Realfoodology - The Meat Mafia

Episode Date: May 4, 2023

144: Todays episode is a little bit different because I am actually being interviewed.  I recently went to Austin and was a guest on The Meat Mafia Podcast.  If you don't listen to these guys yet, you HAVE to check them out.  Thanks for listening! Check Out The Meat Mafia: Podcast Instagram Sponsored By: Organifi www.organifi.com/realfoodology Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% Off LMNT Get 8 FREE packs with any order at drinkLMNT.com/realfoodology Check Out Courtney: Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database Further Listening: Red Meat is NOT a Health Risk | Meat Mafia

Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. I'm your host, Courtney Swan. And today's episode is a little bit different because I'm actually being interviewed. I recently went to Austin and I was a guest on the Meat Mafia podcast. You may recognize that podcast because I actually had those guys on a couple months ago. It was a great episode. When I was in Austin, they had me come in their studio and we recorded an episode together. And you guys, it's really good. I really loved their questions a lot. I think we had a great conversation and we covered a lot of topics and we reached out to them and asked if we could share it on my podcast because I wanted to share it with my audience. We dive into my transition from working

in music and then over to nutrition. We also talk about my transition between being vegan, actually I was vegetarian, not vegan, for five years and then going back to eating animal foods. We also talk a lot about women's health, women's hormones, balancing, coming off of hormonal birth control, and so much more. It was a really great conversation. So I hope you guys love it. And if you are enjoying the podcast, please, if you could take a second to leave a rating and review, it means so much to me, and it really, really helps the show out. With that, let's get into the episode. Did you guys know that over 70% of sodium in the U.S. diet is consumed from packaged and processed foods? When you adopt a whole foods diet, you are eliminating or hopefully eliminating these processed foods and therefore sodium from your diet.

Now, the solution is not to reintroduce processed foods in your diet, but by not replacing that sodium, you can actually negatively impact your health and performance. If you guys listened to my episode, The Salt Fix, with Dr. James Dinek, we learned that sodium is actually a really imperative mineral for the body. Sodium helps maintain fluid balance. It's an electrolyte, so it helps keeps us hydrated. It also aids in nerve impulses. It regulates blood flow and blood pressure. It's incredibly important. And if you're eating a whole real food diet, chances are you're probably not getting enough sodium. Also, this is probably going to be a shock to hear, but if you are just drinking water without adding minerals back into your water, you're not actually hydrating. My personal favorite way to stay hydrated throughout the day is through drinking Element every day. That's L-M-N-T. It's a delicious tasting electrolyte drink mix that has everything you need and nothing you

don't. So that means lots of salt. There's no sugar in there. It's formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and is perfectly suited for people following keto, low carb and paleo diets. It has a science-backed electrolyte ratio, a thousand milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium and 60 milligrams of magnesium. I drink one of these every single morning. They have a ton of amazing, super delicious flavors. I know a lot of us listening are avoiding natural flavors, so they also have an unflavored one, which is my personal favorite. I love to put it with lemon, but if you want the flavored ones, they have a great variety of different flavors,

and they have given me an awesome offer to share with you guys. So you guys can claim a free Element sample pack when you make a purchase through the link. The link is drinkelement.com slash realfoodology. And in the element sample pack, you're going to get one packet of every flavor so that you can try all of them and see which one is your favorite. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do. Again, it's drinkelement.com slash realfoodology. That's drinkelement.com slash realfoodology. That's drinklmnt.com slash realfoodology. Courtney, welcome to Austin. Hi, guys. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

Yeah, we're so pumped to have you in studio too. I know, this is fun. And we're trading because we went on your show. Now we're having you in person. So much better than doing it over Zoom. I totally agree. Even though our combo was great. We were kind of dividing and conquering this weekend because we were speaking at KetoCon, which was an incredible event. Ton of people there trying to just learn about their health,

get into animal protein, saturated fat, all the good stuff. And then you were at the Force of Nature, the What Good Shall I Do conference. How was that for you? It was amazing. I went last year too. And for people that are not aware of what Force of Nature is, they're a regenerative organic meat company.

And they also have a ranch outside of Austin in Fredericksburg called Rome Ranch. And the story is so cool because one of the founders of Force of Nature was an original founder of Epic. And then he sold that company and he bought this ranch. And he describes this ranch as being, you know, it was conventionally farmed. And so it was really dead and it didn't have a lot of biodiversity. He bought this land and then completely regenerated it. And now you go out there and it is beautiful.

He has bison roaming. It's just like it feels like just serenity being out there in nature, you know. And now they sell these amazing regeneratively farmed organic meats. It's just like, it feels like just serenity being out there in nature, you know, and they, and now they sell these amazing regeneratively farmed organic meats and they put organ blend, they put organ meats in their blends, which I love that about them. Yeah. It was just incredible. And every time I leave that conference, I just feel so inspired and have a fire at my ass just about wanting to do change in the food industry.

There's such thought leaders in terms of how we think about quality food. We were there last year too, by the way. I don't know. We didn't cross paths, but. Did you go last year as well? Yeah. Wow. So we completely missed each other. That is crazy. I met so many people this year that were there last year that I didn't even meet. That's so funny. Cause it was a small, it's like a relatively small conference. Like I feel like by the end, you're like, okay, I know all these people. Yeah. How was it this year compared to last year? Was it similar or did they do anything differently? No, it was pretty much, it was very similar.

It was the same kind of setup. The only difference was there was a lot more time in between, which I really appreciated because there were so many people there that I really wanted to meet and connect with for various reasons, just to say, I love your work or I'd love to have you on my podcast. And it was just cool to meet. That was the most inspiring thing about that conference last year. And this year for me is meeting so many people from so many different walks of life that all come together with the same passion and desire to change our food industry. And it really gives me a lot of hope

to know that there's so many people on this issue right now. And I feel like because of that, that we're actually going to be able to make change. Yeah. One of the things I loved about last year was there's so many different types of people who showed up. Like you would have ranchers, ecologists, you know, us two who are just interested in getting involved. And we're just starting our media platform. So it's like, hey, how can we contribute and just see what people are talking about?

So it was just cool seeing the variety of people that show up that are interested in making a change. Yeah, it was awesome. It's super inspiring. Yeah. And we were saying too, prior to hitting record, your brand Real Foodology is your perspective on nutrition. I think that we're so aligned and we had someone come up to us at KetoCon that was saying, Hey, have you ever heard of this brand Real Foodology, Courtney Swan? This was yesterday. He was saying, he was like, I just love how she doesn't take this extremist approach. And she does these videos showing you about all the regular grocery stores that people go to. And she just teaches you how to shop the grocery store effectively.

And I think that that's really needed in this space right now, just more like genuine perspective on food and nutrition. And you have an incredible story about how you got into this whole thing. It's a music background. So I think we'd love to just learn a little bit about you, your story on health and how you got here today. Yeah, awesome. Also, I told you this yesterday, but I was so flattered by that comment. And we talked about this a little bit.

The way I view all of this is that we really need to meet people where they're at. And what I don't love that's happening in nutrition right now is that people are going into these very extreme corners and saying, you have to be this one diet. Or, you know, we know the people of the world that are like, these vegetables are going to kill you. And I'm not out here to like vilify them, but I'm just saying like, I feel like we really need to zoom out because so much of our population is so unhealthy. And they're also so confused on what to actually eat. And we're just throwing all this stuff at people. And so my message is very,

I try to simplify it as much as possible and try to make it as accessible for just the average human and just say, look, we just need to be eating real food. We're eating so much packaged crap. Everything is engineered to be more highly palatable, more addictive. Let's just cut all that out and not be so concerned about like, oh my God, well, this kale is going to kill you or whatever. You know what I mean? It's like, let's just start with the basics. So that's really what I built my

entire platform on. And it's actually funny enough how I came up with the name Real Foodology. I was actually, I was, so we're recording in Austin right now. For those of you guys listening, I created Real Foodology here in Austin in 2011, where I came up with a name. I had just quit touring. So to give background on that, I, I went to CU Boulder and two of my best friends in college had started this band called 303. And when we graduated, they got like national recognition. They had a couple of songs with Katy Perry and Kesha. And I was super in music at the time. Like, in fact, I really was, I was a little bit in nutrition, but I was like, I'm just

dead set on working in music. So when they graduated or when we all graduated, they were like, do you want to come on tour with us? And I was like, yeah, let's go. Let's do this. What a dream. Yeah, it was incredible. It was incredible.

