The Crackin' Backs Podcast

Tough Love or Toxic Habits? A Combat Veteran’s Take on Consistency, Compassion, and Crushing Diet Dogma

• Dr. Terry Weyman and Dr. Spencer Baron

Share episode

On this powerful episode of the Crackin’ Backs Podcast, we sit down with Brittani DaSilva, a U.S. Army veteran, registered dietitian, certified personal trainer, and founder of Freedom Nutrition, to talk about what it really takes to break free from toxic dieting and rebuild your relationship with food, fitness, and yourself.

After serving in combat zones while prioritizing mental health, fitness, and nutrition under pressure, Brittani returned home with a mission: to help everyday warriors win their own battles against food shame, emotional eating, and the all-or-nothing mentality that plagues modern wellness.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

  • How Brittani’s military service shaped her philosophy on mental resilience and nutrition
  • Why smart, driven people keep falling for diets like keto, Whole30, and Optavia
  • The psychological traps of food fear, and how one “burger with the bun” moment became a breakthrough
  • Why your emotional health and self-talk matter as much as your macros
  • Daily non-negotiables that keep Brittani grounded—and how to stay consistent without chasing perfection
  • How to recover from wellness burnout and stop treating health like a punishment
  • What true food freedom looks like—and one small habit you can start today

Brittani doesn’t just bring military-grade discipline—she brings deep empathy, science-backed strategies, and a refreshing honesty that cuts through diet noise and hustle culture. This isn’t about willpower. This is about healing.

If you’re tired of the shame cycle, exhausted by perfection, or simply ready to stop starting over, this conversation is your call to arms—and your invitation to change.

Learn more about Brittani DaSilva:

Website: HERE

Instagram: HERE

Watch the full interview on YouTube: Crackin’ Backs Podcast YouTube Channel
Listen to the episode on all platforms: HERE

We are two sports chiropractors, seeking knowledge from some of the best resources in the world of health. From our perspective, health is more than just “Crackin Backs” but a deep dive into physical, mental, and nutritional well-being philosophies.

Join us as we talk to some of the greatest minds and discover some of the most incredible gems you can use to maintain a higher level of health. Crackin Backs Podcast

Dr. Spencer Baron:

She once carried a machine gun in Afghanistan, and now she's disarming the diet culture, one food fear at a time, from combat boots to coaching calls former soldier turned registered dietitian, Brittany de Silva, she brings military grade discipline and deep empathy to the war on food guilt, emotional eating and toxic diet trends like keto, whole 30 and Optavia. If you ever felt trapped in the shame of cycle of all or nothing, thinking this episode is absolutely your battle plan for food freedom, resilience and mental health. Welcome to the Kraken backs podcast. Let's get into it. Listeners and viewers of the Kraken backs podcast today, we have a really cool guest for you. She once carried a machine gun in Afghanistan. Now she's disarming the diet culture from soldier to dietitian. Brittany de Silva's journey is anything but ordinary, and her mission is to help you win the war against food guilt and fad diet. So let's start there.

Brittani DaSilva:

Well, thank you so much for that wonderful introduction. I think that was probably the best one I've ever heard yet.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

All right. Well, Brittany, tell us how in the world did you go from deployment to in Afghanistan to where you're at now? Or actually, how did you get involved in that, that stress combat zone?

Brittani DaSilva:

So right before I left for my deployment, I started working on my master's degree in sports and Health Sciences, and one of the classes I had to take was nutrition. And I really fell back in love with nutrition. And I had a previous degree, a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology and Health from Iowa State University. And so during that degree, I had to take a nutrition class. And back then, nutrition, I didn't care anything about it, really. I mean, I always try to eat healthy and stuff. I was in sports, always athletic, trying to, you know, be healthy. But nutrition really didn't mean that much to me then. But when I took that nutrition class, and then I left for my deployment, I started realizing the benefits of how important it was when I was eating well and my performance. I just started noticing the little differences that I was doing. It impacted how much better. I performed on our PT test in CrossFit competitions. I did some runs. I was actually deployed during a time where we were actually starting to pull out of Afghanistan. So we were in a TA two mission, which was a train, advice and assist mission to train the Afghan army on how to run the prisons. That was, I was attached to a military police brigade, so we were training them how to take over and run the prisons after we would leave Afghanistan. Yeah, yeah. So

Dr. Spencer Baron:

I'm curious though, you know, they give you, they give you certain food. It's not like, you know, when you're in the military, they I from what I understand, I mean, it's all, you know, you know, they ration the same amount of food, or the same type of food, to everybody. Do you get choice? How do you keep? How do you choose your diet and stay? You know, you know, healthy? Yeah,

Brittani DaSilva:

it really depends on where you're located, because some bases have a great dining facility and some places do not. And then if you're deployed, it I mean, when my brother deployed, and probably when Vince deployed to Iraq. I mean, there's the um, the MREs, right, a lot of people had to do MREs, whereas, when I deployed, there was a chow hall and they served food, and we ate. We ate good every single day. It was boring. Same thing ate. I ate chicken breast, probably every day for a good nine months, I eat chicken a lot, but I will say that when I first joined and went through basic training and a it, they utilized the stoplight system, which was they color coded the buffet. So as you're going through the buffet on the chow hall line, they have the green foods are going to be your healthy options. The yellows like moderate, little less healthy. And then the red would be all your fried foods, right, or really cheesy stuff. So that was how they would, kind of color code it for us to make better choices going through the chow line. I don't know if they still use that. Today, though.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Well, what did you learn that you know about, obviously, mental health, resilience and nutrition, you know, under that kind of a experience that you take now to your clients?

