If Calories Were Equal, Oreos Would Be Salad

The wellness world is louder than ever—trends, shortcuts, and conflicting advice everywhere you turn. On this episode of The Anthony Amen Show, I sit down with author and health coach Jen Trepik to cut through the noise and get back to what actually works. At Redefine Fitness, we always say fitness is medicine, and this conversation gives you the blueprint for building a body that performs the way you want it to—long term.

We kick things off with a simple question: What does “worked” mean to you?
If your goals are better energy, deeper sleep, pain-free movement, or strength that carries you through life, then the method matters as much as the outcome. That’s where most people get stuck. Short-term tactics look impressive, but long-term systems actually transform you.

Together, we break down the biggest myths that keep people spinning:

• Calories aren’t equal when your biology is running the show.
• Protein’s thermic effect changes metabolism more than people think.
• Fiber and the gut-brain connection shift cravings without relying on “discipline.”
• Quick fixes like GLP-1s come with real trade-offs people rarely talk about.
• Eating out vs. cooking isn’t just about calories—it’s about control and consistency.
• Variety still matters for micronutrients, resilience, and recovery.

Jen lays out a biostack—nutrition, movement, hydration, stress management, sleep, and connection—that mirrors the exact foundation we use at Redefine Fitness in Stony Brook and Mount Sinai. When these six pillars work together, every small habit you love finally has leverage.

We also dig into the identity side of change. Community shapes who you become. Surround yourself with people who normalize the habits you want, and progress accelerates. Build simple plates around protein, produce, and quality fats. Anchor your mornings. Protect your sleep window. Stack repeatable wins even on chaotic days.

If you feel stuck between fatigue and fads, this episode is your permission to ignore the noise, choose your trade-offs intentionally, and let your body’s feedback drive your next step. That’s how lasting health is built—inside the gym and outside it.

Grab Jen’s book Uncomplicating Wellness, listen to her podcast Salad with a Side of Fries, and then come join us on the journey.
If this resonated, follow the show, share it with someone who needs it, and leave a quick review telling us the one habit you’re starting this week.

Chapters

• 0:00 New Show Launch And Honest Rebrand
• 1:10 Meet Jen Trepek And Her Thesis
• 3:00 Information Overload And Defining “Worked”
• 6:45 Short‑Term Fixes Versus Long‑Term Health
• 10:15 The Value Equation And Ozempic Trade‑Offs
• 14:30 Small Daily Choices Beat Big Gestures
• 18:00 Discipline Over Motivation And Gut‑Brain Links
• 23:00 Personal Accountability And System Incentives
• 27:10 Cost, Convenience, And Eating Out Realities
• 31:00 Variety, Nutrients, And Real‑World Trade‑Offs
• 34:30 Calories Aren’t Equal: Protein And TEF
• 38:20 Building Plates: Protein, Fiber, Quality Fats
• 41:30 Biostack Over Biohack: The Six Pillars
• 45:10 “But What About” Myths And Fads

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:02

This is Health and Fitness Redefined Right by Redefined Fitness. Hello and welcome to the brand new Anthony Eman show. Yes, you heard Health and Fitness Redefined earlier. We have not had a chance to edit that full disclosure. I just like being honest. So that is in the works, but we are officially moving forward with a brand new show to bring you more topics outside of health and wellness. Uh, do a little more personal about how I feel about specific situations and just help broaden our horizons a little more about who I am, what I believe in, what I don't believe in, uh, when it's just useless garbage. So with that, it's a great topic. This dives into today's guest, Jen. Jen Trepik is on the show today, and she has an awesome book that is out uncomplicating wellness. And I think that's basically the moral of her book is everything is full of shit, and we need to change how we think about health and wellness as a whole. So, welcome to the show, Jen. It's a pleasure to have you on.

SPEAKER_01: 1:06

Thank you so much. It's fun to talk again.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09

Yeah, I hope that was a great introduction to your book, and everyone's now super excited about why I said all of that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:16

Yeah, you know, listen, it's there's a lot in there that is sort of calling out the BS and um letting everyone decide for themselves. I think there's so much coming at us that we end up with like this shiny object syndrome and we stop trusting ourselves and our instincts and knowing what we already know about our own bodies. And this uncomplicating wellness is your permission to do what you know works for you and forget everything else.

