Hello, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Mindful Muscle Podcast with my fabulous co-host in black. Jody, how are you doing today? I'm great. And if you're new here, welcome. Gio and I are two friends that have lost 140 pounds between the two of us and have kept it off. And while we were working on changing our health, we fell in love with the process. So we're here to help show others that it is possible without being crazy restrictive and without unrealistic expectations. Amen for that. Tell them about our, one of our sponsors called Podbeat. Sure. If you're like me and you like to slay dragons to a beat, but you feel like you don't have enough time to listen to your favorite podcast like this one or even audio books, here comes Podbeat. Podbeat is an app that allows you to listen to any podcast, any audio book and add a beat to it. So if you're like me and you like to run with a beach, you can still do that while also listening to your podcast and not be distracted. You can still listen and hear everything that your wonderful hosts or mindful muscle or any other podcast has to say. Yep, including audio books. So that's awesome. Check them out and tell them the mindful muscle gang sent to you. Our next guest, Lita, exemplifies the strength of resilience and transformation despite facing a challenging early life marked by abuse, emotional struggles and addiction. She embarked on a wellness journey that profoundly altered her life, battling low self esteem and emotional turmoil. She was determined to break free from her past and create a happier, healthier future. She's a nutritionist, a personal trainer. She's a pre diabetes lifestyle coach, health coach, weight loss specialist. She's a mental toughness coach, forks over knives cooking coach, which is going to be exciting to talk about and a behavioral change specialist. Welcome to the show. How are you today? I am doing really well and thank you so much for having me. It's going to be an honor to talk to you because I want to dive into your story, but I eventually want to get into the forks over knives cooking thing. See what that is about. I'm familiar with forks over it, but if you can share with us, what would some of the abuse you went through if you don't mind that led to this resurgence? Oh, I don't mind at all. As a kid, I grew up with my father and a step mother and I had a, I have a sister and half brother. And every day it was verbal abuse, along with most days physical abuse. And the challenges that I have had in my journey, the lasting challenges, I would say, would be the emotional, the physical, the verbal abuse, because that just has, it stays with you. The physical part, I'm like, Oh, go ahead and smack me. It's only going to hurt for a minute. It's okay, which is sad to say, but because all that was going on, I had two things that kind of saved me and blocked me from a health perspective. So one, I was addicted to sugar. I would ride my bike down to the store. I had, I had always had my money since I was my own money since I was a kid. So I was addicted to sugar. And then on the other hand, that has just become who I am is the physical activity part, because I would take that bicycle out to, to run to the store. I had a paper route and I lived in Southern California at the time and I'm a bit older than you too. I'm currently 62. So when I was growing up, we can disappear all day. Our parents didn't know where we were as long as we were back by night. So we were out in the canyon playing. And I was always active in climbing trees. Hey, I remember the commercials. Do you know where your children are? It's 10 p.m. So you're not that much older than I am. So growing up with disabuse, growing up with the verbal abuse, and you're right, the verbal does stick longer than the physical, especially when it's, you know, as a child. What made you then, what started the process overcoming that? And by the way, I think you're clicking a pen. We can hear that. So yes, thank you. Let me ask the question again. So as a child, right, you dealt with physical abuse and you're right. The mental abuse stays longer. At what point as you're growing up, did you start saying, let me try to turn this negative into a positive? The real age that I was at, where I very consciously did it, was around the age of nine. I had grown up in Southern California, but I never knew my birth mother. And so I met her as she lived in Connecticut and I was so unhappy in California that I decided that I just needed to leave. And so I moved to Connecticut to meet her and to live with her. And she was going through Alainan program at the time. And she had a friend that said to me one day, because I was always crying. I was unhappy. I never laughed. I had no friends. And he said, if you don't love yourself, you'll never love anybody else. And I was like, wow, I don't like myself. I don't love myself. I don't even really know what love is because I wasn't nurtured as a kid. That was really the crux of what made me stop and pause and say, you've got to change this. Now you have all these certifications and all these things. What made you then decide, okay, at 19, you started taking cognitive responsibility for changing your life. But then what made you, to some people would say, this is not an extreme, but you definitely went the opposite way. What made you then want to start helping others beyond just helping yourself? That's a great question. And that part