And then I was their tour manager. I was with them for like two and a half years. And then I went to another band that I was with for two and a half years. And then all during this time period, by the way, I had taken a nutrition class as my last class my senior year in college. And I remember calling my dad being like, I finally figured out what I want to do, which is so funny. It was literally like my last class.

And he was like, Courtney, you need to just finish school, like stop. But it sparked my interest in nutrition. And so then I just started doing all this deep diving on my own. And on tour, I was reading all these books and I was stalking our bus with all this like healthy, organic food. And I just became so passionate about it throughout the years as I was learning more stuff. And I was finding people like Mark Hyman and Michael Pollan and Dr. X. And eventually I got so passionate about it that I was like, this is what I really need to be doing. So I quit. I left this band in 2011. I moved to Austin actually, because I was born in San Antonio and I was like, kind of, you know, go back to my roots. And I started my master's program in nutrition. And when I started that program, I was about like two years in.

I had met because music is such a small world, actually, like everyone knows everyone. And I had a friend that was tour managing this band, Third Eye Blind. Maybe you've heard of it. And I just went out to a festival to say hi to him. And the singer, Steven, comes up to me and he's like, how do you know Kyle? I was like, oh, he used to be a tour manager. you know, we've, we've toured together in the past. And Steven goes, I need your number. We need a tour manager. And I remember thinking at the time, I was like, he's just asking, like, it was just like a clever way of him, like hitting on me and

asking for my number. Well, he called me the next day and he goes, send me your resume. And I was like, okay. Um, send him my resume. And he basically like the next day is like, we want you to be our tour manager. And at the time I was like, I was so torn because I had been so on this path of nutrition. And I was like, I just want to be, I thought at the time I just wanted to be a nutritionist, have clients. And, but I remember at the time telling my boyfriend, I was like, I like, can't, I can't say no. Like when third eye blind calls, you can't say no. That's a hell yes type of opportunity. And I was so torn, but I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. And it's so, this is one of

those moments where it's so interesting to look back on your path. And at the time it may feel like you're, you're diverting or you don't really know what you're doing and like everything doesn't feel clear, but you can look back and be like, wow, this was just all part of my journey. Right. On like the steps to getting to where I eventually needed to be and all of it. Like life is just a journey like that. But so I ended up with Third Eye Blind for a year. Stephen ended up being super into health. He was good friends with Dave Asprey. He got me on the Bulletproof diet and like I was stalking their bus with all these healthy organic foods. And like so then what happened was I essentially was like helping them with nutrition. And I also had a friend at the time that was tour managing this pop star called Tove Lo. And he calls me one day

and he's like, hey, Court, he's like, I just started working with this pop star Tove Lo. And I was wondering if you would want to come on and do nutrition for her, like make smoothies for her, help her band eat healthy. We wanted someone who has a background in touring. And we also want someone who knows a lot about nutrition. And I was like, yeah, let's go. So she was Swedish, right? Yeah. Didn't you end up traveling like 36 or 40 countries over five years? Yeah. Four years. I was with her for four years and I went to probably with her. So I've been to 36 countries total and probably with her, it was about 30 countries or maybe like 32 countries that I went with her. Yeah. What is the actual wear and tear like being on road for that

long? I mean, it's why I stopped, honestly. It's a lot. You're working really abnormal hours, super long, late hours. It really throws your body off for years. You guys, after coming off of tour, I could not get on a stable sleeping pattern because like your body is just so I basically had trained my body to just sleep whenever I could, because there'd be one day where we'd have a show. We'd play a festival at like 2 PM. There'd be another day where we'd play at like 1 AM, you know, and we'd be working till like 4 a.m. and then having to get up for a 7 a.m. flight. And so it was like days off.

There would be days where I would literally just text Tove and be like, I'm not leaving this hotel room bed. And I would just sleep all day. So it's a lot. It's really hard on your body. But alternatively, that was literally my job was to make sure that she was my main focus, but it was also the entire band.

We had a crew of 11 people, it was 12 with me. And part of my job was to write our writer. And so the writer is what you send out to a venue or a festival or whatever it is before you play, and they'll stock your green room with that. And then I also stocked our bus. So I would send them another list and be like, this is everything we need for the bus. So everything that came through was like organic, didn't have seed oils, super healthy. And the band after the first tour was like, oh my God, this is incredible. They're like, we have energy. We lost weight. We feel great. Even though they were still like, you know, they were still like partying and like staying up late and all this stuff like we they would always laugh because we would we'd have like a really late night out and then I'd get up in the morning and I'd go to like a juice shop and I just bring everyone like ginger shots and green juices and like all this stuff and so we'd all we'd get on the bus and I'd just be like handing out like supplements and like yeah it was so there's a lot of things you can do it's kind of that like biohacking

you know where you're like okay I've been doing a lot to my body but here's all the supplements and you know all the amazing food that I can give you at least to like counteract some of the effects of it is there any semblance of balance on a tour like that or are you just all go go go not really you have to just you have to create it in those small moments when you can find them you know because it's really um like i said like every day the shows i mean depending on if you're just flying around like what we did a lot for festivals your your stage time would be different every day depending on what festival you were playing but if we were on a proper tour and she was like headlining we knew every night she was going on

stage like 9 p.m so sometimes it kind of depended on what yeah like where where we were at as far as like the touring schedule goes but yeah i mean it's, it's, you're really, um, no, it's, it's hard to find balance and all that. I imagine a lot of people don't take what you took seriously, which was, you know, health, taking care of yourself. And that actually affects their performance. I'm sure. Right. Like, um, did you see anyone like from an outsider's perspective who toured really well like yourself like you know you would help the band take care of their nutrition probably tell them to sleep more all this stuff did you see anyone else like doing it right and like seeing that performance actually pay off or that routine pay off in their performance like other bands yeah yeah so we did a tour with

Coldplay and um the singer oh my, I'm blanking on his name, Chris Martin. Yeah. We would always see, or no, actually, you know what? It wasn't Chris Martin. Sorry. We also went on tour with Maroon 5 and I'm getting them mixed up. We would see the singer of Maroon 5 running every day with his trainer. So a lot of these like really big bands will bring trainers, chiropractors, nutritionists, and we'd always see him like working out for the shows. The Coldplay tour was really awesome because we were not only because we were touring Europe, but they had this amazing catering every day because that's a lot of it, too, is if you don't have someone who's actually paying attention to the catering and like really like curating in a good way, a lot of times, these small venues are just notorious for

giving you just crap food. So I would do something which is called a buyout. I always tell, I would always tell the venues like we're doing a buyout. We're not doing catering. Cause basically like, it was like, I don't trust you to feed us good food. And then I would find healthy organic foods to like, or restaurants to then order from. Yeah. And I know you were saying that a big part was like bringing in juices and wellness shots and things like that. And one of the things I was going to ask you is from your perspective, like how did you think about managing the meals themselves on the road? And like, was the seed oil movement kind of a thing back then? Were you attuned to that at all? Yeah. I mean, the answer to that is like, yes and no. I've known for a very long time that canola oil was really bad for us,

but I did not know the extent of all the different oils. One that were being used and also didn't even really think about the fact that there was all these other oils that we had to worry about. And when I was eating and we were eating out so often like that, I wasn't even thinking about the oils at all because all the places I was finding for the most part were organic and healthy spots. Like I'd find a lot of these like healthy juice bars that would be making like sandwiches and salads and whatever and stuff like that. And so, no, I didn't really think about it at the time.

