What We Get Wrong About Weight Loss and Nutrition

 If you’ve ever felt confused about healthy eating, frustrated with weight loss, or overwhelmed by food marketing, this episode is for you. 

In this powerful and honest conversation, Belinda sits down with Vicki Stride of Inspired Fitness and Health to unpack what real health looks like — especially for women in midlife. From blood sugar balance and gut health to hormone shifts and emotional eating, this episode goes far beyond calories in, calories out. 

They explore why nutrition is the foundation of everything — mood, sleep, metabolism, hormones — and why weight loss is often the result of becoming healthy… not the other way around. 

If you’re navigating perimenopause, struggling with cravings, raising kids in a processed food world, or simply trying to make better choices in the grocery store — this conversation will give you clarity, confidence, and practical insight. 

00:00 Introduction 

02:14 Vicki’s Journey from Corporate to Fitness 

05:36 Stoplight Eating for Kids 

10:10 Big Food, Processed Foods & Label Reading 

18:00 What Is Metabolic Balance? 

23:00 Blood Sugar Spikes & Cravings Explained 

26:30 GLP-1 Medications and Nutrition Education 

34:00 The Messy Middle of Healthy Habits 

37:15 Nutrition, Hormones & Midlife Changes 

If you found this conversation helpful, please like, subscribe, and share it with someone who needs clarity around health and nutrition. 

Your health is your responsibility — and your power. 

#MidlifeHealth #WomensHealth #HormoneBalance #GutHealth #HealthyEating #MetabolicHealth #WeightLossJourney #PerimenopauseSupport #Okotoks #AlbertaHealth 

Host: Belinda Waites 

Watch full episode Youtube: @puremediapodcast

Instagram: @belindawaites 

Belinda Waites - Hear Right Canada – Okotoks: where better hearing starts with listening. 🌐 hearrightcanada.ca 

Guest: Guest: Vicki Stride

Instagram: inspiredfitnessandhealth 

Email: vicki@inspiredfitnessandhealth.com 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

And the nutrient deficiency that comes with that. I think people don't understand that or they underestimate the value of the nutrients that come with the fruits and the vegetables and the protein, all of the macronutrients to help your hormones be balanced or and your moods and your sleep, it it affects everything. I think, you know, nutrition is number one. Like, yes, we need exercise and we need the sleep and we need the stress management. But nutrition, if you don't have nutrition anchoring all of that, like you know, you're you're it's like you're spinning your wheels.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

Welcome back to Hear Me Out with Belinda. Today I'd like to introduce you to Vicky from Inspired Fitness and Health. Welcome to the studio, Vicki. Thank you so much for having me. You're welcome. Good. So tell me a little bit about what does the name mean? What was the journey to get there? What do you do?

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Um, okay, so I uh the journey was I worked in corporate um business for 10 years and then had my children. And my husband and I both traveled for work, so that really wasn't going to work very well anymore. And um I have always exercised and always been passionate about um getting into the gym and played sports growing up. And so I thought now what can I do? I think I waited till about um till my kids are about six, five and six years old and thought, oh, I love fitness, so why not, you know, go down this journey? So um my I have a neat, uh interesting experience about my business name. So inspired fitness and health. Um, one of my friends in Nanaimo, her business was inspired um health and coaching. So I loved the word inspired. So I just had said to her, Do you mind if I use that in my business? And and inspired fitness, um, because fitness was the first thing that I gravitated towards and health. I knew at some point nutrition would come into play there or and ourselves as a whole, like women and men, children and everything as a whole person. Um, so that's how the name came to be.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

Nice. And so then you would have you trained as a a personal trainer and personal training.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Yeah, personal training and a fitness instructor is uh my certifications that I had started with and just kind of grew to a whole bunch of other avenues from there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:23

So you incorporate it together. So it's more of a holistic approach when you're working with someone to incorporate the the exercise and then you just said nutrition. Yeah. As well, which is the health. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

Yeah. Nutrition and whole health too. There's mindset work, um, you know, there's psychology behind it, all that, you know, as a whole person, right? As a whole person.