SPEAKER_02: 1:50

I love it. So before we dive into the book itself, tell me a little bit of what made you want to write it.

SPEAKER_01: 1:55

Yeah. So I started health coaching back in 2007. And over the years, and then my show, my podcast, Salad with a side of fries, started in 2019. And what I've noticed since 2007, and then certainly since 2019, is that the questions people ask are more and more in the weeds. And fundamentally, what I've come to decide more or less, or really see, is no one needs more information. We are actually in information overload, and we don't need a new plan, we need a new lens through which to evaluate all of the information coming at us and the multitude of plans that are out there to choose from.

SPEAKER_02: 2:51

And so I don't know if you heard the news, but every plan is super special and super important, and every diet is the best things on God's green earth.

SPEAKER_00: 3:02

Totally, yes. Headlines everywhere, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 3:08

Exactly. Every new fad, every new thing, it's like, oh, here we go, and my friend told me this worked. How many times have you heard that? But I didn't mean to cut you off, I just totally agree.

SPEAKER_01: 3:18

No, but to your point, this worked. Okay, well, let's just pause for a hot second. How do you define worked? How do we even realize or think about that we're going after the same objective? Like work to you means what? And work to your friend, worked to that influencer or that diet plan or that company that's selling you something. What does worked mean to them? We assume that it means the same thing that what we're looking for, but it probably doesn't. And I don't mean this in a malicious way because I am in this wellness industry, I work with supplements in my practice and with my clients. So I think the piece for people to really wrap their heads around is that their objective is potentially not yours. Because when they're selling you something, their objective, especially if it's sold or marketed to us as a miracle cure or the only thing you need or the simplest thing you've ever done, right? Their objective is to get you fast results. I don't know about you, but my clients and I am looking for long-term results and results that lead to health as the end game. And what it turns out, we know from all of the research ever, and more and more and more recently that for us to have those healthful outcomes, for results to be long term, how we get there is the difference maker. And so if their objective is short-term results, so that you buy again, so that you say it worked and share it with your friend, right? Then when it doesn't work long term, you think you failed. But that wasn't their goal. Their goal was to get you fast results, which they did. It just wasn't what you were looking for. So there's a piece in the beginning of the book, especially where it's like, let's just pause for a hot second, define for yourself what wellness is to you, what the outcomes are that you're looking for. And then we can use that as one of the metrics for deciding all of the things and asking some pointed questions about the options that are available instead of just accepting the marketing that is designed to sell us something and to make us feel like we're broken.

SPEAKER_02: 6:07

Yeah, this is a double-edged sword, right? So there's something called the value equation, and it's basically how people determine value on something. One of the key factors in the value equation is speed and hardship. And this is the hardest thing about being in nutrition and fitness is we can get you the results you want, which is gonna add value, but it's gonna be a long process, and it's gonna be really freaking hard because you're gonna have to work on it 24-7. It's not mind-numbing. Let me just do this for you, and now I add pre have a higher perceived value because take care of. And it's why most people shift to things like Ozempic, because the pain level of Ozempic is easy, it's a shot and you're done. Yeah, but it's that's a good easy step, like what they have to accomplish, as opposed to a grueling 45-minute workout and then redoing their entire thing as far as what they know about nutrition and understanding it, and then the education and speed process of it, it's a lot quicker, Ozempic, because it forces you to not eat and you starve, so now you're just dropping weight down that way, as opposed to truly developing a habit plan and building foundational habits, which take a long time to do. Some people could think of the two years to develop a habit. It's not this 90 days, each person is different. That's just a general average. So it's hard as a company to sell something. This is gonna absolutely suck and take a long time to do, but it's super valuable because it's changed your life in the long term. And people don't see the value in that. But then as a consumer side, they want the quick results, they want to go to the thing that's gonna be the easiest to do, and they want to avoid pain as much as possible because that's just human nature as a whole.

