Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations

#850 Tara Coleman: Why Knowing What to Eat Isn’t the Problem 🍎

• Joey Pinz • Episode 850

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Why do so many high-achievers say the same thing when it comes to food: “I know what to do… I just don’t do it.” 🤔

In this episode of Joey Pinz Discipline Conversations, Joey Pinz sits down with clinical nutritionist Tara Coleman to unpack the surprising psychology behind nutrition, behavior change, and the hidden mental load many people carry around food.

With over 20 years of experience, Tara shares why traditional diets often fail—and why the real solution isn’t just about knowing what to eat. Instead, success comes from combining nutrition science, eating behavior, and mindset to create sustainable habits that actually fit real life.

Joey and Tara explore the connection between commitment, compassion, and consistency, and why perfectionism often sabotages even the most motivated individuals. They also discuss why nutrition should become a support system for your life—not the thing preventing you from living it.

If you’ve ever felt stuck between knowing what’s healthy and actually following through, this conversation will help shift how you think about food, health, and long-term success.

 

🔥 Top 3 Highlights

✅ The “I Know What To Do” Problem

Why knowledge isn’t the barrier—behavior and systems are.

✅ The Three Pillars of Sustainable Nutrition

Nutrition science, eating behavior, and mindset working together.

✅ Commitment + Compassion = Consistency

Why perfectionism and all-or-nothing thinking derail progress.

 

 

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Hosted by Joey Pinz, this Discipline Conversations Podcast offers insights and inspiration.

 

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SPEAKER_00

Tara Coleman. Absolute pleasure talking with Tara. Nutritionalist has a background in science and biotech, was a bench tech as she uh calls herself. And um, you know, I don't quite understand what happens there. Even though my daughter is one, you think I would. Uh, but she kind of goes down the conversation, of course, with endurance racing and what the attraction is is one of her one of her passions. But she helps people uh with their nutrition, with their health. And the particular audience that she does have are high achievers, perfectionists, and the challenges that go along there with working with that uh clientele. Um, just the view on nutrition and the whole kind of all or nothing mentality that many of those high achievers have uh and mindset. But she does have three pillars that she believes is the foundation of her framework, uh, nutrition science, eating behavior. And I wonder what you think the third one is. Tara, I thank you so much for your time. And I thank you for watching and listen. Hi, I'm Joey Pins, and here's my 45-second introduction. After starting my business in the 90s, I started developing poor habits of eating in my diet because of working way too much. Before you know it, I found myself 340 pounds. The doctor told me if I don't lose the weight, I'm not gonna see my daughter graduate. Took the next seven months, lost 130 pounds. People think there's some secret. Ask me, how'd you lose that weight? Like there's some secret. There is no secret. How'd I lose the weight? Just one word, discipline. I've had other successes in life, and I attribute them all to discipline. Now I'm not the king of discipline, but I believe that it can help all of us. Friends, colleagues convinced me to start a podcast. The podcast mission, how do we better ourselves and society? I talked to interesting people in health, fitness, sport, wellness, business, technology, science, art and culture. And I eventually asked them how discipline plays a role in their life. Podcast vision, growth through learning from others.

SPEAKER_02

Any questions for me?

SPEAKER_00

I've got plenty. And let's start with this to make the make a case. Make a case for no, no, that's it. How are you? That's all yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Um weather. That's the extent of the death of this.

SPEAKER_00

Make the case for endurance racing.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, make the case for it. I don't know if I can. It's a little nuts. Well, you know, I think it does kind of tie into probably what we're going to talk about today. I think one of the beauty of endurance racing, at least for me, is it takes you to interesting places, right? Like I don't endurance race on the streets of San Diego. I go into the mountains, I go to places that really allow me to be in awe and see incredible things. Um, it puts you in a community of people who are fully committed to doing something that's difficult. And I think for me, the most powerful thing is it reminds you that the discomfort is temporary. You know, when you're in it and your brain is like, stop this crazy thing. I don't know why you're still running. This is exhausting, your leg hurts, and you think you're gonna feel like that forever. And then all of a sudden you get distracted and see a beautiful tree, and you completely forgot how awful it was just before then. So I think that that I don't know, that mindset, that experience is something that I take into my everyday life.

SPEAKER_00

In this fast-paced MSP landscape, how do you stay ahead? Introducing MSP Influencer.com, your ultimate hub for MSP news, insights, and community connection powered by Forza Dash. More than 75,000 MSP subscribed to our MSP Influencer Pulse weekly newsletter. Staying informed and ahead of MSPR. Tune in to emerging podcasts, leading MSP voices, offering Powerful Insights and Live, MSP leaders, celebrate, celebrate industry leading, force dash, MSP influencer, 49 leaders, MSP. Join thousands of MSP professionals who trust MSP Influencer.com to grow their business and expand their networks. MSP Influencer.com for today's MSP leaders connect, collaborate and counter, all powered by the FortSch platform, helping MSP vendors work effectively with MSPs and helping MSPs grow. I have to try to get that mentality. I like to work out in the morning. And I had a big wait day yesterday. And I remember thinking, you know, halfway through it, this will be the hardest thing I do all day. You know, once this is over, it's all downhill, you know. So yeah, you're right, just trying to get the mentality of it's not going to be this bad. This is temporary, it's an important one.

SPEAKER_02

It's a hard one too, right? Because when you're in it, I'll speak for myself, I won't speak for you and the world, but when I'm in it, I genuinely believe this is my new permanent reality. Right? Like this is how things will be forever. And then you have to, you know, remind yourself last time I had this experience, it got better, or last time I I had this experience, it was worth it, or you focus on something else. So I would say from a personal level, but full disclosure, it's the community, it is the um environment that I'm I'm the most drawn to.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, community is important. You know, I was doing CrossFit for a while, and there's a community there, and you know, you just end up, you know, making friends and you know, like-minded, you're into getting into shape, and uh there's a lot to be said about that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

And even religion gets a bad kind of knock sometimes, but it does create a community. You know, people you know want to be with other people.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah, I think that you could argue, and maybe we're getting too in-depth and heavy right now, but that's what I think a lot of us are are missing.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

I think there was a lot of baked in community into society, and for a lot of different reasons, at the very least, it just looks very different, right? You know, and um I have a gym that that I love, and I would argue that working out is not that great, but what gets me there is excitement to see to see my friends, or or full discord, or just acquaintances, people to have small talk with, right? That community where you feel a little bit less alone, you feel a little bit more aligned, right? You feel a little bit more seen, and I think that that's um more of a driving force than lifting heavy things.

