Brian (1s):
Coming up on the GET, LEAN, Eat, Clean, Podcast.
Dasha (3s):
I think the one thing that has stayed true that is always good for your gut is going to be one diversity in your diet. And two is that Fiber not too much and not too little. So the perfect amount that is recommended right now is, is around 14 grams per thousand calories a day. People are removing those fibers because remember, fibers are non-digestible. Not everyone can digest broccoli and cauliflower like they can beans. you know, there's so many different fibers out there from flax seed flour, from cheetah seeds. There's so many. Find what works for you. And I would say like that's kind of more healthy than just eliminating all of it.
Brian (45s):
This week I interviewed Dasha Agoulnik. She's a board certified registered dietician, five times published nutrition researcher and a competitive bodybuilder. We discussed what we learned from the Paleo diet along with the importance of fiber healing your gut problems with under eating Dash's 4, 3, 2, 1 rule and her one tip to get your body back to what it once was. Really enjoyed my interview with Dasha. I know you will too. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the show. All, right Welcome to the Get Lean Eat Clean podcast. My name is Brian Gryn and I have Dasha Nikka and welcome to the show.
Dasha (1m 19s):
Thank you so much for having me.
Brian (1m 20s):
Yeah, thanks for coming on. And you are a coach, also have a coaching business, educational courses. Do one-on-one, and I know you have a protein part powder as well, but I'm glad to have you on and we can discuss all things gut health related and much more. So thanks for coming on.
Dasha (1m 41s):
Thanks again for having me. Yeah, I, I'm a registered dietician, five times nutrition research, published author. I've competed twice in bodybuilding, so my niche and forte is kind, my thesis was on the paleo diet and uncovering the modern and historic discrepancies in it. I really focused a lot of my research in the physiological, like morphological changes that we had as human beings over the years and how our diet and nutrients and all those combined. So I did a lot of research there, a lot of research on the paleo diet in general and uncovering those fallacies that are, that are in there. And my master's was in nutritional epidemiology, so studying how diet affects disease in large populations.
Dasha (2m 27s):
And so a lot of my like background would be in nutrition research, I would say. And my kind of goal in, in all of this was to identify really what is the most optimal diet and exercise that we could apply to anyone in the population to help improve their health. My parents were cancer researchers growing up and so I was like, how do I, how do I one up that, you know, like y'all are cancer researchers so I figured this might be a, my next closest bet.
Brian (3m 3s):
Yeah. And I'm, I'm curious to, what was your thesis from your research done on the paleo diet and because, you know, nowadays everyone keeps talking about eating ancestrally and I, I think obviously, I don't know, I think that sometimes it could be overdone, maybe because eating optimally I like to think of is like, you know, rather than eating ancestrally, but what, what, what are your thoughts around that and And, what you learn from your, from your thesis? From what
Dasha (3m 32s):
I found? Yeah, yeah. you know, it's based off of basically data that we got from anthropologists and cartographers. So basically these people, these researchers went to go map out these indigenous species and or indigenous populations, you can say communities and just kind of take note of what they're doing, where they are And what they did was they put marks on the different populations and communities So, they would be like, you know, fish three, they like, you know, forage one and, and then basically what they did with the paleo diet is they extrapolated that data somehow.
Dasha (4m 16s):
Right. I don't know, blows my mind. Yeah. And like a few papers will even say from Easton And, you know, some of the founders of the paleo diet, they're saying like, you know, these people are eating like 130 grams of Fiber a day or a hundred plus grams of Fiber a day. And you're like, how?
Brian (4m 34s):
Yeah,
Dasha (4m 35s):
Their guts would be completely wrecked. Like how is someone eating that? And then you'll go to another population, you know, where they're eating just like seals all day, that's all they're eating is seal. And you're like, okay, well this is vastly different than the other population. So how did we get in the mindset that, you know, everyone's coming from this has diet and they're also now not eating Fiber. Because I think the trend now in the paleo community is like, don't eat Fiber. I guess that's now carnivore. But sure, regardless, there's, there's just so much. It was all rooted and founded on incorrect data collection.
