Alexa Schirm proves that health cam be simple and delicious.
She received her bachelor’s degree in nutrition from Iowa State University and since then has been on a mission to spread the word about honest, realistic and most importantly delicious lifestyle changes. She is a firm believer that real health can be exciting, delicious and fun, and definitely not as complex as we make it. As a mom of three girls, she knows all about making healthy choices on the go and incorporating health into all areas of life. Her mission is helping people to create a new health-style through habit formation and real food. To use health as a means of living rather than living for health.
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Alexa Schirm proves that health cam be simple and delicious.
She received her bachelor’s degree in nutrition from Iowa State University and since then has been on a mission to spread the word about honest, realistic and most importantly delicious lifestyle changes. She is a firm believer that real health can be exciting, delicious and fun, and definitely not as complex as we make it. As a mom of three girls, she knows all about making healthy choices on the go and incorporating health into all areas of life. Her mission is helping people to create a new health-style through habit formation and real food. To use health as a means of living rather than living for health.
See all episode artwork, links and notes at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Find episode links, notes and artwork at:
https://blog.dirobi.com
This show is for informational purposes only.
None of the information in this podcast should be construed as dispensing medical advice.
These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. These products are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
The questions a little bit. Okay. Because as I looked through your stuff, um, I decided I didn't want the episode to be too all over the place. You have quite a lot of expertise in a variety of areas and the main thing I decided to cut out, but I'd be happy to do another episode about it at a future date is this stuff on hormones I originally was going to ask you about that. Um, but instead let me just quickly read you the questions I've got. Okay. That I just think I feel like it's just more streamlined and really honing in. So it's, um, starting off with healthy mindset. Um, and I'm going to come at that from the negative point of view. I'm going to say you talk about a healthy mindset. What are some of the negative mindsets you find people dealing with and how do you help them have a more positive or more healthy mindset? Okay. Cause I think mindset is, you know, it's foundational to, to this, right, right. So here's, yeah. And then my next question will be, you claim that the, when of eating matters more than the what, please elaborate on that.[inaudible] next. Talk to us about the environment of eating and why that matters next in your work. Who referenced creating nourishing health rhythms that last, first of all, what is a nourishing health rhythm and how do we make it last? And my last question, sorry, it's not my very last question. My, my last kind of meat of the conversation question is as a mother, how do you make sure your kids are raised with healthy nutritional habits? Yeah. And then because you, um, are so into, uh, from what I consider your social media, you know, the actual practical application of creating great meals, I want to ask you to describe a favorite healthy breakfast, a favorite healthy lunch and a favorite healthy dinner. That sounds perfect. Oh. And and snack. Okay. I can do all that. Okay, perfect. And I just thought that that will be a lot and if we added in anything about hormones, you know, yeah, that would be way too much, too much. Sure. Yup. Yup. Okay. Sounds great. Let's jump in. I'm just going to read your bio at the beginning and then I'm gonna Oh, the other, the other thing I is, I'm gonna ask you to, after I read your bio and welcome to the show, I'm gonna ask you to just quickly summarize your personal health story. Okay? Yeah. Okay. And then we're going into the questions. Then at the very end, I'm going to ask you, okay. Uh, you know, once I feel like we've covered the topic well, I'm going to say, you know, basically, thank you so much for being on the episode. Is there anything that you'd like to add or anything you'd like to flush out that maybe we didn't cover to your satisfaction? And that's kind of just your opportunity. Just closing, do closing thoughts.
Speaker 2:Yup. Yup. Perfect.
Speaker 1:Then I'll ask you, how do people find you?[inaudible] and then I'll say, um, this is, uh, thank you so much for listening to the show. This is Dave Sherwin wishing you health and success and then it's over. I just hit stop. Okay. Okay.
Speaker 2:Perfect. That sounds great.
Speaker 1:Okay, then, then here we go. I got to make sure my water is open and ready. All right. Um, I got one other thing. Okay. Here we go. And by, by the way, your last name is pronounced to Sherm.