SPEAKER_00 2:42

So um, like wh like why would I come and see you, I guess? Like what would I be struggling with um to reach out to you?

SPEAKER_01 2:52

Well, it seems like most women either come for fitness or nutrition. So um weight loss is a, you know, a primary driver for a lot of women. So they come for that, I would say probably 80 to 90% of the time, thinking that fitness is going to tackle that for one, and uh a nutrition program, but then they'll see as a whole, um, you know, it stems from how you feel about yourself, um, your past, what your habits are that got you to the place that you're in. Um, so we work again on on that whole person. And um they find that fitness, you know, I as an example, one of my clients was coming for a year and and thought, well, why haven't I lost any weight? Well, it's nutrition that changes the size of your body. Fitness is more changing the shape of your body, but the nutrition is more about the size of your body. So kind of I'd say weight loss is the primary driver for most women. Right. Um, although they'll say, you know, I want to get fitter and healthier as well. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

And do you feel like it's more middle-aged women coming to see? It is.

SPEAKER_01 4:03

It's more middle-aged women. So yeah. I found as I've I sort of seem to attract the women of my age and older as I've gone along. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Yeah. That makes sense because that's like you're experiencing the same thing almost. Yeah. Yeah. And so um talking a little bit about the health and nutrition side, um, do you give them meal plans or anything? How do you did you study nutrition or anything?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

Or yeah. So I started about 12 years ago with Dr. Sears, his name was. So I followed him with my children. So Dr. Sears, like there's the baby book and um attachment parenting. So then I saw that he was offering lifestyle exercise attitude nutrition certifications for um more so kids. So I started with kids um and going into schools and teaching children how to eat well. And that was more based on stop light eating, so red light foods, yellow light foods, green light foods. And then I went into precision nutrition, so sports nutrition. Um, so got certified through them. So um that as well. So I got some designations with um master health coaching through them. And then there's been a few others along the way, but about two years ago I found metabolic balance. So I just find that's a very um lovely holistic uh program um for men and for women, so adults. And it is uh based on Dr. Funfack out of Germany. Um, he's he did this like 25 years ago for his cardiology practice just to help people with um metabolic syndrome, so um high blood pressure, diabetes, um high blood sugar, those kinds of things. Um so yeah, so I've gone into that and I love that. Like that's the only thing that I coach now. Oh, okay. So you've transitioned out of the fitness as well. Well, I I'm still doing the fitness as well, but the nutrition part. I used to do that with m with precision nutrition. So that was based more on calories in, calories out. So it's a much bigger picture than that, especially as we age.

SPEAKER_00 6:10

So metabolic balance kind of And you said something about the kids about you did the um red and orange. Yeah. Yeah, what is that?

SPEAKER_01 6:18

So it is uh it's called stoplight eating. So it was it's just a wonderful way to engage children when they're younger. So I would go into schools and show a little presentation, and then we would make a stoplight out of cardboard paper, so uh like stock paper. So um, like make a black and then yellow, green, red um circles on there. And then basically hold up foods. I'd bring foods in and we'd have pictures and show them pictures and and sort of help them distinguish what was a red light food. So that's kind of a um not everyday, so the kind of a special occasion type food. And then yellow light foods would be everyday foods, but once in a while, like not throughout the whole day. And then green light foods are more your fruits and vegetables, like so you can have as much as you want of those.

SPEAKER_02 7:06

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:07

And then they would also also get like stickers to go home, so red, yellow and green stickers, so they could go into their pantry and you know, help their parents sort of put stickers on everything.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

Yeah. So you had did that when your kids were little though, right? So I think you've been you've been teaching your kids healthy eating habits probably across their their life. Yeah, they may not have that same feeling of almost anger that I have against um, I don't know, just big food, I guess, right? Because they um we all know that cereal is not healthy, and yet they place it right there in all the stores because we know that it's like very profitable. So they place it right there at eye level so kids can see it bright colours. And then even in Canada still, we still have lots of foods with BHT in and stuff, which is as we know it's banned in other countries, but yeah, it's okay for Canadian kids. Well, no, it's not okay, you know, for Canadian kids. It's not healthy for them at all. And um, so what would you like to change? Like just thinking about there on food and stuff. Um, you know, like what do you see after like you know, following, you know, different people and research and stuff? Like, what would you like to see on a person's plate every day or in school lunchrooms? Because I still have a high school kid and it kills me to see what they offer within their cafeterias. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