Dasha (5m 17s):
I mean these people weren't even nutritionists. They had no like diet experience. It was literally just cartographers and anthropologists studying the communication in the population and marking down, you know, on a scale of one to five I think, or one to 10, they had specific numbers of the frequency of their activity level of doing something like phishing, foraging, whatever else. And then they created data around that of what their diet would look like.
Brian (5m 48s):
So what, what have you come to conclude from, from that and how do you And what do you, how do you apply it for yourself and for your clients?
Dasha (5m 56s):
Yeah, so the reason why I actually studied that was partially because I was consulting at that time for this researcher who was writing a book on the morphological changes that had happened. And so I was already kind of doing both at once, but I had actually come, this was before IBS before low fodmap, like was just becoming out in the, in the research and I, I came to my professor Tufts University, you know, I was like, I wanna do it on FODMAPs. And they were like, well like that's like, there's no research on it yet. Like don't do it Dasha you, you won't find out much on the gut. I was like, wow, okay, well fine. Like I, I'll do it on this now.
Dasha (6m 36s):
It's like FODMAPs is like 1 0 1 first thing, first line. Every single gastroenterologist is recommending low FODMAP diet. Yeah. Which is funny now in perspective But, it kind of shows that I was always interested in that gut health and understanding what we, what that healthiest diet would look like. And so what was the original question? Where are we going with this?
Brian (6m 58s):
What, what have you concluded from this research and how do you And, what are you applying with your clients with yourself like as far as what's the optimal way to eat? Yeah, okay.
Dasha (7m 6s):
Thank you. Thank you. I know this is going somewhere. Yeah, so what I found with both of those things was the Fiber Fiber is what matters most. Whether it's right, the paleo diet that was saying, you know, 113 30, whatever it was, grams of Fiber or nowadays when we're seeing how Fiber is a prebiotic and how important prebiotics are for probiotics, for syn biotics, for healthy gut health and how that modulates our neurotransmitter levels and our immune health And, you know, the gut brain axis and all of the things. I think the one thing that has stayed true that is always good for your gut is going to be one diversity in your diet and two is that Fiber not too much and not too little.
Dasha (7m 52s):
So the perfect amount that are, that is recommended right now is between, is around 14 grams per a thousand calories a day. And. what I've seen happen right now that's trending in the media is that people are removing those fibers because remember fibers are non-digestible. That's what allows the bacteria to ferment on them and feed on them and create those good good postbiotics afterwards. And people are removing those fibers because it's easier to digest. And if it's easier to digest then I don't feel as bloated or like
Brian (8m 31s):
How sure, I mean you, you see that with like the carnivore,
Dasha (8m 34s):
Right? Right. And then they produce those fruits and vegetables back into the diet and they're like, oh, I'm bloating again. I, that's the problem. When in reality it's like what if a healthy gut should be able to tolerate 14 grams per thousand calories per day and there was some sort of dysbiosis or immune problem or slow digestion or something that was causing you to not be able to tolerate those types of fibers. Or maybe you just didn't find the right Fiber for you. Not everyone can digest broccoli and cauliflower like they can beans, you know, there's so many different fibers out there from flax seed flour from cheetah seeds.
Dasha (9m 15s):
There's so many, find what works for you. And I would say like that's kind of more, more healthy than just eliminating all of it.
Brian (9m 24s):
Yeah. So you're saying like, 'cause you're seeing this like instead of eliminating what's, what could be causing the problem? Well it could be causing the problem it it But it
Dasha (9m 34s):
Could be causing the symptom. The symptom. Yeah. And not, yeah,
Brian (9m 38s):
Not addressing,
Dasha (9m 40s):
Not addressing the problem.
Brian (9m 41s):
Right. And you're saying the problem could be yeah,
Dasha (9m 44s):
Obviously the osis stress, lack of enzymes, all of these things that yeah, we're burdened with a lot of stress in our day-to-day da lives, that decreases our ability to digest food properly. When we are in a state of sympathetic stress or arousal, our blood flow diverts away from our guts. So if you are in a constant, even subconscious state of SOS and like you're you, you're even like focused in on work and you're trying to eat food like that, your body's not in a rest and digest state. It's not going to digest food optimally. And it's not going to secrete enzymes optimally, which leads to then bloating, gas, indigestion.