SPEAKER_01: 7:51

Well, I think there's a few pieces to that. One is I think it's a misconception that in order to get results, it requires every day be the most intense, insane workout of your life, and that to be healthy, it requires a level of commitment that's 8,000% every minute of your life. I think that's fucked. No offense. And like that's part of how we got to this place. So I think that's a giant misconception, also. And with you know, Ozempic or whatever you want to call as the easy button, for every gimme, there's a gotcha. You just have to go into it knowing what that gotcha is and choose that too. So if the gimme you're doing is Ozempic or any GLP one or you know, Zbound or any of them. Now, for some people, they are life-changing and can be incredibly helpful. At the same time, there are zero, zero, 100% zero diseases that exist only in bigger bodies. So one of the other misconceptions is that simply making the number on the scale go down, having less gravitational pull on your being, means you are healthier. And that is false, compatently false. So if then our objective is to reduce illness, disease, and symptoms, if our objective is to be able to get off the toilet ourselves later in life, then potentially muscle wasting because we're more or less not eating. And when we do eat, we're not necessarily choosing nutrients because those are far less interesting foods, especially when we aren't really hungry. But there's a trade-off. As long as you're choosing that trade-off and owning it, more power to you. I think the challenge is that we aren't realizing that there is that trade-off. And you know, in the US, it is now the standard of care. The standard of care for anything weight related to prescribe one of these medications instead of educating our physicians, instead of helping people understand nutrition and biology, you know, and lifestyle choices, because our physicians don't have the time to do that. Right? Like they have to see six patients an hour to keep the lights on. So it's the pharmaceutical industry, it's our medical industry, it's the health insurance industry that has pushed us to this place where the average person has to understand that their health is theirs to create. It is not their doctors, it is not the pharmaceutical, it is theirs to take ownership of. And it happens in the seemingly small things that we do every day, not the big things. Our health is really the function of what we do most of the time. And what we do most of the time is the small stuff that we tend to ignore. So if we can make some tweaks in our daily choices, we can end up with actually tremendous results.

unknown: 11:28

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 11:29

So I'm gonna I'm gonna reiterate my point that I made prior. Yeah, so it's not grueling workouts all the time, it's breaking a former habit that feels like a grueling workout. So, as an example, if my habit lock is I'm gonna have a muffin every morning for breakfast, breaking that's hard. It's extremely tough for somebody to go from a high sugar diet, which all these foods are programmed to make you addicted to them. So you're fighting an addiction, which is what it is, to change to eat or do something smaller. To tell someone that walks maybe, and this is real numbers, 500, 600 steps a day, which is nothing, to now walk a thousand, you're asking for double the output, even though that a thousand is still way below uh benchmark of what they need to be doing. And that in and of itself is hard because they have built their life around a singular habit and these multiple habits. Now you're fighting against to your point, which I agree with. Now you're fighting against false information with the doctors because they're overwhelmed. You're fighting against the pharmaceutical companies that want you to come in, you're fighting against a system that was built on bad information. You're fighting against your friends who are giving you bad information, and on top of all of that, you have a whole health and wellness network, which is booming. There's more money in health and wellness now than ever has been in the lifetime of a human. Correct. With so much information, it's so hard to pick out what the fuck do I listen to?

SPEAKER_01: 13:04

Which is why I wrote this book. Because that's the point. It's if we listen to everyone else, this feels like climbing Mount Everest naked and barefoot. And everyone around us is going, climb. What's wrong with you? Why aren't you climbing? And you're like, are you kidding me? Right. So when we can start to scale back, we can decide that it's actually not that hard if we figure out how to approach it and have some strategies and tools that aren't a massive overhaul where we're expecting ourselves to flip a switch. And part of that is even just in you know, deciding or recognizing that this is important to you. Because PS, if it's not, keep eating your muffin, do your thing, no one can make you do something you don't want to do. So once we decide that this is something that is important that we want to think about, then the piece that I think is also misconstrued is willpower and motivation. Because we think we have to have this mindset first. We think that the reason why we're not doing something or we do it one day and not the next day is because we lack willpower or we're not motivated. And the truth is, we've just been sold a another load of bullshit about what those things are, that motivation comes first, or that it's willpower that you're lacking. You don't lack willpower. We just use that in other areas of our life. And now we're gonna look at applying some here or adding some tools to our day to increase our willpower and the sugar cravings are very physiological. Yes, to your point, there's an addictive piece to it, and it is biochemical with hormones like leptin and ghrelin and nutrient deficiency and gut bacteria that have us craving those foods. So if we want to start to make moves in the direction of some different choices, what we think starts out as motivation is not, it starts out as discipline, it starts out as a decision and a commitment and then playing with it. Just try it, do it for a few days and see how you feel. Because here's the other thing. So the vagus nerve is the literal connection between the gut and the brain. We know serotonin and a lot of these neurotransmitters that help us feel good are made in the gut. Well, three of the lanes, think of the vagus nerve as a five-lane highway. Three of those lanes go gut to brain, two go brain to gut. So you will never outthink the biochemistry of what you are feeding your body. So if we can recognize that, then say, okay, what I actually just need to do is commit to the protein-packed breakfast with some fiber and then see how I feel. Once we experience that benefit, then the mindset changes. Then we have different, clearer thinking where we can then end up in that feedback loop between the gut and the brain where everything's moving in the same direction. But I don't think that other than a decision or a commitment to experiment with something different, is what's required to get started.