That's a big question. There's there's a lot of answers to that. So I think that um when my kids were growing up, I had the same anger, you know, like d even vending machines, you know, that are are geared towards kids and even in the the school, you know, like just you just think like there's so much opportunity there to as a school um to promote healthy food, put healthy foods in there. Um and you're exactly right. The those foods are eye-level for kids. Um, and I used to teach the girls' hockey camp here. And then my my son played hockey, so I also taught um dry land and some nutrition with that. So we would take the girls from the hockey camp just over at Centennial now um Vikings Rental Center to Safeway, that that was a that was at the time, and do a scavenger hunt and help them distinguish, you know, what foods, so cereals with lots of sugar in them and food dyes, all of the all of the things. Um, and then it to help pick a healthy breakfast. So that was fantastic. So to help them change. So I think it's education to help the kids themselves understand because they don't. And a lot of the parents don't. So that was a big thing too. Like they got um handouts to go home with um when I would go into school, so I would hear, you know, back from parents, like they had just had no idea. So the education part, that piece is huge. Um, from a manufacturing standpoint, it would be really nice to see more people stand up for kids and you know, what I think just the health of it rather than the money part of it. Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I don't know what the whole solution is because, you know, money makes the world go around. So, you know, that's a big piece.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

It is interesting. I mean, I've always um well, I mean, I did do um what we would have called home economics in school, which we do study a portion is of nutrition, you know, based on what is put together as the plate, you know. And then I went into hotel school as my first career. So I worked in a lot of kitchens as well. Um, so although I haven't taken nutrition certifications, like I've always had a passion for, you know, healthy eating, food and that type of thing. And I remember actually when my um real journey started to healthy eating was actually when my oldest son, I think I was in grade one, and I had bought, because Busy Mama had a younger son, I was, you know, both my husband and I worked as well building careers, and I had picked up some pre-sliced apples in a in a bag, and I thought, oh my gosh, this, you know, time saver, right? I don't have to cut the apples in the morning. This is going to be great. I'm giving him some nice fresh fruit. And then I found the bag of apples a week later, and they were still perfect, perfectly preserved. And I was like, what is that? Right? That's not an apple. Like, and it really drew my attention to like what is being sprayed on the on that food, right? Because that's the unhealthy part, right? And like, and nobody's telling you that. You know, I go, that's I think where my anger built. Is it's like there should be warning signs, you know, or just you know, something out there because there's this huge trust. And I think um maybe changing direction, but I was talking to somebody else that we're this generation like of um, you know, 45 to 60 year olds that trust no one, that don't trust corporations, we don't trust governments. And I'm like, well, look at what you've done. And now you're questioning why we don't trust people, right? Because it's not, you know, like obviously we're not gonna trust you. Like my trust was completely broken the more I looked into, you know, things and started looking at food and options and healthy choices. And, you know, um, I'll pick on Skittles because they had such a huge impact. My kid loves Skittles. I mean, and it was a once every couple of weeks treat. It wasn't something that he got every day. Um, but I noticed how it could impact his mood and anxieties. I was just gonna ask you that, yeah. And so then, and when I started reading up and doing all these different things and following various physicians, I was like, get rid of the Skittles. And as soon as I got rid of the Skittles and the high-dive food and those cereals and all of that, it was like overnight, right? It was almost miraculous. There was no medication needed, you know, there was no it was just my my child is back. Yeah, it makes a big impact, right? And I think that's the thing, is we don't know. And then fast forward now, I'm, you know, at that stage that a woman goes through. And um, I look back on all the maybe questionable advice I was given and all the questionable things that I did and how that p impacts me and my body now. And going back to, I think it mentioned something about metabolic and stuff. And I don't think um, I think there's still a lot of research being done, but I don't think there's a lot that's understood of how what what we the choices we made or the advice given to us in our 20s is affecting us now, you know, 30 years later. Yeah.