Brittani DaSilva:

Well, I will say that it was my experience in the military that really led me into the world of nutrition. Because when you think about the military, you probably think like strong, healthy men and women in there, and what I saw was a lot of women and men that were overweight and suffering from injuries or ailments, and it was due to the stressors placed on them, whether it was they physically got hurt while serving, whether it was in training back home, or whether it was on a deployment, or just the stresses, the stressors placed upon them from being away from their families, you know, for nine months at a pop or, you know, there's, there's a big culture of infidelity In the military, people going away for months on end, and then they come back and find out a spouse has cheated on them. And you know, things like that are a reality, and these are the types of stressors placed upon our military service members, not always, but it it leads people to finding ways to cope. And unfortunately, those coping mechanisms are often food or alcohol or, you know, just because of the nature of what we do in the military. And it can be so unpredictable, working crazy hours, you know, pulling 18 hour duty days, and then coming back and what are you going to eat? You're not you don't have the energy to prepare a good meal for yourself at that point, so you turn to fast food and and that's the reality that a lot of our soldiers are living. And so I noticed that we need better. There were soldiers that would get put on a program because they were overweight, so they would have to go do a second round of PT in the afternoon after we would get off of work, and they they would send them to a dietitian, and the dietitian would give them this basic meal plan follow this, and it never worked, because there's no follow up with them. It'd be foods that they didn't want to eat. And they never really learned how to address the root of the problem, which is dealing with those mental little demons at the end of the day telling you to eat the cookies to feel better.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Yeah, do you find you bring a lot of mental health and inspiration to these people to be able to follow an appropriate diet? Because, I mean, you could eat, you could try to eat well, but if the brain isn't

Brittani DaSilva:

right, yeah, yeah, I do. I will say probably 85 to 90% of the work I do, I feel is mental.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

So with that said, you bring this like military grade discipline, and you pair it with what you hope to have some deep empathy for these people that are that tend to be suffering. So where do you draw that line, or how do you know between tough love and self compassion when you're coaching

Brittani DaSilva:

somebody? Yeah, that's a really great question, and it it's one of the most challenging parts, I will say, of my my job is because you have to give people that tough love, or they'll just continue to keep on doing the same things, repeating those same patterns that are keeping them stuck. But you also don't want you know they're they're your clients. You want them to be with you, and you don't want to upset them. So otherwise, they'll just quit, right? And they'll go find the next fad diet or something. So I, I will say that I always try to bring I try to get them to do a lot of the talking, and I listen, and I think that listening is one of the biggest keys to being a successful coach, or whatever it is for if you're trying to help people listening what it is and then just being their sound. Reason if they're having challenges listening and then just helping them come up with strategies that they feel are attainable for themselves to work through it. Because if you're just saying, all right, we're gonna get in the gym, we're going three times this week, or we're gonna eat three, you know, make sure we're eating three servings of fruits and vegetables every single day this week. That's it's just not a reality that people don't want that. I mean, a lot of my clients don't want that. Real harsh, like, what's the word I'm looking for? Cut Throat. I don't know cutthroat methods.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Well, actually, well, actually, you bring up a good you bring up a good point. And that is that I was going to ask you that, you know, take the, maybe a client that has been in the military, and take a client that's never been in the military, and how do you are there any magic questions you ask to determine how much pressure you can apply or how much you need to apply to get them to rise for the occasion?

Brittani DaSilva:

One of the questions I ask people upon when they start working with me. I have them ask or I ask them, What do you want me to do or say? If you ever feel like giving up,

Unknown:

that's great.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Have you had any interesting

Brittani DaSilva:

yeah, I mean, sometimes people are like, you know, like, yell at me, or, you know, just that's where they come in and say, give me that tough love. You know, other times it's remind me why. I started, remind me of my why. But, yeah, I feel like that's a good question that I I've reverted to in situations with clients where they're not putting in the effort, they keep wallowing in their struggles, and we go back to that, and it does help reignite them and get them back on that path, focusing on where they really want to

Dr. Spencer Baron:

go. You know? It reminds me of how funny when a you go to a massage therapist and they, the guys are, I want that deep tissue work, you know? And they start doing and they go, okay, that's too much. This. What happened, you know, they don't even know half the time what they really want, you know, and I guess it's all relative. So when you ask somebody, I think that's really vitally important that your your coach or dietitian or or nutritionist should really be able to tell you or ask you the right questions. You know, now you mentioned, you said in the past, you're not a failure. The diet failed. You talk about that because, you know so many, so many smart, motivated people, they still, they still fall for diets, you know, keto, whole 30, or opti Octavia, or what have. I mean, there's so many diet I have always said you could fill a library with the different, you know, books and so on. That about diet. So what is it that, you know? What is that mental trap that people keep chasing the quick fix?