Speaker 2:Yup, that's correct. Congratulations. A lot of people don't get that right.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad I asked for is just to be sure.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Speaker 1:Hello everybody. Welcome to the Dharavi health show. Today I've got Alexa Sherm who has a phenomenal presence on social media and an excellent background in nutrition and wellness. Generally, she received her bachelor's degree in nutrition from Iowa state university and since then has been on a mission to spread the word about honest, realistic, and most importantly delicious lifestyle changes. She's a firm believer that real health can be exciting, delicious, and fun and definitely not as complex as we make it. She's also the mother of three girls and she knows all about making healthy choices on the go and incorporating health into all areas of her life. Her mission is helping people to create a new health style through habit formation and real food to use health as a means of living rather than living for health, which I really like. Alexa, thanks so much for being on the show.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 1:We found you on Instagram and I love your channel. I just want to share with everybody. This to me kind of gave me a real glimpse into your personality. One of your recent posts was most days my look is best described as homeless, sporty spice,
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:and then the rest of your, your uh, Instagram is pictures of everything I just described in your bio. Really good looking meals and you and your family having fun and your girls looking cute and it's just a fun, I'm going to put a link to this of course in our show notes for everyone listening. But you've got to follow Alexa on Instagram for sure and other social media. But Alexa, tell us how did you get here? What is your health story?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well I kind of grew up and the world do, you know, like in the eighties and nineties, which I feel like was this huge boom of the weight loss industry and it seemed like everyone around me as adults was doing some kind of diet. Now enough, my parents, my mom, even though she dyed it, she really sheltered us from, uh, I guess you could say like the body love or body positivity stuff and you know, like all of that, we were pretty sheltered from it. And so I would say that my sister and I grew up really excited to eat anything and try anything. Like we had a really safe food and body image, home life or environment. Um, so I was blessed because of that. But I also saw like even though we were in a great environment, I saw kind of like the chaos that it put in people's lives and like this turmoil of like people, like I saw my mom like waiting to buy new clothes until she hit her goal size and like really waiting to live life until at some point her health was fixed. Right. And so I think I kind of saw that and it kind of spurred something in me. Um, but it really wasn't until I went to college that I got into the whole nutrition, um, aspect of that and went to school for nutrition. But it was even there like in my schooling, which was very traditional, very food pyramid based. And not to throw that under the bus, but me on things were just not adding up. Like I couldn't quite grasp how my professor, when he drank three diet Pepsis every single hour long class could tell me that that was okay for our bodies. You know, like I couldn't quite grasp like the way my professors were living in and talking about health in our classes was actually what true health look like. Like I just couldn't put the pieces together. And so after school I kinda took a nontraditional route about learning for my, my own self, like through a lot of different classes. And I opened a gym to really kind of study people, which sounds terrible. Um, I wouldn't have said that I opened the gym to study people, but I was able to incorporate, incorporate like different practices, um, and start to question them and ask them about their everyday life. Um, and I think it was over the course of just like five or six, maybe seven years after college when I started to get this understanding that health is, we've made health so complex and it's just something that we should be doing. Like it should be a part of who we are, not something that we do. And I think that's really where this idea STEM from and that my passion is, is to really take people back to a place of just making health who they are so that it's not, it's not something that we feel like we constantly have to form our life around. Like it should just make up our being. Um, and, and I think so often we just stumble into this idea that we have to count calories and, um, you know, uh, now there's the big Quito push and all this stuff. Like we live so devoted to health practices, but I really don't believe that was our purpose in life. And I think that throws us all off. You know, like I think it takes away life. Um, and it's a vicious cycle and a trap that I really want to help people escape from. Um, so that's kind of like my story in a nutshell. Now, with all of that said, honestly, um, when I graduated college, I put myself through a lot of different trials and experiments because that's the easiest thing you can do. Um, and you know, I think in the last few years what I've learned is that I was doing everything right. Um, so to speak in the health world and I crashed and burned bad. Um, and I had to learn through that, that it's not just about like health and diet and weight loss or whatever people are after. It's not just about what we put in our body and how much we exercise. Like that's a part of it. But that's just a piece of the pie, right? Like there's this entire lifestyle aspect of like everything coming together to form the health of who you are. And after I kind of crashed and burned, like I was really sick, um, doctors setup cancer, all these things, fortunately enough, like they didn't find anything like that. I just had mass amounts of healing to be done. Um, and it all stemmed from just trying to be everything and do everything for everyone. Like I never stopped. Um, and basically I just burnt myself out on all these other things that were lifestyle related that I didn't think really impacted my health, you know, the whole hustle movement. Um, and so now I feel like I'm really trying to pull it all together. That health isn't just about what we eat. Um, yes, it matters, but it's not the end all be all. Um, and I really believe that like the how and why we eat, like our mindset behind it, the mindset behind why we exercise can change the entire outcome of it. Um, so that's kind of where I'm going through that. So it's been a lot of ups and downs, learnings, trials, watching other people. Abruption.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And in, in, in, in your own journey, uh, one of the expertise and expertise you have developed is personally developing healthy mindset, helping other people develop a healthy mindset. And so let's take that from the negative point of view. What are some of the unhealthy mindsets that you think people have out there and how do they turn that into a healthy nutritional health lifestyle?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think the big mindset that I see across the board, um, is this is coming from a place of lack. Like what I mean by that is I see a lot of people who say, um, you know, I can't be happy until I reached my goal weight. I can't be healthy until I do X, Y, and Z. um, and I mean, I don't have, like I, I can think on specific things, but, but basically what I see is people come to this place of wanting to died or wanting to get healthy from a place of I am not enough. Um, and I even think the body positivity movement kind of stems there. Not to pull that in, but it kind of comes into this place of I have thing I need to fix and in my fixing then I can live my life. Um, and I think that that the really hard mindset to overcome because what I found was that as I journey through helping people lose weight and get to their goal weight, even in healthy ways, when we come from a place of the fixed mindset, you only end up at like zero like that, that place you thought you desperately would change your life really isn't doing much for you. Like that weight goal isn't satisfying and so people want to lose more weight or you know, like it's kind of like their loss even when they hit their goal. Um, and I don't know if this is the same for you and obviously not for everyone, but I feel like this mindset of fix it, like I need fixing, um, is a really hard mindset to overcome because I feel like again, you're working from a lack and you only ever get yourself to like a neutral stance. And so instead I want to like, and I think one of the best ways to help people start to recognize a healthier view of health and what is good for them because no two humans are the same. Like what I recommend to one person will not work for someone else. And that's incredibly frustrating for humans in general, especially people who are trying to like nutritionist, right? Who are trying to help other, it's hard because can everybody's going to respond a little bit differently. So instead of looking at a system or a standard or more benchmarks, what I really hope to teach people is that we have to come from a place of abundance, like of, okay, I can start at neutral. Like I'm not going to go in debt to this. Like, I'm not gonna say I need fixed day, but I'm going to start looking at everything I do as how does this fill me? And what I mean by fill me is not like stuffed me like food, but is this food good for my body? Does this make me feel good? Is this workout program making me feel better? Like, is this filling me up because I think we