Ask the Dietitians: Your Nutrition Questions, Answered

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Transcript: Ask the Dietitians: Your Nutrition Questions, Answered

Season 7, Episode 9  | October 17, 2023

Jamie Martin:
Welcome to Life Time Talks, the podcast that’s 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 fitness magazine.

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

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

David Freeman:
And we’ll be talking 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. Here we go.

Welcome to another episode of Life Time Talks. I’m David Freeman.

Jamie Martin:
And I’m Jamie Martin.

David Freeman:
And today’s topic is Ask the Dietitians. So, this is a great one because in this episode we’re going to be answering a lot of the questions that we continue to get from a lot of our listeners that we receive around nutrition and healthy eating. We’ve got some special guests.

Jamie Martin:
Yes. We do. We have Anika Christ back with us again. She is a registered dietitian and certified personal trainer at Life Time as well as the senior director of nutrition and weight loss. She is known to many as Coach Anika and is one of the original virtual coaches who continues to lead several digital programs at Life Time each year. She started at Life Time in 2008 and has spent her entire career helping build Life Time’s nutrition and fat loss programs.

David Freeman:
Yes. And we also have Miss Samantha McKinney who’s also a registered dietitian and certified personal trainer as well as a national program manager for nutrition, metabolism and weight loss at Life Time. She started her career in a clinical setting before switching to a more proactive approach in preventative wellness and fitness. She’s been a trainer and coach for 15 years at Life Time since 2011. Welcome.

Samantha McKinney:
Thank you.

Jamie Martin:
It’s so nice to have both of you back again.

Anika Christ:
Yeah. This is fun. This is new for us to be together, so this will be fun.

Jamie Martin:
I know. You’ve done this before one other time. We did an Ask the Trainers, so we’re taking a spin on this, Ask the Dietitians this time through.

Samantha McKinney:
Correct. Yes. Should be a good time.

Jamie: Martin:
All right. We’re going to start with a very hopefully maybe simple question, probably not. Is there an ideal diet? And again, these are all kind of listener-provided questions that we’ve got. So, there you go. Is there an ideal diet?

Samantha McKinney:
Awesome. Well, I’ve been on a couple of times, and as we were prepping for the episode, I think Jamie and David know that my answer is almost always…

Jamie Martin:
It depends.

David Freeman:
It depends.

Samantha McKinney:
It depends. Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of trends out there, right, and I feel like each trend starts with this misconception that it’s the right thing for every person to do all the time, and essentially there’s an ideal diet for each person but it changes and it’s dynamic with your metabolism and what’s going on in life. What I’d like to do instead, and we can maybe touch on some of the trends if that would be helpful, but is more focused on what are the foundations that people should start with that apply in almost every situation instead, so like what’s the framework that makes up what an ideal diet is.

Anika Christ:
I love that. And I think too things get really dogmatic with it too and that’s where a lot of people that approach us are like, I used to do this for so long and now it’s not working, they really go back into that. So when she’s saying there’s like dynamic to it but there’s metabolic individuality and what does your training look like, that changes over the course of, you know, your fitness journey for a lot of people. So it’s figuring out, like, what’s the right fuel for you right now. But like you said, going back into the foundational framework of those key components that you kind of can always go back to.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah.

Jamie Martin:
So, let’s go there. Let’s go into those foundational elements that are really important for all of us to kind of make sure we’re hitting on those and then we begin to become more nuanced, right, based on our individuality.

Samantha McKinney:
Sure. Yeah. Well, I would start by saying that for the majority of people, there’s always exceptions to every rule, right, a diet that is going to serve you metabolically, body composition wise, how you feel, like making you feel your very best is always going to be a protein forward and a protein first diet. The majority of the people that I’ve worked with over the last couple of decades are not hitting their ideal protein targets.

Now, if you’ve been around Life Time and Life Time’s content for a while you’ve probably heard this quite a few times, but it’s because it’s so important and without purposeful effort, you don’t ever just accidentally fall into a high protein diet. You really have to work at it and it takes planning. And there are different things that you can do such as shakes and other different strategies that you can do to make it easier, more convenient.

But I would say you know, a protein first diet, and obviously you want one that also has fiber, ideally coming from produce, so rich and colorful fruits and vegetables as well as healthy fat. So, this is all stuff that we’ve heard before, right, but I would say protein is kind of that number one piece of framework to begin.

Anika Christ:
Yeah. I would agree with that and I think both of those categories that you just defined too, a lot of them are whole foods, right, when you think about it. Because everyone, you know, you probably do this too, you coach clients a little bit differently. Like, there’s some clients that are like, I want to know everything about macronutrients and micronutrients and what’s B1 and B2 and what do they do, and there’s other people who are like, just talk to me in food, because that is…and that’s what’s hard with our degrees, is you get so much science and you can map out the Krebs cycle and every sort of periodic chart that you can identify out there.

But when you’re talking to people, it comes down to food and what are you eating, and no matter what diet they’re following, it kind of goes back to full foods first. Like, whole, rich foods, that’s where the nutrients live. That’s what we’re supposed to be eating. We don’t need to fight about animals versus plants, it’s usually they complement each other in a certain way for a reason, for nourishment and metabolism and everything that Sam said, but for a lot of people it’s just like, go back to that. Are you eating real food or not, and how much of it is real food and how much of it is in a box? I don’t know if you run into that with people.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah. And it’s amazing how when people start to focus on that, right, eating ingredients instead of processed foods, right, take ingredients and put them together in meals, things that people worry so much about like calories, right, and calorie balance, they just take care of themselves because you have this intuitive feeling of fullness or satisfaction that you wouldn’t otherwise have from something out of a box. For sure, so I would agree with that in terms of framework.

The other thing that I would throw in there as well is just paying attention, and this gets tricky because this kind of bleeds into a common trend of intermittent fasting, that’s not what I’m saying, but being mindful of your eating window every day too. So, in terms of framework, kind of ideal diet, there needs to be a mindfulness there, and there are so many people that just mindlessly follow habits of maybe grabbing coffee first thing in the morning and whatever’s around, whether it’s a banana or a piece of toast or whatever, they kind of drift through their day. You know, they eat and then they’re grazing into the evening. And it is about, hey, maybe you know having some sort of framework as well.

Like, we have a program at Life Time called 1-2-12, and it’s a simple framework to follow for healthy eating. The 12 stands for a 12-hour eating window, which isn’t anything dramatic, right? Think eating eight AM to eight PM, but it is just having some sort of guardrail there which is helpful too.

Anika Christ:
Well, and you’re kind of, without working on sleep, helping people sleep too. People that do 1-2-12 are usually like, my sleep is better. Well, your body’s not trying to digest right before bed. Like, there’s a lot of practitioners out there that will suggest, like, stop at three hours before. Some even do upwards of five or six and that’s when you get into the intermittent fasting, but it’s really just giving that digestive rest for a lot of people they don’t realize they need, but then your body is actually more likely to sleep longer and deeper when you’re not trying to digest stuff that you eat right before bed.

