0 (1s):
Coming up on the get lean, eat clean podcast.
1 (4s):
I know my hunger cues and I know where my body's at. So I'm able to do that. But now in society like this intuitive eating push that's going on, a lot of people don't have the right hunger signaling going on. Their hunger signaling is really skewed because of their lifestyle or their previous dieting. There's a lot of things. I mean, even there's a lot of studies out there supporting like your gut microbiome, influencing sugar cravings and things like that. So a lot of people's hunger signaling is really skewed, especially those that do not sleep enough. So you can't always rely on that. That's something I just do myself personally, because I'm at a place where I can do that.
1 (47s):
And I understand a lot about food, but for a lot of the general population that is looking to maybe lose weight or maintain, I don't necessarily suggest that right off the bat until you know that your hunger signaling is accurate.
0 (1m 5s):
Hello, and welcome to the get clean, eat clean podcast. I'm Brian grin, and I'm here to give you actionable tips to get your body back to what it once was five, 10, even 15 years ago each week. I'll give you an in-depth interview with a health expert from around the world to cut through the fluff and get you long-term sustainable results. This week I interviewed trainer and health coach Connie Nightingale. We discussed the importance of recovery and sleep implementing a coffee detox obstacles that get in the way of optimizing your health along with tips to get more protein in your diet, intuitive, eating best way to get fat adapted and her one tip to get your body back to what it once was.
0 (1m 48s):
This is the second time around with Connie. She has a ton of great actionable tips. I really enjoyed this interview. I know you will too. And thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show. All right, welcome to the get lane, eat clean podcast. My name is Brian grin and I have personal trainer health coach, Connie Nightingale. Welcome to the show, Connie. Hey, thanks for having me. No problem. Second time around, but it's been a while and I'm excited to have you on health coach and trainer like myself. We're going to try to touch on a lot of relevant issues to get your results, but I it's been a little while. Connie, what have you been up to as far as training and health coaching and even for your personal goals?
1 (2m 34s):
Oh boy, it's always a crap shoot with me. I'm always up to something new. So I actually recently just took a couple of months off from basically any training. I was moved, my strength training down to two times a week, full body workouts stopped cycling, all that kind of stuff because I'm the kind of person I have to really regulate myself when it comes to training because I start writing that my body can't cash. So, you know, it, it was definitely time. I was seeing some signs of some over-training and I was like, you know, I pulled the plug on all my adventures, my training adventures, cause I had a couple of races I was entered in and I said, you know what?
1 (3m 15s):
It's not worth it. My health comes first checking out. So I took a couple of months off, just did some full body strength training compound movements and just took it easy, which was really, really nice back in the spring. We did, I did my first Spartan race, which was really, really fun. My, my husband's big into those. He does the big ones. And so I thought I would just kick it off with one of the short ones, which was a lot of fun. So we're planning to do that in the fall. I recently ramped my bike training back up again now after taking that break. So I am planning on doing a couple hundred milers here in the fall, depending on if my training goes well and stuff.
1 (3m 60s):
I'm not entering in anything until the last minute to make sure that my training's on point and that I'm feeling good. So got a big Spartan race planned the week before the bike race, because I'm going to do the big one now because we're all trying as a family, we're going to try to get all the trifectas in. So anyway, that's kind of what we're up to keeping active, spending time outdoors, all that fun stuff. Yeah.
0 (4m 25s):
And the Spartan races are those every like few months or are they all over the country?
1 (4m 32s):
Yeah, that's pretty much everywhere. And it just, you have to try to time it when there's one kind of close, I guess you can travel obviously to go to those things. But there's a, I mean, but between all the entry fees and the whole family doing them and stuff like that, I mean my 14 year is really big into it. At this point. He wasn't even really trying and he ended up placing really high and in his last age group, so now he's like, he's got the blinders on to go out and win one of those things. So it gets a little expensive when all these fitness things become a family adventure, you start throwing $160 entry fees at times, everybody. And it ends up being a little bit too much.
1 (5m 12s):
So we try to stay as local as possible. So whenever one comes local, you know, within four or five hours away, that's when we usually jump on it and go do it.
0 (5m 21s):
Yeah. And I, and I love that you're doing that because I think that it's such a motivating thing. When you have something on the calendar to work towards, it's like, it could be, well, it could be a wedding or it could be a Spartan race. Exactly.
1 (5m 35s):
And you know, it's, it's so I love getting out there and having my kids do these things with me and having them see us, like go out there and try our best and prepare for it and, you know, train and do all that stuff. It's really a lot of fun. And, and, and I'm happy that I'm passing that onto my kids. Everybody looks at my son and they're like, man, jacked, like what's going on? And it's like, listen, he's been watching me workout since he was little. And he's been doing pull-ups since he was little. And like, and by the time all of his friends catch a clue and they start working out in high school, he's already going to be far behind, beyond all of them.
