Accountability Corner
Embark on an adventure with Darren, Morgan, and Chris, the dynamic trio steering the ship at "Accountability Corner." As passionate OCR enthusiasts, they're on a mission to share their expertise and enthusiasm for obstacle course racing with the world. From sharing insider tips on overcoming training plateaus to demystifying the complexities of race registration and gear selection, no stone is left unturned. Whether you're a seasoned competitor hungry for fresh perspectives or a newcomer eager to dip your toes into the muddy waters of OCR, these hosts are here to guide you every step of the way. Join them as they peel back the curtain on the electrifying world of OCR, revealing stories of triumph, camaraderie, and boundless adventure.
Don't miss out – tune in and discover why OCR is capturing hearts and minds around the globe!
Accountability Corner
#44: Raphaela Dyer, Nutritional Therapist and Naturopath - How to Create Sustainable Eating Habits and Athletic Success
We welcome Rapheala Dyer Nutritional Therapist and Naturopath.
Discover how integral nutrition is for enhancing athletic performance while maintaining overall well-being. Raffi Dyer joins us to discuss the power of gut health and mindful eating, emphasising the importance of making sustainable dietary choices to fuel both training and everyday life.
Join us on this exciting podcast as we dive into how nutrition fuels peak performance, the secrets of gut health, and simple meal prep hacks for busy lives! We'll tackle mindful eating, the psychology behind food choices, and share tips for building lifelong healthy habits. Plus, hear Raffi’s unique take on personalised nutrition and why hydration is your daily superpower. It’s time to supercharge your health—don’t miss it! 🚀🥗
https://www.raphaeladyernutrition.com/
Welcome to the Accountability Corner, where we talk about everything obstacle course racing, from staying disciplined in training, affording the sport, signing up for your first race and, more importantly, how the sport is growing around the world, with your hosts Morgan Maxwell, chris Shipley and Darren.
Speaker 2:Martin, okay, we are recording episode 44, shipley's age of Accountability Corner. No, Aren't you 44 yet?
Speaker 1:No, I'm way younger than 44. I'm 38. Well, it's not Looking great at 38.
Speaker 2:It's not about you. Today, ships, we have another guest and this is amazing Double guest. We had a guest last episode and we've got a guest this episode. And right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna hand over to actually shipley to introduce this guest. Ships, do you want to introduce today's guest?
Speaker 1:we are the wonderful, the one and only the beautiful, the extravagant, raffy dyer.
Speaker 2:Nutritional therapist don't worry, don't worry, ships or raffy. Welcome to the podcast, and I'll ask raffy to do her official, uh, an introduction. I've got this, I've got this what am I, chris?
Speaker 3:what am I? You are?
Speaker 1:my work, you, you work in the nutritional therapy. You are a nutritional therapist and a Naturopath.
Speaker 3:There we go. It's only taken what three years we got there.
Speaker 1:I had that written down on my cheat notes.
Speaker 3:Nice Cheat notes for me Love it.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Accountability Corner, raffi. Thank you for having me. This is going to be exciting, uh. So just just a bit of an intro and like obviously we talk about you quite a lot in terms of nutrition and ships just does nothing but talks about his diet and tries to stop us from having any salts, any sugars, stops mo from having mcdonald's, and we all know that isn't coming from him, that is coming from a positive influence as such yourself. So with that, because you are such a positive influence on ships, we thought we'd get you on the podcast. Listeners can have that influence, but before we start, would you be able to give us I don't know, like your academic background or, and then also maybe I think people would be very interested in your sporting background as well oh, interesting.
Speaker 3:Okay, so I will start with the sporting background, because then that kind of led me to where I am now in terms of academics. Um, so, growing up I was a really keen golfer. I was fortunate enough to represent England at under 18 level, went to university on a golf scholarship, loved it. It was terrible for my golf, but, experience wise, fantastic. Came back to the UK and, like anybody that's kind of just graduated, bit lost, kind of going, don't really know what I want to do. Moved to London, got really unhealthy, kind of doing everything that I now tell people not to do. My health kind of took a bit of a kind of a downturn. And then that's when I decided that I wanted to study.
Speaker 3:I've always been kind of passionate about health. My grandmother's been a really positive influence. I mean, she's 90, fit as a fiddle, um, and then, yeah, so trained to be a nutritional therapist and naturopath. And then recently, well, in the last three, four years, after having quite a long period not playing golf, I got back into golf and realized, oh, this is actually still quite fun and I'm fitter and I'm healthier. So then I was county champion of Hampshire. And then, no, not last year, the year before last I was England ladies golf champions of champions, and that's my claim to fame. And now I'm just an old has-been who's just trying to still keep up with the youngsters. Welcome to our world.
Speaker 1:What did I leave out, chris? Well, you left out that you're accountability corner number one fan.
Speaker 3:So of course I listen to. I'm not made to listen to every episode. I listen to every episode and I actually have to say before listening I can't obviously a new stuff from chris. However, I actually really enjoy the podcast and I think it's quite informative for someone that has no knowledge whatsoever. However, you being in my top one to two podcasts of the year is, you know, not like, how did this happen?
Speaker 2:we. We will pay you later for that yeah, thank you very much.
Speaker 3:Want some more free merch.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 4:No, plenty of that coming. I don't even get free merch.
Speaker 2:You can't even afford to put your camera on.
Speaker 1:Let's just say these two people do special things to get special merch.
Speaker 2:Russell and Rafi. Yeah, okay, all right, we're moving on from that one. Yes, raffy, that is a great introduction and I guess I've I've got background in sports nutrition, so it'd be good maybe I can ask you some questions, because I understand, obviously from a sports therapy point, a nutritional therapist kind of point of view, where you come from. But I think maybe the listeners will kind of want to know the background and understanding of the differentiation of that and also, what did you say, an empath?
Speaker 3:I'd like to call myself a bit of an empath, but no, so a naturopath as well. So I would say that's kind of tagged on to my nutritional therapy. But obviously then in that you've got the difference between you know, in NHS it's more dietitian, so it's kind of just looking at food purely, whereas I'm looking at everything. So actually you know what was your upbringing like, was there any stress? Was there you know, know, long-term use of antibiotics that can be affecting your gut health. So it's kind of taking you know all of the different aspects of your life and then I kind of put that together and go okay, well, that forms your current health picture. So how can we work on improving that, basically, and improving your habits?
Speaker 1:yeah, that's, that's why I wanted to get you on, because my diet before meeting you was what I thought? No, I thought it was pretty good and I thought I knew you know, I ate okay most of the time. And then I also didn't eat well most of the time because I thought I could get away with it. But then it wasn't until meeting you that I realized that the body is actually so much more complicated than what I thought and the things I learned from you I thought would be good to get you on and share that with everyone else because they can hopefully learn some some things as well. And it's quite good because you know the body is interesting and, like you say, you need to have a good gut foundation. Yeah, good foundation, because I think we look at sports differently. I think sports, you know, you kind of, you think you can get away with things, but with you know, if the gut and the body isn't working properly, then what's the point of doing other bits and pieces?
Speaker 2:yeah, definitely you've. You've talked about it a lot ships, and this is all directed at mo, because we want mo to be super healthy for his spartan, spartan career this year, which we're giving yes we do. Congratulations mo spartan pro. Oh, he's gone quiet, he's gone to get his free tickets he's eating his dinner yeah, eating his pizza yeah, my audio button wasn't working.
Speaker 3:That's why the camera's off.
Speaker 4:He's scoffing a pizza I actually think that was one of my tasks today. I actually think we should go for our dinners and see what we all had and then, roughly obviously, chris, you've probably eaten what she's eating, so it's not as fun, but we can. I thought we'd have a little competition and see who's eaten healthiest you go first Mo. I had a great dinner yeah alright, your sweet potato fries nice like homemade ones ooh, decent and then halloumi yeah with like salad-y bits in a wrap.
Speaker 3:Do you know what mo? Not bad any, any kit kats thrown in there, for good measure.
Speaker 4:I did while I was cooking that I ate a whole blueberry muffin and then half a blueberry muffin that's not really what we discussed, though, is it about a year ago but the trend is in the right direction yes, very true but I did have, yeah, um, a whole muffin and a half a muffin, and I'm gonna have the other half a muffin with some custard after this with custard great this.
