Double Edge Fitness
This podcast is dedicated to showcasing to our members and any of our listeners who are interested in how this northern Nevada gym operates. Our mission is to inspire others to bring health and wellness home to truly make a difference in the household with the ultimate goal of making Reno the healthiest city in the country.In this podcast, we will be talking about things that are on our mind and answering questions from our members and our listeners to provide a unique listening experience.
Double Edge Fitness
From Crisis to Clarity: Transforming Family Nutrition.
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Ready. Welcome to the show. Huh, it's our show music. What, yeah, that's nice. Did you? Today we got Cassie Bullock on the Double Edge Podcast oh my gosh. And we are going to have a little applause for you. Oh my goodness, welcome to the show. That's hilarious A little bit ridiculous isn't it.
Speaker 3:Did you make that? No, it came built into this thing. Oh my gosh, that's funny, but I have way too much fun with it. Feel legit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, we are actually in like I want to look at the camera, but the purpose is to capture us, but we have a conversation with each other in here. That's fair. Yeah, so we have an actual podcast studio now. We here. It's fair. Uh, yeah, so we have an actual podcast studio now. We have actual podcast equipment and shouldn't be a lot of background noise.
Speaker 1:We soundproofed this room pretty good it's pretty quiet it's pretty quiet and nothing's coming through on from the gym lunatics out there, and today's a great workout for me to test the validity of our soundproofing, so but today, my wife and I, our plan is to have a conversation about family nutrition around kids, but general family nutrition. Obviously. We will uh, preload this with a little bit of history for those that I would be surprised if you didn't know it by now, but just some of the stuff we've been through that's driven us down this road. So I don't know if you want to give a quick little background They've heard it from me a lot but just uh, where we were prior to Claire's thing, nutrition, health, familyire's thing, nutrition health family, claire's thing, and then how our eyes were opened to how much better nutrition can be and how gross our society's food industry is yeah, yeah, I mean I wouldn't say that we ate poorly overall prior to cla's diagnosis, but there there was a huge learning curve for us and room for improvement that we real realized after the fact.
Speaker 3:Um, you know there was a lot of things that led up to Claire's diagnosis as well. Like I don't think it's just solely based on food. I think that complicated things. But so our daughter, claire, was diagnosed in 2023 with Crohn's disease. It's an autoimmune disease that unfortunately attacks the gastrointestinal system. It's multifactorial, meaning like there's an autoimmune component where something turns on in your immune system and you start attacking your own body's tissue. In conjunction to genetic predisposition. I unfortunately have a pretty strong family history of IBD in my family, so there was that risk. And then there is a lot of belief that the microbiome and a disruption of the microbiome also can influence and create that environment for it to trigger. So before Claire was diagnosed, you know we would eat like the kids would eat like gluten free, organic waffles, but they were like the pre-made, frozen ones. Claire really liked chicken noodle soup, so we'd get canned chicken noodle soup for her to eat at times At times.
Speaker 1:She went through a phase we thought she was going to turn into a chicken noodle soup.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she would eat it daily if we let her. I mean, we did still utilize whole foods and giving him fruits and vegetables, but we definitely utilized a lot more like pre-made foods and items like quick go-tos in the busy life, Um, thinking that you know they're relatively healthy choices. Um, but again, like once we discovered Claire's conditioning and again kind of went down that rabbit hole of all the things that can exasperate it, we realized that so many of the things that we were buying had things added to it that are non-food items essentially and can definitely complicate IBD patients in particular. But I would argue, could you know impact individuals that don't necessarily have Crohn's or ulcerative colitis too? You know impact individuals that don't necessarily?
Speaker 1:have Crohn's or ulcerative colitis too. Yeah, no, it's interesting because prior to this, who in their wildest dreams would think chicken noodle soup is like? Has a risk factor with it. You know, grandma's homemade chicken noodle soup post Thanksgiving dinner is a completely different animal than what is put into these cans in the stores, right, and I think that was one of the big shocking things for me, because you know when we're in the hospital.
Speaker 1:You're obviously navigating the medical side of everything crazy going on there and, in my helplessness, all I did was research, like hours being on the on the laptop researching diets, healthy eating for people with Crohn's disease, and what kept coming up over and over and over again is the additives put into processed food. Yeah. And you look at the laundry list of things to avoid, what ends up happening is you quickly realize you can't eat anything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's added to everything. It's everything yeah.
Speaker 1:I remember some of my first trips to the grocery store and you're pulling down every box of things that you know labeled healthy, gluten-free, keto, whatever right, it's got all the good labels on it and then you flip it over. Undoubtedly there is one of the 15 additives. I can't even remember them all off the top of my head. I have them somewhere in this notes thing, but it's in everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like literally.
Speaker 3:Just like sugar is added to everything like that was kind of the other thing added to everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah and it was, I want to say, the first month or so trying to shop and navigate, buying foods. It was stressful yeah it's like what are we going to give the kids? What are we we going to do?
Speaker 3:And, um well, I think it was an awakening for us to thinking that we did reasonably well and then kind of discovered like, oh my gosh, like there's so much more. Um, not again, like I don't think that food was the sole cause of what happened to Claire. But you know, I wish we had known some of that information before, I guess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean right, you sit here. Both of us probably gone through it in our head. It's like what could we have done different to prevent it? Yeah, and that's a path. Mentally, that is a no-win situation. Yeah, the past.
Speaker 3:And I think it's hard too, because, again, the food that you get in the grocery store today is not the same food that you would get 20, 30 years ago. Right Like it's changed drastically. Like if you got chicken noodle soup a few decades ago, I don't know if I would have the same added ingredients as it does now.
Speaker 1:It was like the 60s. I believe there was that big shift in how manufacturing of food really changed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, to keep the shelf life and that's the hard part is just basically everything has added ingredients to preserve it.
Speaker 1:No, it's all around flavor and preserving it yeah. Longer shelf lives yeah, and it's gross. So backstory there. Claire got sick, ended up in the hospital. She ended up having emergency surgery, had two thirds of her large intestine removed. She ended up having a colon rupture while in the hospital.
Speaker 1:It was a very terrible time and coming out the other side of that, you know we're looking at every single thing that we can do as parents for our family to make sure that she has the best opportunities to succeed health-wise going forward. Uh, being nine years old, diagnosed with this and having this level of surgery is it's rare, it's not very common. People with Crohn's end up not having a colon resection until later in life typically and it was. It's scary, but we're very optimistic and the things that we can control and what we're doing with our house and our family.
Speaker 1:And when people ask me for nutrition advice, I usually front load the question Do you want the Claire lens or do you want kind of a reasonable? Are we doing better lens? Right, because I know I can come off pretty aggressively and just say that that's bullshit food, that's garbage, it's trash. Why would you put that effing body? And I do try to balance some perspective here when it comes to guiding people down this path, that I don't think you need to be as aggressive as we are. We're very. We have a stimulant that motivates our family to function at a whole other level. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I'm not going to pretend that if you do choose to follow our path and what we're doing, that regardless, if you have a functioning bowel and you know overall you feel healthy that you're not going feel massive improvements. And, uh, I feel that me personally am a testament to that. Evolving my own nutrition with the family in this process has had a massive influence on my own health and performance and feeling good and all the things. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So our goal having this discussion is to hopefully give parents some tools and insights and things that maybe they can do as a family and maybe inspire families to move forward, taking steps as a family unit and not I don't know scare people away.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think. I think first and foremost, like that's number one is, I think it has to be done as a family union. It can't be like parents eat this and kids eat this, right, because they're going to want to do exactly what you're doing. So it has to be done as a team approach. We also have our son, jackson. He eats the same way as the whole family does and we really try to be conscientious of sticking with it to support Claire. But, like you said, we all benefit from it.
Speaker 1:So the question I get is what diet are we on? Yeah. And when I try to articulate it I pretty much fail. But it is more ketogenic, if you will leans more towards that direction. But we still eat carbohydrates fruit. But if you can explain the SCD diet, yeah. I mean, you've been down the rabbit hole, you've read the books, you've done all the research and this is the diet that you specifically have heavily bought into for the family, and I don't fully understand it. I just say yes, Okay, so well with IBD.
Speaker 3:There's a few different uh dietary regimens that can be recommended. A lot of them can be very, very restricting, like some down to just eating only five foods. Um, and the concept overall for no matter what diet choice you choose, for IBD patients in particular, is that it doesn't necessarily have to be a forever thing. It's like a reset to try to reestablish the microbiome and then slowly kind of add things back in depending on what you tolerate. So the specific carbohydrate diet or the SCD diet, it's based on a.
Speaker 3:It's not based on the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle there is that's who made it essentially pretty famous, but a doctor developed it specifically for ulcerative colitis in Crohn's patients. You limit a lot of different types of carbohydrates, specifically a lot of starchy carbohydrates, to starve out the bad bacteria that may have overdeveloped in the microbiome and hopefully kind of reestablish it with a healthy balance. So that's the main concept behind it is, if I mean, bacteria eat carbs, sugar, fiber, so providing it with very specific carbohydrates to encourage the good bacteria versus the bad. So that's the concept of it.
