All About LTH: The Story of Life Time’s Nutritional Supplement Line

< Full Episode

Transcript: All About LTH: The Story of Life Time’s Nutritional Supplement Line

Season 9, Episode 5  | October 1, 2024

[MUSIC]

Welcome to Life Time Talks, the podcast aimed at helping you achieve your health, fitness, and life goals. I’m Jamie Martin, editor in chief of Experience Life, Life Time’s whole life health and wellness magazine.

And I’m David Freeman, senior director of Alpha, one of Life Time’s signature group training programs. We’re all in different places on our health and fitness journeys, but no matter what we’re working toward, there are some essential things we can do to keep moving in the direction of a healthy and purpose-driven life.

In each episode, we break down various elements of healthy living, including fitness and nutrition, mindset and community, and health issues. We also share real, inspiring stories of transformation.

And we talk to experts from Life Time and beyond who will share their insights and knowledge so you have the tools and information you need to take charge of your next steps.

Before we get into this episode, a quick reminder that Life Time Talks is available in the complimentary Life Time app, as well as on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you like what you’re hearing, we’d love it if you’d subscribe to Life Time Talks and leave a review. It’s the best way to help us reach even more listeners with this healthy living information.

And with that, let’s get into the show. Here we go.

[MUSIC]

Jamie Martin

Welcome back to another episode of Life Time Talks. I’m Jamie Martin, and I’m here without my cohost, David Freeman, today, but I have an amazing guest. You guys all probably recognize Anika Christ. She has been with Life Time for many years, and we are going to be talking about the story of Life Time nutritionals today. Anika, how are you?

Anika Christ

I’m so good. Thank you for having me too.

Jamie Martin

This is a really fun story, but before we get to that, I want to make sure everyone knows your background. Anika is a registered dietitian and personal trainer and currently the senior director of nutrition and weight loss at Life Time. She spent the last 15 years creating nutrition programs and solutions for both members and personal training clients. And you probably recognize her as coach Anika from member favorite programs like D.TOX, Lean and Tone, or the 60 Day challenge. You’ve been doing a lot of really fun things over the years, Anika.

Anika Christ

I try to have fun. What do they say, if it’s if it’s not fun it’s work, so that’s my goal every day, like making it fun, having a blast.

Jamie Martin

I know I feel like we get to do that in our roles and then the times we get to work together it’s even more fun add to that.

Anika Christ

Absolutely.

Jamie Martin

And you are one of our most regular guests — your colleague, Sam, I think might be like winning that tally right now.

Anika Christ

Yeah.

Jamie Martin

Sam McKinney and Paul Kriegler.

Anika Christ

She’s the smart one.

Jamie Martin

Oh, come on now!

Anika Christ

She’s good one.

Jamie Martin

OK, so we’re talking Life Time nutritionals, and this is a pretty interesting story because for the past 20-plus years, Life Time has been in the space of supplements and having different vitamins and minerals. But it’s not a part of the business that’s gotten a lot of attention, but we want to talk about that. We want to change that going forward. So, tell us a little bit, to start, about how Life Time got into this in the first place. And again, it was a long time ago now.

Anika Christ

Yeah. So, I’ve been around for 15 of those years. So, I always tell people, I started in the clubs in our Arizona market. And there was this legendary story that I heard just even as a brand new team member being a nutrition coach at Life Time. And it kind of comes with our founder, Bahram Akradi. And I will say when it comes to supplements at Life Time, it’s kind of our best kept secret. Usually if you’ve heard about them, you’ve done one of my programs or maybe you’re working with a trainer. And so we’re trying to do more due diligence on kind of telling that story so that if you’re not in that program or working with a trainer, you know about it you feel really great about it.

What I love about kind of our members is they know the quality of Life Time, right? You see it every day you’re in there. We do no shortage there in the supplements either. And I know we’ll kind of get into that a little bit later, but where it started is 20-plus years ago, Bahram was taking supplements. And if you know the guy, I know him really well. He loves nutrition. He values nutrition really well. So he really lives and eats that lifestyle. But he is always curious of, what am I paying for? Is it actually what’s in there? And that’s kind of how the industry is known. I know a lot of clients I work with, they’re like, I heard this is snake oil, or this is a waste of money. We hear that all the time. And so he actually funded third-party testing on these products he was taking at the time. So, you send them into a lab, they’ll actually look at it, measure it, and see, hey, what’s in there, what’s in there. And he found out later it wasn’t and that the results were abysmal.

And so — and there was probably things in there that he didn’t know what was in there. And that’s kind of part of the industry. So from that day forward, he decided like, hey, Life Time’s going to offer something better. That is the quality that the customers are expecting when they purchase and spend money on taking a product like that, but that it matched the quality of everything that we do at Life Time. And so since then, I think it was 2002, we’ve had supplements on the shelves inside of our cafes, inside of our clubs and obviously available online too.