can work out. Like even if we go back to working out, we can work out from a place to fix it and that's pushing her body, that's working through pain. You know, like that's the mindset of like no pain, no gain. You get after it, you do it. And I push people like this for a long time. When I own a gym, I feel incredibly sorry that I did that. Um, but you know, I had to learn that working out was so much more effective when people actually just move their body because it made them feel better. Um, and so I want to help people learn and look at their life rather from w things that need fix to. How can I fill my life in better ways? And I think it goes to the same for this whole self care movement. You know, like I think some people can walk into self care as okay, I just hope that this fixes me as opposed to what self care is really intended to be as a means to fill you. And I think the more that we are filled up on good things, the less likely we are to a need to fix things if that. Am I making any sense? And yeah, so I, I really try to push people and, and a lot of the things that people do are similar, right? Like you know, eating well like that can come from a mindset of Oh, I have to fix myself so I eat well. But I think that fixed that mindset in the eating world leads to restriction and deprivation. Um, it leads to counting like unrealistic practices as opposed to you and the Philip mindset. Even if they're eating the same thing, but they're coming to a place of, man, this just makes me feel good. It changes the entire mindset and it actually makes it more enticing to continue. Um, and because there's not the deprivation there, you know, you're doing what makes you feel good and one day it might make you feel good in another day you might feel like something totally different. So like for example, working out as a great example of this, like one day you might wake up and feel like, man, you can crush the cardio and the weights and another day you wake up and your throat scratchy and you just kind of feel like you're coming down with something. I think in a fixed mindset, we pushed through that, right? We pushed through our body and say like, what you're telling me I don't care about because my results matter more. It's kind of like, um, people tried to beat their bodies into submission and we can't do that. Like there, there's protective mechanisms inside of our body and our body will always win. And so the key is how can I work with my body? How can I listen to the signals that it's providing, whether it's exhaustion or scratchy throat or hunger or tiredness. Um, and, and use those as a means to formulate what would fill my body up, what could help it rather than what would fix it.
Speaker 1:Okay. That's great. I love that. And, uh, and let's move into the nutritional side of it. Um, one of the interesting things that I found in your stuff is that you claimed the, when of eating matters more than the what you eat. Can you talk about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I mean, a topic that we didn't really get into here because we just don't have enough time, but it relates to this is just the entire mindset of how we view things and our environment is really changing our hormonal flown or body changing the way our brain chemistry works. Like all of these things we're bombarded with in life. Um, and how we view what we're doing really does change our brain chemistry. We can either say it's parasympathetic or sympathetic, which is the whole nervous system thing that's going on. But we can either, again, work with our body and have a positive hormonal response, which means great things for you. Like this is what we want, right? Again, working with our body so we have the right enzymes and the right digestive juices to break down our food and to absorb it and to use it or to get rid of it. Um, or if we eat in times of stress, we can, what our body's going to do is we're just gonna not break it down. Well, probably absorb most of it and then store it like times of stress mean conserve, whether that's energy or food, fat, whatever it is, right? All these things we don't want to happen. And so one of the things that I've come to learn is that how we eat, whether that be the, when we eat it or why we're eating it, like the environment in which we eat greatly affects our body. So you've probably heard about like intermittent fasting, um, or fasting in general. I mean there's just tons and tons of studies coming out about the benefits of that. Now. I think people have to be careful because this isn't a means to kind of withhold energy from the body or food from the body. Um, as a means again, to beat it into submission, but eating in the right time and the right place can change the entire hormonal flow of how your body breaks that down, absorbs it and uses it or not. Like you're less likely to store that food as fat because your body is in a good space to recognize, Hey, I, I'm in a place that I can trust my body, therefore I do not need to conserve. So, so what, what I'm saying is that like, I think that we've come to this notion that we can just eat whatever, you know, eat whenever we want, as long as we're careful about what we eat. But our hormonal flow in our body really doesn't work that way. Um, and so like at night for instance, we release something called melatonin to help us reach deep sleep. But melatonin has only released in the absence of insulin, which insulin is released with food. And so in order to reach deep sleep, which resets our hormones every single night and helps cleanse our body, like sleeping I think is one of the most valuable times. Like if people are going to lose weight, it's going to happen at night. Um, but sleep helps you, you know, to do all these things that are necessary. But if we're eating too late into the night, then we're not going to release the melatonin and therefore we're not going to reach deep sleep or as much deep sleep as we need. And so I think that we not only have to look at, like, I don't worry as much about what people are eating as long as they're eating within a feeding window. And a feeding window to me is something that during the day when your body needs energy and it's a shorter window of time, because the longer you allow at nighttime or in this fasted state, the more your body can heal. So I like people to set an eating window, is what I call it. And that basically is either, you know, eight, nine, 10, maybe even up to 12 hours. That's the longest eating window I like people to feed in and that's when they consume all of their food. So like say if you eat breakfast at seven and you want to start this out, like if you're just starting, do a 12 hour eating window, so you eat breakfast at seven, you have to be fully finished eating by 7:00 PM like no bedtime snack and no midnight, no midnight snack. Like that's your eating window. I don't care what you eat within that window as much as I care that you just stick to that window. Now I, if you've been doing, I like to PC people get down to like 10 ish hours. I think that's a really good standard. Some men can go even longer, like eight, six hour windows. Women just hormonally speaking, the eight to 10 hour range is really good. Um, so again, eating all of your calories within that window and what people will notice is that they're sleeping better. They have more energy, they're healing, so they're recovering from workouts or just recovering from illness. Um, so preventing sickness, you could say, um, there are reduced cravings. Um, they actually crave healthier food. They tend to eat less in general without ever focusing on that. So it's really cool because I think when we start to focus on food, there's this whole emotional component to that. Like, you can't take away that food cause I'm gonna eat it all the time that, you know, like it's like we put this thought in people's head that if they can't have it, then that's all they want. Um, but if we just focus on the eating window, I mean there's no emotional ties to that. Um, and so it does make, and yet it comes with so many benefits that people don't even recognize that it makes health so much easier. Like it's just the intended purpose of the body.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I just say a big amen to that. I personally eat in an eight hour window. I have breakfast at 10 and I eat my last meal at six and I've been doing that for a long time. Um, I've had several experts on the podcast just about this concept and so right as, as you were describing that I was just sitting here going, yes, this is excellent. Um, yeah, and, and I just want to throw out there, you added a wrinkle I hadn't heard before. Now I like the 16 eight protocol. It's something I've been teaching. I've been kind of teaching it to men and women equally. Um, and typically tend to six or nine to five, whatever, just the eight hour window is what we've been kind of shooting for. Um, and before I throw up my question, let me add one more thing back to what you said about mindset and, and just having a healthy lifestyle. I am not religious about it. Uh, there was one study that showed that five days a week was as good as seven. And I love that concept because if I go to a party on a Friday night and there's delicious food that breaks all the rules, I'm going to eat it because I don't mind breaking all the rules. Um, but I have found that it's surprising how often I do go all seven days cause it just works. And even at parties, I often just don't feel like, you know, eating a bunch of food after seven, my body's just changed. But what I'm trying to say is to not be religious about it. And that's worked really well for me. Now the wrinkle you added was a difference between men and women. I did not realize how you sing. There's a hormonal benefit to women to extend their window a little bit.