0 (6m 14s):
Yeah. Yeah. No, for sure. I mean lead by example. Right. And, and then you touched on another point that I think is important to bring up too. And that's over-training was this just something you felt you just could tell signs in your body and your mind that you just needed to scale back a little bit?
1 (6m 34s):
Oh yeah, for sure. You know, that's one thing I've learned, Brian is like, I've learned what overdoing it looks like. And I don't really want to go to those places because it's really not a good situation. And it was funny. My training rides got slower. My recovery got worse. I would take like three days off and I still wouldn't be recovered. It felt like I was towing a boat, anchor anchor around with me and what I was riding. And I was like, I was like, you know, there's something up. I need a break. And I was right because after taking a couple months off and jumping back on the bike, I was like super strong. So I was like, well, obviously that was what it was. And that's something that we have a little bit of a hard time doing as an athlete or a trainer or even somebody that's just into fitness is listening to our body.
1 (7m 19s):
Sometimes we want to poo poo it and be like, nah, I'm just being lazy today. I just don't feel it today. But sometimes your body's really telling you something and you got to listen to it.
0 (7m 28s):
Yeah. Those off days are just as beneficial as those on days. For
1 (7m 33s):
Sure. For sure. Yeah. And you know, another thing I've learned in my, in my age, I guess, is that, you know, sleep is, is so, so important. And I think of all of the years that I spent waking up early, even if I didn't get enough sleep, just so that I could get my workout in and it just ruined my training. And, and now that I'm, I'm self-employed and I kind of set my own schedule and all these things I sleep in. I make sure I get nine hours of sleep every single day, no matter what. And if I can't get that nine hours of sleep, I will skip a workout. And that might seem like a cop out, but it's really not because you can only do as well as you can recover and sleep as part of that equation.
0 (8m 16s):
Yeah. I mean, I talk about all the time sleeps, like the number one principle, and you do bring up a good point because for maybe a busy working mom or dad, you want to stay healthy and workout, but you also, you know, how early to get up. I mean, you know, nine hours, like I think the key is finding what's optimal for you. Like, for me, I'm good with probably seven and a half eight is what I strive for. But what, what that could mean if, if you still want to get your workouts in is maybe just going to bed earlier. And if you still got to get up early to get that workout on, if you, because you know, as we know, if you wait till later in the things happen, you make excuses and then you end up not doing anything.
1 (9m 1s):
Oh, totally. I there's. So many times that happened to me yesterday, we got back from camping and I was like, I'm going to get on the bike. I got to get 20 miles in today. Cause typically Tuesdays is my rest day. And I was like, you know, I got home and we got done unpacking all of our camping stuff and it was hot out and the wind was blowing and I was like, I'm going to bed early and waking up early. And you're going to have my workout in the morning because you know, but I, that is one thing that I'm very meticulous about is my sleep. And I literally have my, my sleep calendar set up on my phone and it tells me when it's time to go to bed so that I can wake up at whatever time is necessary. And like last night I went to bed at eight o'clock. So I could wake up super early, jump on my bike and then come home and get on this podcast with you.
0 (9m 46s):
I hope I didn't affect your sleeping patterns. No,
1 (9m 49s):
You didn't. I don't allow it.
0 (9m 51s):
Right. Exactly. Do you have like a sleep? I'm a big routine guy. Do you have a sleep routine?
1 (9m 58s):
You know, no, I don't really, we do start to wind down at my house about seven o'clock. We make sure that we've got everything kind of taken care of. And then for us, you know, we've got the kids. So my daughter, we read with her. So I mean kind of asleep routine. If you think about it, it's a half an hour before bedtime and we go and we start reading and stuff. And then typically I try to make sure that my electronics are off an hour before bedtime because man, one thing I learned, I, now this is the weirdest thing, but it just is what it is. Right. I used to make like Instagram posts, informational posts, like at night.
1 (10m 39s):
And I, I noticed that it was affecting my sleep because you know, the reward system in the brain, I couldn't wait to wake up in the morning and see if anybody had commented on it and ask questions so that I could answer it, you know? And I was like, I am never, ever posting on social media about anything ever again at nighttime, it's got to be in the morning because you know, it would ruin my sleep. It's so weird how subliminally I'm not any vain person. And like, Ooh, see if somebody commented with it, you know, but it's like literally subliminally your brain wants that reward hit from it or something. And I noticed that if I post something at night, my brain doesn't let me sleep because it's wondering what people are going to say about it,
0 (11m 22s):
Right? Yeah. No for sure. I mean, even just, yeah, even just the act of posting at night can keep you up just the blue light and things like that. But you definitely got a sleep routine. I mean, I think you've made some good points. One is maybe winding down with some time, you know, reading or actually I, I just moved and we put, I was, luckily I put an infrared sauna in and so I'm starting to get benefits of that. I've been trying to do that closer to bed and that that'll, that'll help you go to sleep as well. But reading winding down. What about in the morning now? So are you doing your so you're, you're valuing obviously sleep.