But learning that as I was coming in, I was like, wow, that’s incredible. Like I couldn’t have funded that. So sometimes you rely on certain people to do that and kind of expose some of some of the nuances in certain industries. But that made me feel really proud because you said it, I’m a dietitian. So you kind of get into this industry knowing that people need supplements, right? If you’re stressed, just today’s lifestyle, the food in America, there’s several reasons why. But the problem is, you know, so much of the industry is really tainted and that they can be wasting your money. So I’ve always felt really good that A, we have something that people need and desire, but then B, still to this day, the whole point was doing something that was high quality. But knowing what was in there, feeling confident, being able to share and educate that. And that’s what we’re trying to do now is kind of share that story so people feel really good about taking our stuff.

Jamie Martin

A hundred percent. And when you talk about the different like attention to detail that goes into our supplements, we’re going to go into depth on that later. But I do think, you know, the commitment by Bahram and the team, even to back in 2002 or whenever that was, I always think about when I think about our facilities, like every detail down to like the color of the grout in the corner of the shower is thought about. And it’s because we want it — we care about all of those little things. And that’s true whether it’s in our facility or a product we offer or a nutrition product that we offer as well. And as you were just saying, we’re trying to, let members know — some members know about it, a lot of our team members know about Life Time’s nutritional story, but we want that to expand because we know that the health and nutrition of America and just more broadly in general is not that great and our products can help supplement that. So want more people to know about it.

Our products have largely been known as like supplements by Life Time Fitness over the years. We’ve recently were in the process of rebranding to LTH. Tell us a little bit about that evolution, how we got to that.

Anika Christ

Yeah. So I think for a lot of us, you know, health is wealth. That’s what I think of when I think of Bahram, when I think of team members at Life Time, like we will invest in our health, that if you don’t have your health, you have nothing. We think we really live by that.

I think for us, for Life Time Fitness — the company has evolved. So we don’t call our destinations that anymore. So for a long time, our supplements still had that trademark on there. And really our goal was, hey, let’s refresh, let’s make it new. As we’re telling that story, like make it be something that stands apart that people can start to recognize. And for those listening in that have been fans of our line before, you’re going to see a little bit of a face left over the next coming months. And we’re trying to make it easier to actually pick the products that you need. So you’re going to see some different marks on each of the bottles that kind of show the key benefits of what’s actually in the product.

When I think of my clients, I do a lot of education. So they know the reasons why magnesium is necessary, for an example. But for people just walking by or coming in the clubs that aren’t getting that education, trying to make it much easier. Maybe they know and learn about magnesium, but hey, what’s the key benefit to that? That I can quickly pick up so that when I’m looking or shopping, I know what this supplement actually helps with.

And we could go on and on and on — there’s so many gaps just in our diet today. So, but I understand that everyone’s not like us or me where they’ll just do things for the health of it. So it’s like, well, what is this actually going to do for me? And do I absolutely need it? So we’re doing a lot more education on calling that information out, but then also outlining like, hey, if you could only take one thing, what’s the thing you should go after. And what’s great about Life Time, our customers walking in, they’re here, they’re there to move their body, right. That’s what’s so great is we have so many different ways and options to move your body and that changes your needs with nutrition too. So understanding, is there certain things to help with those movements as I prep for those movements, as I recover from those movements, or if I just am just everyday wellness, what can I do to get better?

And not to mention, you know, a lot of my clients, they’re on certain medications and we do a lot of education on, what nutrients do medicines deplete in your body? And that’s always just a huge learning that they didn’t pick up from, you know, their physician or whoever had diagnosed or put them on certain things. So just learning like, hey, that’s fine, but like, what do we have to do on the off side to help support your full-body metabolism? And that’s been pretty eye opening for a lot of our members as well too.

Jamie Martin

Yep. I just want to kind of go on that for a little bit. A couple of our editors for Experience Life were recently at the annual conference for the Institute for Functional Medicine. And this was the first year that they’ve been there where supplements had a really huge role. And I remember them coming back and they were saying like, it was the first year we were like supplements are no longer like kind of like at this nice add on to nutrition, it’s really becoming foundational because of the way our food supplies have changed, because of the way people are eating, or all the medicines we’re on, or whatever it looks like. So I was really, I was like, OK, this is no longer kind of an either-or thing, it’s a both-and in this space. It’s like, yes, we want to eat well when we can, but that’s even a challenge in today’s environment. But then having these supplements that can help fill in the gaps is going to become more and more critical, I think, not just now, but in the years to come.

Anika Christ

Yes, I think some good examples of that too, because when I started an industry, I had some clients — I remember a lot of people thought, were like, I can just outwork a bad diet. And now I feel like most people are like, no, nutrition’s a big part of it. So I feel like supplements are kind of having their day now.

Yeah, it’s absolutely critical. You could eat perfect, but the food doesn’t have the nutrition it once did. And that has a lot to do with the soil that it grows in, the processing that we do in. There were new studies recently on just like, I think it’s estimated over 70% of the average American diet is ultraprocessed, which has nothing in it. And I’ve seen it and I’ve been fooled by that too. You see healthier choices for processed food. You’re like, it’s gluten-free or it’s at this specific grocery store. But then there’s nothing really in it that like helps fuel your body. So I think in America, we, we really value convenience. I get it. I coach a lot of parents, parents are especially, there’s just a lot on everyone’s plate. And I deal with a lot of kids that are on medications to help with their brain health. And so it’s talking that through, like, did you know that this medicine depletes melatonin in their body? And they don’t know. And then the next thing is, do I need another pharmaceutical to help with sleep? I’m like, well, actually, what if you just supplemented with melatonin because this drug depletes that? And they’re like, no one’s ever told me that. And that breaks my heart a lot of the time. And that’s where I’m like, that’s OK. There’s a use case for a lot of pharmaceuticals, but the backend that needs support is the nutrients that they actually deplete. And if you can support that, you can help people feel better, especially at that young age.