of helping others didn't happen until age 52. So ish, I would say. So when I moved to Connecticut, I had to have a job, I had no money. I didn't know what I was going to do. So I had a job and one job led to the next job that led to the next job. And I found myself in corporate software, IT. I was a product manager. I made really great money. I loved what I did. I was very, very analytical and I could troubleshoot. And so I got caught up into that whole corporate environment, where there's money and vacations and benefits. And I created a life, I had a savings. And then I moved to Colorado and still kept that job because nowadays you can do a lot of things for a vote. I met my husband and I was on next door, the app, we were in the neighborhood. And I came across an ad for a front desk person at a functional medicine doctor's office. And I went, wow, I need to do this. And I applied for the job, I got the job and it did work out. But in that process, after I left that job, I was out on a hike. And it was like the sun opened up and it said everything aligned and said, you know what, leader, this is what you need to be doing. And from that moment on, it was so easy because everything that I had done from about age 20ish to 50ish was reading, getting involved in every kind of sports possible, educating myself. So when I made that transition, it was so easy because it was just meant to be. This is what I'm supposed to be doing. OK. OK. So which came first, personal trainer, nutritionist, because at that time, my husband was diagnosed as he wasn't even prediabetic. He was full on diabetic and I was absolutely appalled because he went to the doctors and they said that he was fine. They looked at him, he's average height, average weight. And I'm like, but you're not fine. He got in the car and I said, but you're not fine. I know you're sick. You've got all these symptoms and he's the doctor said, I'm fine, but we'll wait for the blood results to come back. And about 24 hours later, his fasted glucose was eight. Mercy has anyone see was 12.2. Yes, yes. My wife is a doctor of internal medicine. So those numbers resonate like your passion for functional medicine. My wife also has a passion for functional medicine. She's an internal medicine doctor. And so I've learned a lot. So yeah, those numbers jump to the roof. Yeah. And I have learned you can't judge. You can't look at anybody and say they're healthy, right? Because he looked the average, what height and weight and things that he should be. But he was not healthy. And I am on a mission to change the perception that looks can determine our health because skinny people could be unhealthy and skinny people can be fat, right? To how do we have conversations with our doctors? How do we avoid the shame? Why aren't we even just going to the doctor for the annual checkups? Why aren't we doing these things? Right. So I don't know in your journey, whether or not you guys were diagnosed with and then that led you on your weight loss journey or your health journey. For me. Yeah. Yeah. And for me, it was the mirror. I got tired of the mirror for me. I was diagnosed with hypertension and I had heart palpitations, which led me to make an appointment. But yeah, even now I'm not good at annual checkups. I will work on that. But yeah, I have I have a cheat code, my wife. Sometimes she has to tell me to slow down and stop checking everything so often. So you have a website head to toe. Tell us what's the premise of it? What's the main thing you do there with all your certifications? So when I came up with the company name, I just thought hard and long about what I wanted to represent, how I wanted to present health. And the bottom line is that our health and wellness literally is from our head to toe, right? It is what we think, which we often think negative thoughts. So I'm capable of working with people to deal with stress, negativity, things like that. And then as we work our way down our body, right, it goes to our heart. What are we feeling and what are our social connections and how are we connected to the community, to our gut, right? And then down to our feet, which is movement starts with our feet. And if we're out of balance with flexibility in our ankles, then that will resonate all the way up. We will have knee problems or hip problems or whatever. So that's why I came up with a company named head to toe coaching. And that's my approach to health and wellness. I work with weight loss clients and often I'm not even talking about weight loss in the beginning, because they're so stressed out and they're sleeping four hours a day. And I'm like, of course you can't focus on when you're eating. You're not even taking care of your basic necessities. Okay. And so it's a home locations. Yeah. So it's a holistic approach. So let's have a hypothetical person here. Actually, not hypothetical. I'm going to give you my numbers before I lost all the weight. So I was what you considered skinny fat, right? I wore it, but I was 35% body fat at 199 pounds. I had a can do attitude. My internal numbers were great. My cholesterol was 120. My triglycerides were like 90, but I was just overeating. What do you tell a person like that? What would you have told me then before I figured it out on my own? Why weren't you there when I needed you? Not just kidding. So when I start working with people and your cholesterol numbers is an interesting topic to me because the total cholesterol