Now I'd be like way more on it, especially with that seed oil scout app, you know? Oh yeah. It's incredible the work that they're doing. For you, what is your personal progression with nutrition been like, just kind of like, how do you think about structuring your meals, cooking your meals, eating out? Like, what are the foods that you really like to incorporate that make you feel your best as a woman? Yeah, I love this question. So I think, especially for women, we've really been taught to fear fat because we have equated eating fat as gaining weight. Um, thanks to that Harvard study. You guys want me to mention that? Um, there was a Harvard study done in the seventies and what they found is that sugar is what actually leads to, um, heart attacks and inflammation and cardiovascular disease essentially.

And the sugar industry got wind of this and they pay these Harvard scientists off like the equivalent. I mean, it was not even that much money. I think it was like $50,000 or something to change their findings to it being fat actually, instead of sugar that causes heart disease. Well, then what happened? It spurred the entire low fat movement. Everyone goes low fat. Well, what happens when you take the fat out of food? You have to replace that because fat creates that really good mouthfeel and taste, you know, with your food. And so when you take out the fat, you have to add all the sugar back in. So then we're just eating like loads of sugar. And then as a result, like still to this day,

people are so scared of eating fat. And for women, I mean, it's good for men and women across the board, but for women, it's really good for hormonal imbalance, for satiety. Eating fat actually helps you to maintain a healthy weight. It helps with fertility. There's so many amazing things about fat. And so for me, the way that I build a plate thinking about that is I make sure I'm always eating a good, healthy fat. That's like one of my number one priorities and then a good, healthy protein. And by protein, I mean animal based proteins. I do not believe in eating the plant-based proteins and we can also go into that. And then obviously like a good balance of a carbohydrate.

I never eat my carbohydrates naked and I think this is really important for balancing blood sugar. And you think about the rise of PCOS that's happening right now, the rise of infertility that's happening for women. And a lot of that is coming back to a blood sugar imbalance.

PCOS is a blood sugar imbalance. PCOS is a blood sugar imbalance. And so you want to make sure when you're eating your carbohydrates, that you're dressing them with good high quality fats in order to keep your blood sugar more balanced. You're not going to have that extreme spike and then dip, and then you're going to be craving more sugar and yeah, wear out your body. What sort of carbs do you think are fair game? We're coming from KetoCon, so it was basically like no carbs at all. But do you think that there is a place for carbs in a diet and what would you recommend? Yeah, well, and this is, you know, coming from a woman's perspective and I've read a lot about this. A lot of the people that are huge proponents for

ketogenic diets are men. And that's totally great. I actually, I think ketogenic diets are great for men. I do have a, I have a sense that being keto forever is probably not good for you. I think the best way to approach it is to kind of come in and out of it. But I think it, in general, men's bodies respond better to it. For women, we definitely need a little bit more carbohydrates. And I've seen a lot of women talk about this. I've seen a lot of women go ketogenic and then come out and be like, this was actually really bad for my body. I can speak to it for myself anecdotally that when I went ketogenic, I was actually so lethargic. Like people talk about you get all this energy from being keto and your body is fueled by

fats. I realized for me that I needed to have at least a little bit of carbohydrates. I can't go super heavy with them. And a lot of this too, depends on your own biology. And I want to encourage everyone listening to, um, you're really going to have to figure out what works best for you. Like I have done so many different iterations of different diets because I've done paleo, I've done low carb, I've done keto, I've done whole third, like I've done everything. And I got to this place where I just started making mental notes. Like, okay, I felt like crap when I eat keto. I was super lethargic. I couldn't, I had

no energy to do my workouts. Um, I was hungry a lot of the time, but then what I found too, is when I went vegetarian, I was basically carb loading. Cause you're, you're carb loading when you're a vegetarian and I got extremely sick on the opposite spectrum. So like for me, what works for me is on the lower end of carbohydrates, but I need some or my body doesn't function correctly. And I think that's the way for a lot of women are all carbs created equals though. Are you choosing like rice, sweet potatoes versus, I mean, there's a bunch of like garbage carbs out there as well. Yes. That is a great point. Cause there's that whole, like, if it fits in my macros movement and people are just like, get your carbs wherever

from like cereal or there's this new trend that I was just told about the eating Rice Krispie treats before you work out. Have you guys heard this? No. Oh my God. I posted a video. Let's kill this one before it gets popular.

It's so bad. I don't know the full ins and outs of it. All I know is the comments I've gotten, but I posted a video recently about how bad Rice Krispie treats are for you. The actual branded, what's that brand? It makes it Kellogg's or whatever. Yeah, the little packaged ones is what I'm talking about specifically. I talked about all the different ingredients in there that were terrible for you.

And all these people were like, no, that's my pre-workout snack. Or someone was like, oh, I saw TikTok. I'm like, this is what you do before pre-workout. And I was like, what? No. So yes, not all carbohydrates are created equally. You definitely want to get, you do not want to be eating refined carbohydrates or like highly processed carbohydrates. You want to look for sprouted. So if you're buying bread, if you do eat gluten, I'm gluten-free, but if you eat gluten, you want sprouted grains, like sprouted. So if you're buying bread, if you do eat gluten, I'm gluten free. But if you eat gluten, you want sprouted grains like sprouted breads. I know grains and the whole like keto carnivore world is like a blasphemy, but I'm OK with a little bit of it as long as they are organic because you want to make sure they're not being sprayed with glyphosate. The sprouting actually

removes the phytic acid, which is what everyone in like the carnivore keto world are really concerned about. I think white rice is a really great option too. That's usually what I opt for. And white rice is actually better for you than brown rice because it's lower in arsenic. It's easier to digest and it's just, it's a better carbohydrate. Yeah. It was interesting at KetoCon because we were there promoting our company that's about to launch Noble Origin. So it's an animal-based protein powder. And there were so many women that were coming up to the booth and they were like, oh my gosh, I love this because I really struggle to get protein in my diet. And I thought that was interesting because

from my perspective, I'm like, if you're able to cook two meals a day and you're getting like a good whack of animal protein, the size of your palm, you should be good to go. So I'm just, I was just so curious as to like, are they not cooking their meals? Are they not eating enough? I'm like, it really shouldn't be that difficult to get enough protein and fat in your diet. And I'm sure that's something you think a lot about. Yeah. You know, actually it's interesting. Cause I had a similar experience recently where I got a bunch of blood work done and my doctor was like, your protein was really low. And I was like, really? Like, how is that possible? Cause I eat a lot of animal protein. Um, I usually have animal protein with at least two meals a day. Um, I don't, I, I don't, to be honest, like I have now

been doing, um, I'm really excited about your protein powder because I have been doing protein shakes now because I thought just by eating, you know, steak and chicken and whatever else that I'm eating every day that I was getting enough. I think too, just maybe like women, at least for me, like depending on where I'm at in my cycle, like my appetite is lower. And so I think I'm just eating less in general because it is, it's such a balance of like trying to figure out like how much protein and how much fat to get. And then you're really full and you're like, but I didn't have enough protein, but like, you know, you don't want to like completely stuff yourself. So it's, yeah, it's a balancing act for sure. What proteins do you really like to