So, that’s a real big part of my corporate team. There’s a corporate team of dietitians and we do a lot of education to help trainers and their clients and just members in general with that for sure.

Jamie Martin

I mean, I think that’s a differentiating factor right there in terms of that education that we’re putting out there so people understand and know, because really education is power, right? When we give this information or share this information, do with it what you will, but you can be empowered to make a choice tomorrow that you maybe couldn’t make yesterday.

Yeah, so on that note, I think that’s why it’s so important, you know — you kind of said supplements are having their day right now in this moment. Why is it more important than ever to understand what are some of the challenges in the supplement industry because there are some things that as consumers we need to be watching for or potentially avoiding because there’s a lot of, like you said, the snake oil messaging and all that and in some cases that can be true. So, what should consumers be aware of or watching for in this space and what are some of the challenges in the industry that we’re up against?

Anika Christ

So, there’s a couple of things that come to mind. I even think of when we launched that multivitamin back in 2002, it was really educating our consumers on why a capsule versus a one-a-day tablet, right? And really it came down to education with even what was on the bottle. If you compared both bottles back-to-back, you could see one that had significantly higher amounts of different nutrients, vitamins and minerals. But A, you can’t really jam-pack a high dose of anything into a tablet. It also doesn’t really break down in the body so your body can actually absorb it. So, there’s different processing of those nutrients. But it also gives us a barrier to overcome. A lot of people are like, well, there’s three to six capsules I have to take, is that too much, and like well, you only absorb so much of each thing.

So, we do a lot of education just first on like what you’re buying — a lot of it people purchase based off of marketing. When I look at the space, that’s where most of the money is spent. At Life Time, we’re a little bit different. We spend a lot of money in the quality of the product, where there’s a lot of convenient store options that the markups are astronomical, where you’re paying 300% of what it actually costs to make that and A, it’s low quality, but B, why are you spending that much profit on there? Cause the profits going to marketing and getting people confused of what’s actually available.

So when I educate consumers, I’m always like, well, first of all, I want to know what’s in there. So what’s it, even if it’s not right, what are they actually putting on the bottle? What are the forms of those nutrients? There’s more absorbable nutrients of certain vitamins and minerals. We should put those in the show notes. We have a really great guide — you brought up Sam — that she made that we use with trainers like this versus that on certain B vitamins, folate specifically, that’s a big one, so people can actually absorb it.

So we look at the actual forms of the ingredients and then what is the actual raw ingredients? Where are they coming from? The manufacturer that’s taking in that raw ingredient, do they actually test it so that it’s exactly what they ordered or bought from their supplier? You would be shocked at how much that is off or laced with other things that they don’t know. So that’s part of the raw ingredients part. But then I always think of B, the marketing, but then C, how are you actually taking it?

So one other thing we’re looking at too, when you look at the amounts is, we’ll call it pixie dusting. But when it’s being marketed, like, hey, these specific ingredients are in this. So right now, one big theme that we’re seeing is ingestible skincare. So people will find products that have vitamin C, it’s got hyaluronic acid. And we’ll ask, well, how much hyaluronic acid? And they’ll turn it around, and they’re like, it doesn’t say. And I go, well, isn’t that interesting that they are marketing a specific ingredient but not telling you how much they’re actually using it? And then if you dig deeper, not everyone has time for this, but I’m like, when you find the scientific literature, what was studied on a human to show an impact with that ingredient? And we, ironically, we have a product coming out later this year and we have 200 milligrams of hyaluronic acid in it and the studies show 120 to 130 is what was studied to show an impact on skin health. But a lot of them don’t notate it. And so we’ll call it pixie dusting because they’ll put a proprietary blend in there of several ingredients, but they won’t notate what’s in there. And that’s, it’s hard when you, and I hate to be that person, but I’m educating and they’re like, I spent 800 bucks on, you know, they spend a lot of money. And then you’re like, you want it to work. So that’s a whole other thing. But then I always look at, OK, so then once the manufacturer’s making it, let’s say they have good ingredients, they’re doing the right doses, the efficacious dosages that are found and studied, then it’s actually packaging it up. Where is it being stored is a thing. I always tell my clients, like, where you find, you know, your favorite influencers that are selling you t-shirts, if the supplements you’re buying are in the same storage facilities as that, are they temperature controlled? And they’re like, I never thought about that. I go, yeah, how you transport certain ingredients, how you store them, it matters. It should matter.

Jamie Martin

Absolutely.