number, which is usually what you reported from your doctor, but it's really the ratio of things that matter. If you didn't feel good about yourself, which is where I think you were, was that you didn't have a condition. You didn't have a disease necessarily and that you just weren't feeling good about yourself. At that point, I think a lot of that is where is that stemming from? What are your beliefs about what you should be doing or how you should be looking or how you should be feeling? And when I work with people, we initially, I don't work with people on a macro or micro level. It's more of a mindful, intuitive level. Why are you eating? Where are you eating? What were the habits that you had while they didn't give you specific conditions or diseases? They were something that you didn't like about what you were doing. So let's take a look at that. Let's spend some time. Let's journal. Let's connect maybe the food to your feelings. Yeah, you know, going back then, it was just we were under stress of the fact that my wife had trouble conceiving. And so I ended up eating a fourth meal with her once she conceived. We now have three babies, long story short. She had celiac disease and that was preventing the conceiving and so. So to me, when I finally clicked for me, it was just simply I enjoyed the food. I then it's similar to what I now, except I was just overeating. It was the fourth meal, perhaps the fifth meal. Yeah, well, she was pregnant and stuff. OK, so that's a holistic approach to that. Understand the mindset. What do you think is people's biggest thing to overcome? Mentor, mind wise, to make the changes. Negativity. Yeah, negativity, self doubt. I've tried this before. It didn't work. I've tried it again. It didn't work. And so they just give up because then they say, I'm never going to be able to do this. And I think there needs to be an honest reflection. Because even when I watched the commercials and Ozambic and all the way less drunk on the commercial, I have a conversation with my husband and I'm like, did they honestly try? And did they honestly try for an extended period of time, right? We got to where we are, not overnight, yet overnight. Or, hey, I was good for three days. How come I didn't lose five pounds? Right? And then they're like, oh, screw it. And then they come back to me, right? No, yep. I one of my favorite quotes that I heard recently is we are taught how to diet. We're not taught how to eat. So yeah, when we try these extremes for three days, because that's all we can do. Yeah, that's why it didn't work. We need to get better at helping people see that. OK, this extreme is not going to work in this is why this is how do it sustainably? I think we can learn a lot. And it's not a one size fits all. So that works for you, you might not work for you. And we're simply not educated as a whole in North America about food, about the impact of stress, about the impact of being sleep deprived. And we think that if I just eat well, all these other problems are going to go away, but they don't, we don't learn how to manage the wellness part of our being. And even if I'll use, I'll just say that even if we eat really well and we're completely stressed out, your body isn't getting nutrients that it can absorb that. So we're simply just not educated as a society to understand the relationship of everything to our health and wellness. Who's to blame because the government has their little guidelines. Media obviously likes to pump up the latest fad diet. Who do you think is to blame? I know it's like a general philosophical question, but I'm pretty sure you have an opinion on it. It's definitely a complex topic and I would, I actually would blame dollars. I would put it in the category of we're so focused on making money that we look for the cheapest and easiest way to produce food, which is processed food and sugar. And because of that, our media and our standards are influenced by that because they're bought by the dairy industry or the cow industry. So I think it's all of that, but I would come back to the dollars. Like where are these corporations making their money? Okay, in my world, right? The love of money, not money, but the love of money is the root of all evil. Yeah, that's probably a better way of putting it because more money doesn't make you happier, right? Nope, nope. Although I would like to try it. I would see it. And you know, if I had more money, I would, believe it or not, I would actually hire a chef because I just want to come home and have my meal ready. And then I would hire a massage therapist and then I would hire a house cleaner. That's what I would hire if I had money. Yeah, same here. My wife and I talk about it all the time, man. A chef because feeding three kids and my wife bless her heart. She treats the kids like Burger King. They can have it their way. So sometimes she's making three separate meals. I'd be like, nah, cut that out. You eat with, I grew up where you ate what they made. If you didn't like it, starve. I'm with you on that one, Geo, for sure. So we talked a little bit about the nutrition. I want to get more into that. But you talk about helping people with the pre-diabetes and diabetes. You mentioned your husband. What was the plan of attack in helping him and helping others with this condition that many more Americans are having every year? So I did go down the pre-diabetes specifically because of him. And because it is a very, I