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Modern Body Xperiment
The Modern Body Xperiment is your ultimate guide to optimizing health through exercise, diet, and sleep. We explore both time-tested wisdom and the latest cutting-edge techniques to help you achieve peak performance and vitality - naturally. From holistic nutrition and movement science to biohacking and innovative wellness treatments, we dive deep into what truly works for mind and body. Whether you’re looking to improve recovery, enhance longevity, or simply feel your best, we bring you expert insights and real-world strategies. Tune in on your favorite podcast platform and subscribe to our YouTube channel for in-depth discussions, interviews, and actionable health tips. Your body is an Xperiment, let’s optimize it together!
Modern Body Xperiment
The Wellness Journey: The Impact of Dietary Choices on Health
Diet, it's a word we've all heard and a topic we've all contemplated. But have you ever considered the significant impact your diet has on your overall health and wellness? That's what we're diving into in today's episode of Wheel of Wellness. We're talking about the ketogenic diet, a high fat, low carb diet designed to put your body into a state of ketosis. And guess what? It's not just about losing weight. It’s about increased insulin sensitivity, improved type 2 diabetes, and even resistance to insulin. But remember, what works for one may not work for all. We each have unique bodies with unique needs.
But wait, there's more. We're not stopping at the ketogenic diet. We're also exploring other dietary plans, like the Carnivore diet. Could it be the key to weight loss, improved digestion, and allergy elimination? Or could it lead to potential nutritional deficiencies and impact your lipid panels? Well, we're here to provide you with all the insights you need to make an informed decision. We're also talking about the challenges of sticking to a diet plan, especially when you're out socializing. How can you keep those cravings at bay?
And lastly, we've all heard about the standard American diet and the role it plays in our health crisis. We're exploring this topic, discussing the vegetarian diet and the importance of nutrients like protein, iron, and vitamin B12. It’s not just about what you eat, but also how you eat. It's about turning your diet into a lifestyle, finding what works for you. But remember, always consult a health professional before making any drastic changes. We're here to guide you, but your body, your responsibility. So, tune in, and let's take the wheel of wellness together.
Thank you for joining the Wheel of Wellness podcast, where we explore taking control of your own health. I'm Dan, and joining me is my wife, jenny.
Speaker 2:In this podcast we will share the areas of our lives that we can control to maximize our health and extend our lifespan and, more importantly, our health span.
Speaker 1:We will cover how we decide to be fully involved in our own health. We will look at our past and the challenges that we overcame, the mistakes we made, the successes that we experienced and continue to experience.
Speaker 2:We will also share the ways we will try to enhance our future selves. We want to share our experiences with you in becoming fully engaged and improving our health.
Speaker 1:We obviously are doctors, so we took and continue to take our doctors advice. We recommend that you do this as well.
Speaker 2:We also research reliable, expert information and use our own experience and intuition to make the best decisions we can to improve our self, health and vitality.
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Speaker 1:Don't forget to subscribe and join us in being fully involved in your self, health and vitality. Hey guys, we're back, jenny. Here it's Dan. We're happy to be back. You know, obviously we're going on this path, this journey, with you guys. We've talked about our own introductions last week.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we talked a little bit about physical dimension of the wheel and we're going to go in today a little bit with the dietary side of that for nutrition.
Speaker 1:Yeah, last week we went over a lot of the symptoms, a lot of the things that was going wrong with this. This week we're going to be looking at the diet part of the physical dimension of the wheel of wellness and how it affected us and the different things we tried, the things that we were able to get some wins from, and some things. We got some not so much of a win from.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we did have quite a few things that went a little sideways with the diet, but I think we've got a good grasp on the different. And again, everybody is different right, Everybody's different. So you may or may not feel the same way as we did when we tried these diets.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, and you know, in reality everybody is different at different points in time. You know I might be eating a specific way because I'm planning to either be in a performance mindset. You know I might be increasing my carbs or certain macro because I want to be in a performance mindset, to where my physicality and I have to run a mile in so many minutes, and I might be eating in a certain way when I want to go ahead and cut body fat. There's different ways to be eating, even individually, for that person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we're going to go through a couple of the main things that we've tried, the different diets that we've tried, and again, if you look at it, I think we've gotten to a point now because I know I was lost for a while. You know, I started off with keto and it was great. I lost a lot of weight.
Speaker 1:Well, well, we started off with a standard American diet. Well, yeah, but that's when we weren't doing so hot.