Speaker 2:Uh, yes. So, and I want to go back and reiterate that point that real life matters. And so you should never deprive yourself. Like I love what you said about like the majority of the time we're fat. You know, we're doing this intermittent fasting thing, but it's not at a sacrifice to real life. And so I just love that you mentioned that because I think that's very important. But to go back to the hormonal thing, um, yes. So men and women are very different in the way that our hormones work. And I think that this is one honestly, like one of the biggest downfalls to research is the lack of studying women. So about 90% of all research is done on the male body, which is really fascinating. But when we look at hormones, males run tend to run on a 24 hour cycle, you know, 365 days a year. Women as we know, whether menstruating or past menopause run more on this 30 28 to 31 32 day cycle and every, there's four phases and that cycle, um, and what we're finding and especially like as this Quito boom has taken off, is that a lack of carbohydrates at certain points in the cycle is extremely detrimental to the hormonal flow of a woman. And if we start to mess that up, we kind of mess up all the hormones in the body, right? Like they're all, they all run off the same system and our body has to start compensating. And so while I say that men can do really, really great at shorter fasting or longer fasting windows, shorter fed windows, um, it's simply because their hormones are static. Like they're basically the same 24 hours a day, every single day. Now there are some variation that they're finding to that, but in general, men do really good with it. But women during different phases, like there's a seasonality to this, like a cyclical cycle that we need to be aware of, like, and the first phase of it. So right after menstruating, after they get through that and that first phase, um, women tend to have basically more testosterone flowing. Like they can work out harder, they tend to have more energy. Um, their fasted window can be a lot longer. Um, they tend to eat less. But as we know, as she prepares, as our body prepares to drop an egg and to um, cycle it, we need an increase in calories. Like this takes a lot of work for the body and therefore a woman will often become more sluggish. It'll increase her cravings, um, she'll naturally be more hungry, more exhausted, um, have a harder time working out. And I think one of the biggest detriments to women is that we don't feed into our cycle enough. And I'm a really big proponent of cycle sinking. Um, and I don't say this as a diet, but just knowing where a woman is at in her cycle can help determine, okay, this is probably why my workout didn't go as well today and I need to offer myself more grace. Um, it's simply because my body is working really hard at this moment in time. Um, and so I would say like the last phase of the cycle before menstruating is a time when a woman actually needs to have like increased the calorie count in her body a little bit, um, and maybe make the fasting window a little bit shorter. Um, and so, yeah. And again, we tend to need a little bit more carbohydrates during that, that cycle as well, that helps the body prepare for all that it has to do. Um, and so if we don't do this, what I see as great hormonal imbalance in the body, and it can start in little ways like women having more cramping, um, more PMs, acne, um, exhaustion, adrenal fatigue, you know, and it can get bigger things like endometriosis and autoimmune conditions and of course, thyroid problems. Um, and so it really is an important thing and just simple little things like, Oh, okay. During the first part of my cycle, I have an eight hour eating window, and during the second half I just go to 10. Like I just eat breakfast. Like for me or our nighttime meal is about the same, but I'll notice like after my cycle, like I can, like I'm not really that hungry in the mornings, but as soon as I, after ovulation, I'm hungry when I wake up and, and I wanna respect and honor that because to me, I think I've been doing this long enough that if my body signals that like at some level we have to learn to trust ourselves. If my body is signaling that there's probably valid reason to why it needs energy. Um, and so yeah, so cyclical, I mean that that's like, I feel like I really want to make complex things simple and I feel like this sounds super complex, but if you just look up cycles thinking for women, there's some great apps. There's an app called flow, the flow app. I think I can send it all to you if you want to add it to the show notes, but it will tell you where you are in your cycle and it'll even give you like food recommendations X or best exercise practices like there, there are apps out there that break this all down. Make it so simple.
