Under Pressure: The Human Behind the Performance
Performance looks polished. Pressure feels human.
Under Pressure is a podcast about what really happens inside the human system when the stakes are high.
Hosted by Dr. Alyse Munoz and Dr. Matt Hood, this show explores the psychology, physiology, and identity behind performance in high-pressure environments — from tactical and first responder roles to esports, athletics, leadership, and everyday life.
Under Pressure: The Human Behind the Performance
Fuel Under Pressure with Special Guest Diana Nguyen
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You can’t out-therapy a body that’s running on fumes. We’re joined by nutrition expert and performance dietitian Diana Nguyen, who’s spent years supporting special operations, first responders, and other “extremophiles” who perform under extreme stress, odd hours, and unpredictable conditions. We talk about why tactical nutrition is not the same as classic sports nutrition, and how small, repeatable routines can keep you steady when the day turns sideways.
Diana breaks down the simplest starting point that actually holds up under pressure: three meals a day, three food groups at each meal, about every three to four hours (3,3,3 rule). From there, we dig into why stress makes you crave sugar and “whatever” food, how blood sugar swings affect mood and anxiety, and how pairing carbs with protein, fat, and fiber can change the way you feel on the drive home. We also connect the gut-brain axis to performance and mental health, including why gut function matters for serotonin, sleep, and resilience.
Then we zoom out to allostatic load, annual lab work, and common nutrient gaps like magnesium and vitamin D, plus omega-3s and other micronutrients that can support stress response. Finally, we get practical about supplements and nootropics: magnesium glycinate, L-theanine, ashwagandha, rhodiola, holy basil, caffeine strategy, and why third-party testing matters. If you’re wondering where to start or how to find a qualified performance dietitian without getting pulled into influencer noise, we cover that too.
Subscribe for more conversations on performance under pressure, share this with a teammate who never gets a meal break, and leave a review to help the right people find it. What’s the hardest part of fueling your day right now?
Check out Allo Performance: https://www.alloperformance.com/
Institute of Functional Medicine (FM): https://www.ifm.org/
Integrative & Functional Nutrition Medicine (IFNM): https://www.ifnacademy.com/
Follow Diana-
https://www.instagram.com/dianasportsrd/
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Episode Welcome
SPEAKER_02Good morning. Thanks for taking time out to hang out with us for a little bit. Grab a seat. Grab a drink.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Water.
SPEAKER_02Nutrition expert, dietitian. Diana. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Welcome. Thanks for coming.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Thanks for thanks for hanging out with us and talking with us about, you know, performance pressure and how nutrition rolls up into that conversation.
SPEAKER_00Oh gosh, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Do we have enough time?
SPEAKER_00Shoot. I mean, yeah. Yeah. Performance pressure, performance nutrition. It's you learn that really quick.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I mean, I don't know. Like you, if you, you know, want to give a little background, like you, you know, our listeners have access to your bio, but you know, feel free to give us a little bit of a rundown, you know, the kind of population you work with, how you got there.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Gosh, my my my pitch deck. I currently, I just recently left my full-time job as a contract performance dietitian at Fort Bragg, and am standing up a functional medicine practice with Dr. Brian Stepaneko and Corey Briggs, who's a PA. Allo Performance is launching officially this week. And our target populations are, we call them extremophiles, individuals who perform under extreme scenarios and environments. So target populations, military, first responders, executives, CEOs, athletes, because we have come together to fill a void that we all have realized over years and years in this industry, where especially coming, we all have come from the military in various aspects and within our own personal lives as well. The lack of ability to provide individual truly individualized care for individuals who are under stresses and environments to which a lot of providers may not fully understand. And to be able to come in with that real-world expertise and real-world experience and translate that into individualized medicine is really what we all specialize in. Having spent six years in special operations as a contract dietitian, and then Dr. Stepanico coming from third group, special forces group, and as his time in the military, and he's a prior firefighter too. And then Corey Briggs also coming from the Air Force side. Together, we are able to fill the niche and provide the medical care with labs, with GI testing, with a number of other offerings and education. We want to educate providers to help understand the population, help provide that needed medical service for folks who just been kind of run through the ringer and put through and passed off and never really getting to the solution. We are going to fill that void and provide that solution. And prior to my new endeavor with Owl Performance, I have my own private practice, tier one nutrition. I've had that since 2019, where I consult with various patients, similar patients. I'm seeing a really common theme where a lot of different people, not just military people, kind of have the same concerns, issues, a lot of it centered around stress, gut health issues, brain health issues, shift work. I have a lot of experience with first responders, specifically law enforcement officers, and overlapping that with my time in special operations as a contractor dietitian, learning a ton. And prior to that, I spent 12 years in college athletics, where I worked at a couple different D1 schools, worked with some pro athletes, and was able to really hone in my expertise as a sports dietitian. And then when I transitioned to tactical nutrition in 2020, I realized very quickly that conventional sports nutrition knowledge was not getting me to the answer that I needed to help to help service members. And so I dove in headfirst and to learn as much as I could to help serve my populations. And Dr. Stepanika was a big asset to me and a sounding board to help me learn. So, you know, encouraging mentorship, whether it's directly in your professor or not, is so important for everybody. And, you know, I did, I was able to do my undergrad and graduate school at my alma mater, Virginia Tech. And at the time, you know, sports nutrition's been a relatively new career. We've only been around for maybe just under two decades. And I I was able to start my undergrad career right at the time when sports nutrition was just becoming a thing in college sports. So I I was able to work under one of