Realfoodology - Calorie Deficits Don’t Work for Women with UFC Champion Miesha Tate

Episode Date: January 13, 2026

283: UFC World Champion, mother and nutrition activist Miesha Tate is here to talk about what women actually need when it comes to food, strength, and recovery. We break down why calories in vs. calories out doesn’t always work for women, how hormones completely change the nutrition conversation, and why nutrient density matters more than restriction. Miesha shares her journey in a male-dominated sport, how she rebuilt her health and performance after having kids, and what she’s learned about food as fuel, and how to raise healthy kids in an unhealthy world.  Topics Discussed: → Is calories in vs. calories out the best framework for women’s nutrition? → How should women eat differently than men for strength, hormones, and longevity? → What does eating nutrient-dense food do for performance and recovery? → How does Miesha use red light therapy and HBOT to improve recovery?  → How can moms rebuild strength, metabolism, and bone density after having kids? Sponsored By: → Function | Own your health for $365 a year. That’s a dollar a day. Learn more and join using my link. Visit https://www.functionhealth.com/realfoodology and use gift code REALFOODOLOGY25 for a $25 credit toward your membership. → Our Place | Our Place is having their biggest sale of the year right now! Save up to 35% sitewide now through December 2nd. Head to https://www.fromourplace.com to see why more than a million people have made the switch to Our Place kitchenware. And with their 100-day risk-free trial, free shipping, and free returns, you can shop with total confidence. Shop the Our Place Black Friday Sale right now, no code needed. → Beekeepers Naturals | Today, Beekeeper’s Naturals is giving my listeners an exclusive offer: Go to https://beekeepersnaturals.com/realfoodology or enter code REALFOODOLOGY to get 20% off your order. → Qualia | Take control of your cellular health today. Go to https://www.qualialife.com/realfoodology and save 15% to experience the science of feeling younger. → YAYA'S EVOO | YAYA’S is offering 15% off your order, and it even stacks on subscriptions. Go to https://www.yayasevoo.com/realfoodology. → Just Thrive | Get your health in check and save 20% on your first order at https://www.justthrivehealth.com/realfoodology. Timestamps:  → 00:00:00 - Introduction  → 00:05:15 - Making the Right Healthy Choices   → 00:10:20 - Miesha’s MMA Roots   → 00:14:29 - First Fight  → 00:24:17 - Preventive Care: HBOT + Red Light  → 00:32:52 - Nutrient Density  → 00:39:53 - Women’s Health, Calorie Deficits & Whole Foods  → 00:54:20 - Diet, Performance & Thyroid Health    → 01:01:52 - Protein Obsession in Athletes  → 01:13:11 - Reframing Nutrition + Raising Healthy Kids  Show Links: → Miesha Tate  → Built For Growth | Podcast   → “The Period Brain” by Dr. Sarah Hill  Check Out Miesha: → Instagram  → Facebook  Check Out Courtney:  →  LEAVE US A VOICE MESSAGE →  Check Out My new FREE Grocery Guide! →  @realfoodology →  www.realfoodology.com →  My Immune Supplement by 2x4 →  Air Dr Air Purifier →  AquaTru Water Filter →  EWG Tap Water Database Produced By: Drake Peterson

Were you healthier as a UFC champion or as a mom eating real food? Oh, this one's easy. Definitely a mom. I really believe that if people want to get healthier, they want to lose weight. In its basis, it's pretty simple. You can pretty much eat as much whole foods as you want. I'm fighting Liz Posner. She put me in a moitai clinch.

She begins kneeing my face. Oh, my God. And I have no idea how to get out of this. I'm trying to grab her legs with open arms and one of them just clean on, just smashes my nose. I mean, just a crunch, smash, blood. This is the only time of my life. I think I've ever lost my temper in a fight.

What's the biggest mistake you see women making when it comes to training or weight loss? I think the biggest mistake that they make is... Welcome back to the Real Foodology podcast. On today's episode, I sit down with UFC legend Misha Tate to talk about the power of real food, motherhood, and the shift from feeling for performance to feeling for true health.

Misha opens up about the myths she bought into as a young athlete, why the calorie-deficient model fails women and how eating nutrient-dense whole foods transformed her energy, recovery hormones, and more. We discuss how processed foods hijack our reward centers, why parents don't need a nutrition degree to know how to feed their kids and themselves

and how women can finally stop feeling guilty for hunger and start eating in alignment with her biology. This is a conversation about rewriting outdated nutrition rules and choosing your own body every time. We also talk about her early days, the UFC, which I just found so, fascinating. She is such a badass and she has become a dear friend who I met recently at a regenerative farming conference, which just made me love her right when we met. She's such a cool

human and I really hope that you love this episode. I thought it was so fascinating to hear what it was like to be in the UFC and what the focus was around nutrition and eating and calories in and calories out. So I think you're going to love this episode. If you want to take a moment to rate and review it, it really does help the show. It means a lot to me. And of course, if you are loving this particular episode. If you want to tag me and at Misha Tate, we will do our best to try to repost it. Thank you so much for listening. Here's the deal about New Year's resolutions. Most of them don't fail because we don't care enough. They fail because we're guessing. We're trying to fix symptoms without actually understanding what's happening inside our bodies. Things like hormone

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Just go to from our place.com slash real foodology. Well, we can just kind of start. This is not what I was going to initially start out with you, but since we're already talking about it. So I actually got advice from a woman right before we were about to start. trying. I went on a podcast, and she was, like, very pregnant, and she was about to have her third. And she said afterwards, she goes, if you don't mind, I want to say something. And I was like, sure. Because I told her, I was like, we're going to start preparing for fertility soon. Like, I'm hoping to get pregnant by the end of the year. And she said, if I could give you one

piece of advice, tune out all of the negativity online, like, just don't listen to it and don't absorb it. And so anytime I would see stuff online of, like, people really struggling with fertility, obviously, I'm so sympathetic to it. And I was like, oh, man, that breaks my heart. And then I kept saying, it's not my story, it's not my story, it's not my story. And just was kind of like blocking it out and just being like, I'm just going to surround myself with all this positive energy and try to focus on that aspect of it and hope and pray that it's,

that I'm going to be able to get pregnant and it's not going to be hard. Yeah. And I feel like it helped. It does. I think so too. I'm one of those people that's guilty sometimes of my algorithm getting like darker and more gloomy about all the things going wrong in the world. And it's like, I hop on Instagram and I'm like, oh, my God,

the world's going to end tomorrow. So, like, food, you know, pesticides and everything. There's all this chemicals and Cheerios. Like, what am I going to feed my? You know, obviously, I don't feed my kids' Cheerios, but there are a lot of kids. And I feel bad for the parents that are busy that are working, single parents working two jobs. And it's like, they shouldn't have to have a nutrition degree. I know.

You know what I mean? Like, and even a nutrition degree, I think you have to even go beyond that because it's not just about what the food is supposed to have and not have. Like, I think generally people know, like, oh, an apple, it should be healthy. egg should be healthy, like milk is a healthy, but it's like the things that are not on the labels of the food that's so concerning. That seems unfair. It is unfair, and I would even, I would take it a step further and I feel so bad for the families that this isn't even getting to them yet, you know, like they're just, they don't even understand how bad the cereal is and how bad the old processed foods are because there is a general thinking, I think, in society that if it's on the shelf,

It's safe. There's no way that they would have allowed it on there if it wasn't safe. That was me for many, many, many years. I had no idea. And I've been a professional athlete. You know, it's like, I mean, even at the beginning of my career, I just, I blindly trusted. I didn't even think not to trust. It wasn't even like I thought, like, oh, I'm putting my trust in these people.

It's just, well, this is food. Yeah. And that was it. Like, it was very simple to me. And I just thought, like, yeah, I mean, I could just, if it was at the grocery store, like, I never even thought to. think of it being unsafe. I think there's still a lot of people out there, and that's just really, it's unfair,

but. It is really unfair. I'm sure that there is a whole different level of it, too, and I really, I'm so excited to dive into this with you. In the fitness world, I feel like it's a whole different beast because people are so focused on calories in, calories out, does this fit my macros? So there's such an emphasis on just the macros that I feel like the quality of the food kind of goes by the wayside.