Speaker 3:Well, I, I've done over a hundred episodes of this podcast and I probably had a pretty good 50, 50 mix of, of men and women on this show. All health experts in the last five minutes of what you just said is really phenomenal. I'm sure all the women listening are just, uh, really excited about what you said because, and of course I'm not a women. I'm a woman's. I'm not, I don't follow the same things that my wife would for example, but maybe this is all just new to me, but I don't know. This is a Alexa, this, uh, information you're sharing it sounds, uh, extremely credible. Makes a ton of sense. Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I, yeah. So for the fresh air, yeah. You know, you don't, and this is like if I get fired up, it's about the fact that we're not studying the difference between how men and women like nutritional studies, you know, they're all founded in men's health. And we see that when a man picks up a diet or a program, the success rate for a man over a woman is exponential. You know, like, and I think women complained about this all the time. Like I just ran into someone this morning. She's like, she's complaining about her husband who just started exercising and just eating better. And he's like, she's like, he lost 15 pounds in three weeks. She's like, it would take me three years to lose 15 pounds. And it's the frustration because we don't talk about it and we can't figure out why men can so easily. And I don't want to say it's easy, but more easily tend to drop with eight, um, and build muscle than a woman could. And there is lots of valid reason and I don't think women give their bodies the credit that it deserves. That one, we're just naturally supposed to carry more body fat. Like, that's because we can also carry a baby. And without that we can't healthily carry a child. Um, and men just, you know, they don't, they don't get to experience that like a woman does. Now of course we see the downside as we just have more body fat percentage. This is kind of a rant, but Shaleen Johnson, um, obviously you probably know who she is. I heard speak in San Diego. Just a yeah. Yeah. So she's kind of coming out of the woodwork, I guess you could say. And just kind of stating like, you know, what we portrayed for women as healthy is actually severely unhealthy. Like for a woman to even show any amount of abdominals, it's about 18 to purse. A woman would have to be about 18% body fat or a little bit less. We technically aren't menstruating or having a healthy cycle hormonal cycle until a woman is about at 20% body fat. I'm like, we would consider 20 on the low side for body fat for a woman to have a healthy hormonal cycle. So when we see this image of like we have to have muscle definition and that's the epitome of health, like that's the standard that we have to try to reach. But what it takes to get there is so unhealthy and so damaging to a woman when we speak just like hormonally, like sex hormones. But those texts hormones then relate to our neurotransmitters, you know, and these hormones that are firing in our mind. So we also see a higher propensity of mental health problems when a woman drops too much body fat. Um, and so it's just like this massive vicious cycle that we've created. And I'm not saying it needs to be on the opposite extreme either, but I think that for all the women listening there is like health has to look different for a woman than it does for a man. Not in a way that it has to control your life. But I think it's just the awareness of like, Hey, I have a menstrual cycle and there's four phases of that. And kind of getting in touch with that. Like I said, not to control you, but even just a simple app to say like, here, this is why I don't feel as well today or this is why I have a lot more energy. And just kind of getting in touch with that can really change. I think the mindset around it make you feel more normal in some cases. Um, and just open up to see that there time in a women's cycle when change is going to be more easily. You come by, like if someone is really trying to lose weight, um, that usually happens in the first two weeks of her cycle. The last two weeks. It's probably a maintenance phase. Like there's nothing linear about it.
Speaker 3:Now all, all of this a is excellent and leads nicely into another area of your expertise, uh, which is nourishing health rhythms that last, I've got that in quotes here. That's one of your quotes. And so you kinda hit on on this a little bit already, I feel like, but, but let's dive into what is a nourishing health writ rhythm and how do we develop that and create lasting, nourishing health rhythms.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. So the whole idea, what is, what is a nourishing rhythm? Right? Um, so I just look at life and I think all that we do in a day, it's kind of our rhythm of life, right? Like that's w we wake up and whatever we do when we wake up, maybe it's brush our teeth. Like a lot of these are unconscious things that we just naturally do. Like we've just created some kind of rhythm to our life that repetitively we kind of come in and just continuously that like that it, that makes up our life. And so I've studied a lot about habit formation and, and this was back in the day when I was owning a gym and um, trying to help people do what they wanted to do, lose weight. And it was incredibly frustrating because when we had this idea of changing habits, it's a really, really, really hard thing because it gets all into the mind and the way that our, our minds are hardwired. Like it's not an easy thing to change or to overcome a bad habit with a good habit. Now you could say creating a new rhythm is similar or just like the same thing. Um, but I think I look at it as, again, not as a means of like a habit to me or forming a new habit is like, okay, I need to fix something in my life. So I think to me a rhythm is okay, it's not about fixing, but it's how can I nourish myself? Like how can I fill myself up? So I'm looking at it as two different things, like a habit as strictly being a thing that you think you need fixed versus a rhythm being. This is just a way to fill myself back up. So when I help people create these nourishing life for them, my goal again is to, to not just abruptly change their life, but it's to how can we fit things into your life that you enjoy and make you feel good? Because our reality is that if you don't like it and it doesn't work for your life, you're never going to do it longterm. Like I've never met anyone who can calorie count longterm. Um, it just doesn't. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Great example,
Speaker 2:you know, like, and I think we're gonna find out with the Quito thing, like there's no one longterm who can, can really sustain that for life. And I don't want health to be something that we do, but who we are. And for me the only way to make it who we are is that it has to be a part of our natural life rhythm. Um, and so these nourishing their life rhythms came about just, okay, here's my everyday, my normal life for them. What are some ways that I can take these activities and either change my mindset around them to make them more nourishing, um, or to add a few in that would make me feel better. Um, and the same goes like, even for creating nourishing, like eating rhythms, you know, like, how can I make breakfast more enjoyable? Like for me, it's not enjoyable to eat when I'm trying to pack lunch for my kids and they're fighting over what they're going to wear for the day. You know, like the chaos of the morning is not a healthy time for me to try and shovel food and my mouth. That's not nourishing to me. Um, even if I'm eating nourishing food, that's not nourishing for me because then if I'm eating a healthy breakfast and I'm just doing it on the fly, why my kids are arguing like I'm giving you a real picture of my life. It sounds chaotic and youth normally before school it is, but it causes me to have bloating and indigestion and like, I just don't feel good. And so what I've learned is that that's not nourishing, but if I can pack myself a breakfast when I'm packing them a lunch, then I can eat it when I get to work. You know, like I, the first thing I do is okay, I can take a few deep breaths. Everyone's where they need to go and I can sit down and enjoy the foods that I brought for myself. And to me, that's nourishing. So it's not necessarily like focusing on the food, but it's focusing on, again, the environment in which I eat it. That can be a nourishing pattern for myself.