Anika Christ

So just kind of like unveiling that, I think, for people. And I always say the best thing you can do is, if you want to know why, email, ask them. You would be shocked at how many times I’ve had clients show the email responses from certain companies they’ve reached out to where they didn’t answer the question. They said they weren’t available to, or they’ll use the, well, it’s proprietary. We can’t share that information. We don’t want people to copy us. And it’s like, shake your head, turn away — you deserve information and transparency. And that’s why I love Bahram’s story with us too, it was all about, let’s just be transparent. Why are we hiding stuff?

And you’ll see on all the LTH supplements, everything is notated right in there. If you have questions, you can ask us. The field of trainers loves that because there’s a guy on my team, Paul Kriegler, that’s on the show often too. We visit that manufacturer often. So we know what’s there. We audit it, we visit it. And I think you would ask like, why do, what do we do differently at Life Time? And I was like, we own the whole process. We want to know where those ingredients come from. We want to make sure that we picked a manufacturer that goes above and beyond what’s required. And that’s always part of the, when people use snake oil or this industry is a little bit flawed, a lot of it comes back to how we regulate it. And there is regulations of the FDA. They haven’t been touched in years though. And I always tell people when those are developed, there was minimal companies. There’s probably 10X plus the amount of companies now in the industry. And it deserves an evolution, but people find the nooks and crannies to kind of get away with certain things. We don’t, we picked the best of the best. They are the most expensive too, right? Cause quality, that’s where the price will go in. But they do things that they don’t have to do, but we can visually see they test every raw ingredient, every batch, everything that comes in.

They have stories of getting raws from other places that said it was vegan protein and it was laced with soy when it was supposed to be pea protein specifically, and they say, they turn it away. So it’s like just knowing that side of the house makes us feel a lot more confident, but they run every process through like the highest quality so that we know, hey, what’s in there? We work with them on our formulas to make sure it’s heavily-backed research, efficacious dosages in human studies. And I say that —

Jamie Martin

Not just animal studies, right?

Anika Christ

Animal studies, I’m like, that’s great to know, but that’s not, that doesn’t work for us.

And then we are really big on, when we get it, we actually own our own warehouse where we store it. We can make sure that it’s at the right temperature, it’s getting at the right speed so that we know the whole process A to Z.

Jamie Martin

I literally was writing down questions as we were going and I wrote down efficacious dose and then you covered it without me prompting. You covered regulation without me prompting. I’m like, because I think those are such things. I mean, one of the things that I know I’ve directly heard Bahram talk about and you as well is like, when he did that testing, what he was also finding is like, they weren’t in the doses that were promised on the labels too. And so that’s one of the things that we’re really diligent about it, making sure that those things are actually accurate. And then also going above and beyond what is required from a legislation standpoint.

I think, and now I’m going to have to go back and fact check this, but I think it was like, wasn’t it like 1994 that the last regulations happened?

Anika Christ

90s, for sure.

Jamie Martin

Yeah, it’s nothing has changed. That’s 30 years ago.

Anika Christ

Well, think of all the supplements that just popped up post-pandemic. And you’re like, they all can just kind of get in and then do, and then you’re trusting it. And so we pick a manufacturer that does their own internal testing, but then we also, once it’s a finished product, it’s sent for third-party testing too. And again, that’s not required. You don’t have to do that, but it’s an extra step for someone to say, what you said is in there is in there. There’s nothing in addition in there. And it’s at the dosages that you described all the way down to every single nutrient that’s in there, right. And it’s expensive. That’s why I think, people don’t do it because it costs money. And if you, it is an investment in your health, right?

Jamie Martin

Yes.

Anika Christ

But even for the company, it’s like, well, if you don’t have to, like, yeah, most of them don’t do that because it’s not required. It’s not regulated to do that.

Jamie Martin

If they do do it, let’s say there is maybe one of the rare handful of people or companies that do test in third party. Will that be on the label typically? Will they note that? Can you check that? Is that one of the questions you could email and ask about?

Anika Christ

Absolutely. So we help. And I think of even when I was in the club, I’d have clients bring in bags of supplements. And I won’t say I’m that person, but I’m interested in the category too, I like to see what’s out there. And we would go one by one. And I would usually say, why are you taking it? And a lot of times they were like, I don’t know. Someone told me to. A doctor, a friend, a family, or I saw it, back then it was on an infomercial, probably just like Instagram or social today. And I was like, well, isn’t that a problem? You don’t even know why you’re taking it. Like, let’s just start there. But then I would show them that and I would say, well, I take it because this form of B vitamin is in there or I don’t like artificial anything. So sweeteners, colors, flavors, that’s a no-go for me. And there’s a lot of protein powders that have that. That’s usually where anything that’s tasting away, usually a lot of the nasty stuff gets in there and they’re like, but it gets me to take it. I’m like, but you don’t have to. And that’s what’s so cool about the industry too. What I’ve seen over the last 10 years is flavors have changed. So there’s a lot of natural ways to enhance flavors without having to do that.

And I think the consumer is getting a lot smarter now. I still have clients that have stuff that they’re like, can you look in my cabinet? What is this? And we’ll still go through that exercise, but, I always am like, I want it third party tested, validated what’s in there. It needs to be a clean ingredient list. It needs to be something that you and I both agree is something you want help with or needed or that’s missing in your food.

Jamie Martin

There’s a gap there.