Did you think that that, do you feel like that was happening? It's still happening. Yeah, it's still happening. As a matter of fact, I think the athletes are so focused on the macros and I constantly preach about the micro. And not just for athletes, but this definitely applies to athletes. You know, we think about diet culture in a way that's like proteins, fats, and carbs because that's energy and fuel for our muscles. But really, when you break down to what is, I believe, preventative for injury and what is going to fuel you from a cellular level, your health, your brain function, the ability to process information quickly. You know, that's very important. You know, eye hand coordination, these kinds of skills that are like the base of our skills,

not just how much weight we can push around or can we lift this person off of the ground. You know, I mean, sure, that might mostly break down to the way that you're fueling your body, but on that deeper level, it really does matter, you know, about magnesium and calcium and calcium and vitamin C and vitamin D. Lord knows that's an important one. but these vitamin B, all these nutrients that are supposed to be in our food. And I still don't see a lot of athletes, even at the top level of the UFC, really focusing on the micronutrients. It's all about macros.

Oh, it bums me out. And what you just said, wow, I knew that, but I've never heard somebody say it like that. And that is so, I mean, it was so profound to me, but it's so simple, right? But I never thought about it from that angle of what I was thinking about, too, is if your body is inflamed, your body's not going to work as well, right? Like your muscles and the movements that you need to make are probably not going to be as great because you're super inflamed. And also you don't feel good, so you may not necessarily be on top of your game

if you're really inflamed. And you're inflamed when you're eating all these ultra-processed foods and all this junk that your body doesn't actually know what to do with and how to assimilate it. But also, too, the hand-eye coordination and how your brain actually works is all affected by what you eat. Absolutely. Wow.

Okay, I never thought about it like that. So I was kind of reflecting on, I don't know if you know this about me, but I worked in a super male dominated career for about 10 years. I was working in the music business. I didn't know that. Okay. Yeah, I was a tour manager. And at the time when I was a tour manager, because at the time I was, how old was I? I was fresh out of college. It was like 22, 23 maybe. And it was basically unheard of to be a tour manager and be on the road with bands because it was all males. And it really, looking back on it and reflecting on it over the years, it had a profound

effect on me and how I moved through the world, especially how I worked in my career, because I felt like I really had to prove myself. And I was curious if there was any aspect of that for you being in this male fight, like mostly male-dominated world. Well, certainly in the beginning, it was an odd thing to do. So I'll go ahead and date myself a little bit. So I started wrestling when I was in high school. I was 15 years old, and I was one of two females. And we joined the wrestling team because we couldn't play. We didn't, we didn't like basketball. It's me. I can't jump. I'm not good at basketball. So it's really important for me to know what I wasn't good at. And I wasn't any better at wrestling, which is funny, but I loved it. So there was a big difference there. I went on my first day of practice, and I just remember getting my butt kicked. I mean, it was like they wanted to show us girls, you know, that we didn't belong. It was pretty clear. The messaging was pretty clear. There was no extra help. Like they were definitely trying to put us in with like the best wrestlers. It just, you know, like, hey, this is what wrestling. is and you're not cut out for it. But I just loved it. It lit a fire under me and I think,

I don't know if I consciously thought about this, but it was kind of like that law of diminishing returns. Like, I'm so bad at this right now, but I have a real desire to get better and I should get better. And I was getting better faster because I really wanted to figure it out. And then I graduated from high school and I went to college and that's where I discovered mixed martial arts. I was 19 years old. This was like the end of 2005. And yeah, I began fighting and began doing mixed martial arts. Not because I thought that was going to be for me either. I went out for a club sport.

And I didn't want to do it, actually. Really? I did not think, well, I just didn't think that it would be for me. Because when I started training, I learned on my very first day after coming from a wrestling background how to choke people. And it was awesome. I was like, this is great. I can add this to my wrestling and this, this seems fun. What is this jiu-jitsu thing?

They were like, do you want to learn striking? I was like, absolutely not. Like, why would I, no, like, there's no way I'm not putting gloves. No, nobody's punching me. I'm not punching anybody. Zero desire. And then three weeks later, I had my first mixed martial arts. I basically had my first mixed martial arts fight three weeks after attending a live event,

which was all in all in all was probably about like four weeks of training, which is, you don't get gutted anything in four weeks. I didn't win that fight, but I just jumped in and I just, like, I loved it. And, you know, it was all males. Like, it was all guys. Imagine. Was that ever scary for you? Yeah, for sure. Especially on, you know, my first initiating, like, times of sparring. I mean, that's like when you put the gloves on and you're actually getting hit. And I remember just feeling so frustrated by it because obviously I wasn't good at it. But there was also something I would say on a very deep, like, sort of. of primal level that felt very wrong to me about getting like beat up by these guys. And by the way, they weren't trying to like hurt me or anything. They think they weren't being jerks. But they were just better than I was, faster than I was, stronger than I was, and had way better technique than I was.

So I was just getting beat up. Yeah. And that was really tough to swallow. You know, and there were obviously guys that were less accepting. And then there were a lot of guys who were like, yeah, if she wants to be here, as long as she doesn't get in the way or slow us down, that's fine. And then there were some guys that were really nice and helpful. So it was like this mixture of all of it.

But I will say that women's mixed martial arts was very widely unaccepted at that time. Interesting. Okay. And what made you keep going then? Because it sounds like you were kind of like on the fence and you were like, I don't know if I'm good. What made you keep going? Well, I would say that first fight was the day a fighter was born, the one that I told you I lost. I'll dive into that a little bit.

So I'm 19 years old. I've decided I'm just going to jump into this mixed martial arts fighting. And it stemmed from watching a local amateur event in Yakima, Washington. So I went to Central Washington University. I watched this amateur fight card. And I just had this, it was like a moth to a flame when I was watching them fight. And I think prior to that, I had this preconceived notion of like what a fighter or a fight would look like. Like it would be like angry people.

Yeah. You know? Like it frustrated people with like toothless brawlers, like people that have like, you know, like are not well adjusted in society. and I'm like, that just doesn't, I don't have anger issues. Like, I don't think I need to beat anybody out. Like, I'm cool. But then I watched the amateur fight card and I was like, that's not at all what I see. I see like mixed martial arts.

I see somebody, people going out there and like expressing themselves in the most raw form, hand-to-hand combat. How cool is that? But there was no girls on that fight card. At the end of that, they made an announcement that in a few weeks they would have an all-female fight card. And obviously, they were struggling to fill seats of the not-sumptuble. seats of the audience, but like fighters because there weren't that many female fighters. I've been really intentional about what I keep in my medicine cabinet, especially during cold and flu season. I don't want to reach for products full of dyes, chemicals, or stuff that I can't

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and thanks to Qualia for sponsoring this episode. So they made the announcement to try to get more people to volunteer. And so I did. I went down and I signed up and then I had that first fight and then fast forward into the fight. I'm fighting Liz Posner. She's from BC Canada. She's a kickboxer. Her and her husband

own a gym, and I'm a wrestler. So I have very limited striking skills, I mean very limited. And she's not a wrestler. So I take her down on the first round and I think I just hold her down. I don't even know if I punched her on the ground or anything because I don't, I still was such a baby and even understanding what it meant to really fight someone. I was still just trying to wrestler. The second round, they made a good adjustment. She put me in a moit Thai clinch, which is basically like they lock their hands behind your neck and head, and they put their forearms on your collar bone, and they kind of pinch your head. So I've got your head in the space here. And this is before there were any rules or regulations for amateur fighters. So she begins kneeing my face.

Oh, my God. And I have no idea how to get out of this. I don't even know what it is I'm in, but I'm like kind of stuck. And so knees are like flying. lying at my face and the only thing I know how to do is like still try to grab her legs. Yeah. So I'm trying to grab her legs with open arms as I'm receiving knees to the face and one of them just clean on just smashes my nose. I mean, just a crunch smash blood. And I just remember like for your life like trying to grab onto those legs.