Brittani DaSilva:

Yeah, that's the problem. Is they're chasing the quick fix the fastest way to get those results, and that's, that's what diet culture capitalizes on, getting people to pay for, you know, fat burners, or you mentioned opportunity. It's a $400 diet program that people pay for on a monthly basis, and they send you these, you know, meal replacement shakes or bars that taste like chalk, and people do, and then they drop wheat really fast, but it's not sustainable. And that's, I think, another one of the most challenging parts is getting people to focus on the long term gratification over instant results. Because when it comes to fat loss, and I'll put that key word there, sustainable fat loss, it really comes down to creating changes in your life, changes in your behavior, changes in your mindset, improving your relationship with food, better routines and all of those things take practice, and that's going to take time to improve. I actually had just spoken with one of my most recent coaching calls, and the client said i. Have to keep reminding myself I didn't get here overnight, and so I know it's going to take longer. I just have to keep reminding myself that it's going to take a long time to get to where I want to go. But the the way the wellness industry is they keep promising people these quick results through these fad diet programs, or these shake programs, whatever they are, and when people drop the weight fast, but they can't stick to it, because it's not a sustainable way to live. Whether it's keto and it's you're cutting foods out of your diet. Most people I've ever worked with enjoy carbs. So how are you going to stick to that long term when it comes to the meal replacement programs, most people don't want to drink a meal replacement shake or eat a bar for a meal. They don't enjoy that. So you can't stick to that. And then when they go back to eating the way that they enjoy, nothing's changed, they go back to what they know and love, and they end up taking in too many calories and hyper palatable foods and just gain the weight right back.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

So somebody comes up to you and says, they say, all right, Brittany, I'm going to go on a three day fast or a crash diet because they're desperate. What

Brittani DaSilva:

do you tell I say

Dr. Spencer Baron:

you've never heard that before, right?

Brittani DaSilva:

Yeah, no. I mean, it's, it's interesting because there are some, I mean, there are some methods, or some places where a water cut, for example, is a reality. You see it in the the field of competitive weightlifting. My assistant coach, she's a power, power lifter, and she'll do a water cut, sometimes leading up to make weight. But that's, you know, like there's a reason for it. She's trying to make weight for a competition, and then she goes back, reloads with all those carbs, and there she is, but for somebody just trying to drop, you know, 10 pounds because they're leaving for a vacation in three days. My thing is, why didn't you start 10 weeks ago? You know,

Dr. Terry Weyman:

right, right? You you brought up some stuff like carbs, right? Some people call that the forbidden food. And when have you had a forbidden food moment with a client where just something as simple as eating a bagel or a burger with a bun was the breakthrough, you know? And and why do you think food fear is so common? And how do we start to change?

Brittani DaSilva:

Get rid of social media, not to demise, because it's just full of misinformation. You know, carbs, I mean, you go back to probably the 80s, carbs have been demonized for years and years and years, and I find that so often when I work with clients, they come to me with all of these restrictions that they place upon themselves, or considering, you know, a hamburger bun, bad bread, bad and so what happens is they get into this all or nothing cycle where they'll cut everything out there. They're feeling great, they're doing the right thing, and they start losing weight, but they get to that point where life gets hard, or they start missing those foods too much, and then they end up reverting back, or they give up, throw in the towel, and then they go back and eat those things. But not only do they just eat one portion or one serving of that food, they feel like they ruined everything. So then they just continue to spiral out of control, eating all the bad things, and then they end up right back where they were or worse off. And so it's, as you said, like, where is that breakthrough with paint with clients, right? I, I feel like when people can get to a place where they have no rules in regard to considering foods as bad or good, they take those moral values away from them, and they start looking at food as how's it going to make me feel this is the biggest thing I feel like can help people, is eating more in tune with your body and. How you want to feel. So when you start eating for how you want to feel, you're probably going to make more choices and not you know, down the five slices of pizza, you might just have two and put a salad next to it,

Dr. Terry Weyman:

all right. But on that, how does it make me feel? So many people, you hear comfort food and food that reminds me at home, and you know that five pizzas may make me feel warm and cozy. You know where that salad doesn't feel make me feel warm and cozy? So how do you treat a lot of emotional eating? How do you deal with when somebody talks about their their comfort foods and their carbs, because we know processed food is designed to make us addictive to it. So how do you, how do you find that where they can find real food and find comfort and emotional happiness in the real food, versus,

Brittani DaSilva:

yeah, and that's a really difficult thing, I think that people have to work through is, you know, I think that something I always share with my clients is that we're always going to have emotions tied to our food. Food is tradition. How many memories do you have with your family growing up that revolve around food? I work with a lot of Italians being here in New Jersey. They love their pasta, they love their carbs, right? So there's always going to be those emotional ties. And where I think that people sometimes go is they try to focus so much on getting rid of cravings and like, trying to say, like, why can't I stop craving this food? And they're, they're never going to stop having those cravings, because we just know how good some of those foods are. And that's where I think it comes back to the question of slowing down and asking, like, going back to what I said before, how does this how's this food going to make me feel? How am I going to feel with the amount of food on my plate? Like, how am I going to feel eating for Oreos versus eating a whole row of Oreos? You know, taking that extra little level and thinking a little bit more through what your actions are about to do and how you're going to feel in an hour, or how are you going to feel the next day. So I feel like that sometimes can help people get through that emotional eating a little bit further, because we can still have some of that food to help satisfy those emotions, but not to the point where it's going to make us physically sick. Right?