Anika Christ

There’s a gap there. Because everyone’s a little bit different. We have similarities in America where I think we’re all getting too much processed foods, even the best clients of mine. But I would still say, there’s certain things that some people are eating their way through and others are like, yeah, no, we need more supplement support here because you’re making certain choices that aren’t giving you optimal intakes of stuff. So it’s sad. It’s a lot.

Jamie Martin

It’s a lot. So I want to talk, I mean, you mentioned some of the steps that Life Time is taking with our products with LTH. Talk a little bit, like, let’s use one example. Let’s use one of our proteins, for instance, like from how is it sourced. And I’m thinking of, is it the cows in New Zealand or whatever? Whatever that product is.

Anika Christ

Love the cows.

Jamie Martin

So let’s start with an example. What’s that sourcing? Let’s pick a product and go from there.

Anika Christ

Well, OK, I would do protein or fish oil. So, our fish oil, I love that story. And I’m super passionate about this too, because when we launched our fish oil, there wasn’t many great options out there. And a lot of them did have levels of mercury that weren’t being purified or tested for. And that was kind of a big scare. And it’s funny, because I feel like during the pandemic that started to like resurface. I had a lot of clients doing tuna because remember the meat?

Jamie Martin

Yeah.

Anika Christ

Remember I think everything increased and they’re like, I think I have too much mercury. Should I stop the fish? So I go, ours is actually clean, purified, tested for no mercury. But I really love our story because this is another thing where it goes back to like traceability and does the company that you’re purchasing from, do they share this information? If it’s not public on a website, can you call them? Can you email them and ask that? And so that specific product we’ve had for 20-plus years, it comes from anchovy fish that are in Chile right off the coast. And a lot of fish oil is sourced from there. Cause that’s where a lot of those fish obviously live. That’s where we get that. But a lot of what’s really interesting is a lot of the space will market Nordic. And so that it’s up in Norway, kind of in those coasts. And the reality is those fish are source Pacific and then they’re being shipped up there to be manufactured into fish oil. Our fisheries different. It’s actually located right next to where it’s being sourced from. So when you think of like, I always think like food miles with like when you, why you shop at a farmer’s market, get it locally sourced, the longer something’s trucking to another place, the less nutrition.

So there’s higher risk for rancid, become rancid when it’s trucking up to Norway, where ours is like right there fresh as possible. So we choose anchovy because they’re naturally lower in mercury. They’re not a predatory fish like salmon or anything else that could have that. So it’s naturally going to be a low source anyway, but then we test it and make sure that through third party and through our manufacturer that there’s no mercury in it. And then for us, I think like, it’s used in a triglyceride form, which is more absorbable than other fish oils out there as well. And it, it doesn’t like, it’s actually high EPA and DHA. So we make sure that when you’re going to take this, again, efficacious dosages, where most of the market, like in one serving of ours, you’d have to take eight times that to get it. So I was like, so we’ve done it in a way where it’s high quality. You can take less pills to get what you’re getting.

 

It’s as much EPA and DHA as what’s in an eight-ounce filet of salmon without the mercury. And so for us, we were really proud of that one. And again, we were early in the space, but then as that space has evolved, there might be higher dose options out there. But then I said, well, where does it come from? And how is it being sourced and manufactured? And they don’t know their story. So it’s like, well, we’re really confident in our story and we are very transparent about it too. So I always say that’s always my first gauge with other companies. If they’re not willing to share and they’re not going to give you the detail of it, then how you do anything, honestly, is how you do everything, I think. That’s why I love our products. You visually can see the club and the quality, and you’re like, OK, quality is important to Life Time.

Jamie Martin

Absolutely. That’s why we’re in this space. And we want nutrition accessible and easy to make those decisions.

Anika Christ

That’s kind of my favorite, but we do have happy cows in New Zealand. Where the whey — everyone loves to hear about the happy cows. But they’re in their natural environment. They’re eating what they’re intended to eat. We know the lot and the farm that they’re at. if people wanted to know that, that’s information that we have and it’s the best grass-fed whey. It tastes amazing. But people love it. Like it’s a top skew for us too. And for us, it’s just easy access protein. Everyone needs protein. But we want it to taste good.

And I always think of how the protein powders have evolved. They used to be really chalky and gross. Now —

Jamie Martin

Oh, ours is so good. I had it this morning.

Anika Christ

So good. Yes, it’s the best. I just did the strawberry one this morning. But it tastes good and it works. And it’s something you want to do. That’s where that story is. A lot of our customers want to do a daily shake. And if you’re going to do a daily shake, it can’t have nasty stuff in there. Right. You know, even as dietitians, it’s like do I go left sometimes and have an artificial sweetener here and there? Yes, but not every day. And I don’t want it in my shake, my healthy, nutritious shake every day. So we’re really big about using natural ingredients. And again, like exposing that. So people are like, well, what is this on your label? We’ll tell you everything.

Jamie Martin

We can tell you that.

Anika Christ

It’s right there. I’m going to tell you the story.

Jamie Martin

Yep, and I think that’s so nice to know from, it’s not just the omega-3s or the whey protein, it’s literally every product that we have. And that’s kind of where I want to go next because I’m trying to think, like, how many products are available now and where are we going? Because I know there’s more coming, especially with this that we’re going through.