And eventually I did, but I kind of like slid down to her ankles. I mean, because I'm really like driving down and forward and she. she's pulling me down. And so we end up in a position where I'm kind of like holding on her ankles, and she steps out and she gets around behind my back. And she's on me like a little backpack. And she's trying to choke me, and so I'm turtled up. You know, I've got my neck sucked into my shoulders,

and I'm really trying to defend from this choke. And that I remember she sits up and she starts punching me, and one of them hit my ear, and it felt like a bee sting. This is the only time of my life. I think I've ever lost my temper in a fight. Okay. That's shocking one time. One time. Wow. Yeah. I'm usually pretty cool, calm and collected, like even in high stress situations, but I just remember feeling like I just, I don't know why, but I took that shot so personal. And I remember being mad that she was on my back. I was on my knees and my elbows. And I remember this very, like the eye of the storm, like the middle of the tornado moment. Yeah, it's like that calm, clear. And my, there was blood streaming so steady. And I remember. And there was blood streaming so steady. from my nose and this pool of blood. I was just watching it just grow in front of my face is how like fast I was bleeding. I mean, I was really bleeding. Whoa. And that was the moment I was like,

I was like, F this. Like, there's no way she is going to outrestle me. Like she might beat me. She might knock me out, but she ain't going to outrest me. So I started to peel her leg hooks out and I started to hulu hoop her down in front of me. And so she's below me. And I stand up and I just start raining down punches. I mean, I'm reaching to the ceiling. I have no idea how or what I'm doing, but I'm just trying to, like, take the life out of her at that point. And then the round ends, I go back to the corner, and I knew, and I think that she knew too, that that third round wasn't going to be pleasant for her. Because she'd really, like, thrown everything at me, like the kitchen sink. You know, she really had all these advantageous positions and opportunities. And yet, at the end of that round,

I had still come out in the dominant position. Yeah. So, like, I wasn't going to, to go down unless, you know, she was able to, like, really put me out. And I was coming for her. But, okay, this is still back when girls didn't fight, remember? So I go back to my corner, and my cornerman looked like they saw a ghost. I mean, they were just like, they're scared of you. Well, I don't know if they were scared of me or if they were scared of, like, what was going on. They just didn't know, like, and I think their protective instincts kind of kicked in.

And so they threw the towel in. Wow. So, which basically means, like, that I bowed out of the fight, but I didn't want to bow out of the fight. And they made that choice. Yeah, they can do that for you? Yeah, they can do it for you. I did not agree to that. And I was very upset by it. But they didn't want to see me go back out there with, like, you know, my face basically broken, my nose broken.

Now, mind you, it was a smart decision. It was a logical decision. Yeah. But I was so fueled by emotion at that point that I wanted to go back out and, like, get that, finish that, you know, get that third round or finish And I never got that opportunity, but it was an amateur fight. I got paid zero money. All my medical bills and expenses were on me. I'm a broke college kid.

Oh, damn. So it was a smart thing to do. And, you mean, it can't, like, I didn't know this at the time, but it could be dangerous having a broken nose like that and then continuing to get hit. Like, you know. Yeah. Yeah. So, wow.

Has that, have you, how many times have you broken your nose or, like, have you broken? Really? Yeah. Were you ever worried that it was going to be? Like, were you ever worried about any sort of damages? Aesthetically? Yeah, or both. Like, I was even thinking about, like, real harm, too, but both, yeah, for sure.

Aesthetically, it just doesn't really cross your mind, unfortunately. Fighters have to be a bit delusional. And they think, like, that won't happen to me. Yeah, or I'll be fine. Like, we are the crazy people that think if a plane goes down, like, we'll survive. Okay? I'll be the one person on the mountain, you know, looking at all the bodies around me and be like, how do I get off of this mountain?

You know, like that's my mentality. So it's like, it's kind of crazy, but that's just how I think. So my whole career, I've just never given that any power. I've never thought about, you know, too deep about the things that could happen. I just think they won't. Now, in the latter part of my career, I've done more preventative things than I did in the earlier part. And I think becoming a mother changed me a bit because I used to think like, oh, you know, like I'll survive or like I, you know, I will survive. And now I'm like, no, I have to. Yeah. You know, and not just like, we're not taking the luck of the draw kind of thing here. Like, we, I have children to raise. Like, I need to be here. I need to be present. So what are the things that I can do to mitigate risk? What are the prehabs, you know, like, let's not wait for things to happen.

Let's try to be on top of it. So, you know, I'm big on hyperbarics, red light. And there's so many, you know, things that I do now that I just didn't know about earlier. And I don't think that I, oh, gosh, where they say youth is wasted on the young, right? I just didn't think about it. So true. Oh, my gosh. I didn't think about it.

Do you feel like a lot of the fighters are doing that kind of stuff? Because I've been hearing, do you know who Brigham Bueller is? I feel like you would know him, right? Of course, yeah, I've been out there. Okay. I've been out there. Okay, amazing. Oh, wow, yeah.

Yeah, he helped me out a bit. He's a dear friend of mine. I love Brigham. And I know he's been helping a lot of fighters with his stem cells. And also he just has that really cool center that has the hyperbaric computer. It's so beautiful. It's so interesting, too. I know, it is.

Very unique. Yeah, it's very cool. I know. Did you talk to his alien AI? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, unhinged mode is very fun.

It's very fun, yeah. For people listening to don't know, I actually did a video about this. It's on my Instagram, but he has this full screen. I mean, it's probably like 12 feet tall. Yeah, and it's a little alien AI. It's a human size. Yes. And it's a screen, but it has an AI alien form, and his name is Alan, and he talks to you,

and you can ask him questions. And so I was asking him all his questions about, like, the medical system. And he was giving me, like, really cool answers. Yeah, he's super smart. Yeah. That's very smart. Yeah, you learn some things when you're there. Oh, it's a neat place. It's a beautiful place. And do you feel like those type of modalities really help with recovery? So much so. It's insane. Yeah. I think giving your body ample amounts of oxygen is one of the best things that you can do. And people ask me about, well, why can't I just put an oxygen mask on? Well, I'm like, well, if you take a pulse oxymeter and you put it on your finger, it's going to tell you, most likely, that your bread blood cells are holding your oxygen at about like 98.

percent, which means they're pretty efficient. That's like their number one job. Okay. So when you go under pressure in a hyperbaric chamber, you are hyper-oxygenating the plasma, which is typically a reservoir for oxygen. So all that liquid that your blood sits in is then getting a ton of oxygen, which actually can usually reach further than the red blood cells themselves because they get a bit congested sometimes, especially when there's damage. You know, inflammation, it's hard for the cells to actually get where they need to go. But oxygen is so important that when you flood that liquid in your body, your plasma with oxygen, it can regenerate and help with angiogenesis. I'll tell you a quick story. Yeah, I love this. I had a wellness center in Las Vegas, and we had a woman come in in our first few

weeks of being open, and she had a mommy makeover, and one of her nipples didn't reestablish blood flow. Oh. Yeah. So it's crazy. It was crazy. So her surgeon was kind of like poking around, to like find some sign of blood flow but all that was coming out was a clear liquid which is you know is plasma he's like i'm going to send you to this place because you know her and her husband were very desperate at that point i mean it was her nipple was black oh my god it was black as the night with without any stars like it was black wow and um so she came to our our place and we treated her aggressively at like 2.2, which is a pretty deep dive twice a day with red light. After her first hyperbaric session, she had noticeable pink back in her nipple.

That's so cool. Which was so wild. But it was just because the liquid was able to seep. So basically angiogenesis hadn't happened yet. Like the roadways for the blood cells to get in and out wasn't there. But the liquid in the body can seep anywhere. And so when it got hyper-oxygenated, it actually... It was able to fix it.

Yeah, so your body is your own best doctor. It already knows what you want to do, so what it wants to do. And it doesn't discriminate in the body either. It's going to prioritize the things that you need to fix the most. And our brains are so oxygen-dependent. I used to think that all extra virgin olive oil was basically the same. Until I learned that most grocery store oils are blended, They're bottled long after harvest, and they're often stripped of their nutrients.

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See the difference for yourself and get a full product refund, no questions asked. That's Just Thrivehealth.com slash Real Foodology. Be the best you with Just Thrive. I mean, 22 to 25% of our daily oxygen goes to our brain. Yeah. It's just a processing machine. So when you get extra oxygen in the body, even a little bit, even if you're just diving at 1.3, it's just a little bit more atmospheric pressure than at baseline.

But it makes a big difference. A little bit goes a long way cognitively. So I find I do it as a premedit, you know, before things go wrong. Yeah. I do it as a preventative. preventative and it helps a ton. I could tell when I haven't been in there for a little while. Oh yeah, I can definitely tell, which full disclosure, I haven't been in there for a while. You're like, I'm feeling it. I need it. Yeah, well, I had had my chamber for so long that it was a

soft shale chamber that it finally like the, like I had it for like 12 years and finally the seems busted. Yeah, not exactly. I mean, not busted in a scary way, but yes, they started leaking air. and so I had to send it in and then I had to get the new one and then I've got to set it up and so it's been a few months it's like a whole thing yeah yeah so now when I'm trying to think of my words

and I'm like well I've been in there make sure you've gotten hitting it for a living you've got to get in the chamber you're gonna make up for you know all those brain cells you've probably damaged along the way I know I know hyperbaric is really cool my parents I've been having both my parents do it

because my dad just had pretty major knee surgery and his knee wasn't healing it was just actually we took him to ways to well because Brigham was like, send your dad in here. Let's get him in the hyperbaric. Because for some reason, his knee was not fully closing and healing and he got in that hyperbaric like three times. And then all of a sudden it started healing like that. It's incredible. Yeah. Oxygen is so important. Yes, very important. Okay, so I want to ask you more about food because this is where you and I really connect. We met recently at that convention conference, convention conference, whatever you want to call it, at that regenerative farm, sovereignty ranch. And this I know is a real big passion for you. you. And it was a real like aha moment for you. And I'm curious to know, so are you, did you notice a difference between when you were training and you weren't paying attention to the quality of your food and you were probably just eating more macros and calories and calories out? And then when you started switching over to a real food diet, and I'm also wondering how, what was your aha moment? How did

you figure that out? Oh, man. Well, yes. To be honest, I noticed a huge difference once I started eating more according to fueling my body from every single level and facet as opposed to what I used to do before. And I think when you're younger, you can get away with more of those things and maybe not have as significant as of an impact, but you really do start to notice it

and you notice the things that are working and are not working, and it's very distinguishable. And so for me, I ate your standard healthy, air quotes, diet as an athlete, you know, chicken breast, rice, broccoli. Yeah. That was pretty standard. Bodybuilder. I always called the bodybuilders.