SPEAKER_00

Because yeah, me as well. I mean, you know, the technology is separating us. I mean, it wants to create kind of this digital community that just lacks in so many ways, for me at least.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. There's a um it's easier to hide and perform, I think. Right? When you are in a situation that you're face to face and vulnerable and in this in this description, sweaty and struggling. Um, I think it really pulls out your full humanity, you know. And I I think, you know, and comparison is never great, but sometimes, you know, the gym I go to, everyone is like I'm by far the probably oldest and least fit, right? And so I see people um that are pushing it just as hard, struggling just as hard as as I do. And if I just saw them online, I'd look at them and I'd be like, You're perfect. You don't struggle, you have it all together. But um, when you're with them and next to them, you see that humanity and you feel them. That I I think is it's just something that there's not as much baked in opportunity, right? So you have to go and find your own.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's a very interesting point. I'm not here to uh, you know, to look down at uh you know the current generation or anything, it's just different now. I mean, my kids were brought up with very different things than I was. My father, an Italian immigrant, got his first pair of shoes when he was 12, right? So there's I can't relate to that. I I I could tell that story, but it's very hard to, you know, hard to relate. So they're just gonna have to adapt. And who knows if our generation, maybe I'm a little older than you, we're we're a little bit younger now, and had these, you know, had this technology around, who knows how we would react to it as well. It's it's just it's where it is, and we need to figure out how to make the best of it.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, and I think that you could also argue that technology does open a certain level of community. You just have to be able to navigate it with um to figure out what's true and what's not, right? And that's a you know, packed conversation right there. But I I'm I'm sure that younger generations feel connected in a ways that maybe we don't understand and disconnected in ways that maybe they don't understand.

SPEAKER_00

That's right. That's right. You started as a biotech scientist, Tara. And now now your your background, and now that's your background. Now you're really into nutrition. Do they collide? Does it does it conflict?

SPEAKER_02

Um not at all, actually. So my my full story is when I I definitely was not born a nutritionist. I did not grow up as a healthy kid. I was, you know, Gen X, single parent, latch key kid, lived on fast food because it's what I liked and what was fast and convenient. Um, but I was born a scientist, I think. I actually I can send you a picture. My earliest memory of my Halloween costume was Louis Pasteur, um, which was a little ridiculous.

SPEAKER_00

But important nonetheless.

SPEAKER_02

Pasteurized milk, the whole method. I was a big fan. I was a big fan when I was, you know, I don't know, seven. Um and so, and so I loved science. I loved it in high school. And when I was when I was very young, my mom actually passed away um from heart disease. She was 36. And so I really what was baked into me and what I was longing for was to figure out health, right? And in my brain at that point, I figured if we can figure out genetics, I was really interested in gene therapy and things like that. I was like, if we can figure out the gene and fix it, problem solved. This is great. And so that's what brought me all the way through through college and into my first career in biotech. I was a bench scientist and a computer scientist. Um and what I found was a lot of the stuff we were working on were was more lifestyle. And personally, um, I started showing some warning signs for heart disease, you know, high cholesterol, high CRP. And my doctor said, You need to stay active and focus on your diet. And I said, Okay, what does that mean? And she said, I really don't know. And so um that started my journey of going back to school and figuring it out. So the value direction has always been the same. The methodology has changed slightly.

SPEAKER_00

I was I just removed to this location a couple of years ago. I had to get all new doctors, and I was so relieved when my general practitioner asked me what I ate. I was like, if this person doesn't ask me what I eat, I'm going to be so upset because it's just food is medicine. They they they need to know what we're putting in our body so they can know how to treat us. You know, it sounds so simple, right? But I as a child, we were never asked that. We were we we were just like, you know, you got a cold, take, you know, through this or whatever the issue is, but it's just it seems so simple. What does a bench scientist do in biotech? What should we know about that? What did paint the picture for me, Tara?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I just sort of threw that word out. Basically, so I worked for a lab where where if any sort of therapy is going through the FDA, right? They they have to go through an extraordinary amount of tests to make sure that it's safe, to make sure that it works. And so it's cheaper for companies to hire contract research labs to actually perform those tests. I see. And so the lab that I worked in um performed tests to see if there was any antibody reactions, which could be a good thing or a bad thing, um, and to see how long, if it was a a drug, it would stay in in someone's system. So that's what we kind of specialized in. But our clients would be probably names that that you recognize. I see. Um, you know, Pfizer, things like that.

SPEAKER_00

One can't wonder. I mean, out of, you know, I'm an ingredient reader and it, you know, it annoys everybody around me, but um, that's what I'm gonna do. But some of those things that they put in those ingredients, how did they pass? The things they're doing to us, like the dyes and and and things like that, they have to go through all this FDA that you're talking about, all this process. How did they go through knowing what they what we know now? When those tests were done, they weren't conclusive? Explain.

SPEAKER_02

So I think we're gonna we're talking about two different things. So I'm talking about um if like I'm talking about medicine, right? And so food is regulated quite differently than um pharmaceuticals are. I see. And so that was the area that that that I was in. Um food uh supplements would fall into that as well. The regulations are quite, quite different.

SPEAKER_00

And so you didn't last there long, you liked it, you didn't like it, but you just kind of learned was a learning experience? As a bench test?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, in some ways I I loved it. Like I said, it the value direction was to help people, right? And I I I was doing that. Um but I became passionate because I, you know, I went to my doctor and then I went back to school just for fun. I was young enough to think that that was still fun. Um and I I really became passionate. I found that I was really good at kind of taking these complex ideas and marrying it with with behaviors. Um and for a number of different reasons, I decided to to leave that industry and move into the nutrition industry. I mean, after I graduated from school and things like that.

SPEAKER_00

How come? Why go into nutrition?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I um because I went back and made such changes to my life and saw the changes, right? You know, I was able to sort of turn those warning signs of heart disease around. Um, it was the same excitement that that that I had originally for I mean, it's still science, right? Um, but a different methodology. It was also closer to the end to the patient, right? It was closer to the the result. I was very far away from any impact that the work I was doing was having. But now, day in, day out, I mean, typically on the other side of this camera is a seat and is a human being, right? And so typically I'm talking to people and I'm seeing the impact that it has on their lives, and just from a personal fulfillment standpoint, that is it lights me up.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you're closer, yeah. The impact is there. Well, so explain to me, Tara, what happens to the brain when somebody kind of falls into this all or nothing eating mindset?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think it's I think it's one of the most common things that that I see, right? I think that there's a a journey when we wanna, when, when we desire change. Um, either it's it feels positive, maybe it feels scary. I know your your personal journey probably had a combination of of that as well, where it's like, I gotta get to health, I gotta be there for my daughters, I gotta, you know, I gotta move forward. So we can grasp grasp at rules, right? Maybe someone we we think a lot of us think of nutrition as a a test to pass, right? So we we look for rules, we look for black and white way of thinking, we look for ease, right? Because as you know, behavior change can be quite complicated. Now, the downside of black and white way of thinking is we don't live in a vacuum, you know, we don't live, nutrition isn't like exercise that you do once a day and move on. It's a constant relationship that you have to manage day in and day out. And sometimes when we're looking at things black and white and we can't perfect it, we abandon it. And so people can vacillate from perfectionism to abandonment, and neither of those things really work. And so that's I mean, I shouldn't say that. Some people can can live in that world quite quite comfortably. The people I tend to work with struggle, right? They have a hard time, they they want to do a perfect job, but they have a trouble staying consistent. They typically say, I know what to do, I just don't do it. Or they do short sprints of perfection and then they're just exhausted and and and they fall. So my specialty is closing the gap between knowledge and behavior, closing the gap between, you know, I know what I want to do, and I'm actually doing it so people can sustain, so people can do this long term.