the first full-time dietitians in an athletics department at Virginia Tech. I learned quickly from her. Yeah, she's it's a funny story. I when I when I started my freshman degree at or when I started my college career at Virginia Tech, I was on the path to be that doctor. I wanted to be a vet veterinarian, I want to work with animals. Yeah. And I got into the coursework and I love science of all kinds. So I was enjoying that, but I didn't feel like that's really where I belonged. And I remember a conversation that I had with my brother at the time, who's two years ahead of me, he was also Virginia Tech grad. And he said, he made a comment, hey, did you know that Virginia Tech has a full-time sports dietitian? And I was like, What is that? What is that? Sounds interesting. And I remember going back to my dorm room that day, looking her up, emailing her, contacting her, and I was like, I need to work for you. And the rest is history. I had changed my degree and I just felt like that's where that's where life was taking me. I wanted to, I loved working with athletes and helping them achieve their goal. Having been an athlete my whole life, I always had the idea of, you know, what can nutrition do to make you better, make you perform better. How can you leverage that knowledge and that skill to get to where you want to be as an athlete, as a any kind of performance? And the career has evolved so much in the past 15, 20 years. And now, you know, we all start in sports, and now you're seeing the transition to military. You're seeing transition to first responders. We were just chatting about that, like the the growth and the awareness of performance nutrition within first responders is increasing. The the need, the request is there. Yeah. And then beyond that, even anybody who performs, and you know, we all have different definitions of performance. I think I work with ER doctors who have to perform under extreme stress in the middle of the night. Like that is that is performance nutrition, just in a different way. It's not on a field, it's not being filmed. So we all have some kind of performance need, it just it may look different based on your setting.
Why Performance Nutrition Differs
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and we all need fuel to do it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02I love that I really like that you pointed out, right? Like, because you're right, it's tactical versus sport nutrition. Yes. You know, I and I think just understanding like that it is different, it all pulls from like the same template, right? Which is fuel and nutrition. But yeah, I read a I read I read something last it was last year, um, I think it came out last year, but it it was starting to identify exactly what you just said that like there is a difference. They like they diverge at a certain point because of the I mean, even as you mentioned, like an ER doctor, which we would consider right that high-risk occupation where you don't get to stop and fuel having worked in ERs, like you know, there's a pace sometimes that goes off, and you'll eight hours later you're like, Have I sat down? Have I drank water? Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00So like how do you in a you know crisis situation, right? Like that's when you want you want your best self present there. So, how can you leverage performance nutrition to help get you there in the most unideal environment possible, the most unpredictable environment, like nothing's more unpredictable than that setting or first responders or military ground troops, things like that. Like you never really know what you're gonna come up against. So just controlling the controllables is something I always go back to. And when you can control, here's what you need to do, here's what you need to know. But yeah, like sports nutrition, when you think about sports nutrition, it's very targeted. So you think about like I'm a dietitian with football or soccer or track, there's a very specific objective, which is to win, whether it's through speed, team sport, or whatever. But performance nutrition takes at that next level where yes, you want to quote unquote win based on whatever that might look like for you, but it's about optimizing the human body to perform at elite levels, whether it's the brain, it's everything physically, mentally, all of it needs to come together to achieve the objective.
SPEAKER_02Okay. So can we can we dig into that a little bit, right? Like, and I know we're really only gonna be able to do some surface level stuff, but you made a a point about like controlling the controllables, right? So, you know, not knowing when my situation is gonna get uncontrollable, like what do I do? You know, what are the things I target first? Like, you know what, you know, what are your kind of go-tos, like start here?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's kind of you know, working backwards. And depending on if it's if I'm working with a law enforcement officer or somebody who's working Intel, night shifts, shift work kind of things, you know. I always tell people to, I'd rather you have this thing and not need it than need it and not have it. So set yourself up for success, first of all. So when you're not on duty, when you're not on shift, when you're not doing the thing, take care of the things you need to do, which is the basic performance nutrition outline that everybody has, which is, you know, I always say three, three, three, three meals a day, three food groups at each meal, roughly three to four hours apart. That's kind of standard baseline for almost every human that I work with. And then anything beyond that would be really tailored to what that individual's goals are, and then being prepared when you do have to work, when you have that shift, have your meals ready, have your snacks ready, bring your water bottle, bring adequate and appropriate caffeine levels so that you have it and you're not in this frantic situation because when stress is high, what's the first thing that goes? Intent. Like you fall back on what becomes automatic for you. Whatever you train for, whatever's autopilot for you, that's exactly what you do. The intent behind like choosing the right, you know, meal composition goes way out the window. You're gonna choose. So, firefighters, first responders, anybody like that, after they get off a stressful call, what do they choose? They want somebody that's gonna immediately relax them. So whether they're they just don't eat at all, or maybe they chug that eat that pizza or those wings or whatever late night stuff is out there. Yeah, same thing for military. Like when you're really stressed, nobody craves a salad, yeah. Right? Like, nobody's like, oh my god, what a hard day. I could really use a nice salad right now. That's not my apple, yeah. No, I'm like, give me a cookie, where is my wine? Like, that's what people go for, but ironically, by choosing those things, you're you're actually adding more stress to your body, and you're you're precluding your ability to go to sleep well that night. So it actually is working against you for the exact thing you're trying to assist and help with.