Oatmeal for breakfast. Bland. Yeah. Some, you know, fresh fruit to make it real healthy. And, you know, for dinner, I mean, I'm more lean turkey, you know, things like that. And I thought that I was fueling my body. in a way that was, you know, was good for me. And I'm not, I'm not saying that that food isn't, you know, the chicken breast or rice or broccoli isn't great. I'm just saying that there can be so

much more to it. And I personally think I'm not a big rice fan. It's not that I don't like it with my sushi or not, but I think it's kind of a waste of opportunity to get more nutrients with your food. Yeah. So maybe some people are going to hate me for saying that, but I'm going to be honest with you. I think it's a waste of space. It's a waste of calories. Unless you're somebody who really, you need more calories. You know, if you're ultra marathon or, you know, you're ultra runner or something, and you really just need the energy

and you can't consume the amount of food that it would take. Otherwise, and maybe it makes sense for you. Yeah. But if you were trying to diet to, like, lose weight, get the rice out of your diet. I agree. What would you do instead? I would supplement it with sweet potatoes or potatoes.

I was going to say the same thing. 100%, because there's just so much more. I mean, there's the beta carotene. There's all these great things in sweet potatoes. that's the micronutrients. So if we could just reframe the thinking really quick about food, about macros versus micros, start thinking about everything you get for free

when you eat nutrient-dense food, right? You get it for free. I love that. It's free. Like get as much nutrients out of your food. You should look at that competitively. Like I'm going to eat the things that are going to give me, so you're telling me that I could eat this many calories

and a cup of rice. Let's say it's 100 calories. in this little cup of rice. Or I could eat this much sweet potatoes and in the rice, I'm going to get so many carbs. I don't know what number of carbs you would get in a cup of rice. Or I could eat the sweet potatoes. And then I'm also going to get these 50 nutrients on top of it

where the rice I'm not getting it. So like let's get competitive about that. And the same thing with ultra-processed foods. You go and look at the food label. Now here's another thing to distinguish, which I know you know. But a lot of these things that are added on the back of like a cereal bar, or oatmeal, those are mad-made versions of the natural vitamins and minerals that occur in food. When it is made naturally, I believe that it goes into your body and your body is like,

oh, we know what this is, we can put it right to use. When it is synthetically made, there is a possibility that your body is like, this makes no sense to me. I don't know what to do with it, and it's actually going, it's stressing me out. I don't know where to put it. I don't know how to use it. And could lead to inflammation and also lead to more hunger because your body still does want the proper form of nutrition. So you are going to crave more food until you get what you need. Your body needs.

I mean, macros, we can understand that for sure. There is a protein quota, like a minimum protein quota that your body really, really wants every single day. And I think most of us miss the mark on that one by a long shot. Most of like casual eating like everyday people. Like even if you think you're being healthy, a lot of times we're not getting, you know, the amount of macros. But then if you dive deeper, we should say like I want the most nutrient dense food that I can have because nutrition is everything. It's everything. And I've found that when I started focusing more on nutrient density and less about calories and being so concerned about the servings that it, I mean, it completely changed.

my body, my health. It also changed my relationship with food, which was a huge one for me, too. Same. Because when I started focusing on these nutrient-dense foods and I was finding myself that I was just finding myself after meals feeling way more satisfied and full. And then I didn't feel like I had a snack all day because I was full, or I am. I'm full and I'm satisfied. And so I'm not chasing these snacks all day. And I'm eating less, but I'm eating more in the sense of like nutrient-dense foods. And I don't feel like I'm obsessing over food all. days, basically what I'm trying to say. Yes.

Whereas when I was younger, like in my... Fixation. Yes. When I was in my 20s, I just remember it so vividly. I feel like it will be stamped in my brain forever. I remember every morning, oh, God, this is obviously before my real foodology days, but I would do like a slim-fast shake or a slim-fast bar, and that I'd be like, oh, why am I so slim-fast?

God, I'm guilty, too. Those bars were good, though. Can I just say the little strawberry bars? And they were really yummy. The cookie dough one was so... But I'm so horrified. Now I look at those ingredients. Yes, we look at it now and we're like, no wonder it was good.

It's like full of fake crap that's just tricking our brain and our reward centers. And then it's like you want more and that's how food has been designed. It has been chemically engineered and designed to make us want more. To be addicted. Yeah. To want more because that's how they keep the money coming in. So it makes sense, you know. But I really think, I really believe in my heart of hearts that if people,

want to fix that, you know, either a relationship with food, they just want to get healthier, or they want to lose weight or whatnot, that it's, in its basis, it's pretty simple. You can pretty much eat as much whole foods as you want. Yep. Pretty much you can eat as much as you want. So if you have a fixation with food and it is hard for you to stop eating, here's what I'll say my personal assessment, because I've had this happen before too because I've had to be on extreme calorie deficits, you know, to make weight. Because they weigh you, right? Because they weigh you. And so I've had my very

struggles with food. When you do that to your body, and I will say especially as a woman, hormonally, we are just a lot more complicated. And I know men are probably going to be like, yeah, tell me about it. But in all honesty, like we were meant to carry life. And our bodies are going to prioritize that as much as possible. No matter how, whether you ever want to have kids or you don't, that's not the point. Point is, biologically, we're set up to do that. even if we want to be athletes and we want to lose weight and we want to make a certain weight, like we're still fighting our biology to do those things. And when we do that and we suppress certain hormones because we are in such a calorie deficit

that it affects our endocrine system, the downward spiral of that can be so difficult and catastrophic. And I have experienced that a number of times where I'm cutting so much food that I'm just almost ravenous, you know, that I need that food so bad. And then when I'm, after you weigh in and you have that fight, it's like I can't stop eating. I can't stop, you know, obsessing over food. Even though I know that I'm safe, I know, and I have to tell myself that sometimes, like, my relationship with food, it's like I've had to heal that more than once and tell myself, like, you are safe, you are full, you're okay. Like, you will have another meal. But my, my, my

body isn't convinced yet, isn't convinced that I'm not going to deprive it again. So then you get this big kind of like pendulum sway of extremes going on. And I will say the best cure for me, what I have done is say, okay, my body in my subconscious, it's very, it's, I want food. Screaming at me, I want food. So instead of going and getting like, you know, all the things that are high calories and high sugar and, you know, donuts and a cake and, you know, I'm just going to eat as much fruit as I want or I'm going to eat as much, like, I'm going to grill up a steak and I'm just going to eat as much of it as I want. And I will alleviate the pressure of the food and denial of it. I'm going to let myself just feed into that. And I'm just going to say, I'm going to have like mangoes and I'm going

to have, you know, I'm cherries and I'll have this big steak and I'm just going to, oh, I'm going to indulge in the fact that I could just eat as much of it as I want. Instead of being like, like, no. So I stopped telling myself no. I did the same thing. I stopped telling myself no. Like women, we're so programmed to think that if we don't stick to this 1,200 calorie diet, we're never going to lose weight. And it doesn't work like that. No. Did you know that women need about 172 calories a day more in their ludio phase of the cycle, the second two weeks? I mean, that makes so much sense, because I, intuitively, that happens to me. Yeah. Because the way that I've, the last, I would say, about eight to 10 years when I really healed my relationship with food, I just kind of, the same

as you, I started to let myself intuitively eat in the sense of like, as long as I was eating whole real foods, I could have as much as I wanted and, you know, as many times during the day and whatever. And I don't have that obsession anymore, like I was talking about. And during my luteal phase, I noticed that all of a sudden it kind of ramps up a little bit. And instead of me, like, in my 20s, and I kind of have this fear of like, oh, no, I have to like stay in this little, you know, calorie bracket or whatever, I don't even think about that. I truly don't even think about that now. I'm just like, oh, I'm hungry. I'm going to eat because I find that for me, it levels out, because then after my ludial phase, and especially after my period, I'm like,