Speaker 1:That's the gist of it.
Speaker 3:That's the gist of it. So one thing with it, if anybody looks into it and again like this is very specific to IBD patients. But they have a list of legal and illegal foods. It, if anybody looks into it and again like this, is very specific to IBD patients. But you know they have a list of legal and illegal foods which are pretty like harsh terms I think, but they go through and break down the actual chemical components of those foods, of why they may not be beneficial in the diet. So you know, again, like we did that specifically in order to try to reduce inflammation as much as possible for claire, but we've also expanded and started adding a couple of things back in and just kind of testing out how she tolerates it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so when it comes to that overgrowth of bacteria, I cannot remember the strain specifically that that's bad yeah, the one that there's several that can be bad.
Speaker 3:There's different family.
Speaker 1:I don't remember off the top of my head either, but yeah, so basically in your gut microbiome, the you have a bunch of little critters in there billions of them. Yeah, and based on our current Western diet, it can get very disruptive in there and the negative critters, if you will, can overpopulate. Yeah. And then in turn cause well, irritable bowel syndrome, which isn't that uncommon in society, I don't think. And then you have irritable bowel disease, ibd.
Speaker 3:Inflammatory bowel disease.
Speaker 1:Inflammatory bowel disease, and that's where your colon gets inflamed.
Speaker 3:Right, obviously, which, again, these two in particular are autoimmune too, so there's that component to it.
Speaker 1:So there is a potential genetic component? Yeah to this, but I will argue that in our society, with our current state of food, that a lot of people's gut health is very disruptive. They just might not be experiencing it symptomatically in the way somebody who is susceptible to Crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis would experience it and in turn, getting your gut health healthy, you're going to have pretty significant benefits. Yeah. So with the SCD diet, what are some hard no's in our diet that are just this is an absolute no-no.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, the only kind of sugar that we use with the SED diet is honey. Yep, and that's because it's a monosaccharide, versus everything else has disaccharides, or it's like a mix of different things. Emulsifiers, emulsifiers, yeah, so those are added to dang near everything, and the chicken noodle soup that she was consuming frequently had carrageen in it, which you know, come to find out specifically, is not good for IBD patients. So emulsifiers are big, basically like, if you're reading a nutrition label and it does not look like a food item or you cannot enunciate it it's not, then you're not going to eat it. Like it has to have whole, real ingredients. Um, again, for the SED it, it did remove again a lot of starchy things like potatoes, tapioca, starch, cassava flour, wheat, gluten, um, corn, lactose, dairy. Um, what else does it eliminate?
Speaker 1:And if I can have that list of additives.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you made a pretty comprehensive list when we were in the hospital too, but again it kind of just goes back to whole foods. Like you're going to eat whole foods, unprocessed meats. So if you're going to eat any kind of meat, it's made at home, seasoned at home, it's not smoked, it's not you know, the rotisserie chicken from Costco. Canned foods are out because, again, you don't know what the processing is or what's been added to them. Coconut milk, like. If you try to get canned coconut milk, you can't. It's really hard.
Speaker 3:I have found one brand that doesn't add guar gum to it, which is another emulsifier. So it's just kind of interesting. You can't buy pickles at the grocery store. It's really hard to, because they'll add yellow coloring to it or, again, like just additives to preserve the shelf life or to make it look like more clear. I was trying to make hamburgers the other day and I couldn't find any sliced pickles and it was really sad, yeah, so no, like when it comes to like gargum and xanthan gum, these are from nature like they are emulsifiers from nature, but it's one of those dose effect equations that you know once in a while.
Speaker 1:It might not be that bad the problem is the cumulative effect right like it's in everything. Yeah, there's nothing at all that I could find that's on a shelf, in a box, in a bag that doesn't have. I mean, those are the two main ones that are in everything.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's just added to everything Again, just like sugar is. So yeah. So I mean, what's interesting is it sounds like there's a lot of restrictions, but now that we've been doing it for over a year, it's. It's really not that hard. You just got to kind of change your mindset. In the grocery store, you're not going to go down the aisles with boxed goods. You're going to go to the produce section, you're going to go to the meat section and you're going to be on your way yeah, and that's what it came to.
Speaker 1:I remember shopping and just like I remember vividly standing in Whole Foods and I was like stressed out, trying to find things for the kids snacks and this and that and it just came to my brain like, well, it's pointless to be stressed out, we can just buy these things over here yeah like it's whole real food, and we make what we can yeah out of these things, like there is no more shopping, uh, boxes and snacks and yeah, using apps we've.
Speaker 3:we've found like a handful of snacks that are Claire friendly, which like Lara bars only certain Lara bars but that have like just a few, like two or three ingredients, which is wonderful. The RX bars there's a couple of them, you know there are some fruit snacks that's just just fruit, no added sugar. So again, like some companies I think, have gotten creative in producing some good quality food.
Speaker 1:If you guys are interested, which I'm sure some folks will be, we'll actually curate a list of these companies that we get these snacks that we've found from. When you look at prices, just get over it.
Speaker 3:Some aren't bad, Like large bars aren't that expensive.
Speaker 1:They're not. It's not the end of the world, but I will say that shopping in this direction there's a premium.
Speaker 3:Yeah. No, there is Like our grocery bill, like we already spent quite a bit of money on groceries, but definitely I think it's gone up a little bit because we also try to buy all organic, trying to reduce other environmental factors that obviously can affect our health, like pesticides and those kinds of things. Yeah. Which would probably be a whole other discussion, another podcast.
Speaker 1:Well, no, and there's quite a polarizing conversation that happens in the health and fitness space on organic. Is it really organic? Are you getting much benefit out of this, are you not? And then you hear the organic stuff stored in the same warehouse as the non-organic stuff. So then there's crossover and this and that, and it is it's a valid argument that the premium you're paying for organic is the benefit outweigh the risk. The premium you're paying for organic is the benefit outweigh the risk. I can't sit here and emphatically say for you and your situation where you're at, is it? Yeah.
Speaker 1:But when I look at my daughter, we're going to do everything possible, regardless. If there is a slight positive outcome with no downside, we're doing it. Slight positive outcome with no downside we're doing it.
Speaker 4:You know, that's how I felt about those um sheets that I ordered. Uh what are the grounding sheets.
Speaker 1:People ask me like you think it's worth it. I was like I have no idea. Yeah. There's some research out there that support it being positive for lowering inflammation in the body, but there's no downside. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So if there's no downside and potential for upside, we're going to do it and we're going to invest in it and put that effort forward. And you know, organic is one of those things and I think there is validity to buying organic in the sense that pesticides and GMO foods aren't like nature's way Right. So at a certain point, back to cumulative dose response. Of this stuff being in everything, how much can the human body take? Right. How much can the liver deal with? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think, when you look at volume consumption and you start adding additives together across all your meals, adding additives together across all your meals, all your snacks, and the accumulation of oh, I ate four healthy meals today, but every one of them had the same five additives. Every one of them had five, 10 grams of added sugar but, they're quote-unquote healthy because they're marketed that way. Right. And that was a huge eye-opener for me.
Speaker 3:I mean, you can't even buy beef jerky, yeah the kids prefer the one you make anyways, which, honestly, beef jerky is really easy to make it is.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we burn through it when I do make it. Yeah, but it was one of those things it's like oh, jerky is a great healthy snack. Every single one has brown sugar additives put in it. You can't just find meat and salt.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:It's insane, like pickles. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Going back to pickles, which should be like vinegar, salt and cucumber.
Speaker 1:Yep, and this is the very frustrating side of where our food industry is. Yeah, food industry is yeah, and I think it's. I think it's important for parents to be very mindful of what they're eating, what's in it, what are potential upsides and downsides, and being aware, like mindlessly doing things, I think, comes with risk. Now, yeah.
Speaker 1:You know and I know, lives are busy. Both parents have to work these days and you know you get home from the sports and you're looking for the quick this, the quick that, the snack, the grab, the drive-thru on the way home. I think it's worth your time and energy for your family to start working through alternative strategies to find a better way. Yeah. And I'm not going to downplay how you know things are busy. They are.
Speaker 1:Life is hectic and crazy at times, but sidestepping what goes into your body, once in a while a sacrifice is made for convenience. But looking at that as a solution year-round, I do think it's very advantageous for parents to put the effort in for their kids, not even in regards to Crohn's disease, but children type 2 diabetes through the roof, childhood obesity climbing at a rapid rate. Crohn's in children is being diagnosed at a more rapid rate than ever before in history and it's hard to sit here and believe that I mean there are environmental influences, but that our food doesn't play a huge role in this. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And yeah, so we have a list of snacks and companies that we use that are quote-unquote processed right, so there's whole food. You make the food yourself. The food is the name. Then you have whole food you make the food yourself. The food is the name. Then you have processed food. These can be minimal ingredients, but it does go through a manufacturing process. Right. And then you have ultra-processed food. This is the stuff with the you know 17-year shelf life. Like your milk, doesn't go bad for you know seven months. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Stuff like that and, I think, educate understanding the difference between all those and trying to really pare back the ultra-processed for sure. Yeah. Being mindful of the processed. What's in it? What's it made of? Is it a few ingredients? Are they ingredients you can pronounce?