I do that with my kids too. They’re likely, they want a snack right before bed. I’m like, oh, fat or fiber. That’s it. I need it slow. I don’t want any blood sugar peaks or anything, but it does work and people notice that usually right away.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah. So, I mean, if anything, and stop me if I’m going long, but it’s kind of like the frameworks are the protein first, real food, not eating things out of packages, being mindful of your eating window. Like, just those right there, they sound simple, but most people, if they’re really honest with themselves and look at their given day, they’re not doing those four things, and so that doesn’t even touch some of the trends of the ideal diets that come through.

Jamie Martin:
Well, I want to ask a question that I’ve been reading or hearing kind of just in the health and wellness space a little bit around protein. There’s been some debate. Some people are saying people are getting too much protein. What’s your take on that?

Anika Christ:
I’d like to meet those people.

Samantha McKinney:
Me too.

Anika Christ:
I would say, I mean, there could be. We always talk, because we drink aminos on a regular basis, and I’ve seen some stuff on the Internet that’s like, why do you do that if you’re eating enough protein? It doesn’t really…it defeats the purpose, it’s irrelevant per se, and we always joke with that too, is like how many clients have you met that are getting the…and it’s not…

Samantha McKinney:
Zero.

Anika Christ:
Like, I can’t think of one, honestly.

Samantha McKinney:
Unless they’re working at it.

Anika Christ:
Yes. And I even think of, like, my bodybuilder trainers back in the day, maybe because they were above, ahead of the curve, per se, but I’m like, most people aren’t, or they think they are and then we’re like, we’re just going to journal for one week, just track it. We were talking about with heart rate training. Just track it and see what happens and see what that feedback is, and you’d be surprised. It’s like, I really can’t think of one client that was, honestly.

Samantha McKinney:
I don’t see it either, and you know, I’ve seen some of what you’re talking about, Jamie, some of the arguments are around certain genetic pathways, like mTOR activation, aging, that type of thing. Well, really, I don’t know the right way to word this of like not seeing the forest through the trees. There are so many things that contribute to fast aging or like almost premature aging, that just from my, this is hands-on experience, this is not like peer review, like just my experience as being a coach over a couple of decades, I have not ever seen too much protein as the reason for that.

And the thing is, we are pretty obsessive of tracking symptoms. If a client brings us lab values that they have of like seeing, hey, what’s going on inside of your body? How are you feeling? What’s your body composition look like? Like, we take such a holistic approach to seeing what somebody’s nutrition is doing for them, that that’s probably the very last of my concerns with people that I’m actually working with day to day.

Anika Christ:
Especially after their subjective feedback, like it’s rare that someone feels worse when we take them through that. They’re usually like, oh my gosh, I’m leaning out, I feel better, and you’re like, see? See? You see it. So, I would think even that with that too.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah, and the other thing that I would say is some of the benefits that these proponents of reducing your protein intake are saying you can achieve through things like intermittent fasting too. So, I’m not saying everybody should intermittent fast, that’s not what I’m saying, but if somebody’s eating a high protein diet, which I would argue everybody should be, there are elements throughout your life cycle of fasting that can give you a benefit there too.

But you have to be really careful with that. People hear that and they’re like, oh, everybody should intermittent fast, or everybody should give up food for one day out of every week or whatever it might be, and there’s a time and a place to implement fasting and I know there’s a lot of content already that we have around that and how to do it and when to do it and when not to do it, but you can achieve some of the same benefits that those kind of, I don’t say anti-protein proponents are saying, but you really can.

David Freeman:
So, we’ve got protein for it, and obviously the listeners, we want to be able to address the question that’s been put out there, and I always like to give them something tangible to walk away with. So, how much protein? It depends, but if we are thinking ideally how much protein one should be taking in, and then I know that we can speak to supplementation if it’s hard for us to do it through the foods that we eating.

Let’s use me for an example. You ready? I weigh roughly around 210 pounds. Body fat, let’s just say around 10 percent. Right? Based off of me wanting to stay lean and knowing that you have those details, and I know it’s a lot of other factors, like how much protein should I be taking in to maintain the muscle I currently have or if I want to add? Like, how would you respond?

Samantha McKinney:
Well, what’s funny is this is probably one of the very few questions that it depends less than usual, right?

Jamie Martin:
I like this. Switch it up a little.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah. Right. Had to switch it up on you. So, it always depends, right? There’s those fringe examples of people that shouldn’t be doing kind of some of the protein targets we might suggest.

But I would say for you, right around that 200 grams mark. So it’s usually about a gram of protein per pound of your target weight that we recommend as a blanket statement, right? What I would say, and I can’t do math this fast on the fly in my head, but what I would look at is pounds of lean body mass that you have. So, look at, right, 210 time 0.9, whatever that is, that would be your bare minimum. But I would actually argue because I know you as well, you’re an athlete and you work out hard, so you have muscle breakdown quite a bit, right, so you’re literally, every single time you do strength training you’re tearing apart muscle, and if you’re looking to not lose that muscle, you need to eat protein to rebuild it, particularly as you get older. So, I would say your bottom rung of the ladder would be that grams per pound of lean body mass, but as you work out hard, you might want to boost it up by 20 grams on a certain day or what have you.

Jamie Martin:
Would you agree with that?

Anika Christ:
I agree with that. Especially you’re in maintenance mode. Rarely do we have a maintenance mode type of question either. Congratulations. That’s great.

Samantha McKinney:
Yes. Maintaining. Yeah.

David Freeman:
I think it’s key. I mean, I think a lot of times for the ideal body weight and then you just said, like protein forward.

When we think of supplementation, now we can say, okay, I know that you introduced me to these people who think they’re doing too much protein for example, so now when we go into supplementation, as far as protein and the different proteins out there, like supplements as a whole, what’s your view on that? Obviously, the question coming from our listeners and viewers is, what supplements should I be taking? Protein can be one of them, but should I be taking vitamins on top of that? So, how would you answer that?

Anika Christ:
I don’t want to use your word, it depends, but it can. I’m a huge fan of protein supplements because I do think, like we’re using you as an example. You have to be really intentional with the food choices. So, when Sam and I are working with clients and they’re bringing in their journal and we’re doing all the math for them and saying, yeah, you’re not even close to your protein target, that was them even being intentionally trying to track their food. Because as soon as you start tracking, you’re going to make different decisions. You naturally will. That’s the hardest part about food journaling is you kind of have a bias going into it. You’re like, well, now I’m not going to eat that because Anika is going to read it. But I’m not like that. I’m a really good, positive food coach, so I don’t do it for that. It’s more to learn. You do it for yourself.

