. Best, Robby

2018 05 02

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How to Have the Perfect Poop

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Today we're gonna talk about how to have the perfect poop. So, this is gonna be yet another video in our digestion series. So, you might be wondering why would I even care about something like this, why would I even want to know about how to have the perfect poop. Well, a lot of people are dealing with digestive issues these days. So, that might be one reason. Another reason is that, how you're pooping is a really good window into your overall health, because digestion, as we've explained in a previous video, is where you absorb all the good stuff, all your nutrients. It's where you keep out all the bad stuff. So, poop is really important. And unfortunately, both when we're growing up with our parents and school, this doesn't really ever get explained to us, what things should be like. Today I'm going to give you some tools for how to have the perfect poop or how to tell if you're having the perfect poop. Let's talk about item number one, speed. So, you don't want thing to be too fast and you don't want them to be too slow, and I've seen a lot of misconceptions about this idea. So, I've had people come to me and they say, 'Oh yeah, I'm pooping normally once every three days.' That is not normal. If someone's going seven times a day, that's not normal either. A normal spot in between those two is something like one to three times a day. Now, it's gonna depend on how much you're eating, and what your training's like, and stress and all the rest of those things. But, that's a good rubric. If someone is going number two every other day or every few days, or every week, I've seen people like that, that is not good. And if they're going too frequently, that's not good either. In the too frequent case, the issue is you're not absorbing your nutrients. Things aren't staying in long enough to be absorbed. And then in the too slow case, it's that toxins are being built up and not being excreted properly. So, you want to have that happy medium between the two. What about consistency? So, again, we don't typically like to talk about this stuff, but it is a good window into your health. So, you don't want to see undigested food particles in your stool, that is not a good thing. That's a sign that you're not digesting things properly. If you look up online, there's a thing called the Bristol stool chart, that goes all the way from kind of hard and clumpy to very watery, and it kind of gives you a sense of what the best poop would look like. But basically, it should be such that it's formed, there isn't undigested food particles in it and it basically should be something where you feel like it's easy to pass, but not too quick. In terms of actual feel when you're going, it shouldn't be something that is ridiculously difficult to pass, but it also shouldn't be something that just falls out of your body. Color, it shouldn't be black. If it's black, go to a local hospital. It shouldn't be green. If it's a one-off where it's one of these colors, orange or yellow or something like that, then it's probably just a one-off. But consistently, if it's looking like that, you know, shouldn't be blood in your stool. If those things are happening, you definitely want to go get that checked out by a doctor. In general, here are the rules. One to three times a day. Color should be brown. You shouldn't see undigested food particles in there. You shouldn't feel like it's ridiculously difficult to go, but it also shouldn't feel like it's super easy. And basically, it should be something that's happening on a fairly frequent basis, so that you're eliminating toxins, and so you're absorbing the nutrients the way you should and things aren't passing out too fast. All right, guys. Thanks, so much, for tuning in. We'll see you next time.  

2018 04 28

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How Much Food Should You Eat?