incorporate that sit well with your body? And do you have any recommendations for people that are just trying to source better quality protein? I know you mentioned force of nature, but would love your thoughts on that too. Yeah. So I I'll give you a wide range because I want it to be accessible as possible. Um want to look for organic grass fed. I'm a huge proponent for eating ground beef or just beef in general, which is so funny because most of my life I didn't eat it growing up because I grew up in Texas and I don't, yeah, I just, for some reason I was fed so much of it as a kid that I was like, I don't like this. I think too, women more specifically, I think a lot of women go vegetarian because we're so sensitive

to the thought of killing an animal. I was vegetarian for five years actually, and I was the sickest I've ever been. And so I started eating meat again, literally out of survival. But when you, so what brought me back was I started learning about this process of organic and grass-fed and farmers

that were actually doing right by the animals where there's this concept of they only have one bad day of their life, you know? And so that's why for me, I'm so passionate about this because I had initially gone vegetarian because I started learning about all the factory farming that's happening. You know, the CAFOs, the concentrated animal feeding lots where they, I mean, they're, they're sick animals, you know, they're being injected with growth hormones and given antibiotics and they're being fed grains that don't even work well with their stomachs, you know, and so we're creating unhealthy meat and it's also terrible for the animals. So I'm very passionate about this subject and I encourage people to, you know, put your

money where your values lie, you know, and that means that you're going to be spending a little bit more money on really high quality meat. But it's not only better for the ethical treatment of these animals it's also better better for our health it's also going to help change this whole movement and we can hopefully get rid of these factory farmed animals because this is really what you know we're i always tell vegans this i'm like you guys we are all on the same page here like we are all against this and we want to get rid of this so how can can we all band together? And one of the ways of doing that is putting our money into the farmers and into the people that are actually taking care with our animals, you know? And so this is why I really love force of nature. They do these organic,

regeneratively farmed animals. I'm trying to think of more accessible to like, you know, sometimes it's hard because I feel like there is a lot of greenwashing happening and you can't fully know what's really happening behind the scenes. But I have seen at places like Trader Joe's at Walmart at Target, I've seen 100% grass fed organic meat. And I always try to encourage people to buy that because generally speaking, it's usually only a dollar to two difference in the price. Like I said, I mean, you never know, like hopefully they're actually doing the practices right. But I'm just I'm trying to meet people where they're at. And I know people have differing budgets. If you can afford to buy your meat from places like force of nature, I highly recommend

it because we really, I've met the people behind it. You guys have too. Like we know that they're really doing it right. I'm trying to think of other, there's other companies. There's a brand called butcher box that does grass fed meat. That's like delivered to your door. Um, depending on where you live in the country, you can also check out farmer's markets and go and I encourage people, if you can do this, if it's accessible for you, go to farmer's markets and talk to the people growing your food, develop a relationship with them, you know, like, like find out where their farm is, find out how they're treating their animals and how they're treating their, their land. If they're spraying pesticides on it, it's a really important part of recreating that relationship with our food, you know, because we're so disconnected from it. I want to take a second

to talk about some of my favorite Organifi products and why I love them. When I first started getting into health, I was an avid juicer. I was buying fresh veggies every couple days and wearing out my juicer and also wearing out myself by trying to constantly juice vegetable juices because I wanted to flood my body with all of the nutrients, the phytonutrients that you get from green juices. But after a while, I was like, I cannot keep doing this every day and also maintain my job, maintain my social life and everything else. But I really wanted to make sure that I had a good high quality green juice that was organic. And I knew that I could trust came from a good source. So when I discovered Organifi, I was so happy. They not only have a green juice, but they also have a red juice.

And I really like to mix them together because it really helps with the flavor profile. And you're not only getting all of the green phytonutrients from the green juice, but you're also getting all the antioxidants from the red juice. So it's like a win-win situation. I also really love their chocolate gold. It's their low sugar hot chocolate mix. And it's loaded with ingredients like lemon balm, turkey tail, magnesium chloride, and reishi. Oh, there's also turmeric in there as well. So it really helps to calm down your nervous system before bed. And it really makes me sleepy. It also helps the digestion because you have the turmeric in there, you have cinnamon, you have ginger, black pepper. So it's helping with digestion and inflammation. I'm a really big fan of this. You can also put

it in your coffee in the morning and it kind of helps to balance out the jitters that you might get from your morning coffee. And then another product that I'm really loving and taking every single day is their liver reset. Modern living is incredibly taxing on our liver. Like just existing is hard on our liver because we are constantly being inundated with pesticides, heavy metals, environmental toxins, not to mention if we drink alcohol, that's also gonna put a strain on our liver.

So I think it's incredibly important that we take something every single day to support our liver health. This product has triphala in it. It also has dandelion, milk thistle, and artichoke extract, which all have been scientifically backed and proven to provide protection for the liver. And then of course, the most important part about Organifi products is that they are all organic and they go a step further by guaranteeing

that they are glyphosate residue free. Glyphosate is a known herbicide that is sprayed on a lot of our crops these days. It's also sneaking into organic foods and it is a known carcinogen. So it's incredibly important to make sure that we limit our exposure as much as possible to glyphosate. If you guys want to try any of the Organifi products and get 20% off, go to Organifi.com slash Real Foodology. You're going to see all of my favorite products in that store. And you're also going to get 20% off. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash Real Foodology. We worked pretty closely with a few farms here, like Holy Cow Beef in Lubbock, Texas, and then Perennial Pastures in San Diego. I don't know. Have you heard of them?

No, I haven't. We got to get you out there big time. Yeah. That would be a great farm tour. We should all connect out there. But Perennial Pastures is in San Diego and I don't know. Have you heard of them? No, I haven't. We got to get you out there. Yeah. Okay. That would be a great farm tour. We should all connect out there, but perennial pastures is in San Diego and they're doing their full regenerative supply chain sourcing from a farm in West Texas, Montana, and then San Diego. But you know, to your point, like I feel like there's the dogmatic nature of nutrition has created these weird alignments where we all agree on what the problem is, but we can't agree on just like how to talk about it. So factory farming is the perfect example. It's like if an animal is unhealthy and like we need to, I think it's like

80% of antibiotics go to animals. So if we're, if these animals are that sick, should we actually even be eating them? The answer is absolutely not. And so I think that just goes to show like all of these issues are very interconnected. And if we can start having these conversations across the aisle, like, Hey, uh, the people who actually care about how this food is being raised, um, on the vegan side of the aisle are very similar to the people who care about how food is being raised on the carnivore side of the aisle. Um, so I just think that like, we do need to have this conversation and open up

these nutrition lenses so that people aren't as dogmatic. They feel comfortable talking about the issues and finding those common grounds because the issues are very much interconnected and I feel like there's more in common than we realize. Yeah. Yeah. That was so well put. Yeah. What is your perspective on like speaking to a fellow woman that's maybe like five years similar to you, plant-based vegetarian, they're hearing more about beef and animal protein, but they really can't, like, they can't make that jump to eating it because they're really worried about the moral piece of death. I'm sure you probably have a great perspective, like actually being there, but that's something that I struggle with is like, how do we actually convince vegetarians to eat more meat? Because like we basically you're, you're outsourcing death by, you know what I mean?

Like just by, um, you're basically outsourcing death by saying, oh, I don't want an animal to die where it's like death is integral to the process regardless. Right. So I'm just curious, like if you add any success converting like vegetarian women over to the animal-based? Yes, but it was never, how do I put this? I've never like been on a mission to like convert vegetarians or vegans per se.

I just, my whole approach is I really believe in sharing the truth with people and I also believe in informed consent. And what's happening on a mainstream level right now is that we're being told that plant-based is healthy for everyone. Everyone can do it. Everyone should do it because we're being told that it's better for the environment. It's better for your health, etc. And I see that and I call bullshit.