Speaker 3:Right. And start really I've just the kids too, like when they ask me for certain snacks I just ask because they can read. Now I tell them to read the ingredients and once they start reading the ingredients they kind of get these looks on their faces. They're like oh, that's not really food. So it helps them understand too that you know, I'm not telling them not to eat Doritos just because I'm trying to be mean. I'm telling them that because it's got trash ingredients in it.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I mean even in the chip world. There are better options out there. Right, we do limit. Potatoes are one of the you know.
Speaker 3:Something we've added back in, but we try to do it in moderation, because it is a starch, obviously, and our kids will kill off a potato chip bag, especially Jackson. Yeah, like no one's business.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's the one that you'll go and find hidden in the corner with a massive bag of chips. Yeah. He'll wreck house on those things, but then he's still hungry.
Speaker 3:So again like we're not really satisfying what he needs, and you know. So that's when it's usually like pre-dinner or try to get him to eat quality food and then he's not snacky anymore. So that can help kids as well.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll bring up a couple of other funny things, but also real life deals with the chips. So we got those unprocessed food. I've said this over and over again, but this is how our house lives. We pretty much eat simple, pretty regularly the same things. Yeah. And we've all bought in together. And that's one thing and I'm sure you'll agree you've already brought it up that the house needs to be bought in. Everybody that lives in that house, you know parents, children need to be bought in, and it starts with mom and dad yeah you know, I've had parents ask me like how do you get your kids to eat this?
Speaker 1:and it's like I don't want to sound like that guy but I'm going to. It's like who's the parent, like who's buying the food and who's leading by example, who's setting the tone for what and why, and I think there's a way to articulate conversation with your children. Obviously, jackson saw his sister in the hospital. It's a memorable experience for him. I think our whole family has buy-in because of that experience is a driver for our house. But when you're sitting down with your kids, like including them in the process, like including them in the process, like including them in the conversation of understanding health, understanding how the body benefits from this, how the mind benefits from this and um, versus just telling. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, we've both had pretty good conversations with our kids about how we eat, why we eat this way, why we don't go to McDonald's. You know we drive by McDonald's. They both simultaneously say disgusting, make jokes about how disgusting McDonald's is.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think parents can do a good job, including their children in the process, in the shopping, in the meal prepping.
Speaker 3:Taking them shopping with you sometimes is helpful, because if you pick vegetables for them and they're like I don't like carrots or I don't like tomatoes, let them pick two vegetables, three vegetables for the week. That'll be like their snack vegetables and then they were engaged in it, got to pick it and and usually a lot of times that will help encourage them to stick with like eating those choices. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yep, let them help kind of guide that and making better choices and educating and including them in the conversation. Obviously, I think there's a certain age that it's probably going to be more valuable. It's hard to do with a two-year-old.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:But also a two-year-old shouldn't be very combative over what they're eating.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they have the choices that you put in front of them, yep.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then, at the end of the day, it's just remembering like it's your responsibility as the parent to guide the health of your child, and taking that seriously, like it's a serious responsibility and something you shouldn't take for granted, and then just truly understand, believe the whole house is going to benefit yeah from that path um. What about vitamins and supplements?
Speaker 1:so, I'm very standoffish when people ask me about supplements for kids. Yeah, because at the end of the day, we should be getting most of our nutrition through healthy whole food. Yeah, but I know that we do give our kids vitamins and they do get some supplements, um I give them two specifically.
Speaker 3:I'd give them three, but I haven't figured out a great way to give them the third. So I give and this again is mostly for Claire because there can be potential malabsorption processes, specifically for her so multivitamin and then vitamin D and then fish oil, if I could find a good one that they can't taste in their smoothie, but that's been tricky. So those would be the three. Fish oil just as an anti-inflammatory effect. Vitamin D again, claire gets her vitamin D measured, so we're kind of in an interesting situation where we get to see her vitamin levels because they get checked routinely before her infusions. Um, and it's been at the lower end of normal and I kind of consider everyone vitamin d deficient until proven otherwise like we. Just none of us get enough sunshine and it's not in a lot of foods unless it's fortified into it, such as cereals.
Speaker 3:But then you gotta watch sugar content right and, yeah, orange juice, but then you're drinking a bunch of sugar with your orange juice. So you know a vitamin D supplement is also. Those are the only two for them. Oh, and a probiotic, specifically again because of Claire's situation, not necessarily thinking that everyone has to do a probiotic, especially if they eat fermented foods. Our kids do eat sauerkraut, but I do give our kids that VSL probiotic as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the VSL probiotic is a very high-end, expensive probiotic that I think needs to be used with intention. It's not just something you're taking for be a little healthy. I mean me personally and correct me if I'm wrong, but I've kind of changed my tune on probiotics. Uh, all the shelf stable ones out there. Like I only see a benefit for everyday person with probiotics is if you eat such a garbage diet like just purely processed garbage all the time, you might see a benefit from some of these shelf stable probiotics. But it seems in general that the probiotic industry is just it's kind of gross to me.
Speaker 3:I think the harder question is is, like I would argue, like the thousands of probiotics that are on the shelf Is it a bunch of dead bacteria or is it actually live? I think that's the harder question. It's like getting a reputable quality probiotic or any supplement. It takes a little bit of research too. So, yeah, I totally agree with you. I'm a big believer in getting your micronutrients and vitamins and minerals through the foods that you eat, and if that's not happening, then you can consider supplementing what you need, but, like you said, with intention and specific purpose in mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, because some of these probiotics. I mean you're looking at $100, $150 a month. Yeah. For that good quality, good brand that you know is going to have what it says on it and effective. And these are kept in a fridge or freezer.
Speaker 1:They're not shelf stable and a lot of the shelf stable ones are stuff you're going to find in you know, fermented dairy products. You're going to find in you know fermented vegetable kind of deals that you can get from eating, you know, from nature. Versus popping one of these shelf stable probiotics, I just Versus popping one of these shelf stable probiotics. I just, yeah, I'm not a fan of those ones, but there are a couple of companies. Designs for health. It has some really good ones, and then the VSL that we use for Claire is a really good one. But again, I wouldn't just rush to probiotics unless it's like very intentional solving a problem. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And how do you know you have a problem? Well, your digestion's all messed up. You can look in the toilet and quickly get a tune into how your digestive track is each day. Yeah.
Speaker 1:What your bowel movement's like, and that is a very telling. In our house, poop is a very common conversation and it is a very telling of how your digestion is working. Yeah and um, these are conversations you can have with your primary care provider and, um, I'll give you guys my two cents if you ask me. But so supplements we use uh, peer pal, it's, it's the children's formulation from Pure Encapsulations. Yeah, it's their main multivitamin. It's a little capsule. Cassie breaks it open into a smoothie to mix it in. The smoothie includes berries, your homemade yogurt that you do.
Speaker 3:Banana.
Speaker 1:Banana.
Speaker 3:Half a banana and then the vitamin D Yep, that's about it. So they get that most D Yep, that's about it.
Speaker 1:So they get that most days, yeah. And then the K vitamin D. We get a for them. They get the one from Athletic Greens. Yeah. It sits in dropper. It's droplets, so pretty simple to add to a smoothie versus a capsule, but a capsule we can break apart. What about? Uh, I use. What do they get?
Speaker 3:uh, so they get about 2 000 I use each yeah all right, roughly per day, that's a lot for pediatric dosing. But again, like tracking claire's, hers is in the 30s and I've been supplementing that.
Speaker 1:So I mean generally, it's like 400 to 800 I use for kids as a daily dose and one of the caveats here is kids don't necessarily get routine blood work. I mean. Claire's in a particular situation. So it is hard to know what your child might be deficient in if you will. But if they're eating a well balanced whole food diet, mixtures of fruits and vegetables, you know. A basic multivitamin is probably going to serve most of your child's needs yeah so and usually it has vitamin d in it.
Speaker 3:so just always look at that too, like it's not necessarily something you have to add in addition to yeah.
Speaker 1:So be mindful of that. But just in general, keep it simple. I would be cautious of there's a lot of gummy multivitamins out there that are just full of garbage. Yeah. Colorings and additives and sugar.
Speaker 3:I can't tell you how many patients I've seen where, once we like, calculate their gummy vitamins, they're eating like 10 grams of sugar just with their vitamins.