Dr. Terry Weyman:

We have correct, but we, you know, we have a lot of people that emotionally eat, you know, when they're depressed, or even some when they're anxious, you know, and and they have this emotional relationship with food. And when you find that the pattern of emotional relationship is a negative one, not a positive one, what's some of your go to tips to get these people to start switching and to get them in a better mental state so they will eat better,

Brittani DaSilva:

yeah? Yeah, some of the things I do is help them come up with different things, different things to do in those moments when they feel that craving, like they feel like I need cookies right now because they're feeling anxious about something with work, a project, whatever it is, or they're worried about something. One of their kids is sick. It's always hitting most of the time, I'll say, at the end of the night. And by trying to find some different activities, whether it be a puzzle, whether it be turning on a podcast, turning on some music, a different activity that can help distract their mind during that time, but that's only temporary, right? It's only it's only covering up the problem. The problem is the anxiety, the stress. That's the root of the issue. And, you know, a lot of times I end up referring out with when it comes to mental health stuff, I refer out to therapists a lot to get deeper into some of those traumas that are there. I get a lot of times where there's emotional trauma that goes all the way back to childhood, and they've been using that food as a coping mechanism since way back then, and so through mental health with a therapist and the skills that they have, some of those things don't. Modalities that they're able to bring into it, I find can help people break through some of those things that are leading them to always choose the negative coping mechanism.

Dr. Terry Weyman:

What's some you know, when you were in the military and you were in your stressful times, did you ever come up with like, one or two daily non negotiables for your personal habits that you have now started to work into when you hear, I just can't be consistent. Yeah? Military is very ritual. I can't pronounce it being very ritual, right? And so you know you've come up with some you've had to come with non negotiable for yourself. Can you when you have some it just needs a little bit of consistency in your life. What's some tips you give them?

Brittani DaSilva:

Yeah, the one of the best things, I think, is meeting people. It's always going to be meeting people where they're at, but figuring out what what is attainable. So with my clients walking, for example, walking is so fantastic for our mental health, great for our metabolism. Getting outside, so good for your body, right? But sometimes I get clients that come to me and they're averaging, like, 2000 steps a day. And so where the the goal becomes you often hear it. People will say, Get 10,000 steps a day. It's not realistic for somebody to turn around and go out there. So I like to set, implement Inc incremental goals with them to work towards that. So say they're only getting 2000 steps a day. Let's be intentional and try to get 4000 or 4500 steps a day. And when they're consistent with that, we'll push it up a little further as they feel able to do that. So creating those routines, I feel like, is one of the biggest things there. I don't know if I answered your question there, though. You asked,

Dr. Terry Weyman:

What's up? Well, what's some of the non negotiables you have that you just know that when you get stressed, you'll go to we all have our our moments of weakness when we get under stress, what's what your non negotiables that you use on a daily basis to keep yourself kind of head above water.

Brittani DaSilva:

I do a lot of reframing, reframing in my mindset. I've worked on this a lot because after I got out of the military, I felt like I went through a big old identity loss, and I would find myself always badgering myself. I compare myself to others, and I really did hold that victim mentality of life. Why is this always happening to me and something that I've worked at over the years that I will say I practice daily is when something bad happens, or I find myself saying a negative thought, I try to transition it into a gratitude, Like, okay, this happened, but you know I when I, for example, when I had, I had a C section, when I had my son, and I remember showing up to the gym, and I was feeling sorry for myself, because I couldn't do everything like I could before, before I had my Son, I could do 14 pull ups, no problem. And I get into the gym after having the baby and getting back, and I couldn't do a single pull up. Couldn't do nothing. It was hard. And I remember I looked over and I saw this guy in the gym, and he had a brace on his knee, and he was somebody there that was consistent at the gym. I saw him all the time. Before I had the baby, he was there, and he had that big old brace on his leg, and he was doing what he could. And I thought to myself, was like, I needed to see that and just use that as my reminder. Like it could be worse. You know, you you've got both your legs, you can do what you can and, and that's the thing. Like, I try to help clients recognize that too. I think that I appreciate so much from serving in the military. And some of the things that I saw that, you know, serving in Afghanistan, I saw some shit. And the way that, you know, we live here in America, we do really have, we do have it a lot easier. And when, when some of these things feel really hard, I try to help people, and I do it myself, practicing. Saying the gratitudes okay, this happened, but we can be grateful for XYZ, and use that to create that momentum to to bring us back up into a more positive mindset.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Love that I love that. Love that, because it reminds me I could go to my my grandmother, who was from Romania, is not around anymore, but you could go to her with anything, grandma that you know this, and she would always say, it could be verse in this, you know, could be worse, but in that Romanian accent, it could be voters. And I go, Well, you know, I used to like, look, that's not the answer. And then I realize it is the answer, yeah, you could always be worse. And what you're saying, you don't even realize how important it is, because nowadays that the generation that's on social media all the time is always comparing themselves of how they could be and how they're not, and that is the biggest stressor. So you did in reverse. You looked at someone who's less fortunate and how fortunate you are, which I think is probably one of the best golden rules you could have shared today. You know, with so far,

Dr. Terry Weyman:

Spence was your Moroccan mom. Say, now

Dr. Spencer Baron:

she, she'll tell she'll tell me to go to hell or something, or no, no, her thing now lately is go fly a kite. Which mom you're actually saying, Go to hell, really, that's what you're selling saying. Thanks anyway. No, I think that's great. I mean, I, you know, it's funny, because I just recently I realized that, and I bet you, you all have done the same that you ever go grocery shopping when you're hung when you've not eaten, you're hungry, and you end up at home go, why did anybody What? What? What am I buying?