Speaker 1:This is actually why I want to get you know, because this, this podcast, is all about staying accountable and we are terrible at eating. No, we're not terribly eating bad food. We are really good at eating bad food because it is so easy and I think if we get someone or maybe we can talk about how to just make some better habits. Yeah, because if you make better habits, then hopefully our uh training will improve, because we're just making better habits.
Speaker 2:Say better habits again, better habits. Okay, just one more time. Why did I say it funny? No, you just said it a few times. Let's, let's start really broad and that there's wide enough funnel, before we get into the nitty gritty of the details of it and ask rafi a question. So, rafi, why, from our point of view, sports nutrition is key when, when we're racing, we want to, we want to make sure we're performing at our best, and a lot of athletes just concentrate on that one moment, that one moment in time or that race. But that's a very, that's a very specific view and that is only like 0.5% of our whole holistic habits. So why do we need to? Why did you want to study not just nutrition, but like the habitual, like tasks, or our habitual diets, and also our, maybe, behavior towards those?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean so I've got to mention so. When I was at university in America, I studied psychology. So I love how the mind works, how we think, kind of what leads us to be the people we are today. Um, and I think it's, it's really easy if we just put our focus on oh well, my nutrition is going to be good for the race because that's manageable. But when we kind of take a wider view and realize, oh actually I need to be eating healthier all the time, that then feels very unmanageable.
Speaker 3:So I completely appreciate why people break it down and you know, okay, I'll start with the race nutrition first. Okay, I'm doing some, you know long runs, so I'm going to have a few gels to get ready for the race and then we kind of get. You know, you deal with that stuff because that's to do with your sport and that's the focus. But actually if you don't have that solid foundation and all those good habits in your life in general, you're not going to get the most out of your training in the first place, which I think sometimes, or a lot of the time, people don't realize or kind of don't want to know, because it's a lot harder to change. You know your eating habits that you've been, you know, have developed over the last 15, 20, 25 years than just taking a few gels on your long run on the weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't forget as well training you make it makes you think you've got a cakey in past.
Speaker 3:Done it like every time I trained back in the past I just thought, well, I've done some training, I can eat a whole pack of biscuits easy and you did and I still do sometimes, yeah but the thing is, that's the thing I think people, you know, when I speak to people, they have this fear that I'm going to tell them that they can never eat anything nice, ever again. And you know, I work out quite a bit. I'm still, I'd like to say, a competitive athlete and I definitely have the 80-20 rule for myself. Like, if I'm going out to eat, I'm going to order a burger with sweet potato fries because I enjoy my food. However, the other time I'm going to, you know, make sure I'm kind of managing what I'm eating. But yeah, like Chris said, it's the oh well, I do X amount, I burn X amount of calories so I can eat X amount of calories back. Yes, but is it the good stuff or stuff that's going to be creating more inflammation that you've already got in the body from the training?
Speaker 3:does that make sense yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So from from my point of view, like we, we focus purely on sports nutrition, but maybe that's that's a detriment to all athletes because we're told that sports nutrition is king, but it's actually. We should be stepping back and thinking that nutrition and healthy lifestyle is king, because if, if, as long as you've got that under control, your sports nutrition is just the organic normality to to your diet, it just happens it you have the right diet for your sport, then and also for, like, longevity, because we get consumed with.
Speaker 3:You know, for you guys, okay, I want a podium at age group. For me it's like you know, I want to be top 10 in england ladies, or represent the uk again, whatever it is, and then actually so that becomes that. You know you're hyper fixated on that, but then you're I'm looking at it going hold on a minute. I want to be fit and healthy into my 60s, 70s and 80s and the habits that I've got now going to allow me to do that and also allow me to continue the sport I love obviously not the same level, but, you know, be able to do like you'll be. You know you'll focus. Maybe, okay, when I'm 70 I want to be able to do my park run in a really good time, but you know you've got to set the foundation for that now.
Speaker 2:So what do you look for? What's the first step in terms of assessing us or not us?
Speaker 3:but you know, like assessing someone for making sure that they've got the right diet, right healthy lifestyle or or or not healthy, but you're just assessing it um, I mean, I always get people to fill out a three-day food diary as just a standard, and at that point I do say to people there is no judgment, I just need to know what you're eating and consuming. So also I can pick out the positives, because no one's diet is so bad that there's nothing positive in there and you want to be kind of not feeling like you're having to cut things out immediately. And then I would look at each kind of body system, as it were, but mainly the gut. So you know, for example, 70 to 80% of our immune cells are in our gut, which a lot of people don't know. We're in winter, there are bugs going around, everybody's catching everything and people just go oh well, it's just normal, it's not? You know, let's dig dig a bit deeper. Um, you know what's your ratio of good bacteria to bad bacteria. So then that leads you into that whole world of testing as kind of a, as a baseline, nice sorry I'm asking you loads of questions um, but I love what I do, so I'm like yeah no, no
Speaker 2:ask me more no, it ships and mo like you, you crack on. If you've got anything that you think also you want to ask raffy. But what I'm just trying to to do, I'm trying to broaden the sort of like conversation and then we can really narrow down into being like how can we, how can we make, how can you make me the best I can be?
Speaker 1:but let's, let's make the world best first I think we should continue with the talk about the gut really, because the gut when when I first met raffi and we started talking about the gut, it actually opened up so many sort of new views to me and things that I didn't realize.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, let's talk about the gut a bit more well, I think also might be worthwhile, like we said, kind of going back to that general training feeling of, oh well, I've done, you know, a hard session, I'm gonna eat what I like, whatever I want, and then how you feel and recover after that. So that might be quite good to maybe touch on, if we already kind of touched on it no, let's go for it. No, no go yeah, can you ask?
Speaker 2:me a question I can't just free ball it like oh sorry, I thought you'd done this before come on this is my first podcast.
Speaker 3:It's funny because I obviously spend a lot of my work is doing presentations like random. Oh sorry, I thought you'd done this before. Come on, this is my first podcast. It's funny because I obviously spend a lot of my work is doing presentations like random people. I said to Chris I almost feel more nervous doing this because it's kind of then out there, Whereas you know and it's recorded and it's online, Whereas when I do my presentations, you know, people walk out the room and they probably forget 99% of what I say they will remember.
Speaker 2:They remember the key things, but because they're trying to concentrate, remember it and then. But when it's a podcast, people can actually pick up on the words you say, like the things. Sometimes I say I'm like that doesn't even make sense, yeah, so I just hear myself back and it's frustrating. But I said so you will in, I'll lead you in. Go on. What can I go? What was?
Speaker 1:you gonna say I was gonna.
Speaker 2:I was just gonna say you should think how I feel all the things I say um, so, so gut health and then making sure that we've got a. You're looking at my lifestyle, not just what's on my plate, yeah, so obviously you're going to be looking at my, my train. You might be looking at my training habits, but you're not necessarily always focusing on athletes, are you? This is, this is public health, sort of like nutrition, isn't it that any member of the?
Speaker 3:yeah, come to you and I mean I just worked with um, an ultra marathon runner, and actually a lot of that. Well, for majority of that, I didn't even look at the training program because there was so much that I could work with, just based on diet and general nutrition and actually just general habits. I think that's what also gets lost. I mean, as we know, chris is a creature of habit, unfortunately I am too but in terms of outside of nutrition okay, sleep, hugely important that kind of gets lost. I bet you probably learned about that in your you know, with your sports science as well.
Speaker 3:Just in terms of recovery, hormone balance, kind of detoxing, and just you know, no screens an hour before bed, let's. You know you've had a really hard training session, your body needs to recover and recuperate, um, and just you know simple things you know to start with um. So yeah, it's, it's. It's really interesting because people go oh well, you know what gels do I need to take? Then do I need to switch and take some electrolytes? And I'm going. Well, what's your breakfast like?
Speaker 1:what's your?
Speaker 3:lunch, like to fuel that training, because if you haven't built up a good, you know you build your engine doing. Yeah, what is? What are those runs chris called again, yeah, zone two yeah and you're, you're paid. I don't. I obviously listen, but like take on some of it.