Speaker 1:Easily yeah, easily, like people ask me about some of these creatine gummies that are hot on the market right now. I was like, yeah, but I don't need the added sugar, when it's very simple for me to mix pure creatine monohydrate in anything I drink, like I'll just dump the powder right in my mouth and drink it with water. It's tasteless. But then you get these gummies and then, for whatever reason, because it's creatine gummies, it's all of a sudden healthy, but you flip it over. It's like these five gummies. Now I'm getting eight grams of added sugar.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, you have to be really careful.
Speaker 1:Yep, I tell folks, when you just spend a day looking at the added sugar and just add it up, guarantee you the majority of people be over 20 grams easily of added sugar. That's not necessary. So so you have vitamins. Things that have been hard that people bring up is, uh, you know, hard that people bring up is, uh, you know, meal prepping, planning for dinners, uh, events with the kids going to places, birthday parties, traveling, so forth. You know, and I'm, you know, we see we probably share similar perspectives, but you are obviously chief curator of food at the house. What has been, you know, I know, in the beginning, as we're trying to learn recipes and stuff, spent a lot of time doing that.
Speaker 3:But it also seems out that we kids are going to like it. So I think what I have found you still have to plan and prep, but keep it simple, Like, do a meat and a vegetable or a meat and vegetable and fruit or whatever it's going to be, Um, and just leave it at that, Like you don't have to do anything super fancy with it. So I mean, sometimes I'll forget to take meat out in the morning to defrost, Like that can be tricky, Like I forgot to do that yesterday. And then our go-to. We found a couple of like quick tricks, like chicken wings. You can get some good frozen organic chicken wings, non-seasoned. Throw them in the air fryer 30 minutes and they're ready to go. Kids love them.
Speaker 1:Or you just add a little bit of salt.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's it. I mean what I have found and you know other children can be different, but I have found that children are like really simple they want, they don't like. The kids don't like garlic, they don't like onion, they like pepper on their eggs. They really don't even like salt that much, like if you over-salt salt something, they won't eat it. So it's like pretty minimal seasoning and I feel like that's made our life a lot easier is just keeping it simple, like just pick a couple food items and that's that's it, you know yeah, to your point.
Speaker 1:when we first start out on this, I remember you like pulling these recipes and trying all this really creative stuff. Yeah, and as we shifted to simplicity, the kids I mean Claire will sit there with a bowl of ground beef and fermented vegetables and be very happy yeah.
Speaker 1:With munching on some bell peppers, carrots or tomatoes, yeah, and Jack's in the same way. It just started working and all coming together. The simpler we made it, the easier it became. I was telling a member the other day and I do probably come off slightly annoyed when people come at me and like, oh, I can't eat that way, I can't eat the same things. And it's like why I can't eat that way, I can't eat you know the same things. And it's like why you want the results, you want the life-changing experience, you want to feel better, but you don't want to simplify your eating to facilitate. That Doesn't simple, sound good. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Like over-complicating. I don't know the flavor profiles and there's companies out there like Primal Kitchen has some decent dressings and decent options there, but I don't know. I think people get too hung up on I don't know and I'm not a foodie. I know there are foodies out there and I applaud people that are chef capable and taking a couple things and turning it into this five-star meal. I can appreciate it, but I don't have the desire to put in the work to be that person. It's not a driver for me.
Speaker 1:I think our whole house is like this.
Speaker 3:Food serves a purpose to fuel our body well, and I just feel like every time I have tried to make like a comprehensive meal, again, it's like hit or miss with the kids. It looks funny, it smells funny, it tastes funny. It has to like have the ABCs of looking right, tasting right, smelling right texture, otherwise they can be like put off by it. And that can be hard because, like kids can be like put off by it. And that can be hard because, like kids can be really picky.
Speaker 3:And, like with Jackson, I'll also attest, like there's times when I'll put his dinner in front of him and he'll just look at it and tell me he's not going to eat it, he doesn't like it. Like automatically. We're kind of stern in the regards where I'm like well, this is what we made for dinner, I'm not making you another dinner. In the regards where I'm like, well, this is what we made for dinner, I'm not making you another dinner. Like, you can sit here and eat this or you can go without food and then usually, like 10, 15 minutes later he'll come back and try it and, sure enough, he likes it or he'll eat it.
Speaker 3:Or it might not be his favorite, but he's still going to eat it. So I don't know.
Speaker 1:We're a bit stern where we don't like cave into them saying I a bit stern, where we don't like cave into them saying I don't want that or I don't like that. No, we, we don't really care.
Speaker 3:Like mom makes dinner, you're gonna eat it well, that's how we grew up, I think like I grew up like what's on the table is what you're gonna eat, and that's that's your option yeah, yeah, and there's been a couple meals that, honestly, all four of us have been like well that didn't work out. I know, yeah, Like let's not do that again.
Speaker 1:But in general, if the kids I mean Jackson probably does this more than Claire he eats everything.
Speaker 3:Claire's? Yeah, she's pretty phenomenal at trying things, Yep.
Speaker 1:But Jackson will get picky and be a little temperamental about certain things at times. And well, bud, you're not eating anything else, so this will sit on the table and, like cassie said, he'll circle back around 15, 20 minutes later and either eat it or he doesn't.
Speaker 3:And the next morning he eats more yeah, you know, but I don't think there's been a night for us in particular. But this might come up for people that he's not come back and actually eaten the food. It might take a little bit of time and I also restrict him. Like you're not going to go to the pantry and go get a Larabar or whatever's in there to supplement your dinner.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And.
Speaker 1:I think, like depending on the age of your kids is where you, you know you strike balance with discipline over food. You don't, and we can talk about this a little bit, but something that's been our heart is, like you know, creating a terrible relationship with food. Yeah. And I don't know what the right word is, but driving a mental health kind of crisis when it comes to eating. And, you know, is this food going to kill me?
Speaker 3:You don't want a negative relationship with food by any means, definitely. That's why we've been having discussions of like nourishing food and healthy choices and healthy foods, but try to keep it in a positive manner that they can hopefully understand the importance of it. But yeah, it's not and it's not. You know, for us it's not a body habitus thing where, like we're saying this is going to make you gain weight, or look, that's not what it's about at all, gain weight or look, that's not what it's about at all. It's it's nourishing the body and building, building components for muscle mass and keeping your digestive tract healthy, like those are in growing properly Like those are preventing disease.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so those are kind of the the discussions that we have.
Speaker 1:Yep, um, so just circling back around uh events with the kids and their friends uh has proven to be difficult but, lucky for us, our network of their specific friends do understand and do respect. You just went to a birthday party this last weekend where the parents provided healthy options as far as food and treats. There's another child in Claire's class and we follow very similar diets, for different reasons, but I hate to say it's a blessing, but it is a blessing and a curse. You know that there are other families that do understand. And what do you want to say? Respect. You know the way.
Speaker 3:It's kind of nice for Claire to see that as well that it's not like just our family. It's doing it. I do think there's you know, speaking with a lot of the the parents at our kids school, there's a lot of other parents who have the same beliefs as us too, and try to do, try to do that as well.
Speaker 3:so, um, I just think, yeah, I think it's. It's helpful for the kids to see other kids eating healthy, like that helps reinforce it as well when they unfortunately see a lot of kids with, like, twinkies or donuts or things that are not necessarily good choices.
Speaker 1:Daily candy.
Speaker 3:That can be. Yeah, that can be kind of challenging for them to be like, oh, I don't get that, you know I mean it's funny because claire's tried like becoming the inverse influencer of health, mungster like yeah you should. You should eat healthier which I mean yeah, which is, which is good if she's trying to to help others. Daughter adult her.
Speaker 1:It's like Claire, you just need to be careful how you articulate the conversation yeah yeah, for sure, but so yeah, when it comes to kids' birthdays, parties and this and that if you guys are living a healthy lifestyle. 90% of the time, going to the kids' birthday party and having the pizza and cake is not going to be the end of the world. Right.
Speaker 1:It's not For us. It is something we're very mindful of because, for instance, if Claire does, there's gastrointestinal issues pretty instantly. Yeah, and it doesn't mean she's ending up in an inflamed state, but there's definitely discomfort, dysfunction that takes place, and I will attest that anybody that's eaten as clean as we are it has gastrointestinal issues after deviating on the diet. Yeah, you know, I've felt it myself um when you? You know what was it? Chase's wedding? Oh yeah, because he had a bunch of cookie ice creams uh-huh there and I ended up having one.
Speaker 1:It tore me up yeah like it wasn't within a couple hours that I was having a little pear seed on the toilet, and I just think when your gut gets healthy, it's going to reject the negative stuff yeah so, no, do I believe you need to restrict your kids from all these things?
Speaker 1:some of our tactics when it comes to birthday parties is we do get them their own treats uh, gluten-free, we use batch. And then there's another place in town that makes pretty decent, uh, clean ingredient kind of treats. Um, we have brought our own pizza to some of these events and so forth, and sometimes we just load the kids up with a massive meal before we go.