unknown 13:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

And we seem to go through a cycle of it's about every 30 years, maybe less, but there's, you know, um, low fat, low carb, like it all changes, right? And you think any way that you eat if it omits a food group may not be good for you. And all all ways that we can eat, and again, coming back to women's weight loss, which is just, you know, so prevalent for so many women, especially now as we're aging, um, you know any nutrition program that you can go on, any diet can, you know, you it's a calorie restriction, so you can lose weight, but is it healthy, overall healthy, right? That's the thing.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

I think you had mentioned um dairy, right? Like that doesn't work for you. So, you know, it it and it doesn't need to, right? It might be dairy, it might be soy, it might be gluten, you know, everyone has different sensitivities or beliefs or values. Um, but how do you then replace the protein, for example, or the calcium and and finding that in other foods? And the same with for your kids, right? How do you find that whole balanced food diet? Um and part of it is removing those things like the sugary cereals or the the box little gummy candies that you think you're getting real fruit in, right?

SPEAKER_00 14:50

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it is, it's always interesting to me when we go to our grocery shopping now, how I mean, my family, I think, shops at the the the the uh vegetable aisle and this aisle, right? There's nothing in between that we even walk down, right? Right. Yeah. And it always kills me when I see healthy food aisle and I'm like, if this is your healthy food aisle, what are you selling around it? Right, right. I'm like, it's like, but people don't question it. That's the whole thing. Like I've I've mentioned it to a couple of my friends, and they're like, oh yeah. I'm like, well, you gotta think about, you know, things like that. What whatever you're putting in is having an impact on everything.

SPEAKER_01 15:30

Right. So and the nutrient deficiency that comes with that, I think people don't understand that or they underestimate the value of the nutrients that come with the fruits and the vegetables and the protein, all of the macronutrients to help your hormones be balanced and your moods and your sleep, it it affects everything. I think, you know, nutrition is number one. Like, yes, we need exercise and we need the sleep and we need the stress management. But nutrition, if you don't have nutrition anchoring all of that, like you know, you're you're it's like you're spinning your wheels.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:04

I actually um recently it was an XVIX documentary on um some researchers out of Europe studying microbiome, where they actually studied microbiome from different locations around the world. Oh, wonderful, yeah. And it's very interesting to see, like, uh it was North America, I don't believe they had anybody in Canada, but they did, you know, target this group um in the US and how they had very little um different, you know, microbiome, I think that's the word, versus somebody who's, you know, um, you know, out of Peru, right? So they have very healthy, like a lot of different microbiome, which obviously impacts how everything is working. Inside, and it that gets broken down, you know, with the different foods, like when you're only eating certain foods, and then of course there's antibiotics and that type of thing. But I thought it was kind of fascinating how we don't know these things and we don't, and then obviously that they went through how to replace it for those people. But then the limitation came in that those specific um, it was women that they had done some research on, couldn't afford all the whole fresh food that they were recommending, because it would, you know, recommended to blend it up into a smoothie to replace. So, number one, yes, it was healthy and nutritious, but it was also replacing the microbiome.

SPEAKER_01 17:22

So Right. Yeah, you need a a large diversity of it. And as we enter midlife, we have less and less of it. So it's interesting to think, you know, I never know if I'm saying it right, but you have the bac bacteriodets and the for Makutis, that's all I see. Yeah. That's how I I think of it. But um, you know, you want to be feeding the diverse um good bacteria versus the bad bacteria. So it's getting that wide variety of colorful fruits and vegetables just so important. It doesn't mean that you have to do it every single day or every single week, but you know, if you look at even a week-long period, how many colors can you get in there and think about your feeding that good bacteria, which is then in turn um helping your intestines not have the breaks in it so that you end up with um, you know, some of those tiny little food particles floating around in your system and then you don't feel well, right? Yeah. Um, so it helps the health of your intestines and your whole digestive system. Um and yeah, as we age, we need to, you know, um populate that bacteria as as best we can.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

And is that part of you'd mentioned you work now with somebody out of Germany for metabolic? Is that something that they target as well? Or what is that program?