Speaker 2:So when we started, when I finally decided I've had enough because the doctors put me on insulin and was trying to give me more insulin and I'm like, no, this isn't going to be me. So when and started the ketogenic diet, started working out and lost 50 pounds doing it, and it was great. But then, as we get into it, you'll find out that when you make some changes, things, can you know, come to a stall.
Speaker 1:What would? That being said, what is the ketogenic diet?
Speaker 2:So the ketogenic diet is a high fat, low carb diet. It is designed to shift the body into a state of ketosis, so what that means is your body will go from burning the carbs sugars they'll go from burning carbohydrates for fuel to basically burning your fat, your glycogen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it goes from that to burning your fat cells. So if you're burning your fat cells for energy, so this diet, in order to get there, your diet, is a restrictive diet for carbs, obviously, so about five to 10% of the daily caloric intake will be carbs, and then the rest of the calories come from fats and a moderate amount of protein.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the moderate amount of protein. You need protein to be able to sustain muscle. And with a ketogenic diet, there's people that they live by the mantra that you can do dirty keto. That means you eat any kind of weird bad fat there is. But truly a clean ketogenic diet is you're eating good fats, You're not you're avocado nuts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's whole foods. Right, you eat the whole foods. You don't eat the greasy McDonald's hamburger patties and do 10 of them at lunch. I mean, that's not what we're talking about, that's not that bad of a meal, but yeah, but that's not exactly what we're we're leaning here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know the benefits of the ketogenic diet is. You know it encourages the body to burn stored fat for energy. For you, specifically, it improved insulin sensitivity. You know it helped with your type two diabetes and your insulin resistance.
Speaker 2:Yes, it really. I mean, this diet saved me. It really did this way of eating. I don't really want to call it a diet because I still will get to this, but I still have some form of this in my life today. You know, with the low carbs I feel it actually made me kind of look at carbs as being evil and not all carbs are evil and it's not evil for everyone, but for my body. My body does not like them.
Speaker 1:You know you need a certain amount to live, but in this day and age, people try and not people. Dietary advice is you're going to pump up a lot of carbs. And that's just not good, especially for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's not good for any diabetic or anyone that's really trying to feel better and not sluggish and be able to try to lose some weight.
Speaker 1:That's one of the things. As far as the carb aspect of it, that's one of the difficult things for people when they do a ketogenic diet. They're so basically addicted to carbs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so some of the benefits of ketosis also? Are you touched on the insulin sensitivity? Which is great, but also it enhanced your mental clarity. Some individuals report improved focus and mental clarity, which I. At first it didn't feel that way for me, but later on it did you kind of get the keto flu when you go into it? Yes, which that you know. Not everybody gets that, but some people do. I know the first round of doing it I did, but now I don't really feel that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, I mean, you're in a more of a sustained keto. Well, yeah, we can get into that. The next thing that we were looking at for me specifically kind of a really ketogenic diet on steroids would be the carnivore diet.
Speaker 2:Yes, this did not work well for me when I first tried. At least in my mind it didn't, but for you it was good.
Speaker 1:For me it was awesome. All those things that you get with a ketogenic diet when you lose body fat, when you gain mental clarity, when you get the energy, when it just becomes focused like a razor's edge for me it was great. It was very easy.
Speaker 2:And it helped your joints, like you were. Your knees were feeling so much better. It just it did a lot of good things, but it did do one thing that made you kind of take a step back from it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my lipid panel kind of jumped, it went crazy. And my doctors they did not like the results of my carnivore diet. Yeah, you know my carnivore diet had to do with a lot of red meat, had to do with eggs, had to do with dairy. Carnivore diet is animal protein animal product. It excludes all plant-based foods no fruits, no grains. Now there's different people that advocate for the carnivore diet, to where you can include fruit. If you look at it, carnivore is not fruit-eating. But anyways, that's for a different time.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think some people look at it like caveman days, right, hunters and gatherers. They look at the carnivore diet and that kind of light which is a great light to have. I mean it's all whole foods.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:So it does work for some people.
Speaker 1:It's a great thing. The potential for weight loss is outstanding because you remove all the carbs from your diet and it's so simple. I mean, is it an animal Right?
Speaker 2:and not only that, but it actually can help some serious digestive issues as well. It can help eliminate like like elimination diet to be able to find a few allergic to something.
