House of JerMar

Eating Lessons: Transform Your Body & Mind

• Jeanne Collins • Season 2 • Episode 69

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What if cravings were clues instead of failures? We sit down with personal trainer, nutritionist, and author Justine Bassani to decode what the body is really asking for—and how to answer without guilt or gimmicks. From growing up on a family garden to coaching patrons from behind a bar, Justine brings an uncommon blend of street-level practicality and deep nutritional insight that makes change feel doable.

We start with water—how hydration quality shapes energy, skin, and digestion—and why moving away from microplastics and toward mineral-rich sources can make a daily difference. Then we explore the hopeful science of taste: your taste buds regenerate every two weeks, which means you can retrain your palate faster than you think. That unlocks mindful eating tactics that focus on awareness, not willpower, plus a simple “eat the rainbow” framework to cover crucial micronutrients without complicated tracking. Justine shares how cravings map to nutrient gaps, and offers swaps that satisfy the signal—from magnesium-rich options when chocolate calls to smarter approaches when pizza is the siren song. She also previews her Crave Well app, a craving-to-nutrients tool that turns “I want…” into better choices you can act on today.

We also tackle alcohol with clear, kind realism: how it stalls fat burning for hours, disrupts sleep, and compounds cravings the next day. If quitting isn’t your next step, better timing and fermented options can help. Rounding things out, we demystify supplements and cooking fats—why spirulina, chlorella, and liquid chlorophyll can be more effective than a generic multivitamin; when to use avocado or grapeseed oil for heat; and why olive oil shines as a finishing touch. Whether you’re vegan, veg-curious, or simply aiming for fewer ultraprocessed meals, you’ll walk away with grounded strategies to fuel better, feel better, and enjoy the process.

Justine's Book: Eating Lessons

More about Justine:

Justine Bassani is the founder of All Glowed Up LLC, a wellness brand rooted in empowerment, emotional intelligence, and nutrition logic. She’s the author of Eating Lessons, a best-selling anti-diet wellness book that blends science-backed insights with real-life food philosophy—and she’s currently developing the CRAVExWELL app, a smart craving-based wellness platform backed by affiliate grocery and meal delivery partnerships.

Justine is a NASM-certified personal trainer and nutrition coach, known for her honest, practical approach to healing your relationship with food. Her brand includes companion shadow-work journals (Notes to Self Vol. 1 & 2), glow-up tools, and lifestyle merch designed to support real people through transformation—from emotional eating to embodied self-love.

Whether she’s teaching people how to decode cravings, swapping stories with wellness pros, or building AI features that track glow streaks and smart grocery choices, Justine brings humor, compassion, and deep know-how to every conversation.

You can find her on Instagram at @justinebassani or explore her offerings at www.weallglowedup.com.

House of JerMar: houseofjermar.com

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YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@Houseofjermar
Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From an All-In Life
WELCOME TO OUR HOUSE!

SPEAKER_01:

You can choose to put the food in your mouth and you can choose not to. You know, is it benefiting you at the end of the day? We do have healthier options, but I I like to go all organic and I don't even boil my rice in tap water. So until the restaurant can start boiling it in spring water, you know, I just have very high standards and I don't expect everybody out the gate to transition into that lifestyle. It's very overwhelming. But that's why it's, you know, chapter by chapter, the more you know, the easier these decisions become.

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. The House of Germar is a lifestyle brand, empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness. We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower one million women to live all in. I am your host, Gene Collins, and I invite you to become inspired by this week's guest. Hi, everybody, welcome. I'm your host, Gene Collins, and today I am so excited to talk to an incredibly beautiful soul, Justine Basani. Hi, I'm glad to be here. It's so good to have you. So, Justine, I'm gonna link everything about her in the bio, but I just want you guys to know, first of all, this woman, such a badass female, folks. Like, she is a personal trainer, she is a nutritionist, and she wrote an incredible book, which I really want to share a lot about her book. I'm gonna show you for those who can see it, right? Eating lessons for those of you who are watching this on video. It's a chunky book. Um, and I leave, I read a lot of books. I read a lot of books, and sometimes a chunky book is a little scary to me, plus to others, but it is not scary. Do not be afraid. You talk in real-world terms, you take a lot of technology, a lot of science. You make practical ways that we can think about eating, diet, exercise, mindset. And I am so excited to talk to you. So welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_01:

I really appreciate that intro. Thank you so much. You know, it I I appreciate, you know, that that the hard work I did is actually being seen and that you, you know, love it. I I'm so glad to be here.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, good. All right. So before we dig into the book, you talk a little bit in the beginning of the book about your background. But for those who've not read the book yet, I would love for you to share a little bit about your upbringing and your background.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, well, um, my mom was born here in America, but my grandparents were off the boat from Italy and to this day are still growing a ton of our own organic food on our family plot. And my baby food was grown in the backyard, and my mom just taught me all about the importance and the difference of between what we were eating that we were harvesting versus what the other kids in school were eating. So I was lucky enough to see that and be a part of the food, which, you know, so at an early age, I was hands-on. And um, at 15, I started my first job at the local health food store where I learned more about like, you know, instead of taking over-the-counter supplements, how you could use echinace for immune system. And my understanding of that, plus with my mom, you know, to this day, my mom manages a health food store. So it's just been a part of my life. And, you know, you can take that for granted, you know, but other people don't know what I know. And it and so I started, I got certified in nutrition and personal training. And during COVID, a lot of my customers, we had hours on end at the bar to talk because nobody could go anywhere, really. And so all of the questions that were asked to me in those bar conversations is what actually inspired me to write the book and put it all in one place. The it started when I was a kid, you know, and then I led a very healthy lifestyle until I didn't. And I was bartending uh a lot and I got into drinking, really. It was just drinking. But I watched my mental health and my physical health decline. And so eight years ago, I just decided it wasn't valuable to me. And I put all of my energy back into wellness, but I didn't want to quit my bartending job, you know, I was helping people there too. So it's been a really interesting balance because I still am coaching people at the bar, you know, and people who people always have questions, whether it be about their drinking habits or their food habits. And even if it's not conventional, I do want to help people with what I know because at that low point in my life and I had to pick myself up, is when I realized, you know, there's one way of doing things that the masses are taught, and that includes, you know, fast food and drinking. And I wanted to fit in and be part of that, but it it almost destroyed me. And I'm sure there's other people who walk that line. So whether it be weight loss or just general daily, how do I take care of myself now that I'm an adult human, I wanted to cover that.

SPEAKER_00:

And you do cover off on all of that. So when I first got introduced to you and I was told about you and your book and a little bit about your background, I was like, oh, this is so fascinating. And then the person who introduced me to you and got me to start following you was like, Oh, yeah, and she's a bartender at this restaurant in town. And I was like, and no offense to this restaurant, but like it's a Mexican restaurant. So like if you want to go somewhere that is like a really high caloric, high fattening meal where you are going to leave full because the portions are enormous. Yeah, you're gonna get your your like your weekly salt intake in margaritas. Like, this is where you go. That's true. And it was so funny to me because I was like, this is like the opposite of the life that you're living.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I'm like the angel sitting at the gates, you know, saying, Hey. Yes, yes, hey, by the way, salt is bad for you. You have an entire chapter on salt. I do. There are some customers, you know, that I know shouldn't be having salt. And I just saying, you know, you know better. We're not putting salt on this. You shouldn't even be having the marg. So I'm strict with some of them. They love it, but it's true. Um, it is an interesting dichotomy, and people always say, What do you eat there? And to be honest with you, I bring my food like basically everywhere. Um, it's everybody knows it. Nobody cares. I I know everything about the menu because I've been working there for 10 years. So I it's just you can choose to put the food in your mouth and you could choose not to. You know, is it benefiting you? At the end of the day, we do have healthier options, but I I like to go all organic and I don't even boil my rice in tap water. So until the restaurant can start boiling it in spring water, you know, I just have very high standards and I don't expect everybody out the gate to transition into that lifestyle. It's very overwhelming. But that's why it, you know, chapter by chapter, the more you know, the easier these decisions become.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And it's an awareness. Yeah. It's definitely an awareness. So before we talk about the book, I do have a question. What made you decide to write a book? Because that is like an undertaking all into itself.

SPEAKER_01:

Honestly, that wasn't a hard decision for me. It's not the first book I've written. Um, it's my mom actually has a master's in English. And I always excelled in, I tested out of English and writing all through elementary and high school. So writing has just always been something that I did. It's always been some, yeah, as an only child with no siblings to play with, reading and writing were just plus my mom, you know, always reading and writing. It was just made sense to communicate it this way, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. All right. So you mentioned water. And on my list of things that I wanted to talk about, water is the first one on there. And that's probably because water happens pretty early on in the book. Yes. So you talk about water in two different formats. So you talk about water in the sense of like, you know, we need to drink a lot of water and the good that water is for our body and flushing everything out and all of that. But you also dig a whole lot into the quality of the water and the vessel in which you put your water. Yes. Would you mind sharing that with people? Because I knew about this, but I guarantee you 90% of the people listening have no idea what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01:

So I have a glass vessel that I have a rose quartz inside. If you can afford to get spring water delivered to you in glass bottles, that is the best way to do it because the water is full of minerals and it's feeding your body. We'll talk about tap water in a second. But unfortunately, budgeting-wise, I do get five gallon spring water delivered and I like to get it out of the plastic and charged by the energy of the crystal and the glass as soon as possible. It's also a really beautiful way to present it, you know, on your counter. So it's not only you're putting the energy into the water, there's plenty of studies that show that water expresses energy, even if spoken to and frozen. So whatever intentions you put into your water as you drink it is a reminder of those intentions on a cellular level. It doesn't have to be rose quartz. You can charge your water with anything you want, but I'd like to have the love be the first things, the self-love, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, which is a good one. Talk to us a little bit about the benefit of having water in glass versus plastic.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, microplastics, we can't get away from microplastics from our mattresses to, you know, the cars we drive, the every all of our food is packaged in it. And it's really unavoidable and it's a global problem. Any particulates that get in, especially plastics that get into your body, your body has to work to get out. And so if you're already taxing your body with drinking and food that has chemicals and processes, and you're taking medications and you're not living a very healthy lifestyle. And then on top of it, you're nourishing your cells with water that is full of, I mean, the would you rather, as some people say, would you rather have microplastics or would you rather have tap water? You know, the water that's coming out of the taps has to, not only is most municipal water largely wastewater that's been processed and filtered, but it still has residual medications, birth control, tons of chlorine, tons of contaminants. And then all of the pipelines, which are still lined with Teflon, are constantly contaminating that as it runs through. And the Teflon pipe started in the 20s with the Industrial Revolution, and they just didn't know. And that's just the bare minimum on top of all the local like seepage into our water system. So getting spring water in glass is the cleanest way to deliver it because we don't all live near a natural spring, but that's the goal.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Wouldn't that be nice? Yeah. But one of the things you talk about in your book, which I think is really important for people to think about, is you know, the as you say, ideal natural spring water gets delivered in glass. You get to put a nice crystal in it. And you talk about different crystals and their properties, and you also talk about crystals to avoid using as well within your book for things like that. So great, great resource in your book about that. But I think what you also mentioned in your book that I think is important is you are bringing an awareness to people about water on all different levels, right? The water that's coming from the tap, the water that's in bottles, the water, whether you take it from your tap and then just put it in a plastic water bottle. You're kind of giving everybody, I want to say, the layers to understand your water. Yeah. And then you empower people to say, the pollen spring, delivered water, pollen, fresh spring water in a glass bottle might not be attainable. However, you can do some of these basic things to improve your drinking water. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