So, most people have a really hard time because the high protein foods are predominantly animal proteins, right, and not everyone wants it for breakfast, not everyone’s doing or cooking at home throughout the course of the day either, so a lot of people have a big struggle getting it in. And then we always identify kind of those quick, easy hack high protein snacks, but a lot of them are processed foods, you guys. And that’s where it’s like you can do your best with deli meats, you know, we’re still advocates of that, I’d rather you still get the protein in, but when you’re really looking at quality, I do think protein powder ends up being superior because it’s convenience chicken breast, that’s kind of how I’ve always looked at it. If you can’t eat it, that’s the best way to do it, as long as it’s, you know, high quality form, free of all the nasty stuff, doesn’t have artificial sweeteners or anything else in there that you wouldn’t want to take every day, but I’m a huge fan of that.

And my kids have been on protein powder for a long time too, because kids have a really hard time eating high protein. Now, their needs are different than ours.

I like that you made that comment, Sam, about just what we forget about exercise, because exercise is so good for us, but we forget about the physiological stress that happens, and we were talking about this last week with the multivitamin and I was like, I hadn’t thought about it for a while. I was like, oh, my gosh, yeah, we’re sweating every day. Of course your needs for micronutrients drastically increase just through exercise versus someone that’s not doing anything, that’s sedentary, even though they still have needs for that stuff. So, just remembering that too, like we are doing this on a regular basis so your needs go up and increase, but through, although we love whole foods, it’s kind of hard to do that on a regular basis.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah. For sure. And I would say too, like to David’s question, piggybacking off what Anika was saying, there’s almost, I love that you said almost like a convenience chicken breast for protein supplementation, because I think that the average person that I work with, they look at protein powders in a different category than they look at supplements and pills, right? So, I would really argue, to Anika’s point, that if you’re using a high quality, well sourced protein powder where you can trust it, you know it’s free of contaminants, all of that, that is a food, right? It’s a food. And so, if it makes your life more easy or convenient to be eating a higher protein diet, right, I would say all day long.

Especially if you think, okay, well, what would be the alternative if you don’t grab that shake to go? If the alternative is, hey, you’re just grabbing a handful of something that’s high in sugar or you’re just grabbing something that is…what’s the alternative? A processed granola bar that has, you know, 8,000 ingredients in it and added sugar in it. All day long I would say go for the protein shake because you’re going to feel more full, you’re going to feel more energized, your blood sugar will be more stable, all of that.

But I do think it’s a little bit different in the average person’s mind versus the pills and the supplements, to your next question as well. You know, those are more nutrients or sometimes botanicals and herbs that can help your metabolism or physiology that fill in gaps. And I think I’ve used this analogy before, but I really look at food, like macronutrients, like protein, fat and carbohydrates as fuel, and then micronutrients is like engine parts, right? Like, you can put in the fuel but you need all of the engine parts there so that it processes that fuel and uses it appropriately. And so, when people say, hey, should I be taking vitamins, what supplements should I be taking, we start all day long with looking at your food first, which is why oftentimes the first “supplement” we recommend is a protein powder because we look at that as food.

But if you start to shift over into, okay, what other nutrients/pills or gels or what have you should I be taking, my answer to that would be, well, how convenient and easy do you want it to be to be healthy, right? Like, if your body, most people, and we go all day long where we talk about magnesium, right, there’s a podcast just on magnesium and how it’s the number one mineral deficiency in the US, vitamin D, number one vitamin deficiency, like why wouldn’t you fill those gaps if it was easy to do, right?

Anika Christ:
For sure. Especially if you want to feel great too, and everyone is all about extending their lifespan right now, maybe, or just their health span in general, right, like just aging in a way where I can still do what I love, feel good, have energy. I always think there’s so many people that we can learn from of that, of why it matters now, really, in your 20s or 30s or 40s and continuing that.

So, I’m with Sam, usually we start with magnesium and fish oil and vitamin D because we see people are not getting…if we blanketed the approach, those are the nutrients most people are not eating on a regular basis and are shown in their blood chemistry that they’re not absorbing it or getting enough of it, and that’s usually what we have to debate about, is it an absorption issue or is it an intake issue?

And we were starting to do…we get competitive where we were looking at our omega-3 status and there’s a test that we were thinking about bringing in through Life Time just to see, like, what are your levels and actually do you have the right index of omega-3 versus omega-6? Because we talk about it all the time, you can just assume most of us are getting way more of the inflammatory omega-6, not enough omega-3, but then we’re like, well, how much are we taking? Is it enough? And I think I won. I can’t remember. You or Paul won? You don’t know yet. We’re waiting for your results.

Samantha McKinney:
Probably Paul.

Anika Christ:
I think I beat Paul, which was great. That was great for me. I won.

Samantha McKinney:
I would agree with that though. I mean, mainly because we find oftentimes people are maybe like really leery of, oh, I don’t want to take supplementation, I just want to get everything through food, and there’s a couple fallacies right there, right?

So, number one, our food supply is not what it used to be, so you could eat the “perfect diet” right, go back to the ideal diet question that we started with, but it’s not the same amount of nutrition as it was a couple generations ago with that exact same plateful of food. It’s just not.

Secondly, we are surrounded by things that tax our systems that are brand new to us, right, whether it be, you know, off-gassing of certain chemicals in a new car, or whether it be just being under fluorescent lighting all day, being in Wi-Fi, all this stuff that’s just new to the human condition that wasn’t around back whenever we were outside all day long growing our own food and eating 100 percent locally because we grew it right or we slaughtered it or whatever it might be.

So, the food is just not the same as it was, our demands are higher than they ever were before, and on top of it, if people are really honest, they’re not eating perfectly anyway, right, so they’re not actually taking in the right things. And so I’m like, why would you not give your body what it expects to have to function well, right? So, that’s really all you’re doing, is you’re filling in what your body literally requires to naturally function every day. So, it’s not this weird, unnatural thing to fill in gaps that you already have.

David Freeman:
Why be good when you could be great, right, and be optimal in this space? I love that.

Anika Christ:
You could build towards great, too, like a journey, especially when it starts with us. Like, we’ve had clients that have actually become dietitians because they’ve become so passionate about the changes they made, but it’s like, it’s the clients that then all of a sudden want to start growing their own food or start doing those things. I don’t start someone there. Most people aren’t, like we are honest, we don’t grow everything ourselves. Like, there’s some crops we might do in the season, but it’s like, not everyone is perfect.

Samantha McKinney:
In Minnesota, a five-month window.

Anika Christ:
In Minnesota. Yeah. It’s like, you could go towards that, but it’s like if you get to the point where you’re drinking cod liver fish oil every day or doing other things and you’re like, oh, I don’t need this supplement anymore, great. But at the beginning, it has the biggest return. Like, it’s the easiest thing you could do is take a multivitamin or certain nutrient to have the biggest impact on your health. It literally is. So, why not? Why not start there?