SPEAKER_00

So so be more specific. Is it they they they eat well all week, but then they have one cookie and then they're they feel they're they've failed. Is it something as minor as that, or is it something they just can't like explain what you mean specifically?

SPEAKER_02

You know, it depends on the person, but that is a great example, right? I think a lot of us don't really know what is enough, right? Right? Where where's the line of health? You know, does it have to be a hundred percent of the time? Sometimes we throw out these words like 80, 20, but even that, like what does that even mean? You know, that can be very confusing. And so we can want to do things so well because it's so important to us. And to your point, maybe we have a cookie, maybe we have an off day, maybe um we've been working all day and we're exhausted and our kids are sick and they only want to eat X, Y, and Z, and we just can't do it all. And so we think if we don't do it perfectly, we shouldn't do like what's the point? Does that make sense or does that feel unrelatable?

SPEAKER_00

No, it definitely feels relatable. But so I guess I guess it's all what we're talking about. So is does perfectionism sabotage uh why people eat healthy often?

SPEAKER_02

With with a lot of my clients, yeah, you know, and I don't want to speak for everyone, but most of the people I work, I mean, are high that I work with are high performers, and so they have this skill set of driving and perfecting and striving that has really served them very, very well, right? This is actually a beautiful personality trait in a lot of different ways, and so they take this skill set and they're like, excellent, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put it over here. Um, but it doesn't necessarily work, right? It's it's that that black and white way of thinking, I mean, for a short time they can feel like they're on track, but anything less of perfect, they abandon it altogether. Wow and change comes from consistency of action, full stop, right? And so if you can't stay consistent with something, then you're not gonna get to your destination. Make sense?

SPEAKER_00

So, how how do you work with somebody like that that's been that has taught themselves because they are where they are, because they've treated, you know, done things that way, but when it comes to nutrition, it's not the end of the world if you have a cookie. So, I mean, how do you uh how how do you work with somebody like that? Is it a mindset thing? You try to convince them it's not that bad.

SPEAKER_02

It's uh yeah, it's it's it's all well, it's a lot of different things. The first thing that we we figure out what specifically is going to move the needle for them. You know, the nutrition industry is a noisy industry industry, and there's a lot of information out there. And in my opinion, the most confusing part is most of it's true, it's just not relevant to you, right? So we're just absorbing all this information and people become almost paralyzed because you can't do it all all the time. So we figure out what's gonna work for them. So that's the nutrition science. Then we figure out how they're gonna do it, right? Because most people don't struggle because they don't understand that lean protein vegetables and healthy fats are good for them. They struggle because they don't understand how to do that within the context of their life, right? Maybe they're traveling all the time, maybe they're in airports and hotels, maybe they have young kids, old parents, you know, things that sort of complicate that. So we we figure out a realistic way to do it. And then to your point, we focus on mindset, right? So there's these thrill three pillars of nutrition science, eating behavior, and mindset that create stability. If you only have one or two, you can see short-term success, but it takes a lot of effort. The mental load is high, and that's usually what just exhausts people. But if you have that stability, it is like a three three-legged stool, right? Where you could sit there all day long.

SPEAKER_00

And do you have to have the discussion, Tara, about you know, taking the easy way out and going via pharmaceuticals or um, you know, how do you have that discussion?

SPEAKER_02

Are you talking specifically about like GLP ones?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Well, it depends on the on the individual. I mean, I've been doing this for 20 years, right? I've worked with thousands of individuals and then multi-thousands through group work. And not everyone is playing with the same deck, right? We all have different biology, and we can argue if it's um, you know, ultra processed food or diet culture or trauma, nervous system. I would say the answer is yes. But everyone has a different, different reality that that they are are coming with. And so um I have many clients on GLP. That are quite simply a lifesaver for them. What it's not is it's not a complete solution. It's a tool that goes into a complete solution, right? So that the clients that I have that thrive are the people that were doing literally all the things, right? If you saw the way they were living their lives, you would be probably very surprised. And there was a medical mechanism of action that wasn't quite working. And so a GLP one can help. In the same way as I've seen people that have made no changes, that have just added the GLP one and they haven't seen seen results. Right. And so it's not, I mean, it's it's a great form of science, but it is just part of a complete story. It's not the whole story.

SPEAKER_00

Are they made to be temporary or permanent? GLP1s.

SPEAKER_02

Oh my gosh, I think that's the the million-dollar question right now. Um again, I think it depends. You know, I think there's um a lot of misinformation out there about what it is and what it isn't. I think a lot of people feel that it's simply an appetite suppressant. And that that is part of it, right? Do not get me wrong. Um, if it is simply, if that's the only mechanism that's working with someone, then they're unless they can significantly change their behaviors, you you probably do have to be on it long term. If it is inflammation, um, some insulin resistance, things like that, those are things that typically can be resolved, right? And so in theory, you could taper off of it. I, my personal, and this is just a hypothesis kind of based on my experience, is you'll see people um probably staying on it, but putting a lot more time in between. I think you'll see doses going down. Um, and I think, and this is probably an unpopular point of view, but in my practice, the appetite suppressant part of it is the most inconvenient part. Interesting. Right? Because that's not like this isn't whoever eats the least wins, right? We have to make sure that we're getting enough nutrition into you. So usually I'm battling the appetite suppressing part, trying to get more food in it into someone. Wow. Um, and that's a different, I mean, we can certainly go into that if you want to, but but we'll see. I don't I don't know what the future is gonna hold for it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I I don't either. And there's like even a term now that people have in their face when they're I forget what it's called, when they're taking these because you're just you're just lowering your calories, right? You're you're not you're you still need to eat real food to be healthy. Is there a difference between losing weight and being healthy? Because there's a that fat skinny, right? That that that's talked about sometimes. It's a big big um big issue there, and and there's a mindset there that's got to be talked about.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah. I I think that um we make the assumption often that being in a smaller body equals healthy, and that's not necessarily true. Um and you know, health, gosh, health comes from what you are doing, what not what you're not doing, right? Nutrition is an addition problem, not always a subtraction problem. And right now, GLP1s are the most common, I guess, diet that's that's happening. And it's it's so universal that that it's it we we had this big data, but full disclosure, people have been doing crash diets for a really long time and slashing their their calories and not getting enough nutrition. And the exact same thing happens to that as it happens with with GLP1. So I think another misnomer is that GLP1s cause muscle loss, GLP1s cause all these things. No, not eating enough food and not exercising causes that, right? So you can do that with you know um a very low-calorie crash diet. You could do that with, you know, more of the traditional shake diets or or things like that. It's just GLP ones are so prominent right now.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, they sure are. You get you have this three-pillar framework, Tara, where it's you know, it's nutrition science, it's eating behavior and mindset. Which one is overlooked the most, do you think?