SPEAKER_02: 16:57

Yeah, uh let me say something which I've been on a kick for for the last two weeks.

SPEAKER_00: 17:04

Can't wait.

SPEAKER_02: 17:05

Motivation is pointless. And I couldn't agree more. What we lack, and you mentioned willpower and motivation. I think the key is what we lack is discipline, is having the discipline to continue things and to keep pushing, even though we do not see the instant gratification results given to us. Our society and technology is heavily built on instant gratification with everything we do and now, and it's just getting worse with technology. And as kids, parents are becoming softer on kids and lacking discipline. This trickles into adulthood, and you're seeing that more with how people are acting. Not taking their own accountability for what's going on to themselves, but blaming other people. A good example of this is nutrition. People seem to blame the government for nutrition. Do they have a role in the factor? Maybe, maybe the medication part is wrong. I could agree with that. But is the government watching you put food in your mouth? Is the government pulling all the healthy food off the grocery shelf? Or are you choosing to make those decisions? You could blame your parents, that it was their fault for not teaching you. But you're an adult. So are your parents yet again doing that example as the government? No, I think it all comes from personal accountability and wanting to make that decision to make ourselves happy because we keep looking for outside help and we blame external factors when really we have to look inside to make those changes.

SPEAKER_01: 18:43

Yeah, we do. And that's not to say, you know, to your point, there is a role that government and regulation plays in this. And it's part of the problem because we're one of a handful of countries where the nutritious choices are more expensive than those that lack nutrition because the chemicals are way less expensive than an actual apple grown in the ground until it's ripe.

SPEAKER_02: 19:13

I disagree with that point. I had this argument with the trainer.

SPEAKER_01: 19:16

So here's well, let me explain, right? Yeah, go for it. Food additives are less expensive. The foods don't go bad as easily, they last longer. That is in business interest to use those ingredients and make those foods. It is infinitely more and more difficult for farmers to make a living and make ends meet without using tons of other chemicals to make their food bigger and prettier or cutting costs on what they're feeding their plants or animals. Like all of these things play into it. And it's really, to me, it's the incentive structure around our food industry that is part of the problem. That there are no consequences to mass producing and emphasizing the foods that contribute to illness and disease. And there are things that aren't labeled and aren't labeled properly. So alcohol, I was just having this conversation yesterday. Alcohol is a um category one carcinogen. That's not labeled anywhere. And why not? Because there's a lot of money in not labeling that. There's a lot of money in not sharing that information. So it's the incentive structure and the way things are happening that subconsciously and underhandedly guides some of these choices. A thousand percent, it is up to us what we pull off that shelf in a grocery store. And it is up to us to be able to understand those differences, which we don't, because it looks like an apple, it smells like an apple, but our body doesn't even recognize it as an apple because of how it was grown. It doesn't have the same nutrients that an apple did 50 years ago. So there's just more to it than saying you suck because you chose the wrong thing.

SPEAKER_02: 21:25

Yeah, I think it's more of people not understanding a what is right, people lacking the discipline to do what is right. But I think it's all fixable with the right people surrounding them. So the biggest easiest way to change a person in any category, irregardless what it is, if you want to learn something, this is the life hack I've been preaching to everybody. Whatever you want, let's say I say Tinder sample is eating healthier. The quickest way to eat healthier is not opening your computer, not deep diving into research. It's go hang out with five people that eat healthier already and just spend your day with them. The quickest way to get financial success is to go hang out with people who are financially successful and you pick up on those habits. But going back to the point of foods being more expensive that are healthier as opposed to unhealthier. This is a harder thing to answer than just black and white. Something's organic, it's more expensive than something that's not organic.