would say fast, growing disease. Yeah, when I look at the top 10 diseases and deaths by the CDC, we've got heart attacks, cancers and diabetes and things. All of that can be sold by a similar way of living. They're all lifestyle diseases. And when you look at the statistics, 85% of those deaths are preventable. And so when I coach diabetes or I coach somebody with high cholesterol, the same lifestyle impacts that. Yes, what you are eating. And with diabetics, we are focusing on mostly, for most people is the processed foods. But then I get a little bit into food pairing to manage the glycemic, the glucose hit. How high do you go up? And then how high do you come down? Are you crashing in the afternoon? So often if somebody says, "Oh, I have an apple," I might recommend an apple within that butter because the fat will level that, the ups and the downs with diabetics. So elaborate on that on the notion of food pairing because I'm a little familiar with it, but I probably don't know as much as you do for the audience to elaborate on the food pairing. It is an area that I don't consider myself an expert in. So let me just preface with that. It is an area that I find very intriguing in that if you cook spinach, if you put in some lemon juice, you're getting more of the calcium out of the spinach. If you add a fat to a fruit, then you're lowering the glycemic, the hit from the natural sugar and lowering the glycemic index. I heard from a gentleman who's got a friend who's a food pairing expert, and he said, "You should never eat an avocado with any other food." And I'm like, "Why is that?" Because I put avocado on everything, but avocado by itself is such a good natural food. That if you take supplements that you shouldn't have supplements within 20 minutes or a half hour because you're competing for the resources that are being ingested into your system. So it is an area that I want to explore more, and I know little bits of tidbits, but I do know that it is important, and especially diabetics, so leveling that load a little bit. Another question. When it comes to diabetes, obviously my wife being a doctor and myself, both Jody and I are nutrition coaches and personal trainers. When it comes to the diabetes, sometimes though, we focus too much, and I'm asking you this question. Sometimes we focus too much on the sugar, and don't pay enough to the... And fat actually has a lot to do with the insulin not getting in the blood cells, which is why you can have somebody thin looking healthy and still be diabetic. Many people tend to think that diabetes is a disease of the obese, but that's not necessarily the case, correct? Oh, you're spot on. And I think that in general, a lot of the people I work with do avoid fat, because we've been told, right, it's a myth, that fat makes you fat. So they're weary of it, and that's why when you talk about food pairing, adding that nut butter, which is a fat, helps slow that glycemic index down. So as an example, my husband went on the keto diet just to see, and he was pretty diligent for 60 days on keto, and he did. His numbers dropped dramatically. Both his A1C and his fasted glucose. We were also able to tie in that when I, because he hates the exercise, but when I made him, I strongly encouraged him rather, to go out. If we went out and walked at a good clip for four and a half miles or so, his glucose, fasted glucose the next day, was on average 20 to 30 points lower. So there's a direct correlation to movement on how you get the food. And I like to say like fasting, I do encourage fasting. I think fasting is awesome. And you break your fast with fat, that if you are breaking, that adding fat, sort of, if you think about your stomach as a campfire, and it's intended to burn hot, sort of a slow burn hot. Now, if you haven't eaten and you break in your fast and you fuel it with fat, that fire isn't going to flame up, right? It's going to keep burning at that sort of more consistent pace. But if you eat processed foods or even some high natural sugar foods, that's like putting kerosene on that fire, right? So that's why fat's important. So when it comes to keto, obviously you cannot eat keto for the rest of your life. What is your philosophy for long-term nutritional balance? Lifestyle, mindful eating, I, you know, the people that I work with initially, we don't get into macros because we're just trying to change lifestyle habits. We're trying to avoid not going through the drive-in. We're trying to avoid having a white food day, right? Overall, I think if you're mindful and you eat slowly and you focus on whole foods with healthy fats, then that's a good sustainable approach. I think there's a time and place for some restrictive diets, like maybe if you're trying to diagnose if you're gluten intolerant or something like that. So an elimination diet, there are times and places for things like that. But as a whole, when you eliminate the whole categories of food, you become nutrient depleted. Expanding on mindful eating, do you deal with a lot of clients that are emotional eaters and how do you tackle that way of eating and soothing, self-soothing? I find most of us are emotional eaters, and even myself, I, on the rare occasion, will be like, "Oh my gosh, I want that ice cream," and I realize I'm emotional eating. So it starts with understanding or asking yourself before you eat, why am I eating? Am I truly hungry? And if they can get into that habit of asking those