SPEAKER_02

Probably the eating behaviors, I would say. You know, I think a lot of times um the the nutrition science is probably the the most focused on, right? That's what everyone wants to talk about. And it's I'm a scientist, right? So I mean it's super fun to talk about. Um yeah, um, it's usually not the most important part. Um, I would say the eating behavior creates consistency, right? And I I know you talk a lot about systems, which I relate to a lot, because in my mind, like I help my clients build a a nutrition support system so they can they can stay consistent. And that would fall into the the eating behavior part. Um, and then the mindset, I mean, the mindset I think is just different for so many different people, right? I think a lot of times the mindset we think of as punitive driven, be better every day, like this, a lot of this very, and I'm I'm not against any of that mindset, but this very kind of aggressive pushing mindset, where for a lot of the people I work with, the biggest mindset that they need is a little bit of compassion, right? Is understanding where the line is. Like I said, what is enough, what they need to worry about, and what they can just let go. Um, and both of those things for the eating behaviors and mindset, that again is what creates consistency. That's what makes this a long-term solution.

SPEAKER_00

You say compassion for themselves. Yeah. Yeah. Lighten up, right? I mean, it's gonna be okay, you know. It just just um yeah, your body's gonna reward you. Yeah. It um yeah. Where do most nutrition programs fail, Tara?

SPEAKER_02

I think they're incomplete. Um, and so I don't, I just don't think they look at the whole picture. Um, and I think I think a lot of and I'll say like traditional diets, you know, take credit when people do well and blame them if they don't do well. And that to me is um do not get me wrong, people need personal responsibility. I'm I'm not implying that, but if if you're teaching someone something and they can't do it consistently within the context of your life, that's not the right solution for them, right? It's like buying a computer and it not working on the weekends. Like, well, no, that's unacceptable. I need this computer to work all the time, right? And so, um, like I said, I I think it a lot of nutrition programs lack flexibility or they have an incorrect definition. You know, one thing, um, let me take a step back. I, you know, in in my practice, we use the word uh, you know, instead of discipline, we use the word commitment, which I define as um not relying on desire in the moment to take action, right?

SPEAKER_00

So relying on desire in the moment to take action.

SPEAKER_02

And now the hard part with that is sometimes people can confuse commitment with being punitive, with being black and white, things like that. So you have to find that personal definition. Now, on top of that, you need compassion. And compassion is not losing the plot, right? Recognizing that that your nutrition is part of a big, beautiful life, and there's other things that are gonna kind of push and pull. Now, outside of that, or what we can confuse compassion with is justification or entitlement, right? I deserve this, I I get this, and that's not quite true either. And so I spend a lot of time with my clients figuring out what does that look like for them? You know, how do you stay committed and compassionate so we can create something that's that's sustainable and long term for you?

SPEAKER_00

Seems simple. Can do it, can people do it by themselves?

SPEAKER_02

I think so. I think so. I think that where um a practitioner can help is speed, right? You know, one I find what's that accountability as well? I think, yeah, I think keeping someone in something long enough to see the positive results is is a hundred percent true. But I also find that a lot of my clients are solving for the wrong problem, right? They're blaming the wrong thing. And what I mean by that is maybe they are um trying to use willpower to solve a systems problem, right? They're like, if I just try harder and push harder, it's like, no, you're you're actually eating the wrong thing. We have to figure that out first. Willpower isn't gonna get you out of that. Or they try and solve they try and solve a commitment or discipline problem with a new diet, like every five minutes, right? It's like, well, that's that's not gonna help you. You have to solve this first. And so I would say where a practitioner, any practitioner can help is identifying what the what the problem is and solving that, and then keeping them consistent until they see the positive results, right? Because you know, on the other side, the whole reason we do this is to feel as good as possible, right? And I think that that can be kind of lost. Um and so you just have to get to the point where it's starting to pay dividends, right? And then it and then it makes sense. Um, and so again, what a practitioner can potentially do if it's if it's the right fit, is take that learning curve that could potentially take this long and you know, compress that that timeline, right? So it's so it's not gonna take as long to get you to the other side of it.

SPEAKER_00

Tara, how does one reduce the mental load of constantly thinking about food?

SPEAKER_02

Well, I think that there's there's a couple things at play, you know. I think the um like food noise is having a moment right now. I think a lot of people like talking about it, and myself included, I I've talked about it with most of my clients in in the past week. Um, and there's two different components of it. First is biological. When we go too long without eating, or we have a diet that's too low in calories, right? Either intentionally I want to lose weight, or unintentionally, like I skipped lunch, um, or too low in nutrition, right? Maybe it's plenty of calories, but you're not getting the right nutrients, our stress hormones are released. Adrenaline is the main hormone. This is where hangry comes from, right? This is why people get so um angry when they get really, really hungry. Adrenaline's job is to force you to get sugar, either in the form of sweets or in the form of carbs or in the form of alcohol. So that mental consumption, it can feel like lack of self-control, it can feel like obsession, it can feel like addiction, actually. I think that's why um people will make some parallels. But this is actually this is a biology problem, right? This is you have to get enough nutrition into you. So that solves that that part of it. Then then there's the mindset, right? And I think that's a little bit more what we've talked about today. Um, and the solution for that is to simplify, right? Is to figure out what's going to move the needle, what you as an individual need to focus on, so so you can let the rest go. Right. Because all of that, you know, trying to do things perfect, trying to do it all, that's the part that can make it overwhelming, and that's the part that can make you feel like you're never doing enough. Um, and from my experience, that's usually what breaks people. It's not understanding, you know, that chicken breast has a lot of protein. It's usually that that is this enough um idea.

SPEAKER_00

Food addiction is a real thing, true or false?

SPEAKER_02

I think food can have addictive properties, but I don't think it's the same thing as addiction as as we know it. Meaning that rush that I was talking about.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Um, certain foods like ultra-processed foods will definitely light up our brain in a way that, you know, a really good strawberry will not. Um, so there are properties, but the actual I do believe that people are are more powerful than even the most sort of addictive food. Um so it's not exactly the same thing.