I just find myself a little bit less hungry and it's fine, but it ramps up in that ludial phase. But women struggle with guilt, you know, when they have hunger, they're like, oh, no. Oh, no. It's like, no, no, you need to eat actually probably a little bit more than you think that you do because you've got to support your hormones. And when you don't, when you undercut yourself, that's one of the things that takes the hit and your metabolism. Your metabolism does. When your metabolism takes the hit, then it's not robust and it's not burning a lot of calories. So you're really working against the system. The calorie deficit was based on a male model. Oh, yeah. I was great about that. It's for men. It's just doesn't work that way for women. That's all I'm going to

say without diving too much into that aspect. But yeah, women need that. We need to eat a little bit more. We can't adhere to 1,200 calories every single day because it doesn't work like it does for males losing weight. We're just totally different. Well, and eventually you lose that fight, right? Because what you were saying, you lose that you'll gain more weight in the end. Exactly. Because essentially what happens is you just get so starving that you just, you know, eat everything in the pantry and then it just goes out the window. And then you gain a lot of weight because those extra calories, your metabolism has been slowed as a preservation mode, right? So then if you were burning, well, I'll give you an example. I went in and I tested my metabolic, resting metabolic rate. I do that at the UFC

every once in a while. And I've had a very robust metabolism. You know, like I burn like 1900, 2,000 calories at rest. Yeah. So like if I was to lay down and not move a muscle for 24 hours, I would probably burn around 1,900 calories. Okay, so that's not including walking, you know, like brain processing, taking care of my kids, like, you know, working out, all those other things. So then where do I really need to be? Maybe like 2,800, 3,000 calories in a day, you know, for the extra stuff I'm burning, maybe even a little bit more than that on, you know, in the ludio phase. And if I want to keep my metabolism burning a lot of calories, which again allows me to eat more food, which again, then let's make it more nutrients, which is what I'm all about.

That's where I get competitive. Like, I want the most nutrients I can have in my day because that's going to, you know, anti-aging, longevity, good sleep, you know, no restless leg syndrome because you don't have enough, you know, nutrients in your body, like these kinds of things, brain processing power. All that is really affected by it. So I guess it's kind of my thoughts on that. You know, women are just different. We're definitely not small men.

I don't know if you've read that book yet. No, but I've heard it. That's a really good one. We're not small men. and there's not a lot of science and research on women, but what there is is covered in that book and the period brain by Dr. Amy or Dr. Sarah. Oh, yes.

Hill. Yeah, I've been trying to get her on the podcast because that's a great book. Oh, I'll try to, I'll connect you. I would love that. She sent me out the book, and I'm about halfway through, and that's where I learned about the 172 calories a day. Okay. In your libular phase.

Yeah, that you need more, and that makes sense. I mean, it makes sense. for a potential pregnancy, whether it happens or not, your body is kind of preparing for it. So it is spending those calories. It's using them for free. You get them for free. You need nothing else. Just eat them. Exactly. Your body's going to be a lot happier and you're not going to have to be at war with everything that's just supposed to naturally happen. Exactly. Well, and I'm convinced because I know that there's a lot of conversation. There's kind of this war between the more like holistic real food nutritionists and dietitians because dietitians, I want to be very clear. Not all the dietitians say this, but many of them say, that if you eat too clean and a lot of real foods, that you're going to develop an eating disorder.

And I fight back to that because I say, I think you're actually more likely to develop an eating disorder when you're chasing these snacks all day because you're so addicted to these hyper-palatable food-like products. And to your point what you just said a minute ago, if you're not getting all the nutrients you need, your body is going to keep craving and asking for more food until it gets those nutrients.

But if you're just feeding it all these empty calories, and what I mean by empty calories is not nutrient-wrench calories, your body is going to go, okay, well, I just got like 500 calories worth of, like, genetically modified corn balls, but I got no nutrients out of it. Like, where's the, you know, vitamin D, vitamin C and all the, you know, protein and carbohydrates that I need that I can actually utilize? And so I, again, like, I know I've said this, but I really want to hammer it in. Like, so what is the solution for women eating and prioritizing more healthy, really nutrient-dense foods, and stop buying and eating the ultra-process stuff? Stop buying the,

the protein pop tarts and the quest bars and the chips and the cookies and all that. If you want a cookie, use real grass-fed butter. I promise you, you're not going to be able to eat more than three of those because you get so damn full. And that's what I've found is that you can eat whatever you want if you make it with whole real foods and then you're so full and satisfied. No one has ever binge on steak. Like you cannot overeat steak because your body hits a threshold where you're like, okay, I am done. I could not eat another bite. But we all know that, the feeling of eating a whole bag of Doritos and then 20 minutes later being like, I could have a meal. Yeah. And how many calories were in that? Oh, my gosh. You know, do you think like if it worked on

a calorie-based system, if our bodies were meant to just work on when we hit our calorie quota for the day, we would be full after a bag of Doritos. She would think. But it doesn't work like that. And it's not meant to work like that. And I don't think I will ever be convinced otherwise. No. So I think there are a lot of, there's a lot of science out there to support what we're saying. Yes. But even if there wasn't, I would still believe it. It's my, yeah, it's my personal story. It's my intuition.

It's what I see, I believe, working best for people. And that doesn't mean that I never break the rules or that I don't eat those other things as well. You know, for example, we went to Terry Blacks last night and it was just amazing. Oh, I mean, you know, it's so good. So good. It's like, it's honestly in large part the reason why I come here. Yes. Because it's so good.

But we went, you know, and I start with meat and I ate a lot. of meat and it was great and then I had about a half of their pudding the banana pudding. Oh my God. Yeah, with the vanilla wafers. I haven't had that in so long. I love that. It was so good. But I was honestly so satiated and full from the meat that I didn't even want, you know,

I had about like half of it and that I was good. And you feel like before it would have been so different like my relationship with food, I probably would have been like, I want, you know, that, you know, almost like I wouldn't have prioritized the eating of the meat. I would have, you know, really wanted to get to dessert. And anyways, I guess the point is, is like, how can we say yes? Can we reframe that? Let's stop saying no to ourselves.

Can we stop with, I can't have that? Because you can have that. But if you prioritize and if you reframe and you shift and you say, I'm choosing myself. I'm not saying no to this. I'm saying yes to myself and my health. Yeah. Right? So we reframe.

We start saying yes. to ourselves. Okay, yes, I'm hungry and I want to eat food. So what do I feel good about? How can I choose myself in that? Okay, what is it that you want that's a whole food? And you can have like as much as you want of that. And then you start healing and it goes in layers. And then you have, you know, you eat your steak and eat your meats and you realize like, I feel better. And then guess what? After you do that, you can, you can splurge. You can have dessert. But you will find that through that healing process, that that dessert is like, and like a cherry on the top. It's not what you are seeking any longer.

You're not seeking all the snacks and the junk food and the dessert. It's like, well, that was nice. I'm ready to go back to my healthy diet and like choose myself and say yes to myself and feel good about what I'm eating and how my body is responding to what I'm eating. And then, of course, like, have a slice of cake if you want. Have the donut. I'm definitely hitting Round Rock before I leave here. Round Rock donuts?