For sure. Right? Yeah. Even if you can only afford the spring water for your infant if they're on formula or something, I would never give a baby tap water. You know, your animals, I would, you know, you don't know what that's doing to their systems, too. And there's tons of cancer in pets these days that there wasn't, you know, before with all the chemicals in their food. And if we're not cleaning out our systems and we keep bombarding it from every direction, people will continue to be unwell. Yes. Yeah agreed.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. So here's something that I learned from your book. And I'm gonna read it because I'm going to read this because I don't want to misquote you on this one, but I was shocked by this one. This one was so fascinating. Okay. Taste buds regenerate every two weeks. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_01:

That's amazing. Well, uh, your body is constantly regenerating. And I think that information really gives a lot of people hope when they're stuck. You know, especially smokers, people, if you're drinking, you know, all of those things, the heavy coffees, it's killing your taste buds, the salty foods, the everything from you know, the fast food places desensitize you. So giving your whole body a chance to regenerate, people will feel the difference. I think people are scared to give up what they're comfortable with because they're afraid to lose their security and not have any change. But like that statistic alone is how quickly you can see change. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, and also I'm gonna tie it to something later on in the book, which I also thought was so fascinating, which talks about cravings. Oh, yeah. And and a lot of times, so much I find for myself, even personally, for myself. A lot of times I eat because it's lunchtime. I eat because I love chocolate after dinner. Yeah. But am I hungry? I I'm not hungry. So we'll talk about mindful eating in a minute. But it's I'm doing it out of a pattern of behavior, and my body is craving the pattern, not necessarily actually craving the thing. Or there's also you have a whole chapter about cravings tied to your body's lack of certain nutrients and nourishment. I am so huge on that, yes. I found fascinating. So share a little bit about like what that means, because I'm just saying what it is, but talk about what that actually means.

SPEAKER_01:

So your body's sending your brain knows what's available to you nutritionally by the food that you're giving it. It's if you're giving your body pizza, macaroni, and cheese, potato chips, it knows that if if you haven't eaten in a while, it's gonna want to crave the potato chips because that's gonna be enough calories to get through. But you're never gonna be fully hungry because your body is still craving nutrients. So people who are filling the void of nutrition with high calorie food never seem to feel full because you're never actually satiating your hung, your actual hunger. Exposing yourself to different foods one or two times lets your brain know, hey, there's iron in that, you know, like raisins. I always crave raisins when I need iron. It's just like I know it. Walnuts and raisins, beets, like mustard greens, anything that lentils. I'm like, oh, I must be low on iron because it's second nature to me. And um, it's not second nature to everybody else because people think about the flavor of the food before they think about the what the food is giving them nutritionally. And taking the emotions out of the eating and understanding it as a, hey, it need my body needs something. Let's think about what it is. And I know that that might be hard for people too. And I haven't told anybody this, but I'm gonna tell you now. I've been working all summer and I just trademarked my app. Oh, cool. And it's called Crave Well, and I've taken a lot of the elements from the book, including a craving identifier, which you can just type your craving into, and it does the calculations of the nutrients in that and gives you healthier options. There's also an integration for local foods that offer foods that fit those nutrients so that you can start when you're hungry, when you're craving something and you want to make a change, plug it in there and then have options right at your fingertips.

SPEAKER_00:

So that is so cool. Yeah. That is so cool because I I read in your book, and I've seen this before online too. People are like, oh, if you're if you're craving salt, your body might actually be deficient in, I don't know what it is, but deficient in something else. So it's not actually the salt, recognizing it's the signal from your body that it needs something. But salt isn't, salt isn't the answer.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Chocolate is always the easiest one for, you know, magnesium. The list in the book really does help because I give some tips. But I think that everyone can agree on pizza, you know, as a common craving. So I like to use that example a lot. Sometimes when you're craving pizza, you're craving cheese because you haven't eaten and that's a high calorie dense food. Sometimes you're craving it because you're craving the crust and that has a lot of carbs. You know, maybe you haven't been fueling and you're trying to go keto. Those combinations right there, the pizza and the cheese, is usually because you've waited too long to eat. Those are high calorie. Your brain and your muscles need to run on sugar. You're not giving it carbs in a steady way. It's gonna crave them. And so, cheese, in addition to having a lot of fat, has cassene, which is uh affects your brain the same way that heavy drugs or sugar do. It gives you a dopamine response. Um, so if you're feeling depressed and you haven't eaten pita, you know, it's gonna be a big one. Now, how do you replace that? And so, again, the tomato sauce aspect, if you're really craving the tomato sauce, mozzarella sticks and the tomato sauce, you know, the different things are giving your body and your brain different things. So you could be craving the lycopene from the tomato. Maybe you haven't had any green vegetables or any red vegetables in a while. And your body will just start trying to find them from anywhere your body thinks it can get it. You know, it's an evolutionary thing. If you're in a place that has raspberries growing and apples growing, your body's going to crave the things that are around you. So you have to just like you would give a child things, you know, you have to start reintroducing healthy options so that your body knows where it can mine the nutrition from.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. No, which is true because it's exactly like because I was going to transition to mindful eating. But so much of mindful eating is being aware of the mental part of it. And you just said it so beautifully, you're talking about food, but I talk about it all the time with my business from a mindset perspective. Your brain automatically goes down the path to which it's been accustomed and the path to which it knows. And so if the path for your brain is negative self-talk, for example, just using mindset and neuroplasticity, that's where your brain naturally goes. So neuroplasticity is that you have to create new neuropathways in order to get your automatic response to be different. And you're saying the exact same thing. Yeah. You're just tying it to food, where I use it in my business for coaching from a mindset perspective, but you're saying the exact same thing. But it's your memory, your brain and your body's memory of foods, and you have to condition it to have new memories of foods.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Not only allowing your body to know that it can get nutrition from other places, which will just generally help you feel better, age better, uh, function better. But if you're making any changes, it's probably a lot of habits that you feel you need to change. And things, when people are told, you know, you're conditioned to do it this way, you have to change it. I think they get scared. So it's almost like you have to open yourself up to it and know that you can always, you know, fall back on your old patterns if you need to know that they're still there. But make an effort to say, you know, I need to do this for myself. Because at the end of the day, whether it's food or emotions, it's all, you know, there's self self-coping that we use. And so misusing food can seem really innocent. And misusing drinks can cause problems later on. But in the moment, you know, you you are making that choice. So the more you know when you have to is really the best weapon you have. You know, when you're making cognitive changes, sometimes you really do have to say, I'm just gonna do this 30 times, whether I like it or not, until it's a pattern.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Exactly. Right. And your taste bud needs two weeks to regenerate. So if you do it for two weeks, you all of a sudden might not crave it so much because your taste buds might be or your taste buds might actually be tasting different things that you've never tasted before, because you have new taste buds. So things that maybe didn't seem sweet, like I always find whenever I do any type of, I don't want to call it a diet because that's a bad word, but any type of like really truly cleanly eating. And if I really focus on not having sugar, let's say for a week or so, all of a sudden, things that didn't seem sweet before now all of a sudden actually are sweet, like nature's sugar, you know, like fruits and stuff, because I've removed that higher sugar level. So now my taste buds appreciation of natural sugar is so much more heightened. It's a fascinating experiment to try for people who've never done it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's true. Like even your taste buds are only tasting a very minute amount of sweet, salty, sour. Your nose in your olfactory system is what's getting all of the other flavor. And then your brain is putting them together, and then your memories are enforcing that. So that's why when people taste things with blindfolds on, they can't always immediately identify them because your eyes are also playing. You're using all of these things to process it. The problem is the cake can keep tasting good, but you really only need you could put a sliver of cake with an apple on top and get a third of the calories because your tongue's only gonna taste that one snippet. So, you know, how much return are you getting on this investment with the cake? Sometimes you have to look at it like that, you know.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a good analogy. I like that the return on investment of what you're putting in. Yeah. All right. So I've mentioned mindful eating a bunch of times because you talk about that in your book. What is one thing that someone could do today to start to embrace the concept of mindful eating?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I think you know, you have to just be honest with yourself about what what hunger means to you. I think you could always set do the delivery service, set yourself up for a week of, you know, whichever subscription meal, and then you have um uh a week's worth for you to try these new foods and new things. And it's usually 50% off for the first week or two. So you're getting a discount on your grocery bill, and you're exposing yourself to a new meal plan. Uh, you know, you're basically taking the the hard part out of it. You just have to pick what looks good because there's so many that are tailored to plant-based, to uh people who are athletic. There's Factor 75, there's Screen Chef where you have to cook, there's uh Daily Harvest where everything comes frozen. There's ones that are all fresh. If you want to save uh 50% on your grocery bill and try a new lifestyle, I would say today, just try one of them, you know? That's a great idea. Do it for the next six months for every company, try a different one and you'll have half-priced groceries.