Speaker 3:I I'm not a runner, by the way, anybody, if you couldn't tell, but it's it's kind of broadening the focus and just starting with with simple, simple things, cause if you're not fueling for the day, how the heck are you going to feel for your training in the first place?
Speaker 1:And then some of the things that we talk about as well is that sometimes people talk about like putting um, like, uh, whey powders and things like that and these things, but sometimes because we've spoke about this that they're actually not always as good as what they seem. So sometimes the things that are being sold and given the impression that they're really good for you sometimes aren't. And you know, this is one of the things we learned together, and when I started looking at it, you were telling me all the ingredients in different pieces.
Speaker 3:I was like, oh geez, that actually isn't as good as what it says like, nutrition is a minefield and you know tiktok instagram is great because actually there's a lot of information out there. But then on the flip side, there's also a lot of information out there, and is it verified? Is it correct, like chris says? You know, oh, I'm gonna have this. I've heard you know protein, protein, protein. So then you go to you know a big brand that sells lots of supplements you know not name but and you pick up a bog sand of protein powder and it's full of absolute muck. But obviously you think you're doing the right thing, but sometimes we just need a bit more guidance, um, because there is a lot of misinformation out there as well, definitely should you use me as a case study then, so that they I'll go on there?
Speaker 1:so what was it? Do you remember that I was? Uh, I was trying to get using that weight gain, do you remember? Because I was just trying to get more calories.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I was buying it and I remember showing it to you and then literally all that was in it was loads and loads of things and then loads and loads of sugar.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean sugar, you know I feel like it's been demonized a lot. I mean sugar I'm. You know I feel like it's been demonized a lot. And granted, sugar is bad, but it's in. What upsets me is that it's in so much of these health products that people, like I said, people think they're buying the right stuff and actually just feeding yourself muck and then you know, with blood sugar it's imperative that we keep it nice and stable, but those things just create such a big sugar spike and then you're left feeling either really hungry or just exhausted.
Speaker 1:There's different kinds of sugar, isn't there?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's sugar. I mean, it's difficult with sugar because I get asked a lot, you know. Oh, if I'm going to have sugar, so what's better? Is honey better than agave? But if it's organic, natural honey, or should I just have coconut sugar? And in my kind of opinion, sugar is sugar. So if you're going to have it, enjoy it, right. So when people you know, I had a person the other day and he talks I'm making a cake, what sugar substitute should I have? And I'm going, no, just make a cake, enjoy the cake.
Speaker 3:But it's like we don't enjoy our foods as much anymore. So it's like, if you're going to sit down, have a piece of cake, have no distractions, just enjoy that food, because it's like good for the soul. You know, it's that 80, 20, right, but it's when we're just mindlessly eating, for example, you know's that 80, 20, right? But it's when we're just mindlessly eating. For example, you know, I don't know, you're watching tv or watching a film and you've got a bag of popcorn and it's like shovel, shovel, shovel. You're not enjoying it. So what? What's the point?
Speaker 1:it's, it's rubbish for rubbish sake well, I actually think it's so, because sugar, for me personally, is like a massive addiction, because I've tried to cut down on sugar but it is everywhere and it is really difficult because literally you'll walk in the supermarket and everywhere there's sweets, there's chocolate, there's like even the healthy stuff's got sugar in it and things like that. It's really hard to get away from it.
Speaker 3:But, like for you guys and your training, it's really hard to get away from it but, like for you guys and your training, it's really interesting because obviously there is a side of it, you go yeah, or actually I need a bit of a hit of something like darren. I bet in the past you probably had, like I don't know, haribo jelly or things in your, in your what's it? You're running, diddly running diddly.
Speaker 2:You're running, you're running. I don't stick it in my diddly.
Speaker 3:That's what I'm saying but you know, you've probably had haribo in there or things that you can just snack on, because sometimes you actually do need a bit of a like pick me up right well, I think we do need to pick me up, but we, we probably take the wrong assumptions that that is the correct pick me up.
Speaker 2:Right, well, I think we do need to pick me up, but we we probably take the wrong assumptions that that is the correct pick me up. Like there's a. The placebo effect of it as well, isn't there? There's the. Your mind will tell you that a harry bow is the perfect pick me up, but all it's done is just put gum and processed food in your body and it's giving you nothing. Yeah, my mind would be like oh, I feel amazing now let's go, but you you may.
Speaker 2:I've never, never heard of it. That uh explained that way about mindful eating. That's really interesting, because when we are going to treat ourselves, we should treat ourselves, we should we. It's called a treat for a reason and it's cool like it's. Maybe we should be removing the word snack. We're not snacking, we're treating, and it's like making sure that if you're going to treat it, you actually sit down and eat that chocolate in a way that is enjoyable, and so it makes it more of an experience, so that you don't feel like you just need to randomly eat that through the day.
Speaker 3:I mean, you think back hundreds of years ago. Food was a way to get people together, like families would sit around a table, eat together. It's like a sense of community, whereas now, obviously, everybody's kind of lone wolves and we just eat sporadically and especially, you know, it's quite poignant that you know it's January, so everybody is New Year, new me. I'm back on it. You know, I'm not eating crap, I'm just going to focus on healthy, healthy, healthy.
Speaker 3:And, as we know, that doesn't work and food shouldn't be demonized. You know, yes, some food is not as nutritionally dense and is not as nutritionally good as others, but that doesn't mean that it's know, oh my gosh, you know it's the devil. Like we said, it's about I, I love eating, I love food people. I think some people that I work with are kind of surprised, so they, oh well, you know, you're a nutritionist, you must eat everything healthy, healthy, and I'm going no, because life is for living and I want to enjoy my life. But it's about making the right choices and, like you say, you know, let's, when we're eating, concentrate on eating. Are we even chewing our food properly?
Speaker 1:oh, I get that one a lot. You know what right you're gonna have to elaborate on this, because it it does make sense and I do listen and yeah, go on, go on, take the floor okay.
Speaker 3:So just to give you an example so we have enzymes in our saliva that start to break down some of the nutrients. So you know, if we're not chewing food properly, we're kind of missing that first step of digestion, right? So then when the food goes into the stomach, your stomach's got a way harder job of trying to break it down, to get the nutrients and get the energy. And then you think also for you guys especially, there's a big emphasis on getting your calories in. So your portions are big. So you've not only it's kind of like you know a double whammy of I'm trying to get everything down, so I'm not mindfully eating, and then the amount I'm eating as well is large. So you put those two together and that is, over time, gonna probably cause some gastric issues or at least discomfort. It's yeah.
Speaker 2:I really like that. Go on chips.
Speaker 1:I'm going to say I'm still waiting for the discomfort because I shovel a lot of food. Darren, you've seen it. Rafi, you've witnessed it. Mo's seen it, I think.
Speaker 4:Mo's been very quiet he's eating yeah, get some food down me no bit, that's actually that extra muffin with the custard well, that's one thing you said earlier which I really relate to is that kind of just mindless shoveling.
Speaker 4:I will just walk into the kitchen and then I'll walk out with a slice of bread and it's just like, why is this in my hand? I don't even know it's happened, and then next minute I'm just eating a slice of bread and it just does become very like autopilot and you just, I think as especially as athletes, you just think, oh yeah, I need to eat, but you use that as justification to just eat whatever you want and kind of do whatever you want and then it it does become a very habitual thing of just kind of eating for the sake of eating and probably not even realizing it.
Speaker 1:You guys, when you go, when you guys go through a workout, before you get it to do it, do you ever just go in the kitchen and have something to eat beforehand, be it whatever, like a chocolate bar, a couple of chocolate bars and things like that.
Speaker 4:Uh, depends what it is in the morning I always train fasted, but if it's evening I'll have like a slice of toast ah, so I'm terrible for it.
Speaker 1:So I don't do it so much these days, but most of the time it's coming from work, go to the fridge, eat a couple of chocolate bars and then try and do a workout. But the trouble with that is I was getting what was that? Um, like a real high sugar hit and then a drop down. So then my sugar levels weren't, were out of control just for the workout and weren't able to get like a proper workout in, because I'm just high and then low. We had to call.