SPEAKER_04It kind of reminds me of like, don't go to the grocery store hungry.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, exactly. When you are when you're or with children, yeah, yeah.
Why Stress Makes You Crave Sugar
SPEAKER_04When you're depleted, can we talk about what's happening inside the body that might hormona-wise, that might that's the reason why you make those choices?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that goes, you know, cognitive performance infects the brain. So when you're you know, blood sugar drops, you your mood changes, you become more irritable, your attention changes, your your ghrelin, your appetite hormone kicks up, left in your sectitia hormone may go down, and so you become very impulsive and less targeted and specific about what you really should have, and you just go for kind of the first thing that's in your mind. I always tell people, you know, a lot of times, especially for busy individuals, you might skip lunch or skip a meal in the middle of the day or middle of your shift, and then you get home and you're really hungry, right? How many that's happened to everybody, right? But and then when that happens, you end up eating the refrigerator or the pantry, because I call that the whatever meal. You know, you just get home and you eat whatever, whatever because because you're you've got you've waited too long, you've gotten to the point where your blood sugar is really low, your mood is is altered. I had this issue with my son last night. He he had a you know a tantrum last night because dinner was later than usual, and he just like flipped out, understandably, and then me knowing, okay, I know this is this is uh temper because he is hungry, he's tired, and then guess what? As soon as he ate, mood changed all better, everything's back to normal, we're good to go. Yeah, it's the sickest commercial, yeah. That's yeah, yeah, it's like that. Sarah, yeah, Sarah Patch kid, like, what was that? Yeah, yeah. It happens to kids and grown-ups, yeah.
SPEAKER_02It does. My kid got it from this grown-up, so yeah, we both understand.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, the the kid, the grown up full into that as the Snickers commercials, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, that's you may you make a good point. I I had uh a client that I was recently working with that was experienced in the first responder world and was experiencing like what he was, you know, calling to be significant anxiety, like super stress coming off of shift and driving home. And, you know, we kind of explored the parameters. This is a person that's worked graveyards for years. But what we what we really started to kind of break down, like you said, I love that you mentioned like working backwards, you know, like I I always kind of default to like what's your what's your fuel system? What's your, you know, like the the meter check, right? Like what's your sleep levels, you know, you're tired or coming off shift, what's your hunger levels? And one of the things that we kind of were able to talk about was adding a like some sort of a healthy snack. So he's driving home, so he added in a protein shake, and it significantly changed. Like the stress levels went down, anxiety went down, and then when he got home, he wasn't like you said, like he was saying he was consuming like a box of the worst cereal ever, and and that went away just from that you said that one yeah, eat the whatever meal, yeah. But like to sit like that for an hour, right, in a drive home and just be like it's awesome, and then you you're you're rage driving or you're you know reactive. So I think it's it's so great to like pinpoint the quick meals, but like can I ask though, too, that right? Like, if I want, is there a way where I can like can I do like an 8020, right? Like, can I eat something first and then the cookie?
SPEAKER_00Oh man, this sounds like you're trying to manipulate blood sugar. Um, yeah, like there's definitely science there where you know, if I were to just have a Gatorade or a banana or any kind of like just carp, it's just straight carbs, whether it's processed or natural, doesn't matter. Your body's gonna look at it, look at it the same way. My blood sugar is gonna spike. But that's a normal physiological response. I want it to go up, and then I want my body to secrete insulin and control how how high that goes and how long it stays high. But if I were to have peanut butter and a banana, that blood sugar is still gonna go up, but it's not gonna go up as high because now I have a fat and a protein on board. So I I help folks manage this is why I love nutrition in combination with behavioral health, mental health, because no matter how much intervention you have, just mentally with counseling or whatever, which is great, if you are not physiologically healthy, no amount of of mental gaming is gonna get you through that that traffic at the end of the day when you're starving, nothing's gonna make that better. Right. So, yeah, like you, you know, one way to manage blood sugar mood, anxiety, sleep from my lens is that 333. Like, make sure you have a high protein diet, which is usually like if you want to just spit out a number, like a gram per pound of body weight is is plenty of protein for most people, and then aiming for 25 to 40 grams of fiber a day with about five to ten grams of fiber per meal, that will help study your blood sugar. And remember, we get fiber from whole grains, legumes, lentils, nuts and seeds, fruits and vegetables. So if your carbohydrate sources are mostly from those types of foods, you can bet that your fiber content is pretty good. But if for folks who are in austere environments and whatnot, and they're or by choice, and their carbohydrates look like you know, juice, soda, any sugary energy drinks, and then bars and snacks and chips, they're not gonna get that fiber and their blood sugar is gonna be more all over the place, which will affect their mood and anxiety levels.