0 (12m 2s):
Are you doing your workouts now that you're back getting back into a little bit in the mornings or when do you, when you normally do them? Yeah,
1 (12m 9s):
Absolutely. So as soon as I wake up, this is kind of weird. Some people might not do this. Well, I do it great. I literally pop out of bed, throw my stuff on, jump on my bike. I mean, within waking up I'm on the bike and like 15 minutes, it's like, I don't mess around with like trying to wake up or anything like that. I don't drink coffee. I don't eat anything. I make sure that I have 25 ounces of water on me. I drink that, you know, in my work, during my workout, I try to have my first 25 ounces of water down. And then when I get home is when I'll sit down and kind of do my morning routine with my coffee, check my emails, check in on my clients, all that kind of stuff.
1 (12m 49s):
Because you know, first of all, there are some things out there saying that it's not real great to expose yourself to coffee first thing in the morning because your cortisol levels are already high. So I try to stay away from that. I like to work out fasted anyway. I think that's a healthy thing for me. It may not be for everybody, but I do really well with it. And, and then, you know, trying to make sure that I don't get right on my phone in the morning, the first thing when I wake up either. So I don't waste any time in the morning. I literally, my alarm goes off. I jumped out of bed, throw my stuff on and hit the road. And it's it's I guess that's my little morning routine with that.
0 (13m 28s):
Yeah. I think that's great because I'm sort of the same way I'll get up. I don't go for a ride, but I'll go for a walk with my dogs and we just do it right away. And it's such a great way to start the day and see the sun. Also, you mentioned a great point. It actually had just talked about it on a, on a micro podcast, edited about coffee and yeah. Optimally, you don't, you don't want to have coffee right away. Like you mentioned, let your natural circadian rhythms wake you up. Cortisol levels will rise. And you want to wait until you have that first morning cup. One of the things I've found out about coffee researching 80% of Americans drink coffee. So it it's, it's a common thing.
0 (14m 11s):
And one of the things I mentioned was making sure that you give good whole bean organic coffee as well. They sprayed with ton of pesticides. But anyways, I just talked about that, but it's a, it's a relevant issue.
1 (14m 24s):
No people don't realize how nasty coffee actually is. You're just like you're drinking straight, toxic mold and pesticides and chemicals. And, and my husband makes fun of me. He's always like he won't drink my fancy coffee. This is like one thing that we don't agree on. Right? He's he's like, no, I'm not going to drink your fancy expensive coffee. That's stupid. You know? And he always buys his own coffee and it's some cheap crap. And I'm like, listen, dude, I've got my espresso machine in the morning. It's like part of my ritual. I get my fancy organic pesticide, free mold, free coffee. And I make myself on his Fresno and he makes fun of me over. And I'm like, listen, this is my thing.
1 (15m 5s):
Yeah. I mean,
0 (15m 6s):
It makes sense. Think about too. I mean, most people are sipping on coffee. They're having it throughout the day. I mean, why would you want something that's toxic like that? Or, you know, anyways, so yeah. So if there's a message by whole or what kind of beans do you get, do you just get them local or
1 (15m 22s):
It depends. I mean, there's a, there's a couple local roasters around here, you know, bare minimum. I make sure that I get some kind of organic something I'm not real choosy when it comes to the brand and the, you know, I just like, oh, this looks good. Okay. What I like there is a, there is some, ah, it's some kind of rainforest, something at a local Fred Meyer here. That's totally organic. And they have decaf, which I drink a lot of decaf coffee because I absolutely love coffee. I'm not necessarily that person. Yeah. I'm not that person that drinks it for the caffeine actually, which is ridiculous. I just love the taste and smell of coffee.
1 (16m 3s):
Maybe it's my early life programming. But the problem is, is since I'm self-employed and I'm in front of the computer all the time, working on client stuff and programs and all these things, I find myself being really guilty of constantly drinking coffee. And it's so bad because I know that that caffeine is just going to crush my adrenals. If I sit there and drink a ton of caffeine all day long and ruin my sleep. So I make sure I always have decaf on hand for that, that time when I'm like, oh, I just want to sit here with my coffee and look at my paperwork. So I do a lot of decaf too, which is really a good little thing for me to keep me away from the caffeine.
0 (16m 47s):
Yeah. And that's another great point is you want to take a sort of a, a detox or arrest the caffeine rest, let your body reset that your adrenals and everything else, because you don't want to necessarily fight. You feel like you have to rely on it all the time.
1 (17m 0s):
Yeah, absolutely. No, I'm glad I'm not reliant on coffee. I actually went a whole year without drinking any coffee at all. When I first got out on my bodybuilding shows and I was like, super, my adrenals were just totally messed up. I was totally messed up. I stopped all of the stimulants and stuff because man, through, throughout contest prep, I was just hammering them. And I didn't realize how bad I was screwing myself up until I had to go off of it. And it took a long time to reset it. Wasn't just like, oh, I, I got off for a week and then I was fine. No, it took a long, long time. And so I took a complete hiatus from coffee for like a solid year, which sucked because every time I'd smell it, I was just like, I need coffee, but I was on good behavior.