Speaker 1:Jordan Peterson, michaela Peterson Look at Michaela Peterson, look at her story. It's a wonderful tale of recovery and being able to have longevity by going by this diet. Now, like I said, the drawback for me was a lipid panel. I still try and I do more of a ketovore, which that's a very, very slim way of eating. You know, if you have the standard American diet you have keto. The 1% between that is kind of like the ketovore diet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, focus more on the good fats and not so much on the bad.
Speaker 1:Some of the drawbacks of this can be a lack of fiber in your diet. I did not find that. I know Joe Rogan. He had talked about doing it and when he first got on the cornivore diet he had explosive diarrhea.
Speaker 2:He had a hard time holding things together.
Speaker 1:So the lack of fiber can cause some issues for some people.
Speaker 2:But then I had the opposite effects. It made me constipated.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's some claims of nutritional deficiencies, but if you look at people like Dr Sean Baker, they've been doing this for years, close to decades and they're just as healthy as a horse. You can also look at it in a way of there's a moral. In some people's eyes. There's a moral quandary, because they want to go ahead and sustain animal life and they have the leanings toward it's cruelty towards animals.
Speaker 2:And I can respect that.
Speaker 1:If that's the reason that you have that feeling, rather than just some type of political stance, I have no problem having that discussion. And I respect people's ability to have that viewpoint.
Speaker 2:Absolutely do so. He talked about some of the drawbacks and controversies with that. The other diet, too, is just low carb. You don't necessarily have to go full, keto or carnivore, just reduce the amount of carbs you're eating.
Speaker 1:That for us? Yeah, it allows more flexibility than either being on full blown keto or on carnivore. For me, this is kind of like a wheelhouse. This is a holding pattern for us. If I'm in a place to where I'm not quite focused on keto and I'm not quite focused on carnivore, low carb is easy for me to be at and this is where I spend some time and I feel safe there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think you get, as long as you keep it. Whole foods, that's the thing. Get the processed foods out of your diet. It's regardless of what diet you're doing or how you're eating. Process foods are the problem in most people's lives.
Speaker 1:That's where you run into issues, because when you run just a low carb lifestyle, rather than you're being strict with carnivore or ketogenic diet, you're thinking I'm low carb. You're like, well, maybe I can have those chips, maybe I can have those tortillas, I can have a little bit of salsa with them. Because I'm just doing low carb, I won't eat this, so I can go ahead and save up for that. And it kind of leans into you eating more processed foods and it expands from a low carb diet to a moderate carb diet. You just end up being on that slippery slope back to a standard American diet.
Speaker 2:Not only that, but the carbs will start making you Like I know for me, when I did keto strictly, my sugar cravings and all the carb cravings one in chips, things like that candy went away. It took a minute, it was hard in the beginning but it went away. And I noticed, like when I you know, we'd go for social hanging out or something like that, it made it a little more difficult. So I would eat something that was a little bit more carby and guess what? I started getting my cravings back just that quickly.
Speaker 1:And it's kind of awkward as well, like you hit the nail on the head with that. When you go out to eat or you're with friends at a party, it's almost you're not ashamed of what you're doing, but it gets really. It's tiring. For the 30th time that you're just playing, yes, you're explaining to somebody I'm eating low carb or I'm eating keto. So no, I cannot have that piece of cake. No, I cannot have it.
Speaker 2:Or you're looking at that cake and saying, oh damn, I want that cake, yeah, and you, what's a little bite. I'm used to that, though being gluten free because of I have to be and I understand like having to explain yourself or where do you want to eat? Well, let me think about what has gluten free. So it's hard. Socially, it can be difficult.
Speaker 1:So going into the next thing is something that you ventured off into. I am just not I am not this person whatsoever.
Speaker 2:He made so much fun of me for doing this.
Speaker 1:You turned into a rabbit for a while.
Speaker 2:So I actually felt really good when I first started it.
Speaker 1:What was it that you?
Speaker 2:started the vegetarian diet. Wow, I didn't go vegan. I couldn't do it. I love dairy too much, so I didn't go vegan. But I did do the vegetarian diet and when I first started it I felt wonderful. I even did and anybody who wants to try this diet and you think it would work for you Splendid Spoon, I did that and it was delicious.
Speaker 1:Oh, they made the best yeah.
Speaker 2:All you got to do is pop it in a microwave. It's great, and they use all organic and they don't put all those preservatives in it Earlier.
