Agile Always by Officially Fenner

Healthy Eating: Facts or Fiction?

• Robin and Rudy Fenner • Season 4 • Episode 4

Share episode

Send us a text


Healthy eating doesn’t have to mean giving up everything you love or memorizing complicated food rules. In this fun and relaxed episode, we’re busting some of the biggest nutrition myths out there (yes, even the one about carbs being the enemy) and sharing the simple swaps that helped us go from pre-diabetic to feeling our best—without giving up real food or taking medication.

Think of this as a casual kitchen-table chat where we spill the (unsweetened) tea on late-night snacking, smart shopping strategies (hint: stay around the edges of the store), and why adding veggies doesn’t have to be a chore. From our own experience—and a few good laughs—we’ve found that small, realistic changes add up fast.

You’ll get practical tips you can try today, whether you’re figuring out what to eat for breakfast or wondering how to help your grandkids develop better habits (spoiler: they’re watching everything you do).

It’s real talk, real food, and real results—served up with a side of encouragement and maybe a chuckle or two. Tune in and let us know which tips you’re trying this week. We’d love to hear from you!


Thank you for spending time with us today! We hope you enjoyed our conversation, related to something we said, and learned something new along the way.

Please give us a like and subscribe to our podcast, so you don't miss ANYTHING!

Follow us @AgileAlways and be sure to check out our website, www.agilealways.com!

A special thanks goes to @yancylott for producing, editing, and creating the music for our podcasts!
xo,
Robin & Rudy


This presentation and its multimedia recording and all its contents including all text, graphics, sounds, audio, and video content are protected by copyright and are the intellectual property of Fenner Productions, LLC. All rights reserved. This recording contains material that is protected by internationally valid copyright. No part of this recording or associated handouts may be reproduced, transmitted, publicly posted, or transcribed without the express written permission of Fenner Productions, LLC. Fenner Productions, LLC rejects any claims that transcend the clauses of the guarantee rights. Fenner Productions, LLC does not undertake any liability for the correctness of the content of the presentation. The contents of the presentation may be changed without prior notice. All trade names and trademarks are the property of the respective owners. The trademarks mentioned here are named for information purposes only.

Rudy Fenner:

Officially Fenner, with your hosts Robin and Rudy, a podcast about family, where we live, love and laugh along the way. Hey everybody, welcome back to the Officially Fenner Agile Always podcast, and this is going to be an interesting episode. I am again, as always, and wonderfully joined by my darling, fantastic wife, Robin Fenner.

Robin Fenner:

Well, thank you, darling, and I'm obviously joined by you, Rudolph Fenner.

Rudy Fenner:

So yeah, what do we got here, what do we got?

Robin Fenner:

Well, today we're going to do a fun little back and forth about healthy eating hacks, myths and tips. Healthy eating hacks, myths and tips. You know, because the food is so important, what you put in your body is so cool. And there's so much crazy talk. I know, I know.

Rudy Fenner:

Oh my gosh.

Robin Fenner:

This is the funny stuff that we all do, okay. So it's just kind of giving people some ideas about what are good snacks, what aren't, just kind of debunking some things people might think about certain types of food and saying, okay, not this, but that. So it's uh gonna be easy back and forth, and instead of having guests and all that kind of stuff, we're we're just going to kind of go back and forth to some things that we we found out recently. So, uh, let's see, um, let's see where can we start. Let's, I will grab a snack and hope it's a healthy one and let's jump in, okay, so here we go with a little game of fact or fiction. I'm going to throw out a common food myth and you tell me if it's fact or fiction. How about that? All right, okay, here we go. Carbs make you fat.

Rudy Fenner:

Okay, carbs aren't the enemy. The problem is highly processed carbs, white bread, sugary snacks, but whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Your body actually needs those for energy.

Robin Fenner:

Ding, ding, ding. Okay, you got that one right, okay. Next question you have to eat organic to be healthy.

