Optimum Nutrition
The Optimum Nutrition podcast is a weekly interview series brought to you by the Institute for Optimum Nutrition (ION) - one of Europe’s longest established nutritional therapy training providers. Each episode, we explore a new topic within the world of nutrition with an expert guest, touching on their food and health journeys, and addressing common myths and misconceptions. Together, we’ll discover how powerful food can be for our health and happiness. We’ll find out how a ‘healthy diet’ looks different for everyone. And, because food is so personal, with each guest we’ll talk a bit about what food means to them.
Optimum Nutrition
LGBTQ+ Health And Nutrition with Daniel O'Shaughnessy
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Daniel O’Shaughnessy is a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner with over 10 years of clinical experience. In this episode, he discusses the “lightbulb moment” that led him to specialise in LGBTQ+ health and nutrition and why this community can have specific dietary and health needs; from IVF and fertility support to steroid use, and from nutritional support for HIV diagnosis to transitioning and hormones. He also discusses his upcoming book, Naked Nutrition, an LGBTQ-focused guide to good health and diet.
To find out more about nutritional therapy, whether you are looking to work one-to-one with a practitioner or study to become a nutritional therapist yourself, visit ion.ac.uk
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Views expressed by guests are not those of ION, nor does ION endorse any third party products mentioned.
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Welcome to the Optimum Nutrition Podcast, brought to you by the Institute for Optimum Nutrition. ION is one of Europe's longest established nutritional therapy training providers. Our aim is to support people in making a positive impact on their lives with food. I'm Alice Fall, Communications Officer of ION. Each week, I'm going to be interviewing a guest from the world of nutrition. We'll be delving into their health journey and touching on some common health conditions, with the aim of inspiring you to be your most optimally healthy and happiest self. Today I'm delighted to be joined by Daniel O'Shaughnessy. Daniel is a functional medicine practitioner who graduated from the Institute for Optimum Nutrition. Our conversation today is about LGBTQ plus focus nutrition, which as Daniel explains in this episode spans a huge subject area. We also discuss his upcoming book, Naked Nutrition, an LGBTQ plus focus guide to good health and diet. If you enjoy the episode and want to find out more about IOM, including our courses, clinic, or magazine, make sure to visit our website, ion.ac.uk. But without further ado, here is Daniel O'Shaughnessy on the Optimum Nutrition Podcast. Daniel, welcome to the Optimum Nutrition Podcast.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having me.
SPEAKER_02Before we get started in today's conversation, I always start by asking people to name their top three kitchen ingredients. So these are three ingredients that you always have in your fridge or kitchen cupboard.
SPEAKER_01I always have oat milk, oatly oat milk, but the Brewster one.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_01I find it only is it only milk that really goes in tea and coffee well. I also own what do they have? Good butter. And well, that's a tough one. Probably some sort of oat cake. I like the cheese ones.
SPEAKER_02Oh nice. To snack on.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Or like a I have it with a lunch instead. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Oh, three good options there.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, something different maybe.
SPEAKER_02So you are a functional medicine practitioner. So can you actually explain to those listening who perhaps don't know what that is what you do?
SPEAKER_01So of course, I there may be a bit of background about me, but I am an Ion graduate. Prior to being an Ion graduate, I was working in the addiction field for about seven, eight years. I saw the impact of nutrition on people that were using drugs and having a problem with drugs life. And I just then started looking into nutrition. And with nutrition, you when you start looking into it, you go down a bit of a wormhole. And then I suddenly it came out that there was an ion diploma or a dietics degree. I called up the dietitian uh body, and they were just not quenching the thirst that I was looking for. It was too guideline-based, and so I then that led me to Ion, and so I sped through Ion as fast as I could in the three years, and it was probably one of the hardest courses I've done, but the most rewarding course, and I'll always remember that. Uh and that was about I graduated in 2012. So the course in Ion, you were taught functional medicine, and functional medicine is in a sim really simple terms, looking at the root cause of ill health or looking at the body in using all systems rather than a symptom-based approach. Um so a lot of people will be familiar with it. So I then practiced for quite a number of years, and then I continued studying to finish off the certification with the Institute for Functional Medicine.