1 (17m 42s):
And I got it out of my life for a little. Yeah. I mean a
0 (17m 45s):
Whole year I was going to say a week, but a year that's yeah, that's good. Well, I know you do a lot of coaching, a lot of like programming. So I'm curious to learn like, you know how you do do that to optimize each client because obviously, you know, every everyone's different. We all obviously know that. What does, what before maybe we get into that? What are some of the obstacles that you find get in people's way that prevents them from like taking action?
1 (18m 13s):
You know, there's a lot of things. I feel like a lot. The number one thing people use as an excuse to finding optimal health is their finances. And that's such a hard one, right? I hear in every way, shape and form, I hear, I can't afford to eat good clean food. I can't afford to get the proper lab testing done. I can't afford to hire a coach. I can't, but there are so many things that you can do without affording all. I mean, seriously, just switch your food over because this stuff's going to cost you later. And that's the thing people don't realize is that they'll eat all this crap and this cheap garbage now. And they say they can't afford to eat good, healthy, organic food.
1 (18m 57s):
Yet they are paying a hundred dollars a month for prescriptions and they're paying for doctor's visits. And then guess what? Those doctor's visits, aren't fixing the problems. They're still tired and obese and struggled to lose weight or sleep. Well, you know, there's so many things that you're, you may not be paying for them financially, but you're also paying for them physically. So I think, you know, finances happens to be one of the biggest obstacles with people. The other thing is, is just society in general, right? You see somebody making that step to try to get more healthy and your peers are like, oh ha ha. They, everybody wants to make fun of it.
1 (19m 37s):
Right? They, they, they think that you're you're fufu because you want to have that organic coffee. But the thing is, is you are preserving your own health. And at one point you're going to have to put your people, your, all your peers, opinions aside and worry about you because, you know, I find that some people too, out of spite, they, they want to make fun of you because they know deep down inside that they need to be doing the same thing, but maybe they don't have the willpower or the means to get it started. And so it's easier for them to be like, ha ha gluten-free you're funny. You know, when really? I mean, you, you can't, you can't make it sound like you can't have certain things.
1 (20m 20s):
I think, you know, more or less being like, nah, I don't eat that because I don't like the way it makes me feel or I don't do this because I don't like the way it makes me feel. I think kind of turning it around and, and not, not making it sound like you're in some restrictive form of eating or lifestyle.
0 (20m 41s):
Yeah. And the first thing you brought up was money. And I feel like, I mean, obviously that's an excuse. Right? Think we can, you can always find a way to have a healthier option. But I, I think most importantly for a lot of people, including myself, when it comes to other things, maybe like business and things like that is having a coach is so important. And I just think people, because first of all, there's so much information out there about eating healthy. And I think Mo for the most part, people don't understand if they see an apple or a piece of steak versus a white bread or a donut, they know like, okay, what's right and what's wrong.
0 (21m 21s):
But what they don't, what they don't have is they don't have that coach or that accountability partner to make sure that they're staying on track because you know, it's, the information is out there, but hire a coach is expensive. It might, as it might be. That's how you really get results. And I know maybe I'm being biased. No. I
1 (21m 41s):
Mean, I think that's, that's the, that, you know, and me, like the reason I got into this was because I love it and I love helping people change their lives. I love helping people get out of ruts and all that kind of stuff. But you know, back when I very first got into this stuff and I wasn't like doing it as a business or anything, I would give away services all the time. And I would help people for nothing all the time. And what I found is that when I would help people for nothing and they would not put any energy into it, it was like, I would put out time and hours into coming up with these nice meal plans and workouts and all these things for people. And then they wouldn't end up doing it because they didn't have anything invested in it.
1 (22m 22s):
And I came. Yeah, exactly. I think that you have to have some things invested. So I can't tell you how many people approach me or I, I, I see, like I had a lady recently send me her labs and she's like, well, what do you think? Why can't I lose weight? Well, I saw everything was marked within normal limits, but what I saw was something completely different. And let me tell you what she needed a lot of help. And I told her, I said, Hey, I'd be happy to help you. Here's what my fee is, blah, blah, blah. Right. And she was like, oh, oh, you're going to charge me. And I was like, well, yeah, I'm going to, you know, first of all, I have a lot of money invested in my education. Also, if, if you don't invest something in it, then what are you going to put back?
1 (23m 7s):
Like, how are you going to hold yourself responsible? I mean, there's a very few people that will, but for the most part, if people don't have skin in the game, they don't stick to what they need to do.