Dr. Terry Weyman:

I just spoke to Costco when they're making all the stuff and handing out the free samples, and you you fill up. And I need that, I need that I need that.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

I just spoke to a patient yesterday. He said to me that she came from a place. Talk about history, and when she was younger, she and to this day, when she would bring groceries home, she'd have to try everything that she bought, at least a take. So talk about, you know, overconsumption, you know, and especially if you're hungry. So I realize now, easy way to do is make sure I eat something so I don't feel and it's so funny how your mind distorts your way of thinking. I need to buy that and that, and you end up anyway. So that's a, that's a great to you know, any way to curb your potential for overeating or buying over,

Brittani DaSilva:

don't eat, don't grocery shop hungry, is

Dr. Spencer Baron:

a good lesson. Whoo, you had meant. You had mentioned something earlier that may, may drive a very sensitive point home, and I want to bring it up because Dr Terry, I don't know if you've seen patients like that or Brittany, if you've even had any clients or patients that they're overweight because of something historical that happened in their life, like a like rape. They've been raped. I've had two patients that actually confessed to me, and the reason why because they have low back pain and they're overweight, and they, you know, feel comfortable enough to tell me, yeah, well, I was raped as a child or as a teenager, and that's my way of of repelling men is by being overweight. Yeah? Fascinating, yeah. I don't know if you've ever, you guys ever have heard that, but you know that may hit home for some of our viewers or listeners. You know that that's something that goes beyond, you know, the diet. It's the mental diet that you need, you know, some sort of, you know, this discussion about that. So let, let's talk burnout. You know, not necessarily from your job, but from the pressures for you to be healthy. You know, what? What have you ever experienced? You know, you know, in the way of burnout or or wellness, on wellness for yourself, anything that that you've experienced?

Brittani DaSilva:

Yeah, sure. Yeah. Definitely burnout. I think of a couple things. One, being overdoing exercise, trying to do a lot of like HIIT style workouts, where I was, you know, those hour long, I think, like Orangetheory fitness, like I used to go there five days a week, and it was really, really taxing. And I over the years as a coach, I've seen that I've worked with clients that were doing those style of workouts so many days in a week, and I really feel like there is a point where. Where it puts too much stress or too much burden on our bodies, especially for people who are working full time, and you know, if they have families raising kids, whatever like, they just don't have enough time for their body to recover from those style of workouts. And I find that for myself personally, when I cut back from going from like five six days a week, from working out to three or four days of work, workouts a week. I saw myself actually get stronger. It's crazy, but I did, and that is because my body had finally an opportunity to recover better. And when you recover better, you go back into that next workout, you're able to lift a little bit heavier, push a couple more reps out, and that has led to incredible strength gains for me over the years. I really got into strength training, progressive overload training, about five or six years ago, and it's been such a game changer. But I got away from all the crazy, like hit stuff that was really burning me out. I just remember I used to wake up and would dread so much going to the gym to do those workouts. And now, yeah, I still wake up sometimes like, oh, gotta work out. But I don't have that dread there. I usually look at it and know I'm gonna feel feel so much better after I get it in

Dr. Spencer Baron:

good point. And you're, as you're mentioning this, I'm thinking to myself, Dr, Terry and I are about the same age you you probably have no idea about high impact aerobics. Remember that era? Dr Terry, we would get, oh, yeah, patients from high impact now, you don't have that anymore, but they thought that was the way to do it every day, high impact, you know, and all that. Then there was, not too long ago, it was the CrossFit era that kept chiropractors in business, yes, right. So, but for you, for you, you know, I think it's an interesting transition, because I've never been in the military. Dr Terry has family that's been in the military, but not himself, but our image of military is hardcore training and all that. So hearing you mentioned that about five days of orange theory. That's like a walk in the park, but not really. You know, how did you discern, or, you know, make those changes knowing that military? Or

Dr. Terry Weyman:

how was it military? And before you answer that same age, he's older than me. I

Brittani DaSilva:

back, yeah, in the military, there's PT every morning, right? We're supposed to go to PT, and I did every single day. It was Monday through Friday, we had PT. Weekends, we had off, and we'd show up at 6am every morning, and we would go through some silly, like, warm up routines to just like, kind of, probably those aerobic things that you're talking about, high impact. It was probably similar to that kind of stuff. Imagine us dance around in uniform like that, right? And then we would go out and do whatever the workout was for the day. Sometimes it was continuing doing more exercises in the gym like that, where we're just standing in one spot, doing these, like push ups or jumping up and doing, I don't know, sometimes it's mountain climbers or burpees, whatever. And then we'd go out on runs. And I mean, that was the gist of the training. It wasn't like we were hopping up on a pull up bar doing pull ups every day. I did pull ups during basic training. There was a pull up bar there, and we trained a little bit on pull ups, but that was not something that we did in active duty Army. Marines, on the other hand, yeah, they're probably doing them all the time, but I was in the army and we did not have to do those where I was stationed. But again, I think that can also change depending on your MOS or what unit you're attached to, if you're in the infantry, I could imagine you're probably doing some more tough workouts than what I got being attached to a military police brigade.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