Dasha (10m 26s):
Right. And so we're not addressing the root problem, which is what is causing you to not be able to digest these foods and instead we're just eliminating the symptom, kind of like a bandaid solution.
Brian (10m 39s):
Yeah. You're seeing a lot of people get advice as far as eliminating, you know, dairy and grains and things like that. What, what are your thoughts on that, on that?
Dasha (10m 50s):
So I am truly a believer of everything in moderation and that our bodies should be able to tolerate like really the healthiest human, genetically speaking even can tolerate the most variety of things. It's the most resilient to the most things. When we think about problems like dairy, I really truly believe it's because we are not educated enough on the components of dairy. And I do believe that some people are, do have problems with digest, digesting dairy, But. it is not all dairy because there are three different components to dairy. There is, I would even argue a fourth component when we talk about, but let's stick to the three, which is our macronutrients, right?
Dasha (11m 34s):
Fats, carbs and proteins. That's what all food is made of. And dairy has all of it obviously. So the first component is fats. When we have high fat dairy, the fat molecules alongside the calcium that's found naturally in dairy form what's called a soap, an indigestible soap. And that can trigger a lot of diarrhea for people. So if you've ever had ice cream or creams or butters, things like that, and you get really digestive effects from it, maybe some of those soaps are coming. And this is also a part of the reason why that high fat, low fat dairy has always been such a problem from an epidemiological perspective.
Dasha (12m 15s):
When we're analyzing the data, it's because we don't really know like are people actually digesting the fat or are they just getting it out? And that's why we see such health benefits from it. So that's a different discussion, but that's is one thing that can, that can cause the digestive issues. Then we talk about carbohydrates, right? With carbohydrates there's lactose, some people do genetically have a lactose intolerance. However, in times of stress, when you have dysbiosis, when you have gut issues, your ability to digest lactose also decreases. Lastly, there's the protein component. So casein can be a tr trouble for people.
Dasha (12m 55s):
You've seen probably the A two milks that are now on the market because now with proteins you're thinking more of an immune response. Fat and carbs don't give an immune response. Usually an immune is from the proteins of any foods that we're eating. So you can have more of an immune response to the dairy. So the problem is when someone comes in and they're like, oh, I can't have butter or I can't have ice cream, so I can't have any dairy when that's not necessarily true. Something like kefi, which is very low, lactose can be low fat filled with probiotics can actually, and is shown in the research to be very beneficial for your gut because it helps to break down the foods that you're eating now, especially if we live in a state now where, as I said, we're constantly stressed, we're not digesting food properly.
Dasha (13m 50s):
If you can get that added bonus from the probiotics that are coming in and helping you to degrade the food that you're eating makes sense.
Brian (13m 58s):
Got it. Yeah. And, what about gluten?
Dasha (14m 0s):
Gluten is, gluten is very similar and I, and I will say that a lot of the population has an immune response, like I said, to the protein in wheat, which is gluten. And a lot of people find relief when they do go to Europe again because of the protein to the specific glutens that we are eating and consuming in the United States. Now, I do believe that in a healthy world there are ways that, you know, not everyone needs an immune response, has an immune response to it, only parts of the population. But we're having an immune problem in the United States because of our lifestyle.
Dasha (14m 46s):
And so I really like what I preach at corporate form is the five speed pillars, which is the five ways that your body is experiencing stress on a day-to-day basis. And I always root back to that because if you can perfect those five things in your lifestyle, you'll, you won't have as many immune reactions. your gut will improve, your hormones will improve, all of these things will improve using tools that you have full control over instead of, you know, eliminations restrictions. All of the things.
Brian (15m 19s):
And we talked a little bit before we got on here, so something that we both have done for ourselves and with clients is that GI map, is this something that you use as like a, a common test for your clients?
Dasha (15m 30s):
Yeah, So, we usually use the GI map as our preferred stool test. I'll say that we see symptom improvement 90% faster and 70%, 75% cheaper than a functional doctor would. And then we've also seen that usually around 80%, 85% of our clients don't need a GI map in general. Because a lot of times these functional providers and even doctors, they're the, they work the same. Here's a bunch of tests, here's a bunch of pills to treat the tests. And no one other than core perform that I know of and a lot of maybe other coaches who are doing something similar is addressing the root problem, which is what got you there in the first place?