questions, then that will be a good start. And then where you're eating, right? If you're eating in the car, you're probably inhaling your food. And then you don't even realize that you've eaten this food and you're still hungry. So mindful eating to me is about slowing down, letting that intuitive connection between your head and your gut sink up again. Because, Gio, did you grow up in the clean, you clean, you clean, you clean club as a kid? Yeah, and boy, knowing what I know now, I would never force my kids to sit at that table and eat. Like, you're done, you're done. But you know what? You're not getting that dessert. There's not a treat on the other end of this. That really messed up a lot of people, including myself. Like, a lot of people are coming out now and like content saying, like, former clean and plate club or they're starving children in the world. And it caused a lot of damage because seeing food left behind, I felt required to eat it all. Because our parents, they knew what they knew back then, but we know better than them. And I tried to sneak food to the dog. And I literally sat at the table for an hour sometimes because I just didn't want to eat. And I hated peas or whatever it was. And I'm like, one by one, the pea would fall off. The dog somehow got my peas. Yeah, for me, it was broccoli. You know, my parents would insist I couldn't get up until I finish a broccoli. And as a kid, I hated broccoli. I love broccoli now. But obviously, that's my, by my own volition. My kids, obviously, there are things they don't like and care. We don't force them to eat. Now, if they don't like one veggie, they're going to find a veggie. They do it and eat, right? Because otherwise, they will eat ice cream and crackers all day long. And so they're kids, but we have to teach them how to eat healthy. That being said, what do you consider a healthy eater, right? Because no one's 100% perfect. People know that on Saturdays, I have ice cream. It's a treat for me and the kids. But somebody's asking you, what is a healthy eater? What would you say? I would say that yes, it is a combination of what you're eating. So whole foods. But I would also say that it is, what is your emotional attachment to the food? So if you do have the ice cream and clearly geo, you're okay with it. And that's part of your overall food plan. Don't beat yourself up for it. And I think that's the challenge that we get into is that we think it's an all or nothing. And then when we do have the ice cream or the rare piece of cake, we beat ourselves up for it. So it becomes emotional. So at the time when you can truly eat to fuel your body and not have an emotional attachment to it, I think that's a healthy eating and intuitive eating is eating when you're hungry and not following the I have to have breakfast. I have to have this. I have to have my dinner just intuitively eat. I think that to me is an overall good nutrition plan that I like to see my clients get to. Because when they're when they separate that the self sabotaging the negativity around, oh my gosh, I had a piece of cake. But then there becomes a piece of honesty and reality, right? Where I had a client who loves her sweets and was eating desserts every night. And then she's going to affair. And so I'm going to have all the desserts. And it's an exception. And I said, I simply said, is it truly an exception? Pause. And then she's probably not. So being honest with yourself with what you really are doing. And whether you're eating clean and having a snack, every treat, every once in a while, sugar, cake, ice cream, whatever it is, that's totally fine. Okay. Good. Good. Awesome. You guys, what do you guys think? I'm about. Yeah, I have, I was, we were talking to somebody else. I have potato chips and pretzels and popcorn and ice cream in the pantry. But it's the overall thing that we do with it. I don't abuse it. I like the way I feel now my numbers both physically and internally are great. And so I think we are balanced in this house. And I know Jodi is as well, but let me not talk for her. Yeah, I focus a lot on high nutrient dense foods, but I no longer label foods as good or bad. To me, for some people saying no to a piece of cake is a healthy choice. And to other people saying yes without that guilt is a healthy choice, because passing it up or enjoying it and having guilt tied to it, that's not healthy. Yeah. And I really educate people on reading labels and you talk about potato chips, we eat them in the house, but I no longer even buy anything with vegetable oil. So if we're eating potato chips, we have bolder chips. It's made with avocado oil. And we just look for the better choice as well when we're doing it. And so for sweets, I draw the line. I don't eat anything out of a box. Now, if I make cookies or I do something, then I'll eat it. But something that comes out of a box, that just seems scary to me. I don't know what I'm getting. I'm probably getting a lot of chemicals and other stuff in it. But yeah, when it comes to the college, it's got to be worth it. Yes, for sure. You know, with the chips, I don't eat the chips. I have them in the pantry. They're mainly for the kids. But I do love my wife does make a mean cheesecake. And we have three kids, three kids and five birthday. So we always make it for the birthdays. And it's I indulge. But one slice of that thing is about 500 calories. And but you fit it into the day's caloric output, and it's only five times