SPEAKER_01 18:37

Yeah, they do. So um that program is based on blood work, so they take blood work, um, or I would um give give a requisition for them, or we send people in Calgary. We're very lucky here. We have a group of nurse practitioners so we can get blood work done through them, and they can also help with any other things that just diet alone can't. Um sometimes people need further investigation with gut issues. Um but yeah, so blood values are done. And so Dr. Funfak himself realized that um the nutritional content from food can help to overcome so many of the issues that we have in our bodies. So they hired a group of food scientists and um his wife was a naturopathic naturopathic doctor. So they they have a wide variety of uh team that works together there. So when we send the blood work into Germany, they match your nutrient deficiencies or inflammatory markers or hormone imbalances to the foods that help build that back up again. So each plan is different that way. And um, you spend a couple of days doing an intestinal um cleanse first to get all of the whatever junk that might be sitting in there out. And then you spend two solid weeks in uh like more of a strict plan. So based on that blood work, you get uh it's like three ideas of meals. So breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, and then you have a big list of food that you can plug in there. So it's not so strict that, you know, you can only eat um this food three times a week, sort of thing. Um, so there's a wide variety there, but those foods that are chosen for you are specific to what your deficiencies are. So help to build you back up. And then after that, you get a sort of a bigger list of foods that, you know, it it's not restrictive at all. You know, you just want to make sure it's healthy whole foods. So it's all stuff that you get at the grocery store versus um, you know, so many things out there are now uh shakes and and bars and things like that. So it's all whole foods based. And so, like, is it a a large cost associated? Um yeah, it is$13.99. So that it is, it does feel like a large cost, like it's kind of sticker shock at first. Um, but I am a member of the Canadian Association of Natural Nutrition Practitioners. So if you have nutrition in your insurance plan, we can um put that in as part of covering your cost. Okay. Um so that helps. Yeah. Um, and then I I like to um help people see the value of it. So yes, it is a high price, but it's a six-month program. So in that program, you're gonna get that meal plan. Um, and again, it's very custom to you. Um, it's not like just here's a meal plan to follow. I know that doesn't work. And so, you know, when I tried to do that before, people would follow that for two weeks and be like, you know, it feels restrictive and almost like there's no autonomy to it. You want to have where, you know, you feel like I'm choosing what I want to eat. Yeah. Um and then I teach a 12 week course throughout that as well. So um I have the list. Do you want me to show you the list of the topics? If you feel like it, sure. I think it's important. Um, just to and I always bring this out because I'm gonna I'm gonna forget. Um, but the topics I feel. Like are important because again, looking at ourselves as a whole, and I think it's um what you eat and what you drink, what um how you think, what you how you move, all of those, those all come into play. Um and so what I like to tell people too is it's not losing weight to become healthy, it's actually becoming healthy to lose weight. I'm gonna keep coming back to weight with this because that just seems to be the driver, even though we all wanna be healthy, like that's the main um, you know, focus of it. But weight loss is just such a big uh driver for so many women. Okay, so um so we do prep week, so a week of setting up for success. Then we talk about fats, sugars, and people will say, well, I don't eat that badly. But if you look at, let's say if you took a person's um breakfast, so and like we were talking about earlier, so a lot of people will have cereal for breakfast. Um, so you look at the nutritional deficiencies that are in that. So you're not really getting much um in the way of any kind of buildup in the start of your day. Plus, you're spiking your blood sugar up. So you're, you know, you're starting already starting your day off thinking, like, I'm gonna go like this, right? And then maybe for um a snack, you might have some people might have cookies, other people might choose an apple. Yeah. Um, then lunch, you might just choose a turkey sandwich with mayo, lettuce, you know, like thinking, okay, this is healthy. Um, and then you might have cookies on the side. And again, a lot of people are having coffee um throughout their day. Then, you know, three or four o'clock hits and you're hitting the vending machine, right? Yeah. And then dinner time, you think, okay, I'm gonna have, I'm gonna have a salad and I'm gonna have chicken. And you think, okay, I'm gonna have a healthy meal. And then maybe you're gonna have a little bit of ice cream after. So you, you know, in that, because of the carbohydrate content and people, their lack of education with a balanced meal, again, the blood sugar is going like this all day long. So you're finding yourself hungry every two to three hours and craving things, whereas metabolic balance will be three solid meals a day in balanced macronutrient contents, so proteins, carbs, fats, vegetables. Um, so you have the two kinds of carbs, the starchy carbs and the vegetable carbohydrates. Yeah. Um, so it's setting you up for solid, balanced blood sugar through the day, like this, rather than this up and down and up and down, right? So we go into the fats and sugar contents of things. So I like to do a demonstration of um different pops and slurpees and things like that, and actually pouring the sugar into the cups to give a visual of what that actually looks like if you're just to eat the teaspoons of sugar, right? Yeah. Um, and the unhealthy fats. Um then we go into digestion and behavior. So how so there's mindset work sprinkled throughout this as well. So digest digestion, like how your digestion actually works, how your food moves through your body, and what, you know, like if you're a gluten-sensitive, for instance, um, how that can it's like if your intestinal wall was a bunch of bricks, how um it can move the bricks apart, and sort of like we referenced earlier, like little food particles go into your bloodstream. Um, and behaviors around food behaviors that may go into the calorie fallacy, so why it's not just calories in, calories out, um, stress hormones and time management skills, um, sex hormones, detoxification processes, and habit forming exercises, um, gut bacteria and how the metabolic plan helps you achieve optimal pre- and probiotics from the food that you're eating, um, emotions. So that's a big week. Um and I think most people that come through the program find that um they're actually feeling like, okay, I can do this program, but I had a bad week or, you know, they had a bad day or someone said something to them. So we, you know, we go through strategies to manage things, you know, like and again the emotional things that the roller coaster that I can do sometimes. Um thyroid function, insulin and insulin resistance, exercise, sleep, and hydration, then becoming going from exhausted to energized, and then I put a menopause mod module in there just in the last six months as well. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 26:19