0 (23m 17s):
No, it's a great point. And also as far as like being able to afford health, I mean, you talk about, I had Brad Kearns on, he talked about, you know, you can buy things that are healthy. That aren't that expensive. Even just talk about like sardines, hearing mussels, you know, these are things you can get and you know, like they're not that expensive and yeah, you'll save a ton of money. He calls them like the smash. And I, I, I don't know if I hit on all of them, anchovies, sardines, herring, muscles, maybe I'm missing one, but either way, those are affordable things. And how about even with just good eggs,
2 (23m 57s):
You know?
0 (23m 59s):
I mean, so you don't always have to buy grass fed ribeye, right? No,
1 (24m 4s):
As much as we'd like to. Right. You definitely no. And eggs. I mean, I tell people that all the time, they're like, I eat so many eggs. It's crazy. Thank God I have chickens because I don't, I don't know. My egg bill would be crazy.
0 (24m 21s):
Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, a local farmer's market. I go to, we get, we, we get eggs from them and yeah. It's not expensive. And you know, when you talk about macros, I know you do, you know, you put plans together for people. Are there certain macronutrients that you're looking for or is there a certain percentage that you look, whether it's, you know, carbs proteins and things like that,
1 (24m 43s):
You know, it's so dependent air really depends on the person and the situation. And I mean, I guess, yeah, it really depends. I mean, and especially females, I'd say a majority of the people that I coach are females. There are different times in their cycle when they should be at different macronutrients as well. So there's a lot of things that have to be taken into consideration and it's not just a one size fits all kind of deal.
0 (25m 9s):
Yeah. Yeah. And you know, if I always say, if there's one macro nutrient, you want to probably focus on and I'm curious if you agree, it's probably protein. Oh, 100%.
1 (25m 19s):
I tell clients that all the time, like sometimes people are like, oh, this is so many calories. Women and women have been taught for so long that they need to eat so little that they're eating, not enough. Most women come to me and they can't lose weight. And they're eating in this huge caloric deficit. And it's like, well, no wonder, you know, your body doesn't have what it needs in order to thrive. So anyway, but people have a hard time getting enough food and more often than not. And what I say, I say it, okay, well, here's what I want you to hit. I want you to hit all the protein macros. You're going to hit these, we'll start with that. And we'll start adding on everywhere else that we need to. But I said every day, I don't want to see you short on the protein macros.
0 (25m 59s):
Yeah. And that can be tough for a lot of people. I actually find it tough sometimes for myself because I, I have probably one to two meals a day and, you know, sometimes getting in all that protein, you know, especially as you're getting older and to prevent sarcopenia, I, I work with a lot of middle-aged men, you know, 40 plus and there, I just see it over and over again, you know, they're not getting enough protein. And especially once you start obviously resistance training and things like that, what are some good ways to get in that protein? Just some tips. So people can, you know, kind of try to work towards that. Well,
1 (26m 33s):
You know, I'm a huge fan of whole foods. However, I'm a huge egg white fan too. Like you can catch me adding egg whites to just everything, just to get that extra little bit of protein in. I mean, I think especially for me with cycling and stuff like that, I have to have a lot, I'm trying to get a lot of calories in and I don't want them to be predominantly carbohydrates. So then I kind of have to do my filling with protein. And so I am a huge fan of egg whites. I do eat real eggs as well because there's a lot of benefits that you can not get from just egg whites when you eat a real egg.
1 (27m 13s):
But I'm a huge fan of adding egg whites to a lot of things too. So I, and I would much rather do that than some kind of protein powder or something that is packaged pre highly processed. At least an egg white is an egg white. It's not, you know, 51 other ingredients. So I, I do, I am a huge fan of egg whites. I do try to keep, like, I, I find, I mean, I've done intermittent fasting. I know you're a big fan. I, but the easiest way for me to get enough protein in is to incorporate it through several meals a day. Because man, especially as a female, when I try to eat within two meals as much protein as I need, it's just way too much for me to digest.
0 (28m 1s):
Yeah, no, I hear you. I definitely shoot for two meals a day because I find that it's easier to get in enough calories and to get protein. And so I would definitely yeah. Recommend that for most people. I think that's a good goal unless you're really training towards something or wanting to maybe even put on, put on some mass. But another thing I was going to say is eating around your workouts. How do you work that out? Is that something that I know, you know, it's been sort of, well, the past thought was you should chug a protein shake right after you work out. I don't really think that's necessary. How do you do target things that you do around your workouts?
1 (28m 44s):
Yeah, no, it's very dependent, I guess for me, I honestly, and this is just how I operate because I know my body pretty well. I honestly have seen myself in every stage and every athletic place in life. I've gone from elite bodybuilding to cycling, to just kind of doing whatever and you know, throughout, I mean the last 10 years of meticulously managing my food, I don't meticulously manage my food anymore. So if I'm hungry, I eat. If I'm not hungry, I don't eat. And you know, it's almost detrimental because I feel like I did like a year of keto and I got super fat adapted.