Anika Christ

Yeah, so I think we have close to 64 SKUs that are LTH branded. And some of those have different flavor options, you know, for a lot of our workout nutrition, we have different flavors. Cause if you’re doing aminos every day, maybe you get bored of lemon lime and you want a different flavor. And really we’ve made this line for our customer that goes through the front door every day at Life Time. So a lot of them are moving their bodies on a regular basis. It’s from what their needs are. I always joke because I’ve been here for so long, like a lot of it is stuff I’ve heard in the locker room that were needs and wants. It was through customer interactions. We have a lot of parents at Life Time. We have a lot of executives. We have a lot of entrepreneurs. And one thing that all of them have in general in common is stress. Good stress, but stress. Like they are like the change makers in the world. So I always think by helping them with nutrition, I’m helping the world by proxy because they’re such inventive, high-performing people, our members are. They’re actually incredible.

So we have a lot of just overall wellness stuff. So you’re going to find things that are common gaps in our diet. So you’ll see, we have a very famous multivitamin for men and women, or we have a performance one. So if you’re someone that, you know, gets in the gym on a regular basis, that might, might be a little bit better for you, depending on kind of what your activity is. We talked about the fish oil, we have magnesium, we have vitamin D, and those are kind of like the core ones that I would say most often in blood work people are deficient, even if they’re attempting to make it right.

Jamie Martin

Even with base nutrition, right? They’re still low?

Anika Christ

All the time. That’s a big offering for us. We are really big on protein, and you will never not hear me talk about protein. It is the one macronutrient that if people focus on it, it’s actually, that’s when things change, literally. So if you’re going to track your food, track your protein, make intentional choices to increase your protein over time.

I think when you learn what you’re supposed to be doing, a lot of people are like, wow, I’m not anywhere near that. And I’m like, don’t double it in a day, but like gradually increase that, work on it, work it up. So, we have a protein powder for just about every eating lifestyle too. So we have the vegan protein. That’s a top skew for us too. So it’s dairy-free. Some people prefer plant proteins and some people are like, I can’t do any dairy. Two-thirds of adults literally most of time can’t do dairy. So that’s a big offering for us. We also have collagen powders. So as we see the line expanding, it’s kind of getting more into the convenient side of things. So we have a number of skews coming off and that there’s so much research coming out about gut health and we’ve had gut health support. So we have digestive enzymes, we have probiotics, we have glutamine, we have collagen — those have always kind of been the core ones, but as kind of nutrition science evolves and we have more access to certain ingredients and stuff, we’re going to start filling in some of the gaps that we have there. So we have colostrum coming out that’s LTH branded. I see a lot of inventions going on with that. We’re looking at different probiotics to kind of bring through as well too.

And then I would say there’s this whole segment of people that wants to drink their supplements instead. So we’re going to have an AM and PM drink offering — one more of a multigreens that would be a multivitamin to actually drink instead of taking the capsules. I’ll probably do both because I like to be optimal. So I’ll still take my multi, but I’ll drink this too. And then we have an evening one we’re calling Dream just to support restorative sleep. So there’s some great adaptogens in there, magnesium — magnesium, we’ve had a magnesium for a long time, but there’s 12-plus forms of magnesium. So again, filling in the different gaps, making it simple though, cause that’s overwhelming to hear, right? Where you’re like, now I got 12 forms . . .

Jamie Martin

What do I do?

Anika Christ

Yeah, can I eat it? So again, just making it more accessible and kind of fitting the need of our customer of what they want and desire. And I would say over time, it’s just continually like, how can I take less pills? How can I make it easy? Make it taste good. And those are kind of the three things we look at when we’re looking at a product. But for a lot of us, it’s just, you know, we’re also, we’ve recently launched a kids’ line and we —

Jamie Martin

You’re taking all my questions away Anika!

Anika Christ

[Laughing]

Jamie Martin

I literally just wrote that down. Keep going. Talk about kids.

Anika Chrits

There’s an evolution happening there. And I, you know, I’ve always been a big proponent of kids’ nutrition. I think there’s just different lenses people look at it through — I have some customers and clients that are very much like, I don’t really care about what my kids eat, but I’m going to offset it with supplements. Then I have people that make really intentional family choices, but still want optimal. And then I have other people that are like, do we care about kids’ health that much? Like they’re probably fine, metabolically, they’re not as damaged. You we saw that during the pandemic, like why did adults react so poorly to that virus versus kids? So, it’s kind of taking people where they’re at and where they’re willing to go.

But I would say with kids in general, if the adults are eating too much processed foods, you can imagine what’s happening to the kids. I think we all are seeing it, that kids are not as healthy as they once were. Even if they’re active, even if they’re going outside, I try to help parents look through it. Don’t look at your kid’s body from the outside, because I think that’s where a lot of it comes from. like, my kid is fine.

Jamie Martin They’re active. They eat pretty well most of the time.