Speaker 1:you made the distinction. You did vegetarian, but you didn't do vegan. What was the difference between that? Ok, what is the vegetarian diet?
Speaker 2:So the vegetarian diet? It eliminates meat, but it includes plant based foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, any dairy or plant based alternatives.
Speaker 1:Dairy is obviously milk.
Speaker 2:It comes from a cow.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Cheese, butter, things like that Milk does not come from an almond?
Speaker 1:No, it doesn't.
Speaker 2:Although I have nothing against almond milk. No no no, it doesn't. So those things obviously are made from animals and I will tell you, I ventured often to a little bit of pescatarian as well. So I did the vegetarian and added fish, and that's when I really felt good is when I added that in Once I add a little more fish to it and of course, eggs, because obviously you know, vegans don't eat eggs either. So that's something that was big in the diet as well. Some vegetarians won't eat eggs either.
Speaker 2:So it's more like a lacto-ovo vegetarian.
Speaker 1:OK, that's. I thought corner or quita vor was a very slim line Lacto-ovo super transformer Vegetarian.
Speaker 2:I mean, there's so many ways you can do it, so let me be clear I respect everybody's choice of eating, and that's fine.
Speaker 1:I have no problems with that. You do you? I respect that, respect the way that I eat. I'm fine with that.
Speaker 2:I just love. I love vegetables and probably more than fruit really. But you know, on keto, we could only eat certain vegetables because you can't eat the low glycemic vegetables. Right, you have to be very careful with that. So I just kind of went hog wild with it and I did lose weight at first, but then I started gaining weight because of too many carbs and my sugar started going up.
Speaker 1:Your energy levels were dipping too.
Speaker 2:When you first did it.
Speaker 2:It was like a novel thing and you were feeling good, but once it settled in it was like yeah, about six weeks in, I started, my hair started coming out. I remember that about eight weeks, I was just exhausted. I felt like I had no energy and I'm like you know this, this isn't for me. I need some sort of protein, because I really struggled getting enough protein. You, it's hard to get enough protein and you know what. I commend any vegetarian out there that gets enough protein, because I couldn't do it.
Speaker 1:The values for vegetarian protein from plant based sources is no disrespect, but it's lower quality than from animal based sources.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean it's more it's difficult.
Speaker 1:It's more difficult to get your protein.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean there's quality to it, but it's not as intense, not dense. It's not dense, I guess would be the right word.
Speaker 1:So, but I can't. I'm just got to. I have to touch base on this real quick. I remember when you were in the throes of loving the vegetarian diet and my wife wants to take me to a restaurant for lunch. I'm like this is cool, we're gonna go try a new place, this is gonna be awesome. You know, she's telling me about how great it is and everything we get there. There's not. There's. There's no meat in the place. They don't even use leather for the menu covers. There's nothing, it's just plants and plants and plants.
Speaker 2:It was good, though you thought it was good. You thought it was good, it was wonderful. Okay, I don't have anything against people that like vegetarian. The only thing that I can say and I would be fine the rest of my life doing a vegetarian or pescetarian pescetarian probably more but the problem with it is just I don't. I'm not able to get enough protein to make my body feel good.
Speaker 1:There are. There are great benefits of a vegetarian diet. It's great for your heart, it's hard healthy. You do have some form of weight management Once you can find your balance, your state of balance and the type of vegetables that you're eating. That has good fiber, but the drawbacks is just what you're saying. You know the nutrient awareness. You have to pay attention to your protein. You have to pay attention to your iron, your vitamin intake, your vitamin.
Speaker 2:B12. That's huge. I ended up on vitamin B12 supplements. I mean, I guess it's a good lesson to talk to a nutritionist, talk to your doctor. Don't just jump into a diet thinking you know what you're doing, because I sure didn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I thought I did, oh, just vegetables and, you know, maybe some fish. Yeah, that wasn't enough to sustain me.
Speaker 1:No, the. I think about the time that we you had the primary diagnosis for celiacs and they said hey, we're going to let you talk to this person. So we went to the dietitian. The dietitian was of no help whatsoever.
Speaker 2:None. You have to find somebody who's really good, because basically, they showed me a couple of labels and said look, there's 50 different words for gluten. So here are the words, pay attention to it and good luck. That was pretty much it Like okay, this is not what I signed up for and I kept thinking nowadays, thank goodness and you still have to check, because not all grocery stores are good at this either. They'll put GF labels on everything, on the price tag on the shelves, but sometimes it's not.