Rudy Fenner:

Fiction, and I say that because there's many grocers. Next question you have to eat organic to be healthy. Fiction, and I say that because there's many grocers who are going to be angry because I said that it's fiction. Organic is great, but it's not necessary for a healthy diet. Wash your produce well. Focus more on eating whole, real foods. Don't worry so much about the organic label.

Robin Fenner:

Okay, ding, ding, ding, you got that one right too. I'm good, I'm good, I know what I'm doing here. Love your confidence there, Okay here we go Eating late at night makes you gain weight, and just keep in mind that that cabinet we have upstairs has your snacks in it.

Rudy Fenner:

Oh wait, the cabinet on top of the refrigerator with the chocolate cookies that don't have sugar, by the way.

Robin Fenner:

You don't like them, but they're great cookies. They're brownies. You might as well not eat them, anyway, okay.

Rudy Fenner:

So that's fiction. It's not when you eat, it's what you eat. Late night, snacking on chips and cookies. What Late night snacking on chips and cookies? My cookies are not those cookies. My cookies are sugar-free cookies. I mean it's a problem. But if you're hungry at 9 pm and you have some Greek yogurt or nuts, you're fine. I mean it's okay.

Robin Fenner:

Okay, we'll let that go. That's good. No, having the Greek yogurt or nuts works, and that's a healthy thing you can have late at night.

Rudy Fenner:

Okay, I'm just saying listen, if you have any issue with your glucose, your A1C, and you're trying to reprogram your taste buds, when you're in the cookie aisle at your grocery store, find the sugar-free cookies. It will be a mild, slight palate adjustment, but there are things there that can help your sweet tooth and I don't think you're going to chew them and as soon as you chew them you get cancer.

Robin Fenner:

So before anybody says that, stop the only thing about sugar free. You have to read the label to see what they're substituting for sugar, because sometimes it's better to have a sugar than to have the sugar substitute. So what might be a good idea is to find a good cookie recipe that you know what's in it. That you know what's in it. How about that? That's the best.

Rudy Fenner:

That's the best, yeah, but I think we just created a new episode that is sugar or sugar substitutes, and looking at the real science behind it and get real information, because there are some things that we think about that that might even fall into the myth category.

Robin Fenner:

Well, we'll find out later how about that. Okay, all right. So the next section is quick healthy eating fixes. I can't talk today for some reason. I'm not sure it's okay Anyway, but yes, quick healthy eating fixes. So do you want to do this one?

Rudy Fenner:

Or ask and I'll answer All right. So now I'm going to take control here. Hand me the control board and the microphone, like all men. We Hand me the control board and the microphone, like all men. We're going to and we'll continue. We're going to come up with five quick ways to improve your eating habits, starting today.

Robin Fenner:

Okay, Okay, all right, okay, so I thought you were going to ask me, but I'll ask you. Okay, drink more water. So many of us mistake dehydration for hunger. So before you grab a snack, drink a glass of water first and see if you're just thirsty.

Rudy Fenner:

So you know what? I was amazed to find that on many occasions I would drink water and dramatically reduce the volume of whatever it was I was about to eat or consume. See, so I've actually stumbled. I've kind of stumbled into that. All right, let me do number two. Tip number two swap sugary drinks for healthier options. Try flavored sparkling water, herbal tea or just adding lemon to your water instead of soda or juice. Can I add something to that? Sure, to your water instead of soda or juice.

Robin Fenner:

Can I add something to that?

Rudy Fenner:

Sure, most of my life I lived in a pre-diabetic state. Now, like some I don't know if it's just male behavior, Rudolph behavior, I don't know what to attribute it to but I think I kind of made that into like a joke, right, and it was a running joke. It was a running funny thing. But pre-diabetes is not funny and it's not a joking situation and it leads to a number of and contributes to a number of health issues, from diabetes to there's so much science now that believes that these high sugar levels lead you to cancerous roads and all sorts of things. Almost all of my excessive sugar, I believe, was through drinks.