We're literally being lied to. And so I just have this intense passion for like sharing the truth is really what it is. And so as a result of me sharing that, I've had many people come to me and say, oh, my God, thank you so much. You know, I was vegetarian for a long time and you encouraged me to start eating meat. And to speak to your question, you know, there's a couple of different things happening there. One, what was happening for me for a long time, and I've heard a lot of vegetarians talk about this, is they say like, well, I don't want to take another animal's life in order for me to survive. So if that means that I don't live as long, there's almost this like

martyrdom happening. So one, it's like I see this disconnect of self-love where I'm like, you hate yourself so much that you don't want to actually like take, really take care of yourself and take note of what's happening with your health. Because, um, I was so sick, but I was like, I can't do this because I can't take another animal's life. And, um, and I understand there's a lot of empathy there. And it's, it's also a beautiful thing that we feel that way. Right. Cause I mean, thank God we do because otherwise it's like, I mean, I would be concerned if someone wasn't feeling empathetic about it, you know, but we also have to understand that part of life is death. Like, unfortunately, I think there there's not even think there's this huge disconnect between life and death.

And what's actually happening is a lot of people are not fully facing the reality of like living also means dying, you know, and it's all part of this cycle. And if we want to live on this planet and be healthy, there are certain things we have to do, like eat meat, which is incredibly healthy for us. I also believe I'm not like religious, but I am spiritual. And I believe that animals were put on the planet for our sustenance, you know, because they were like nature's perfect food. If you eat nose to tail, um, like a cow, for example, you will get every single essential nutrient that we need in our diet and essential nutrients are ones that we have to get from our diet. Our bodies don't produce them naturally. And so, yeah, I think there really is this level of having to, uh, there's a bit of like a spirituality there where you just have to understand that like part of life is death,

you know? And unfortunately, oh, and there's one more thing I want to say that I think a lot of vegans are not aware of. Farming vegetables kills so many animals. So many animals, thousands. Thousands. And plants. I mean, I think people like to think that like the animal kingdom, you need to think about death just in terms of the animal kingdom, but they spray so many pesticides. It's like, it's insane. Or herbicides. Yeah. It's insane. Well, it's killing the microbiome of the soil. It's killing all the bugs off in the soil. And also on top of that, farmers will say that, you know, they have to, I mean, this weekend, a farmer was talking about how like they shoot down all these, what do they call them? The groundhogs, I think of like little prairie dogs. I mean, they shoot them down like crazy.

And you think about like the snakes, all the critters that are living on the land that they have to kill essentially to like mow down and create this like sterile land in order to grow. And then there's also a huge problem happening with the bees right now. And without our bees, we don't have a food system basically at all.

And we're killing off all the bees. And then there's a huge problem with the birds now not being able to find as much food because we are killing so many bugs and just like the entire ecosystem by farming in this monocrop culture, you know, the big ag industrialized farming system that we have going on right now. Are you hopeful that we can reverse some of these trends? I'm very hopeful, especially after coming out of a conference like this weekend. There's a lot of big steps that are involved in actually changing this. What I am hopeful about is that we know the solution and there's a lot of people working on it and there's

a lot of people very passionate about it and there's a lot of people doing it the right way. It's really a matter of, yeah, I mean, there's a lot of shifts that need to happen in these large corporations, but that's where you, the listener right now, this is how we are a part of the change. And we can actually make a massive change by putting our dollars into the people that are doing it right. Yeah. And you're the perfect example of that too, because when you were plant based and vegetarian, it's like, you're an informed consumer. You're trying to do the right thing. You're being told that going vegetarian and plant-based is healthy. And so you're trying it and it's like, yeah, when you're going off the standard American diet and you're trying to do the right thing. You're being told that going vegetarian and plant-based is healthy. And so you're trying it and it's like, yeah, when you're going off the standard American diet and you're switching to real foods and cooking vegetables and things like that, you

will feel better only up to a certain point. So we've had on a number of women that were formerly plant-based, vegan, raw vegan. And they were like, I tried it because I was trying to do the right thing, but it was just the wrong approach. And as soon as they started incorporating the right foods, which are the most bioavailable, which are animal products, like you mentioned, their health just skyrocketed. But it's like, you have to, it's like, you almost have to, how do you teach someone to be able to develop that intuitive sense of like, what I'm doing is not ultimately working. But I think just having more conversations like this and just putting out more material, going to things like Rome Ranch, like go out and visit your local

farmer, look at the way that the cows are being raised, the chickens are being raised. And then you realize, oh, wow, these animals have incredible lives. And unfortunately, it's like they do need to die, unfortunately, for you to be able to get the best possible nutrition. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like the access to information too is hugely important. Like you were saying, just like a lot of people live in metropolitan areas where they are really disconnected to the food system that is mostly in rural areas. So they need to have people who can have these types of conversations or at least present them the information for them. So it's like, they're not just getting information from the echo chamber of like, you know, urbanized food, which is, I don't know, generally, I don't think it's like

supporting rural America very much. Yeah. Yeah. We're very disconnected from our food system and it's showing right now. I mean, we're, we have a population of 7% that's healthy at the moment, you know, and it's very multifaceted, but a lot of it is because we are disconnected from our food and from that intuition that you were just talking about. And it's so interesting as I, as I started my journey of, um, of this like real food, um, when, when I started my nutrition journey, essentially, when I first went vegetarian, looking back, I was very disconnected with myself because I can look back now and see the very clear signs that my body was trying to tell me that I was super unhealthy, but I wasn't listening. And I think a lot of it too, is I was very disconnected from that intuitive knowing. And as I got healthier and as I dropped

the processed foods and the highly palatable, you know, addictive food, like products, as I call them, they're not even real foods, you know, you become more in tune with your body because that's, that's the, the coolest thing about all this is that our bodies really know what we need. And towards the end of my journey of being plant-based, um, my, I, it was so funny, the whole like five years, basically, I was not craving meat until the last like couple months. And that was always my, like, I'd like brag about it. I was like, I don't even miss meat. And then like the last couple of months I was like, you guys, I was literally having dreams about me. I have one time, this dream is actually so funny.

Just cows are. One of them, I remember very specifically, I literally woke myself up in the middle of the night. I was air feeding myself chicken nuggets. Like I had a dream that I was eating chicken nuggets and I woke up and I was like, my fingers were at my mouth. And I was like, I think that was the last straw. I remember calling

my mom and my mom was like, please eat meat. Your body is literally telling you and you're not listening. Yeah. We had on Bella who goes by steak and butter gal. So she's a carnivore. I think she's based out of, I think she's out of Seattle potentially. She was raw vegan and she actually said the same thing to you. She started having dreams of eggs cooked in Kerrygold butter. And when she finally made the switch over to like a carnivore diet, that was the first meal that she had. So it's like literally embedded in your subconscious.

It's like your body, your mind, your spirit is telling you what it actually wants. Exactly. And so not to shift gears too much, but I know nutrition, real foods and building intuition, that's a huge part of your approach. But what are some of the other things that you really like to talk to women about in terms of optimizing their health, whether it's like sleep, getting off birth control, regulating your hormone health?