Dasha (16m 14s):
What is the lifestyle habit that got you there? How do you prevent it from happening? Because everyone can put you on a restrictive diet, that's easy. But how do I go from carnivore and, and not being able to tolerate food to liberalizing and having a healthy gut and resilient gut again? And that is what we teach And what we do with our clients and patients.
Brian (16m 35s):
And so one of the main things that you, so like for example with my GI map, you talk about immune response, it, I was a bit high in in that, you know, anti glide and IGA A and eosinophils, which you know, could be, could be IBS who knows I, but
Dasha (16m 53s):
Usually more of a allergic reaction I see with the eosinophils. So those are more like mast cells. It could be from histamine related bacteria species. If I looked at it, I could kind of tell you and talk to you a little bit more. But in terms of the gluten and the anti glyadin response, this is also true. And why I've been so successful in reintroducing gluten and dairy and back into the lives of my patients. I've had patients call me years later and be like, Dasha, I'm just eating cheese and crackers, looking out my window being like, wow, I can't believe I'm here. Like I can't believe I made it to the point where food is normal again and I feel normal. And I'm also scared of all these things.
Dasha (17m 34s):
'cause they heal their gut. And the going back to the gliadin is, there's two things that will cause intestinal permeability, which is the widening of your intestinal walls that basically allows quote unquote leaky gut to occur. Where you know, you eat your broccoli, it passes through your bloodstream, now you got broccoli in your brain and your brain's freaking out. And that's not how it really works. But you can think of it kind of like that those proteins are being triggered and an immune response is happening to the broccoli. And so when people swap out their diet or completely resolve their diet, they're seeing not as many flares, they're not reacting to the foods anymore. So two things will increase that intestinal permeability.
Dasha (18m 17s):
One is two main things I would say obviously alcohol, right? But the two main other things are dysbiosis. So those pathogenic or bad gut bugs. And then the other thing is in some people gluten and so if you have bad gut bugs that are opening up your intestinal permeability, it will trigger the gluten to be flagged on your GI map. Now that does not mean that forever, you need to eliminate gluten because you know, if we get rid of the bad gut bugs, we heal the lining. Now you're, you can tolerate gluten just fine, you can tolerate broccoli just fine, even though previously you couldn't. So right now, definitely I would remove gluten from your diet because it's not helping you.
Dasha (18m 57s):
But in the future you may be able to reintroduce it just fine if you heal the gut.
Brian (19m 1s):
And. what about any blood tests that you run with your clients? Or like do you do any blood panels or just simply the GI map?
Dasha (19m 8s):
Yeah, we have a full lab shop and your listeners can all have access to this, but we have a lab shop of the recommended just like labs that I would get every six months and then labs I would get every 12 months or a year depending on what you're going through. But the general bundle I would say is just your basic C-B-C-C-M-P, vitamin DB 12 folate, iron panel insulin A1C, your glucose is already going to be in your CBC CMPs. Yeah, it's all on there. So you're free to, we, you're all your listeners are welcome to order it themselves. I think they're, they, we usually run between 200 to $350 just to run a a panel with the hormone aspects.
Dasha (19m 51s):
We also run estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, HBG thyroid panel, or sorry, T three, T four, reverse T three, TSH, those ones.
Brian (20m 3s):
Is there a common like problems that you see over and over again with people that just keep coming up?
Dasha (20m 9s):
For females it's, yeah, chronic dieting and for males it is, I would probably say like low testosterone due to stress. And even with females, I think they kind of get the worst of it because they get the stress and the undereating and the undereating is an additional stress on the body. And our hormones are so sensitive that it's like if you even a little bit it's like not good for you.
Brian (20m 39s):
And yeah, when you talk about undereating, maybe give an example of that.