Jamie Martin:
So, I want to continue on this path, and this is not a question we prepped for but we did talk about it before we hit record earlier, and you mentioned it, kids and supplementation, and kids and you mentioned protein. But I do think, you talked about our food supply, you often think about the quality of school lunches and what’s in those. Is there a time when it’s too early to start getting your kids, you know, supplementing, whether it’s with protein or with other, you know, vitamin D and magnesium and these other things?

Samantha McKinney:
So, I would pose it this way, I’d say there’s never too early of a time to maximize your kid’s nutrient status, and it honestly starts in the womb, honestly, and it starts during pregnancy, it really does, and it doesn’t really change, right, after that. Now, does that mean a kid’s coming out of the womb and we’re opening up capsules of stuff and putting it in breast milk or formula? No. But you do need to pay attention to what your kid is eating and replete what’s missing, right? It’s so critical for their growth and development.

You have to focus just as much on what to add as to what to necessarily take away, right? The foods that are labeled as kid foods are some of the most addictive, high sugar, low nutrient things on the planet, right? You know, their palettes are formed so young, right. So yes, you can supplement with your kids. You shouldn’t be willy nilly about that. You should work with a professional. You should talk to their pediatrician or registered dietitian and figure out the right way to do that.

But there are certain things that I think, you know, what we were talking about before hitting record was like electrolytes, you know, with sports and athletes. The other thing too, how important certain omega-3 fatty acids like DHAR for brain development. And again, this is me so I’m not saying go do this with your kids, but my kid gets a spoonful of liquid fish oil every single day, right? He gets a, and this isn’t a supplement, but like a magnesium bath and a magnesium lotion, you know, on his skin. If he’s not feeling well, he’s going to get a little bit of zinc and vitamin C, right? And like, you have to flex and you have to learn what to do.

So, I guess to indirectly answer your question, is you should maximize your kids nutrient status, however you can do that, I’d say the better. Yeah

Jamie Martin:
Right. I think that’s just, you know, coming from. I’ve got a preteen and a 10-year-old almost, and it’s just so interesting to see what they want to eat and then figuring out…because some things we don’t have control over, right? I can control what they have for breakfast, and lunch to a certain degree. But there’s a la carte at lunch and it’s so fun to swipe that card. So just figuring out, like, where can we supplement? And you know, I’m getting to the preteen year when we really want to teach healthy eating habits and so if we can start talking about these things more as they age and they understand it, but then also when they’re younger, if we can take a closer look at that too, before it’s within their control too.

Anika Christ:
Yeah. I think it’s a good…I have two girls and I would say I think a lot of parents are cognizant of it because they deal with their own issues with food that maybe their parents created, and I think we’re all just kind of like, I don’t know what to say because I don’t want to say something healthy because I was told don’t say that, and I respect that because I’m like, yeah, I get that. Like, I would be worried too because there’s so much of it.

But I think when you talk nutrition with children it’s kind of going back to the function. Like, I talk to my oldest because…I will say both of my girls love fruits and vegetables, they would eat any plant on the planet, but meat, for the youngest one piece of cake, the older one it’s a constant, it’s an everyday education session with her. It just is. And she’s a third almost fourth grader now, but she’s been influenced by peers. Where I’m like, you know, up till four, I think kids are actually really easy to feed.

Jamie Martin:
I agree. Yes.

Anika Christ:
If you’re having issues I’d be like, we need to talk about some stuff, maybe it’s too much convenience food, maybe too much exposure of stuff. But like, usually they’re pretty easy. And then they hit that four or five, they got an opinion, they go to a friend’s house, that’s when you’re like, oh, this is the work. Like, this is a lot of work.

But that’s what’s helped me, is I talk about protein as, well, hat about your muscles? What about your hair? What about the things…it’s not like, you need to, that’s healthy, because you have to be pretty delicate. Otherwise it becomes a whole other conversation that isn’t fair. And you know, I didn’t realize…I remember thinking I had all the tools, but then it was all the other external stressors in the world, like other kids’ parents saying stuff negatively about themselves or their body and then my daughter bringing it home. Like, so-and-so’s mom said this. And I’m like, oh my gosh. Like, okay, let’s talk about that. She shouldn’t be negatively talking about herself. She shouldn’t be saying that’s bad for you or that’s that.

So, we have the conversation about what food fuels you and what it does in your body, why we need it. And there’s been a couple of times too where she’ll bring back, she’ll go, what’s a vegetarian or what’s this? And I’ll say, well, that’s a style of eating, but there’s nutrients that you might not be getting, so we’d have to get it in a different form. Do you want to do that or could you eat this food that has it? And I think it’s actually working really well. So, that would be like my own test kitchen of stuff where I used to joke with other coworkers. I’m like, I’ll be the one, you know, I’m this big meat eater and then my daughter is like, nope. Bye, Mom.

But it’s been…it kind of stops you in your tracks and I see both sides of it. So it’s like, how do you actually make it about your health and feeling good and not aesthetics or not the things that they hear other friends’ parents saying. That’s what I wasn’t prepared for where I was like, oh my gosh, I’m going to have to talk about this. Like, we’ve never talked about that before. But there’s a lot of peer pressure too, at school especially. It’s a whole other thing that you just don’t prepare for.

And it’s really just bringing it back, like, hey, it’s all about making good choices. Those are choices, we can’t do too many in a day. We’re not going to feel good. We’re not going to sleep well. It’s not going to be great for our body to grow with. So, it’s okay to have those choices but we’ve got to fill them in with the better choices too.

Jamie Martin:
Love it. Thank you.

Anika Christ:
You’re welcome.

David Freeman:
I mean, we could stay kind of right there and continue to navigate through it when you think of the influence of the environment that you’re in, right, or where they’re going to be constantly surrounded about. So, when you go back to, let’s talk about like that food pyramid as far as when we were growing up, or the standard American diet. So, this is what we’ve seen for so many years, and obviously to your point, we’ve evolved a lot over these years. So, let’s go right there as far as how we can be more impactful and more intentional, how you can probably give some of those tips, you kind of gave a few there, but how far have we evolved from the standard American diet as well as that food pyramid that we used to see when we were growing up?

Samantha McKinney:
For kids, you mean, specifically? It always starts with modeling at home, right? Like, I only have one right now and he’s two, so he hasn’t reached the social peer pressure.

Anika Christ:
Watch out. That was your warning.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah. But I do see, right? I have friends that maybe aren’t in the fitness and health industry, and yes, like I could imagine, I haven’t experienced it yet, what it’s like when there’s those opinions and peer pressure, but I’m seeing that priming going on in other toddlers even of, like, parents that don’t think twice of throwing the extra packet of, you know, processed crackers or what have you.