Rudy Fenner:

Yeah, I was not a candy eater, I was not a high sugar guy. That doesn't float my boat, that's not my thing. A high sugar guy that doesn't float my boat, that's not my thing. But I did a lot of not just, I wouldn't say energy drinks, but hydration drinks, from Gatorade to Powerade to different. Most of those in their truest form has considerable sugar levels. If you work out and sweat as much as I do, you can end up consuming a lot of those. Right, and I say that because my, my glucose was normally about 115 120. That's where it stayed and that's like pre-diabetes, pre-diabetic, and now I've eliminated those almost completely and I'm like 80 to 83.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, yeah, you've done a lot better the last couple of years.

Rudy Fenner:

And that's a dramatic drop. And my diet fruits and vegetables is more what I eat, but I never ate cakes and cookies, so I know with absolute certainty that the drinks did it.

Robin Fenner:

Right, Right, Exactly so. Um, that's, that's good. Yeah, so, and I remember a lemon, adding lemon to water it used. Women used to do that a while ago too. And I remember adding lemon to water. Women used to do that a while ago. They thought it was going to help them lose weight. I'm not sure if that's true or not, but that was a thing you know.

Rudy Fenner:

At least it gave it a little bit of flavor, but we know it definitely adds taste. Yeah, it gives it a little flavor.

Robin Fenner:

So, yeah, yeah, it's good. Okay, here's the next one Add an extra veggies to every meal, so, for example, you can add spinach into your scrambled eggs, or you can toss greens in your smoothie, or sneak zucchini into pasta sauce. Now I have a really great recipe and I'm going to probably post this and show everybody how to do it too. It's uh. I have a couple of recipes actually from vitamix, because it's a vitamix machine and, um, I shared a fruit recipe, I think, a while ago, kind of a summary thing. But there are other ones that they have too, with greens and other things, and they're good and everybody likes them. So it's like you know they have fruit along with it, but you know it's spinach and grapes and some banana and whatever.

Rudy Fenner:

So the fruits smoothie was one of the greatest things on earth.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great.

Rudy Fenner:

It's absolutely amazing, and this one is good too. Yeah, this one is good too, so I'm going to post it. I haven't Rudy 2.0, I may have tried it once, but I need to go back and revisit that.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, yeah, because the kids love it. So it's a way to get your veggies and your kids and everything too, for veggies and fruits and everybody in the family.

Rudy Fenner:

Okay, let me take tip four Go ahead. Make your protein. Oh Breakfast, best friend. What we're suggesting here is skip the cereal, eat eggs, Greek yogurt, protein smoothies. It keeps you full and cuts the cravings. Any luck with that. You ever tried that?

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, I mean the cereal. I think we served the kids when they were younger and kids like to eat cereal and they kind of do that. But you know, if you can get out of that and as they grow up and as adults we can kind of make maybe some better choices. Kids are picky, so you want to feed them what they're going to eat.

Rudy Fenner:

Yeah, as we know better. So this is really key. I think, as a parent, what I would be guilty of sometimes is deciding that I had a nutrition slash nutrition religious conviction and tried to convey that to my children, and I would end up affecting their habits, their thoughts and opinions about food and other things, when I just needed to perhaps spoon feed them a little fat, a little slower, and what I was trying to get them to.

Rudy Fenner:

I have a. I remember just yelling eat. And this is wow, whoa, whoa, Light bulb just came on. This is interesting. I would always try to get my children to eat fruits and vegetables, while not eating fruits and vegetables.

Rudy Fenner:

Yeah, because Now my grandchildren eat apples because guess who eats apples? You eat apples and they eat apples because guess who eats apples? You eat apples and they eat apples. Yeah, and so I, when I just said that, I realized I was talking to talk, but I wasn't doing the walk, and the kids are like dude, isn't that what you eat?

Robin Fenner:

I'm not gonna know, okay, but you also had tv commercials advertising all those wonderful you know cereals breakfast. You'll taste it good and they're easy to think. She poured out the. You put the milk on, they sit down to eat and whatever. Very easy Eating. Well, often takes a lot, takes more thought and planning.

Rudy Fenner:

Oh my gosh.