Speaker 3:I had to call the company, do you not remember? So I got. It's quite a funny story, to be fair. So obviously, zoe at the moment is huge. You know the blood sugar monitors and um.
Speaker 3:But before all of that, I'd reached out just to um, a sports company that was doing them, and just said look, I wanted to do some trials on myself, my partner um, so chris and I were trying it, and mine was, I there are a couple of spikes. And then Chris's I was going, something's not right. This is. I actually think it's broken. So I emailed them. This is how worried I was, or thinking I've just paid out you know all this money to have really good, accurate results. And they basically said, no, everything's fine, but it was because his blood sugar was just going absolutely loopy. They had never seen anything like it. I wish I'd have screenshotted the results because it was unbelievable. And obviously you just go oh well, it's fine because I'm going to work out and I'm going to burn it off. But obviously every time that blood sugar spikes, your body has to get rid of it, so it's kind of turning on a certain body system. Um, but yeah, it was. That was crazy yeah, it was going on ships.
Speaker 2:Going back to your question, it leads in, leads on to that is do I grab things like randomly in the past? Yes, I did probably do that, but look, lorna's. Lorna's not had the best time like with, like stomach problems. So we've actually been adjusting our diet for the last like two, two and a half years and within that adjustment there is the. We have been looking at zoe, we have been looking at different like the gut, making sure we're keeping on that.
Speaker 2:But going back to the psychological reasons of why we eat and and how our mind plays tricks on us, it's I always ask myself is it food or will this make me better? Or I try to reinforce, have positive reinforcements in my head, like you ask yourself when you're about to pick something up will this, am I doing this? I think I'm actually going to use the one now. Is this a treat? I love that one. I might start using that because that's quite good. Am I doing this to treat myself or am I doing it because I'm bored? Because boredom also creates hunger and I do that quite a lot. So what habits do you? Do you delve more into that, rafi? Do you go into like that psychological reinforcement like, do you have to? We always say we want to make the inner voice of racing make sense, but I suppose the inner voice of eating, what is, what is that?
Speaker 3:yeah, I mean I um, well, recently read a book, um called atomic habits. You probably have, you heard of it. You probably heard of it, darren. Yeah, I feel like we're on the same wavelength with kind of a lot of stuff, um, and it was really interesting about, you know, habits stacking.
Speaker 3:But I say to people, look, you know, we need to get to the root, not not the root cause of your health issues, but also why you eat the way you do. So it's like, okay, do we use food as a comfort? So I've had a really rubbish day, or I'm going to have something nice that's going to make me feel good, or oh my gosh, I, you know something amazing just happened. Let's go out and celebrate. Oh my gosh, I, you know something amazing just happened. Let's go out and celebrate, and that's usually around food, um, so kind of digging a bit deeper into that, um, and then also, I mean this is very, very deep, as it were, but kind of, is there a lack of self-worth, self-love, you know, do I deserve to be healthy, healthy, do I deserve to live this amazing life?
Speaker 3:Or because sometimes it can be a bit of a punishment, because, you know, we only get one life, we've got one body, but we tend to, you know we're making ourselves sick. Is that because we're not giving ourselves, you know, a bit of a pat on the back, sometimes going, you know what I'm doing bloody good? You know, look at my life, as opposed to a lot of people I'd say are quite self-deprecating and, you know, put themselves down and and then it does kind of chip away at that self-worth. And we use food a lot of the time to make us kind of, yeah, does that? Yeah, yeah, it makes complete sense when a bit, when a bit, not woo, woo, but just kind of I I relate that straight away to what you're saying ships about us.
Speaker 2:When we do long, long, long runs, do extreme exercise, or after a race, it's like, right, I can go mcdonald's now and it's like, well, am I going to mcdonald's to celebrate the race, that I've done it and this is a good opportunity. That or it was a good opportunity to eat something, something really bad. Then maybe, like we think about, it is a celebration. But am I eating it because I feel like I've burnt calories? Then that's not a good justification of going to eat processed rubbish food. So I don't know what you guys think, mo, mo, I'm probably after you first, actually after like a long run and I know for a fact you do we do like to have crap food after we've done a big like training session. Why do you? Why do you think you do it?
Speaker 4:uh, just, I eat crap all the time, so I guess it's normal routine, but a lot of the time I think it's just, like you say, celebratory, like, oh, we've done this really hard thing, let's go out and get some food. Or I think, especially when us three together we'd we'd go out, we'd do a workout and then go and get something, or we've been at a race and then we think, oh, let's just go out for a meal, and I guess it's a celebratory also, kind of getting some more time together to kind of de-stress from the stress which is probably for, in a way, yeah, it's also convenient, though I was gonna say yes, no no, you go, you go you go.
Speaker 1:I was going to say it's. It's convenient, though, like all the time when we finish training, we always go for the most convenient thing to get, and the trouble with that is especially in this country. Convenience is so easy, but convenience is always that rubbish food Always.
Speaker 3:How often do you think it's a lack of knowledge? Because I feel that there is a, you know if people. So my job is basically to tell, to inform people and educate, and then it's up to them if they want to take on board what I've said or not. But at least you know they're making informed decisions about their health, what they're eating, whereas I think a lot of people maybe don't know or don't know how detrimental some things can be to their health. So actually it's just kind of you just eat things blindly and you don't know what effect it's going to have on you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think we are very uneducated in this country, with food especially.
Speaker 2:I think from an education point of view. But I think, just speaking of us, it's sometimes arrogance, why we so, so bad that you just think we're quite well, I'm fit and healthy. Look what I just did. I just came what what? This position in a race, I can eat what I want, like. Sometimes it does come from that arrogance, but yeah, maybe we just need to question it more and and maybe, raffy, that's why it's good to have you on and talk to you, because I'd love to know, know the bad habits that you see in people and how you help them look past them or change the perspective of those habits.
Speaker 3:I think it's kind of pulling people out of individual. You know I eat this, I eat that and going OK, what is your goal? So I work with such a wide variety of people, from people that just want to get out of bed without aching, and then, conversely, on the other end of the spectrum, you know ultra runners who want to pb at you know, whatever time it is, um. So I've completely lost my train of thought. What we're we talking about? I was like you know what?
Speaker 1:I'm thinking Thank you, Chris. We're so alike, aren't we?
Speaker 2:We are talking about their habits.
Speaker 3:Oh, yes, sorry, sorry, sorry, all right, and just kind of, like I said, it's the explaining of okay, you like, for example, let's just use coffee as an example. I love a coffee. Chris knows I love coffee. I love walking to get a coffee. It's kind of ritualistic for me. However, a lot of people drink a hell of a lot of coffee. So, if so, I'm looking at that and I'm going right. How can I kind of tackle this without removing everything? So I then have to explain.
Speaker 3:You know the negatives that come with coffee, for example, it elicits a stress response, so it puts your body in that fight or flight. We spend our lives in fight or flight nowadays. You know work, emails come through, you're busy, you're here, you're there, you're always functioning, or a lot of the time, that high kind of fight or flight. Okay, how do you feel? Do you have a bit of anxiety? Or you know you're quite stressed a lot of the time. Okay, so that coffee, you know the one coffee fine, but if we're adding on to that, you're making your life more difficult for no reason. So it's kind of okay, this is your goal, but actually you're pulling yourself back and giving them the information as to why? Because, again, like I said, it's about that education. Okay, if I know that I suffer from anxiety or you know I've got a bad tummy if I have those coffees, that's not going to help me get to my goal.
Speaker 1:That makes sense.
Speaker 3:Bit wordy, but kind of got there in the end. Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 2:You want people to come to the realization themselves by you educating them, rather than you just telling them you need to stop drinking that much coffee, because I always say I could give someone the perfect plan like the.
Speaker 3:You know it would have everything on it eat this, eat that and it'll be about 20 pages long and you could stick to it for a week and then you'd be in the corner crying, going I hate my life, I'm so. I feel much better, but I hate my life and I'm like that. That's not sustainable, you know. It's like. Again I said it's about longevity and you know good habits. It's taken you years to kind of get those habits. It's probably going to take not years but a long time to change those habits.