Speaker 1:And then they're not even that hungry. So, um, but yeah, so we just we're very conscientious of it. And then also it's I mean it's it's very limited. So but I will say, in the beginning it was difficult, especially, I think, for Jackson, when we were going to some of these parties and he couldn't have the pizza, couldn't have the cake. And there was definitely some heartfelt moments there when you're the only kid left out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you feel that way and we did as parents, like we struggled with that and we just tried to reinforce the positive side of our health and what we're doing for our family and so forth yeah so I don't think there's a perfect answer there for you all, but you know, if you are eating healthy most of the time, these things aren't going to be the end of the world.
Speaker 1:But if every single weekend's a birthday party or an event that you celebrate, you know what I? What is it? If you're healthy five days a week but you go a wall on the weekend, you're getting a 70 grade yeah expect 70 results right back to c. C grade is c results. So just be mindful that eating healthy should be a monday through sunday thing most of the time you know most of the year. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that's one area in our house that's just leveled up so much. You know, we used to take our stools to get frozen yogurt. Granted, I probably had the worst, unhealthiest choices when I went there. The things that I would load up on unhealthiest choices when I went there, the things that I would load up on that would be, you know, two, three times a month. Yeah. And now it's non-existent. And those, the cumulative effects of eliminating a lot of this garbage out of your life, just adds up.
Speaker 3:Well, and you make some pretty awesome homemade ice cream too. So again, like we've been, we've come up with ways to replace it.
Speaker 1:I honestly like it better.
Speaker 3:The kids love it. I don't feel Jackson asks for it every day, but we don't have it every day.
Speaker 1:I don't feel like garbage after I eat it. Yeah, I have zero guilt because it's just loaded with protein and it's calories. Yeah, so if you're trying to lose weight, you need to be mindful of the calories. But as far as quality ingredients. It's something that's a guilt-free thing that, honestly, we all enjoy better than what's out there. So as you adjust your family to these healthy options, the healthier options actually become the better options anyway, just like the birthday cake you make. Sure it's full of calories.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but I think it of calories. Yeah, but I think it it's not calorie-free.
Speaker 1:No, I think it tastes amazing. Yeah, Like I enjoy your cake way better than any of the cakes from these stores.
Speaker 3:Aw, thanks, I got to figure out the frosting now. Claire does not like the frosting.
Speaker 1:Claire didn't like it, but I love it.
Speaker 3:She likes the cake, she doesn't like the frosting.
Speaker 1:I like both of it, so I'll get Cassie to put together the recipe for this cake.
Speaker 3:Well, I didn't come up with it. No, I know it's from a specific chef, danielle Walker, against all grain, and she has a story herself that inspired her to make these recipes.
Speaker 1:but she's awesome glad, is she yeah, but she's awesome.
Speaker 3:She has some really fantastic recipes, so she's been like a go-to cookbook for sure yeah.
Speaker 1:So there are. With a little bit of effort there are. We have found very viable options to still have these treats and these celebratory kind of things and you just get to a point like it is the better tasting, you don't feel like garbage after eating it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's a win. Like I said, not calorie-free, but when it comes to quality food and having a treat, it's fantastic. Love it. When it comes to traveling, you know it is hard for us traveling. We do camp a lot, but Don give your. A lot of people know we went on Disney Cruise and they asked us how the eating went. A lot of people know we went on Disney Cruise and they asked us how the eating went.
Speaker 3:I mean I think it was. I think we did the best we could in the circumstances that we had One I packed like Snack City I think my suitcase weighed like 20 pounds more on the way there and we used a lot of them. So, like on the airplane, in the airport bus rides, where you know if there's like waiting, I would always just have a couple of our like go-to snacks to have so that we're not doing like churros in Disney World. I mean we did let the kids have a couple of Mickey waffles on the cruise boat. So I mean we did cave a little bit and let them enjoy a special experience. But, like at dinner, the kids had steak and vegetables. Dinner choice was great. Like there was always like a meat and vegetable. Jackson had the chicken and Claire had the steak and they wanted the same thing every day. So I guess that made it easy and again we had the same things with them.
Speaker 3:So I think, that made it easy. But and again, we had the same things with them, so I think that that helped. It wasn't like we were indulging in spaghetti and pasta and making them eat steak and vegetables, like we all eat the same thing. Breakfast, again, it was like buffet style on the cruise boat, so you got to choose what you wanted. So they had things like eggs, fruit, various proteins, yeah, yeah they had things like eggs fruit, various proteins.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, they had like hard-boiled eggs. They would have turkey bacon, so it wasn't that hard. Again, it's kind of boring choices. You're not getting like the fancy croissants or all the fancy desserts and treats that they offer on there, but I don't think the kids really cared that much.
Speaker 1:If it wasn't a Mickey-shaped waffle, I don't think they would have cared.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I know that was like the only thing they really indulged in. And then for dessert, like well, we had strawberries and whipped cream. Yeah, and that satisfied them and they were good to go.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, they requested strawberries and whipped cream. Yeah, no they requested strawberries and whipped cream. Yeah, and there's probably sugar added to the whipped cream, but as far as a traveling treat, it was the most benign option. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's fruit and you know fat, essentially. So this is what I want to tell you guys you can be as healthy traveling as you want to be. It doesn't. What we have found is you have to be mindful and you have to plan a little bit, but you can. You can be as healthy as you want to be. Yeah, is it going to be home-cooked meals and perfect every single time? But there are ways. And again, you might, like the kids, eat chicken and steak every every day for dinner, but you don't have to let yourself fall apart traveling.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's a choice.
Speaker 1:It's a choice. Go to the buffet and you watch the rest of the cruise boat and what they eat and what we eat and it's like that was all choices. You don't have to eat that way and, just like I tell a lot of folks, engage your brain in what you're eating. This food is going to provide what value to my body? Right.
Speaker 1:Is it an emotional response? Is it a performance response? Is it healing, recovery, adding, you know, fuel, rebuilding muscle, like what value is going on here with what I'm about to put in my mouth? And when you answer that question, it simplifies everything you know. And when we were traveling, uh, I think that was probably the most eye-opening thing is just be intentional and you can find healthy options yeah, and and, and.
Speaker 3:I think that the bigger thing too is like eating the meal isn't like the big thing to focus on for the day. It's like get some healthy energy and then we get to do the activities for the day. And the focus is on the activities and everything, all the other fun stuff that we get to do for the day. Like the food is just like one part. We're like oh, we need a meal, we're going to eat eat healthy meal and then, we're gonna move on to the adventure part of it.
Speaker 1:You know, it's not not this big thing to think about really right around food, right, exactly. So food serves its purpose purpose and keeping us, keeping us alive and energized in a proper way. Yeah. So a couple of Jackson struggles in the beginning when it comes to some of these changes. He really likes chips and when we were going through all this there was a moment that he would sneak his allowance and buy chips at school. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And he felt so bad about it and it was one of those things like we didn't discipline him over it. But me and you had a conversation about okay, long term you don't want to raise kids in this healthy household and then the second they turn 18, go out into the real world and completely fall off the wagon the other direction.
Speaker 3:Or even before that, because, like in high school, they're going to be making their own choices. There's going to be a lot of they're going to have access. Yeah, yeah. So in a few years they're going to have more and more independence to make those choices.
Speaker 1:So yeah, so when stuff like this happens, we really just try to have a conversation. When stuff like this happens, we really just try to have a conversation. We try not to be super restrictive, uh, in the sense of you know, when you had halloween, they're able to pick a couple pieces of candy. Um, we do try to balance it. It's, it's gonna, if our life is very unbalanced to most folks, but, um, every single time it's just like having conversations with with them, both about health, wellness and, um, you know, just doing what's best for the body. God is buses with.
Speaker 3:Right. Well, and to your point, with with Jackson, that was before we had started adding some things back in, so we kind of decided we're like, well, maybe, well, let's try like the just potato chips and avocado oil, like the boulders chips, you know, and see how Claire responds, again, doing it in moderation. I think that's what we have kind of found, like they've been really satisfied with that, but still kind of to um gauge quantity wise, because he could just yeah, he's a chip monster.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah and that's and that's how he's been, even before we made this change and a lot of people are like that right that's the hard part about eating snacks like that.
Speaker 1:It's not, it's not necessary, that's not nutritious no, you're not gonna ever feel satiated right and they just keep going down, because salt does that yeah so I'll pour them and this is.
Speaker 3:This is a kind of a helpful tool. Do not let them grab the bag yeah, I have a little bowl yeah, I give them a little bowl and then, once that's done, it's done and they're totally fine with that. But if they're sitting watching a cartoon and they have the bag in front of them, they're going to eat the whole bag. That's how adults are. That's how children are too.
Speaker 1:Yep, no. And if you guys actually engage in serving sizes, you put a bowl on the scale, zero it out and pour in the ounces of the serving size of, let's say, chips.