SPEAKER_02Sure. Yeah. I think that's like I think it's so it's such a it really feels like such a simple concept, right? But it also isn't one that is like talked about. I mean, this conversation, like we're talking about it in performance, and it's so true. Like you're coming off shift, you know, and then you're also dealing with like adrenaline dump. I have this conversation a lot even with like working moms, postpartum. Oh my gosh, yeah, you know, I mean, like like another really high risk sometimes, like high pressure environment where you're like, have I sat down? Have I drank water? Like, you know, but it's I I love that you're kind of breaking down, you know. I think what I'm hearing from the mental piece, right, is like if you can just have like access, and I back to the cookie question, right? But like you're saying, like if I start with give my body something it likely needs, and then like the mental piece of like if you still want the thing afterwards, right? Like, I really want the chips or the cookie, okay. Yeah, you know, drink water, have a banana, like with peanut butter, right? Like put something like fuel-wise into your body. Yeah. And then what I'm hearing you're saying too is almost relatively quickly, by the time you go look for the bag of chips, your body's like, actually, we're good.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and I think that's that's a good point too. Like a lot of times I hear, like, Diana, I just I crave cookies, I crave ice cream, like anything that comes on very quickly and is very intense and is very specific, like, I want chips, I want cookies, whatever it is, that I I go back to how stressed are you right now? And is your coping mechanism to manage that always food? You know, once in a while, if you are stressed out and you have ice cream, it's not the end of the world, right? Like we're humans, we have to expect that here and there. But if your go to constantly is I'm stressed out, I'm anxious, I'm going to eat this, then that can over time lead to body composition changes. There's link. Between poor diets like that and depression, anxiety, micronutrient deficiencies, because you're not eating the foods that are diverse in micronutrients. And now you're seeing the compounding effect of a relatively simple thing, right? That just became a habit for you. So if you find yourself really stressed out, and that is and you reflect on that, and that is your go-to coping mechanism, that's when I encourage people, hey, I, you know, whatever, let's let's find another stress reliever for you, whether it's counseling, whether it's therapy, whether it's going outside, being more physically active, or some combination of all the things.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00But physiology is the foundation. Like, let me make sure that your your internal internal environment is set up for success. And then adding those specific tools based on what your needs are.
Gut Brain Axis And Mood
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah. So then so to that, I feel like this is a good way to kind of ask about like so the so the gut brain access, right? And like chronic stress on the gut, which you know, for some people is, you know, people who don't have enough stress-relieving activities, but then also talking about like performance pressure stress, like operational stress, you know, and and maybe talk about like what does that do, you know, over the course of, I don't know, if it's a shift, a career, a year without any sort of recovery built in.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So I always think about the the gut and the brain, because it's a two-way street. You got the vagus nerd that connects them. And if the gut's sick, the brain's sick, and vice versa. If one's depleted, the other's depleted for for any number of reasons. And it's like the the central command is the brain, the call center is the gut. And if the gut is is getting good signals from, you know, I'm getting the right nutrients, I'm getting the right sleep, I'm getting the right exercise, blood flow is going well, like I'm not getting, you know, I'm not being filled with a bunch of toxins from you know, tobacco products or or vaping or alcohol, whatever. Energy drinks. Yeah, energy drinks. I'm gonna keep, I'm gonna have good communication with the command center. However, when other things come in and things start to go a little crazy in the call center, you're gonna start sending demand signals in urgency up to the central command center. And that that's when dysfunction can happen. And it's it's really rarely or it's always and. So whenever I'm working with somebody who has a history of TBI or history of you know depression, anxiety, I always look to how's your gut function? And it's it's it can vary very quickly, right? Like if you if your diet is a little bit off, you travel on the weekend, your diet may shift and you'll notice changes in your bowel movements, you'll notice changes in your gut, you might notice changes in your mood, which is also the the the great thing and the challenging thing is that there's no one size fits all approach to to adjust all that. But right, there's a ton of research on the gut brain connection. And because the gut kind of serves as that second brain that we know, and it's it's a we secrete about 90, we synthesize about 90% of our serotonin in our gut, and that ties back to mental health, depression, anxiety, and those types of mood disorders. And so it's important to not overlook the importance and the role that diet has in managing mental health.
SPEAKER_02What are things you uh about you know you mentioned the serotonin in the gut? I've I've read some things and I've you know, I'm curious about like what the way that I've heard about it, right, is stress eats. So like stress eats like it, you know, it can it can go after vitamin D or it can go after serotonin, right? Like is that right? Is that wrong? You know, and like how do you talk to somebody who like I'm under stress for my job? I have to be, right? Like my job, I love my job, I'm under stress. But how do you educate somebody on like what that stress is doing to their body and then like how do you know how nutrition can help combat that?