Robin Fenner:

So yeah, you can eat an apple just as easily, okay, but you need more than that, perhaps than you need before you get out to school.

Rudy Fenner:

Sometimes I come home in the evenings and I'll just cut up an apple, put it in a container, sit it on the table.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, that's a late night snack, right Before the night's gone they're almost always gone.

Rudy Fenner:

Yeah yeah, the apples are great, but availability if I don't cut them, if we don't do things to make them available?

Robin Fenner:

it doesn't happen, you're going to grab chips.

Rudy Fenner:

You're going to grab whatever's in the pantry which has got to be processed because it's in the pantry. So, you just took yourself down the wrong road.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, so, and it really doesn't take that much longer to cut up an apple.

Robin Fenner:

I mean just you know just be intentional about it, but the apples cut them up. There you go. How about that? All right, all right. So the next tip I have is to avoid ultra processed foods, and if they come in a bag and have 35 ingredients, it's probably not your best option. So we've heard about processed foods. Some things have to be processed to some degree so you can eat them, but what a good guideline has been that I've heard of, and I tend to find that out. If it's around the perimeter of the store, the outer perimeter of the store, it's going to be your fresh fruits, it's going to be your meat, your refrigerated items, those kinds of things that are not as processed. If it's in the middle of the shelf, it's been. You know, they have a sell by date or use by date. Six months later, you better read the label really carefully, and if it has things in there ingredients that you cannot easily pronounce those are not the things you want, okay, and so why?

Rudy Fenner:

You always come back to. When we first did one of our earlier podcasts, we talked about the why, and let me just tell you about the why. So a few things came to mind. First, one of the greatest commercials I've ever seen is running now on television. It's a dog food commercial and the narrator says no human thing should have a life only filled with processed food. Oh, that was so deep when I thought about that.

Robin Fenner:

What did I say? Human, I'm sorry, no living thing. Yeah, my bad, my bad gosh, I'm glad you're here.

Rudy Fenner:

Sorry, I was listening to you, so no living thing no living thing, but that really that's a crazy statement when you think about it.

Robin Fenner:

That you're not going to give it to your pets, and that means you don't need to eat it either.

Rudy Fenner:

Here's what blew me away. I have a colleague that I work with that I mildly that's the way I would describe it. I'm not sure if that was his interpretation. I'm not sure if that was his interpretation. I'm mildly confronted because I said to him in the year or so we've been working together, I have never, ever and this is the honest to goodness truth, and I'm around him at least eight hours a day I have never seen him eat anything that did not come out of a package and that's the thing too, because when people go to work and you think about packing a lunch, and maybe you have access to a refrigerator or maybe you don't, and you got to think about so what are you going to?

Robin Fenner:

take this not as processed?

Rudy Fenner:

I'm just telling you when I think about that, yeah, so for at least eight hours a day, your entire day is is out of a package, right, and I said in one of our earlier podcasts I've talked about this, I gotta write this book, " The Cost of Convenience.

Rudy Fenner:

Mm-hmm yep, and the "why in all of this? What I'm bringing this all around to is most of these foods not most a lot of these foods are harder, slower to digest foods. When a food is hard or slower to digest, it is in your body longer If it's in your body, longer your body has a greater chance to absorb what's in that product Right, greater chance to absorb what's in that product Right. So the things that were used to create the processing, to complete the processing, I should say, that allows it to stay on a shelf for months, months, is being absorbed by your body. Absorbed by your body. I'm going to suggest that is not a prescription for be all you can be and living your living. Your everybody's talking about living your best life and putting sugar in the gas tank. That doesn't, that's not working. It's a good slogan, but you're not living into that, so that there's a. That's the why. Let me ask you a question into that, so that there's a.

Robin Fenner:

That's the why. Let me ask you a question, yes, and that is um, when you make your lunch and you go to work, uh, give everybody an idea what you take, because now you've gotten away from a lot of that, oh my, and that way, and how you package it, and you know.