Dasha (20m 44s):
So undereating would be both from a carbohydrate perspective because carbohydrates are actually necessary for your T four to convert into T three. So for females specifically, like if they're trying to lose weight and they're on this super low carb diet, it's, it's not necessarily beneficial for their metabolism and for their optimal hormones to be functioning. And really any sort of undereating, when we think of especially most the following that I have, I'm sure you have something similar is, you know, we're all active, but overdoing or underdoing it is, is really detrimental and this is stress on, on the system.
Dasha (21m 25s):
So for females, I would say like 2,500 calories, 22, 23 is where you should mostly, mostly I see healthy individuals fall between around 2300 calories. For females who are active five times a week, four to five, I would probably say up to for females, 27
Brian (21m 46s):
Probably. Yeah. And I, I, yeah, I can see this being a problem just in general, getting to that calorie amount, like you're, you yourself, you're, you know, you're sort of a, a smaller stature like, like how tall are you? Like
Dasha (22m 2s):
I do, so I'm five, four and a half on a good day. Okay. When I stand extra tall, I'm five five and I usually, I'm, I'm also a one percenter. So I do realize that because I do have celiac disease and that may influence how many calories I'm able to extract from my food, although there is no evidence to support that in the literature. But I am a,
Brian (22m 25s):
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
Dasha (22m 26s):
I am a one percenter and I'm usually bulking around above that 2,700. So usually in our bodies we have around 500 calories that we're able to fluctuate around, which means that within 500 calories you can eat at the top of that limit and not gain weight, or you can eat at the bottom of that limit and not gain weight because the body just naturally starts adapting. Right? Non-exercise activity thermogenesis. You think about, you know, you start fidgeting a little bit more these days. you know, you see your, like you can't stop walking these days though. That's with the body adapting to that little extra bit and, and catching up to it without preventing the, the weight gain.
Dasha (23m 9s):
So if we have that 500 calories now you see how females, yeah, you can get away with 17, 1800 calories pure on that downside. You're not optimizing up to that 2300. And imagine if you got to that 2300 now you can have more power output in the gym. You can build muscle more effectively. And what is muscle really metabolically active, which means that you can even burn more calories. And now you can taper up to a 23, 2500 calories drop by two or 300 calories and lose weight without even trying.
Brian (23m 44s):
Yeah. How did you, you, how do you instruct someone to get up to that calorie amount? 'cause for some people that can be difficult
Dasha (23m 52s):
And that's where I love to get the gut component involved because you know, being in a constant surplus is a digestive burden, right? Like that's a lot of enzymes your body has to be producing. And even Now, I have a, a client who's upwards of 4,000 calories a day, And, you know, he's like, you know, I feel really good. I'm not really gaining any weight, but like, you know, my body's starting to feel like I'm struggling a little bit. And you can add in and support the body in those ways and there's ways to cycle it. But going back to how do you work up to that strategies, really, it doesn't have to be that complicated. I think instead of focusing on the vegetables, focus on a little bit more grains.
Dasha (24m 35s):
And this is where, you know, fruit juices might be a little bit easier because when we think about digestion, at the end of the day, it is just like a baby. Even how we go to the bathroom is just like a baby. How do you train a baby to eat? How do you train a baby to sleep? Routine, consistency. And when it's comes to eating, you don't feed a baby a steak, right? You feed it milk, liquids, liquid proteins. Why do you think bone broth is so popular? It's not because it's magic. It's because it's really easy to digest as a protein source. So you're eating liquid foods and then you go to pureed foods when you're a little bit older and then a little bit older, you can tolerate a little bit more, right?
Dasha (25m 21s):
And so that's how you can make those smart swaps. So if you are thinking about what foods can I add to add more calories and be really easy to digest, think about the liquids, fruit juices or dried fruits a little bit. You think about oils, olive oils, even when I make shakes, like I'll pour some MCT oil into it with butyrate in it, And, you know, that's so easy for, for the gut to digest.
Brian (25m 47s):
Yeah. Are you familiar with like Dr. Ray Pete and his research and the pro metabolic?
Dasha (25m 53s):
No.