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Today we are going to try to answer the question, how much food should you eat? A couple of things to say right up front. This is so hyper contextual. It's so contextual. Is a person someone who's 400 pounds who's trying to stop being diabetic and they're primarily sedentary versus a high level CrossFit games athlete? It's going to be super contextual, but what we're going to try to lay out in this video is just base guidelines. Typically, what we'll say to you here is if these base things aren't even in place then you shouldn't even be worried about things like Keto, and a whole bunch of different macro splits. Those can be tremendously useful in certain context, but you need this first base level to even venture into those areas. First I'm gonna talk about kind of a visual method for measuring your food. Then I'll talk about more specific amounts that could be helpful. A visual method that different folks like Precision Nutrition or the Whole 30 mention is using your hand. For protein, they typically say about a palm size. Why is that good? Well because to the extent that someone's palm is smaller, that's gonna mean a smaller chunk of protein, and if their palm is a lot bigger that's going to be a bigger chunk of protein, which should correspond to their body size. You put that palm sized protein on your plate, and then you fill the rest of your plate with vegetables. That's a pretty good start. Again, hyper contextual. Can change things up, but that's a good place to start. In terms of fats at each meal, if you are going to oils about a thumb size. That's going to correspond to roughly a tablespoon of fat to either cook with your veggies or to cook with your meat, or to drizzle over your salad. Then for things like fruit typically, one handful like an apple or blueberries. The same thing with nuts and seeds. That isn't perfect. That isn't the end all be all. That isn't the only thing to pay attention to, but that's a really good place to start. If you're not having meals with quality protein, veggies, and healthy fat as your foundation, and maybe some fruits, nuts, and seeds, herbs, and spices, as extra pieces then you don't need to be worried about all this other crazy stuff. You don't need to be worried about Weight Watchers points. You don't need to worry about calories. You don't need to worry about all of these different macro splits. Okay. That's a good visual way to help, but sometimes people ask, what about actual amounts? Can we give you guys some amounts? Here are some amounts that I like to tell people. For protein in general, if we're talking about a slab of protein like a filet of salmon, or a chicken breast, or a steak, or something like that, we're talking somewhere between a quarter pound and a half pound, so four ounces to eight ounces. Sure, someone's working out more you can go all the way up to 12 ounces or even 16 ounces, but for most people, men and women, somewhere between four to eight ounces at a meal is going to be a really good place to start. Vegetables, so non starchy vegetables, I like that rule of basically filling the rest of your plate. I wouldn't restrict non starchy vegetables. If anything, I would say a bare minimum that we like is one non starchy vegetable per meal. Meaning like one thing like kale, or cucumber, or broccoli, or cabbage, at each meal. Then in terms of your starchy vegetables, things like, white potatoes, sweet potatoes, plantains, butternut squash. Somewhere between 50 and 150 grams is a good place to start people off. How do you figure out what that is? Well, a regular size white potato or sweet potato is going to be somewhere around 40 to 50 grams. That's a good place to start. Then healthy fats, again hyper contextual, gonna depend on who you are, but I would say somewhere in the realm of one to two tablespoons per meal where you're either cooking your meat with that, or cooking your veggies, or drizzling some oil on your salad, that usually does the trick. Hopefully, that gives you a sense of some good amounts to have with your meal. Again, we think of it in terms of what we sometimes refer to as, the twenty mile march. We want to get them to begin with this way of eating first where they even have these quantities that we just mentioned in place. Then we can move on to things like Keto, or more advanced macros, and so on, and so forth. Practical take aways from this video, guys. Number one above all else as we've said in every other single video we've ever done, food quality first and foremost. Got that in place? Okay. Well let's start worrying about that food quantity. That's all the stuff I talked about today. Four to eight ounces of protein at a meal, roughly palm size. The rest of our plate with veggies. One non starchy vegetable at a meal, and 50 to 150 grams of starchy vegetables per day. Then one to two tablespoons of healthy fat at each meal. All right guys, hopefully that gives you some direction. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.  

2018 04 25

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Your healthy depends on the health of your gut

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Today we're gonna talk about why a healthy digestive system is so important for your overall health. And this is gonna be the first in a multi part series about natural solutions for digestive issues and so on and so forth. So you may have heard recently with a lot of articles that have been published about how important gut health is for overall health. And some people so as far as to say that gut health is the main determining factor in your overall health. If your gut isn't healthy, you aren't gonna be healthy. So gut health relates to so many different things. To hormonal health, to kidney health, liver health, brain health, heart health. It's literally implicated in so many different aspects of our health. And in future videos, I'll go into exactly why those things are all connected and practical solutions to make your digestion better. But today I just wanted to give you a sense of why digestion might be so important in the first place. So if I had to sum it up super simply? It's because your gut allows good stuff into your body and it keeps bad stuff out. That's really what it comes down to. So let's talk about that. So let's talk about the good stuff in first. So, nutrients, all the nutrients, the number one criteria in our healthy food list where we want food to be super nutritious ... You could eat the most nutritious food in the world but if you're not properly absorbing it through your gut, either through adequate stomach acid production and balanced microbial ecology and sufficient amount of pancreatic enzymes, you're not actually going to get the benefits of that nourishing food. So being able to absorb your nutrients is critically important and where all your nutrients get absorbed is technically in the small intestine. That's where all your nutrients get absorbed. So again, you could be eating the most perfect diet in the world but if you're not absorbing that properly, you're not gonna get the benefits of increased energy and better mood and better sleep and fewer cravings and all the rest of those things. So that's number one. So the gut is the gateway that lets good things in. But number two, it's also the thing that keeps bad things out to a certain extent. When you think about it, the vast majority of our exposure to bad things during the day that gets inside our body is through things we eat. Right? Three times a day we get exposure to these things and from the moment you eat it, to the time the food exits your body, it's actually going through a tube that is meant to prevent bad stuff like viruses, bacteria, yeast, undigested food particles from getting into your blood stream. So if the integrity of that system is compromised, it's going to lead to inflammation. It's going to lead to all sorts of other issues in the body. So they're a lot of different reasons why digestion is so important for your overall health, but if you had to boil it down? Those are the two main reasons. Keeps good stuff in, allows good stuff in and it keeps bad stuff out. It's basically the bouncer of the body. And when the bouncer is not in front of the club? Then anyone who wants to can get in and you run into all sorts of bad issues. So in future videos, we'll talk a lot about how you can optimize your digestion and therefore optimize your health. But just for today, we're gonna talk about how your gut health is so intimately related to your health. Again, it's because keeps good stuff in and it keeps bad stuff out. All right guys, thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.