Rudy Fenner:

So it's been some phases and, and I was just gonna to tell you, food prep, meal prep, is work. This is not easy but it is absolutely worth it. Because, again, I am a 66-year-old male and I run at least one 5K a week. I run a couple of miles a day. My weight, my glucose, my blood pressure. I'm on no medications. I am a two-time cancer survivor. I have no prescriptions. I'm not no medications. I am a two time cancer survivor. I have no prescriptions, I'm not on anything and I attribute that all to diet. It's all nutrition. But back to your question. Every night I used to make salads at the beginning of the week, but I got uppity and I didn't like my lettuce wet. I like my lettuce a little fresher. So I don't do this stuff until the night before now, but every night I pack a two-cup container of salad. If I don't have salad, I will go to one of my favorite stores, trader Joe's, and buy one of their pre-prepared salads that only have like a three or five, three or so day window.

Robin Fenner:

It's all fresh ingredients.

Rudy Fenner:

So that's fresh. I have a salad. I cut up one apple, put that in a 1.3 cup container. I have another 1.3 cup container of blueberries and grapes. I have a one I think it's a two-third cup container of trail grapes. I have a one, I think it's a two-third cup container, of trail mix.

Robin Fenner:

I have. And the trail mix is what? Nuts and Almonds cashews?

Rudy Fenner:

cranberries, pineapple.

Robin Fenner:

If it's fruit, it's fruit, not the trail mix with the M&Ms, right? No, no, no, no candy, no candy, no candy. I don't like that, yeah yeah, go ahead.

Rudy Fenner:

Then I have three boiled eggs, a stick, one stick cheese and one of the baby, the little red cheese. What is that?

Robin Fenner:

Oh, the little, is it Baby Bell, Baby Bell. Yeah, Little Baby Bell yeah.

Rudy Fenner:

And that's what I pack that almost every day.

Robin Fenner:

So you got calcium protein, veggies, fruits and all the things that go along with that. Okay, yeah and you feel full.

Rudy Fenner:

Not only do I feel full, but the biggest thing you know in your car. If you ever want to keep up with your car, what you care about is the gas that you put in and the exhaust that comes out. If anything disrupts those systems, the car won't work. If you cover your tailpipe, close it up, your car cuts off. The same thing with our bodies. You should have regular bowel movements. You should urinate regularly. Those things have to do with your hydration, the color, what's coming out, and you're monitoring all of that Once you start to eat like that.

Rudy Fenner:

Once you start to eat like that, all of those habits become like clockwork Everything works and it's on the money and it's rhythmical and it works. And you find that you're just amazing. Your days, your energy, all of your life, everything, a lot of the medicines that you see looking at commercials on television, some of it it may be. It may be you may be something that you're genetically predisposed to or something that is a more a disease-oriented. So much of that stuff is nutrition.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, so much of it, yeah, if nutrition gets better, it magically goes away. Exactly, yeah, okay.

Rudy Fenner:

Boom, wait a minute. I saw that. What is that? Yeah, okay, boom, wait a minute. Oh, I'm sorry, what else was no? No, no, I was done on the segment three.

Robin Fenner:

I'm sorry, my bad. Segment three okay, um, okay, that was a quick healthy eating fixes. Now we're at food fails and funny stories, okay, so, um, we're talking about, uh, funniest food fail or whatever, whatever one comes to mind, I guess. Actually I don't know if I had a funny food fail, but I will tell you this because we have changed how we eat. Sometimes I'll go back because I have a whole stack of recipes, you know, things we've had for years or whatever. I will go back and make something like I had a recipe I tried the other day and I hadn't made in a while, I'd probably say a couple of years.

Rudy Fenner:

And you know what? They don't taste the same anymore and it's not the recipe.

Robin Fenner:

It's just that we've gotten used to eating differently, so so yeah, and I don't like that I don't like that stuff.

Rudy Fenner:

It's like ew and in one of our earlier podcasts we talked about um, taste buds dying and replenishing and re and they almost are being reprogrammed. And when you try to go back it's like, oh, that's not what I remember and it can be overwhelming, especially if it's similar for me yeah, oh, it's just overwhelming yeah, so I think I've gotten um used to eating differently.