SPEAKER_00: 22:29

That is something that you're not even arguing that, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 22:32

Yeah. I mean, you can tell, right? You go into a store, a bag of chips cheaper than chicken. Duh. We uh we can all we can all see that. Where it's misaligned is multi-factored. The first factor, from an entrepreneurial sense, because it's kind of what I want to take the show in itself, it's actually cheaper to for someone like me, or for most people that work, to go out to eat and to order food to go. Is it cheaper when you look at it uh pennies to pennies? So the food that I'm buying compared to the food that I'm eating? No, it is not cheaper, but it is cheaper in opportunity cost. How much time did I spend going to the grocery store, picking this stuff out, driving to and from, prepping the food, cooking the food, eating the food, cleaning it up? If I take all those hours congruent together and add that to the cost of what the groceries cost me and figure out a per hour rate off of that, it is actually a lot cheaper for somebody like me to go out and eat often. This even gets breaks down to a psychological stance where it costs roughly$15 an hour for someone to go and get food. And you do that about per day, it ends up being one, two, seven, fourteen, about eighteen hours a week. So$15 an hour, 18 hours a week, you times that out, you could work a couple extra hours and save more time just by going out to eat and ordering the right foods. So that's step one of speaking on that.

SPEAKER_01: 24:03

Now, I live in New York City, I rarely have groceries in my house. I am of the ilk that like I order most food. At the same time, I think it's also a misconception that grocery shopping, right? Like you could use Instacart. It takes me 15, 20 minutes total if I do grocery shopping. It takes me 15, 20 minutes, and that lasts me, you know, two weeks of groceries. The amount of time that it actually takes to prep something. Now, I'm also I call it making something to eat, not really cooking, right? But it it doesn't take me all that long. Start to finish, it's less time actually than what I spend when I'm scrolling to decide what I'm ordering and then I'm eating what I ordered and cleaning that up. So it's it's kind of depends on the person with that. And there is, though, the opportunity cost, and everybody just gets to decide that for themselves. There are also choices that happen. Like when I'm eating from a restaurant, which I do every single day, right? Like there are trade-offs to that. They're cooking with things that I wouldn't necessarily cook with if I was buying the groceries. True. It's all just trade-offs and making that decision and figuring out what's gonna work for you in your life at this moment, because I also think that that changes over time too. That what works right now, you know, your capacity could change in a week, a month, a year, a decade.

SPEAKER_02: 25:40

Yeah, and obviously, this is one example of many of the reasons the multi-factor where it's harder should just say one is worth the other. The other one being, and this is more of people that have the free time and luxury to do this. Obviously, someone living in the city, much more different scenario than those living out in rural for this one, where you could grow your own food, you can hunt your own food. You still have the capability of doing that. We forget as humans that grocery stores haven't been around that long in the existence of human beings. So it's relatively free to grow your own stuff and to hunt for your own food. So for those in rural communities, there really is no excuse about expense on that side of it. And then you don't have to spray it with pesticides because it's your own food. The second side of that is it's if you narrow down choices when you are shopping at a grocery store, that's something you need to do. And you just be pickier as far as buying things more in bulk and sticking to things that are generally healthy, that are cheaper. A good example of this is rice. Rice is a very cheap commodity to buy, especially in bulk. Something like that, and divide it out properly and shortening your meals to less variety, because variety is what makes going out grocery shopping more expensive, because now you need more ingredients to fill it in. It actually still ends up working on a per week basis to be cheaper, even though it's healthier food as opposed to non-healthier food. So the moral of all of this, there's examples and things.

SPEAKER_01: 27:14

For sure. Although, with that said, I think variety is an underrated tool when it comes to overall health. We need a variety of nutrients. If we're eating the same foods all the time, then we have to have a greater commitment to supplementation to get us the other nutrients that we're not getting from those handful of foods.

SPEAKER_02: 27:32

Well, you just same breakfast every morning, same different lunch, but same lunch across the week, same dinner, differ like, but different than what lunch was across the week, and you'll have no problem having a balanced meal.

SPEAKER_01: 27:44

It's not about a balanced meal. It's about over life, over time, giving the body all of the macro and micro nutrients that we need. If we're always eating the same chicken, rice, you know, and broccoli, there are thousands of nutrients that you're not getting.