a year. All right, what's a plant made for? Oh, hey, well, I tell you, Jody, the bottom is made of granola. So think of the floor made out of granola with almonds and pecans and other nuts. And then the main thing is made out of cashew butter, it's plant-based, right? And it has all these frozen fruits on the top and some shredded coconut. And I forget the rest of it, but it is to die for. I have people inviting themselves to my kids birthday parties just for the cheese. But it's high calories. Do you get all those nuts together? And it's high calorie, but it's good for you. Gio, I heard you talk about looking at your calories from a weak perspective, because one day an extra 500 calories isn't going to make or break you. And that's part of the intuitive eating. Some days you don't eat as much. And that's okay. And then other days, maybe you had a harder workout the day before and you're a little bit more hungry. And that's okay. And intuitively, it balances itself out. So let's talk about, before I get into the Forks Over Knives stuff, let's talk about self-doubt and judgment. There are many people, as you stated earlier, that have this, I tried this before, I can't go over it. Everybody has a tipping point where they finally get over the hump and do this, like Jody and myself. We're proud of the fact that we've kept the weight off. How do you help people who are constantly in their self-doubt and judging themselves? One, it's connecting to your why, right? I know that I've heard other people on the podcast talk about connecting to the why. But there's also, this is where I think that you need to ask for help. That having someone who's gone through the journey that can help you or support you, because maybe this person doesn't have support, support, and that check-in on how you're doing. And giving them that you can do this, we've got this, that helps build the confidence of the person. And I help people with small bite-sized changes, right? So if they say, "Okay, I'm gonna cut out sugar." I say, "On a scale of one to ten, what's the likelihood of you doing that?" And they rate themselves. And if it isn't in high likelihood, like seven or higher, then we pause and we, I say, "Okay, how can we break this down even to a more micro portion of that?" And they break it down even further, and then we ask the same question. So we may go back and drill down on an intention they have for the week to eat healthy, but we may have to drill down three or four times before they can get to something where they say, "Yes, I could do that." And that's when the "I can attitude" starts building, because they're like, "I got this, okay? I got this." And it just keeps like the snowball rolling down the hill, and it keeps building and then they're like, "Tara, I got this. You can't stop me. I'm going forward." And so it's, yeah, finding their most basic thing that they feel they can do at a level seven or higher, correct? Yes. Okay. So what was one habit that you had maybe that at first when you started was too overwhelming, and you went back and forth, but then as you pared it down, did you have a situation for yourself where you had to keep pairing it down into something smaller and smaller so that you could actually take action on that? Well, for me, it's going to sound weird. Not weird, but I'm stubborn. So the moment I set out that I was going to lose the weight, nothing got in the way. As a matter of fact, I cut off things so quickly that people started getting scared, but that's just me. I'm stubborn, but I did notice things that I did begin to notice. So I was tracking my food with an app. I started noticing that even though my internal numbers were great, my main food is whole foods, I did dabble too much in testitos and pretzels and other highly processed foods that I began to realize, like Jody said, it wasn't worth my caloric budget. And so that's how I don't eat that kind of stuff anymore, not because, or it's bad food. It's just it's not worth it to me. The biggest thing I wanted to not experience when I was losing weight was overt hungerness. And so I quickly learned you get a lot of fiber and you get a lot of whole foods and it will keep me feeling fuller longer. And so anytime at night, I felt a little hungry. I finally turned that into a positive saying, oh good, I'm burning the body fat I want to lose. And in that sense, once I put my mind to it, my biggest thing was awakening to the fact that I had gained so much weight. For me, in all my failed attempts before, I would try to change every bad habit I had all at once, and it was too overwhelming. So when I had my health scare, I hit pause on exercise and I just focused on nutrition and maybe less than a year later, that's when I started working in physical activity. I think we try to change everything all at once and it's too overwhelming. Where smaller steps are a lot easier to build sustainable long-term changes. And I wonder if that's a difference between guys and girls, like I find guys are much better at this than I'm done and they're done and we're like, what? But in addition to what I would really love to see is some sort of app that connects the caloric intake or what you're eating to how you're feeling. So recently, I've had a client who finally has become aware that coffee is causing acid reflux for her. So the thing that we're seeing when we add what we eat down to the to the calorie is that we become so focused on the calorie and