You just for the the listening audience. PT, that to them, like physical therapy, but. PT, to you, is physical training, right? Okay, just, just and. MOS,

Brittani DaSilva:

oh, my god.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

MOS, specialist,

Brittani DaSilva:

it's the job. It's your job. It's the job that you go for. And I cannot think of the what the MOS stands

Dr. Terry Weyman:

for, whether it be military operations. Yeah, military

Brittani DaSilva:

something specialty is that operation? I don't know.

Dr. Terry Weyman:

I don't know. The military is all about acronyms. Oh, yeah, you can never just say the word that has to be an acronym of some kind.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Did you? Did you? Dr, Terry, you ever realized that that one of our guests signed signs his email? VR,

Dr. Terry Weyman:

yeah. I go, What the hell

Brittani DaSilva:

is? VR, very

Dr. Spencer Baron:

respectfully, I go, wow, that's

Dr. Terry Weyman:

cool, because that's a military thing. So I thought you're gonna say drew ease.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Interesting. No, no, VR, VR from VR. Oh, Brittany. Let me ask you, I think you, your, your, your brand is very appropriately named, Freedom nutrition. I think that's really, really cool. And it's a, it's a great way to, you know, carry on your your patriotic behavior, you know, so what? What does freedom actually freedom,

Brittani DaSilva:

freedom in my life, or freedom in nutrition, diet, culture, where are we going? Oh,

Dr. Spencer Baron:

yeah. Let's do Yeah. Like, when

Brittani DaSilva:

you freedom and nutrition,

Dr. Spencer Baron:

nutrition, like, in your in your brand, and then we can go in your Yeah.

Brittani DaSilva:

For me, it's helping people get to a place where they no longer are searching for the next diet. They get to a place where they're free of all those thoughts of like, you know, because I get so many people that have done every single diet under the sun, and they'll tell me, I can't remember when I wasn't on a diet. They spent decades dieting, never finding the answer to what works right. So for me, it's helping people really liberate themselves from that, that diet cycle, that yo yo diet cycle and help them create a healthy relationship with food where there are no foods that are off limits, because that creates that whole binge. Restrict cycle and help them create healthy habits where they do feel good about the choices that they're making, and they see improvements in their blood markers, they feel better physically, they lose weight, they just feel more confident again, I find that that's really where I'm looking to create freedom In my clients lives, and gonna say freedom from all the rules that come along with those bad diets, like not eating carbs, you can't eat bread, no added sugars. You know it's it's no way to live, because you end up being so preoccupied with food. I'm thinking about food all day. Who wants to be thinking about food all day? We should be able to eat and move on.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

So, okay, so let me ask you, because that's a good that's a really good point, you know, that I would like to dwell on a little bit, and that is because some diets do help people, and I remember, you know, even just personally, the most monumental change in my life was going gluten and dairy free. Before I even was, was counseled on a diet that I was suggested, you're starting to show symptoms, and it was a functional medicine, Doc. So, you know, I respected her opinion, and we were waiting for the blood labs to come back, and I will tell you that just from going gluten and dairy free within the first 24 this is no joke. Within the first 48 hours, I lost six pounds, and I was eating up to here. I mean, I didn't really, this was an energy thing for me, not A, not a weight loss. You know, look good. Feel good. Look good thing. So how do you, how do you determine, like some and then sometimes you plateau? So when do you determine when it's good to be on a certain type of diet, or guidelines to a diet versus Yeah, how did, how would that Yeah? And I think,

Brittani DaSilva:

just to put it out there, I'm not anti diet. I'm anti diet culture, anti bad diet, really, because I my niche is. Weight Loss, and there are a lot of dieticians out there that won't work with people who are seeking weight loss because they think that focusing on weight loss itself can be more damaging. And I don't take that stance on it. I feel like if a person comes to me and wants to seek weight loss or wants to feel better, wants improvement in their energy. And if we have blood markers coming at us showing that the person's got high blood sugars or high cholesterol, by having my clients, I have them track their food intake, and I can look at what they're eating. And then from there, I'm able to guide them and give them recommendations on foods, to incorporate, foods to eat less of and to eat more of that are going to help support improvements in those blood markers help them feel better, help support them in losing weight. You know, to lose weight, you have to be in a calorie deficit. So I help people build awareness on how many calories they're really taking in. It can be pretty eye opening sometimes for people.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

So sometimes, and I've heard some, you know, food coaches or eating coaches or nutritionists or whatever, and don't tell a person that they're eating too little or their calories are too low. And you know now we understand more Well, not everybody does, but if I mean your body doesn't go, oh, let's, you know, let's accomplish, let's, you know, burn more calories while you're taking in less. Your body thinks it's on a desert island, a deserted island, and it's going to conserve calories on a, on a on a on a on a, you know, a lower calorie diet, and your body kind of accommodates the metabolism. I mean, do you ever tell people you need to eat more or more often or less portion?