Robin Fenner:

There are certain things that I don't care so much for and I'm not saying that these are all bad things for anyone to ever eat but like, for example, like steak. I mean, I can make a good steak once upon a time, but I don't like steak anymore. I just don't like my steak anymore. Same recipe, same thing I ate and I just don't. I just haven't had in a while. I didn't say I'm never gonna have the steak, but I just kind of got away from it.

Rudy Fenner:

Yeah, I'm not from Robin's Camp, so if I eat red meat honestly with so much food I become so uppity. I am so food arrogant.

Robin Fenner:

When do you eat red meat like steak?

Rudy Fenner:

So every now and then we'll be at a restaurant and I'll order steak, or if I have a burger, there's some burger outlets that their beef is better beef and I can tell you it's better beef because when I eat it it's just like I ate lettuce. My body's fine, there's no reaction. As the quality of the beef plummets, so does my day.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah.

Rudy Fenner:

And it will end up. And it's funny because there's some places that I didn't know the quality of the beef, but when I go back and revisit, so yeah, I will maybe once a week or once every 10 days treat myself to a burger or something, and that's not consistent, but the frequency would be no shorter than that. But I still do enjoy it and it's okay. But I don't like heavy. I like thinner flat steaks. I think little stuff like that. If I have a Chinese food dish that has beef in it, a steak in it that I like.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, yeah, having a little bit's. Okay, I mean I'll have that burger too.

Rudy Fenner:

I'll tell you I like a Shake Shack burger.

Robin Fenner:

I'm just telling you, but we don't have them that often. We may have them four times a year maybe, or something, because we're just not out in Shake Shack. But yeah, so I don't mind having some beef, but the steak that's. I guess it's the density of it, maybe or something like that.

Rudy Fenner:

Yeah, it's just, my system is just overwhelmed. Yeah, yeah, it just really is. It's just overwhelmed. If I ate it, I wouldn't enjoy it. It would just be too uncomfortable.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, yeah. So to me it's even like the way I make it. It's like I made it the same way. It doesn't taste, I don't know. Anyway, okay, so I just kind of leave that alone. Yeah.

Rudy Fenner:

All right. So we kind of got here funny stories. Let me just tell you, the funny story is me walking through the kitchen looking at the stove. That's a funny story because I can't cook.

Rudy Fenner:

You don't want to know the details, just understand that what I have become. You have a sous chef, I am the cleaner, I can go in your kitchen and I will make your kitchen look restaurant ready.

Robin Fenner:

It will glisten!

Rudy Fenner:

It will shine, there will not be a spot. The dog walks into the kitchen and says this is some crap.

Robin Fenner:

Nothing there to eat. Where's the food at? No crumbs on the floor. Cause there's no crumbs on the floor, I got a vacuum cleaner out.

Rudy Fenner:

The tables are I use. I'm telling y'all I live with a three-year-old and a dog. They have taught me I need to clean, I have to use Fantastic on my man's seat. I need it crystal clear. I need to kill all germs, because the kids come in every day. They've been to school, we need to be gone. The ants walk in and they're walking around with protest signs. What are you doing? That is true.

Robin Fenner:

We've been coming here for years and you're messing it all up. So yeah, that's my job. You are the best kitchen cleaner upper. Every day we come down. Y'all got to understand this is not occasionally.

Rudy Fenner:

This is every single night when they come down. I really don't like to have a lot of stuff in the drain. I like for it to look good. I like for it to be ready to go to work the next day, just like your favorite restaurant. That's how

Robin Fenner:

You do a great job with that and I do appreciate it, Thank you so much, and so do I, and so does my boy.

Rudy Fenner:

Everybody likes us, but the dog and the ants yeah, they don't like it all right, so let's talk about, uh, food and emotion a little bit.

Robin Fenner:

Okay. Is there any food that affects your emotion, that you think of, that you feel affects your emotion?