So, I say it starts with modeling at home, right? And to what Anika was saying, it is talking about what the food is doing for you and just being careful. But there is a ton of research that shows that kids, if they just see their parents, you don’t have to comment on every single bite you’re taking, I don’t agree with that, right, but if they just see their parents eating vegetables, they’re going to eat more vegetables. Now, obviously there’s some psychological stuff with picky eating that can happen, but it’s always going to start with the modeling.

And to your question of, like, hey, how have we evolved, I think that for the most part, the more produce somebody is exposed to and eats, you said your girls are great fruit and veggie eaters, right, like my toddler, he’s great too in comparison to other toddlers that I see as well, it’s going to be focusing on that produce and getting the protein in as long as they’ll eat it, right? Because I think protein is the trickiest thing with kids. You know, I see that in some of my friends’ older children as well. But I would not necessarily recommend eating a very grain forward diet, which is what the standard American diet is, because that can be so addicting. And not only because grains are a problem, that’s not what I’m saying, but when they start displacing produce and protein and fat and things that are naturally satiating, you’re going to have kids that are hangry and want snacks all the time, right?

Anika Christ:
Yes, and missing nutrients. I think too, I think where I get a little bit excited if I think back to early days as a coach, is I feel like a lot of the parents I coached back then were just like, people had the perception that kids are healthy, they can eat whatever they want, because they would just visually assess children, right? What’s their body composition? Are they growing? Now I feel like there’s this whole thing about kid’s health matters, right, like all this stuff matters. There’s epigenetics, there’s all these things that are like are displacing different diseases that are earlier onset with kids, a lot of stuff in the mental health area that I feel like parents are actually paying more attention, and it’s not like they can eat whatever they want. Who cares? You’re coaching me, is what clients used to say to me. I’m like, okay, that’s fine.

So, I do get excited because I think there is still probably too much on the processed food side for sure, like Sam was saying, it’s displacing a lot of other foods, but I do get excited because I think people understand or probably know we’re not supposed to be eating 6 to 12 grains a day. Now it’s, I think, a plate. I think it’s stayed at this plate. But I do think, I feel like I see that more, and I think it just depends on who you’re around. In my neighborhood, I would say mostly there’s a lot of fruits and vegetables and not a lot of snacks, but I’d say like 10 years ago I don’t think parents cared as much, and I think they do care now, and I think they’re listening and learning and wanting that, which is good.

Samantha McKinney:
Like just from experience, like piggyback on that too, I feel like when I started coaching, you know, years and years ago, I was getting a lot more of the question when I was coaching someone of like, well, this food’s for me and then I have to prepare a separate meal for my kids, right? And some of that does come up, but I will say now more and more people ask for healthy, family friendly recipes. They’re not interested, not that anybody ever was, but I feel like people felt like they were trapped, that they had to make their healthy food and then make a separate meal for their kids. Now more people want recipes that are high protein, are high produce, that have a lot of phytonutrients in them that are family friendly that they think their kids will love too, right? So that question just comes through a lot more and I just think that there’s more I would say assumption that there are recipes out there that their kids are going to like that happen to be healthy, whereas before it was just the separate meal mindset.

Jamie Martin:
There’s also something within that of having your kids involved as well, and this is not a whole kid focused topic, but I think it is important, like how do you get your kids involved? Like if I get my kids involved, they’re more likely to eat it. My kid will eat the whole watermelon if I let her help me chop it up. You know what I mean? Like, there’s little things, if you get them involved with the food prep and showing them how to do things, you know, it’s…

Anika Christ:
And let them serve themselves, too. I think it’s Ellyn Satter, she was big back when I was in school, but it was all about child nutrition and you’re in charge of putting the good food on the table and what’s in the house and what’s in your pantry, and we deal with this with detox with adults too because they’re like, I can’t get rid of all that stuff, and I’m like, why is that stuff in the house? Like, who put it there? And you start to talk about that.

But when kids can just serve themselves, it’s called family style eating where you just put the stuff on, let them actually serve themselves and you’d be surprised, and different ages are different amounts of what they’ll actually eat or what’s recommended, especially with toddlers, you get surprised. Like, their portions are actually really little. They’re not interested in three course meals like adults eat, but let them serve themselves too, I think, was probably life changing for a lot of people.

Jamie Martin:
For sure. Well, you already mentioned food is fuel and our next question, our next listener question kind of speaks to that is, you know, what do I eat before and after a workout? So, how do I fuel my workouts and how do I refuel after?

Samantha McKinney:
Sure. Well, it depends on your workout.

Jamie Martin:
Shocking.

Samantha McKinney:
Well, so there’s a lot of, I’d say confusion in this space around what people are supposed to do before and after. Hey, am I supposed to fast? Is that can help me burn weight? But don’t I need carbs for energy? Right? And there’s a lot of stuff swirling.

So, I would first focus on, I’d actually go in the reverse order of post-workout nutrition before I get to pre-workout nutrition. So, we referenced this earlier with you, David. When you work out, you create an organized, nonchaotic stress on your muscles and on your metabolic system that you have to recover from. So, I would first focus on making sure that you’re getting protein after a workout. In the past, there was a lot of talk on something called the anabolic window where they thought, you know, you have to get a certain amount of protein in order for the workout to count, which is kind of ridiculous whenever you say it out loud, right? So, I would say that while the anabolic window itself isn’t true, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do post-workout protein, right?

Your post-workout protein and the timing of that becomes even more important if you’re not hitting your protein targets, and as we said earlier, most people aren’t hitting their protein targets. So, get those amino acids in. You know, Anika mentioned we drink aminos, those are broken down amino acids, those are broken down protein building blocks, we drink those during a workout so that our body has what it needs. But I would focus first and foremost on getting protein within an hour or so of you finishing a workout, and just getting in that habit will get you closer to your overall daily protein targets if you do that on a regular basis.

And then on the flipside, pre workout, there’s a lot of factors that are there. For the most part, most people should not be doing like a heavy meal within an hour or two of their workout. There are always exceptions to every rule. I laugh. My husband’s one of them. He could, you know, eat a whole meal and then go work out and not feel bad, but that’s not a recommended thing, right? That’s a fringe example.

So, if you’re doing kind of more low intensity cardio, you’re not doing much strength training, you can probably fast before a workout for a couple of hours. You don’t need carbohydrates to fuel that. The higher the intensity cardio wise, or if you’re doing something really demanding like heavy strength training, then having some carbohydrates within an hour or so that are easy to digest, I would suggest.

And then there’s other things that people can do beforehand to enhance what they’re doing, whether it be a little bit of caffeine or a pre-workout powder or something to get that extra boost, but I wouldn’t put that in like the nutrition category.

Anika Christ:
Yeah, and Sam’s a big fan of electrolytes, too. I feel like that’s kind of a new, not new, because…

Samantah McKinney:
More intention.