Allostatic Load Labs And Deficiencies
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and and that put that goes into you know allostatic load, which is is one of the, you know, that's how we got our name for allo performance, allostatic load, which is managing the cumulative internal and external stressors and how how your body can respond to that. So homeostasis, as we know, is is like everything's good. Every like signals are coming in, they're going out, I feel good. This is what we all aim to achieve is homeostasis. As stressors accumulate, allosthetic load increases to the point where it's kind of like tipping over at the top. And nutrition, nutrient deficiencies are often coincide with high stress, whether it's through lack of absorption through the gut or medication interactions, depleting certain nutrients that are important for physiological function or dietary changes when somebody is under stress, depression, anxiety. It's usually a combination of all the things. It's never I've I've never I have not encountered somebody where it's it was very specific, like, oh, that's how this happened. And then toxin exposure, which could deplete certain nutrients. And like, as you mentioned, like, yes, when when stress is high, it can deplete certain micronutrients like magnesium, which are needed for synthesis of serotonin and melatonin, which could affect sleep, B vitamins get depleted under stress. If there is TBI exposure, those micronutrients can be depleted in that way, whether metabolism increases or excretion increases. And that's when we always go back to test don't guess and getting at least annual lab work done as an objective meter to check with folks. And that way your clinician, your practitioner can help to individualize and tailor specific micronutrient doses that you may need. So I just had my labs done. My magnesium is a little bit low based on that. So I'm going to replenish that through supplementation and make sure that I'm getting enough food sources of magnesium. Vitamin D is another one. We we know that at least half the American population is deficient in vitamin D simply because of where you're located, to be honest. There aren't many food sources of vitamin D. And we know that a lot of these micronutrients work hand in hand with like antidepressant medications. We know that zinc kid help to support antidepressant medications and other micronutrients like that. Selenium is a good antioxidant, magnesium, I mentioned vitamin D, omega-3 fat in our diet, omega-3 index. Those are all linked with mental health and stress load. So when I look at allisthetic load and operator syndrome, which is a term used in special operations, but also applies to first responders too. Kind of that cluster of physiological symptoms, hormonal endocrine systems or systems that are impacted directly and indirectly just through accumulation of stress.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And, you know, as a dietitian, I can intervene by with helping with behavioral changes, uh, replenishing any micronutrient status, again, setting you up for success physiologically so that all the other interventions can work.
SPEAKER_02I think that's, you know, I like as a as a therapist, right? Like I I'm a I'm a big believer in the value of talk therapy and emotional regulation and learning skills, but I also am a huge advocate for like controlling controllables, you know, that don't happen lying on a couch in your fields, right? And so like I think I'm so glad that we're having this conversation and hoping that our listeners like take something of this and then are like, you know what? I'm gonna take everything I've been going through and I'm gonna add seeing a dietitian. Yeah, like you know, I'm gonna add this layer of what's going on in my life with somebody who can give me almost immediate control, which is like what I put in my body.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. It's it's so needed. Again, just just setting your body up for success and and but also understanding, you know, you might need to be 80% nutrition, 20% behavioral health, or vice versa. It depends on kind of where the person is in their in their journey, if it, you know, because behavior heavily influences and overlaps with with what I do on a daily basis. Like I could talk time blue in the face and tell people how you know what the cure for cancer is or how to prevent, you know, this disease or whatever it might be. But if they're not at a place where they're ready to receive that, it doesn't matter what I say.
Recovery Habits When Time Is Limited
SPEAKER_02Right? Yeah, no, I mean, yeah, it's still it still takes a team for sure. Yeah. What about so then recovery nutrition? So kind of going back to you know, that under pressure, you know, what about like and again, I know that we talked vastly, like everybody in that list of people we talked about has different levels of or live different availability and recovery time. So what does recovery nutrition look like when recovery time itself is not guaranteed? And like what do you tell people to target in there?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so man, recovery time is a is is a broad term. There's recovery from a medical procedure, recovery from a workout, recovery from a shift. But overall, like just going back to, and it it sounds so simple, which is I think is why people are like, what that's it? Like, what else you got? There are layers with performance nutrition. It's going back to the initial layer. Like, hey, in my time, am I controlling the things? And if I just got off a 18-hour shift, what's the first thing I'm gonna do when I get home? I'm going to get back to my routine. I'm gonna eat a good meal and I'm gonna go to bed probably. I'm gonna work out, I'm gonna go for a walk midday. Just I, you know, get back to your routine and and keep those habits. You know, something yeah, I talk about is is discipline versus routine and habits. And there are plenty of days when I don't want to work out, I don't want to go to work, I don't want to do whatever, but yeah, the discipline of doing it is always gonna trump the you know, the temporary feeling. And plenty of elite athletes would say the same thing. They don't like training all the time. Believe me, they don't, but that's their routine. And even when they don't want to do it, no amount of motivation is gonna fix it. They're just that's just they just get up and do it. So it's not a motivational thing, it's not a a willpower thing, it is a discipline thing. So when you have that time, when you have that open white space, you go back to autopilot, which when you do the discipline over time, it becomes autopilot. So now it's autopilot for me to wake up and work out, make breakfast, eat a good breakfast, you know, have lunch prepared. That that routine helps to drop that unnecessary stress so I so I can channel that stress to do this, like this podcast, this work, whatever presentation I'm working on, that's where appropriate stress needs to go. Not what am I gonna have for lunch and I'm panicking and I'm really hungry and I don't know what to do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean, I you know, I'll tell them to then do it angry. Like you know, like I'm chopping vegetables and we're like, oh I don't want to do this, but you know, like run angry, like if that's what you know, if that's what gets you started. Like I love, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Put on that, put on that angry head metal banging music and just go.