SPEAKER_02And then you've been practicing for the last 10 plus years?
SPEAKER_01Yes, so I think I'm in my I think I'm coming into my 10th year. So I've seen about, you know, over a thousand clients. I ran a retreat company for a number of years, I worked with companies, I've been into the US working with with nutrition. So it's been very completely diverse role, so much more than I actually thought it would be. Because I remember looking at websites of practitioners and thinking, oh, everyone's in clinic and everyone's charging this, and and it doesn't quite work out that way in terms of day-to-day practice and running the business. So you're never bored, let's put it that way.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. So if we take it back to before you even went to go and study nutrition, have you always had an interest in food?
SPEAKER_01Well, I have. It was probably put on me a bit too much as a kid. I was probably bullied a bit at school for being overweight. It that would probably then I was always conscious about my side uh being overweight as a teenager. But my mother was working for like a big weight management company. So growing up was very diet-focused, and I would watch and see, you know, I began not necessarily understanding what was healthy at in the 1980, 90s, but I was around food and I started to it started to fuel my interest. And only when I started to become myself and live by myself, I started to then look into these men's health magazines, etc., and then that started a bit of you know health. And then I realized that nutrition can have a positive role in skin or how you feel, and then that then spurred on a bit more, and I helped myself with some minor ailments I had.
SPEAKER_02So and you obviously touched on that you used to work in substance misuse recovery. So, how did you get into that from leaving school to starting work in that field?
SPEAKER_01My first degree was in criminology and law, and I came out of that, and at the time I was like, What am I gonna do with this degree? And I didn't think that far ahead when I was studying. Uh, it was either going to be a policeman or and I didn't want to do that at all, or probation. But then some home office opening came up about working with criminal justice and drug addiction. So I then that that pushed me into the addiction centre, and then from there on it branched out into working in like a crack cocaine project in Brixton. So it was uh quite a jump, and I would think I was like 24 on, you know, being a drug and alcohol worker, and it was quite demanding, but also completely different from what I thought it would be doing. But it was enjoyable, it was very different, but you could began to see so you saw such a lot, but you saw also so many things that were keeping someone in addiction, and one of them was uh their nutrition. So it's very interesting how I how I picked that up.
SPEAKER_02And is that what made you then think I'd like to unravel this further and go and study it?
SPEAKER_01I think so. That was probably the pivotal point, but in the beginning of it, I was probably doing my own like fitness thing. I lost my weight as a head from a kid, and I was interested in you know healing, and I think I had all these different, you know, popular health books at the time, probably from iron grads, and all that together. And I think at one point they asked me to start doing nutrition groups, and so I in the in the drug in a drug and alcohol service, and so and that was like, well, if I could if I'm gonna do this and I want to get out of drug and alcohol addiction, this is what I have to do. So yeah.
SPEAKER_02And then were you working part-time whilst you were studying as well?
SPEAKER_01I was, I mean, I was working full-time, so and I actually had an extra bar job in the evening, so it was very busy. So I would have Monday to Friday 9 to 5 in the addiction field, and then I'd have I on Saturday and Sunday lectures, and I'd work at a bar on Saturday night sometimes or you know, so it would be it was quite full-on, and plus studying the hours. I mean, I'm sure you can imagine the workload that that I had, but I got through it because I enjoyed it. It was and it was it was a good cohort we had, and I think the the desire was there to get it completed.
SPEAKER_02So it was yeah, it's definitely a tough course, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And I wasn't naturally born with the kind of science brain or statistic brain, and so it was harder for me to grasp the pathophysiology and etc. But after like the second year, everything just clicked, and I was like, wow, light switch, here we go. So I was always like trailing ahead in clinic, and then my if I did a menopause essay or something, it would be you know, I never quite could get above a C or a B with that, but then I you know I got it in the end.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, it's something suddenly clicks, and then you're able to, yeah. So a main thing I wanted to talk today is your speciality, which is LGBTQ plus nutrition. So I guess you must have graduated from Ion. When did you start to think, okay, there's an area here, there's a group of individuals who perhaps need someone offering advice that's more tailored to them?