Anika Christ

Yes. And then a lot of discussions lead into, my kid can’t fall asleep. My kid’s really anxious and stressed out. So I feel like there’s a lot more pressure on kids that we just don’t, we think of them as just resilient. And I’m always like, yes, but let’s support them. So we’re looking at a lot of really cool things. We’ve seen a lot of cool things with the stuff that we’ve launched, but we’re looking at ways to help kids calm down and sleep that are natural, non-melatonin based. For every ingredient we talk about, I feel like every customer I run into, they’re like, online it says this, and then it says this. And I’m like, well, let’s look at you and your situation. And maybe that ingredient people are saying they shouldn’t do that, but maybe it actually helps you or your child right now. And it really, that’s the lens I try to teach through. Like you gotta be your own advocate. I’m here to help and guide you through the information. There’s too much information out there, though.

Jamie Martin

My gosh.

Anika Christ

It’s confusing.

Jamie Martin

So much. So how do you find a really quality source to make sure we’re going — we’re hopefully, we’re aiming to be a quality source so we can tell these stories and be able to show you where things are at and show you the research behind them as well at the human level.

Anika Christ

Absolutely. Well, and how nice does that feel if you can walk into a store and you’re like, I know it’s all good, so I just need to find the things for me. That’s what we’re trying to do with LTH. You know the quality story. You know we care about raw ingredients. We care about, we’re not going to put something on the shelf that’s never been shown to work with a human. And you have access to experts that can actually answer the additional questions that you might have. That’s what we’re trying to be. So that anything we put on that shelf, you’re like, I know it’s trusted. I know it’s quality. I can ask more questions if it’s something for me or not.

Jamie Martin

Right. And you take it yourself. I mean, I think, again, we’re not, and this is something that I know, Bahram, he’s written about this in a recent letter for the magazine, was really like, I wasn’t going to recommend something that I wasn’t taking myself. And that was a really important part of why he advocated for Life Time to get in this space in the first place.

Anika Christ

Absolutely. there’s, so I mean, I take a lot of our stuff, but there’s some skews, like I’ve never taken pre-workout. It’s not me. And that’s OK. It’s not for everybody. But I know two or three other dietitians on the team that take it regularly. So you’re always going to have access to somebody. But I think that’s like the helpful part too is like, yeah, we never want to feel selling. It’s more like things that we found. And like I was saying, we built for members. Part of that is our team members, our personal trainers, they, I mean, I feel like — I have a degree and a medical license, but the amount that I learned from them my first couple of years at Life Time, I could never pay for because literally you’re working with people that have all sorts of different clienteles, have had to figure out strategies uniquely of health and fitness for those individuals. And I just remember feeling so lucky that I had access to all these people, because they are early, they’re like those optimal humans. They’ll just do anything for the health of it. They don’t have to wait till they get sick. It’s not till a parent or someone in their family like changes their life course where they’re going to get healthy. They’re just healthy.

Jamie Martin

It’s proactive, like that’s a value right from the start. That’s why they’re so in profession in the first place.

Anika Christ

Yes. That’s why the protein powder specifically, I cannot — I need them to taste as good as possible with just water because those trainers are back-to-back all day, they have no time to sit and eat, so they need to like down a shake in between two-hour sessions. And I always think of them for half the stuff too. Like what would help them? How do I help their body respond to stress better when they’re working their tails off?

And for an industry where it’s really, it’s so easy in this world, you know, to be unhealthy. Like that’s why I loved Life Time. That’s why I stayed here was I love that you can be in there and not make an unhealthy decision. You’re in this like little hemisphere ecosystem where everything is health. What a great place to be at. And so our trainers we build for too, to make sure that they have all the nutrition needs to support what they love to do. It’s the best.

Jamie Martin

It’s so good. And as a team member, I’m not a trainer, but I’m somebody who is constantly learning about new health things and writing about it and reporting on it with the team. And it’s something that my own evolution has been learning those things and adapting my individualized program again. Again, remember, it’s individualized. But it’s been such a, like, to be able to gain that knowledge myself, then I’d be able to ask people when I have questions and then be able to pass that information along to our readers as we’re fact checking and doing these things. It’s huge to be able to educate and empower with that.

Anika Christ

Absolutely. Well, and we always laugh because we have this small team, then team members are then asking about their family members. What do you think about my sister? You’re like, that’s fine, just throw it at us. It’s not work, right? It’s just like, if you can’t share what you’re great at, what is the point of being on this planet? Everyone should just share what they know and what they love. So that’s what we love to do.

Jamie Martin

Well, you’re so passionate about this. You can see that every episode we’ve done with you that your knowledge and your passion for it comes through. My last question, and then we have to wrap things up, is, where do you see LTH going in the next five to 10 years? I mean, you’re constantly learning. You’re seeing the trends. But what do you see for our brand in particular?

Anika Christ

I think we’re, and I look at Life Time through this lens too, is just like full accessibility. It’s been a secret on the shelves inside of the four walls. So for us, and I have a lot of members that I still, they’re like, I just don’t ever go in the cafe. I never knew you had supplements. This is amazing. But I want LTH to be fully accessible to all the friends and family of members of Life Time, honestly, so that even if you’re not in our access to show up at our clubs every day, you’re taking those products, you’re bringing Life Time to you in a very individual, specific, high-quality way.