I know that's also a huge part of your message too. So we'd love to dig into that. Yeah. Oh my God. I love talking about birth control. Cause talk about again, being cut off from your intuition. We are when women are on birth control, you actually don't have you don't ovulate. So you're not actually having a period, which is crazy. When I learned this, I was so mad because we hear from our doctors, you know, like, oh, yeah, you have a period every month on your birth control. But you also they would encourage us to skip it by just taking more pills. But what's actually happening is just something called a pill bleed. And they just engineered these pills to make your body do that

just so that you could feel like you still had a period and a cycle and everything, but you don't actually have a cycle because what's happening, we're also told that it's balancing our hormones. And so many women, actually in the very beginning, most women are actually not even put on birth control for what its sole use is, is birth control. It's actually a lot of women were put on for acne or PCOS or endometriosis, all these other hormonal issues that are going on. And it's been prescribed as this like fix all for hormones. And we were told by doctors that,

oh, this will balance your hormones. Your hormones are unbalanced right now. This will balance it. That is a complete lie. What's actually happening is that it's replacing your own body's natural hormones with synthetic hormones. So these are hormones that your body does not make naturally. It is replacing them entirely. So you're not ovulating. And what I love to remind women of all the time is that your, your entire cycle, um, is so much

more than just like your fertility and getting pregnant. It's literally your, your report card of your health every month, you know? And so, um, like if you're not getting your period, then that's your body telling you like something's up, you know? Um, or if you're dealing with PCOS, like that's usually a blood sugar imbalance. So like I would go get checked for diabetes and, you know, really be on like your carbohydrate intake and your fat intake. And so what's happening is when we're putting women on these synthetic hormones that are also classified as a carcinogen one, by the way, which means that we know that they cause certain forms of cancer. And a lot of these women are putting on getting put on birth control at 15, 16, like really young impressionable ages where they don't even understand the full gravity of what they're doing to their bodies.

And I say all this like, you know, for any women listening that this is your story, not to make you feel shamed at all. Like this is what is being done to women right now that I think is absolutely atrocious. And it's not our fault. This is part of a system much bigger than us. And they're taking advantage of us, being in the dark about our bodies and being in the dark about what these pharmaceutical drugs actually do to our bodies. And we don't teach women from a young age about our cycles at all. We know nothing. And we're told that we can get pregnant every day of the year, which actually, it's really a window of like six to eight days.

So why are we taking these synthetic hormones for 30 days out of the month, being scared that we can get pregnant when it's actually only like a six to eight day window? We're not taught anything about our cycles or ovulation at all. So if you're a woman listening to this right now, and you've been on birth control for a long time. I never want to tell anyone that they should do anything anyway. Like I said earlier, earlier, I just really believe in informed consent. You know, like if you're on it and you love it and you feel great, like more power to you because like, you know, you're the only one that really knows what's best for your body. But there is this huge awakening happening right now of women just being like, oh my God, what have I been doing to my body for so long?

Another really wild fact that scares me. And I'm so grateful. I actually never, I went on birth control twice when I was younger, a couple of years apart. And both times I couldn't even finish out the month because I don't even know how, like, I was just so connected with my body that I was like, oh my God, I feel insane. Like I just felt so weird in my body that I couldn't do it. Um, and so I stopped taking them. But a lot of women, what will happen is they'll go on birth control. They'll be on it for, you know, like 10 years, they'll meet their partner, they get married and then they start trying to have kids. So they come off the birth control and suddenly they're not attracted to their man anymore. And this is something that's happening because of the pheromones. Because when you think about

when you're on synthetic hormones, those are not your true essence. Those are not your real hormones. And we're attracted to each other by hormones. And so your man, I mean, I have friends that have these stories where they came off and they're like, he literally smells different to me now. It's so bizarre. It's so bizarre. So crazy. So when you just think about all these things that it's doing to your body, why would we want to be messing with that? You know, especially when you think about our hormones are vital to everyday life. Like this isn't just like talking about whether or not you can get

pregnant or not. It's like your endocrine disruptor. So your endocrine system runs everything for your whole body. You know, it's like how your body, it's, yeah, you need it. Yeah. And then you consider the age that most people are getting on these hormones too. It's crazy to think that most people are young adults or not even, they're still in adolescence when they start taking those pills. They're girls. They're not women.

They haven't even built up like the intuition of what their body is going to be like as an adult. Yes. It's crazy. And too, there is a huge percentage. I don't know the exact percentage, but there is a massive percentage of women that once they go on birth control, they shortly afterwards go on antidepressants because there is a massive swing in upswing in depression when you go on these hormones. And I can't tell you, I had a girlfriend telling me this the other day. She was like, I didn't even realize when I was on birth control for 10 years, I was literally living in this like depression cloud that she felt lifted when she went off birth control. It's crazy. It's crazy. So what does managing or balancing your hormones

naturally look like? Because I feel like that's something that anyone who's, whether you're on birth control or off it, like you should at least know how to manage it, manage your hormones naturally so you can feel good and feel comfortable in your body. Yeah. Well, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of different things you can do. One, I would encourage everyone to find a really good doctor. I would encourage you to look for an integrative or, oh my God, why am I a functional doctor? Because these doctors work from a more zoomed out perspective and they look at the entire body as a whole, and they're not going to be trying to push you to go on hormones or push you to go on certain pharmaceutical drugs. They want to look at your entire lifestyle. They want to look at your diet

specifically and really, um, and to, they know how to, to what labs to order and how to read them because you, you can't just do this like shooting in the dark. I can't just say like, oh, take these supplements and you'll be fine because it totally depends on like my hormonal makeup is going to be so different than someone who's been on birth control for 10 years, you know, as you're trying to rebalance that. So highly encourage working with someone who's going to do the blood work. Cause that's going to give you a lot of insight about what's actually happening in your body. Also, I love there's an app called Natural Cycles that actually it's synced to my Oura Ring. So this Oura Ring is my birth control essentially. And so it syncs to an app in your phone and you don't have to get the Oura Ring, by the way,

because I know the Oura Ring is real expensive. You can just do the Natural Cycles and just get a basal thermometer and you take your temperature every morning. And then based on where your temperature is at, it tells you basically where you are in your cycle. So that's a lot of it too. A lot of it requires a bit of learning about your body and how your body works, but it's so much more empowering to know your body and know the ins and outs of it and know how your hormones work than just like taking a pill every month and suppressing all of it, you know? And so I'm a huge component of that or proponent for that. And then making sure that you're prioritizing really good, healthy foods, like high quality fats, like I was saying earlier, making sure that you're eating enough protein. Also sleep. You mentioned sleep is a

huge one. Thankfully, people are really starting to talk about this. I feel like sleep for a long time was kind of ignored. There was a lot of like, oh, it's fine, sleep whenever. But now we're really starting to realize that it's so important to be on a consistent schedule, try to go to bed around the same hour every night. Obviously no one's perfect and you're gonna have a weekend where you go out and party and it's fine. Like don't let that derail you.

But for the most part, if you can go to bed on a consistent time, wake up at a consistent time, make sure you're getting sunlight first thing in the morning in your eyes, like go outside, maybe take a little walk. If you have time, at least just go outside for a couple minutes. All of these things will help to signal to your body, first of all, where you're at in that time of the day, but also to help with overall hormonal balances. I saw, I think it was Paul Saladino,

he posted a video outside of a Lululemon shop and was talking about the amount of like, right. Like hormone disrupting chemicals that are in like the leggings and the tops and everything like that. And I don't know if it's BPA, I don't know the exact chemical terminology, but I'm curious if that's something you're mindful of, if clothing things that women should be thinking about too. I mean, and men obviously. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, this is a huge problem across the board right now. So that's another one too, is that we are getting so flooded with hormones from so many different, or not even necessarily hormones. What's happening is we're, there's so many different chemicals in our tap water, in our food, like pesticides. Also in our food, the plastic containers, a lot of our food

is in, or like plastic water bottles for example um these chemicals like bpa but there's also bps or yeah bps and pfas which are forever chemicals that are leaching into our food and into our water so they're getting into our body and then you look at women specifically this is way more of a problem for women than men women on average are exposed to 168 chemicals a day because of the products that we use, like the body lotions and the makeup and just the general care for women that men don't do as much. So we're being exposed to all these different chemicals that we now know a lot of them are endocrine disrupting, meaning that they are causing imbalances in our hormones. And this is also another huge reason why we're seeing

infertility and why we're seeing so many hormonal imbalances. And then the clothing is another one too. So I will say, admittedly, that's when I haven't even fully tackled yet. Like I'm starting to buy more organic clothes and stuff. It's just like, you know, I'm sure even the listener right now is like, oh my God, there's so much stuff we have to worry about, you know? And so it's kind of like, I want to encourage people like, you know, one step at a time, like clean up your makeup products, clean up your beauty products, clean up your cleaning products in your house. The clothing is a big one. Yeah. Like Lululemon, all these massive, what's that company recently? Shein, I think where they found lead in their clothing. Are you serious? Yes. That's terrible. It's terrible.