SPEAKER_01It was, I guess, one of those things with me, things burn in the background for a while, and I start thinking about it. And I have a couple of LGBTQ plus clients, and they came through, and I wasn't really thinking about it, but I was I was very natural at able to discuss certain lifestyle habits, and I was actually pitching for a book with a publisher, and at the last minute I just thought, what am I doing? Nobody needs another book on intermittent fasting. And I just thought, you know what? No, let's just change it completely. So I literally phoned the publisher and I was like, I need to change this book idea. I've completely changed, and what made that change was the fact that I went on a gay cruise as a holiday, and there were 5,000 LGBTQ people on this boat, and I thought, so many of you have nutrition needs that aren't necessarily catered for in the general population, and what I mean by that is that it's not everyone is obviously we are all humans and we have the same physiological needs, but yeah, you know, lifestyle's slightly different, terminology might be different, someone might be more comfortable talking to a LGBTQ plus therapist, but there's other things don't even people even think about, which can be also helped so much by nutrition. So, examples can be those who are transgender undergoing hormone therapy. There's a whole load of side effects that happen with that, and supporting the diet can have a huge positive around that. There's help with mental health, with LGBT focus. There's support for those that might go out and party a few in quite a lot. In the LGBTQ, particularly the gay world, there are parties that people party in excess, and there's specific drugs that gay people may use that heterosexual people may not use. So it's an understanding that. So I still will have that side of me, but there's one side of me as well that and it's quite interesting since I've had the book and had a couple of podcasts that clients now are coming to me because I know about that side of things, so yeah, because I think when people hear food or hear nutrition, they instantly just think, Oh, it's fine, I eat a load of broccoli, I eat my greens, I'll be okay.
SPEAKER_02But as you said, there is certain lifestyle behaviours where you do need to tailor your nutrition more towards that, I guess.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so particularly for the general population, everyone kind of has an idea of how they can Google how to eat healthy, but it's all about the coaching side of things. The biggest thing is that stress gets in the way and their life goes too fast and then they don't have time, you know, or they want wine and then they feel rubbish, or whatever it is, it's understanding the sweet spot of how to give someone health, but also attune to their likes and dislikes and what they're actually going to do. So, in every consultation, what I do is I always say to the person at the beginning, I'm going to give you a program at the end, or what our recommendations are. If you do not feel that they're achievable, or you feel it's you know it's not good enough, or you feel you want more, or you want less, tell me straight away. And that's always been a very good communication enhancer. It helps clients do what you want them to do, particularly if they're burnt out, stressed, or high-flying business business people and things like that. But of course, there's there's the lifestyle aspect as well. So I want people to be really honest with me in clinic and say to me, yes, I may use recreational drugs if they are using them, or I want nutrition for this particular purpose. And sometimes people are actually still come are coming to me for my bedroom life, isn't exactly on you know the way it should be. How can I have better nutrition to be able to support that? And there's many different avenues you can go down with supporting that, but I wasn't necessarily given this as a tool in terms of when I was so I learnt it or I worked it out, and there are some you know research and things like that. So, and that's what I want to do is be able to present it to also those that aren't able to necessarily afford a one-to-one nutrition consultation. So that's what I've written the book.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and I think that is really great, is that you're not saying to people you need to overhaul your life completely, you need to stop doing the things you love, even if it is behaviours that perhaps other people would look at and think, oh, it's not the healthiest. It's looking at it and saying, okay, well, how can we make sure even if you're doing that, you're still supporting your body in other ways.