Rudy Fenner:

You know what about that? So that, so there are some things. This is interesting. I mean I I have things listed here Salmon, walnuts for brain health, dark chocolates, serotonin, leafy greens, brain fog I don't. I have those listed, I haven't paid attention. But I got to be honest with you on this. Um and again, I will openly confess I'm 66. I have a job. I do work. That's kind of intense stuff. I have a lot of brainy stuff when sometimes I look back and realize on a day, what I keep up with every day, it's young people stuff. It's not. It wasn't designed for people our age.

Rudy Fenner:

So I have tapped into things. I did not intentionally eat these things with that in mind, but I do eat those things and it's funny that I'm yielding, I'm seeing the results of it without strategically going after it. But I don't have I have. Now, okay, I'm gonna just tell y'all something. I have been walking places and like well, damn, where was I going right? And I'll just get, I'll get so distracted with a thought until I'll be walking up and down a step and just like, oh wait, was that going, where was that? And I'll have to take a moment. But I think that's a. That's a time when I'm just overwhelmed and thought not fog right now. Keep in mind this is a big deal a two-time cancer survivor.

Rudy Fenner:

Brain fog is real chemo and all that stuff yeah right that that's a, that's a listed side effect, right, exactly. I have never had any of that and I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's nutrition. So, yeah, I haven't eaten for it, but I've been a benefactor of that.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, yeah, and honestly, there are things like omega-3s, like in salmon and walnuts, that help with brain health and we have. I'm not a big walnut fan, but salmon we have. That, we have more fish regularly and all that, so that's helpful. And one of my favorite things to talk about is dark chocolate, because it has serotonin and I don't have dark chocolate every day, but if I'm going to have it, it's going to be in my favorite.

Robin Fenner:

Graeter's chocolate chip ice cream, because Graeter's chocolate chip ice cream I'm just going to put up this is not paid, but let me just say this If you like chocolate chip ice cream, you get Graeter's. They (used to) have it at Wegmans in our area, but you can also order it from Graeter's online. I did that. I happened to do that when Cincinnati was playing a football playing a Super Bowl.

Rudy Fenner:

right, that's right.

Robin Fenner:

The Bengals played a Super Bowl, yeah and we got food from the cities that were in the Super Bowl. That's right, and we said well, what's?

Rudy Fenner:

there. That's how this all started and that's I said okay, great, there's ice cream.

Robin Fenner:

Okay, so I called and they sent some ice cream out and it was if you they're, they're big chocolate pieces.

Rudy Fenner:

So yeah, I'll tell you something they are not stingy with there is. It's not like every other brand of ice cream out there, because their ice cream is harder, so it feels like it's not as processed as other. I am not a big ice cream aficionado. I definitely am not a big fan of chocolate chip ice cream, which works out for her because I mean, she knows I'm not gonna get any of her ice cream.

Robin Fenner:

It'll stay until she eats it I, I just buy it by the time she eats it.

Rudy Fenner:

I am frequently the ice cream go-getter at night and when I go down to get that ice cream I have seen the largest chocolate chunks in that ice cream. Sometimes I feel like there's a whole Hershey bar and a half a cup of ice cream. I'm like my gosh.

Robin Fenner:

I'm not trying to say anything bad about Hershey, but it's not Hershey, it's the biggest chunk of chocolate I have ever seen in ice cream, so I can attest to that and I've tasted it.

Rudy Fenner:

You know, I'll finish everything and as I'm cleaning up I'll be putting a spoon in a dish that I get ready to put in a dish and I'll say, oh, whoa, whoa, there's it, a little cup of this, like oh, that is pretty good but I say that about the ice cream because I've never tasted ice cream and chocolate in it like theirs.

Robin Fenner:

I mean, I'm just being real about that. And then you have like all the good serotonin if I have it at night, then that means you have a good night too and of course you'd see it that way yeah, all right.

Robin Fenner:

Okay, and also leafy greens. So we go back to our salads and everything. All your leafy greens. I don't know if you can go wrong with leafy greens. So it helps to fight brain fog and there's so many other healthful benefits from them. So just make sure you're getting leafy greens. You can even put them in a smoothie. So if you don't want to eat them per se, in a salad or something, I think the biggest thing that I've seen from that.