And then you think about like Lululemon. So I think what he found was PFAs, which are the poly, I always forget how to say it, polyfluorinated something. I can't remember exactly what the whole thing is. I don't know. We can look it up,

but it's basically, yeah, basically they're forever chemicals and it's what's found in like Teflon, which Teflon, I believe is being phased out now. But it's these chemicals that are like nonstick or the stuff that's being sprayed on stuff to make it waterproof. So all your like waterproof jacket, like rain jackets and boots, and it's in like workout clothes and stuff. And we're realizing that they're calling them forever chemicals because once they're in the environment, they never break down. They're in the environment

indefinitely. And then we know they affect the endocrine or they affect the endocrine system by disrupting it, leading to thyroid problems, infertility, cancers in some case. It's a huge concern. And then you think about you're working out in this clothes. So you're like sweating, your pores are opening, and then those chemicals are going directly into your bloodstream. So it is a concern, but it's like, man, there's a lot of stuff happening in our environment right now. There's so much stuff. It can be so overwhelming too, just for the average person. Like, I mean, for me, like I like, I like to make the changes that I can measure, right? Like the things like wearing cotton clothing clothes is obviously a huge step in the right direction. It's something

that probably accumulates over time, but for most people, they want to be able to like feel the change happen at least in like, you know, a week or so or two weeks, like at least to tell that they're going in the right direction. So I do feel like habit change is something that is so important to talk about when it comes to nutrition and lifestyle, because it's so much more than just do this, do that. It's how do you do it? How do you make it a lifestyle? How can you make it stick? So I'm wondering if you have any tips for people who are just stuck, need to like have something that just spurs them to make some action, create some positive habits in their life. Yeah. I think the first step is just really making peace with

the fact that this is actually happening. Cause I think there's a lot of denial of people saying like, Oh no, like that's a conspiracy or that, you know, they would never allow that on the shelves or, you know, the government's regulating all this guys, I'm sorry, but they're not, you know, and this is becoming one of the biggest issues of our generation that we will fix because so many people are waking up to it now, but that is part, that is your first step. You got to admit there's a problem, you know? And, um, and then from there it's, you know, it's kind of, it's a baby steps approach of, okay, what can I, what can I actively change today? Um, also really getting in touch with your why,

you know, and using that as your North star, like why, why are you concerned about this and using that to remember to also to also, you know, be that kind of driving force. Like for me, my why is I want to live a long time. I also don't want to be sick while I'm here on this planet. I really would love to not get cancer. I would really love to not get all of these standard American diseases that so many people are suffering from on such crazy levels right now.

And so for me, I'm like, okay, I'm going to do the best that I possibly can do. What are the tangible things that I can change today? And then it just kind of like spirals from there. You know, I mean, when I first got into all of this, it's not like I changed everything overnight. So it is baby steps and there's a lot of compassion involved knowing that you were doing the best that you could with the information you had then. And now that you know better, you do better. And just knowing that you've been doing the best you can up until now, and now, you know, and now you can make these little changes and not feeling like you have to

make all these changes overnight, you know, because as you do one thing, then another thing happens. And then it's just like kind of a snowball effect that just kind of naturally happens as well. And you just tackle the little things as you can, you know? Definitely. It's such a good point. And we had Mark Sisson on a couple of weeks ago and he's amazing. And one of the things he was talking about, it really reminded me of what you're saying is there's something about human psychology where we're really wired to want all these bio hacking tools versus the very simple, like sustainable solutions. Like we want the cold plunge. We want the aura ring. We want the supplements. We want the protein powder.

But it's like, why don't you prioritize sleeping eight hours? Like you said, shopping the outer aisle of the grocery store, maybe switching to some cotton clothing, getting eight hours of sleep. It's like these very simple things that are super unsexy, but like compounded over time, you can legitimately change your genetics, which is such an amazing thing. Yeah. Most of those things don't cost any money. And then, you know, an added layer too, to give some people some comfort. So the fact of the matter is we know

that we're being infiltrated with all these different toxins from so many different areas right now. Right. And we can do one or two things. We can totally spiral out and be like, oh my God, we're all, you know, fucked and we can't do anything about it. Or there are things you can do like prioritize sweating every day, you know, prioritize moving your body. That doesn't, that doesn't mean like to your point, that doesn't mean that you need to go get like a $12,000 sauna and like an insane, like $300 a month gym membership. That literally could look like you do a hot bath with Epsom salts in it. That's basically free, like hot enough to where you sweat and then go for a run outside, go for a walk around your neighborhood. Obviously, if you have the money for all these tools, do it. You know, if you have

the access to a sauna, I tell people try to sweat at least a couple of times a week because that's at least going to get your lymphatic system moving. It's going to get a lot of those toxins out. Like there's things that we can do to mitigate some of the effects of it. And then it's, you know, being on your diet, making sure that you're eating healthy so that your detoxification pathways are open and clear so that your body can get rid of a lot of this stuff. Because another thing, too, is our bodies are miraculous. They're amazing. Yes.

So there's a lot of things that our body is doing for us that we don't even give it enough credit for. So we're not completely fucked, but they're, you know, we need to be aware of this and be doing the things that we can. But yeah, like do the things that you can. And, um, it doesn't have to be as hard as we sometimes make it out to be. Yeah. And a lot of it can be free too. Like most of the efficient, efficient and effective stuff is free, getting more sleep, getting sunlight, being active. Like you can do all of that without spending a dollar. Exactly. And fun too. I think there's this misconception with a lot of millennials, like friends that I have from New York that haven't made that shift over towards this lifestyle that think that like, oh, you're depriving yourselves of so many different foods and experiences and

memories. And it's like, why don't you try cooking a meal with some of your best friends and see how much fun you have that night? Like some of my favorite memories ever, like getting a couple people around a table, cooking some steak, some vegetables, like something really simple and just sharing a meal maybe with like a little bit of wine and like you have great laughs. And I don't know, it's like these simple things, if you could just promote that to people, they don't even understand what they're missing out on. I love this so much. And it reminds me of what this woman said at the conference this weekend that was so profound. She was like, what people don't understand that are not paying attention and they're just eating the standard American diet, they're eating these processed foods,

they're not prioritizing their health. They're giving up their freedom. They're giving up their freedom to living a high quality, long life. They're giving up their freedom to be able to play with their kids, have energy to see their friends, have energy to do the things that they want to do every day. Because when you're even just moderately sick, your joints are inflamed, your back hurts. I'm not even talking about the diseases like diabetes and the stuff where it's really starting to affect people. Even just on a lower grade level, if you're living with some sort of inflammation, you're not going to have the energy to go out with your friends and go for a hike or go do the things that you genuinely love to do. Or like, if you have kids, like I want to have a lot of energy

for my kids. I want to be able to run, run around and like, you know, do all the things that they want to do. And I want to be able to spend quality time with the people that I love. And when you're sick, even low grade, like you can't be present. And so you're giving up your freedom by not prioritizing yourself and your health. Yeah. And we were talking about this with Mark as well. It was like your health obviously should be the center of your life, but your life should like, you shouldn't be stressing about it. You shouldn't be white knuckling yourself to just like constantly be thinking about your health.