Absolutely. Like, best donuts I've ever had in the world. not be denied. But there's not, the struggle's not there. And the guilt isn't there either. Yes. And that's the best part. You have to let go of the guilt and you have to allow yourself to have that stuff. And also, I kind of have a, like a loose rule about around a lot of this stuff. In the beginning, well, to be honest, it's not even a rule for me anymore. It's just because I don't want it in the like junky junk stuff anymore. But I get all these comments from people all the time that are just like, oh, do you ever just like let loose and like, you know, eat whatever? Well, to me,

quote unquote letting loose is if I want ice cream, I buy a really good organic ice cream that has five ingredients. But so as a result, I never feel deprived. Yes. But I'm not going to Dairy Queen because to me that kind of stuff actually truly doesn't taste good to me anymore. It tastes very fake. And it makes me feel really bad. It tastes like freezer. I, yeah, I remember my friend from Switzerland, they don't have Dairy Queen over there. So we went hiking one day and she was like, let's go. And I was like, all right, sure. Like we went. And I taste. it and I was like, I was like, this tastes like, like, chemicals and like a freezer. Like there's like something. And the same thing happened to me when I stopped drinking out

of plastic water bottles. Now when I taste water that's been a plastic water bowl, tastes like plastic to me. Tastes like plastic. And my dad who is not a, he's kind of like, he's just not like woo-woo at all. You know, like some people look at us and like, oh, you're woo-woo. He's not. He's very like, oh, you know, whatever, that stuff doesn't work, you know. So you take some convincing, okay? bottle drinking full and I bought him a water bottle reasonable and he ended up liking it and he's been using it for years now and he's much more on board with more of this alternative health and wellness than he used to be because he's seen the proof in it they own a hyperberg chamber now you know wow that's getting my dad in hyperbaric chamber before they're horrible you know that doesn't you know but then it

started to work and he's like every day you know he gets in like five days a week he's very you know he believes in it so point in cases um he used to argue with me about you know all the doesn't taste different. And then once he started getting on the, you know, clean good water, and then he had, he's like, he's like, he's like, you were right. He's like, I taste it now. And I was like, yeah, you taste it now because you've been, your palate's been cleansed. Yeah. And you can taste the difference. So that is the magic. Also, it makes it easier to have good, healthy decisions with your food because the stuff that you used to taste and used to, you used to not taste the bad part of it, you start tasting the bad part. And it's actually like, oh, like, this isn't

hitting the mark for me anymore. That's exactly how it is. I want like a good, clean version of this, and I'll be so much happier. Yes. And this will taste so much better. But like, I'm not going to wait. Like, no, I'm just going to throw the rest of this away. I don't know. That's truth really what happened to me. That's exactly what happened to me. And I'm curious to know, so, you know, you're a high-performing athlete, so you really have to be on your game. When you started switching over your diet, did you notice a difference in your performance? Well, I think that it was such a slow turn. I would love to be able to say like, oh, I definitely noticed the difference in my performance, but I was older, a lot older when I came back. So let's be fair, I'd had two kids. I had, like,

had a four and a half year hiatus of, like, fighting. So I think that my performance was phenomenal, given all of those things. And I think in large part it was due to diet. Yeah, that makes sense. Because I think where I was at when I retired, I was on a decline. I was on a decline. I was on a decline in so many ways. Physically, I was starting to struggle to make weight because I had hypothyroidism. And I, granted, I had been diagnosed at like 19. I remember that being kind of a point for me where I started to want to change the way that I eat to support that. It was the first time that I really had an understanding that, wait a minute, there are certain foods that I could eat to support thyroid. function. Well, that was like kind of a wake-up moment for me, and I said, okay, I don't want to take thyroid medication anymore. I've just never been big on the idea of it. So I'm going to stop, and I'm just going to try to eat these iodine-rich foods. And I was fine for a really long time. At least I had no noticeable, like, downfalls of doing that. So for a really long time, so I kind of

forgot that I had ever had hypothyroidism. You're like diagnosed. I got medication. It was like one month and I was like, nope, not getting anymore. I'm just going to eat differently. So I started researching it. I ate a little differently. Years went by and then I'm fighting for the title against Holly Holm and I almost didn't make weight. And I was doing everything so, I mean, I was doing everything right the way that I knew. I still hadn't made big dietary changes. I was still eating, you know, you're quote unquote healthy. And my thyroid was absolutely kicking my butt. I almost didn't make weight. I had to cut my hair. I was like cramped up in the, in the hot tub. I was like nearly late to weigh-ins. It almost had to weigh-in naked. I mean, it was just crazy, like what I went through

to make that weight. When you do the weigh-ins, sorry, do you do that in front of a bunch of people? Whoa, do people ever do that naked just to make it? Well, they do, but they hold like a towel. Now they have like a ring that they'll put around you that's like they can pull up. It's, I'm sorry. It's nice and it's way better, but it used to be just like they, they, they, like people around you and your cornerman would like hold a towel up in front of you. And yeah, I actually, so for two fights I had this happen. And then my title defense after I beat Holly and now is the world champion, my next fight was the same story. And then I was like something is not right.

This is not, I am eating like a rabbit. I am training like a madwoman. I feel like shit. And I'm not losing any extra weight. I'm having to cut, which means like sweat out, like 11 pounds in a 24-hour period. And I just didn't even know how to do that. I didn't know nutritionally how to support even like the sweating process. So it was pretty brutal.

And then I think the next kickoff point for me was when I found that I was pregnant with my daughter. I started researching about nutrition supporting pregnancy and realizing there's so much that you can do certain points in pregnancy. I went like the brain is being created. and maybe you want to eat some more EPA-rich foods. And, you know, in the early trimester, you're creating, your blood volume is going up massively. So can we eat more iron-rich foods, you know, what can I do?

And I got started to just get so enthralled with, like, supporting my babies, you know, this gestational process and supporting her in the womb. And then I never got off of that. It started to really spiral into all things, health and wellness. And it's like, well, if I'm, now how do I eat for supporting breastfeeding? and then, oh, well, how do I just eat to, like, feel better and repair this kind of relationship that I've had with food? And it just kind of naturally progressed. And then I really dove back in as an athlete when I came back from that hiatus of eating nutrient-dense food. And I noticed a big difference.

I don't think I would have come back and, you know, been as successful as I was had I not made those adjustments and changes. That's for sure wouldn't know. I don't think that would have been possible. I couldn't have gotten away with what I got away with in my 20s. Oh, yeah. Coming back in my mid-30s, mid-to-late 30s and trying to, you know, recreate, you know, sort of this second chapter, I will say, of my career, had I not made some major adjustments.

Yeah, that's cool. Did you figure out your thyroid stuff? Were you able to heal that? So yes and no. So I'll be like fully transparent. I take half of an armor thyroid each morning right now. I do too. I take NP thyroid.

Okay. I couldn't find it. I was looking for it. I couldn't find it. Oh, really? Yeah, because like where, at least where I was that, like the, the, they stopped carrying it. What are you talking about? Is it nature thyroid? Is that a no, NPR thyroid? Oh, I used to take nature throid. And they got rid of it, right? They got rid of it. Or, well, I wonder if they still make it. But what happened for me is, I was, I was on nature thyroid for years. And then they would go for months where they wouldn't have it any in stock. And so I'd stockpile at all. I'd have, like, a bunch of it. And then I'd run out. And it just became a whole thing. And my doctor was like, let's just put you on NP thyroid. because we can get that at like CVS, Wall Greens. That's like a synthetic one? No, it's a natural desiccated thyroid essentially is what it is, but it's prescription. Okay. And so it's a little bit more regulated in the sense of like with nature thyroid, it wasn't prescription, and you just could never get it. Yeah.

Like they just kept running out of it. And so this one's a little bit more like regulated. Okay. Maybe I'll look into that one because I would rather, I'd rather go more natural. But, you know, this is, if I was going to say I'm guilty of something where I don't always take care of myself, it's in probably this. area and I do try but there are only so many things that I can like manage to take on at a time like any person right I get it I got like my two kids and so like that's been my back burner something I should prioritize more and focus on and really take the deep dive to understand how I can support my

thyroid more I do things like um like ashwaganda like I'll take you know or like you know certain mushroom mixes and things like that to try to support it and I do take iodine yeah and I try to eat more iodine-rich foods and things like that. If, you know, if I have, I'm mindful of it, but I can't say that my intention is obviously there well enough to totally heal it. But I've seen an improvement and I've been able to lessen the medication. I used to take one every day. And then sometimes I'll go a long time and I just won't take it at all. Yeah. Until I really start to feel the effects of like the brain fog. That's, you know, that's a rough one when you can't focus and prioritize and plan and you're late for things and you can't find your keys. You're like, oh my God,

okay, okay, I tap, I give up, okay, give me the medicine. But otherwise, no, I still try to limit it as much as possible. And someday, I know that I'll get there and I'll be like, okay, I'm going to really dive into this. Like, I'm going to prioritize myself. I'm going to tackle this whole thyroid issue, and I'm going to try to do it and where I can get off the medication. But for now, it's an easier lift. Yeah, for sure. It makes it a lot easier. I'm curious in general, do you find that in the UFC or just in the fighting world or maybe just the fitness world in general that there's a lot of ultra-processed foods that are pushed just to hit the macros? Like, are people eating a lot of the like protein bars and protein pop tarts? Because I find this obsession with it in the fitness world on Instagram and stuff, and I'm wondering if it happens in the professional athlete world.

Yes, absolutely. I mean, there's no, yeah, like when I think about the snacks that are available to us, and this isn't too, like, poo-poo on the UFC or anything like that, specifically. No, I feel like it's more just a symptom of the larger, yeah. Yeah, it is a norm. But, so let me say the good and the bad. There are definitely, there's definitely this idea that we are deprived if we are eating whole foods. Like, how sad.