Speaker 3:It gets a decent amount.
Speaker 1:It's enough, it's enough. And then you add up the calories and everything, and then when you're just mindlessly grabbing handfuls, how quickly that can go get out of hand no one of my things when it comes to the calorie equation was cereal oh, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cereal was a hard one for the kids because you just can't find cereal that doesn't have, again, added emulsifiers or seed oils or sugar. We have found one brand, and again this is with after adding some things back in, because it does have some cassava flour and non-gmo corn.
Speaker 3:I think in there like the seven sundays one um, but it's super hard to find a cereal that's clean yeah, this is the only one that's in the house now yeah, and they like it they like it it's like cheerios yeah, I was making cereal, but it was like super calorie dense, like yes had coconut milk in it in conjunction with was it there's a fat, they're fat bones nuts and walk like it was a lot of nuts that was a lot of work it was a lot of work and I don't think the nutrient value for as much fat and honey was in it.
Speaker 3:I don't think it was really that nutritious so I stopped making it. Yeah, like, if you ate like a little small palm full, it would probably have been fine, but that's not how people eat cereal.
Speaker 1:So that's seven Sundays brand. Pretty good, I don't mind it again, a lot of folks switching over to this stuff from traditional things they're are gonna probably have a shocking moment of this.
Speaker 1:Tastes like cardboard or this or that yeah, but yeah, I will say your taste buds do evolve and you do forget about the sweetness of everything and the added sugar. And yeah, you know those of you grown up out there that your physique and exercise, fitness, performance things matter to you. I'm just saying it works, just saying so that getting the kids to drink enough water, that's always a problem that we have and that's a problem a lot of parents have. Yeah, we don't have any magic tricks for that, other than telling them to drink their water yeah, I may.
Speaker 3:I basically like mandate that their water bottle I fill up at the beginning of the day should be empty at the end of school the bare minimum should be filled up two or three times during that time.
Speaker 3:I know Like if they finish one water bottle and then it's just a I think one of it is is like at our kids' ages. They are just getting to the point where they're able to kind of climb on the counter and get their own glass. It takes a lot of effort for them to get their own glass of water, so if I physically put it in front of them they're way more inclined to drink it than me waiting for them to get it themselves.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's that's just kind of at their ages, when they're teenagers, of course, like they should be able to get their own water, but, um, like that's one thing, just put it in front of them and, and I think that helps with um snack cravings too, because a lot of times I think our kids want snacks because they're thirsty. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And they haven't drank enough water. Same thing with adults. Right, it's like hydrate first. Right Be hydrated and chances are you might not be as hungry as you thought you were. Mm-hmm. But yeah, we don't add any flavorings or weird things to their water no, just water, they like ice water we do use reverse osmosis in the house, um, for what it's worth.
Speaker 1:We did that way before claire was born, um, and get a microplastics another time. That was it's a very hot topic in the influencer space the old microplastics but we did reverse osmosis before and then after claire stuff, uh, cleaning up your water is I think it's an important thing. It was important enough that I put reverse osmosis in in both gyms, you know. So I do think there's value in cleaning up your water's supply, but we don't add anything to flavor their water. You just drink the water. Kids, yeah, and you need to drink it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so their treat is like the bubbly water. Yeah. Which again can be tricky because a lot of them have quote unquote natural flavoring, which means you don't really know what's in it.
Speaker 1:Well, it's a chemical compound that they use, maltodextrin, to bond the flavor profiles to it. Amount of it. I've never seen my blood sugar go up once drinking anything with the natural flavors in it, but it's something to be mindful of, right? It's another cumulative dose effect that, when it's in everything you consume, it's something you should be mindful of. Yeah, and that's why those of you who follow my obnoxiousness on social media, I do do a lot of unflavored things like elements and protein powders ish, I do stick to my French vanilla pretty consistently but unflavored supplements because the stacking of natural flavoring across multiple things it is you know, additive effects that can have negative influences, particularly in my brain, on your gut.
Speaker 1:microbiome Like your gut has to deal with this stuff. Right.
Speaker 1:And when it's in everything and it's not from nature, the body's probably not going to interact with it in the most holistic way. Yeah, I think something important for folks to understand when I'm referring to this dose response deal, for folks to understand when I'm referring to this dose response deal when it comes to getting approval from USDA and FDA on things that can be added to foods. They're dose response tested in animals. So sucrose, which is an artificial sweetener, is one of those examples where they ran up the number to an astronomical amount. How much do we need to give a mouse to kill? It Can't do that on humans. That's a study that can't be performed.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 1:So they find out the toxicity number of these things by killing animals and back it off you know however many thousands of percent and then, through epidemiology, find out if, over time, this is having negative impact on human life. Trans fat is one of the only big ones that really popped up. That epidemiology proved the toxicity and it was the federal government removed it from all of our cooking and processes in in the country. These other additives have not. Depends on how you look at epidemiology, because looking at our society, it it's not a walking picture of health by any means. Are these things contributing to it? The rise of all these metabolic dysfunctions, yes, no? Maybe it's hard to say, but for us in our house we're very conscientious of the potential of there being cumulative effects, of having these things in consistent doses over time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:So stevia is another one that we don't really have it anymore.
Speaker 3:We don't, and that's to your point. The Zevias, it's a lot. I think you calculated out.
Speaker 1:I emailed them, yeah, and I can't remember what the exact number was, but it was significant.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it was way more than what you would want as your daily value. And especially for a kid to like drink an entire zebia. That's a lot of stevia for them to be exposed to. And again, it's a more. It's a. It's a natural sugar substitute, but it still can cause gastrointestinal issues.
Speaker 1:So yep and um, I'll actually gather that research I did on stevia and I'll put the numbers together, saying that it's bad.
Speaker 3:No, no, it's something.
Speaker 1:Just be mindful yeah when it's in everything yeah so when it's in your element, your your soda water. When it's in your protein powder, when, when it's in whatever other supplements you take, you start adding it up, it becomes a very large number. And again, stevia is from nature, but it's also a plant that wasn't ground down into big bulk to have these massive flavor profiles. Yeah. So these soda-flavored waters, it's not nature, mm-hmm. So it is something to be mindful of. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know I did used to drink. I would drink one to two of them a day. Yeah. And now we don't have any.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, yeah, and we kind of limit carbonation anyways, because that kind of sounds great for IBD. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Something to be mindful of? Yeah, so again, this is why I said do you want me to look at your nutrition through all these things even quote, unquote, healthy and start seeing how much of it you're still getting and it's worth being mindful of? So again, we might sound crazy, but I do think there's value in all this stuff. What am I going to say?
Speaker 3:I don't know. I think everybody can benefit from having this perspective, whether you have kids or you don't have kids. Again, I do understand the challenges of with kids. Everybody's tired, you know you, you kind of want the easy way, um, but really, once you get down to it and you implement it as we can attest to it, it's, it's not. It's really not hard at all. No, it's not difficult, it's not a challenge. It takes a little bit of time. That's that. That's the challenge in itself is it takes a little bit of extra time of what you're going to do and preparing things. So, like, if the kids run out of jelly, I don't just pull out another jar of jelly from the pantry, I boil down a bag of frozen fruit and make jelly or if we run out of bread, like you literally just boil frozen berries, that's it, I just boil it down put it in a jar the kids love it.
Speaker 3:There's no sugar added sugar.
Speaker 1:There's no pectin added um it.
Speaker 3:It honestly gelatinizes. Is that the word I'm looking for? Gets gelatinous itself as you boil it down.
Speaker 1:I think it's great same thing.
Speaker 3:I mean, if I run out of toast or if I run out of bread for morning toast, I gotta make a loaf of bread. It cooks for an hour, so again, it's a little time consuming. It takes me probably two minutes to throw the ingredients in the blender and then put it in a pan. So again, that's simple. It just takes an hour to bake. So the kids just got to wait a little bit for their toast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you guys, you can do it, you can improve, you can make headway on improving your family's health. It's a conversation the whole family should be involved in and there's only positive benefits to this. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You might have to deal with some challenges in the beginning as you make the changes, but if you just stick with it, you have to Just like, if you're going to threaten to ground your child, take away their iPad, like, don't be wishy-washy about it, you've got to stick with it. When you're wishy-washy with it, then it's hard for them to stick with it as well.
Speaker 1:Yep, exactly. So I got some questions from folks that we're going to answer. So, nutritional needs for an 8-year-old girl, especially on demanding sports days. This little girl is on a ski team. How'd you think about that?
Speaker 3:Well, I mean nutritional needs. So I mean I would always think of hydration first making sure she's well hydrated. She's eight, so making sure she's getting adequate protein. It really kind of has to be individualized to her. Like what kinds of foods does she like? Um, getting some lean meats in their chicken steak snacks? She probably has to pack snacks if she's skiing. Again. Our go-to is sometimes making some homemade jerky.