Rudy Fenner:

So remember, and most of y'all know the story Rudy 1.0, no fruits and vegetables, almost never any leafy green stuff, I mean, unless it was processed to the edges of the earth and back in a can. Rudy 2.0, I go to leafy vegetables, leafy stuff to eat all the time. And just my world of food digestion, honestly, I have not taken thought about or considered any digestive alka-seltzer. Um, what are some of the other things you times or something like that.

Robin Fenner:

I guess people, people have taken.

Rudy Fenner:

I mean no gas, no digestive, no indigestion, no heartburn, because the fruits and the vegetables are just so naturally processed and smooth in terms of high processes in your body. I think that's the biggest thing I mean. Like everybody else, from gas to burping, your stomach's growling, you've got all of these things going on. It's just digestion. And when we went, when I went to I won't say we, because you were always there when I went to vegetables, fruits, salads and that kind of stuff is my mainstay the world of digestion just changed so dramatically yeah my gosh, I think the most, the most I'll do if I have.

Rudy Fenner:

I've had times when I have a medical procedure, something and you might have to do something that cleanses out your system. I might do a papaya enzyme, chew papaya enzyme to help regulate, because that's the enzyme that helps, helps gut health. That's kind of as extreme as it gets and again when you get in your 60s and that's all you're talking about, god has really been good to you. That's really a blessed way to roll. So yeah, I've lived it yeah, yeah.

Robin Fenner:

And speaking of gut health, we're going to talk more about, more in depth about gut health a little bit later, not not in this podcast, but in another episode. But um, the, the gut is really. We're learning more about it, we're hearing more about it as being so central to our body's health, digestion, less inflammation, better mood.

Robin Fenner:

So, uh, probiotics, uh, yogurt, kefir or fermented foods like sauerkraut are all good for gut health. I'm sure there are more. I want to learn more about it, and when I learn more, we'll share it with you guys as well, but that's really important. So the bottom line here is eat well and you'll feel better inside and out.

Rudy Fenner:

Inside and out, and also even at our age, as you get older. I'm talking about for me and I know everybody doesn't feel like this I'm looking for performance. I am really looking for better times in my 5K. Yeah, I'm not just doing it just to say I did it. I want my next time to be better than my last time. Exactly this food is driving that, so that's critical. Yeah, yeah, so we're driving that, so that's that's, that's critical.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, yeah. So we're still getting better, even as we're getting older. So it's not just you know that's the point. Being where we were and being satisfied with that. Exactly, you can continue. It's continuous improvement, yeah.

Rudy Fenner:

Yeah.

Robin Fenner:

Yeah, okay, so anything else for today's episode?

Rudy Fenner:

If not, we're going to wrap this up and we want to hear from you which tips are you going to try this week? Hey, you know, I mean really. So every time we do these podcasts between guests that we have and people that we talk to. After we are learning so much, I am hoping that when I die at like 120, I learn something the night before. That's the goal, and I realize the more conversation I'm in, the more we engage, the smarter I get, and the reason I get smarter is because I'm talking. So y'all keep talking back to us. Tell us everything. Tell us what tips you have, especially in food prep. If you have some secrets to that that you can help us share, we want to hear about that. We want to hear about food failures. Social media is the way to hit us up. There's plenty of information in and around the podcast.

Robin Fenner:

We just look forward to hearing anything that you have that can all help us to do better and be better that would be super awesome, because what we talk about a lot of times is our experiences and we try to share them with you because we've learned as we go along. Yes, a lot of times is our experiences and we try to share them with you because we've learned, learned as we go along. Yes, but it's not that we are professionals who know everything, but so you know, if we all can share as a community, that really is the best, that's the point so we look forward to hearing from you.

Robin Fenner:

Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you. All right, we'll see you next time on the Officially Fenner Agile Always podcast.

Rudy Fenner:

Be blessed, eat well. Officially, Fenner, thanks you for joining us. Please subscribe and hit that like button.