SPEAKER_00

What if discipline wasn't about punishment, but about unlocking your best self? I spent two and a half years writing discipline for greatness, because discipline changed my life. And I know it can change yours too. Inside you'll find real practical steps that you can use immediately to focus better, build stronger habits, or to stress, accomplish your goals, and bring more balance to your life. Whether you're trying to get healthier, improve your career, or simply feel more control. This book gives you the framework. Start today. Grab your copy of the token for greatness at jointpins.com slash book. Thank you. Well, and I don't know any other addiction that you still have to partake in. You still have to eat to live. These other addictions, if you're gambling or whatever drugs, just cut them out. But with food, you have to eat food.

unknown

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00

So that's why perhaps it should be in a different category. I'm not sure, but it that's a tough one to categorize and to deal with.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And I think, you know, it it does feel similar, right? That rush.

SPEAKER_01

The craving, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

The craving and then the arc, you know, the I have a craving, I relieve it, right? Where you have, let's say you're craving something, I don't know, um like fast food or something, right? You're you're having this big craving, you have it, there's a rush, and then there's a crash, right? And that crash, granted, that crash is typically shame, right? Because it's incongruent with behaviors, but typically that that craving is biology, like I was saying before. So you are physically hungry, you're just solving it with the wrong, with the wrong tool. Right. Um, or it is it's off limits, right? Scarcity is the most powerful psychological tool in the world, right? That's why advertising works. That's why, you know, I'm sure you've heard the story of the oh, what's it called? Um the McRib. Have you heard that's the story?

SPEAKER_00

No.

SPEAKER_02

McDonald's McRib. Well, it used to be a normal thing on their um menu. And then people just kind of stopped liking it. You know, it wasn't as popular, so they were like, okay, we're gonna take it off off of the menu. So then instead of completely taking it off, they only release it for a month, a month a year.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

So when people had access to it all the time, they're like, I'm not really into that. I I don't want it. Now it's only a month a year, and people lose their freaking minds. They're like lined up down the street to get to it. So scarcity is very, very powerful. Um, and that's where the you know, the idea of putting food off limits can get a little a little complicated in in in our brains.

SPEAKER_00

Is there a a a nutrition rule, Tara, that you ignore?

SPEAKER_02

Mmm, that's a good question. Um I don't know. What would be some examples of of well, I guess I would, and maybe this is not the direct answer to this, but in a little semantics, I think that we can oftentimes put food in good and bad categories. And I don't believe in good food and bad food, but I also do not believe that all food is is equal. Right. So instead of food having value, um, in my mind, food has properties, right? And so we we couldn't line up all food from, I don't know, kale being the best and Twinkies being the worst or something like that. But they certainly aren't the same thing, right? So some food is satiating, right? Protein is satiating, fiber is satiating. So if you're hungry, that's gonna kind of solve that problem. Some food is pleasurable, right? You know, let's not discount that sometimes we just want to feel good and we can use food as one of our tools. Um, some food is energizing, right? Some food has medicinal properties, to your point before. So I think that removing value from food, but adding properties is a way that I like to look at it.

SPEAKER_00

We mentioned this before, but you work with people that are highly successful, it would seem. They're these perfectionist type. Why do they fail more than the average person?

SPEAKER_02

Um, I think that they I don't know if they fail more, but I think they they take it harder. Right? I think that um they it is for uh most of the people I work with, they're very successful in every area. And then there's this one shameful thing that they just can't figure out. And it doesn't make any sense because it seems like we should all know how to do it. It seems like it should be easy, they follow all the rules, they they do all the things. So I would say that if they quote unquote fall off track or struggle with it, they take it more as a reflection of a personal flaw and something wrong with them rather than um it's not the right solution for for me.

SPEAKER_00

Is there a type of person that you won't work with?

SPEAKER_02

Um I would say, I mean, since so much of my work does, I mean, I we do talk, I know we're talking a lot of mindset today, but I do talk about science quite a bit, right? So um, but if if someone doesn't have the capacity to, or the desire, I shouldn't say capacity, um, the desire to understand how they're relating to food, if they're not willing to go into any of the mindset, then we're not gonna work well together. Or on the flip side, if they take zero personal responsibility, right? If it's everything's happening to them, I'm not the right fit for them, right? And so this is not not no knock on these people, but there's other practitioners that I think could probably serve them better than than me. Because, like I said, I'm in that I like working in that integration of personal responsibility and compassion, right? And how do we do both? And you have to have um a certain desire to to integrate those two.

SPEAKER_00

Do generally people come with you with a very large problem that you have to solve, or is this just kind of fine-tuning?

SPEAKER_02

Um, I would say that it feels very large to them. Um and that the solution's usually a lot simpler than they think. And so it's it's usually like I said, they're focusing on on the wrong thing. And once, you know, change takes time, without a doubt. But a shift in perspective or a paradigm shift is almost instantaneous, right? And if you can identify the problem and get that clip, all of a sudden, something that has been so heavy and so hard and felt like Mount Everest, they're like, oh, I get it. And then they just do it, right? The people I work with are not afraid of doing things, they're not afraid of hard work, they're just working against themselves.

SPEAKER_00

I know a big winner for me is once I started kind of documenting, you know, what I'm eating and what the categories are, the calories, the protein, et cetera, and what I'm putting in my body. When I first learned that a bagel was 330 calories, I couldn't stop talking about that for days, just with nothing, just nothing on it. And because we're, you know, 2,000, you know, 2,000 a day, and you know, it's just yeah, that just knowing what you're putting in your body makes all forget about the you know, enriched flour and bleach, forget about you know, all those poor things, but just the actual calorie level, just learning what that is makes all the difference in the in the world. Tara, is there a question you wished more people asked you?

SPEAKER_02

Um, I do wish that, you know, more people ask me. Well, are you are you talking about like someone that comes in into my office? Anything or just just in in general? Both. You know, it's it's interesting. I was saying before that that nutrition is an addition problem. And so um, but if I'm sitting on a plane and I tell someone what I do, no one ever asks me what I eat. People only ask me what I don't eat. So they're like, oh, so you're low carb, or oh, you're vegan, or oh, you're gluten free, or um the focus is always on what you don't. And um, it's very rare that someone asks me what I. Actually, do eat. Isn't that interesting?

SPEAKER_00

That is true, isn't it? Oh, so then you don't eat. Yeah, that's a yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I mean, don't get me wrong, we we talk about food for the full five-hour cross-country trip, but uh it's always what what nutrition isn't rather than than what it is. And I think that's a big um, and I I think that conversation is is shifting, you know. A lot of um, and it's probably because of age and stuff like that, but a lot of the demographic I'm working with right now is midlife women, right? And I think that in a beautiful way, um midlife women are recognizing that they need to be adding, right? They need to be adding protein, they need to be adding strength, they need to be adding muscle. Um, and that's been very different, you know. I think that for most of my my generation, it's whoever eats the least and runs the furthest wins, right? And so it's been very much a kind of punitive, beat it off of you kind of situation. And now, you know, to the what made me think of it was the bagel. When when a woman comes in and finds out how much protein is in the egg, they're like, What? That's it, or like a tablespoon of peanut butter, they're like, What is what is this silliness that no one has told me before? You know, and so long story short, it is um, I love the that the narrative is shifting to addition to you know, every time you eat, it's an opportunity to get nutrition into you, not an opportunity to like trick your body into eating as little as as possible.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Can you just just generally speak, just generalize the mindset of a mid-aged woman with a mid-aged man when you're working with them?