Speaker 2:But, for the most part, they do a decent job. They do it, they do it.
Speaker 1:They do this little tricky thing, same thing they do with keto products. Will say it's keto friendly or it's gluten friendly, which means they reduced it. It's not certified. Don't do it.
Speaker 2:Because there's so many things out there. Now they jumping on the keto wagon and trying to get everybody's money and it's not necessarily legit.
Speaker 1:The thing is also I mean, you hit the nail on the head of earlier, just very recently you have to take personal responsibility, whereas you can get advice and you can get guidance. You can get advice and guidance from people that helps you out. Yes, getting guidance from people helps, but it's your responsibility, it's your health. You need to do your research and then, once you get the nutritionist or the dietitian or the doctor that's on board with it, you need to do, go ahead and take, take that to heart and protect that and go forth and prosper with it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I will say this I've been diagnosed with a lot of dietary restrictions and digestive issues, and you name it right. So I basically go and get colonoscopies every three years and an endoscope about every year two years at the most just to check on my lymphocytes and things that's going on in my gut. So I have a lot of gut health issues. But if you don't take control over it, it will take control over you.
Speaker 1:You have to guard yourself. It's your health, absolutely.
Speaker 2:You do so vegetarian. I guess good for some, maybe not good for others.
Speaker 1:And that's the same thing. Like we were talking about, there's different seasons that it might be good for you. There's seasons that might be bad for you. It might be beneficial. It might not be beneficial at all for you. I don't think it'd be beneficial at all for me. The thing is, you have seen the different diets that we've been through here. The one diet that you need to stay away from is the standard American diet.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's why we have so many obese and people in the our culture because that's what you know. They tell us that's the way you want to eat. Is the food pyramid. The food pyramid changes so much, trust me, is just not legitimate. It might be good for some people, but I haven't really come across anyone that I was good for.
Speaker 1:No, no, I do research, consult your medical professional, come up with a plan for you. Here's some of the things we've tried the keto, ketogenic diet, carnivore diet, low carb diet, vegetarian diet. Did you hear Jenny say the pescatarian vegetarian diet?
Speaker 2:Lactoobo vegetarian.
Speaker 1:Transform your diet, but the one thing is you have to turn your diet into a lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so technically you just got to take the word diet out of it because you just need to. That's the way you need to eat to survive.
Speaker 1:And that's what it's all about, and that's that enhances your wellness in the physical aspects of things.
Speaker 2:Now there's different aspects of the physical spoke and the wheel of wellness we're going to be going over exercise probably next and that one's going to be fun, because I've learned so much and I also learned I probably need to trust my husband a little bit more with this.
Speaker 1:There's things I need to trust you with.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:But not a vegetarian restaurant.
Speaker 2:Maybe not. Hey, it was good. It was good If you're a vegetarian you would like it.
Speaker 1:You enjoyed it. I'll say that you enjoyed it.
Speaker 2:You were smiling and grinning ear to ear.
Speaker 1:Your smile was ear to ear.
Speaker 2:As you were over your food, looking just like it was a rancid, I was trying to find the meat. Anyway, folks, next time we will definitely dig into exercises and what kind of works for me. You?
Speaker 1:and the different things we tried, the things that might work for you. There's just like with diets are very individualized. There's different types of exercise. That's very individualized for each season of your life. It might be walking, it might be sprinting, it might be hiking, it might be skiing, it might be yoga, it might be strength training, it might be weight training, it might be body plyometrics. It's there's so many different things, but we're going to go over the things that work for us and do a little review of all the different types.
Speaker 2:Yes, and anyone can exercise no matter the age or your capabilities. There's always something for everyone.
Speaker 1:That's true. Well, guys, we appreciate it. Once again, I just want to make sure that we go ahead and make sure that you guys know that we are not medical professionals, that this is our experiences. These are the things that we've done. As you've heard us say throughout the show, please consult your medical professional. Come up. Yes, your health is your responsibility. You have to have the plan, but you also have to take the advice of your doctors.
Speaker 2:Yes, we are not medical professionals whatsoever.
Speaker 1:So, guys, thank you for your time. It's very valuable. It's valuable to us. Please check us out on our website at wwwwillowwellnesspodcastcom. Thank you, guys. Be looking forward to talking to you soon.