Speaker 1:Jerky Larabars fruit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Larabars again can be kind of a quick go-to that has a good amount of protein in it. It's used usually with like nuts and stuff too, so it has a good energy value.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when it comes to kids' nutrition, I try not to get weird.
Speaker 1:You shouldn't be weighing and measuring kids' food they should be eating when they're hungry, as long as the hunger is driven by, not garbage food. It's like you eat sugary food and you're hungry 10 minutes later. It's because your body is working overdrive and insulin's going crazy and this and that. But if your kid's eating balanced meals, they have protein, healthy carbohydrates, fruits and vegetables and they're very resilient and I wouldn't think too heavily about eight, 10, 12-year-olds Once hormones start kicking in. I think you can refine your nutritional needs for sports performance Before hormones kick in. I think you just make sure your kid's just well-fed with balanced meals. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I think again like in that situation it sounds like they're busy like a busy kid individual, so just really kind of planning healthy snack items planning healthy snacks they always have, because I think you're right, like, kids are pretty good at eating when they're hungry, not eating when they're not.
Speaker 3:There can be habitual things that develop as far as like eating out of boredom, but in general a lot of kids do eat like that, but just making sure that when they are hungry that they have a good choice, because, just like an adult, when they're hungry and they don't have a healthy choice right in front of them, that is generally when we make a poor choice.
Speaker 1:Yep. So just being prepared with healthy foods that include unprocessed protein, carbohydrates and you know I like to get most of my carbohydrates from, you know, some whole grain kind of things, but fruit. I mean. Fruit is a great source of carbohydrates for the body.
Speaker 3:You get fiber with it and kids typically love fruit so you could slice up an apple, stick it in your pocket, in a baggie yep, so I wouldn't overthink it, especially at that age.
Speaker 1:I just make sure they're well fed with balanced whole food. Yeah, you know, on ski day, big breakfast, make sure they're eating themselves till they're full and they're satisfied, you know. And then, yeah, the healthy stacks. When kids get into high school, I think you can start playing with nutritional performance a little bit more. But younger, I wouldn't put much thought into it outside of just eating healthy whole food yeah and have whole food snacks available. Next question from a cost perspective, how does it compare now to how we ate previously?
Speaker 3:uh, it's definitely more costly yeah, uh pretty there's no way around it, that's just. I mean that's just. Groceries in general have gone up too, so yeah, the old inflation has hit everything.
Speaker 1:the last you know, six, five years, six years, five years, um, and yeah, there's this weird area of like you can buy all the unprocessed stuff and you can find it cheap. I mean unprocessed, processed stuff, garbage.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah yeah, you can find garbage cheap and the garbage food industry is heavily subsidized. It's one reason they're able to get their prices down. The federal government actually subsidizes a lot of the heavily consumed brand name companies out there to get food at lower prices. If they put that much effort into healthy food, healthy food would be cheaper. But the food industry is one of the most scandalous industries out there, up with pharmaceutical industry, and our tax dollars actually go to subsidize, to drive down the costs of heavily processed garbage food. So it's one reason it's cheaper. But then you go to, like the quote unquote healthy processed food.
Speaker 1:It's a low price jump, but not crazy. I kind of feel we had a lot of things in that category before.
Speaker 3:That's true.
Speaker 1:And then, once you jump to everything whole food, organic, pesticide free, grass fed, free range, regenerative farming which I'm a big believer in regenerative farming, not just from a health standpoint but from a treating animals fair standpoint it's dramatically more expensive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would say that yes for meats and eggs and how they're raised and processed like that makes the price jump quite a bit. Vegetables do cost a little bit more in increments when you're buying it organic and stuff, but the meats for sure.
Speaker 1:And because fruit is a big part of our house, like getting organic, uh, berries, yeah it's, they're just expensive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah and they're out of season and our kids love berries and Yep.
Speaker 1:We do consume a lot of it. I personally consume frozen berries because it is cheaper and they don't go bad.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, sometimes the kids like frozen berries too. They'll just eat it as their dessert. Yeah. They'll pour a bowl of frozen blueberries and just, and then their mouth's purple for like six hours, yeah.
Speaker 1:But because a couple of those things are heavily consumed in our house. Yeah. The kids will burn through a couple. What are they called? Little baskets of, you know, blueberries, blackberries, like a thing. Of blackberries won't last in our house a day if they can get their hands on it.
Speaker 3:And I do try to buy things in season. That does help. If you're buying produce that's in season, then it's not as costly.
Speaker 1:Like melons are coming out now.
Speaker 3:They are, but they're not really in season. I was trying to explain that to claire that it's not watermelon season in in april but like oranges are usually more of a winter produce that's in season, I don't know. It kind of varies but that does help a little tiny bit. But we've just kind of made that it's a priority for us. So we budget appropriately and know that that's going to be. That's. Our second biggest expense, aside from our mortgage, is our groceries.
Speaker 1:Yep, so it is what it is, yeah, like either prioritize your health and are willing to invest in it, and you have to think of it that way your health and are willing to invest in it, and you have to think of it that way, like me and our house, investing an extra $500 a month in high quality foods is going to pay massive dividends in our long-term health.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I would argue too that, like if you're going to make the dedication to buy the produce and the fresh use it, the worst thing you can do is to buy fresh produce and let it go to waste. That's a complete waste of money.
Speaker 1:A lot of people do that yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's kind of the biggest thing, like have a plan of what you're going to do for the week and again we do a lot of the same things. So it makes it kind of easy, like we know we're going to use what's what's there, but don't buy things and not use it. That's, that's a waste of money and that's very costly yeah, yep.
Speaker 1:So yeah, it's gone up and it's just something our house has. Uh, we cut other areas of our life, um, and are very intentional about this is an area that we spare little expense when it comes to how we nourish our bodies, yeah, so I think you guys all know that, but it's not cheap and it is a conscientious investment and expense every single month Snacks for kids and how much time have we had to increase our meal planning and prep work? Like what was the learning curve? Like? I think we kind of touched on that over this whole thing.
Speaker 1:At first it was overwhelming. Yeah. And then, once you embrace simplicity, it gets better and better. Yeah simplicity. It gets better and better. Yeah and um, I will uh tell you that the whole house being on board is what simplifies it. I've heard of spouses needing to make a different dinner for dad because he's a prissy little bitch whoa, that should drive I know you guys, this is an explicit podcast, but I get fired up over comments like that because people need that.
Speaker 1:You're not going to have success for your family if you aren't buying in. And when somebody tells me, well, my husband won't eat that or my wife won't do this, like figure it out, like does it matter, doesn't it matter?
Speaker 1:Yeah matter or doesn't it matter? Yeah, and if these things matter to you and they matter to your family, like, get on the same page, work together as a team and figure it out. Be team players. Yeah. And drive a common mission forward for the health of your family. Um, I won't even work nutritionally with an adult unless the house is on board, because I've found it over the last 20 years to be a complete waste of my time Because one person in the house is going to sabotage it for everybody else.
Speaker 3:It's just really difficult. It's like if someone's quitting smoking and somebody else in the household is still smoking right. It just makes it really challenging. One of the key components of staying on track and succeeding with this is to not have the unhealthy choices in the house. So if you have unhealthy choices in the house for one individual, most of us are going to have those slip ups where we have that access and we're probably going to eat that food.
Speaker 1:And I don't blame it when you know the other person says the hell with it. I'm putting in this work and you don't care, yeah, yeah. And I don't blame it when you know the other person says the hell with it.
Speaker 3:Like I'm putting in this work and you don't care, like yeah, yeah, whatever, it can be hard.
Speaker 1:We're just going to go back to the status quo, we're all humans and humans are going to find the path of least resistance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and you have to be a team, you have to work together and this goes for husbands being supportive. Be a team, you have to work together, and this goes for husbands being supportive. And I bring that up because men tend to get away with it, from a physique standpoint, easier than women and it seems that physique drives uh, I've just heard this comment of I can eat this way and I get away with it.
Speaker 1:And men tend to be, able to say that more often than women. Yes, and that's why I get fired up when men and I hear this from you know female members of the gym like my husband's just not willing to do it, and it's like it angers me if you can't tell.
Speaker 3:It can be challenging. I can understand like every marriage and circumstance is different and hopefully with some engaging conversations you guys could get to a point of agreement to hopefully work together as a team and that just paid a bigger picture for your family your health and your health outcomes. It might just be sitting down and really explaining the reason why you want to do it and want their support in that and hopefully they would be reciprocal of that.
Speaker 1:And I'm always in the camp of are you getting away with it? Just because you're not gaining body fat at a rapid rate doesn't mean your metabolic health is on point.