Speaker 1:You know, this, this is so interesting and it's a great thing to think about. I, I haven't, uh, really, uh, made this a major, uh, premise in my own coaching or anything like that, this, this rhythm that, that you're describing. I think intuitively, um, we all kind of get it, but maybe haven't like, you know, put a plan together or something. Um, but recently as you're talking about this, I realized that I, I made a change in my own life recently that was quite simple but has been dramatic. And that is that, um, I, I started to habit of meditation. I think, I think I got serious about it probably two years ago, but, um, I, uh, I, I, I had a goal of meditating every day and uh, and I, and for about the last two years, I had been fairly good at that. I hit it most days and I've been doing it in the afternoon. Typically I get on with, I go to the gym, I get ready, I prepped food, I go to work and kind of when everything settles down and I have a few minutes, I, I do my meditation and then, uh, but some days it gets away from me and I just completely miss it. And, um, I, I sometimes after sitting I'm kinda creaky and lost flexibility and I don't really like that. And I made the very simple shift a few weeks ago of doing my meditation before I exercise in the morning. So I get up a little bit and I meditate first. And, um, this morning it was actually dark and I went outside, sat in the yard, the trees were there, it was just, it was a nice setting. And little cool morning, the dog sat beside me, which is kinda fun. She's picked up a habit of meditation along with me now. Uh, and uh, yeah, yeah. And uh, um, and then I get up and I go to the gym and I get on with and it's done and, and I don't miss it. And I love it first thing in the morning and that, and so this, this, it's, I guess it is really a rhythm thing. I'm just, I've just moved an element of my life to a different time of the day and it's made a significant difference in the quality of my day.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. I think, I think that's so, it's such a great example because I think a lot of the times we think it's this big abrupt change that we have to make when it really is just simple shifts. Like maybe like you said, it's just moving little things around in your day to make it more nourishing, you know, like it make it feel better. Um, and it can come in a lot of different ways and I think that's a great example.
Speaker 1:Okay, excellent stuff. Now, as was mentioned earlier, you are a mother, you have three daughters, we can see all the cute pictures on your Instagram page and it looks like you guys are having a lot of fun together and living the healthy lifestyle that you described. How do you make sure your kids are raised? I mean, it's hard in this day and age to make sure that, that children eat a healthy diet all day. What do you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, um, interestingly, uh, I can get a little heat for what I do, but I tend to have a more hands off approach to what, um, they consume. And instead, I, I think the biggest thing is that we can lead by example. Um, from a young age, um, my kids have always watched what I've been eating and, and, and this is like where it really stuck out to me is that whatever I made something for myself that was slightly different than what they had. They always wanted to eat my food. And you know, I think it's just this, again, what they see is what they know. And so if they don't see a healthy diet or healthy lifestyle portrayed to them, they don't know how to do it. So for me, my answer is always stop worrying so much about your kids and first start to put the effort into yourself because they are watching that. They are seeing that and that is going to be their greatest source of education and confidence in what they do. With that being said, I know some people like, okay, I didn't start my health journey. My kids are older. This is harder to do. So, and our house, we have the rule of I can control what I can control at home. So I'm in charge of what we buy at the grocery store. However, at mealtime I give them a lot of options. Like I want them to be involved in what they eat and I know that there are things that my husband and I love to eat that they would never, they, they don't have any interest in right now. Um, and so we really tried to focus on, on most of the time, especially during the work week or school, school week, whatever you want to look at it as providing safe meals for them that are healthy. And I'm not saying that that convenience can't be healthy in some cases. Right. Um, but for me it has to be super practical and then also incorporating elements that they can layer. So something that we found really easy at home is having options for them to put it together. So what I mean by that, like maybe it's a taco bar and maybe they can have a taco salad. They can have a rice bowl, they can have, you know, like we have lettuce, we have rice, we have to talk with me. And then the toppings and letting them actually put their own meal together, I think opens up the door for them to experiment and try new things. And that's really important to me. But on the other hand, I don't, I don't try to control their outside environment. They're at school now, they're going to birthday parties. And it's impossible for me to control that. I mean, it's not impossible. It could be done. But what I want to do is that I know that someday they're going to grow up and they're going to leave Palm. And the worst thing that I think I could do for them is to control it to a point where they have no freedom. I want them to really learn on their own what makes my body feel good. And what doesn't. And so we talk about it, you know, like if they come home from a birthday party and they're not feeling good, um, one of my daughters is really sensitive to wheat or gluten and it doesn't come out in like nausea or vomiting or any, any way that would make this easier. Um, but it comes out and she just has a terrible mindset. Like it really affects her mood. And this has been one that we've been talking about for years and, and wheat. Gluten has gotta be one of the hardest things for, for kids to give up, especially if they're, you know, have a true gluten sensitivity. I think it's just so hard because there's so much pizza and cake and like so many things that normal