SPEAKER_00:

That's a good idea. Well, it also takes the thought out of having to cook and it gets you home more and out of a restaurant because let's be honest, restaurant cooking tastes really good for a reason.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. And and why you're eating out. And if you're eating out because you're you're lacking social aspects, you know, or you're avoiding things. I know a lot of people come to the restaurant and weren't ready to face whatever they want to face, you know, next. And you don't have to buy an expensive meal and drinks. And although that does support my, you know, me living here, it's your business. There is another side of it. But, you know, just it all comes down to why am I doing this? And being accountable for your choices. But how can you do it and make it be fun? You know, it doesn't have to be change, doesn't have to be scary. Because in a few weeks, when you look in the mirror, you know, and you start feeling better, it makes sense. It's there's no reason to be afraid. But also, restaurant food will start tasting salsy. And once you start having, you know, coconut oil and avocado oil instead of the soybean oil on your fries, that's not gonna taste great anymore either. The healthier you get, it's like Maslow's theory of hierarchy. The higher you get, the you know, the farther away you are from the bottom. And and you you become better. Like you you function better, your system functions better. And and food tasting different is a symbol of your evolution of that.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, it is. It is. Well, and the beautiful thing about everything you talk about in your book is you don't have to wait that long to see a difference. You know, like if someone's saying, I want to lose 50 pounds, well, sit back because the right way to lose 50 pounds is to give it some time and really work at it. But a lot of the things that you talk about implementing, if you start to eat healthier just for one week, you will start to see an impact. It you don't have to wait months and months and months if you start to implement some of the changes in your book.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I had I had gained 30 pounds when I was like at my most depressed and I was drinking. And um within three months, I had abs for the first time in my life in three months. I never expected that kind of a change. But if you do the math and if you're a drinker, changes like that are so attainable because not only is alcohol obviously very high in calories, but your body can't burn fat if you drink for 24 hours after you've drank. So anything you're eating is going to sit and rot in your gut or it's going to be stored as fat if you're trying to still burn through, you know, sticks margaritas from the night before. So taking out the alcohol calories and allowing your body to actually burn whole foods as its nutrient source is just as simple as how you put gas in your car instead of sprite, you know? You just have to put the right things in. And once you realize that it's that simple and nobody's trying to sell you anything, you know, I think it's hard to believe, but it you just have to do it.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Yes. And you have an entitled your chapter on alcohol. I'm going to read this because I don't want to misquote you here. Alcohol booze is making you fat. Yeah. Yes. Hello. I was like, oh, I got to read that chapter. That's interesting. All right. I love that. Let's talk about the rainbow for a minute.

SPEAKER_01:

I do want to just say one more thing about booze, though. Um, you know, in that chapter, I talk about the history of alcohol and how it started and what it was as a fermented beverage created by local villages and tribes as to the what it is now processed and full of additives and basically just bottled ethanol. Alcohol isn't what it used to be. Um, if you want to continue drinking, or if you want to wean off drinking, looking for spiked kombuchas, which are naturally fermented, or umkay, which is a Mexican fermented drink, uh, sour beers, which are fermented, that's a good transition to step your way towards uh digesting and metabolizing alcohol if you aren't ready to let go of it. But the alcohol you're drinking now is is, you know, if you're if you want to be unprocessed in your foods, definitely look at what it does long term to just the Function of how you digest the food you eat when you're drinking.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. And that was, I found that was really interesting, you know, because it's like, oh, if your body is focused on having to try to digest the alcohol, then it's not digesting the food. And we all know if it's not digesting the food, then it's storing the food. So it was like you don't need to write five pages on that, like to get to understand the science of that. You're like, oh, huh. And as I've gotten older, I've found more and more people my age, because I'm in my 50s, don't drink at night anymore because they can't sleep. And it's the same thing. Your body can't rest and regenerate because it's focused on burning the alcohol that you drank at 10 o'clock at night before you tried to go to bed. Yeah. And you could do it every once in a while, but everyone I know do it every once in a while, and you're like, I had such a terrible night's sleep. Yeah. Yeah, because you're burning ethanol all night long. Yes. Yes. And let me tell you, the aura ring, which I am like obsessed. Yeah, right? Love my aura ring. Like it knows. I don't even need to tell it. Oh, really? I don't need to tell it that I had a drink. It knows.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like you're gonna feel bad today.

SPEAKER_00:

It tells it knows. It just knows because the resting heart rate isn't what it should be. Does it actually say alcohol consumed? It will say that either you drank alcohol or ate food too late at night.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, see, I have a different brand. I don't have the actual aura. I have one, a ring con, which for my sleep apnea. So I really just use it for that. But that's really interesting that it can detect that. It can a hundred percent. Because it's affecting your body.

SPEAKER_00:

So obviously, if the ring knows, then the ring knows. And the ring knows if you're eating late at night, also, because of how your body is starting to digest the food and it's tracking everything that's happening every minute of the day if you have it on. So the ring actually knows. Interesting. So it and it has a way that you can tell it. Like, you know, you can put in there tags like drank alcohol or ate dinner after a certain hour, ate food after a certain hour. It has ways that you can tag things for yourself so you can start to see trends. But yeah, when I first got the ring, it was amazing to me. I'm like, the ring knows that I had a glass of wine last night. Yeah, that's that's really good for accountability. It does, but then it also helps you realize like, huh, this stuff I'm reading, it's not just BS. Like the ring is telling me too that my body is functioning differently because I had a glass of wine last night than it does on the nights that I don't drink. If you start to have an awareness of the patterns, you can really start to see how your body is behaving differently.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. You know, you gotta give it the best, the best opportunity to thrive with everything coming coming at us with all the seeds taken out of our foods and all the nutrition, you know, modified out.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And everything being so processed. So let's talk about eating the rainbow because the chapters that you have about eating the rainbow, you give people like actual examples, you give meal plans, you give so much, smoothie recipes, like it's fantastic. So let's talk about eating the rainbow.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, it's I think just a very easy concept for kids to adult to visually see that the reason your food is the color it is, is because of what it contains. And when you're eating, you're just breaking down something and mining it for what it contains. You know, we mask that with flavors and and with textures and and aromas. But at the end of the day, you know, again, like an investment, what am I getting out of this? The easiest way to try to get all of your nutrients is to try to eat a color, each color each day. Now that could be three different colors in your smoothie and three in your salad, you know, or spread out, but just the awareness of if your plate is bland white, then there's probably nothing that you can get from it. And if you want your skin to look young and you're spending all these money, money on creams and your skin looks dull, you know, look at your plate because you need the nutrition that's making the fruit and vegetables look so beautiful in your body. So it's just another way to raise awareness, you know, because we're bombarded. I get it. But you can look around and say, this looks bland. What do I have in the freezer? I have some spinach, I have some tomatoes, you know. Just bring it in little by little until you're just no at the grocery store to look for every color in your cart. Yes. Yeah. And it's just, it's a training.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a training. I found for myself personally, it's a training. I tend to eat sometimes the same things again and again, kind of like on repeat. Yeah. I mean, we all do. We all do, but I personally do go back to that rainbow and I'll be like, huh.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

When's the last time I had something orange, other than, you know, a little bit of carrot, you know? And I'm like, that's that's not really enough. Or have I had enough green today? I eat a lot of greens, but sometimes I'm not eating enough greens.

SPEAKER_01:

And well, if you're not eating enough greens, it's also really easy to just take a scoop of spirulina every day. Contains every every nutrient on earth uh in the algae. Um, also chlorella every day. You know, those are two things.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't know if we're gonna talk a little bit about supplements, but we can talk about anything you'd like to talk about. You want to talk? It's a good transition to supplements. Let's talk about supplements because it's a good transition to that. I find the older I get, the more interested I am in supplements. And they're kind of becoming more and more mainstream, but not all supplements are created equally either.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, there's a lot of vitamins that can only be digested or be better digested through the membranes in your mouth. Uh, so sublingual, like, you know, taking a pill of uh, you know, mashed up vitamins that you don't know where the vitamins came from, and then hoping your stomach digests them. Some of them may need fat to digest, some of them do better without food, some do better with food. So a block multivitamin usually doesn't get people the results that they think that it will. But companies want to sell you vitamins. So, but nature actually has its own vitamin, uh, like the number one nature's spirulina, it's an algae. And you may have seen blue spirulina and green spirulina, and blue spirulina is just they extract the blue elements out of the green spirulina to make it more visually appealing to use in recipes, but it it's now missing some at some nutritional elements. So if you want the full nutrition spectrum, if you put a scoop of that into your, I mean, there's other brands that sell it, like daily greens or athletic greens, uh, green vibrance has been around forever. You put a scoop in your smoothie, you can eat the, you can play around with it. Do, you know, just again, get it in your system. Um, and that's way better than taking a multivitamin. There are some store bought the garden of of life, has a multivitamin chewable that I swear by. So there are some reputable brands, but by and large, avoiding those main name brand generic multivitamins is is not doing you any favors. Chlorella and chlorophyll. Chlorella is also a seaweed, an algae, um, also containing, I think it may have a little bit less than spherulina, but both of them are very detoxifying to the body, also, which brings in chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is in chlorella, chlorella is not in chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is plant blood. And the only difference between plant blood and human blood is that there's magnesium where potassium is. And so when we take chlorophyll every day, not only does it clean out our system, it's packed with vitamins and micronutrients, minerals, but it also takes away body odor and it really helps all of your systems thrive. So, my grandma, anybody who's on medications, if they're older, I always make sure they're taking that because the medications can put a lot of stress on their um kidneys and liver. But anybody who wants to be feel clean from the inside, it's like a number one thing. I also take the chlora, and people say how much? About a tablespoon of liquid chlorophyll. I take it with uh two ounces of pink grapefruit juice and two ounces of raw cranberry juice every day. It keeps your immune system. I'm around germs at the bar all the time. Keeps my immune system year-round, tip top shape. The cranberry won't allow bacteria to stick to you. The boost of vitamin C from the grapefruit, and then all those vitamins, if you're feeling crappy, shoot that. And that's a great way to just perk up and get like most of the vitamins you need if you don't get all your rainbow colors.

SPEAKER_00:

Perfect. And you have two colors in there right there. So colors that are, especially in cranberry juice, that's one of the harder colors, I find. Yeah, a lot of people don't like beets and stuff and things that are in those colors. So those are sometimes harder to harder to get in. Harder to get, yeah. Yes. Ooh, that's so fascinating. Can we talk about macro and micronutrients for a minute?