And I really see us being an online business so it’s accessible to people that aren’t coming in through the four walls. So if you’re a digital member, that’s free at Life Time now, which is great. We all love that. So you have access to content and programs. You have access to the products in there now too, which wasn’t really the thing even a year ago. So for us, it’s more sharing the message.

So I always think from what I’ve learned through working with the trainers, working through other corporate folks like yourself too, my team is kind of the referral. Like, hey, I know a guy that can get you that information. We want to be that for more people. And that’s always something when people would have to leave Life Time or would move out of market, they’d be like, I just wish I could still talk to you. And we always figure out ways. But like being that, so you feel like you know that expert. So if you have a question, you can get the right information and answer. But you also know if we don’t know, we know how to get the answer. So you’ll get the answer.

 

We want to be that for people. People need that. They need the convenience of it, but nutrition’s not going anywhere. So why not share it with more people so you can feel good? And I think of just the last five years watching what’s happened in the brain health and just overall health space for people, people need this more than ever. So how do we give them that solution so they’re still part of Life Time, even if they’re not coming in on a regular basis?

Jamie Martin

That’s huge. And I think, yeah, just to reiterate that point, like the Life Time app has made it much easier, whether you live near a Life Time or not, to be able to access not just some of the programming and the workouts, but also the nutritional products, the educational content, all of these pieces that go hand-in-hand. And it really truly is like this ecosystem where it’s like we can support your healthy way of life wherever you’re struggling right now, whether it’s nutrition or otherwise.

Anika Christ

It’s such a lifestyle brand. It really is. And people love — our members said it before we did, I think, it’s always been about Life Time, not really the place, but the brand. And I’m excited to where it’s going to go. I really am.

Jamie Martin

That’s awesome. Well, David is not here today, but I’m here. And I don’t have a great mic-drop moment question for you, but you know we always end with this. So I’m just going to ask this one thing: If there was just one LTH product that you could take with you to a deserted island, what would it be?

Anika Christ

Fish oil.

Jamie Martin

Fish oil?

Anika Christ

For sure. Yeah. People think, we just had this debate, not that exact context, but we were like, what’s the one thing? And we all have our own answer, which is great, so you should ask everyone on my team. But that is the one — I yell at everybody, like, I’m really honest. I’m like that really direct dietitian. But I’m like, don’t ever quit the fish oil. And I was joking because I had somebody ask me recently, talking about hair growth, and they’re asking about biotin and all the other great ingredients out there. But I was like, but are you taking your fish oil? And they’re like, no, and I’m like, you never stop your omega-3. And it just comes from, you know, we get too much omega-6, everyone’s inflamed. There’s a lot of great books coming out kind of saying, hey, disease in general all leads back to inflammation if there was one thing — and then I got into this industry for brain health. I’m the mental health dietitian. Like that is my — I work out for the mental health of it. And I think it’s incredible what it does for the brain. And we all need a little bit more of that.

Jamie Martin

Yeah, and we have a lot of content on fish oil on the website. There’s more that’s coming. Actually, I heard you talk about, kind of like you said, I’m pretty direct about this. We were in a recent meeting, and Anika just was like, you guys, the fish oil is the thing. You’ve got to take this.

Anika Christ

Do not quit this.

Jamie Martin

Do not quit the fish oil.

Anika Christ

It’s best. I love it.

Jamie Martin

Well, Anika, thank you so much for coming on. Again, I know there’s a lot more coming from LTH. We’re going to keep our eyes peeled. We’ll have more content coming out about it. But if people want to follow you, you’ve written a lot of content for Experience Life. That’s at ExperienceLife.Lifetime.Life. Search up the past episodes of the podcast. We can link to those in the show notes. And then they can follow you @coachanika on Instagram. Anywhere else did I miss anything?

Anika Christ

No, that’s perfect. All my wealth and knowledge is on EL, or Experience Life. So I love that.

Jamie Martin

Well, thank you, Anika.

Anika Christ

Thanks for having me.

Jamie Martin

I’m sure you’ll be back soon, but thank you.

Anika Christ

Sounds good.

[MUSIC]

Thanks for joining us for this episode. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts on our conversation today and how you approach this aspect of healthy living in your own life. What works for you? Where do you run into challenges? Where do you need help?

And if you have topics for future episodes, you can share those with us too. Email us at lttalks@lt.life or reach out to us on Instagram @Lifetime.life, @jamiemartinel, or @freezy30 and use the hashtag #LifeTimeTalks.

You can also learn more about the podcast at ExperienceLife.Lifetime.Life/Podcasts. And if you’re enjoying Life Time Talks, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. If you like what you’re hearing, we’d love to hear from you by rating and reviewing the podcast and share it on your social channels too.

Thanks for listening. We’ll talk to you next time on Life Time Talks.

Life Time Talks is a production of Life Time Healthy Way of Life. It takes an amazing team to pull together each episode, including executive producer, Molly Kopischke, audio engineer, Peter Perkins, audio and video editors, Kevin Dixon and Riley Lester, and podcast coordinator, Sara Ellingsworth. A big thanks to Coy Larson for sound and video consulting and George Norman for project management, as well as the rest of the team at Life Time Motion who supports and provides feedback for Life Time Talks.

[MUSIC]