Brittani DaSilva:

Yeah, yes. So when it comes to that, there's a couple things to discuss on that topic. So when it when you mentioned how our body starts to conserve, I hear it a lot, and I will say, I feel like it's a misrepresentation. Sometimes the way it's portrayed is that, oh, I can't lose weight. My body must be in starvation mode. And a lot of times I get that. And people come to me and I look at their diaries and I see their patterns and know they're indeed overeating. They just don't realize it, because they're eating small amounts of food, more hyper palatable stuff that doesn't leave them feeling full. They feel like they're hungry starving, because they're really just not eating a lot, but the things that they're eating are very calorie dense, so they're not really in a calorie deficit.

Unknown:

But sometimes we do get people that are eating Lower, lower calories right and not losing weight. And what happens is, if you are not eating a lot of calories, right and you're trying, it doesn't even matter, like if you're trying to lose weight or not, but the body does, the metabolism does start to adapt downward. You got to think about energy intake, the calories coming in. We have something called a thermic defective food, which is the calories that our body burns in the nature of digesting and absorbing our our food, the nutrients in it. And when that happens, we're taking less food, there's less of that thermic effect of food, and there's also less energy coming in overall. What happens when you're not taking in a lot of energy physically? How do you feel? Probably tired, right? And if you're tired, you're not going to be moving as much. You're not going to have that pep in your step so that is a big factor there is that when our energy intake is low, we're also probably not moving as much, which then decreases our calorie burn across the day, making weight loss even harder. So that's weird that reversing calories back up for people to bring calories back up to maintenance, Get Them Eating more, to bring that thermic effect of food back up, get them feeling better. Can be really beneficial. I often

Dr. Spencer Baron:

tell patients. I often tell patients, energy begets energy. You know, the more you put out, the more you can put out. What about, you know, without denying the fact that one of the biggest fads, maybe, is the GOP, one the you know, ozembe, the mayor. Know, whatever it is all the what do you have patients come to you that are on those, those, it's not medications, the peptides or and, or have you ever told anybody they needed to go? I love

Unknown:

that question. I do have some patients that are on them right now, all of them, but one started them before working with me, and they came to me because they look at some of those symptoms or negative consequences that can come out of GLP ones in that it really could decrease your appetite so much, and some of the biggest problems that we're seeing is nutritional deficiencies, because people end up not eating enough, dropping weight too fast, and losing muscle mass and hair getting brittle, crepey, skin just not feeling, not feeling good. So I get clients coming sometimes for fears of those things happening to them. So they partner. They want to partner with a dietitian to ensure that those things don't happen to them, which I love so much that people are taking that step and utilizing their resources to have some guidance there and really help them. Now, have I ever recommended it to anyone? I have once one person I've suggested it to, after working with this person for about a year, struggling with a lot of food, noise and trauma, you know, trauma related, and I feel that it could be something that helps her drown out that that noise that's causing her to turn to food as that coping mechanism. And the thing about that is that I feel like some in some sense, it can give people that hope, because they really do work well for helping people suppress their appetite. If we can get some of these people say they weigh like three 400 pounds, using a GLP one to drop 100 pounds, and they are physically feeling so much better because they're not carrying around an extra 100 pounds. You can't tell me that that person isn't better off having lost that 100 pounds and not having to carry it around anymore, and that we you know, at that point, we can still work on other all the other things, like working to help them get their protein intake up working to get their fiber intake up working to create some of these better habits. But I just feel like it can give some people some hope that they didn't have there before. But I don't think it should be given out like candy, as it is, by a lot of doctors or med spas, whatever it

Dr. Spencer Baron:

is, yeah, no, I think it's, you know, it's concerning. I've seen some remarkable changes for people in a good way. But then it, there's a moment that it goes beyond that, and they start looking gaunt, and they they lose consciousness of what they intended in the Oh, my God, thinner the better. And then all of a sudden it becomes like a like a compulsion, you know? So I think that's where you are. Very important to say, hey, you know, pull back on the reins. Let's do more strength training to build muscle, because you lost the fat. Now you need shape, you

Unknown:

know. You bring up a great point there, and that's where I think people need to recognize that these GOP ones are they're a tool. They're not the answer, though, to long term weight, weight maintenance, beyond the weight loss, right? And you have to bring in those, those habits of strength training, walking daily, eating your fruits and vegetables, choosing normal grains versus eating processed foods.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Have you when you have a client come to you, what is the first thing you ask them to do?

Unknown:

First thing I ask them to do is

Dr. Spencer Baron:

there, like a routine for you that I'm just thinking of what people are listening or viewing that could start doing.