SPEAKER_01:

So macro, meaning big, are the big things that people think about fat, protein, and carbs. And then micronutrients are the vitamins and minerals that lie within whatever makes up the macronutrient. So let's use pizza as our favorite. The macro, the macronutrients of pizza are fat, carbs, and there is some protein from the cheese, whatever, vegan or regular that you use. And then the micronutrients would be the vitamins that whatever the crust has. So if you're using a cauliflower crust versus a wheat crust, now those are gonna have very different micronutrients. Also, that will change your macronutrient if you switch that. And the fat, the cheese is the fat. The micronutrients in that would be like vitamin A, vitamin D. And then the sauce again has the minerals of the tomato and whatever veggies you cook into it. So knowing people focus on, oh, I gotta get my protein. You don't ever hear anybody say, I gotta go get my carbs, or I gotta go get my fat. You just hear, I got, I gotta go, I just want protein. I'm just doing high protein. Okay, but what of where are you getting your micronutrients from? You know, right because if you're eating an animal, that animal created that muscle from micronutrients in the vegetation it ate. And you're trying to eat that animal to get as many micronutrients through that. So you're skipping, but at the end of the day, you're mining nutrients from the sun. When you're eating, you're eating nutrients from the sun that is photosynthesized, whether it's eaten by an animal and then you eat the animal or you just eat the plant. You gotta get it in yourself to survive. And you know, it's necessary. We can't live on pizza and McDonald's. You can't. I mean, you can if you change your pizza every single day to have all different micronutrients. But um people with busy lives are not looking at micronutrients. They are looking at what I can get on the table, what do I have in the freezer? But if you're aware when you're at the store to at least get all the colors of the rainbow, you should be covering yourself. And then just introduce the smoothies. You're getting natural sugars. You're you're gonna be uh your blood sugar's gonna be stable longer, your skin's gonna do better, you're gonna get vitamin C, vitamin A from the fruits, you're gonna get probiotic fiber for your gut, your gut's gonna function better, that's gonna make your skin look better. And it all works together to get your body regulated, and then you're healthier, and then you're healthier.

SPEAKER_00:

But as you talk about macronutrients, it's like, and you talk about this in your book that sometimes people get so focused on I need protein and I don't need carbs. And you talk about how carbs are necessary in the book. And same thing with fat. It's like, you know, I mean, I grew up in the era of like the no fat, zero fat. You know, these products are good for you because they have no fat. What's the fat in it? It's like, but oh my goodness, so many of those zero fat products or low fat products have so much processedness to it. And yeah, you need fats. You talk about that in the book. Like, you need fats, but it's about making healthy choices for fat. So just use fat for an example. For people who don't know, what are some examples of healthy fats?

SPEAKER_01:

So the like obviously avocado, everybody knows that. A lot of people don't realize it also has like five to seven grams of fiber. So that's a good one for fat and fiber. But avocado oil is a much better oil to cook with because it tolerates high heat a lot better. Olive oil will break down under heat, and you should only use that when you're, you know, dressing a salad raw. Grapeseed oil is another great fat, especially to cook with, because mostly people are using fats to cook with. But as far as eating fats, don't be afraid of nut butters. Sunflowers, sunflower seeds is another one that has an incredible amount. I think it also has 99% of the nutrients uh that you need to survive is in a sunflower seed. Seeds and nuts have fat, but you shouldn't be scared of them. People are scared of them because they are calorie dense. But when you're eating whole foods, you can stop counting calories. You don't have to worry about counting anymore. Once you're eating the nature's complete package of food, the ratios of the macronutrients and the sugars is made your body can digest them. And so obviously you're gonna feel more satisfied. You're going to meet your nutrient cravings, you're not gonna be so hungry, you're getting your fiber. And uh, at the end of the day, it's finding finding better ways to feel satisfied. But the bad fats, we I skipped right right over those. Obviously, everyone's scared of seed oils. And I do want to just say that a lot of people are scared of seed oils, but they don't know why. Um, I just said seeds are great and seeds have oil in them. And it's because when you buy a seed oil, it is processed with uh hexane and high temperatures to get it out of the seed. There are expeller press seed oils on the market. They're few and far between, but if you just look at the label, it'll say expel or press, and that's just ground to the stone for the most part. And those are not going to affect your body the way that a commercial soybean oil or vegetable oil will, which will just clog your arteries the same way that you know red meat and cholesterol are bad fats. Humans, all animals make cholesterol, and cholesterol is necessary in our bodies, but when you eat cholesterol from an animal, it stays in your arteries. So people got scared of the wrong fats. So it's just understanding you can chew up a peanut and the nut oil that chew up a seed, and that's great. You know, you need to lubricate your brain, your heart, your systems. Baking your French fries instead of frying them in olive oil because you think olive oil is healthy, definitely bake them. You know, just do if you if you're gonna eat oil, try to eat it whole. If you're gonna cook with oil, try to get the high temperature. And then coconut coconut oil is one other really important oil which can lower the carbs technically in your food by by making it a why am I blanking on the word starch, a resistant starch? If if you cook food, rice, bread, anything in coconut oil after it cools, the starch becomes resistant, which means your body doesn't absorb it as a carb, but your gut and your microbone, right microbiome eat eat it. So it's actually feeding the bacteria in your gut, and you're getting less sugar spikes from it. If you want to start there, just adding coconut oil could reduce the amount of sugar if you are sugar sensitive.

SPEAKER_00:

And I love that. I bake with coconut oil, but I forget to cook with it, but I do bake with it a lot, but I forget.

SPEAKER_01:

You gotta get the Costco one and just sit it on the counter. You can't forget about it. It's 10 pounds.