SPEAKER_01

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, very generalized. Um, I would say, like I said, most women come in with a very combative relationship. Really? Um with food or with you?

SPEAKER_00

With food.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, no, no, with with food.

SPEAKER_00

I see.

SPEAKER_02

Um, most women, you know, it's interesting that you said, and again, we're being very generalized, the idea of learning what's in a bagel.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

I've never met a woman that doesn't know every amount of calorie or everything that's in pretty much all food.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And so when they come in, in a lot of ways, it's unlearning, right? It's unlearning a lot of rules, it's unlearning a lot of history with food. Like even getting them to eat more can be very, very challenging. I would say when men come in, um, typically they've relied mostly on exercise, and nutrition has never been the thing that they needed to move the needle that much, or the thing that they were that interested in. Um, and for them, it is more learning what's in a bagel, what's in this, what's in that, because it's just something that hasn't been on top of mind for for the most part. Um, and I think that that's probably, I mean, it probably just goes back to being raised, you know. Most of the women I work with were brought to Weight Watchers when they were 10, you know, so they've they've known it for a long time. And very stereotypically, I think a lot of young men are are fed, right? Be bigger, be stronger, be faster, right? And so I think that kind of hangover throughout life um shows up when they come in 35 plus, 45 plus, 50 plus.

SPEAKER_00

Fascinating just the attitude towards towards. I have a very good friend and indulge me for a moment here, Tara, who's a mountaineer. And um, you know, they make these high climbs in the in the cold. And uh, when I ask her the difference between male and female, they have um poop bags, okay, because they can't do it because it's cold and they can't leave it there on the mountain because it'll it'll freeze and it'll it'll be do bad things. So they have to kind of carry these poop bags on the outside of their bag because it can't be in the inside because it might open. So you see 12, 15 mountaineers, and some men, some women, you see these poop bags on them. So when they come down, there's a place to deposit them, and the women kind of go off to the side and they slowly open the lid and they drop it in and they kind of run away. The men go over there and start weighing each other's bag and start high-fiving each other as to whose is the heaviest. So when I asked her the difference between men and women, this was her response. Yeah, specifically the weight. Yeah. Yeah, very, very, yeah, very different. Has there been something in the last month or so that you changed your mind on?

SPEAKER_02

Gosh, in the last month or so. Um, I would say in the last year, you know, it's it's interesting. Nutrition, I'll speak sp specifically about nutrition. Even though we're getting a lot of new information, there hasn't been a big paradigm shift in nutrition in in in quite some time. Really? Right? I mean, I I remember the first talk I gave 20 years ago, where I told people every time they eat, eat protein and fiber, right? And that was it was 20 years ago, right? And that's kind of the same thing that we're talking about now to a certain extent. So I don't think there's been a lot of um, I think the public's become more aware of it, but not a huge paradigm shift, except recently, muscle and how muscle, and I would this is, I mean, I would say it's become more prominent in my practice in the past year, but this has been around for a a number of years, the metabolic impact of of muscle, right? And how it soaks up sugars and how it works as kind of an engine for our body, um, specifically towards women as well, but obviously this goes for both men and women. And I I don't think that I have always I've always emphasized protein and I've emphasized exercise as from a quality of life, but now I feel much stronger about maintaining the not necessarily even the mass of muscle, but quality and functionality. Um and that has had that's changed in both the way I work with my clients now, the way that I treat my own body over this this past year.

SPEAKER_00

It is true. Muscle has been you know lifting heavy things and talking about that. And there's been a lot of well, we we hear a lot about new tru well just diet, it's what they're putting in. We have the administration is trying to cut out dyes, as I mentioned before, and and you know, things like that. I like I said, I'm a reader uh of ingredients, so you know, I hope more people are because we'll end up the the consumer will end up shifting the market, right? If we stop buying the ultra-processed stuff, they'll still won't make it as much. So uh just kind of just live with simple ingredients makes all this shift. But it's interesting that you were still 20 years ago, you were still talking to people about protein and fiber. That's fascinating. There's nothing new about that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, it's the um idea. I I remember in my literal first, you know, little baby nutritionist talk, you know, and and that, I mean, my philosophy, um, one common threat, I mean, my philosophy has changed throughout the years, but has been blood sugar stabilization on some level, right? Because that's a way to manage, you know, satiety, that's a way to cut down cravings, that's obviously a way to manage hormones, insulin, things like that. So that has definitely been a through line, which is why it started. But, you know, it's not new news, it's just louder news, which is wonderful. I'm not discounting that. I want I want all this news to be as as loud as possible. So so I think it's it's fantastic, but there hasn't been huge overhauls, um, like in in my opinion, except in the science of the real benefit of muscle. I think we're gonna see so much stuff about sarcopenia coming up, um, muscle quality, things like that. I think that's gonna be probably the biggest topic of conversation.

SPEAKER_00

Is AI helping nutrition?

SPEAKER_02

Um in some ways, I think it's fantastic, right? Like, let's go to the eating behavior part of it. I think that um when people are using AI to help meal plan, right? To help come up with grocery lists, to come up with like just sort of the annoying part of all this, um, I think that can be a huge help. Um, I think that inform like access to information can be beneficial depending on the person, or it can be overwhelming, right? And so information is only useful if it leads to positive behavior. And so if you, to your point, if you're like, oh my gosh, now I I know what's in a bagel, I'm gonna do something with it, that is a beautiful use of information.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

If a person gets that, you know, gets that information and now they don't know what to do, they're terrified of food, all they love bagels so much, and now they think they're a bad person because they're eating bagels, then that information isn't useful to them, right? And so it's not inherently good or bad, it's really what someone does with with that information. And that just has to do with their relationship with food, that has to do with their personality type, that has to do with the um person delivering the information. And so I feel like I went on a little bit of a tangent, but I'm a big fan of AI. So I think that it can do a lot of great things, but overwhelming information isn't always the best thing.