SPEAKER_02Like just do it and do it angry. Like, I'm not telling you to not feel your feels, but you'll still feel better afterwards, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because nobody nobody eats a a a well-prepared, healthy meal or works out and afterwards is like, man, I wish I didn't do that.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. You know, it's when we're like, man, I I skipped a workout or I ate more of that pizza than I intended to, or whatever it is. Like, that's when you get the I wish I didn't do that. Almost always so.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Oh man. I mean, I've got more questions. Matt, do you have anything?
SPEAKER_04No, it's been great information. I it is I think when it comes down to like all the things I wish I had when I was like in the military. Yeah. You know, going through the the long shifts, and it's just like, man. We didn't have any of that when we were in war.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Like and then it's we're not at war, but we're could we be gearing up for war? So now it's like what when you're when you're under stress, what are some things that you can do nutritionally besides go to the snack?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_04That can really help lower stress. Yeah, we hear a lot about I'm probably gonna butcher this, right? Like ash ash. Yeah, we we thought we we hear a lot about uh ash, whatever.
SPEAKER_02I ain't gonna try to uh yeah, and nootropics. I was thinking about it.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, so when we when we look at those supplements, yeah, what is there good back and good research behind those that true or is there one or two in particular that you should really drive down? Like I believe it's the Rishi mushroom. What are some of those nootropics that would be able to kind of drive down some of that stress, relieve relieve some of that pressure in the system?
Supplements Adaptogens And Smarter Caffeine
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and yeah, and I love that. And I think you know, I always tell people from what I do with almost everybody that I work with, it's never food or supplement, it's always some combination of both, because almost everybody I work with needs some combination of both. And these supplements are not necessarily the fix and they're not the it's not 100% guaranteed to work with everybody depends on your stress level, right? Like how much, how much all cyclic blood are we talking? But having the combination of one, okay. Once you, if you're telling me, okay, hey, I'm getting out of fiber, I'm exercising, I'm eating my meals, I'm preparing, I have my snacks, I have my water, all those things, but I'm still like having a really hard time with this. That's when those things can absolutely be layered in. And there are several that I it depends, there are different types of stress and different circumstances. But another thing I always like to just mention and tie in is how much caffeine are you consuming and what type of caffeine and when is that? Is that potentially contributing to your stress? Are you way overdoing the caffeine? You know, especially for somebody who's on long shifts and just struggling to get by and just using caffeine is like, I just need to survive. I totally understand that. And I think being able to come from the environment that it came from and say, I get you, I see you, I understand why you made the choice that you did. Let me help, let me help you find a better way. Saying that alone, I think is really is received a lot better as opposed to a patient being gaslit and being told, I can't believe you're doing that, or something along those lines. Yeah, or just don't, and like nothing else. Yes, how about you stop? Yeah, can you just like not drink the energy drink? Yeah, I promise you, like as soon as if I were to say that, they'd be like, get out, like you're not you're not helpful anymore.
SPEAKER_04And they pull an energy drink out of their backpack and pop it. Right.
SPEAKER_00They would just at just out of spite, they would drink an energy drink right in front of me, which again, there's a time and a place for all those things. I'm not here to bash all energy drinks, but yeah, like I so making sure that they're not overdoing caffeine is a big part of it. Like, is that why you're anxious? But rhodiola, oshugonda, magnolia, bark, holy basil, other nootropics have decent backing in humans to help mitigate that stress response, may lower that cortisol response. Jet lag is another one. I might use phosphocerine, which can help drop that cortisol and help folks with that transition for you know sleep or wake time. And I might dose something like that midday and then at night as well. A very low-level one, like my my first initial go-to might be magnesium bisglycinate or glycinate. It's well absorbed, it crosses a blood-brain barrier, it can help with repletion of magnesium because a lot of people are low in magnesium. And again, going back to like, are you set physiologically for success? It can help with serotonin synthesis, which can help with relaxation, decreasing that excitatory brain. That's a low-level, low risk. So looking at risk reward because there's never no risk when you take supplements. Even third-party certified ones carry some risk because we just can't guarantee it. But by having a third-party certified supplement with like NSF for sport or informal choice for sport, or there are a couple other certification bodies, that helps to decrease the risk significantly of having supplements contaminated with heavy metals or other ingredients that are not on the label, making sure they're clean, making sure the dose is correct. So if I'm saying, if it's saying I'm getting 300 milligrams of ashwagandha, am I truly getting 300 milligrams of ashwagandha?