1 (29m 23s):
And I can tell you now, ever since I did that, I don't get hungry as easily. It's like my body can switch back and forth and it's totally happy. Whereas before, when I was on a super low fat, low carbohydrate type bodybuilding style diet, I was starving to death all the time. So, you know, I eat when I'm hungry, I try to listen to my body. If I'm hungry, I eat, you know, I hopped off the bike this morning to jump on this podcast with you. I didn't eat breakfast yet. I grabbed myself a cup of coffee and probably when we're done, I'll have something. But it's, I don't, I think that our body will tell us if we, if it needs something. Okay.
0 (30m 3s):
Yeah. I hear ya. I've been I'm the same way. I, I would say I'm like, I would say I'm a fairly low carb eater. I think, I think it's a good place to be, at least for me. Cause I find that, especially in the middle of the day, if I have, you know, any type of car, but it'll sort of weigh me down and I don't want to feel like that when it's 90 degrees out and it's hot and humid, like you don't want to like, feel like you're sluggish, you know, everyone's like you said, everyone's a little bit different. Some people do rely more on carbs. Would you say that you're eating more? I know you were like a keto athlete for a while. Is that something you're continually doing still?
1 (30m 38s):
You know, I go through phases. I haven't gone through a phase right now. I think, I think that's an important part of nutrition is going through seasons with your nutrition. I think that naturally that's what we used to do. And so I think staying in any one way for a certain period of time is probably not the way we function. So I like to keep things switched up a little bit. You know, I will disclaim what I said back there. As far as listening to your hunger cues, I know my hunger cues and I know where my body's at. So I'm able to do that. But now in society like this intuitive eating push that's going on, a lot of people don't have the right hunger signaling going on.
1 (31m 19s):
Their hunger signaling is really skewed because of their lifestyle or their previous dieting. There's a lot of things. I mean, even there's a lot of studies out there supporting like your gut microbiome, influencing sugar cravings and things like that. So a lot of people's hunger signaling is really skewed, especially those that do not sleep enough. So you can't always rely on that. That's something I just do myself personally, because I'm at a place where I can do that. And I understand a lot about food, but for a lot of the general population that is looking to maybe lose weight or maintain, I don't necessarily suggest that right off the bat until you know that your hunger signaling is accurate.
0 (32m 7s):
Yeah. That's a good point because it takes time. A lot of times we're used to just eating based on the clock and you know, you'd like you said, that it's sort of a hot term, intuitive eating, but it, if you can get to that place and it it'll take, it could take time. Right. Cause we get, we get, you know, used to saying, okay, you have to eat all the time. And there's a Starbucks in every corner. And as long as right when we get a little bit, I mean, I used to be the same way. If I had a little bit of a hunger cue from my body, I would just look for like, I don't know, some type of bar or something to, but I think part of it is sort of sitting in, in your hunger a little bit. Would you agree with me, like in order to start, you know, riding out those hunger waves a little bit, so you can eventually just start, you know, being in line with what is true hunger and what is it?
1 (32m 56s):
Yeah, I think so. I E the thing is, is like, like I said, there's so many things that impact it. Right? And then the intuitive eating pushes huge right now. But the thing is, is most people have been intuitive, intuitive eating, if you think about it and it's not really serving them well, you know, but yeah, I think the being a little bit hungry is okay, it's normal. And one thing that, you know, this is kind of hard to describe, but back in the day when I was eating this super low fat diet, bodybuilding diet, I was hungry all the time, but here's another thing my blood sugar would drop like crazy. I mean, I would test my blood sugar and I'd be in the fifties and sixties.
1 (33m 38s):
And I think that that's cause I was constantly feeding my body every couple of hours. My body never understood that it could switch fuel sources and then I could burn my own body fat. So I think that, that I had never trained it at that point to go beyond a certain amount of time. And I don't, can't tell you how many clients I get, where it's the same thing. They're like, oh, my doctor told me I'm hypoglycemic. And it's like, are you really, or do you just not know how to be efficient with your own body's systems? Because I think that is a big problem these days, because we're so busy snacking and finding those bars and quick treats that we don't actually make our body have to be efficient.
1 (34m 22s):
In other ways,
0 (34m 24s):
What would you say this might be a loaded question. What would you say that the best way to get fat adapted and so that you can sort, you know, obviously the goal, I would think anybody is to rely on your own body fat for energy and you know, you know, for fuel, what, what is the best way to get fat adapted? You'd say,
1 (34m 44s):
You know, honestly, I think that you'd probably agree with me here is starting to just extend the amount of time in between your, your meals. So that may look like getting done with a meal at 5:00 PM and not eating until the next morning, because the thing is, is these people get told that they're hypoglycemic, but how the heck did they sleep all night? I mean, they're not eating every two hours at night. Your body is naturally going into a fasted state. So I think that I'm starting to extend the time in between, you know, and keto isn't a necessary thing for everybody. But honestly I think if you're in the right place, giving it a try for 30 days or eight weeks or something like that and seeing how well it serves you, you might be real surprised at the systems that are resets for you.