SPEAKER_01I think so. I think you know you've got to be in work with the client rather than against them because you're gonna lose them no matter what they're doing, if they're you know having 10 sugars in their coffees or whatever it is, you've got to understand why they're doing it, where they're coming from. It once you get them to start trusting you on that side of things, they seem to then do what you say and adhere to what you know what you want them to do. And it kind of helps. And even if it's something like if someone's gonna go on a party bender for 24 hours or whatever it is, they might have in their head, Well, Daniel told me that I need to have a good meal before I go and have something when I come in, or something like that. You know, these it doesn't have to be super complicated like we are used to with looking at lab results, or a lot of the time it comes down to what the client is actually going to do.
SPEAKER_02And do you think your previous job working with substance misuse, do you think that helped you to understand clients and work with them from that base level?
SPEAKER_01I think it gave me clinical experience before I had nutrition clinical experience. So as I said, it I was excelling in all of my clinic when I was because I understood all the psychological aspects of it, had all that training and motivational and interviewing and things like that. There's quite an emphasis on especially self-reflection when you're studying at Ion. I think I still learn a lot about clinic skills, and it's completely different in terms of working with the client in terms of addiction to nutrition, but same, same, but if different, let's put it that way. You know, you still will ask, be quite asked supporting questions. I think it has helped, but it's also, you know, the information's there if someone wants to learn it. I think there are some and so many therapists, nutritional therapists that might have been an accountant before and now they're amazing clinical workers. So not to put someone off if they're thinking if they're listening to this and think, oh, I need to have a clinical background before they do it. You don't. You just need to understand and have a lot of it also is about personality and understanding and be able to empathize with the client. That's the the key thing. With me, I'm never judging a client. It's always like what can we do to help? And I think one of the biggest things I learned in the addiction field was going more slowly with something like a care plan and doing smart goals and things like that. So it was very achievable. So that helped, I think. Yeah. But don't I was still completely nervous when I had my first client in 10 years ago or whatever it was, and I probably screwed it up. And you know, so we all go through this, right?
SPEAKER_02I can imagine because you know they're putting their trust in you and you're giving them recommendations. It must be really scary having your very first client.
SPEAKER_01It was a disaster, let's put it that way. Even though I was really good in teaching clinic and I was on my own, I think the biggest mistake I did with my first client was give them too much information. I felt I needed to, I think part of that was my own imposter syndrome, probably, where I was like, I need to offload everything onto this client and give her everything it is about adrenal issues. And I can still, as I'm talking about it, I remember sitting in the room with her. You know, it wasn't the information that I was giving her was wrong, it was just the fact that she was just like, I'm not gonna do anything you're telling me to do. And it was a lesson learned. And with nutritional therapy consultations, you only really start learning properly when you're out of when you graduate, and then it's that steep learning curve you get in the first two years, which is I'm gonna learn how to do run a business, how to be a nutritionist, therapist, and you know everything else that goes alongside it.
SPEAKER_02So yes, because you're having to do everything yourself, aren't you? I guess you're marketing, you're doing the business. Some people even do their own accounting as well, so it's it's a busy life.
SPEAKER_01Exactly. And in the beginning, you're like, it's not feasible to get a assistant, so you do absolutely everything yourself, and it you can burn out quite quickly if you don't look after yourself. And I think with nutritional therapists, there's a slight pressure to do everything in the field that you should be doing. I thought I had to run a retreat, write a book, run consultations, work for companies, and bring a product out all at once. And it was just like, what if I don't like want to do that? And it's stepping back and thinking, well, what's important for me? And I what do I actually want to do? And that's probably what I stepped back with with the book initially, and I thought, I don't really want to write about what I'm writing about. This is what I want to write about.
SPEAKER_02So yeah, and it's been a long time now since you graduated to now releasing your first book. So you've clearly had that gap and built up that experience and that knowledge and research so that you can bring it all to the book.