SPEAKER_02: 28:09

But is that better or worse than eating unhealthier food because it's cheaper?

SPEAKER_01: 28:15

It's more a function of trade-offs. And for every gimme, there's a gotcha, and just choosing it with intention and understanding where we're at. Because by the way, I see just as many health issues, they're just different, in people who come to me who eat five foods.

SPEAKER_02: 28:33

Yeah, and it's just the difference of how you're looking at things and how you're perceiving things. And I I there's always trade-offs to everything in life. But if someone told me to eat five foods to save money because it's cheaper, I'd rather them that than going to buy the same unhealthy foods they have been eating that have no nutritional value. And I agree, the point being I just don't like generics. I don't like that one's cheaper than the other. But I want I want to branch into something that you did mention in your book that I couldn't agree more with. And it's been an argument that I've had with tons of people in this industry. Uh, it's the reference of calories, like no calories are equal. And everyone always says the same example that 1200 calories is of Oreos is equivalent to 1200 calories of eggplant. I just couldn't disagree more.

SPEAKER_01: 29:21

And we all know that. And a five-year-old knows that. Like, the way that I think people come back to is like, would you tell your kid, yes, eat Oreos all day, as long as you're only eating, you know, this many total? No, you would not. No matter what level of education you have, no matter how much nutrition knowledge you have, or you have ever been taught, or ever read, or learned, or whatever, you know that you know, Skittles are not the same as carrots. So full stop. It's not calories. And that's also not how the body works. Like, we all know this.

SPEAKER_02: 30:09

I'll I'll even add good luck eating 1200 calories of carrots straight.

SPEAKER_00: 30:13

Yeah, that too.

SPEAKER_02: 30:16

Like you're gonna be so full. I don't think they like don't recommend that either.

SPEAKER_01: 30:21

But like but it's just so funny to me. And you know, the sad part, with that guideline of you know, eat eat less, move more, because calories seem to be all that anybody, we end up with this idea that in order to make the scale move, we have to keep cutting and cutting and cutting. And I meet people who are eating maybe 900 calories a day. And it's like this is why your body is holding on to fat. This is why you're not getting to where you want to be. And we have created a situation where people are so afraid of food because we told them that the number one thing that matters is calories.

SPEAKER_02: 31:10

Yeah, I mean, I like protein. No, I understand. I like the example of protein, and I think it's something I've been harping on a lot, but I just really want to get the point across how to know all calories are created equal. There's something called the thermo effect, and I know you're very aware of this, but protein has extremely high thermal effect, meaning how much energy it takes for a body to digest a single gram of protein. And 20 to 30 percent of that on average is just wasted out just to use this burned energy. So you can't even say that a gram of protein is equivalent to a gram of carbs, because even though calorically wise a four to four is the same, you're using 20 to 30 percent of that four calories for that protein to burn it off. So therefore, it's actually less than what a true gram of carb would look like. And it's adds such an important factor to why I don't even, when we recommend protein, even put calories associated with it. I just tell people eat your protein goal because 99% of Americans under-eat the amount of protein they should be eating because we of wrong nutrition labels and just not understanding what a protein is. And if you just did that, you'd be so full that you would have to worry about anything else.

SPEAKER_01: 32:26

Well, and also our sugar cravings are often connected to under eating protein. So if you're challenged by sugar, just see what happens if you start eating more protein. So I don't talk about calories ever with my clients. Um, what we talk about is serving sizes. So a serving size of protein at a meal is your whole hand, like the whole hand for a biologically female body, that's generally four to six ounces. For a male body, that's six to eight ounces. And then for everybody, a snack is the palmer a little less, which is generally about two to three ounces.

SPEAKER_02: 33:08

And then for Anthony, it's three hands, and that's what equivalent is to a single all of protein.