kids, that's what she says, normal kids get to eat at home. Of course we have all the options that it doesn't seem like a big deal. Like I'm very aware of, of what they can have and being realistic with that. Um, but, so we talk about it, you know, I talked to her, I say, you know, you're going to a birthday party and you know, I'm going to, I'm going to help you come up with some solutions to what could be done. Like I want you to feel good. Like we always come from a place of you don't want to feel bad. Like I know you don't want to feel bad. You told me you don't want to feel bad. So let's come up with a solution that would make you feel good. Like we always are talking about like, let's just do more of what makes our bodies feel good. Um, and so I present everything like Halloween's coming, you know, and they're going to go trick or treating and they're going to get the candy and they're gonna want to eat all the candy. And to me it's less about controlling that and more about just talking to them about it. Like, yeah, this looks really good and it probably would taste really good, but they're gonna reach a point where it's not going to taste good at all. Um, and your body's not going to like it. So what could we do, like giving, helping them to be a part of the conversation. What can we do to maybe like enjoy some of this, but also not to enjoy to the point where our body no longer feels good and they will usually come up with solutions. Like last year one of my, my oldest daughter was like, how about we pick out 10 pieces of candy and then we can put a piece in our lunch everyday for the next 10 days. I'm like, perfect, you know, and, and we got rid of the rest. And so like, they're really, I think what we don't teach our kids enough is the body awareness. Like their body signals and what they're telling them. And kids are so, they're so like, they're signals are on fire, you know, like they have them all the time. Like, think about a baby. Um, you can't force feed a baby. Like, if a baby is not hungry, they're, they're not gonna suck on the bottle. Right? Like they're gonna push it around, they're going to spit out the milk. Like, you cannot force feed an infant to eat when they're not hungry. But on the other hand, when they're hungry, they're hungry and like 0.2 seconds. Right. Um, and like, so I think they have such great body signals, we just have to own into that. And for me it's less about controlling that. And it's more about teaching what does feel good for your body because it's probably not exactly the same as my body and that's okay. And your taste preferences are not going to be the same as mine and that's okay. So how can we honor your body in a way that's healthy for you? Um, and so that's what we do and it's not perfect. My kids eat a lot more junk that I would really like them to, but you know, they're learning. Like I can see my kids think that they want a cookie and they'll pick up a cookie. And you know, like the mom in me is like, Oh my gosh, like trying to keep it all to myself, like my fake smile on like, Oh I just don't want you to be eating that cookie. Um, cause it's, you know, like whatever. And they'll take a few bites and then they'll put it down, you know, like, and I like looking at that and think, Oh my gosh, I could never do that, you know, didn't get the whole cookie. Um, but that's just how intuitive they can be if left to their own devices. And so you don't, you know, like they do it and they're satisfied and then they go about their day. So I mean it's all ebb and flow. It's the learning. It's frustrating. Um, but I think, or I hope, you know, my kids are still young, so I can't say that this system's going to work for certain, but I, I can already see it, you know, like they'll come home and, uh, you know, mom, I, I could, I didn't want to eat the pizza cause I know it makes, it makes me not my mind, not feel good. That's what we say. It makes my mind not feel good. So, um, I just ate the toppings off of like three pieces. I was like, great idea. Like, I, I wouldn't have told you to do that, but great idea. You know, like she wasn't scared to just take the toppings off and throw the crust away because she knows her mind hurts. And like this last weekend she ate a piece of cake. She was like, mom, I didn't know that there were other options and I was really hungry and so I just ate the cake. And I'm like, that's fine. We had a rough few days. We eventually later talked about it and we said, you know, like maybe you could have asked an adult like, Hey, is there anything else? Or eating the frosting off of the, you know, like coming up with solutions rather than restriction and avoidance. So damaging for our kids.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And perfectionitis really is the enemy. Uh, so I love that you said it's not perfect cause that's the best way. Not perfect as is fine. Uh, there's extremes in either direction. Right. So now that we've delved into your personal life and your home, let's dive in a little deeper. What's your favorite healthy breakfast?
Speaker 2:Oh man. I, so there's two that I kind of go on rotation. I'm a huge seasonal eater though. So like in the summer it looks different than the winter. Um, so in the winter I love a solid hash. So at separ I tried to like, which I tired to cook a little bit more at separate time, but whatever we have roasted potatoes or roasted vegetables, that's usually what I have for breakfast the next day. So I like a solid hash. So I mean some people get out of eggs to that or um, I sometimes will use like leftover meat, but I just tend to be roasted vegetables or sweet potatoes or regular potatoes. Um, just heat it up in a bowl. That's, that's my breakfast. Um, and then with summer though, I like a coconut milk yogurt. Uh, I really love that and I tend to make per phase with that, so, Oh, that sounds good. Yeah, super simple. Um, lunch I tend to do, again in the summer it tends to look more like a salad base. And the winter, I do a lot of soups or stuff that I can just pack and take to lunch. This is not glamorous at all. Um, so I'm sorry about that. I have nothing glorious to tell you, but I tend to every year
Speaker 1:we just want real, we just want to hear, you know, it's so interesting to hear what real people out there, uh, like to eat, you know, so, Hey, don't worry about it. No, no judgment here.