SPEAKER_00

I was eating a bagel every day and sometimes a muffin. And then when I did research and found out how I'm starting the day, already, you know, 40% of my calorie intake was shot. You know, that that's what made the that's what made the the difference for me. So I started my my business there back in the in the 90s and I was working way too hard and uh you know not paying attention to myself. I was in my 20s, I was indestructible, my goodness, right? So um I I wasn't exercising uh as much. I was developing all these poor eating habits. I get in front of the doctor and she tells me I'm at 340 pounds. So I knew I was getting big, but I didn't know I was that big. And uh I would just start to buy my clothes a little larger. And you know, your body's wonderful, it just adapts, you know. And so, but she says to me, if you don't lose this weight, you're not gonna see your daughter graduate. Of course, my my oldest was just born and it scared the life out of me. It didn't motivate me, it angered me, but eventually it motivated me. But you know, I'm driving home, uh, you know, punching the steering wheel. What have I done to my I can make these bad decisions with me, but it's my family now. So I spent the next six, seven months, lost about 120 pounds, and I kept it off. So you can't look at these things like finishing lines, right? A lot of people kind of break through the line and go back to old habits, these are lifelong changes. So when I tell people this, they always say, you say, What didn't you not eat before? They said, you know, what did you do? And I said, Well, just discipline people, just kind of routine, uh, you know, focus, motivation, and just discipline. When I mentioned discipline before, you mentioned it, you mentioned compassion and commitment. But how does discipline play a role in your life, Tara?

SPEAKER_02

Oh gosh, I think it plays a big role in in my life. Um, and this hopefully this isn't a roundabout way of saying this, but I I I spend a lot of time thinking about values in in my life, right? What's important to me, the direction that I want to go in, things along those lines. And to me, matching my behaviors with those values is how discipline shows up, right? Am I, you know, these are the things I believe in. Are my behaviors matching that? And the discipline is is a consistent check-in with that. And honestly, it it's fun. Like it feels good. I mean, sometimes I have to call myself out, but I do think, I mean, we talked about the the word discipline, which which I discipline as a concept is powerful. Discipline as a word can be triggering depending on the person, you know. And um, sometimes I think we can think of discipline as a punitive thing, but in that context, it's exciting for me. It feels really good to match my behaviors with with my values. And if I notice incongruence, sometimes it may mean that my values have changed, right? So I need to massage that. Other times it means that that my behaviors need to change.

SPEAKER_00

You did mention consistency and compassion before, because you say you don't use discipline in the office, because it can be triggering for some people, like you said.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Yeah, it depends on the person. I mean, the three words that we I typically use is I I will use discipline if if people like it, um, commitment, and then devotion.

SPEAKER_01

Devotion.

SPEAKER_02

And I think, you know, they all it really is. I mean, to kind of circle back, it's moving in the direction of what's important to you. And I think a lot of our frustration and suffering is when we want to be going this way, but our behaviors are leading us in in a different direction. And that huge gap, that's suffering, that's torture, that's loathing, all that kind of stuff. And so pulling that gap closer, which sometimes is is is pulling this side closer too, is pulling the you know, your ideal life closer to your actual execution, that I think is is really the point.

SPEAKER_00

I'm trying to figure out right now. You you're a scientist, you're a nutritionalist, um you work with people. I just do you how often, let me put it this way, how often do you ask your gut to come up with an answer? I'm trying this the science versus art. And I see you as a scientist, but I do see some art in you. You still like endurance running and you like cooking and you like uh, you know, some of these non-scientific well, they still can be scientific, but pursuits. So how often do you involve your gut in decision making?

SPEAKER_02

Mostly.

SPEAKER_00

Really? You start with it?

SPEAKER_02

I would I would, yeah, I would say that I'm, I mean, as a as a rule of thumb, you know, in my life, I do I'm having a conversation between my brain and my gut pretty much all the time, right? From your your inner knowledge um and your I guess your mental knowledge and and your body knowledge. I think that's a very consistent thing. With with my clients, I mean, when someone comes in, or if I'm with them on Zoom, you're looking, or I'm looking at them as a whole person from the get-go, right? What language are they using? What um how are they carrying themselves? What are they, what's making them emotional, what's making them excited? Because that's going to dictate the direction that that I go in. That's gonna dictate our starting point. Um, and so to your point, I think that a lot of it is isn't art. You know, when I first started as a scientist, I want this, I wanted this all to be numbers. Right. I was like, my goodness, if I can just figure out the solution and give it to the people, everyone's gonna do it, right? And what I've learned throughout the years is that, you know, nutrition is a science, but eating is a behavior. And that dance is is one of the most important dances where where you can't you can't ignore either or it's gonna be an incomplete solution.

SPEAKER_00

What do you what's the largest obstacle you've seen from people failing at nutrition and health?

SPEAKER_02

I would say I think it's two. I think one is speed, right? I think that we have a um maybe incorrect idea of how fast change should happen. Um and I think that the other one, and your mountaineering uh friend made me think not the poop part, but the mountaineering friend made me think of it. We think that the um the goal is the end, but the goal is the halfway point, right? Right. And what tied back to the mountaineer is I mountaineer as well. And the summit is not the point. The summit, you're halfway there, and in all honesty, the way down is the hardest part because it's not exciting, you're exhausted, you're sloppy, you know, not to be morbid, but that's where a lot of people die is on the way down. That's where a lot of people get hurt is on the way down because you have you have this like adrenaline and excitement on the way up, right? It's fun. You're like, and then you see the top and you're like, I did it, this is the best thing ever. And then you're like, oh my gosh, I have to go all the way down. And I I think that um with nutrition, we get so focused on the goal, which is important, that we don't think what we're gonna do after that. And that's why we end up succeeding, failing, succeeding, failing, succeeding, failing, because we just we we haven't thought far enough ahead.

SPEAKER_00

I saw I had the great pleasure of uh seeing Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to summit uh Everest at a this is years ago at a Microsoft event, and somebody asked a question that said, Well, there's a you know rumor that somebody actually summited before you, and he said, Well, getting down counts just as much, right?

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00

So maybe they have, but they they didn't get down, right? Yeah, oh no.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, yeah, that's I mean, I feel bad for that person, but that's a great that's a great way of saying it. And I think, you know, when it comes to success with health in general, it's not who loses the most weight. I mean, I think you can have people who have lost 20 pounds a hundred times in in their life, right? And that it's doing it consistently, right? And I would say doing it in a way that is congruent with with with your life, right? You can, you know, my personal definition of health, and this does not have to be anyone else else's death definition, but my personal definition is I never want the way that I care for my body or my mind to be a limiting factor in the life that I want to live. Okay. So what that means to me from a pure physical health standpoint is I always want to be kind of adventure ready, right? I want to be, if I'm in Europe, be able to go and walk and see things and not be too tired. I want to be, if someone invites me out, I want to feel comfortable in my skin and not feel, I don't know, frumpy and embarrassed. Um, it also means that I want to have the flexibility that if I'm, you know, with, you know, my friend's kids and we're baking cookies, that I can do it with them and taste it and be joyful and fun, that I'm not going to be so, so, so rigid. And so how that goes back to what we were just saying is I I think that oftentimes we can achieve something in a vacuum, but it's incongruent with the rest of our life. And sometimes to make big changes, you have to do that, right? Like I would imagine, and I would I'd be curious, but with your weight loss, that's a significant weight loss in a short period of time. So you probably overhauled a lot of different things. And then there may have been some like, how do I massage this to be sustainable afterwards? I don't know. I'm I I would love to hear your your your experience with that, but it needs to be flexible enough to fit into a big, beautiful life.