2018 04 21

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Why you should shop the perimeter of the grocery store

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Today we're going to talk about why you should shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Put simply, you should shop the perimeter of the grocery store because that's where the real, whole food is. If you've seen any of our other videos, you'll know that real, whole food is going to be things like meat, and eggs, and seafood, and poultries, some quality protein, some veggies, some healthy fat, things like olive oil, and macadamia nuts, and avocados. It's going to be things like fruits, nuts, and seeds, herbs, and spices. When you shop the perimeter of the grocery store, that's where all these things are, right? All the veggies and the produce are going to be on the outskirts of the grocery store. That's where your meat's going to be that's where your cheeses are going to be. Generally speaking, that's where the real, whole food is, and the more processed foods tend to be in the middle. Why is eating real, whole foods so important? Well, for a few different reasons. Number one. Real, whole food is super nutrient-dense. It has a ton of micronutrients in it that make you healthier. It helps regulate your blood sugar, so there's no spiking and dipping throughout the day. It encourages a healthy, psychological relationship with food, where you're not addicted to food and overeating food. It leads to a healthy digestive system and it tends to minimize inflammation and not cause it in the first place. What are some helpful, practical tips that you can use to help you remember this when you're actually shopping at the grocery store? Number one. If you can't grow it or hunt it, don't eat it. That's a really good rule that'll help you when you're shopping in the grocery store, in particular, the perimeter, to find things that are healthy. If it comes in a bag, a box, a jar, or a package, it is guilty until proven innocent. If your grandparents and great-grandparents didn't eat it, you probably shouldn't either. Then one of my personal favorites, sounds kind of paradoxical, good food goes bad, bad food stays good. Real, whole food will tend to expire and go bad, whereas bad food will stay good through the apocalypse. Speaking of bad food, why do we avoid those center aisles? Well, that's because that's where all the processed food tends to be. That's where the sugar-laden, salt-laden, hyper-processed food tends to be. Most of the things in those center aisles tend to be things that will last for years on end because they have these gigantic amounts of salt, and sugar, and other things in them to basically preserve them for a very long time. In general, you want to avoid those things because they have very few nutrients. They lead to lots of blood sugar spikes, they're psychologically addictive, they promote an unhealthy digestive system, and they're very inflammatory. One of the simplest things you can do overall to improve your health is sticking to the perimeter of the grocery store and if you do that, the vast majority of the time, even if you have some off plan stuff here and there, you'll tend to be more healthy rather than not. All right, guys. Thanks so much for tuning in. We'll see you next time.

2018 04 18

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I’m Not Perfect…Not By A Long Shot

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In this video I discuss the numerous ways in which I'm imperfect. Why did I think it was important to make this video? Put simply a lot of marketing by health and nutrition coaches on the Internet gives the impression that they've never had to struggle and that everything comes so easily to them. In my case, the exact opposite is true. I'm passionate about what I do and I'm better able to what I do precisely because I've had many health and weight struggles along the way. One of my favorite sayings from a mentor is "My super power is that I make mistakes faster than anyone else", and that's certainly true of me in the health and wellness space. Making mistakes faster than other people allows me to learn from those mistakes more quickly than others, and then I can pass that knowledge on to those I coach. Here are just some of the many ways I'm imperfect, and this is only the health and nutrition side of things :) -I grew up eating more processed foods and fast foods than probably almost anyone watching this video and that continued for about 28 years. -For most of my adult life, about 10 to 12 years I was about 50 to 60lbs overweight and I had significant struggles losing weight -About 5 years ago I was diagnosed with Graves' disease (autoimmune hyperthyroidism), which took a long time to heal from. That experience was what motivated me to become a health coach for a living. -To this very day, as I'm writing this (April 2018), I am working with my own functional health practitioner to resolve some lingering health issues that haven't gone away. Why? Because I'm not perfect, and 28 years of eating junk food along in addition to being a Type A stress case will really mess up your health. Additionally, the past three years have probably been the most stressful of my life, which leads me to my next point. -Stress, and how I deal with it, is my own personal Mount Everest that I've been working on very hard the past couple of years but it's still a MAJOR area of work for me. -I still eat completely off plan foods (pizza, chocolate chip cookies, etc.) and not always for special occasions (although this has improved dramatically in the past few years) I think it's important as a health coach to show people that I'm not perfect, and that I've dealt a number of health and weight issues over the years. We're all at various levels of imperfection, but we can improve. What separates those who stay stuck in their lifelong imperfections from those who change is the willingness to ask for help to learn and grow as a person. Even though I'm still very much imperfect, the changes I've made have been dramatic from where I used to be, and I'm going to keep trying to improve. You should too.

2018 04 11

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