Speaker 3:Um, but people, you know we expect things overnight, right um so I I kind of want people to come to the realization themselves, as opposed to saying, oh, I went to see ra, she's flipping gone, don't do this, don't do that almost like a school teacher and then you're not going to stick to it, maybe for a couple of months, but long term it's not gonna work it is difficult.
Speaker 1:I mean, I live with you, so I'm getting constantly. I'm getting constantly told, you know, like, oh, chris, no, sorry, yeah, that's the wrong way of putting it, but you know, I think educated yeah, educated.
Speaker 1:But sometimes, you know, for some people, myself included, I need to be told constantly that what I'm doing is the worst of the best decision, or it could be improved upon, or like oh, maybe you need to have a second thought about that, because it's so easy to tell yourself oh, hang on a minute, I can, you know, I can justify doing all this because you know my brain's my brain and my brain decides what I think. So I'm going to make stuff up to make it sound good, so it's good. But then you need that person. Sometimes you need that. It's like having a coach. Your coach does the same thing. Your coach guides you into the right decisions of right training to make, but sometimes you need that person to listen to.
Speaker 2:So you know, having someone on that side just giving you a little nudge, you know it's quite beneficial and, and we all find different mechanisms of how we build habits in our lives like, and how we reinforce them ships. You reinforce those habits that raffi gives you by telling other people about nutrition. I'll tell you lot, yeah, because you're not. You're not I know for a fact.
Speaker 1:You're not telling us because, yes, you are obviously telling us because you want us to know, but you're also telling us to remind yourself yeah, that's exactly why I do it, and it is just to try and reinforce that, that, that right, this is what I need to be doing. So I'll tell you guys because I need to be doing it, because I'm probably slipping off the bandwagon a few times and I need to remind myself a lot of the time it's quite funny, because the times you're probably telling us about good nutrition are the times that your diet has probably not been the best.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know that.
Speaker 2:But I totally understand it. It's a way for you to get back on it and to remind yourself of that habit. It's like every single person in the world goes on a diet and this time of year they probably would go on a diet. But a diet needs to be a lifetime habit. That's why it's called a habitual diet, so it's making sure that it's not something you just do for six months.
Speaker 2:Yes, if he's got a medical need, obviously there is reasons why you've gone to a six-month diet, but if for us in general to stay healthy, it needs to be something we can sustain. So, raffy, I'm going to ask you a question to help mo. Here we are going to get a bit deeper into the weeds yeah, yeah, no problem, we'll get mo dragged in as well.
Speaker 3:He's still on me pick.
Speaker 2:I won't like I've your habits of eating. Yeah, what one bad habit, nutritional habit do you think you have?
Speaker 4:uh, boredom. Snacking of a late evening before bed, that's I'm. I'm actually like I know we joke about me having the worst day in the world, but actually like, especially since I moved to sheffield and I've got control of like my own food shops and stuff, my general eating has improved so much. But then soon as I start playing video games or doing stuff at night where I'm like not really thinking about life, I just find myself eating. And it doesn't even have to be like. Even if we don't buy like biscuits or anything, it'll literally just be eating random things in the fridge.
Speaker 4:So it might, it might not even be like something that's necessarily what you'd consider bad for you, but it would just be like I've just now had three bananas, two apples, a bit of gravy like just the most random.
Speaker 1:What are you pregnant Most?
Speaker 2:pregnant, most pregnant. That's what it is.
Speaker 4:Maybe that's it, maybe that is.
Speaker 3:Your hormones are all out of whack, Mo yeah.
Speaker 4:It's like as soon as I, especially when I play video games. But as soon as it gets like to the evening and I'm sat down on my own normally if Kira is there it's not too bad, but if I'm on my own, especially that's when every time I need a break from playing the game, I'll go look in the fridge and I'll pick up I don't know a tomato or a bit of cucumber, or a biscuit or anything.
Speaker 3:It doesn't matter really what it is, it'll just be food it's almost like trying to so the in the in the book that I was reading. It's kind of you know, changing a habit, but slowly, over time, or like habit stacking. So if you are, you know, walking to go to the fridge, I mean this is like very basic, but just okay, I'm going to get a glass of water instead, or I'm going to do five pull-ups, and that takes your mind instantly somewhere else and the focus is different. And then you sit back down, you go okay, do I still feel like I want to do that? But even if you do that, say, if you're playing video games five times a week, even if you do that only twice a week, it's better than five. So it's kind. And then over time, then again, like we're saying, it builds that habit and then you not only get a bit stronger but you're not snacking on random, random stuff. Um, so yeah, it's just just things like that, isn't it? That can be just.
Speaker 1:It's just as simple as that so if he's eating an orange at night or eating a cucumber, that's not really that bad is?
Speaker 3:it or is it?
Speaker 3:no, no, I mean it depends how late at night it is, because obviously your stomach's got to digest it. So ideally, you know you want to be having your last meal an hour, two hours before you go to sleep, because, because when you go to sleep your body wants to focus on again, like I said you know, detoxing the day, kind of getting rid of any muck and not trying to digest. So then if you're digesting, the focus isn't going to be on sleep. So your sleep is probably going to be disrupted or depending on what you're eating. So say, if it is sugaryary, that's going to affect your blood sugar. So then we're going to have that blood sugar roller coaster when you go to sleep.
Speaker 1:And then you're going to wake up yeah so then that's that goes back to the first thing we were talking about how important sleep was yeah, I mean, everybody slept yeah, definitely, that's the thing people like.
Speaker 3:Oh, it's just that's, you know, oh, it's just what I eat and I'm going. No, it's so much more than that, it's just. The food is obviously a major part we need. We need to eat to live, but all the other things, if we haven't got those in alignment, yeah, our body needs to be our body needs to be in equilibrium.
Speaker 1:It needs to be working in balance. Thanks very much, yeah. You're welcome From the film. The film's really good yeah.
Speaker 3:Christian Bale.
Speaker 1:Really good film the gun cutter. Anyway, let's not go into that, that'll be on account. He had good nutrition. Yeah, it did. Anyways, your body needs to be working on a pure equilibrium of you know everything's got to be balanced. And it's the same thing when you're talking about a balanced lifestyle. Everything's got to be nice and balanced. You know you're not eating crap 100% of the time. No, hang on a minute. What am I saying? 100% of the time to 8% of the time? Whatever it was, it's got to be equal.
Speaker 3:But, mo, you mentioned obviously about that. Now you're in Sheffield.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, well done Chips, that was good, so back to Mo.
Speaker 3:But Mo. So you're saying obviously, now that you're in Sheffield you're eating a bit better, but obviously because I'm a regular listener to the podcast, you've also been saying your training's going really well.
Speaker 4:Do you think that that eating has had an effect on your training at all? Uh, oh, I don't know, probably this way you say yes not. No, it's not a noticeable effect. It's definitely not a noticeable effect, I think. But my other, I've got a different battle at the minute, which is sleep, so that's it's kind of I'm. I was sleeping better, probably, when I was back in milton, so I think it's kind of cancelled each other's out if I'm telling the lights off. Yes, bedtime mo. Put my tablet away.
Speaker 2:You've had enough screen time today yeah internet's off mo, do you just the other way around? Do you think when you, when you train better, do you eat better? Rather, it's that way than the other way I don't think my training.
Speaker 4:For most people, I think the answer you'd be looking for is yes, but I actually think for me training is such a like almost a job like it. It doesn't really matter if I'm training or not training. I eat. I actually probably eat better when I'm not training, because then I don't think I deserve the calories, whereas when I'm training it's like oh, I've, I've seen the calories I can burn today. So, yeah, probably, if anything has a negative effect, I don't think there's really an effect because, I'm not.
Speaker 4:I don't think there's really an effect because I'm not. I don't train for health. I'm not training to be healthier. That's not my goal this is right, mo.
Speaker 1:This is because you're younger, right? I used to think exactly the same as you, although I was not training when I was younger and young youngsters. I know I'm gonna sound really old here, but when you're young, you think you're absolutely invincible because your body is robust. It's not. It's not had any rubbish dealt with it. It can handle all the crap you can throw at it. I remember being in my 20s and I could like literally my arm would fall off and it would grow back. You know, it is like your body is so robust in your 20s but as you get on and you get older, it's like, oh, hang on a minute, I need to recover more, I need to do this more, I need to do so many bits and pieces, because then you finally start realizing that you're not invincible, and I think that is a young person mindset.