Brian (25m 54s):
Okay. Yeah, that'd be something you should, because a lot of what you're talking about sort of mimics what they, what they talk about with fruit juices and things like that is easy ways to add in calories. But anyways, that's a whole nother discussion. I've had some individuals on to talk about that. Like Jay Feldman, I dunno if you're familiar with him. But anyways,
Dasha (26m 13s):
I would say it's more of an athlete perspective and there's nothing wrong with using more other versions of it, especially just because from a dietician perspective, I get nervous with the amount of fructose that we're adding in, in a caloric surplus when the liver is not optimized. And you might see like states of fatty liver. That's just why I get nervous with like the carnivore diet ideas. Like it's a lot of fructose, which leads to non-alcoholic fat, fatty liver disease, which is one of the top killers of, of humans and, and liver disease progression. So when we, when we have high cholesterol combined with this fructose overload, it basically can help, it can form fat around the liver, which can decrease its function.
Brian (27m 2s):
Although I is is has there been some pushback on that with, with, with fructose, especially from fruits and stuff regarding a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease or from what you've seen on your end? Because I've heard some different thoughts on that, but
Dasha (27m 15s):
No, it's not, it's, there's, it's truly how fructose is metabolize. Like there's no pushback possible around the mechanism that we digest fructose because it's different than how we digest glucose, right? So it involves the liver to process the fructose regardless, like no matter what
Brian (27m 34s):
Is, okay. I, I guess I've heard, I guess 'cause fr fruit's not all just fructose, right? It's a mix of both. So I think it'd be probably tough to overdo fruit, don't you think so?
Dasha (27m 44s):
Oh, I agree. Okay. I I also think though that if you're one in a caloric surplus and you're drinking a lot of fruit juice and you're eating a lot of fruit and those are the only sources of glucose essentially, 'cause you're trying to break it down into it that your body is receiving, then it can get difficult. From an athlete's perspective, it makes sense to incorporate more grains. That's what I'm trying to say. At the end of the day, like when we tapering up to that, that caloric amount to build the body, you kind of need a little bit more
Brian (28m 13s):
And. what type of grains do you recommend?
Dasha (28m 17s):
Rice is easiest to digest. So
Brian (28m 18s):
Yeah, white rice. Yeah.
Dasha (28m 20s):
Yeah, white rice from the US is best. That's tried and true. If you're constipated, make sure that you overcook it and if you have diarrhea, make sure that you undercook it. Got it,
Brian (28m 31s):
Got it. What's, I like to ask this question, Dom. I guess what, what one thing have you changed your mind about over the last 10 years? Could be diet, could be fitness related. What's one thing you've changed from
Dasha (28m 42s):
Oh, super easy. Red meat being bad for you. I do believe that we have a lot of data around the carcinogenic effects of meat. So I still would not consume or like grill a lot of my meats continuously over time, especially as a male. But I do think it's healthy to incorporate moderate amounts within the diet.
Brian (29m 4s):
Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah. 'cause red meat, a lot of the studies are epidemiology studies, right? Which based around, and, and these are more like processed meats as opposed to like, you know, like a quality meat and Yeah.
Dasha (29m 17s):
And a lot of times too, those, by the way, when we do do those, that data is nowadays, a lot of times we will mark that as processed versus unprocessed meat. So that is two separate categories. Now. In the past they didn't mark the data that way, but now we've, we quote unquote know better. So a lot of the studies that are saying the negative health effects, like still stay true because, you know, they've incorporated confounding variables for smoking exercise, like education levels. Like you have to think about the, the surveys that they take of the United States and the populations. It's so large and there's so much, which is awesome, right?
Dasha (29m 58s):
You should all complete your surveys so that we can fix the, the research if, if you think that it's a problem. So we can basically stratify to see, you know, someone like you and me, we can actually pull out those people and compl do research and analysis on that extracted data sample.
Brian (30m 17s):
Got it. So you've changed your mind on protein? Yes. I mean, excuse me, on, on meat, red meat. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, like I think if you're having quality meat, as long as you're not like burning it, I think, you know, then that would maybe be where you, you know, that carcinogenic effects could happen from just burning meat, but hopefully, you know, cooking it lightly, no issues there.