what pains and not the impact of the food to how I feel. She was now associating acid reflux to coffee. I had another client with migraines that when we started talking about sugar and dehydration, they were causing her migraines. So she was eating too much sugar and she was chronically dehydrated. So it would be nice to see something where you can track those calories and then have another column that says, okay, I ate it eight o'clock this morning at 11. This is what I'm feeling so that we can connect because it's really pretty clean, Geo, and you're having the pretzels hips. How do you feel after that? Are you still okay? Or do you feel sluggish? Yeah, I don't know because I hardly eat that stuff because I like my like, for example, today I've had already over 300 calories of dates. I'm on a date. I'm on a date. So yeah, I'm on a date rush. And so I I my goal ready. One of my goals and Jody has heard this. I want to be able to eat 3,000 calories a day for maintenance. I'm not there yet, right? I need to pack on more muscle, control my body fat because muscle burns more calories. And so I got 400 calories to go. I eat 2,600 calories for maintenance. And I love it. I enjoy eating. And so part of the reason I stay fit is so I can eat more. I think part of that process, I think, is disconnecting the relationship of I moved so I can have the brown eat, right? Yeah, so many. So I can have this. And we get into this trap. And that's when you asked about the what I think is the overall diet is severing the relationship of I did this so I get that. It's because you want to eat and exercise because you love to move and treat them as different things yet they're related. Yes, Jody and I are famous for saying we don't have to work out. We get to work out. And both of us work out systematically and religiously. Let's get to the forks over knives cooking. For the record, I am 100% plant based. Jody is not. And forks over knives obviously leans in that direction. What made you discover forks over knives? And what do you do with the cooking? So forks over knives is completely vegan and oil free. So I took the course because I, you know, obviously working with people on health and wellness food is clearly, right? And so it comes down to are you a what I categorize as a chemist cook or an artist cook? So are you a person that has to follow a recipe and measure everything exactly as it is? Or are you an artist like I am and I just create concoctions and I, if it says a tablespoon of cinnamon, there's probably a quarter cup in it. So I felt that I needed to up my game in terms of being able to help people with the cooking portion. And it went to the very basics of knife handling skills, which I didn't have any. And I had to submit pictures and I remember being devastated because my, I had to chop up cucumbers and different kinds of vegetables and my cubes weren't equal. I was like, oh, I was so devastated. But it really gave it, it opened my eyes to food that can be super flavorful and healthy for you. And we use dates often to soak and to pulverize into dressings and other things. My key takeaway, one of the things that I talk to people all the time about is dry cooking. So I take a pan, I work in all clad stainless steel, but I used to be the kind of person that would pour oil in the pan and think that I had to cook with oil. And if you think about it, I never measured it. I kept adding it. So I probably added three, 400 calories, extra calories you want to eat. So now I learned how to heat the pan appropriately. You do a water test to see if the pan is heated. And then you cook. And like I saw tape onions, dry sauteed onions. And I'm like, wow, this is way better than how I used to cook them. I may add some grass fed butter at the very end for flavor, which, but I dry cook everything now. And the flavor is so much more enhanced than it was the way I was cooking it before. Yeah, I don't oil cook myself. I'm in a unique situation because I track my calories and just because I'm a stack geek, I track everything. So I cook my own meals. And I cook part of my wife's meals. I cook her veggies. I make her sometimes beans and stuff like that. She takes care of the kids. And so yes, when it comes to cooking without oil, I love it. Because I don't want, once again, going back to what I said, I don't want to waste those calories I could be eating on oil. And Jodi and I are big fans of air fryers. You can do a lot of things. I don't have one. Oh, I have two. Same. Can I come get one? We had one before, but it was one of those small, a small tray one or the small basket ones. And now it was just too small for two people. So yeah, that's why we got two. So you teach people how to cook then like you in person or online. That's awesome. Yeah, so I do pantry makeovers. So I'll come into your home. I'll help you read your what's in your pantry. I do grocery store tours. So I have taken small groups of people to grocery store. And I say, okay, get the food that you like that you eat. And so they grab that and we read the label. And then we find better. So yeah, I'll absolutely help people cook. My favorite thing is what I call the lead is bag of salad. So I'll take a two gallon plastic bag. I'll chop up the lettuce because for some reason, I don't know, Jodie, if you have this problem, but it's a lettuce leaves are too big. And you've got a little bit of dressing on them. I always wind up with salad dressing on my glasses. Or I