Speaker 2:This also goes to the concept that Mo's carving future Mo at the minute, and we all are. So we should be thinking that once that, once that carve is done, it's in stone, it's not going to change. You've got to think that like that, that is, you've done it now mo, and then it's going to help you in the future. And you should probably be thinking that for your training, but without getting too far into your psychology of what motivates you get into most psyche.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say, though, these years, like the younger years now, are probably the most important for you to build a good, healthy foundation, and that's just my rant over Done.
Speaker 4:But I actually agree with that massively. I think it's hard to motivate yourself when you don't necessarily care about your health that much. I don't think, oh, I need to be healthier because all I care about is sport and winning. So I'm like and also that's stupid really, because I know a better diet helps me win. But it's almost like, when it comes, especially when it comes to the health side of things, I'm like you almost understand why I should care, and I tell even my PT clients why they should care, but then I don't really care, you're too fit and healthy right now.
Speaker 3:Give it a couple of injuries.
Speaker 4:I basically need to get like because I shouldn't put this into the universe. Don't say it, don't say it. We don't put things like that into the universe. We'll leave that off the podcast we don't do that.
Speaker 2:We all care for nutrition. Put things like that into the universe. We'll leave that off the podcast. Yes, we don't do that. We all care for nutrition. But do we take accountability for our nutrition? So we all care for it. I love listening to podcasts about nutrition. I love looking at healthy food and thinking, ah, that looks great, that would be great for me, but I don't feel accountable or responsible to eat it. So this is where Rafi counts this Is there any micro habits or micro changes you can do to your diet, to almost like force yourself to make good nutritional choices? I don't know. I'm just thinking like is there like micro things.
Speaker 3:Yeah, kind of what takeaways. Yeah, like what could I?
Speaker 2:do? Is that the?
Speaker 3:right word to be using. Yeah, no.
Speaker 2:It's not a takeaway.
Speaker 3:But you know I would start really simple and just even just by starting looking at your breakfast and just seeing you know has it got the right combination of protein, fats, carbohydrates you know we get really focused on. You know cereals, granted quick and easy, but again, like we're saying about the sugar, that is just. You know breakfast is breaking the fast, so you've slept overnight. You know your body's got rid of everything. You're ready to go. So that is, I would say, is probably one of the most important meals of the day to fuel you for what you've got ahead.
Speaker 3:So I would start just by taking a look at your breakfast and going actually, is that giving me what I need? And then not focusing on anything else? Because, like I said, then we can get into the oh my God, and then I eat this, and then I have crisps and, like I said, then we can get into the oh my God, and then I eat this and then have Chris, and then, oh, I can't get rid of my chocolate bars. And then at that point we've hit kind of paralysis and we just are stuck because we could change everything but we change nothing.
Speaker 1:Shall, I do a case study again.
Speaker 3:Yes, yeah, actually that'd be very helpful, thank you.
Speaker 1:You're welcome.
Speaker 1:So, I ate cereal as predominantly my breakfast choice for the mornings, because it is quick and easy and by the time it got to well actually. So I would have cereal when I woke up, then I would get to work, and then I would buy some food and then at 10 o'clock I would have some more food and then at 1 o'clock I'd also have some more food. But then me and Raffy we changed it up started having them pancakes. You had one of them, darren. Yes, it was a bit bland, but it was a big, not my recipe.
Speaker 3:Let's just say that, no, no.
Speaker 1:I actually I converted it. Yeah, I made it a bit better, but I had a big, a big oat pancake with nuts and seeds on it, so it was a high protein, high carb high. What else was in?
Speaker 3:it Good fats from the nuts and seeds yeah, it was really good.
Speaker 1:And that one pancake. Not only did it give me the energy to get all the way through to like 10 o'clock, but I didn't have to snack on anything else. I don't have to eat like two croissants. Go to the burger van, get like a bacon and sausage bat. I didn't have to add things and I had so much. Well, I have so much more energy from that.
Speaker 3:And that was an easy and that was an easy, that was an easy change. Yeah, even just water down, like you know, you've mentioned about before, about you know having your water bottle. People are so severely dehydrated nowadays and just you know, one percent dehydration can affect cognitive function, muscular function. You know a whole multitude of things. So I say to clients you know, get yourself a water bottle, a glass water bottle, put a timer on your phone every hour because that will annoy the heck out of you, but every time that goes off you take a couple of sips and then it becomes that habit and then you go okay, well, I don't need that alarm every hour, I'm going to change it to every couple of hours and then in the on the hour you'll look it's, you're looking for that water to just simple, simple things, because we need some.
Speaker 3:You know some triggers, because life gets busy and we forget. So easy. But yeah, water is again. You know, people bang on about water. But it we need, we need it. But, like I said, it's, how can you make it easy and not a task?
Speaker 1:in the morning, don't we first thing we do it's the first thing we do is have a big chug of water. I love that.
Speaker 2:I find it. I find it so difficult to. I actually find sometimes can feel a little bit sick when I drink loads of water in the morning because my my stomach's so empty.
Speaker 3:I don't know that's yeah maybe, maybe sipping, or actually it might be better for you just to have. You know, like if you boil a kettle it's got boiling water and then you just let it be kind of lukewarm and just sip that. So you put that on your counter in a mug and then every time you walk past it you just take a sip, because you're right, some people that kind of cold pint of water in the morning can just be too much um, science, go on then you've got to get it right, chris, this time no, at least I've got you to actually correct me when I get it wrong.
Speaker 1:But in the mornings to the first thing, when you uh have some water, it actually gets rid of a load of enzymes in your stomach, in your, in your mouth, that go into your stomach and do some good. Can't remember what good it does, but it does do some good that must have been from a hoobman podcast yeah, it wasn't from you, christopher it wasn't from me but do you know what that actually does sound feasible, to be fair.
Speaker 3:but people wake up and they have a coffee, so it's like the first thing they go and again it's that habit. Oh, I need a coffee to get up.
Speaker 4:Darren, you're looking a bit, I'm just shaming you. I have a coffee straight away.
Speaker 3:But again, it's kind of that stress response and coffee is quite acidic, so we just need to be mindful of that, have a couple of sips of some lukewarm, lukewarm water, you know, have a wander around, then sit down, enjoy your coffee, or have a little bit of breakfast first and then have your coffee.
Speaker 2:So it's kind of building that routine, yeah that routine you've just mentioned is so simple drink water and control your breakfast. That's not. You're not asking anyone to change the world. What's?
Speaker 1:the saying with sport it's, it's in sport the easiest thing to control is your diet. Isn't that right? That's right? Is that a saying?
Speaker 2:I think is that I think chris shipley no, it's a chris shipley saying it's not a bad saying, though I'll give you I'm 85 sure that's an actual saying okay I like it.
Speaker 2:I I used to go a little bit further than that ships that the most controllable nutritional part of your day is your breakfast. You get, wake up, there's no one. No one telling there's. You're in your house, there's no one telling you like what, where you should be going, there's no distractions of different casts or or when you're outside, it literally is like you and your kitchen and there's no one else around you. I think I've well, actually I'm speaking from a bias here because I don't have children, so there's probably definitely loads of people around you and probably annoying you. But even if you probably have kids, I'd say it's the most controllable part of the day.
Speaker 3:You can control that moment, yeah, and you're not going to have any, like you say, any things that are kind of going to lead you astray.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I control my breakfast and I try to eat healthy most of the time. But even working from home, I struggle to stick to my plan of what my lunch is going to be, because I have a distraction of like oh, I'll get a parcel at the door. Oh, I'll have to join a call that I wasn't expecting. Oh, I need to take the bin now. Oh, I need to do that. You know, you've got your chores and you've got your elements. They start after breakfast. So that's why I feel like it's the most controllable thing.