Speaker 1:Right right Like are you getting away with it till you're 50 years old and you have a heart attack and die? Like eating garbage just because you're getting away with it from a body fat growth deal is one of the most garbage excuses I've ever heard and it disgusts me. So I'll stop on that topic because I get very passionate about it. Buying everything organic, grass-fed pasture-raised is it really worth it? I think we've touched on that. For us it has a much higher upside with zero downside. It's a cost equation. I was telling somebody the other day that I don't think buying, you know, grass-fed ground beef versus regenerative farm ground beef is going to be the thing that kills you. Like, I don't think that's going to be the thing. The beef industry you can do this another time it's very it could be very disgusting industry, but you find the trade-offs that are going to have, I think, the biggest bang for its buck. I do think there's a larger benefit in organic produce. Pesticides and GMO stuff I think are scary produce.
Speaker 3:Pesticides and GMO stuff I think are scary, yeah, and there's certain produce that have higher risk with pesticides, like the dirty dozen, and I don't have the list, but I know, like strawberries and the berries are on there, ones that have really high pesticide counts. I think apples was on there too, but you can look it up. But, um, certain produce for sure that has higher amounts of pesticide on it when you receive it straight from the store and then you definitely would want to just make sure you're washing it like we've washed it with vinegar and baking soda, like I think you did a video on that how we do that it helped the produce actually last longer, and also with uh containers that can breathe.
Speaker 1:But um, you know, if you're not going to buy all organic stuff, I do think there's value in washing your fruits and vegetables.
Speaker 3:Yeah, um, you should wash your fruits and vegetables. You should wash it anyway.
Speaker 1:I mean, this has been hand handled and transported, and this and that I wash the organic stuff, stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, so.
Speaker 1:I mean that's a very positive step in the right direction. I would say. The things you consume a lot of thinking of dose response, of pesticides and so forth. You might want to lean towards organic and certain things and some things maybe not as big of a deal for you, but for us personally, it is one of those things that can add great potential value, with there's no downside to us going organic, outside of it costing more, yeah, so when it comes to a health outcome equation, it's only positive and that's drives us in our decisions making there. Um, but I would start even not organic, I mean, just starting with whole food first for your house is a great step forward, great step forward, and then you can build on it and build on it and build on it.
Speaker 1:So do the best you can with the budget you have and, you know, prioritize certain things. Yeah, somebody has asked me because Costco has grass-fed ground beef for a certain price and it's dramatically cheaper than the ground beef we eat. And we we buy a cow or half a cow often. But, um, the beef industry is one of those industries. They can call it grass-fed and those cows are kept in pens and fed pellets and you can still call it grass-fed, and those cows are kept in pens and fed pellets and you can still call it grass-fed. Now, is it better than a non-grass-fed cow?
Speaker 1:Probably, but, like I said a little bit ago, I lean more towards the regenerative farming, from both a health but also a humane Also, um, uh, humane like those animals that are done regeneratively, are raised much more freer, you know, in a very humane environment and um not to sound like one of those people, but I, it matters to me, yeah, especially um with the amount of meat we consume.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I want to make sure we're supporting an industry that is, you know, holistic all the way around. Yeah, but yeah, just start moving the needle in a positive direction on those topics. Do you need to dump everything because it's going to kill you tomorrow? I don't think so and go all organic? I don't think so. But if you can start moving the needle, I think there's value in it. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think, start moving the needle. I think there's value in it. Yeah, I think there's value in it. Uh, what is regenerative farming? Well, regenerative farming is where you're raising animals in a humane, as close to nature's way. They're raised so and they're and they're not kept in the same farm like they move through pastures. Pastures have opportunities to like, repopulate their vegetation, for the soil to heal. They have a lot of free range flexibility to move around. Just think of happy cows and chickens like this is a.
Speaker 1:They're able to forage. They're able to graze freely and a big part of it is they're not kept in the exact same spot as far as um what they're foraging on, and then the nutrient richness of the soil. The soil has time and seasons to turn over and you know they're moving around big pastures and so forth. It's just, and then you know these things. Typically, as far as I know, with regenerative farming, they're not using the hormones and all the vaccines and everything Like these are just healthy animals, healthy farmed animals.
Speaker 1:So yeah, how much protein should a kid eat? I would say 33% of their plate.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I don't know if you necessarily have to be quantifying grams for children, like you said on your point earlier, just making sure they're getting A serving. Yeah, Look at their little plate and it's like it's split up pretty equally between protein, vegetables and fruits and, you know, healthy carbohydrates you know choices, you know you're kind of hitting the main things in portions equally, and if their growth chart's normal, like their weight and their height, they're growing appropriately. You're probably doing a solid job.
Speaker 1:And then, when it comes to snacking, I would just prioritize protein-oriented snacks. Yeah, like, instead of carb-heavy.
Speaker 3:Or having a mix right, Not just having one or the other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know, I'd rather the kids snack on beef jerky than potato chips as their main snack. Right, right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, clara likes an apple and peanut butter. Yep, exactly, yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, kids, I wouldn't wait and measure things. Like I said, when kids get to puberty ages and sports performance, I think you can start having these conversations and working with kids, uh, once they get into those years, but younger, just balanced meals, balanced meals. Last question I think this person had to be being sarcastic asking me this question um, can kids lift weights? Have you seen my instagram?
Speaker 3:I'm a big believer there is just sent you that instagram video too. That little girl yeah, she was rocking it yep, kids can lift weights.
Speaker 1:There's all the preconceived stuff of weightlifting stunts growth and this and that it's all garbage. It's all been debunked. Kids can lift weights. I'd say kids lifting weights needs to be about mechanics and neuromuscular motor control. They're not going to gain mass and size, especially in their younger years. They don't have the hormones to do it. It's mostly about neuromuscular capacity, like their brain and muscles working together, coordination, agility, and they're going to get stronger by developing those neural circuits. And then you know, conditioning and using their muscles is going to be healthier for their metabolic health and their processing of energy and food and intake and so forth. All great things come from kids doing exercise. Um, my son happens to like doing CrossFit stuff and weightlifting with me. The kids need to lift weights. Kids need to be active. Kids need to lift weights. Kids need to be active. Kids need to play. They need to be in the jungle gyms. They need to be doing sports.
Speaker 1:They need to move just active jumping on trampolines and just active riding bikes. Kids need to be active and I do think there is. If there show interest in it, uh, doing things like what me and Jackson do, I think there is. I don't there's no downside to it, but it's not something I would force a child to do. Yeah, um, by any means. But I'll let you guys come to your own conclusions on why Jackson's probably interested in this stuff.
Speaker 3:It probably has something to do with his parents, you know he sees me doing things and he wants to do those things, yeah, so when he does enjoy it, he does, yeah, I mean god do it on his own, yeah, and and you gotta kind of find what your kid likes like claire really enjoys swimming yeah she doesn't five nights a week?
Speaker 3:if, yeah, we have the time she doesn't really enjoy weight lifting like jackson does. Um, jackson enjoys soccer. So I think, like the bigger point is is is keeping your kids active. Like you just said, it doesn't have to be at their ages, it doesn't have to be weightlifting.
Speaker 1:No, no, definitely doesn't. But if your kid shows interest, it's not bad for them at all. Again, I do think form technique, proper coaching coaches who lead by example is a big one, but those things matter. Good mechanics, because they're developmenting, develop, developing. So, uh, they need to just develop with the right skills, techniques and safe motor patterns. Kids are rubber, they can get away with some stuff, but, um, I'm very conscientious of how Jackson moves his body with me and what I'm willing to tolerate as far as motor mechanics, if you guys will. So I think that's everything I got on here. All right.
Speaker 1:That's a wrap. Bored you guys for an hour and 37 minutes. Oh my gosh, yeah, that's a lot. Yeah, anything else we? Oh my gosh, yeah, it's a lot. Yeah, anything else we got to talk faster. No.
Speaker 3:I don't think so. I think we.
Speaker 1:No, we're both here in the gym If you guys ever have questions. We, as you know, we're open books about talking about this stuff. So here to help and yeah, hope that that.
Speaker 3:Uh, yeah, you guys get some out of this yeah, hopefully it was useful yeah maybe it's like some family planning things to think about yep, oh, a couple resources real quick.
Speaker 1:We'll put together a couple of these things. But I'm going to tell you guys, artificial intelligence is here to stay and one of the coolest things a member showed me the other day was um, you go into chat, gpt or grok or whatever ai platform you use, and you can literally type out a queue to build your meal plan, your shopping list and everything for the week.
Speaker 3:I didn't know that, yeah, it was she me?
Speaker 1:She's like yeah, just go put in the foods. We like yeah, and you know, create a meal plan and shopping list for a family of four for this week. It literally kicks out everything perfectly. Wow. How much of each food you need to order, how to prep it, how to make it and it literally. She did it right in front of me in the class on her phone, and it's like oh yeah, this is how I meal prep. Super easy.
Speaker 1:And the shopping list is gold because you just go on Instacart, add everything, deliver to the house, hook it up, that's awesome. Yeah, there's a trick for you guys. All right, Well, until next time. Peace here. Let's see, let's go. Outro music here it is. Oh my goodness, Bye everybody. Have a good day.