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So mayonnaise is one of the first ones. Then I might step up to L-thenine, which is a non-amino acid. You get that from drinking things like green tea. So can I make the switch? Can I encourage somebody to choose matcha tea or green tea instead of coffee, instead of that energy drink? Because that might be, you know, again, there are layers. So I might climb up and start at a different point, depending on how stressed that individual is. Sometimes I could just stop at magnesium. Sometimes I could just stop at L-thening. I had somebody who is under a lot of stress who L-the-worked great for him. He did it at noontime, he did it at bedtime. It helped with his sleep, helped with managing his bandwidth. And really, again, like me knowing I cannot remove the stressor from you. I cannot make work better, I cannot make life better, but I can help give you that bandwidth through supplements and food to help how you respond to that. And so your body doesn't completely break down on you.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00So I like L-thenine, it's it's low risk. I attend to dose that twice a day, depending on the person. Sometimes I will recommend like a rhodiola in the morning, specifically because it might keep you awake if you take it later in the day. That can help mitigate some of that stress and help give you a little bit of energy as well as managing that stress response. Holy basil is blended in a couple different supplements that I might use or recommend. And I I've recommended that more for women than men, although it doesn't matter specifically. There's not one that might be better than the other for or for men or women. And then Ashaganda has quite a bit of research, and it's really popular with athletes now because I feel like it really started on the tactical side. And then athletes are like, Oh, what is that? I need some of that. I'm stressed out too. Yeah, I get it. But that can help again, can man mitigate that stress response. And secondarily, it might help with testosterone levels. I think mostly by decreasing that stress response in men specifically. So it has been implicated with improving testosterone in men in some ways. Again, not significant improvements. We're talking marginal differences. So if you still need hormone therapy, you still need hormone therapy, Oshagon is not going to get you there. Right, right. But it could help along the way. But yeah, so those are some of my go-to's, and there are others, and there are certain companies and supplement brands that are third party certified that blend some kind of combination of those adaptogens. And sometimes those are, again, depending on the person, whatever. That practitioner, that performance dietitian recommends to that person maybe more individualized, but some might be better than others. But overall, those are kind of my initial go-tos to help manage stress, to help with bandwidth, in addition to the diets that I recommend.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, no, I I agree. I mean, I I also like that you, you know, pointed out because I will have a lot of people who want like they want one thing to work. And it's like I hate to break it to you, but it's a blend, you know, and I love that you just kind of said like a lot of people, it's a blend of you know, what you can get from nutrition and what you can get from supplementation. And yeah, um so I'm so grateful to all this information because and I love that nutrition is becoming more common conversation around like performance and recovery. You know, I talked to a lot of my clients, like a video game, right? With like your energy meter and like how food is like your energy meter and you know how to keep track of that. I wanted to see if you have recommendations because while it's becoming a more normalized conversation, I do think that a lot of people are still like, where do I begin? So if I'm listening to you talk about all of this and I'm, you know, I'm a first responder who doesn't have a performance team. I'm, you know, maybe I'm wherever I'm at in my military career, I'm a CEO, whatever. I'm like, oh, nutrition, I need to, where do I start? Like, how do I educate myself to find, you know, like how do I get my PCM to run the labs, or how do I go find a dietitian? What are things I should be looking for to kind of find somebody who's, you know, yeah, as incredible as you?
SPEAKER_00I mean, that's thank you for that. That that's a good question. And and that's that's something what that's a reason why social media is so popular, because you could go on Instagram right now and you're gonna probably have at least for me, like maybe it's my algorithm, but most of my news feed is like it's gonna be something and and health and fitness, and everybody has an opinion because everybody eats every day, or you should at least. So it's like, oh, this worked for me, so this will work for you. Let me go make money off of you. That is that is the biggest challenge is not getting sucked into the the vortex that is social media influencers and being able to decipher who's who's telling me the right things, who has the accurate information, and who's just trying to use me and to get my money. So, following number one, like if you're getting nutrition advice, it should come from a performance dietitian. And that's again, like just like in medicine, there each doctor is have a different specialty. There, I would not go ask my orthopedic doctor about my heart, right? They probably have some, but that's not what they do. Just like, you know, my mom was a clinical diet or clinical outpatient dietitian at a VA medical center. Uh, she's retired now, but you know, she she would reach out to me and ask me, hey Diana, I'm starting to get some younger veterans now. What do you think about sodium? Because her and even her and I, even though we're both dietitians, I have a different perspective on sodium needs than she does.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_00She's used to seeing cardiovascular disease. I'm used to seeing athletes who need a ton of salt. Yeah. So not only had to make sure they have the credentials, but make sure that they're specialized in really what you're seeking out. So you could, you know, I encourage people to reach out to me with Tier 1 Nutrition, look up Alo Performance. We are we are launching, we have launched this week. We are a good resource, and if we don't have the answer, we'll we'll connect you to the right people. There, you know, there are several performance dietitians that you can find on social media. They're if you're lucky enough to be a college athlete, you'll hopefully have a sports dietitian at this point. Almost every university and every pro team has some kind of sports dietitian connection. So if you're one of those athletes, seek out that person. And even if you don't want to work with that person, they'll find somebody who you can work with. Yeah. There's the eatright.org, the academy, the governing body of performance of dietitians who you could, you know, search a local dietitian in your area. If you're looking for functional medicine, there's the IFM, IFN, IFN Institute of Functional Nutrition. There are ways to search for practitioners on those sites as well. But truly, like, reach out to me, reach out to Allo Performance, and we that is that is our niche.