SPEAKER_01Well, I think it's probably because I didn't have the idea initially, but I'm quite glad I have let's call it, I'm in my mature nutrition nutrition years, in terms of I'm quite glad I waited a bit to understand behaviour a bit better. I think that was the key thing, otherwise it would just have been uh here is everything. But saying that, the publisher had been very good at also challenging me and saying, You haven't considered veganism here, you haven't considered you know, people are low incomes in this part, you know. So I'm still learning things every day, you know, and that's the brilliance of this field, really, is that I um I don't want to be in a in a in somewhere where I'm not being challenged every day.
SPEAKER_02So and with writing the book, how do you go from this idea that you have? So you get back from the cruise and you think, okay, this community could do with a resource. How do you develop it?
SPEAKER_01So there's a number of ways that you can go about writing a book, and there's the whole self-publishing route, and there's pros and cons to doing that, which I didn't really want to do. I wanted a bit more. I I know nothing about publishing. I want someone to do that for me. I I got to the point where I was like, I'm tired, I am a nutritional therapist, I do not want to be a publisher as well. So I ruled that out, and then I approached a few agencies and uh publications, and it got a few to the five time meetings, and then it they all went very, very, very cold. So it was very like a lot of like how I guess how JK Rowling was shut the shut the door, and not to say I'm the new Harry Potter author, but anyway. So I then decided to, you know, there's another avenue of I pitched to this company and they said, Great, we're interested. Would you consider crowdfunding for your book to be published? And I was like, Okay, fine, let's try. And it was hard, it's put it that way. It took me a year to get the money together, and all the money goes into the put to the production of the book. And I think I finished crowdfunding a year ago, and then I finished writing the book and got it to them by let's say September last year. You know, an edit's gone back, they told me another edit's coming back to me, so it's uh it's a long process.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, definitely. And I imagine there were so many different elements too that you wanted to include in the book. So you've touched on some already, but is it things like substance abuse, transgender support?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so at the beginning I have to give everyone my idea of a healthy lifestyle, is so I put a foundations chapter in. There's a fitness and well. Loss chapter, there's but we're also touching on an area that isn't really considered, like anabolic steroids and performance-enhancing drugs. There's you know mental health, there's HIV support, there's transgender support, uh fertility chapter, and then obviously the the party lifestyle, and there's a few other bits and pieces. I've tried to take all of the LGBTQ plus population and think what what are the issues here?
SPEAKER_02So yeah, because is it designed so that you can dip in and out so that you read the bits that are relevant to you, or do you want it so that whoever reads it, whether or not that's somebody who is going through that or whether it's an ally, that they get a general overview of all of the issues that can affect somebody?
SPEAKER_01I've thought about this. I think what I would like to do and what people are going to do, it might be different. I think there will be those that will just go in and pick out the points that they need to. They might have a good knowledge of nutrition already and they might think, well, you know, all I'm interested in is nutrition for HIV support or whatever it is. Also a part of it where I want people to really understand different needs of the community and not to be so, you know, pigeonholed on the fact that just because they're a gay man they don't need to know about transgender issues, or if they're an ally, perhaps they might have a transgender friend who may need to be, you know, maybe either haven't read the book or may need to be understood and think, well, actually, this is might be a symptom of you know, you might be having issues with your hormone therapy or whatever it is that you might need to be able to have support with. It might be someone who's the mother of a transgender person, so to understand that a bit better, or understanding also about HIV. Perhaps you you know need to be cow to best support your body. And nowadays it's you know, it's the medication we have for HIV is amazing in the fact that it can make people undetectable, which means they cannot pass on HIV to another person, so it's incredible. So it's about working with nutrition and and with the medication and either you know supporting health and supporting everything together. So uh I want people to either have a look and understand the whole book, but of course, you know, uh we're all we we read as we want. So I understand if you're particularly looking for fertility support, that's the chapter you're probably in migrate to, and then you might go back and look at other things.
SPEAKER_02So what's the reception been like so far from doing the crowdfunding and from announcing that you are working on this book?