Dasha (30m 39s):
Yeah, and there's something to say too. So there's this one study that does a really great job at it, but they basically boiled it down to either three or four different mechanisms that would explain why red meat is not great for us to try and explain the studies, right? Because we can say the study, but like how do you ex explain the bio mechanism of which this is happening upon? And I don't remember the complete details, but the first one was like the iron and the heme that's found in it, specifically for males for some reason it seems to be an issue of the iron source at the same time of how it's metabolized with carbohydrates.
Dasha (31m 24s):
I think some sort of component around that. But we'll have to find the study and send it out to everyone. Okay. But, it basically makes me believe that yes, we can have it in moderation, but it's still something to we don't know enough about.
Brian (31m 38s):
Okay. And what's, I'm a big routine guy. What's a typical routine like for you? Eating, working out and things like that and Yeah, I'm just curious.
Dasha (31m 46s):
I started a new routine actually I went to a mastermind last month and because it required me to get up and train before I got to the meetings, I changed my routine might be a good thing. But, so I wake up, I will have carbs and eaas while I train, so I'll go train, then I'll come home and eat, get in the office by eight or nine and then I usually use the 4 3, 2 1 method. So I'll have that breakfast, lunch, dinner, sometimes maybe a snack. But usually I'm a big meal person. And then at night I use the 4 3, 2, 1 method, which is what I preach in practice is four hours before bed you're unplugging from work three hours before bed, you stop eating two hours before bed, you stop drinking and one hour before bed you unplug from electronics.
Dasha (32m 39s):
So that's my wind down routine and wind up routine I would
Brian (32m 43s):
Say, oh, I like that 4, 3, 2, 1. That's good.
Dasha (32m 46s):
Yeah, it's really easy to remember and it will optimize your sleep, optimize your digestion, give your gut rest, and allow you to have that full fasting period, which is 12 hours that we've seen health benefits from.
Brian (32m 60s):
So four, what's the four
Dasha (33m 1s):
Unplugged from work mentally
Brian (33m 4s):
Got three is stop eating before bed two is, what was it? What's that?
Dasha (33m 12s):
Drinking? I need liquids so that you're
Brian (33m 14s):
Not Oh, gonna the bathroom. Yeah. Yeah. I need to abide by that one. And one is just like completely unplugged from anything.
Dasha (33m 22s):
Yeah.
Brian (33m 22s):
Electronic. I'm
Dasha (33m 24s):
Human. Like, I don't, it's not like two hours my alarm goes off and I'm like, can't drink any more water. It's just like naturally that's what I recommend doing and I'm around that.
Brian (33m 35s):
Yeah, I definitely, I would say I implement something very similar to that. Yeah, I, I, I definitely like, I always like cutting off that eating window just to help with digestion. I also think like going for a walk after eating meals, especially in the evening can help as well.
Dasha (33m 50s):
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. Anytime a five, 10 minute walk after eating is really great to just bring things down and let gravity do its own job. A lot of people have acid reflux and they're the type of people who sometimes, like one tip for acid reflux would be not to lay down after eating because Sure. Think about yourself perpendicular. It's, it's gravity's doing the job in one space and on the other space you're not letting gravity do the work of pull helping you to pull it through the digestive system.
Brian (34m 21s):
Yeah. And I would, just going back on our talk about undereating, like, I mean, you're eating how many calories? Usually
Dasha (34m 28s):
I'll be eating between around 2,700
Brian (34m 30s):
Calories. 2,700 calories. And you're petite. I mean, you're five four.
Dasha (34m 35s):
Yeah, I'm definitely a one percenter. Yeah.
Brian (34m 37s):
But you know, I think a lot of women are afraid that Yes. Yeah. They're afraid to get up to that. I can tell you my wife alone, I'm having, I'm trying to get her to actually eat more. Yeah. And it's not so easy. One thing we, and that's, that's
Dasha (34m 51s):
Important conversation. I'm so glad that you're doing that to, in supporting her with that because I think a lot of our society and we've ingrained in females that they need to eat less. And it's almost like the best thing that a partner can do is provide that safety for a woman that's like, Hey, I love you so much, I wanna help you feel even better, be even healthier. Like, I'm going to eat with you and we're going to eat a lot together and we're gonna get dessert together, you know, and be a part of the process.