Finding Credentialed Help Beyond Social Media
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay. We'll make sure, we'll make sure to get those linked. I appreciate you also pointing out, right? Like, you know, kind of fact check, right? Like, and and it's the credentials and the licensure mean something. Like, I know that there are well-researched coaches. Yeah. Um, but you know, I've I would say like it's so important to get a licensed eye on a certified eye on what you need. Um, you know, you've mentioned several times through this, right? Like what you need is is unique to you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_02And I hear a lot of a lot of what you're saying, right? Like, I feel like I come to you, you're gonna talk to me about where I'm at, but I I hear a lot of education wrapped in there, right? So you're gonna teach me about myself and you're gonna teach me about what I need right now and why I need it so that I continue to learn how to manage myself like forward. And so yeah, I I think that's really valuable.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's it's it's important to know, like if if somebody does, you know, if you follow the advice from an influencer, dietitian, or a nutritionist or whatever they may be, and you see, you know, if you do, if you're coming, depending on where you're coming from, where your starting point is, if you shift your diet into any any resemblance of somewhat healthier, if you eat more vegetables, if you eat more fruits, if you eat less junk food, if you drink less alcohol, you're gonna start to feel better. It might not be the exact macronutrient ratio or exact supplement protocol that a practitioner or a licensed practitioner would have you on, but you will improve, but you're gonna get to the point where their knowledge no longer meets the mark for you. And that's when you need that specialty. You know, same thing for any workout plan. If you go from not working out to suddenly you have a workout routine and you do it habitually, you're going to improve. Your body competition is gonna get better, your performance is gonna get better. But again, it's you're gonna reach the point if you're if you're wanting more that you need that specialized practitioner or coach to take you to that next level because that person's knowledge is no no longer meeting the mark for you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you're gonna level up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yep. Yeah. Okay. So how do you how do you take care of yourself knowing all the things that you know? Yeah, right. Like you, what do you do for yourself to sustain yourself within pressure?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that is a that's a good question. And it's important that I I it's important to me that I practice what I preach because it would be irresponsible for me to not at least try. So I have my foundation of, you know, I move my body every day. I exercise. Luckily, now I'm I'm fortunate enough to be able to work out in the morning and then I can just work the day. I get sunshine, I'm intentional about that. I make time make preparations to have healthy meals. I pack meals so I don't have to eat out at restaurants too often. I'm never in a situation where well, I never say never. I'm rarely in a situation where I'm panicking and don't know what to eat or don't know where to go, don't have a plan. I always have a plan. And then having good people around me, the loved ones around me, community is so important, and having people around me that that challenge me, that support me, that inspire me, whether it's my kids, my boyfriend, my family, any of them are you know crucial to my ability to recover as a human.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, practice what you preach. I feel like that Matt and I talk a lot about that too, because I think it, I think it comes through your work, right? And I think that when you're working with somebody, I just think it adds a layer of authenticity. And I mean, working with the profession, the populations that you do, like they're very good at sniffing out inauthenticity. Oh my gosh, yeah.
How Diana Manages Her Own Stress
SPEAKER_00Uh that's one of my biggest tips to people, especially like, yes, it's important when you're working in sports because athletes are the same, they will sniff you out if you're not being real. But tactical professionals, whether it's first responders or service members, it's even more because they're taught they're taught to analyze people, they know exactly what they're looking for. And if you don't bring your authentic self, they're gonna know. So that's why you know, I I always stay true to myself, whether it's at work or at home or wherever, is if I don't know something, I'm gonna tell you I don't know it, but I'll give I'll find the answer for you. So I'll get back to you. You know, I was transitioning from sport to tactical was extremely stressful because it was a whole new world, it was a pivot. So it's the same thing, but it's still a pivot. And there was a ton I didn't know. I asked a ton of questions, and I think that they really appreciated that. It's like, oh, okay, like she genuinely wants to learn. I totally understand why she doesn't know this. Let me help her, or vice versa. But you know, it's important for providers to manage their stress just as much as it is for the people that we work with. So practicing what we preach is is really critical and and showing them, hey, like we all have stress, stress is stress, whether it's a new mom, a deployed service member, a first responder, stress is stress. And how you manage it, all these different tools that we mentioned or some combination are gonna work for for most people, but that combination may look a little bit different. But for me, it's always consistent exercise, consistent diet, good people in my life, you know, living for purpose, making sure that what I'm doing aligns with who I am, and just you know, always having a forward motion, trying to just continually grow.
SPEAKER_02Well, yeah, no, seriously, thank you so much. I appreciate you. I know I could probably keep asking questions. So I look forward to, you know, I look forward to having you back some point in the future, seeing you again. I always enjoy seeing you show up in conferences I'm going to. So to our, you know, to our population, right? Like keep this name, follow her. We'll link your stuff. Congrats on Allo performance. I'm excited to see where that grows. Yeah, I again truly thank you for dropping wisdom with us today.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you so much. I I love this stuff and I love chatting with you guys. So I look forward to the opportunity to come back. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_04I appreciate it. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, like I said, everybody, we'll we'll link as much as we can down below. If you guys have questions, you'll know how to reach out to Diana and any comments to us as well. Otherwise, thanks for joining us at the table. Until next time, we'll see you here under pressure. Cool.
SPEAKER_04Thanks, everyone. Bye.
SPEAKER_02Bye. See you guys.