Like, people are like, oh, that's so sad. Like, maybe I can, you know, we can find this treat for you that's going to make you feel like a normal, well-adjusted human being, you know, in this form that's got protein. You know, we're going to make a protein cheesecake. I'm like, you know, like, why? Let me just eat the steak and then have the real cheesecake, you know? Yeah. You know, with the real stuff in it and, like, hold the protein because I've already eaten it, you know? Yeah.

So, yes, it's like people feel sorry for us. And I will say when I am in a camp and I am very diligent and mindful and I'm feeling great about what I'm eating, I am the last thing I would consider myself as deprived. Yeah. No, I'm eating so good and a lot of times the meals are so, like, so big. Like there's so much food because the nutrient dense food isn't just stuffed with calories. It's stuffed with everything that you need. Yeah. So you get a lot of volume and you're just like, sometimes I'm struggled to finish the food.

I'm like, oh my God, how am I on a diet right now? Like, I'm so full, and this is so amazing, and this butter is incredible on these sweet potatoes and the steak and the salt and, you know, my sour cream and my cheese. And I was like, this is fantastic. And I'm loving, I honestly think that I never love my food more than when I'm in a camp and I'm eating nothing but whole foods. something happens to my palate to where it just naturally adjusts. And I'm like, this is so good. Like every meal, I'm like, this is so good. Like, why don't I eat like this all the time?

I love that. And then, you know, you get out of camp and you're like, okay, it's a lot of work to be that diligent about it. But what is camp? Is that the training part? Yeah, like the very lead up to a fight. Okay. So like you're eight to 12 weeks, sometimes even 16.

And do you go somewhere to do that or is that just at home, but it's just structured. Yeah, it's just structured differently. We call it our fight camp. So it's like every day, you know, usually training twice a day and your diet is really on point and you're focused on all the very specifics of, like, beating this particular person. Wow. Okay. Yeah. Is there, does anyone ever talk about nutrition and stuff in, in that world? Are they ever, you know, comparing tips? And do you find that there are any fighters that are really focused on a whole, really? food diet and then there's some that are just really focused on the macros. Yes, and I feel a lot of athletes really struggle. Everything from making weight to severe complications to fatty liver, to, you know, to, I mean, because we are just extreme with our bodies and we push our bodies.

And I think even like bone density, I mean, it's the things that we see because we, like there's a there's more science and availability for us to test ourselves like our resting metabolic rate and things like that too yeah it's nice that the UFC offers that yeah um i have a friend of mine who it was dieting so hard remember earlier i was talking about my metabolism being fairly robust you know burning 1900 calories a day for for free for do absolutely nothing is it's good like that's great yeah some women are in the mindset that they can only eat 1,200 calories a day day and that that's how they lose weight is to say no and to limit and to not listen to what your body's asking for so i'm saying that the more that you support and the more that you eat the more

your metabolism will go up and you know you should obviously move your body and you want to gain muscle but if you're eating protein that's going to be a natural byproduct you'll gain a little bit more muscle which is going to help your metabolism but my friend she had been on the you know sort of crash diet culture she's an athlete and her resting metabolic rate was 400 calories. Whoa. That's really scary. She's an athlete. She couldn't make weight.

She couldn't lose weight. Wow. And she's probably only eating like 1,200 a day or something. And then think about how do you get enough protein as an athlete, even with 1,200 calories a day? How do you even get enough for what you need? Much less the micronutrients that you need to support physical demands. Well, and you need a lot of calories in order to be able to assert your body and be

able to keep up with the physical demands of your career. So if you're under eating, my God, I can't even imagine if I was like under eating and feeling super, because you feel super weak and like out of it. She would take like a year off to try to fix that. Yeah, she was able to heal that, which was great, but she had to eat a lot after she had to eat a lot to try to repair. And so she had to gain weight. So she actually gained quite a bit, not, you know, not unhealthy, but she just for her size of, you know, competition and whatnot. You know, she gained quite a bit. Yeah. But that was the, that was the pendulum swinging back the other way to hopefully meet in the middle. And this is what happens to normal women. It's just that they feel like they are the problem, that they are the failure, that if they just

had better will, better determination, if they weren't such a, you know, a failure, if they could just adhere to a diet like everybody else, but this is not how it works. It's not how it works. If you want to have a robust metabolism, you need to eat and you need to eat a lot. and probably a little bit more than you feel like you even, you know, like listen to your body. Yes. Eat. And you're not a failure. You cannot override your own biology.

I always remind you. Literally like riding yourself into, you know, your body is feeling the threat of death. Yeah. And no matter how strong of a will you have, you can't override that forever. Yeah. And the more you try to do it, I think the more catastrophic it is. So, yeah, there's a lot to unpack there for sure. there. And it's just so sad. I just, I was so curious if you're seeing, if you were seeing that in the,

in that world, because I see it from the lens of a lot of these, like, fitness influencers online. Yeah. Where it's the same kind of thing where they're just pushing the macros and they're pushing, you know, the Oreo protein powders. Oh my gosh. I had another friend of mine. She's in the fitness, like, what is she? She does, like, fitness competition. It's not bodybuilding, but, you know, they have to get super lean. And so she stayed with us for a little while. And she was eating things like rice cakes with sugar-free maple syrup. That makes me so sad. I know.

And her hormones were a mess. I'm sure. And I remember when she was staying with me and she was just so focused on the calories. And I was like trying to, you know, I obviously don't want to like make her feel bad or anything. But I was like, how many calories are you eating a day? And, you know, it wasn't much. It was like, like, 1,200. But she's like working out.

and she's trying to lose weight, and so she's trying to stick to the calorie, so she's eating this horrible stuff, and I'm like, I don't, like, how do you feel? And she's like, I feel, I feel horrible. You know, she was just like telling me, and like the roller coaster of that and the pressure of like having to be physically, you know, on a stage for everybody to like, look at you. It's just like, this forced adherence. It's so unhealthy. Anyways, so she got her hormone levels tested and they were in the tank. Her testosterone was. in the tank, everything was just like on the floor. And I'm like, yeah, because you're not eating enough to support your natural biology.

And you're going to feel bad doing that. Yeah. And she's like, I'm just going to go home and eat like a pig. And I was like, hey, if you need to do that for a day, like go ahead and do it because your body needs that. I was like, you know, eat healthy foods. But yeah, I think she kind of saw a different side of it where we don't have to say no and deprive.

Like, we can have healthy metabolisms. We can have healthy workouts. so we can have healthy food and not feel like people around me feel more sorry for me than I do. I'm like, no, guys, I'm like, I'm happy. Like, this is great. You don't understand how good this is. Yeah, I don't feel the pride. You got to get on this train.

I was like, this is phenomenal. Like, please do not feel sorry for me. Have you seen the new UFC meal subscription? It's called UFC Ignite? I have seen this. And we also before that had icon meals. We had icon meals, which are like little packaged meals, you know, that come or whatnot. Would they send those to you guys?

Yeah, they would send those to us. Were they good? I would imagine the ingredients wouldn't be great. When I look at the back and I see a long list of ingredients, I automatically feel like it's not good. Yeah. It's not good. But again, the focus is not still widely about the nutrient density.

It is about the macros and how much protein does this meal have, how many carbs does it have, and how much fasts to have. So that's right there and big letters on the front. Then I look at the back and I see all these preservatives. and then the fact that it's like sent, you know, in a plastic container. You know, plastic container or whatnot. Now, this isn't to, you know, put down, and I've definitely eaten icon meals. And what I really do like about them is that when you're in a training camp, like they will,

if I'm like, hey, I want like ground bison and sweet potatoes and that's it. Like nothing else, they'll send it. And sometimes. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, so like nothing else in it, which is great. So they will for us, at least for the athletes. And I don't know if they do this for like normal people, maybe. they'll make it clean and like nothing else.

And so then I could just take that packaged meal, even though it still hurts my heart a little bit, to think about the plastic it came in. I know. But when you're, when we talk about stress, sometimes the stress is worse than just eating the, you know, eating something that came of plastic. True.