Speaker 3:If you, if you, if you mess up the rest of your day, at least you've got a good hearty proteins, fats, fibers in the morning exactly and, and then you know for lunches, then you, you know, once you've built that in and that becomes a regular thing, obviously, weekends I say to people you know what it's 80-20. If you want to go I mean I love going for brunch, it's my thing. I do it probably way too much, but you know when I enjoy that, because you know the Monday to Friday breakfast are pretty much the same healthy, nutritious that gives me a little bit of wiggle room. It's like that buffer, isn't it? We all kind of have a buffer and we just chip away at it, but we just need to make sure we keep it at a certain level. Um, yeah, again, brain, brain fog is it?
Speaker 3:because we're usually winding up to go to bed by now.
Speaker 1:Sorry, no, no, I wanted to go. Oh, I want to go. Bring it a little bit on there, because darren was on about like when he was at at home working from home, and he was saying it was difficult.
Speaker 3:But in my opinion, yeah I was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would say that's the easiest time. You're not like me where you've got to eat outside all the time. So another one of them habits you can build is preparating, preparing, preparing your meals prior to the day and then you've got a good, good, healthy meal that you can take with you yeah, yeah, make.
Speaker 3:Make meal prep, your friend, is what I spend a lot of time saying to people, because actually, if you're making a dinner, just make more of it and that's your lunch for the next day?
Speaker 1:simple, and then we make a meal for like 12 people, don't we?
Speaker 2:yeah, and it lasts two days yeah, that's ridiculous so I'm sorry, I know I've taken up your bedtime, you two. No, you're fine, I'm actually it's been. You know, I love what I do and I love talking about nutrition, so yeah, loves talking what to to get into, uh, more details, then just to kind of like start wrapping it up, then raffy, what, what, what's your passion pieces? What is the most? What would you say the most important things that you would love people to know when it comes to nutrition and the psychology towards it?
Speaker 3:I would love people to know that your gut is probably the most important thing to your overall health. You know, without a healthy gut you're going to be lacking immune support. You're not going to be able to break down your nutrients. So even if you have the perfect diet, if your gut's not working, it means it means nothing. And that's where a lot of inflammation comes from, because people go oh, you know, I just have a few symptoms and we kind of just dismiss them. Right, and I, yeah, I think, work on gut health.
Speaker 3:You know, eat healing foods. You know gluten not great for your gut every now and again. You know gluten not great for your gut every now and again. Fine, um, but just look after that, nurture it, whether that be with. You know, probiotic foods, prebiotic foods. Your probiotics are going to be your kefir, your live yogurts. You know sauerkraut, kimchi, obviously, try see how your gut takes them. And your prebiotic foods are feeding the good bacteria. So that's, for example, onions, garlic, flax seeds simple. You know, onion and garlic simple to get into your diet, right, um, and just just start with that, um. And you know probiotic supplements are out there, but you know you need to be have advice on on which ones to take, but I would yeah, I bang on about gut health all day long it's just imperative for overall health and it will help us as athletes as well, because you just feel, we just feel better you just.
Speaker 3:You'll feel better, you'll get more from the nutrients you're taking in, you won't be as fatigued, you won't be as inflamed. So obviously you know your training creates a hell of a lot of inflammation. We don't want to be adding to that. You know we want you need the information to. You know, help um with your training, but let's not overload the body do we need to touch on testing?
Speaker 3:oh yeah, I mean we can touch on. I'll just touching it briefly, but you know there are tests out there specifically for gut health. So you've got food intolerance testing, which is, you know, am I reacting to certain foods? So for some people that's really helpful if you feel like there are foods you can't eat. It's also quite helpful if you have no idea and it gives you a bit more understanding and a bit more guidance. And then you've got the next level, which is going to be your stool testing. Unfortunately, neither of those you can get at the doctor to the level that you need, so you would need to get them privately. But stool testing is going.
Speaker 3:What's my ratio, good to bad bacteria, the breakdown of it, what's my inflammatory markers? You know, am am I digesting my foods properly? So I always think testing is great. Um, because there's no hiding. We all go, oh, I'm fine. And then you get I. I mean I did it, I had blood work done. I went, oh, I'm, I'm not perfect, what's going on? But we all need a bit of a kick up the bum sometimes and when you see test results, you can't deny what's on the paper yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's understanding what's on the paper as well, isn't it? It's hard sometimes the people don't have that educated understanding of what they're looking for.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I, that's when I you know I'm not promoting my services in general, but just kind of see no promote it away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, promote it away. We've got a wedding to pay for.
Speaker 3:But you know it is always advised to go through a practitioner because, like I said before, you know you need to. They need to have all the pieces of the puzzle together and then they're going to give you a plan based on those specifics from the test results your lifestyle, what you're eating currently, because that's why you go and see Dave. You could make a training program yourself, but actually that's what he's trained to do yourself, but actually that's that's what he's trained to do. And then it also takes a stress off you because you trust him and you know that he's got all the education behind him and it's specific to you. You know your training programs not the same as mo's and so it's the same with nutritional therapists and kind of support that way yeah, nice.
Speaker 2:So how does it work? Approaching, approaching you raffy, how does? How do people say Rafi?
Speaker 3:How do people contact you? I'm not very good on my socials, but hey, that's okay. I do have a website, so just rafaeladietnutritioncom. I do actually have Instagram, but it's just my personal one, which is Rafi underscore diet, and also obviously you can reach out to Accountability Corner or Chris. But just if you are interested in kind of even just having a chat, just obviously you can reach out to Accountability Corner or Chris, but just if you are interested in kind of even just having a chat, just to go you know what, have a few questions. What does a consultation look like? You know how much time is needed? What's the cost? Because you see some people and they're incredibly expensive. I would say, you know, probably buy some, but I'm not hugely expensive, but it's an investment in your health, so it's kind of you have to weigh it up, don't you? Yeah, you know you spend x amount on holidays, but if you're sick you won't be able to go on holiday yeah, yeah, what um I was gonna ask in terms of testing and blood work.
Speaker 2:Is there any way you recommend for blood work where you can get it done?
Speaker 3:So I like MediChex. It's a good place to get your blood work done. You can. I believe they do quite a lot of finger prick testing as well that can be sent to your home. So, for example, vitamin d. You can get a really simple finger prick test for vitamin d, which is about 45 pounds um, which I'd probably advise everybody to do anyway. Um, you know the sun is non-existent and we need vitamin d for everything. Um, then the food intolerance testing um, you can get, um, we do. I work with someone that does. It's called Immupro, which is a finger prick food intolerance test. And then Regenerous Laboratories do all the stool testing and other kind of hormone work. But you need a practitioner to advise because obviously, like we said, if you don't know what you're doing, it's you know. Know you need. It needs to be practitioner, kind of registered and put through that way nice mo.
Speaker 2:Do you have any questions?
Speaker 4:I do not have any questions, but we've got to do our guest part of the show why are you doing this?
Speaker 3:to me, this is so mean.
Speaker 1:I don't agree with this I'm actually a little bit interested in this because I'd like to see what score you get to be, because just just go on down I was just gonna say just before we dive into the card, because I don't want to, I don't want to miss a trick or anything.
Speaker 2:Raffy yeah is there anything else that you think we've not spoken about today, or or you would like to mention before we, before we get into the most important part, obviously?
Speaker 3:of course, of course, um I the only thing that I kind of want to not push on people is that you know you guys are amazing athletes, athletes, and you think that you do have leeway right. Like I said, it's 80-20, but actually just put a bit more focus on the diet, because you'll get a hell of a lot more out of your training and if that's the motivation that you need to, you know, podium or you know, win your age group, whatever it is, use that as motivation, because if your diet's right, your training is going to be a hell of a lot better and it's definitely worth it yeah, especially for us aging athletes few age group guys.
Speaker 4:Yeah, your walking sticks out.
Speaker 1:I need one at the moment as well.
Speaker 2:I love that. That was a good. That was a good, good end there, raffyi. Now we can get to the most important part.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I didn't think we were going to do this. We do it for August.
Speaker 2:I was actually worried if Mo hadn't done it, but I guarantee he was probably doing it while we were talking Of course.
Speaker 3:Oh, look at that, look at that.
Speaker 4:You're too kind, mo, I can try and justify everything as well.
Speaker 2:Okay, you're the one who has to justify all these. Now Just a clarification Is this an OCR attribute card or is this just attributes? Now If, we took.