can't fit all the lettuce in my mouth at once. I chop up the lettuce, but then I also add parsley, cilantro, dill. So I add a lot of very basic nutrient dense food herbs, things like that. And then I put into paper towels, shake it up. And that bag will last for the week between me and my husband. And then we add in when we eat it on a chicken carts or protein or whatever you're eating. So the base salad is not your traditional, just, you know, take the mixed greens and put it in a bowl and call it a day. It's filled with a lot of other nutrients. I also put nutritional yeast in it. Yes, popcorn and nutritional yeast. There you go. Hey, Jodie, have you had popcorn and nutritional yeast? No, but I have both in my house. Oh, yes, a little yes, because it gives it a cheesy flavor. So it's like cheesy popcorn. Yes, got to give it a try, girl. And you get protein from the nutritional yeast, not a lot. But you also get some vitamin B12 in it. And so good stuff. And fiber. Yes. Yes. That's one thing, even though Jodie eats meat, she's very aware that you need your fiber. A lot of meatheads don't know that. I have a question. How is your husband doing since you embarked on this from his original diagnosis? So he's doing okay. His numbers are much lower and much to my chagrin. He is on medication. And we've gotten there because it's a balance between being a wife and telling him what to do. Yes. A prophet is never accepted in his own home. So yeah, he's doing okay. And he can feel pretty easily now if his blood sugar is too high or too low, just from his baseline. And he can immediately correct it. And he now it's it's summer. So he's out riding his bike. So he's getting all the activity. He's a musician. So he has an opposite schedule that I do. And he has a lot of exercise. Who does that sound on the drums? Is that exercise? We have a group that sponsors us or we're in collaboration with call f5 challenge. And their main event this year is going to be in Tell You Ride Colorado. How far are you from Tell You Ride Colorado? Oh, about six and a half hours. But it is, it must go. It is absolutely stunning. Tell you ride, Krista Butte are some of my favorite places in Colorado. Okay, nice. I'm gonna try to make it. Yeah, it's no guarantees because we might be moving. And so that puts a damper on things. Tell us where can people find you if they wanted to work with you in your holistic approach. What's the best way to find you? The best way to find me is on my website at head to toe coaching.com. Everything you need is there. You can sign up for my newsletter. You can. I do offer free consultations. I love to talk to people. Give them a safe place to talk about their health and guide them in a direction that is appropriate to them. So maybe it's not me, but that's okay. I just really want to to help people and have the conversation because often we don't talk to our loved ones because we want to protect them a little bit. So sometimes they're more open to people I provide a safe space to do that. So everything can be found on my website. Okay, and that is head to toe coach.com coaching dot com. Okay, head to toe coaching dot com. And my last question for you, I don't know, Jody, if you have any, is what's your preferred way of exercise? Is it resistance training or cardio? Yes, I think you need the weight training just because if you're strong, you can handle anything that life throws at you. If somebody says, Oh, I want to go for a hike or a bike or I want to do this, that's cardio. But if you don't have the basic strength, you're not holding your posture correctly. I'm an endurance athlete, so strength helps me be able to sustain 10, 12, 17 hours of movement and feel okay and know that I have the strength to do it. So yes, you need both. Yes, great answer. She passed the test, Jody. I listened to other podcasts to know that. Yeah, speaking of which the F5 challenge group, because I notice here you you hiked. How do you pronounce the mountain? Kilimanjaro? Yeah, come on. They are going to hike Denali in Alaska. People are nuts. I think you should join them, Gio. Why not? And you, Jody, go for it. I have three kids that need a father who wants to live. No, actually, I've done hiking. Yeah, I've done hiking. I've, I think the highest I've gone is 14,000 feet. I don't know where. Oh, no, that was when I jumped out of a plane. Sorry. But I've been up pretty high and I like to hike, but yeah, I don't think I'm doing I don't like the cold. That's a why you give me a warm mountain. I'll climb the cold. I've just I don't do cold. Jody, any last questions for our guests today? Yes, say we have a listener. They hear your message. They think they might want to reach out to you, but maybe they're dealing with self doubt that they can really actually make changes. Could you leave them a message why they're worth the effort or why they should still reach out to you? That's wow. That's my heart. I'm just I'm almost crying right now. I just want them to know that they are loved and they are worth it. And each one of us, every human being is majestic and they're majestic and they are astounding the way they are. And so let's build on that. But they're meant for that. They're worthy. Yeah. And there you have it, folks, you know, reach out head to toe coaching.com and you will get a holistic approach that takes everything in mind body. And so until next time on the Mindful Muscle podcast, thank you for joining us. Be blessed.