So sometimes that would be a great alternative for me. It's just like, okay, well, I'm just going to throw that in the pan. And I don't, don't do it in the microwave, though, please take it out, put it in a pan. That's what I was just going to say. Put it in a pan. I don't even have a microwave. my house. I'm so funny. We have one, but it's in the garage. And it's like, if Johnny wants to use it, he can go out to the garage. It's so funny because I keep telling my husband there. So we've been

renting our houses lately. And they all come with microwaves, but I keep telling him, I'm like, you know that when we buy a house, I am not having a microwave in the kitchen. Yeah. And he's like, no. And we've just totally got used to it. It's like, it's not a big deal. Well, when you don't even have it as an option, you figure out other ways. And I mean, I just, I never use it anyways, even though we have one in our kitchen right now. But when you really don't, have one, then you just figure out other ways to do it and you don't need a microwave. Yeah. They gross me out. Okay, so I want to know what is the one thing that you hope listeners take away from your journey? I hope that listeners will think about reframing. I think that's a big

one for me, is reframing and prioritizing your health and your wellness and that food is more than just weight. It's just not a direct conversion. Yes. So, so especially ladies, I really want the ladies to listen. You, you really will benefit. I promise you, I promise you, you will benefit from supporting your nutritional needs. I think men will too, but I just don't think that men struggle as much as women do when it comes to losing weight because this model usually works okay for them. If they want to lose weight, they're just like, okay, I'm going to eat less calories, and their body can typically handle it because their primary hormone is testosterone, and they're on a 24-hour cycle. And even if they mess it up, every 24 hours, they get a chance to kind of like reset that. We're on a 28-day cycle.

You know, if we mess up our hormones, we get a chance to reset that once a month. It takes an entire month to reset. So it means after a year, we've had 12 opportunities to regulate. our hormones. Wow. Right? So I say, I mean, for us, it's very detrimental. It's extremely catastrophic. And I just want women to stop working against themselves. I want to see women feel good and feel healthy and have their hormones nice and good because it just feels good. And I think the way to do that is through eating whole foods and getting out of the mindset that we have to diet the exact same way that men do. It just doesn't, it just doesn't work for us. It's not how we were

built. So, and then reframing that. Stop looking at yourself. as, you know, that you're a failure or that you've got to say no to yourself. Say yes to yourself. Like, start finding ways to say yes. Start finding ways to feel safe and good about your relationship with food. I love that. And prioritize whole real foods and you'll see how it changes your whole life. Changes everything. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah. Was there anything else that we didn't cover? I feel like this was, this was awesome. It was everything that I wanted to talk about. Yeah. No, I mean, I think that was everything. Gosh, we even, like, we touched in the beginning of my career. I know, that was cool.

And, yeah, I think maybe the only other thing is, like, being a mom and, like, feeding my kids well. Yeah. That is something to navigate these days. Like, it is a bit turbulent out there. So if you have kids and you are looking for ways to feed them better, my biggest suggestion would be to help them understand, like educate them, talk them about it, them some autonomy because I know that when I've tried to just feed my kids this way, sometimes they're like, you know, why do other kids get to eat this stuff and why don't we? And I'm like, I explained it initially. My kids were a little bit younger. They're seven and five now, so they

might have been like five and three. They were watching this movie, Mulan. Well, you know the movie, the Disney movie. And I was like, that's it. There are soldiers in your body and there are huns in your body. I was like, you know, I was like, and this kind of food feeds the hans. And if the hans get really strong. This is the health complications. You get sick. You don't feel well. And in simple terms for kids, you just say sick. But the other day, my daughter overheard a conversation I was having with my aunt about fatty liver disease. And she was like, what is that? And my aunt started to explain, like, this is, you know, what happens. You know, having a bigger body isn't the worst part of eating bad foods. Yeah. And that's what I try to explain to my daughter. I was like, honey, it's not just that.

It's what happens inside your body. What's going on inside your body? And the, you know, type one diabetes, and these different things that these problems and health issues and I think even cancer when we're just not fueling correctly or when our food is covered in, you know, pesticides and herbicides. And I know that you're a huge proponent for that to clean up our food. But, you know, trying to help my children understand, you know, why we do the things that we do and how they can also make good choices for themselves. I think that's the biggest thing. And then just encouraging them. You also got to lead by example, right? You know, you've got to help them make good decisions because you're showing how we make good decisions, you know? So, yeah, my kids

usually are eating eggs and meat for breakfast and sometimes we're yogurt and every great once in a while, we will get a box of cereal and it will be sparing, but it's like a real treat for them, you know, they're like, they get excited about it. And it's like that give and take, nobody's going to be perfect. I don't love it. It definitely hurts my heart a little bit, but I try not to be too insane to where they feel like they have to rebel. Yeah. Because I don't want a rebellion, but I think the biggest part of non-rebellion is educating and allowing them to feel good about the choices they're making. Like, we would celebrate. Like when my kids will eat healthy foods, like it was like dance party. It was like every bite. I'm like, yeah, I'm like, let me see your muscles, you know? Just like,

That's cute. Showing like that you're so, you're supporting your body. It's not feel good. Like it's just like helping them to be like, yeah, you know what? I should be, I should feel good about making these good decisions. I just kind of instilling that. And that's my biggest tidbit, I would say. That's so cute.

Well, I will give you a little bit of reassurance. I was one of those kids like your kids where my mom was very on nutrition. We were not buying milk to processed foods. And, you know, we grew up in the like Dunkeroo's era that I was call it. And my mom wasn't allowing me. to buy all those, the cereals and the Pop-Tarts and everything. And I will say at the time, I didn't understand the importance of it. Obviously, you're a kid. You don't really know how good you have it. My mom was making everything from scratch. And she said, I fought her a lot. And I remember

some of it, but I don't remember all of it. And I remember, you know, sometimes as a kid kind of having, like, it wasn't like this full, like desperation deprived, but there were times where I was like, oh, man, like I want the frosted flakes or whatever. But I will tell you that as an adult, I've never been more grateful for my mom in my whole life. And so I'll just tell you that like it might be bumpy right now and it might be fight sometimes and it might be hard. Thank you. But I probably once a week now tell my mom, thank you so much.

Because not only did she set up my eating habits for life, but she gave me this beautiful gift of I think what a lot of people struggle with in America is that they don't know how bad they actually feel in their bodies because it's just normal for them. Whereas for me, I grew up never being sick. I was never sick. I never felt bad. I mean, I always just felt great. I went to college and I had a free-for-all and I was having Taco Bell and I was like, woo, like eating all the ultra-processed foods. I'd have that baseline of knowing how good I felt in my body and then going, I was like, e'er, like full stop. Like, wow, I feel like shit. Like what is going on? And then it made me backtrack

because I was able to look at the way that I had felt before and I had that as a baseline and I was like, okay. So I may have, you know, strayed for a little bit, but I went back because, I knew how good that I could feel and I wanted to get back there. So you are setting up your kids for a lifetime of wellness and it may be hard and bumpy right now, but they're going to be so, they're going to be calling you in their 20s and being like, thank you, mom. All my friends have diabetes. That makes me so happy. And I'm so grateful that I don't, you know? Thank you. Thank you for that reassurance because it is tough at times and they still do fight me in. It's just because there's so much of it otherwise. And it's so hyper palatable. I mean, it's like we said, it's engineered too.

tell your brain that this is a great thing and we need more of it. And that's really tough for kids. And I feel like kids are preyed on, you know, with the advertisements and things like that. And so I try to give, you know, a little bit here and there, you know, but I think for the large majority, you know, we have just become accustomed to eating this way as a family. And so it's, you know, it's our norm and sometimes it's difficult, but I know in the end it'll be worth it. It's going to be so worth it. Yeah. It's awesome. Well, Misha, thank you so much for coming on. This was great. I had so much fun. Thank you. I had a blast. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah. And please let everybody know where they can find you. Oh yeah. On Instagram, it's just at Misha Tate, M-I-E-S-H-A. And then my podcast is called Built for Growth. Yeah. So we talk about all things, growth, alternative health and many ways to, you know, elevate yourself, mind, body, and spirit. And I suppose that's really it. What, Instagram, Facebook, same thing. Misha Tate, you find me anywhere. My website, M-M-H-T-T-E-T-K could sign up for my newsletter. I don't.

send them out a whole lot. But when I do, I write them from the heart. So yeah, so you just get a little insight, little things that I think are important, but I promise I won't congest your inbox. Well, thank you so much. I'm so grateful that you came on today. Thank you. I appreciate you, Courtney. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a wellness loud production produced by Drake Peterson. Theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio, and if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational

purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider-patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. Are you ready to rock middle age? I'm Dr. Tina Moore, GenX, truth-teller, and holistic physician. On the Dr. Tina show, one of Apple podcast's top alternative health shows, I share what actually works for metabolic health, hormones, and strength, backed by decades of clinical results, not trends. From loving the gym and hitting your protein goals to peptides and microdosing GLP1s, it's all done the right way, not the hype way, because menopause doesn't have to suck if you're fit. New episodes every Thursday, produced by Drake Peterson

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