Anika Christ:
More intention over the last couple of years of people, especially if you’re working out first thing in the morning, you’re probably waking up slightly dehydrated and a lot of people aren’t chugging two to three cups of water. So, if you’re doing a conditioning session or just working out in general, a lot of people get a lot of natural energy by just making sure they have electrolytes in their system, and we’ve noticed with a couple of clients, they’re reducing their caffeine intake too overtime, where they might have a little pre workout or caffeine, but they don’t need it again later in the day because their electrolytes are met. So, I feel like people mix those in quite often now too for the pre.

Samantha McKinney:
Fore sure. I like to tell people to think of electrolytes as just like the faster way to hydration. Like, you will always get hydrated fast with electrolytes in your water versus plain water alone. That’s just going to happen. So yeah, hydration is another big one.

Anika Christ:
Yeah. We like a couple of them because they don’t have sugar in them. So not…there’s a lot of mixed drinks that also have dextrose or other sugar and it’s like, that’s probably not the best even though that is a very popular brand, there’s a few popular brands that have a lot of sugar added to them, but the little packets that they sell at Life Time are great.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah. The only time I’d recommend the ones that have that added dextrose are if people are legitimately doing like long distance kind of marathon-type training, you know, where they’re training for more than two hours or so, which isn’t the majority of people.

Jamie Martin:
Right. Long endurance.

Anika Christ:
Yeah. Or playing an NFL game.

David Freeman:
I think the pre, what happens before the workout, if you are the early morning riser, like to have something in your system, a lot of people probably want to go to the banana or the oatmeal, something that’s going to spike, you know, the sugar level. So, can you kind of speak to why you probably do not want to do that first thing in the morning before the workout, and when you just talk about regulating blood sugar levels in general for a workout, the benefits of making sure you kind of want that to be somewhat stabilized. Can you kind of speak to that?

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah. So, the early morning exercisers, I used to be one of those, like first thing in the morning, crack of dawn, it depends. I would ask, do you have at least an hour, right? If you have an hour from the time you wake up to the time you start to work out, if you’re planning on doing high intensity, you can see there’s a lot of factors here, if you have an hour and it’s going to be high intensity, then a low fiber carbohydrate source like maybe a half a banana might be okay, or maybe like a rice cake with just a thin little bit of nut butter or something on there, because you’re going to be burning through that energy, right? It’s energy.

If you can do the workout fasted and not get dizzy or lightheaded, that’s the key, right, and not get dizzy or lightheaded, that’s fine too, right? Like, that’s okay to do. But if your goal is, let’s say muscle gain, you’re going to need more energy. You’re not going to be able to lift as much and go as hard if you don’t have some sort of energy.

Now, if you’re, like, wake up and start working out, at that point, your only option really is the electrolytes, like what Annika said, and probably getting some amino acids in your water, because again, those amino acids we’re talking about, like the Amino Recovery that we have, it doesn’t take any digestion, it’s just absorption. It’s already in the form for your body to use, so it’s not going to make you feel like super heavy or sick or anything like that.

Jamie Martin:
So, this is again not a question that a listener submitted, one just coming from Jamie. We’ve talked a lot about food as fuel, but we also know that food is pleasure, food is community, food is ritual for a lot of us. How do you recommend people find that balance? Because it is a really challenging thing, we want to fuel our bodies well but we also want to enjoy it and engage, oftentimes we engage with people around a table, you know. So, how do we do both, right? I don’t…

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah.

Anika Christ:
Do you want me to start? I could start. We could layer each other up.

Samantha McKinney:
You can start. We both have a lot of thoughts on this.

Anika Christ:
Do you? I do too. Well, I think I wrote an article once about healthy indulgences because I love, I mean, I love food. Sam gives me crap all the time because I’m friends with her husband, but I’ll text him pictures of sandwiches hat I discover that are really good, because I…and she’s like, you just light up when you talk about food and I was like, I really do love food.

Samantha McKinney:
You really do.

Anika Christ:
I got into it because I love food so much. So I think it just depends on, you have to look at what is interesting to you, what makes you feel good. Because we also talk…because she loves the dining out experience, I don’t as much. I love to like make it at home, I like to do that thing, but I like cocktails and adult beverages too.

So, I think you just have to look at first like frequency. Like, how often is that happening? Because I guess if the question is, hey, is this going to interfere with my health goals, you might want to look at it and come up with different choices, and maybe if you like to dine out frequently, what’s the best choice knowing that, hey, when you’re eating food that’s prepared by other people, there’s naturally going to be oils and all sorts of stuff that you don’t really have control over. Even if you can say, I need this, this like this, that just exists. It’s bigger portions. There’s a lot of things that go into that. But if you love that experience, like, well, let’s plan. Let’s create a plan so that when you’re doing that you feel really good about your choice, there’s no variances.

I think community and people are everything though, too, so that’s why I say, like you should be doing that. We talked about the ritual of coffee. I just like the glass, and we were joking because I said I really just like the feeling of a wine glass so I started to do mocktails and electrolyte drinks that night and I was like, this is great. I think we talked during, remember during COVID I was like all of a sudden just opening up like a seltzer and I wasn’t even thinking about it. I was like, okay, like, what’s going on? But my neighborhood was into that so I was like, well, maybe I still want to hang out with my neighbors, but I’ll drink something else that’s not going to interfere with goals.

So, I think you need to do that. I feel bad when people don’t do that. I really do, because what is life about, and I think you should do that. I also think there’s this angle that I see often online of people saying that they are indulging and they’re not,, and it’s all for show and it’s like, look at me. I, you know, look like this but I eat this, and it’s like, no you don’t. Like, you know those people? You’re like, you’re lying. It’s hard because you have a façade being in this industry and I get that, and it’s hard, and people don’t want to see you as a real person and they have high expectations of even what a fitness professional should be doing and eating, but I think when people see the real you, people respond to real, right?

Samantha McKinney:
I agree 100 percent.

Anika Christ:
Like, they really do, and I like that, and if someone judges me for that stuff, I’m like, well, I want to live my life and I like it and my blood is healthy and I know everything else checks out for what I’m trying to do, but we share a cocktail once in a while for sure.

Samantha McKinney:
We do. Yeah, 100 percent. And I would say, kind of back to how you originally posed a question, is those two things shouldn’t be mutually exclusive, that it should not be I have my healthy choices and I have the choices I enjoy. Like, it should never be this whole black and white separation there. There’s obviously always going to be the fringe things. You know, Anika and I, if we grab a cocktail, we’re not going to pretend that’s a healthy choice. Right? That’s not a healthy spin on a cocktail, right?

Anika Christ:
True. Yeah. Call a spade a spade. Yeah.