Speaker 4:Rafi and we put her on an OCR course. Maybe some like, just because I like her, some bumped up stats basically I can verify some of these yeah, well, you can. I mean we can discuss these. I'm probably not going to change them, but we can discuss okay, wow, you did this last time.
Speaker 2:Mo, go on, then. I'm taking creative control of this, yeah nice Over to you Mo.
Speaker 4:So speed. Now I've actually seen Rafi run, oh my God at. Euros yes, and do you know what? It wasn't the worst thing I've seen in the world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you were surprised, weren't you Mo?
Speaker 4:Yeah, it wasn't too bad.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you one thing You've never been to the airport with Raffy. That woman is the fastest walker in the galaxy. I have to run to keep up with her, so just on walking alone she's got the speed.
Speaker 3:Funny, she has got some legs on her, so we should say that right, we've got 75 I'll take that. That's very kind yeah agility.
Speaker 4:Now I thought, as you're a golfer and you're doing a lot of twists and turnings in your swing, I thought we're probably a bit higher than your speed.
Speaker 3:So we've gone 77 fair, definitely, I think again very nice and kind like that. What do you reckon, chris? I'm no, because I do my mobility every day and my stretching yeah, you're very flexible oh no, don't bring it down, come on I'm not, I'm just, honestly, you are.
Speaker 1:I've seen your arms go right. The way you're double jointed. You can, you are very you're very agile.
Speaker 4:That might play into the agility aspect a little bit. Uh, compromise running. We've got you at 70. I have no idea with this one do you know, I what?
Speaker 3:okay, so you guys, are you running what? What is compromise running? Again? That's what I was struggling to come up with when we were talking earlier.
Speaker 4:So running under duress, so like if you was to run and then jump over a wall and then run and then jump over a wall and then carry something.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, like I do every weekend. Yeah, Okay, fair. No, I mean, I would even go less than that. I would go like 65. I Okay, fair. No, I mean, I would even go less than that. I would go like 65. I would be absolutely pants. I'd run and then I'd wait at the wall, get my breath back for a couple of minutes and then attempt to jump over it. Yeah, we'll give you a 70.
Speaker 4:I'm not going to be too harsh, All right Again you're chasing after golf balls.
Speaker 2:He's not changing it. He's not changing it for anything.
Speaker 4:Again, if you think about golf, you hit a golf ball. You then walk to the golf ball and then you hit another golf ball. There's a compromise element there.
Speaker 3:Very, very true. I mean, when you put it like that, it's got to be 70.
Speaker 4:Yeah, exactly, generous mood Right endurance 88.
Speaker 1:That needs to be high because, right, we train what? Two and a half hours for our long training day. Raffy plays multiple days of what's two rounds of golf 36 holes 36, so multiple days, 36 holes through the like constantly, and how many miles, like sometimes your weekly mileage is higher than yours it's higher than mine. Wow, it's unreal. Yeah, it's unreal, yeah it.
Speaker 3:During season. I always say to Chris I'm like what's your mileage?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't like saying anything anymore, it's so high.
Speaker 2:That's amazing yeah it's so much.
Speaker 1:walk Like you can walk forever, can't you?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I do love a good walk.
Speaker 4:Endurance good, and that's kind of exactly what I was thinking. You play golf. That is a very endurance sport.
Speaker 3:You could be out there for hours, yeah, hours.
Speaker 4:So I put it quite high.
Speaker 3:I'm willing to change it as well, make it higher no, no, I think you've been very generous than the others, so I will 100, take it.
Speaker 4:Balances that herself out and now we move on to power. Now I again directing this at golf. Obviously, golf is quite a powerful sport. You need to hit a ball as far as you can with momentum, so we're up on high on this. And then again, if you think your endurance is better than your power, I'm willing to swap them. But I went there with 90. I thought decent.
Speaker 1:So for all the golf listeners of which there's just me yeah, probably. What do you? What do you carry? Is it the right term? What do you carry a ball when you drive it? Is that the right term?
Speaker 3:oh, my driver yeah. I don't know. I got it up to about 262 260 ish which is not a bad not a bad whack.
Speaker 1:I don't know what that is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yards yeah.
Speaker 1:But I know that Rafi can drive a ball Okay.
Speaker 4:Is that the furthest that was?
Speaker 1:I wasn't trying you on that one.
Speaker 3:No, that's good Mo, 90 power, we'll take that.
Speaker 4:What is the? Just an interesting question. Is that the furthest you've like is the driver your furthest club?
Speaker 3:I would probably say I'm quite fortunate that, out of the people I play golf with, I probably hit it the furthest, which is obviously more of an advantage in this sport.
Speaker 4:Nice.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:Right Technique. This is your lowest stat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've never seen your obstacle.
Speaker 4:I don right technique. This is your lowest stat.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've never seen your obstacle um, I don't know if I want to.
Speaker 4:To be honest, I don't think anybody wants to see that, so I've come with 64 I thought grip. If we had one for just grip, strength alone, that might be high because obviously gripping the golf club.
Speaker 3:But yeah, that's about as much as it goes I tell you what I always say to chris when I come and watch you guys and I watch the female athletes, I am in awe because I just think it's just unbelievable the strength that they have. It's ridiculous. Yeah, I'm very, very impressed, I have to say, and obviously you guys are okay, but gotta, gotta bat my fellow female athletes.
Speaker 1:That'll get some good listeners. Stop.
Speaker 4:Moving on to strength now, I know you have a little bit of a strength routine in your locker, so we've gone for a 71. I think that's I imagine you're pretty strong.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. When's you're pretty, I imagine you're pretty strong. Yeah, I think I think.
Speaker 1:I was going to say when I moved into here, rafi helped me move in quite a lot of stuff Treadmill, I think you helped with. I think you helped with the bed.
Speaker 3:Yeah which. I did not sign up to you were like, oh, do you want to come? And you know see the place and then all of a sudden it was, oh well, actually give us a hand. And this stuff was so bloody heavy. It was a joke. It was like I did not sign up for this.
Speaker 1:And that's why you're getting, that's why you've got a ring on your finger, a big rock there as well. You need a good, strong arm to carry that, oh my golly, but no 71, that's good to carry that, oh my golly.
Speaker 4:But no 71, that's good, we like that. And then, obviously, your last one, your special stat. Um, I was going to be fancy and call it all your nutritional names, but, quite frankly, when I was doing this I couldn't even think of them.
Speaker 1:So I just went with food, just did a whole podcast on it, mate I've been with her two and a half quite a while, and I can barely remember what it's called. So I'm with Mo.
Speaker 4:I hope you can listen back to that, mo and, just you know, write down all those tips and hints oh yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm going to take everything from this, and if I take anything away, it's just eat more food. I think you said something you're focusing on that. 20 out of the 80 20 yeah, yeah, I've got my 80 20s the other way around. I think that's the problem here, um perfect nice 100 on your food.
Speaker 4:I could have bumped up again to a thousand, but no one, no one, ever really goes 100. But I was thinking this is probably higher than 100, because you do know your stuff. But I dabble so we've got you at a 74 overall. I, someone that's never raced an ocr I think that's really good yeah, so do I. You wait, cue all the complaints I actually think you're higher than alan from memory I've.
Speaker 1:I have always said, though, if you gave raffy a few, maybe a year or two on an ocr course, she'd do really really well. You are. You are probably the best athlete on this podcast right now, so stop, it's just the running.
Speaker 3:I just don't like running. I'd be terrible at spartan, at spartan sorry oh no, because spartan's all running yeah I listen yeah, so shipley doesn't.
Speaker 2:Yes, oh, dear funny. Wow, that that was was a great way to end it.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me guys. No, I really enjoyed it. It was good fun.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for coming on and I hope the listeners definitely get something out of this. And then also just let us know any questions or anything. That would be great to hear and we can help answer any, because we've got a direct line to Rafi well that's me, yeah, yeah, that's you cool right now are we off, now are we done yeah, I'm happy if you're happy.
Speaker 1:That concludes the episode bit of an educational one, right?
Speaker 2:thank you very much, rafi. See you on the next one, see you later, thank you.