SPEAKER_00:

So, first of all, everyone, I can't ask her all the questions because we're running out of time. But you all have to buy her book because you have a huge section. I just want to give you kudos for this, and we're not gonna talk about it, but I want everyone to know it's in your book. You have a huge section about how to read food labels. Yeah. And your book is worth the money just to understand how to read a food label. So go buy the book for that purpose alone, but there's so much else in there. But we're not gonna talk about it because we can't give away the whole book and we're running out of time. We're running out of time. All right, so before we do run out of time, I have two questions for you. You're a vegan, correct? Yeah. Have you always been a vegan?

SPEAKER_01:

I went vegan at 14. My mom was vegetarian at seven. Um, my grandparents, I told you how to farm. They also had chickens and rabbits on the farm. And my mother was witness to my grandfather killing them for food. Uh, so at seven years old, my mother said, I am not eating meat. I don't want any part of it. And so when I was uh growing up, she had all of the vegetarian moose wood and whole foods, cookbooks, and things. And when I was with her, I ate vegetarian. Um, when I was with my grandparents off the boat from Italy, they gave me the meat. They gave me meatballs and pods. I didn't know any better. But when I was 14 is when I started, I think I saw a slaughterhouse video in school or somebody showed it to me. And I had all those teachings from my mom. And for some reason it really clicked with me that that was the right way, you know, and for me, and it it wasn't about nutrition at that point. It was an ethical choice for me. And I started doing protests. I protested the elephants at the traveling circuses, which are now banned. I hope that me and my friends' efforts protesting help, we would protest Macy's fur. And now Macy's, I think, no longer carries fur. So those were some early efforts. But as I got older and I joined the Screen Actors Guild, and I was a stand-in and uh body double and background actor, and I was pursuing that. The body image, my own body image of having to shrink even more to fit the looks and sizes of these people, is when my relationship with food became a little bit more of a battle with diets. And so I read every diet book that there was available, and then I read every natural healing book, and I was was vegan. And so I was trying to find a way to get all of the nutrients without having to starve myself uh to fit into this body type. It took years of of really understanding how the body works and how food works, and staying vegan, you know, there was there was a few years when I ate chicken and fish when I was poor and I was getting food at the food bank. But as soon as I was financially back on my feet, I I there I would never at this point eat meat again. That was a very low point in my life. I, you know, and luckily I am not there anymore. When you have to compromise your values to survive, it's tough. But I would never put myself in a position uh where that could be compromised again, uh, whether it be for my body, for the animals, for the planets. You know, I like showing people that you can be strong and vegan. I mean, yeah, I've got some pretty strong guns.

SPEAKER_00:

You do. And you are in amazing shape. You are in totally incredible shape. And you talk a lot about it in your book, which is why I wanted to make sure I mention it. Because for people that are curious about becoming a vegetarian, curious about how to become vegan, you talk a lot about that in your book and how to eat so that you are getting enough nutrients and you are getting enough calories and you are getting the diversity that you need. And you also sprinkle in quite a bit of education that might make people think twice before they go and buy the meat or the fish. So I wanted to make sure we covered off on that because you can talk about that. And I think that is a helpful resource for people that are curious.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. I don't like, I don't want people to think it's only a book for vegans. It's definitely a book for vegans, it's definitely a book for vegan curious, but I feel like I've covered so many things from the emotionals, even the water, you know, we all have to drink that, where our food's coming from. If you question the decisions you're making, I think you'll find some answers, no matter what you do with it, or it could help your mom, it could help your sister. I just wanted to get as much as I knew out there so that I could help as many people as I could. Yes. And when is your app coming out? Any minute now. I'm I'm just refining it. I have I have a little panel of product testers. I'm working on just making sure that I have everything in place. It's it's harder than it looks, but I have a I have somebody um just gonna check that everything is 100% functioning. And then it takes a little bit of time to get into the app store, but I'm hoping by Christmas, let's say at the latest, I want it out by the end of the year.

SPEAKER_00:

We will mention it in the show notes, and then when it does come out, because this will come out long before that, but when it does come out, be sure to tag me on social media. Oh, of course. And I will bring this show back up to life for everybody. Uh tag it, and I personally be the first one out there to run out there and get get your app because congratulations, that's a really valuable resource. So I'm excited. Yeah. All right. So, Justine, thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure having you on the show. I will put into the show notes everything about you, your website, your book, how people can buy it. Um, I encourage you guys to follow her on Instagram. Uh, Justine's just a fascinating human, and you just are really real and authentic and inspiring, and your garden. There's so much we can just go on and on. Organic. Like there's just so much content here. So I thank you for being a guest and for making the time to record with us. It's been truly a pleasure.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. It really makes me feel like what I'm doing makes the difference. And thank you for you know all of your questions. Um, I hope that, you know, we can spread the word and you and I can help make some change in people. Exactly. Okay, everybody, have a beautiful day.

SPEAKER_00:

We'll see you next week. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. We appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guests. If you enjoyed this episode, please write us a review and share it with friends. Building our reach on YouTube and Apple Podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower one million women to live all in. You can also follow us on Instagram at House of Germar and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter to our website, houseofgermart.com. If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show, please reach out to us at the podcast at houseofgermart.com. This has been the House of Germar Production with your host, Gene Collins. Thank you for joining our house.