Brian (35m 20s):
Yeah, I, I've tried. It's not the easiest. I will say, like you mentioned before, one thing that we did is we, with her like coffee, she likes just like a morning coffee. We made it into like a shake. So added in a quality protein and at least she's getting something there.
Dasha (35m 37s):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Make it a shake, like we said. Right? Bring it down to the liquids as many, as much as possible. Right. The puree foods are super easy. Whenever I have someone who's really, really struggling with their gut, I'll even recommend, you know, cooking down like green beans and carrots super well, and then pouring some bone broth in at homemade. Or you can buy some and then just puree it. And now it's like so easy to digest. And even the meat you can puree in the bone broth and eat that separately. you know, at that point you don't have to do at your body doesn't have to do as much work
Brian (36m 13s):
To digest it. Right.
Dasha (36m 15s):
So think about people. Yeah. When you think about people, they tell me all the time, they're like, Dasha, I eat an RX bar and like all these things. And I'm like, have you ever, like, that's what an RX bar sounds like if you bang it a on a countertop, right? Like how is your gut going to digest that when it's just this organ system that's trying to mush it together? So the easier to digest foods will always be, you know, soups, stews, very well cooked fibers broken down, and that's how you can really optimize your gut health.
Brian (36m 45s):
Yeah. And tracking, I think tracking calories is important, especially early on just to know where you're at.
Dasha (36m 51s):
Yeah, a hundred percent.
Brian (36m 53s):
Excellent. Well, I always ask this to most my guests, if you were gonna give one tip to, to an individual that was looking to get their body back to what it once was like 10 years ago, what one tip would you give them?
Dasha (37m 5s):
Follow the speed pillars. So I don't think I even talk, talk to you guys about what those speed pillars were that we preach with our clients, but it's called speed. So the first is sleep, the second is personal stress, the third is environmental stress. The fourth is exercise and the fifth is diet. All of these things are causing stress in your life. Personal stress, we all have kids work, et cetera, but everyone perceives stress completely differently. So you have full control of rewiring your brain to perceive stress differently, to help with your digestion so that you're not in a state of SOS in, in the sympathetic state. Right. And that we can get you into the parasympathetic state to start eating your food again.
Dasha (37m 49s):
Right. So sleep, personal stress, environmental stress, exercise and diet. If you can choose one and just do one thing this week, set one goal, you know, I'm gonna, my sleep sucks, so I'm gonna implement the 4, 3, 2, 1 method this week. You are already doing something to better your health.
Brian (38m 7s):
Love that. The speed technique.
Dasha (38m 9s):
Yeah. Speed up your metabolism by slowing down.
Brian (38m 12s):
Yeah. Yeah. Stress, you know, whether it's psychological or environmental, you know, like it, it can take a toll on on your gut health and, and just your energy levels and, and like you said, they're all sort of intertwined together and
Dasha (38m 23s):
Why do you feel so good on vacation when you're eating? You're like, I went, I have so many people. I went to Mexico and I felt amazing the whole time. Like no food issues. I'm like, yeah, you're not stressed out.
Brian (38m 35s):
Right. You're not stressed out. You're probably walking on the beach getting some sun grounding. Yeah,
Dasha (38m 40s):
Exactly.
Brian (38m 41s):
Well, Dasha, this was a great conversation. Best place for people to find you
Dasha (38m 45s):
Instagram at Dasha Fitness. I have actually a webinar that goes through all those like 50 plus ways to improve your gut and hormones that I talk about, the speed pillars and 10 ways for each. So if you go to my page, it should be up there.
Brian (38m 59s):
Okay. Yeah. Dasha Fitness on Instagram, All. right. Well thank you so much.
Dasha (39m 4s):
Thanks for having me and thanks for asking you all the best questions.
Brian (39m 8s):
Oh, I try, it's like my 400 something episode, so you think I'd be halfway decent. So have a great rest of the day.
Dasha (39m 14s):
Thank you, you too.
Brian (39m 16s):
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 at Brian Gryn dot com for everything that was mentioned in this episode. Feel, feel free to subscribe to the podcast and share it with a friend or family member that's looking to get their body back to what it once was. Thanks again and have a great day.