0 (35m 34s):
Yeah. I think you make a great point. Like I always about just eliminate snacking is such a big one. You know, if you're gonna, if you want three whole meals, that's completely fine. I always say just a good rule of thumb is don't eat too. Don't eat right when you get up and don't eat too close to bedtime, but if you want to have three meals, that's great, but let's just start off and eliminate snacking. So you can sort of like, like you said, your body can sort of adapt and realize what it's like to be like maybe with your insulin's levels a little bit lower. Yeah,
1 (36m 9s):
Absolutely. And you know, it's kind of funny the things that I start to see on lab work too. When I start working with clients, you'll see crazy, like super crazy high blood sugars in the morning when people don't sleep well. You'll see fasted insulin is super, super high when people don't sleep well. There's a lot of things that go on when people don't sleep well, that also ties into satiety and blood sugar and all these things. So you will have people out there that they want to try Quito or something like that. And they sleep horribly. And so it doesn't end up serving them well because their sleep isn't dialed in.
1 (36m 52s):
So that's why I always say it depends. It takes a full evaluation of a person looking over all of their health markers and talking to them about what their lifestyle is before you can really make any suggestions on how to fix something, I guess.
0 (37m 10s):
Yeah. I think people want to jump to their food choices right away when there's other parts of their life, aren't dialed in like stress and sleep and things like that. So that would be a good word of advice to start, start with that, and then work, work back into your food choices, because if you're not getting an optimal sleep, it probably doesn't matter how optimally you eat. You're you're, you're not going to get great results.
1 (37m 36s):
No, and stress too. I mean, stress is a huge killer. It causes so many things. I mean, honestly, if somebody wants to look a little bit into stress, there's an amazing book out there. It's called why zebras don't get ulcers, highly, highly recommend it, but it talks about stress and the, and the process and how the, it affects your blood sugar. And you see so many people that get these stress induced diseases. And we live in this society that is just so stressful in the first place, right? We're all trying to make ends meet. We're all working really, really hard and grinding our life away and then trying to exercise on top of it all. And sometimes that's just a huge recipe for disaster.
1 (38m 16s):
And I can kind of use myself as an example there, because back when I was really deep into the bodybuilding stuff, I had a very stressful job. I didn't sleep because I was so busy trying to work out and my body wouldn't lose weight. Like it, it just wouldn't. And, and I'm, I'm on a different, because I'm trying to get some, you know, single digit body fat numbers. But the thing is, is it's like when you, you can start to see all these things show up. And I went through the successful, this really stressful career for so long that when I finally dumped it, I realized I slept better. I felt better. I recovered better.
1 (38m 56s):
So many things. My weight would, I could lose weight without even dieting because I wasn't stressed. It affects a lot. It's a big, big player in the, in the health and weight loss game.
0 (39m 8s):
W w what type of things did you do to help improve, you know, improve your lack of stress? I should say some stress management tips out there. What would you,
1 (39m 19s):
Well, I mean, back in the day, I didn't have any good stress management tips out. I was a huge train wreck, right? I was preaching like nutrition and all these things, but I didn't have the whole puzzle put together. And then finally, I was still doing my coaching. I was, I was working way too much. I was doing my coaching. I was doing, I'm constantly taking classes and doing self-development. And, and then also working this extremely stressful job. And one day I'm sitting at this job and I, I couldn't sleep. And I felt horrible and all these things, and I was so scared to do it, but I was like, this job is going to kill me. My heart rate, variability sucked all the time.
1 (39m 60s):
Everything was horrible. And I was trying to optimize all these other places in my life, but my job stress was just too much. And I was like, I'm done. I don't care if I'm not making megabucks anymore. I don't care if I have to live extremely minimally because I just quit my job. I was like, I have to take care of my health. What good is my having a great job if my health sucks. And you know, there's another thing that we have to look at, and that is we pay, I mean, think of it this way. We pay for these fancy vacations and these things, we work hard so that we can buy these things that are gratifying to us.
1 (40m 47s):
Well, what is more gratifying than health? I mean, really. And I started flipping around my train of thought too. Like, I can make less money and have good health and be happy rather than grinding my life away at a stressful job. And so I kind of had to change my way of thinking around that. And when I did pretty much everything changed.
0 (41m 18s):
Yeah. I mean, I always, yeah, your, your best investment is your health. And if you're going to spend money, why not spend it on that? Because you could spend money on a lot of material things, but if you're not around to enjoy them, it doesn't really matter.
1 (41m 31s):
Right. And making less money is essentially money because you're not, I mean, you're not grinding her life away to try to make a bunch of money that you can spend on things that are gratifying when what's more gratifying than enjoying your life and your career. It may not pay as much, but Hey, you know what? I'm happy. It's paying me back tenfold.