SPEAKER_01I I laugh because I remember when I first because obviously with crowdfunding, you have to go on a bit of a sales pitch, yeah, which is the the other nutrition area that I didn't really like doing. So I did it. There were some gay groups that on Facebook, and I put one, I put the link in and I got trolled really hard.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01And and it's just like I got trolled by my own community, and I'm like, why? Someone was like, You're just doing this to get famous. And I'm like, What? If I really wanted to get famous, I would do something else rather than write a you know 300-page book. And people were very much like, what's the difference? Why is why are we different? Why is gay health different to straight health? And I got a few of uneducated thoughts, I guess, before even looking into it. But a lot of people have been very, very supportive, and I think most people are saying this is a resource we really need for the community. So people may know, but it's even if someone takes one or two things away from the book, I've done my job, I'm happy. And I think I may face some discrimination for having this resource, but it's I don't care, it's you know, it's needed, and I'm standing by my community with it. So it's hopefully not in UK in this day and age, but you know.
SPEAKER_02I suppose people are thinking because there is this fight for equality, that okay, then why do we need a resource that's saying we're different? We're not different, we're the same. And so that's probably where the the anger and the trolling is coming from.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there's female health books, so why can't there be an area where there's book for LGBTQ plus population? It's just I would say if you're in doubt, read it and then we'll you'll you'll understand, or even listen, if you don't want to read it, listen to the pitch I talk about on the on Unbound. So I think now it's out and it's been a while, cultivating. I I think it will be well received.
SPEAKER_02And when is it coming out?
SPEAKER_01Well, it was it's delayed a bit because of COVID. So it's I think it's coming out end of this year.
SPEAKER_02Exciting. So is that what your next ventures are going to be? Is it all gonna be book focused from now on for the rest of the year?
SPEAKER_01I think in terms of huge projects, yes. I still have my other things in the background, and my clinic is fairly going uh in full steam, so I'm working a lot with that, and a couple of companies also in in the background I might be working with. So, but again, I don't I think I've decided this year is that last year I was almost at burnout stage, and I think you know I just want to focus and be happy with what I'm doing this year, and I'm you know, I think the slower, a slightly slower pace of life has been quite nourishing for me as well. So, you know, yes, we've all been at home and we haven't been out a lot, but I'm finding that and working at home, I'm finding it a lot easier to be able to do what I'm working this job. So you're not travelling half the day to go to a clinic and then coming back and then then having to write the notes the next day. So at least you do two hours of appointments and you can write the notes at your leisure.
SPEAKER_02So it's an interesting one, isn't it? Because I suppose you're now having to actually practice what you preach in the sense that you're telling all these other people how to take steps to be healthier, but in yourself, you're working really hard and you are feeling burnout if you take last year as an example.
SPEAKER_01I think it's not just in nutrition, I think any well-being therapist has the ability to burn out, and I think particularly because you have to be a self-starter. So if you look at yoga teachers or personal trainers or nutritionists, everyone has to have their own business really, or they're employed. Unfortunately, the jobs that you're employed for aren't that lucrative or they aren't that rewarding, and so I find that going down the self-employment route, it's a harder graft, but more rewarding in that respect. And there are ups and downs, but yeah, you do have to take your time out of yourself, and I find I'm noticing that a bit more. I think you it's so important to even have an offload every week or something like that, as a supervision or something like that, to be able to address what's really going on and get some new time.
SPEAKER_02What do you do to have me time and unwind?
SPEAKER_01Me time. Well, I I do have a I would slightly call him a clinical supervisor in a way. I do for that kind of things, or you know, and it's not just about new professional things, I do speak to someone uh regularly for the benefit of my mental health to make me more aware of it. But at the moment I um I walk, I'm setting myself to walk every day. Like nothing's open. So as long as I've done 10,000 steps a day, I'm happy. And I have my dog next to me right now, so I'll take her out in a bit. So, you know, there's my hobbies. I think where I can improve with this is that I have this creative itch that I haven't quite scratched. And I think we all have this part where we should just empty your mind and do something in terms of a hobby where it's drawing or making something, and I don't have that quite yet. So that's my next thing to think, what can I do that's you know, expressive, let's put it that way.