Unknown:

I typically have people track, as I said. Most of my clients are coming to me for weight loss. So I usually have people get an app like MyFitnessPal, for example, and log all the food that they eat for a week because we don't know what we don't know, and awareness reasons change. So you're able to see, wow, I'm eating 4000 calories a day, or you're eating, you know, 100 grams of sugar. And the recommendation for women, you know, per day is, like 25 grams of added sugar per day, and you're taking in 100 I've seen it. I've seen, you know, it's when

Dr. Spencer Baron:

you say, when you say, log the diet, just for the again, the audience, what? What are you having them write down what they ate the time,

Unknown:

like the one app, for example, My Fitness Pal, you can actually put in it categorizes the meal, so you've got breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. And so I have them just put in their meals however they eat them and the portion size. So let's say they grab the box of crackers. Do they have one serving, or do they have two servings of it? And logging the respective amounts there. And the cool thing about apps like that is that it adds a ball to calories. It adds a ball to protein, carbs, added sugars, fats and fiber. And you can say saturated fats, you know, the total saturated fats too there, which is really nice, because it's a great way, even if you don't intend on tracking for like, months on end, just one week of tracking can give you a lot of insight into some steps that you can start working toward in improving your health. I

Dr. Spencer Baron:

have a funny question for you, have you, and this is including you. Dr Terry, have you ever had a client or a potential client say to you, oh, I'm a big boned girl. I don't, you know, I'm not sorry, but in my head, I'm thinking to myself, big boned, and that's how you know, that's why you're overweight, you know, and that I'm a big boned girl. I have trouble losing weight. No, you're just fat, you know. Sorry, but I the excuses that we get, right? Okay, you know what? I just, I just broke out into sweat thinking to myself, you know, I'm gonna get people on the show that are gonna hate me. All right, so let me, let me. All right, Brittany, I'm gonna, I'm gonna jump. I noticed that you two didn't even answer the question, you know, yeah, oh, it's safe. Why don't you? All right, so, all right now forget about it. We're gonna go into our next we're gonna go into one of our favorite moments on the show. It's the rapid fire questions. There's five of them, Brittany, let's see how fast you can think on your feet. My dear, are you ready? Question number one, you shared about heavy lifting and traveling, cooking, new recipes and even beach days in the Jersey Shore. Oh, yeah. What's one perfect weekend with you and your husband, son and Teddy that make you think, yes, this is exactly why I do what I do, give me an event, an episode of

Unknown:

motor we also we have a camber. So it would be a weekend away with a camber in the woods, but in front of the lake, looking over the water campfire. We got the stuff, where is all ready to go? Maybe there's some marshmallows that perfect brown phone set to do not disturb, not a worry about clients, and just being there in the present and being able to relax. And I think for me, that's just spending that quality time with my family right there around such a picturesque landscape is Yeah.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

Secretary, did you see, did you see her arm just now? Did you see you got you got some muscle there? There it is. There. Yeah, all right. Question number two, in the military, pranks are having fun. Is it the best way to break the stress? What's the wildest story that you can still or still you can't help but laugh about

Unknown:

pranks? Man, I guess I wasn't in the same military. I.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

You, so no practical jokes have been played on you or you played on other someone else I can recall. I'll give you, I'll give you a chance to think about that. We're going to go on to question number three, you ready? On Instagram, you talk about testing recipes and lifting heavy. What's one recipe that made you stop and go, Okay, this is my jam. And what's the biggest meal prep fail that still cracks you up?

Unknown:

Biggest meal prep fail I once thought, you know, these black bean brownies would be the best thing to get your fiber intake up. And the way, you know, somebody made them sound so delicious online, I thought, you know, let's do it. And I remember I didn't have a food processor like the recipe recommended using for the beans, and so this is my first year living with my husband, right? Because we we lived apart for three years, the first three years of our marriage. So I made these brownies, and I just remember when he bit into it, he was like, I because I tried to mash them by hand. It was a fail. It was a total fail.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

For those who are just listening and downloaded the podcast, you need to go switch to the YouTube channel of our cracking backs podcast to see the expression, to get the real feel for how bad those brownies were. That was great. Thanks. Brittany, question number four out of five, if they did a movie about your life, who would you want to play? You don't say Demi Moore, dang it, yeah. No, I'm kidding.

Unknown:

The first actress that actually came to my mind was Sandra Bullock. And I think it goes back to Miss Congeniality. I also had somebody say to me that I am like reminded, you know, I've reminded them of Sandra Bullock a little bit. So I probably say her

Dr. Spencer Baron:

the moment you said that I could see it. Yes, yes, right? Oh, yeah. Very good. All right. Question number five, if you had 30 seconds with someone standing in front of you, with someone standing in front of the mirror, frustrated, stuck and feeling like they've tried everything, what would you say to them?

Unknown:

Stop talking to yourself the way that you are, and start talking to yourself like being with your best friend.

Dr. Spencer Baron:

I've registered on the Goosebumps scale just now. That was great. That was good. You know, I think it was a Dove Dove commercial, a dove commercial that was absolutely brilliant. That is on the heels of what you just said, they they had a a criminal, an artist that does, you know criminal render, you know the renderings of criminals based on what the witnesses share. And they were like one of the FBI artists, or something like that. They asked a woman to describe herself, and the image was very ugly. They asked five of her friends the same thing, and the images were beautiful. So it's very interesting that you say that, and I've mentioned that story because it really qualifies what you're saying and how important that is. Brittany de Silva, thank you so much for being on the show today. It's very informative. I love where you came from and where you're going with this, all the power. Too

Unknown:

much. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure and lifetime.

Dr. Terry Weyman:

You're awesome. Thank you. You

Dr. Spencer Baron:

thank you for listening to today's episode of The Kraken backs podcast. We hope you enjoyed it. Make sure you follow us on Instagram at Kraken backs podcast. Catch new episodes every Monday. See you next time you.