Yeah. And so that is a 12-week program. So that's part of the upfront. So the fee.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

Yeah, the plan is six months, but there's a 12-week sort of course to go through in there. So module by module. Yeah. Okay. And you do that the first 12 weeks or over the six months? It it I I let people decide on their own. So some people want the freedom to start it at three months in when they feel like they've got the nutrition down. Okay. Um, but they will get a module each week. It's just kind of up to them on when they when they do it. So it's the freedom to do that. Yeah.

unknown 26:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:50

Yeah. I think it's really exciting, right? That you can make those changes and stuff. I just um I know that this is not um sort of physician's advice. This is just a friendly conversation, you know, between two people. But my thought actually goes to because there's a lot of the um the on the news about Ozempek and all of that type of thing, the GLP1 drugs. And I was just wondering if this is um, you know, just a a healthier way, you know, if people are spending a fortune on that drug, from what I understand, yeah. To, you know, they could invest it in something like this with that is maybe having those positive effects. I mean, it could be two different things, but I'm just thinking out loud.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

Um so I I feel like, you know, they're they're talking about um being overweight or obesity now as a disease. So for sure, medications for some people are warranted. Um, you know, I do know some people that would, you know, turn to something like that just because they want to lose 10 pounds. Um, and they're not necessarily um sort of on on a doctor's radar to prescribe that to. Um, but I mean it's a tool, right? It's another tool in the toolbox. But I feel that people that are using the GLP ones are um so the right person to do this program because then you're learning how to eat along with it. Because those are obviously any weight loss program, you're gonna start losing weight, but you're also at risk for nutrient deficiencies. Um, I can relate that back to when I was 40, I did a fitness competition. So we were eating, you know, a specific plan every single day for 12 weeks. And I had such an amazing coach at that time that um gave us a list of supplements to take as well, because he knew as soon as you're in a calorie deficit or restriction, which if you're on those GLP ones, you are gonna be eating less. And you're also not necessarily learning how to eat properly. So you may still be eating junkier foods. So now you're more at risk. Um, so that fitness competition showed me that especially when you're in some kind of calorie restrictive diet, you still need to make sure you're getting all the nutrients, or you're not gonna feel well, you're not gonna have the energy to do the workouts to, you know, to get ready for all those things. So yeah. So I do I think it's a tool in the toolbox, but I think those people especially could benefit from learning how to eat properly and making sure the nutrients are covered.