SPEAKER_01: 33:14

I mean, but consider, right, if that's there are also trade-offs, and for biologically female bodies, there's a lot more that we need to think about. But if we're eating also magnitudes of that, that's coming at the expense of what? What aren't we eating because we're eating that? So we need to make sure that we're getting protein, fiber, quality fat, hitting those macronutrients. Protein is your clean, lean protein, fiber is vegetables and fruit, quality fat, like a serving of avocado is half of the avocado, you know, olive oil, walnuts, almonds, sardines, anchovies, like I know nobody likes those, but they're important, you know. Um, but hitting those pieces help ensure that everything in the body functions. So if we're way off the deep end in any one of those categories, it's generally coming at the expense of another. So it's just an awareness factor for us to say, what am I eating? What am I not eating? If what we're not eating is grains and starch, but we are getting our carbohydrates through fiber-rich foods like vegetables and fruit, we're great. We're hitting those nutrients and those phytonutrients and micronutrients that we need. But what I generally see is not that people are overeating the protein, is that they're overeating the grains and the starches. They've become addicted to how that feels in their system. And that then perpetuates this cycle of feeling challenged by making other choices.

SPEAKER_02: 35:01

Yeah, it's a giant clusterfuck. I just can't think of a better word than what.

SPEAKER_01: 35:09

But so that's the point of these conversations is to clear the cobwebs, right? To start to pull the string so it doesn't feel like a clusterfuck anymore, and to do the things that you know work for you to feel your best. And if you're not feeling your best, if you are not waking up with energy, if you don't have energy all day, if you aren't tired at an appropriate time in the evening, then it's fair to say, all right, we might be have to look at something. We maybe have to tweak and figure out, you know, what's the piece that I haven't quite figured out yet, and what makes sense for me to play with based on what I know to be true. And so you have permission to ignore every headline and frankly anything we're saying if it contradicts what you know to be true for you.

SPEAKER_02: 35:58

Yeah, I I can see that with the exception of people who really don't know what they think they know what they're doing. And I I take that to not our generation, but the generation that's older than us, where I just don't know where information's harder to absorb, and I feel like they get lost with what's fair because maybe those habits are so far sunken in because they've been doing it for so long.

SPEAKER_01: 36:27

Like I think about a lot of people in that demo, and it comes back to the same thing of like if they are seeing in their health the outcome of all of those steps, they sit here and go, okay, there's something I don't know yet. Let's work on this. You know, yeah, I'm just I'm more like back to that same piece of like, are you making the decision? Are you saying this is a priority and I want to do something about it?

SPEAKER_02: 36:53

Yeah, if they're open and willingness to listen, and right, that's the first step. You have to be open and willingness to listen. It's just more. I know back in like the 80s when Coca-Cola just told the world that sugar is not the thing getting everyone fat, it's fats, and we need to now do low-fat diets. And I know some people conforming to that.

SPEAKER_01: 37:10

Snack wells. I did ever my family did every fad diet under the sun. You know, we low fat, no fat, the snack wells generation, right? Like we did all the things, we had everything in my house.

SPEAKER_02: 37:23

Yeah, it's it's just I want to that message really to hit them home more. It's like just be more open to change and understand that information over the years changes. I mean, I I know you agree, nutrition changes every single day. The general understanding of it is there, but when you get into the weeds, as we learn as a species of what actually helps us thrive, it's generally changes almost daily, hourly, sometimes it feels like, as far as advice. But to the point over on logician counseling, where it's more habit-focused instead of calorie focused, is where you're really gonna see true change because you're gonna really deep dive into fixing your day-to-day routines and really optimizing who you are as an individual. Is there anywhere else, anything else in the book that you specifically wanted to bring up and address that you found to be one of the most important things?

SPEAKER_01: 38:16

Um well, so the way part of what I'm hearing as people read it is um, so the first half is a lot of not even half, the first section is really what we've been talking about today, kind of dispelling these ideas, understanding how we got to this point. Um, I offer like my top five tips for digesting nutrition news, which are ways to approach things with a bit of skepticism and to to ask questions, to push back and to evaluate rather than just accept everything that is thrown at us. And then the second section is what we call biostack over biohack. And that's what we've been talking about of building this foundation before adding on some of these other things because a biohack, by definition, is an incremental increase. Well, statistically, 12% of the US population is metabolically well. So if 88% of us aren't metabolically well, it means maybe we're at like 30, 40% health. Well, a 10% increase is not moving the needle. Of course, we aren't noticing that much of a difference. So if we can use a biostack of six specific things that I'll talk about in a second, if we can get our foundation in place, then we can add the biohack and go from 80 to 88 or 90 to 99. And now we're talking, oh my goodness, I feel like a different person with a 10% increase. So the biostack is nutrition, as we've been talking about, movement, as we touched on briefly, um, hydration, which is about more than water, stress management, sleep, and connection. We need to have something of all of those areas in our daily lives for wellness, however, you define it and you get to define it. And then we walk through some of the indicators that we're probably ignoring of our body communicating with us and helping us understand maybe which of those pieces deserve our attention first as we build out that stack. And then people love part four, which is what I call, but what about? And that's the stuff that everybody asks about. What about intermittent fasting? What about cold plunges? What about breakfast? What about coffee? What about all of the things that are in the weeds? But they're very short couple sentences to just get us over that hump of thinking that those things are the big movers. It's really the biostack that are the big movers. And so if any of what we've talked about is sort of resonating, or you're going, huh, I kind of want to think about that more. Or wait, I never thought about that piece of this, then this book is a thousand percent for you. Let it uncomplicate what feels like climbing Mount Everest naked and barefoot.