Samantha McKinney:
Yes. Exactly. But for the majority, like I’d say 80 percent of what you’re eating, if not more, I’d love it to be 100 percent, should be healthy things that you enjoy, right? Like, I don’t want anybody eating food that they don’t want. And I would say if you’re struggling and you’re trying to make food choices that are for your health and for your goals, and you’re constantly in this like, woe is me, I’m deprived, I can’t have this, I can’t have that, we need to have a completely separate conversation, right?

I like to use this example a lot, so my in laws, right, like my husband’s family, not in the health and fitness industry, totally fine, right, but they look at me as like the, oh, can Sam have this? Can Sam have that? The healthy eater just because of what I do for a living, right? Well, our very first Thanksgiving where we moved away from here we had family come visit and I was in charge of Thanksgiving dinner. The entire thing was quality ingredients, everything was made from scratch, it was gluten free just because I don’t tolerate gluten well, there wasn’t any dairy in it just because there’s several people that were attending also that don’t tolerate dairy, and it was all for the most part lower in sugar, right, than the average kind of processed packaged thing. And afterwards, I remember my brother-in-law didn’t even realize it, said it in front of his mom who had been cooking Thanksgiving dinner for decades and decades and decades of her life, he’s like, oh, Sam, that was literally the best Thanksgiving meal I’ve ever had.

So I’m like, horrified, but I’m also like, you can serve things that fuel your body and are the right thing for you that taste amazing, right? And that’s not going to be 100 percent of your choices. Sometimes you’re going to have to skip, you know, the to-go sandwich or the cocktail or whatever it might be, right, if your health goals are the priority. But for the most part, what you’re eating day in and day out should be enjoyable.

And I would say, hey, if you’re having people over and you are gathering around the table, right, you’re communing with other people, there is nostalgia there and there’s connection, and you don’t have anywhere to start that’s healthy to serve, right, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any options there that are kind of more on the fun side, then let’s talk, right? Like, let’s figure out a way to get you some recipes and ideas of things that you can make day-to-day. Because to Anika’s point, like, you should enjoy food. Like, you absolutely should.

And the indulgences, you know, I love what you were talking about, like having healthy indulgences, this is where tracking can help. Not to perpetually track everything that you’re eating or try to control the calories of your indulgences, but what you can do is start to get really honest with yourself of how often indulgences are happening. I always use the example of let’s say there is some really nostalgic holiday recipe that your grandma makes every year that you know is, from a health standpoint terrible for you, but it feeds your soul. Right? How much more meaningful is that than like a doughnut in the breakroom where you work, right? Like, why waste…you know, like, that’s not worth…that’s not feeding your soul. Right? That’s just the muffin that’s there or whatever, the birthday cake, the sheet cake or whatever. Like, there’s nothing amazing about that that’s not replicable. But don’t ever miss out on the nostalgic, meaningful indulgences, because that is really sad. And I’m with Anika, for people that skip those or feel stressed about them, that’s kind of, in my opinion, more of an emotional/mental thing that needs to be worked through rather than just a physical food one.

Anika Christ:
We were talking about that. I was texting her because I had a craving. I made a banana bread because I just don’t like processed cooking, they just don’t taste good to me. Like, people are like, you don’t eat Oreos? I’m like, I would rather bake something decadent and like have the cheesecake. Like, I want that. And then I will sit, I’ll spend five hours on it, Dave, and I will just sit and eat it bite by bite, and I love that. Like, I would rather do that, but I’ll stay…you stayed up late that night. She made one, too.

Samantha McKinney:
I did. Yes. I made a banana bread coffee cake.

Anika Christ:
She was like, I’m going make a banana bread…she stayed up. Yeah, and then she brought me some the next day because I’ll eat it.

Samantha McKinney:
I did. It was still a little gooey, though, because I had to take it out. I was like, I wanted to go to bed. It could have used 10 minutes, but I was tired.

Anika Christ:
Yeah. Do it. Food is worth it. It’s worth it.

David Freeman:
Ooey gooey. I love it.

Samantha McKinney:
But I really hope what people get from this is even like dietitians, we’re not like sitting around eating broccoli and just like plain grilled chicken every day. Like, that would be so sad and boring and to be honest, not even good for you, right? It’s so much more of an experience than that. Like, there is, what you were saying, where is that healthy balance? It starts with getting honest with yourself, right, and that’s where using intermittent food tracking, for those where they’re not triggered by that or don’t have a history of any type of disordered eating, it’s great to do that for a week or two. I don’t think anybody should be just tracking like all the time. But what that does is, whether or not you’re working with a coach, it gets you to be really honest with yourself and it gets you to, you know, think twice before just mindlessly grabbing something, right?

So, it starts with how often is it happening, and then secondly, prioritizing when are the indulgences, when do they actually mean something versus not, right? And then lastly, kind of the more long-term thing, is what I referenced, is work with someone to figure out how to get a health serving diet that you love, right? When we detox, Anika and I, there are certain recipes that we like can’t wait to make. They’re so good.

Anika Christ:
Yeah. There’s some really good ones. And on the flip, Sam doesn’t make me feel bad because I hate salmon, and everyone’s like, you don’t eat salmon? I’m like, I hate it, but I take a lot of omega-3.

Samantha McKinney:
I was going to say, I don’t give her a hard time on that because she does take her fish oil.

Anika Christ:
I do take it every day religiously.

David Freeman:
Well, I want to round us out like with a good two-minute quick drill with you both, and the focus point when we round this out is going to be something that you kind of spoke on, emotion, right, maybe the connection to the food, but then also the food that could potentially be consumed by individuals, whether it’s an adult or a kid, how it can have an effect on their behavior, their mood, as far as food that you’re consuming. So, it’s going to be, let’s say a minute apiece to see how you do within this space here. I call it a two-minute warning. One minute. One minute right there. So, your thoughts…

Samantha McKinney:
This feels new. I’m nervous.

David Freeman:
Yeah. Don’t get nervous. Your thoughts as far as food being consumed, if it’s not good for your body, in a sense of how your body is responding to it, how it can affect mood?

Anika Christ:
Oh. Okay. Well, we talk a lot about food reactions and food sensitivities that people react to, and so one thing that I hear all the time that they did not teach me in school was something called the foggy brain, and people talk about it all the time. They wake up with a foggy brain or they’ll have aches in their body, they just don’t feel well.

So, a lot of times, what that is because there’s proteins in food, there’s something called gut permeability, so people tend to…there’s a lot of things that impact the gut permeability. I would say 9 times out of 10, what I’ve learned is stress on people. People are stressed out way more than they ever have been. So, I’m always saying we’re not going to demonize the food. That’s kind of what detox does, is it takes out a lot of the inflammatory foods that are most common, but it’s not to demonize the food, it’s why is my body responding to it now.