Speaker 2:I mean, I tend to make a soup on the weekend and so I have that, but it also like my body loves carbohydrates and I say that like, I, I giggle when I say that because most people are like, what? Um, but I tend to have like a rice or a keen wa or like an avocado toast on like I, I mean we're a gluten free. I can't have gluten either. And so I'm some kind of toast like that, but just having a little bit of that helps satisfy that. So if I haven't added like some kind of rice to the soup, then um, I tend to have a little extra something on the side there. And I'm not talking like dainty soups here. Like I, I feel like a huge detriment is that we have to have like very dainty little meals that don't fill anyone up. Like when I'm talking to a salad, I don't love lettuce, so I have to add all the toppings and some kind of creamy fatty dressing to that to make it tastes good to me. So I want substance in my meals. Um, and that's usually what I'm going for.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. How about dinner?
Speaker 2:Um, dinner is pretty standard. Um, we tend to like last we had a taco bar so I had like a rice. It's like basically a rice bowl. Um, that's like, those are pretty standard. I would say pretty family friendly meals is some kind of meat. Potato. I live in Iowa, like it's meat and potatoes, you know, vegetable. I, it's not a, it's not, I mean I try to post a lot over and, uh, on my Instagram page of just normal everyday life. Um, like on, I'll just give you an example of what we had the last few nights. So last night it was like taco bar. Um, the night before that we made potato Smashers, which basically you're just roasts, little potatoes and the oven and some olive oil and um, some seasoning. And then we just put some shredded meat on top of those. Like we smashed him down, um, put some shredded meat on top of those and then baked them back in the oven. So they were hot and a little bit crispy. And then we just like topped them with tomatoes and avocados and just kinda whatever broccoli. We had broccoli that night too. And that was just supper. I am like a huge fan of like partially made meals. And what I mean by that is I use a lot like simply organic seasoning packets or gravy mixes or um, you know, like I, I feel like this, this pork that I had was like, we have Wallace farms, which they're nationwide. There's pretty awesome, but it's like grass fed meat company and it comes already like cooked. You just have to like warm it up in a pan. Um, and to me like there is always a convenient, healthy option and man steppers like that's, that's our goats. You interesting chickens, Wallace farms.com. They ship anywhere in the country. They have amazing meat and they have all kinds, they have like summer sausage on there. My kids like to pack that for lunch. Um, they're broad. We get their shredded meat and they're not all cooked. Some of them obviously are raw, you know, like you can buy raw hamburger roasts or whatever on there too. But yeah, so pretty expensive. I, you know, I really don't think it's that bad for what we get. Like, um, a pound of the shredded pork that's cooked and ready to go I think was six 99 pound in a little over a pound, which for us is like a whole meal of meat, um, and leftover. So if, because it's already made, that's not too bad. I don't know what some of their other prices are, but I'll tell you, I buy a full month's worth of meat, I think every month for like$120. Yeah. Not bad at all. And um, they have like, okay. To me, pork is really hard to find healthy at a grocery store around me. And so when I can find like grass fed, um, organic pork products, that is huge for me. We don't eat a lot of it, but even like sausage, my kids love. Like when I make hash in the morning, sometimes I'll just cook on the weekends a pound or two of, of sausage. And then I can mix that into the roasted vegetables. My kids it garbage, but they love it. They're like, Oh, can I have garbage like a secretary for a meal? But it's kind of, we just throw everything together. And so that kind of stuff I find on that's, that tends to be what I buy on there. So it's, it's pretty good. They have like drop off locations around the Midwest so you can like actually go pick it up or they can ship it too. Anyways.
Speaker 3:Okay. Well this has been excellent. Thank you so much for coming on the show. Was there anything that, uh, you, you want to, uh, talk about that we missed or anything you want to just kind of elaborate on a little more or add before we wrap up?
Speaker 2:I'm sure. Okay. So I think the biggest thing that I always want to end with is that I can talk a lot and I can go on and on. And I think in nutrition it just seems like a never ending. Like we're constantly learning. Right. Um, and I think that we have to come to health as not as not a one way. You know, like, I think that we have to be willing to constantly throughout the rest of our life, make simple shifts in our everyday life because it's all seasonal base. Like our bodies are gonna change the season change. And so I think that we just have to look at our everyday life and just look at that and think what is going to make me feel good today? And just continuously shift as a season shifts and not get so stuck on this is the, the end all be all like super foods are going to come and go. You know, like they're, they're going to be really great one day and the next day they're going to cause cancer. Like we can't get so worked up and what is absolutely right that we lose just making it who we are. And I think that's the most important thing. So it's just looking at your life and seeing, okay, what is working in my life? What can I add to make it even better? Um, and just keep doing that. Like, just let this be a journey, not a destination.
Speaker 3:Well, I love it and I'm sure there's people who are listening who would like to reach out to you, especially. I bet there's some women who heard the middle part of this podcast. They're going, wow, I want to know more about that. So how do people reach out to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I have a podcast and a website, um, with a blog and I do a lot of free downloads. So even like if you want to know more about the cycle sinking, I have a full free download that you can print off. So it teaches you about the, the different, um, what am I gonna say? Um, phases of your cycle and what you should be doing in those phases as all free. Um, you can get that at simple roots, wellness.com. And if you want to find my podcasts where I also have some podcasts on cycles thinking and other things, um, at simple roots radio. And that's on basically anywhere where you can find a podcast.
Speaker 3:Okay. And I'll have links to all those things on our blog. Blog dot[inaudible] dot com dye Robbie is D I, R O B i.com, and we'll put links to everything, mentioned a how you can reach out to Alexa on her Instagram Facebook website, as well as some of these fun things, um, her podcast
Speaker 1:as well as a Wallace farms and everything we talked about. We'll put a link on there so you could check that out. And this has been phenomenal. Alexa, thank you so much for taking the time. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm so honored. We'll thank you. And to those of you listening, this is Dave Sherwin wishing you health and success. Okay. Um, stop recording.