SPEAKER_02: 41:23

Yeah, uh it's always, but what about this? I love that the but what about because it's so true. Every time I get drilled with a million questions, like, let's fix walking, and then we'll worry about this specific food that you like to eat once a week. Exactly. That's one little thing of that. And I like the the stacking. I I'll just add, which you mentioned the last, but I think that's the most important. It is the most overlooked connection is huge because it stacks into how to change a habit and it's hanging out with people that are like-minded of the habit you're trying to accomplish. And that alone will solve everything else. Everything else will just start falling into place. And if you truly want to make a change in your health, just start hanging out with healthy people. Like that's as simple as it is because they're gonna want to do eating healthier foods, sleeping better, uh, watching their digestion, uh, whatever, like eat hydrating themselves. You're gonna just start noticing them doing all this stuff, and all those habits will just start picking up on and becoming more like them just by fixing that one last piece of information you talked about, and it's just so important. If you feel like you don't have people in your personal life, join groups like virtual or in person. Join a gym, you'll start hanging with people that cover most of those. Like join a nutrition counseling group, you'll start picking up from all of them. There's so many avenues you could reach out to people to get help from. And you're not in this alone. And here's a hack I learned uh a while back. You don't have to physically hang out with somebody to feel like you're hanging out with them. And what I mean by that, it's the amount of content and hours you feel like you spend with somebody to feel like you get to know them and you're gonna pick on their habits. A great example of this is books and podcasts. If you keep reading and listening to the same individual over and over and over and over again, you're gonna feel like you know them and start picking up on their habits and things they say and understand how they talk, and you're gonna become more like them without ever meeting them a day in your life. So, books like yours, podcasts like yours, podcasts like this, depending on what you're looking for, is how you really make a quick change. And the best part is it's all free. It's all that information's out there. All you gotta do is look it up and find it and follow and share.

SPEAKER_00: 44:08

Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_02: 44:11

Yeah, I I I Jen, I really appreciate you coming on the show. I really appreciate you talking about this. I think it's super important. I think people should go find your book, pick it up, read it, because that is the first step and getting in all this. And I'll let you tell us where to do all of that. But I do want to ask you two final questions that I ask everybody on the show. The first one is if you were to summarize this episode in one or two sentences, what would be your take home?

SPEAKER_01: 44:36

It doesn't have to be complicated.

SPEAKER_02: 44:40

Short and sweet. I love that. And then how can people find your book and learn more about you and your show?

SPEAKER_01: 44:46

Absolutely. So the show is Salad with a side of fries. So wherever you like to listen, um, you can search for it. Website is a salad with a side of fries.com. Book details are available there or wherever you like to buy books, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, bookshop.org, whatever makes you happy, just search for uncomplicating wellness and all social media. I am at Jen Trepic, J-E-N-N-T-R-E-P-E-C-K. Please send a message. I love hearing from you, your takeaways, your questions, what resonated with you, what didn't. You know, let's have a chat and connect. So please reach out.

SPEAKER_02: 45:23

Jen, thank you so much for coming. Thank you guys for listening to this week's episode of the Anthony Eamon Show. It will say help the fitness at the end, but it's the Anthony Eamon show. So when you're looking it up, don't forget to find that. Until next time, and don't forget fitness is thank you guys for listening to this week's episode of Health the Fitness Redefined. Please don't forget to subscribe and share this show with a friend, with a loved one, with those that need to hear it. And ultimately, don't forget Fitness is Medicine. I'll see you next time.