SPEAKER_02And I think also obviously restrictions are going to be lifting soon. So for people who are members of the LGBTQ community, do you have any kind of advice to them in the coming months as restrictions end? Because we've touched on the whole party lifestyle and things like that might be starting up again. So, how can people take their lockdown life and their slower pace of life and really healthy habits they've built up and maintain and hold on to that as we get into restrictions? Because I think a lot of people will be thinking, Oh, I've got to throw myself into loads of festivals and going out all the time.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, we're gonna have the roaring 20s, aren't we, again? So um I think you know, just obviously don't overdo it. I think that's the I think we are used to this pace of life. I think you know, telling someone again, don't go and do a party is ridiculous, you know, because it's not gonna listen to you. And it's probably going to a party is gonna be good for their mental well-being in a way, like you know, they're gonna have a release. It's just be mindful when you're there, not to to do everything at once, exactly, for example, or you know, or just have some support in terms of eating well, isn't just the pre-party, post-party, it's eating well throughout your life, and you can start now by doing one or two things that might help you. And even if it is your goal, which I doubt would be your goal to I want to be able to recover from festivals like straight away, but you'll be surprised on the you know how you are, your mindset changes actually, and you might not think I need to overdo it if you are going to a festival, or if you do decide to overdo it, then you recover better. So start now, and I think the lockdown lull is quite a nice phrase to think that you know, oh, we're in lockdown, I'll wait till the gym's open to go and do something, and just get out, like set yourself a goal of 10,000 steps a day and just walk. You know, it's some spring's coming. We need to get outside more, and I think that's the we're at home doing a home workout or just eating what you know, it's easy for the easy for the diet to go out the window because you don't care so much. But you start to even a single regime or something, you know, all adds to that feeling of wellness, even if it's just having a Epsom salt bath, and if that's all you can do, great, keep it easy.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, making things achievable for people.
SPEAKER_01We've all got enough stress going on, whether even if you're looking for a job, if you're working hard at home, if you've got physical health issues or looking after family, all highly stressed. And I think we're at the point where we are at surge capacity now. So we've gone beyond, oh my god, it's happening again, lockdown two, to what the hell is going on here with lockdown three? And it's getting to the point where we're just cattle, where we're just sat at home, and it just thinks you know, you need to bring yourself back into your body. So, and now's the time, I think.
SPEAKER_02I did wonder if you'd be up for doing a quick fire round to finish with.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_02Okay, so this is quick fire with Daniel, green smoothie or bacon and eggs?
SPEAKER_00It's bacon and eggs.
SPEAKER_02Eggs poached or scrambled?
SPEAKER_00Poached.
SPEAKER_02Kimchi or sauerkraut?
SPEAKER_00Kimchi.
SPEAKER_02Oysters or smoked salmon?
SPEAKER_01Uh oysters because I rarely have them, but I love them.
SPEAKER_02Lazy weekend brunch or three-course dinner?
SPEAKER_01Brunch.
SPEAKER_02Crunchy or smooth peanut butter?
SPEAKER_01Crunchy.
SPEAKER_02Dancing or yoga?
SPEAKER_01Yoga.
SPEAKER_02Dogs or humans?
SPEAKER_01Dogs. It's an easy one. I do like humans, but um I prefer dogs.
SPEAKER_02And Daniel, where can people find you as well?
SPEAKER_01Uh just simple on my website is thenakednutritionist.co.uk, and that my Instagram handle is the same at the Naked Nutritionist. And all the information on my book is there. Anything else are consultations, and it's easy to start from there.
SPEAKER_02Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
SPEAKER_01Thank you for having me. It's been great.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. For more information about nutritional therapy, why not subscribe to Optimum Nutrition magazine? Visit ION's website, Ion.ac.uk forward slash magazine for details. You can also follow us on social media at ION underscore nutrition.