SPEAKER_00 29:13

I think that's actually a valid point, right? With it, like you're not necessarily learning the mind, right? Right. Because you have to learn the triggers of why a person's eating. You know, we all know like emotional eating and various studies on that. How you grew up, right? And um, you know, some people say it's like your drug, right? Because it's um it's legal, it's always available, you know, all of those type of things. It can be soothing for people, right? It can be very soothing and it's very social as well, right? Like, oh, I'm happy today, let's go after it. And oh, I'm sad today, let's buy some chocolate, right? It's that all those things come into it. And if you've been doing that since childhood, it's very hard, I think, to break those habits. So, yeah, that number one. And then learning, like we were just talking about, um, how do you learn what's healthy for you, right? When you think you're buying something healthy, but it's not actually healthy, right? Right. So, how do you learn that? And uh so yeah, I think it sounds like an amazing program.

SPEAKER_01 30:02

And I feel for people because how do you know unless you've been taught, right? Like when you go into a grocery store, like you've done research and you know, like you even for your kids, right? Like, how do you know what you should be eating or how much you of that you should be eating? Exactly. You know, how do you feel? Like, how do you do feel as a mom? Like when you go in, do you feel equipped to make those choices?

SPEAKER_00 30:23

You know, it's actually funny because my husband needs glasses for reading. Yeah. And we'll go into a grocery store and we've learned now you read every label. And the we we taught that from the kids actually. As I started going through this journey with my oldest from grade one, we started reading things. And I always said to them, if you can't pronounce the words and you don't know what it is, we can't buy it because it means it's not actually real food, right? It means it's a chemical concoction of what you're eating. So we've kind of like set the bar, you know, that that's it. And so then um, and we have um chosen to eliminate certain products um, you know, from eye diet, um just due to animal cruelty and that type of thing. So we are always reading labels. And we'll go into a grocery store together and he'll pick something up and he'll be like, read this. I'm like, bring your glass. Like, you've got to help me read everything. But yeah, and everybody reads everything. Um, like I said, even the 15-year-old will read. And so to know what's, you know, so that everybody knows what what they're eating. So if they do make an unhealthy choice, at least they know that they are making an unhealthy choice with that. But it came from years. And then going back to YouTube, you know, um, I did YouTube a lot of things, and it took me a while to find my favorite sources. And um, and I'll, you know, mention um, you know, Dr. Greger from Nutritional Facts. So he has spent his life looking and reading research and then um making it easy for, you know, for for the listener to understand what the actual research paper is breaking down. And I remember, you know, that right at the beginning, I listened to something and um he said, because big food, let's go back to the big players in, you know, the industry are gonna fight back, right? If they're losing money, they will create fear and just enough confusion in the consumer to let them keep going the way they are, so that they don't make any of those healthy changes. But I think he I can't I don't want to use exactly what it was, but he said, you know, um this specific um product was being marketed as healthy and that's where that's what everybody focused on. But this next sentence said when being compared to XYZ, right, which was like you know, like one of the unhealthiest things you could eat. So people are hearing this, it's healthy, but they're not hearing when it's compared to, right? So and that I think is the problem. Like it's so deceitful out there. And that's where the whole thing about corporations and this this trust comes in because you we can't trust almost anything. Who do you trust and who is the correct doctor you know, to listen to? Yeah. And all of that.