And what people won’t do, which I would…they need to work on the stress side. They’ll work on their sleep even though sleep is kind of back and forth with it, especially adults, they’ll take out any food to feel better, they’ll take the supplements, but then they won’t work on the stress, and I think there’s an issue there because sometimes we’re just thinking mental emotional stress. I always think of the last couple of years. I’m like, you guys do not realize the physiological stress we all went through, and it’s coming out right now. People are having all sorts of weird symptoms or having issues.

So looking at it, it’s about the food, but it’s about the stress management and doing the things that help your mental emotional state, such as yoga, such as working on the breathing, nasal breathing, box breathing, doing those tools, meditation. I’m actually trying to get into meditation. It was not for me. I am with nature, I will ground every morning, but somebody sent me this guy that’s really good. I was like, I’m going to start listening to it. There’s a few in the Life Time app that I really like to because it’s with nature. But I was like, Anika, I think you just need to take that pause, that intentional pause every day to help the stress in your body even though people would say you’re not stressed. And I’d be like, yeah, mentally I’m not, but I have to also look at my body and the amount that I do and put up with and have on my plate every day and be true.

So, I do think food matters, but it’s usually about the integrity of your body, digestion, absorption first, and then I just think anything that’s in a box, just knowing that there’s people that are food scientists, that their job is to make you addictive and make it something that is foreign to your body, just knowing that, knowing that that exists. There are better brands out there that limit the ingredients and limit the nasties in there, but at the end of the day, like the job of that person to make you keep buying that thing. So, taking a break from processed food sometimes can really be impactful and focusing on the integrity of the food.

David Freeman:
Love that. Sam, what you got?

Samantha McKinney:
It’s like I want to like just play off of that but I haven’t done my own yet.

Anika Christ:
Come on in. Come to this mic.

Samantha McKinney:
Well, a couple of things. So, I just loved what Anika was talking about, is it really does go back to the resilience of your own body, right, and you know, kind of whether or not you overreacting to certain foods, but gosh, there was something else that you said there that I wanted to…

Anika Christ:
Are you going to meditate too, with me?

Samantha McKinney:
You know, you should get me there.

Anika Christ:
I’m going to get her there. We work out together. I’ll get you there.

Samantha McKinney:
Yeah. And here’s the thing, is I 100 percent believe in and know the importance of meditation but again, I am sort of similar where I’m just better out in nature with completely, not phone in airplane mode but phone gone, right, in the house. Like, that’s where I really reset, and again, it’s probably a sign I need to meditate if my brain floats around too much when I try to meditate, right?

But gosh, what I was actually going to say, oh, so it goes back to your body’s resilience, and my answer around food and mood is a little bit more, I want to say like physiological. So, this really in a big way goes back to your blood sugar control. It does. So think of the example, I know we talked about kids a lot, but I think whether or not you have children, you have heard of like, oh my gosh, a kid’s birthday party where they all have a ton of sugar and stuff, just like look at them bouncing off the walls and then look at them all having meltdowns an hour later. Right?

So, you will be more resilient if your blood sugar is under control, and one third of Americans have prediabetes. I would argue most people, unless they’re really forward thinking with their nutrition, have imbalances in blood sugar, and the way that this manifests, and again, this goes back to protein, right, making sure that you’re eating regularly, if you have this underlying day-to-day, like a little bit too much variance in your blood sugar, you’re going to feel like crap and you’re not going to know why. Right? When your blood sugar is high after you eat, you’re going to be tired, right? What happens is your body is super smart and it works really hard to bring blood sugar down, but then it crashes too much and you’re irritable and you’re hangry and you need a snack, right, and everybody’s annoying to you and everybody’s irritating you and the e-mail that shouldn’t set you off, sets you off, right? It’s because your blood sugar is down and there’s actual real physiological processes where your body is releasing stress hormones and cortisol, and you’re just irritable, right, and things that bother you wouldn’t bother you if your blood sugar was balanced.

Which again, it sounds so crazy that so much of that could be related to blood sugar control, but think about it. The majority of the people around us every day, their blood sugar is oscillating too much. It’s not this nice even, right, even flow, and so when you eat something, right, so let’s say you already have this underlying blood sugar imbalance and then you throw something else at it, it just worsens everything versus if you’re even, you’re getting one to two palmfuls of protein at every single meal. Guess what? When you do have an indulgence that maybe you didn’t plan or wasn’t worth it or whatever that might otherwise impact your mood, because your blood sugars are already relatively stable, it’s not going to be as big of a swing so you’re going to feel a lot better and that e-mail, you’re just going to respond calmly.

Anika Christ:
You’re just going to delete it. That’s what I do.

Jamie Martin:
Take a deep breath. Whatever it looks like.

Samantha McKinney:
But truly, like blood sugar ups and downs, and I’m sure you’ve seen that there’s a huge rise in popularity of continuous glucose monitors and CGMs even in people that don’t have diabetes. Well, the reason is because yes, it impacts your health, it impacts your longevity, it impacts your brain function, it impacts your resilience and it really impacts your mood. Like, it does. And so that’s table stakes, and the reason I bring it up and hone it in so much is that this is so prevalent, right? Blood sugar imbalances are so prevalent and people think, I’m not diabetic and therefore I’m fine. Well, you’re not fine if you’re trying to be optimal and be the best version of yourself. And guess what? Your blood sugar is a little imbalanced, you’re not the best version of yourself right now. So if you can get a little bit better, you’ll be a little bit closer to your potential.

David Freeman:
I just want to call it right there.

Jamie Martin:
I feel like we need…I know we’ve done a whole episode on blood sugar imbalances and all that, but it feels like those are just things we should come back to again, like the CGMs are again a thing that’s happening more and more. We can talk about more of that in another episode hopefully.

Well, Sam, Anika, thank you both so much for coming on. We have questions coming in all the time, so hopefully we can do another episode like this. But I would say if listeners have questions, feel free to e-mail us at lttalks@lifetime.life, and if you want to connect with Anika and Sam, you can find them both on Instagram. Anika is @coachanika, and Sam, you’re on Instagram @lifetime.coachsam. Anything else? Thank you guys so much for coming on. We appreciate you.

Samantha McKinney:
Thanks for having us.

David Freeman:
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.

Jamie Martin:
And if you have topics for future episodes, you can share those with us too. E-mail us at lttalks@lifetime.life, or reach out to us on Instagram @lifetime.life, @jamiemartinel, and @freezy30, and use the hashtag #lifetimetalks. You can also learn more about the podcast at experiencelife.lifetime.life/podcast.

David Freeman:
And if you’re enjoying Life Time Talks, please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. If you like what you’re hearing, we invite you to rate and review the podcast and share it on your social channels too.

Jamie Martin:
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 is produced by Molly Kopischke and Sarah Ellingsworth with audio engineering by Peter Perkins, video production and editing by Kevin Dixon, sound and video consulting by Coy Larson, and support from George Norman and the rest of the team at Life Time Motion.

David Freeman:
A big thank you to everyone who helps create each episode and provides feedback.