SPEAKER_00

That's right, it's sustainable, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I think I've dedicated my life to to nutrition and I have no chance, no plans of changing. I think it is important. It is also not the point, right? A fulfilling life is the point. And so if the way that you're treating your your nutrition is an obstacle, that becomes an issue. And that can look like avoidance, right? I'm treating my I'm not taking care of my body, I'm 340 pounds, it's gonna prevent me from being there for my children. It could also be I am afraid to, you know, go to restaurants, or I'm afraid to go to my friend's house to eat because I don't know what food's gonna be there, or that that's a limiting factor as well, right? And so, um, like I said, it's a beautiful tool. I think it's one of the most important tools, but your life is the point, right? This is this is a support system for that.

SPEAKER_00

The the simple fact of subtracting all sodas and sugary drinks with water is just that that shift alone is is you know it's very easy to do. You know, ice water is so refreshing. I mean, I just I I don't it can't get any simpler than that. I just love I just I could drink it all the time. It's just a simple shift, and that everything really follows after that. What motivates you, Tara?

SPEAKER_02

Um what motivates me with my work is the people that I work with um primarily, they are oh my gosh, they're the most extraordinary people. They are literally holding up the world. They are our CEOs, they are our mothers, they are the like person in our friend group that plans everything, right? They are doing so much, and they're doing this all the while. About 30% of their brain is consumed with should I be eating that? Should I be eating this? I need to lose weight, I need to be healthier, I need to do this. So it's almost paralyzed, right? And so my goal, the why, the reason I come into the office every single day is I want to free up that 30% because I cannot even imagine the world that we would live in if these people were functioning at 100%. I I mean, all problems solved, right? Because these are, like I said, the literal most extraordinary people on the planet.

SPEAKER_00

So your impact to help them drives you. So they can solve more and help others and help themselves.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. To give them, you know, freedom to a certain extent. I think that a lot of them are in a little bit of a a prison of like I said, of this constant narrative of what they should be doing versus what they are doing. And I think that it's um it's noisy, you know, it's almost like living a life with someone talking in your ear all the time. Like, yeah, you can function, but man, that's annoying. Right? Imagine if that went away, how how much you could focus. So so having extraordinary people at full capacity um living, you know, as healthy as possible, living in congruence with who they really are. That's that's my my motivating factor.

SPEAKER_00

So given that motivation of, like you say, living in congruence, impacting these high performers, how do you measure success?

SPEAKER_02

I measure success. I mean, I can I can tell you, I've gotten a couple emails in the past week of I sent out a newsletter, so I'll get like every once in a while someone will write back that I haven't talked to in in a while. Um, and when they say I didn't even know it could be this good, that's what I'm excited about. And I think there's a lot of assumptions of what people typically mean by that. And usually, yes, outwardly they are living a healthy lifestyle, but inwardly they're they're no longer it's not a struggle anymore. It's not a battle, it's not white knuckling. And they've been living prior to that, they've been living most of their lives doing that. And so I truly, I mean, yes, I do the quantifiable. If you come into my office, I'll measure your metabolism, I'll do your body fat, right? All of that kind of stuff. But the qualitative, that's I think the the true change, right? The increase in quality of life, the increase of um the quieting of that food noise. That's that's where I I believe true success is.

SPEAKER_00

Do you call or consider yourself a coach?

SPEAKER_02

I don't, I mean, I don't call myself a coach, um but I probably am. Right? I think that um, you know, I think that there was there was always kind of a division of of CNs and RDs versus health coaches.

SPEAKER_00

I'm sorry, CNs and RDs.

SPEAKER_02

I don't know what that's so the uh a registered dietitian is an RD, a clinical nutritionist, and then there's more health coaches. Um I'm trying to think of other names. There's always been like a little bit of a I don't know, different grouping, but I think a lot of what I do actually is coaching, and I think I've warmed up to the the idea of that. You know, there is a lot of science and there's a lot of that, you know, in what I'm talking about, what I do every single day. But the getting people through it, that's really the most important part. And I and to your point, that is more coaching.

SPEAKER_00

What's the difference between a coach and a therapist?

SPEAKER_02

Oh gosh, I don't know what the technical technical, I mean I would assume the technical is education.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

Right. So a therapist would have to be um I I they would have to have a undergrad and then a graduate degree and then you know, potentially a a doctorate, whether they are uh you know, a social worker or whether they are a a doctor. Um coaches typically from and I'm not so I don't know exactly, but there's different coaching programs where they go through um maybe a certification program or something like that that teaches them skills, right? They they are qualified, um, but it's it's not as traditional, I don't think, as far as as education.

SPEAKER_00

I heard one person say, don't know if this is true or not. Therapists look back, coaches look forward. I bet a coach said that. Maybe, because a therapist would disagree.

SPEAKER_02

Maybe I don't remember who said I have no idea. I have no idea. But there's I I think that there's benefits to both. And um, you know, it like I I came from a pretty traditional initial education, right? Where I was, you know, like I said, in science, in pharma, things like that. And my my clinical nutritional education was a more integrative, a little uh more holistic and things like that. So I love the fact that I can kind of bring both of those together because there's importance in both of them.

SPEAKER_00

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SPEAKER_02

Um, well, they can go to my website, which is just my name, so terracoleman.com, or pretty much all social media. I'm Nutrition Tara. I would say Instagram's where I spend most of my time, but I'm everywhere.

SPEAKER_00

You've got great Instagram posts, lovely. Uh T-A-R-A, of course, Tara Nutrition Tara, and Tara Coleman.com. I so appreciate your time. Thank you so much. Next time I'm in the general San Diego, Southern California area. Perhaps we'll get a cup of tea.

SPEAKER_02

I would love it. And you're in you're in Tampa? Is it? I'm in Tampa now, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

As we speak. But you in New York, probably. I'm originally from, yeah, as you can tell. I'm originally from the Northeast, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

Me too. So I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. Couldn't stand the winters. Kind of like you, I'm going to assume.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02

All right, it was great meeting you.

SPEAKER_00

Be well.

SPEAKER_02

Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for listening and/or viewing Joey Pins Discipline Conversations. Please share this episode with one or two of your friends who you think may benefit from the episode. Our website, www.joeepins.com. There you find lots of resources, and you could join our mailing list. Please follow us on all our social media, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Podcast information, the video version of our podcast is on YouTube. Please subscribe. Audio is on all major podcasting platforms. Please follow them. And if you like it, please consider giving five star rating. Would really appreciate that. Thank you again for listening or watching Joey Pinn's Discipline Conversations.