0 (41m 50s):
Right. Oh, that's huge. Yeah. And one of the big stress things that I do, stress management tools I like to do is a little bit of meditation. I've been implementing that into my life. It's, there's so many great apps out there. I think there's a few, like, you know, 10% happier, I think is one of them. But anyways, I, I, I've been trying, you know, just 10, 20 minutes towards the evening. It's such a great hack to do because it not only will help with stress, but it'll also help wind you down and help you go to sleep. Do you do any meditation?
1 (42m 29s):
So I am not real good at meditating. I've tried it a ton of times. Yeah. I, you know, and it's funny. I find for me, honestly, meditation can be in all sorts of different forms. Right. And it can be sitting down listening to music. Honestly, I think my meditation in life is getting on my bicycle and putting my music on and just tuning out. That's the time that I don't think about anything. I don't think about clients. I don't, I just jam out. And there's a lot of research out there supporting, like singing humming, listening to music, being really good for the Vegas nerve. So I think we can find meditation in different ways.
1 (43m 12s):
Now that being said, I do focus on breathing. So you don't have to be meditating in order to focus on your breathing. And I find that a lot of times, like when we're working on a computer or something like that, we're like, you'll catch yourself breathing really shallow and you're not paying attention. So I try to be very conscious about how I'm breathing when I'm working on the computer. So making sure that I'm taking long breaths in the nose and out the nose and, and totally filling up my diaphragm with belly breathing, because I, I, I don't know why we as adults get so used to breathing a pie in our chest and these really short breaths, it might just be our lifestyle and something that we see.
1 (43m 58s):
But if you watch like a little kid, like a little baby or something, they breathe naturally down into their belly. Right. And we lose that over time for some reason. So I'm not a huge meditator. I am huge into breath work. I think it's really important. I incorporate it into a lot of my clients programming because I think it's a really important part that we're making sure that we get the right breeding breathing patterns in.
0 (44m 24s):
Yeah. And, and I've heard that from other people it's sometimes meditation, I guess it's not for everybody, but w the one thing I will say that I like about is just staying present. If you could, whatever activity, if you could try to stay present, because it's so easy to think in the past or think in the future. And I think it's just really, like, it's a skill that if you can get it, you can use that in so many aspects of your life. Absolutely. So the last thing I wanted to touch on was we talked about a Le it's a question that I ask all my guests, and I asked you the first time around when we, when we, when I did my first surgery, but what would you say a good tip for an individual that's getting up there, maybe their past their forties or middle-aged.
0 (45m 11s):
And they want to sort of get back to what they were when they're in their twenties and thirties, what kind of tip would you give them to get the maximum results?
1 (45m 20s):
I mean, it depends on what direction they're heading. And I, I hate being, I'm not, it I'm the, it depends girl, but, you know, honestly I think reducing stress and getting good quality sleep is a really great place to start. You know, this, this sleep when you're dead, think when you're dead thing is not a, not a really great thing. Another thing is if you're just starting your health journey in, you're just barely getting moving in the right direction. I, the first thing I do with people, that's totally basic is remove gluten. And I know that sounds crazy, but it usually helps people get the ball rolling on their health journey because they all of a sudden realize when they eliminate gluten, how good they feel.
1 (46m 2s):
So that's one of the, the little baby steps I use with a lot of my clients, especially people that are coming from a totally different lifestyle than where they're headed.
0 (46m 11s):
Right. Because gluten is pretty much in a lot of things, right? Like most grains. Yeah.
1 (46m 17s):
I mean, we're talking barbecue sauce. I mean, the stuff isn't, everything interests me. I have an extreme gluten sensitivity, so I can not do gluten. And let me tell you the things that I have discovered in gluten, that there's a, there's a lot, like, I mean, sauces and salad dressings and all these things. So you're better off just if, if you're looking at things in the store, it's got to say gluten-free and have that little GF on it. Otherwise I wouldn't touch it with a 10 foot pole. The other thing is, is things, things that have a label already, or a scary thing as far as gluten goes, right? So, you know, all your veggies, your safe save meat and veggies.
1 (46m 59s):
It's a really great place to start, but yeah, removing gluten and getting good quality sleep and watching your stress is a really good place to start when it comes to jumping into a health journey.
0 (47m 10s):
Perfect. Love that. Love that. Well, Connie, this was good. It went by fast. I appreciate you coming on and yeah, hopefully the listeners got some good tips and well, I look forward to talking with you down the line.
1 (47m 24s):
That sounds awesome, Brian, thanks again for having me. Yeah, no problem.
0 (47m 29s):
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0 (48m 10s):
If this sounds like a fit for you, email me@brianatbriangrin.com with the subject line blueprint. That's brian@briangrin.com with the subject line blueprint. Thanks for listening to the get lean eat clean podcast. I understand there are millions of other podcasts out there and you've chosen to listen to mine. And I appreciate that. Check out the show notes@briangrin.com for everything that was mentioned in this episode, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member who looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again, and have a great day.