SPEAKER_01 33:08

So yeah, it's confusion, right? And always think about um, I did this leadership um certification years ago, and um Robin Sharma was the um, he's a leadership guru, if you want to term it like that. But he would say, picture a bunch of business men at the time more men than women, but you could do men and women, um sitting around a big boardroom table thinking, how can I make this package colorful? How can I make it um you know, sound healthy, and how can we sell as much of this as possible? And that's you know, that again, that that's the money driver and the yeah um it's consumerism for us too, of thinking like, you know, or for your kids, like you think I I think it's confusing because you think it's normalized. So you walk into a grocery store and think, well, everybody's buying it. It must be okay. Yeah. But it's not necessarily like it's up to us as individuals, even with our health, like to be our own advocates. Yeah. Um and especially for our children to teach them from a young age that um to look past that, like and to and to look at it like there is a lot of money to be made in those industries and but what's actually the best for us, what's the best for our health? And so yeah, not normalizing it or un undenormalizing it, even like the fast food restaurants and things, right? Like you think it's just so easy and convenient and and that's what is being targeted to us. So it is a like I don't like to use the word fight so much, but it really is. It is a it is a fight as a as a mom, especially to make those healthy choices and set that good example for your children. Yeah. And they do, like I know you probably do know as well now, that all the work you do when your children are young, they're fighting against you too. Sometimes the struggle is there. They want to fit in with their friends and eat what their friends are eating. Um and I saw that going into schools too, what's in those lunch boxes, it's shocking sometimes. And parents are busy and stressed and, you know, just trying to keep it all together and they're just putting stuff in there that they know their kids are actually going to eat. Yeah. Versus, you know, like it's hard at first. Um, I this is a Robin Sharmer quote, hard at first, messy in the middle and just gorgeous in the end. You know, it's hard at first to get to make that change. Um, then it can get messy, you know, like the messy middle is where let's say as a family you decide, okay, we're as a family, we're gonna get healthier, we're gonna try this all together, and you get your kids to buy in. So a week or two goes by and you know, it's been hard, but you know, you you still got that initial motivation just like for anything new.

SPEAKER_02 35:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Then it gets messy because, you know, you want to pull back and go back into things that are familiar and easy. But if you can get through that messy middle, then you get to the end, and that's where we're at now. Like I see what my kids will do intrinsically. Like it's not hard. Like they just want to be healthy. They they see through, they they read the labels because of the, you know, the the doctor sears stop light eating. Um, they look at the labels. Um, they're looking at how much protein is in like everything's protein right now.

SPEAKER_02 36:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:26

How much protein is in this? Um, they want to get their fruits and vegetables in, they know healthy fats, like there's so much education. Plus, our kids are all on TikTok, TikTok, I think. So they're seeing unhealthy seed oils. So they're, you know, they're looking at they're looking at labels, which is really inspiring. It could be all through childhood, but when you get to the end, you've inspired them and they've got those values and you see them making the healthy choices, and that's everything, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:51

You know, and I think actually that is beautiful. That is everything, right? Because yeah, you want to be a good mom and you want to like have your own health, but you also want to teach your children, right? So that they don't, you know, like myself, have that anger, right? They just know that this is it and they make the the good choices moving.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Yeah, absolutely. And you think it's not even just again, when it might have come back to weight, it's um and for kids, you know, sometimes it's a weight issue, sometimes it isn't, but it's the healthy hormones that you're developing um through their, you know, their developmental years. Um you know, their feel good, like you said with the Skittles, like you want them to feel good and and learn properly, properly, right? And it's the same for us. It's no different for us.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Um, you think even we're, you know, we're over caffeinating or we're, you know, we're trying to get our bodies stimulated and um ready for the day with too much caffeine often, and then we're, you know, we're going home and we're drinking wine, you know, and sort of trying to calm down off of it all. So it's all full circle and it's just different with each age group. Yeah. What it might be. And then again, you know, you come into perimenopause and menopause for women and men are lucky, they've got this more slow decline, and we're just like this, you know? Yeah. Yeah. So tackling that issue as well, and things change and what worked before doesn't necessarily work anymore. So you figure it out, you know?

SPEAKER_00 38:15

Yeah. And I think that's actually a a lovely way to end off the episode from today is just yeah, yeah, is on on that note. And um, I'll just do a quick shout out that if you're enjoying the content, please like and subscribe to the channel. And um, thank you so much for joining me in studio today.

SPEAKER_01 38:33

We had such a lovely conversation. Thank you so much for having me. And I'm looking forward to hearing a little bit more about hearing there. We go. Yeah. Thank you so much. You're welcome.