There should be so much more flow with that relationship to your body. And just, I think you should just be spending time enjoying the people and flow with that relationship to your body. And just, I think you should just be spending time enjoying the people and the things that you like to do and the health should just be the backbone of that. Yes. And, and I will say too, I think everyone, oh, I can only speak to my experience, but when I first really started getting into health, I think there, there is this period of time where you're like, oh my God, everything's going to kill us. And I can only eat these like five things, but, but that, that passes, you know, like you find a place of equilibrium. It's kind of with everything in life. It's like, you kind of go from one extreme to the other. And so if you're like at the beginning of your health journey

and you're like, Oh my God, I'm throwing out everything and I can only eat these like few things and whatever, like just know that you'll also find balance in that. Like I don't even stress about what I eat anymore. I don't really stress about like anything anymore because I feel like I just have it so dialed in and it's just so second nature to me now. And then I prioritize things like to your point, what you were saying,

like cooking these amazing dinners with friends. And I love showing friends that real food actually tastes good. There's this misconception that food, like when you eat healthy, that it's like bland and like doesn't taste good. And that people think of like the bodybuilders that are just eating the like boiled chicken with no spices and broccoli. I'm like, I wouldn't eat that. Right. It's a terrible way to go through life. Yes. Have you tried pluck seasoning before? No. You would love it. He was at KetoCon. He was like a gourmet chef

that cooked for Tom Cruise and all these incredible celebrities. And he also went paleo and really started getting into his nutrition. And he was like, all right, well, I have this amazing ability to make food taste good. Could I make things like organs and ancestral tenants taste really good as well? So he has a rub that actually has like an ounce of organ meat per serving, but it's like the most delicious rub that you ever have. So you can like put it on vegetables. You could put it on steak, but there's all these, right. There's all these incredible brands that are coming out now that can make this nourishing food taste even better. Yeah. I mean, real food tastes good.

It does. Yeah. Honestly, like I don't think the packaged food stuff even tastes good anymore. I taste and I'm like, Oh, this tastes artificial to me, you know, Because you've rewired your palate and your taste buds. And once you do that, you can't go back. Exactly. You had a video where you were like, your food should make you dance in excitement. I forget. What was the recipe? You made some incredible recipe. Oh, yeah. You were so fired up about it. Oh, my God. I was so happy about that. Oh, yeah. What did I make? Honestly, it was such a simple recipe too. It was this, oh, my God. It was this coconut milk rice. And then I had these like tamari greens, like bok choy. And there was something else in there with tamari. And then I just made this really amazing seasoned

salmon. And like, I guess describing it, I'm not giving the full potential of what it really was, but it was so good. And I was like dancing around my apartment and I was just like, you, I, I have a personal rule that, um, everything I eat has to taste good and also be good for me. That's a great sign that the food's probably pretty good. Yeah. You know, it doesn't mean that you have to be choking back like dry, you know, gross meat and unflavored, you know, unseasoned vegetables. You can do it right. One of the last things that I wanted to ask you was obviously like, I feel like the real foodology brand and Instagram, you've, you've taken off so much, you post so much good content. Do you have advice for any content creators that really want to get in the game and kind of share

their gifts with the world? Like how to just be consistently posting and creating new content? Like what does that process kind of look like for you? Yeah. I mean, first and foremost, I would say, um, make sure you're really passionate about it, you guys, because it is like this isn't like a woe is me journey or anything, but like it's a lot of work, you guys. And I don't think people understand how much just that goes into it. So it definitely just make sure it's something you're very, very passionate about, because otherwise you you will not have the energy to keep going. That's the only thing that keeps me going is that I'm so passionate about this conversation that I think everyone needs to know and hear that I will do anything to get the message out there. But yeah, it takes a lot of work, especially now because of the algorithm, it really favors accounts that are just constantly posting, which I really have a hard time with because as a health professional and as someone who knows what social media is doing to our brain, I can see it firsthand and how I don't feel as good when I spend a lot of time online. And there's this juxtaposition where like

you, in order to really grow, you have to be on a lot. You need to be engaging with people. When I first grew my Instagram, it was like, I mean, I was on it like seven hours a day and I hate to admit that, but I was basically posting three times a day, engaging with everyone. So like commenting back to every single comment, you want to respond to all of your DMs as well. Because also too, like you have to think about it from a perspective of you're building a community and you, you know, I'm doing this because I'm genuinely passionate about it. And because I really want to help people. So, um, I feel this certain obligation to respond to every message and try to help people where I can. And, um, so there is this element of, you have to be very,

very engaged with your community. Um, and you need to be posting a lot. Yeah. Yeah. Even what you said with real foodology, 2011, you started. So it's like a 13 year journey to get where you are now. Yeah. Juxtaposition is a really interesting point too, because I don't think a lot of people think about it in that context. I really do think that like the mental side of social media is something that all these health influencers probably run into at some point. Oh yeah. Yeah. I really, I just hit the microphone. Sorry guys. I got so excited about this. I haven't even like really talked about this that much online, but I had a period of time where I was really struggling mentally with showing up online and it, it, it was because of Instagram.

It's not like there was something else going on in the background of my life, but it was like, um, social media is, I mean, we're starting to talk about it, but my belief is that we have no idea what it's actually really doing to us right now. Like we all were feeling the effects of it, but we're not actually going to really know. We're going to look back in like 20 years and be like, Whoa, wow. We were really, um well. And you can tell, you can just tell by I've been, so I've been on Instagram since 2011 and I have seen a stark difference just even in the way that people interact with me in the last couple of years versus before that, you know, and that just really shows you the mental state of, of our population right now. And especially people on social media, the, the vitriol that gets sent at you.

And you can just tell a lot of people are really going through a hard time. And I think a lot of that is, there's a lot of comparison happening. You know, maybe people will come on my page and think that I'm this like holier than thou and I have everything figured out and I do everything perfectly.

But also like you're totally discounting the fact that like this was a really, really long journey, like you said, for me to get here, you know, and it's like that graph where you see where like success is not a direct line. It's like, you're going up and down and backwards and like sideways and, you know, and so people just can see where you're at in this very moment and they don't take into account like everything you've been through before that. And yeah, social media just, it's a, it's hard. That's crazy. Yeah. It's definitely a double-edged sword. And I feel like you get so many overwhelmingly positive comments, but I have seen some negative stuff on your negative comments on your, on your page as well. Cause it's like people that just misassume that, Oh, you're just trying to ride the wave, not

realizing your passion for nutrition. And it's like, you have to just take that stuff with a grain of salt because no one that's commenting negative stuff on a TikTok post is doing anything productive with their lives. Exactly. And to be honest, whenever I, I, I try to put myself in their shoes and I think you have to be in a pretty bad place mentally to leave a really horrible comment like that on someone's page. Um, and so I try to, I try to just like lead with compassion and I'm like, okay, you know, I'm just going to ignore it. They're having a bad day or whatever it is, you know, cause it's yeah. Yeah. What can the world expect from real foodology going forward? What's next on the horizon? I love this question. Um, I think eventually a book, but we haven't fully formed that yet. Um, would love to do a product.

So I'm kind of like toying with some ideas right now on products and um possibly like I've talked about possibly doing a show at some point that's really I think my like number one passion um yeah but in the meantime just more videos on uh grocery store I want to go to more restaurants and um I have a video coming out this week showing you uh restaurants in well a restaurant but I'm gonna try to do more of them uh where you can find seed oil free restaurants. That's a huge one. And yeah, that's going to where I'm at right now. It's going to be super valuable, but you said it all though. Thank you so much for joining us. You've had a huge impact on us. You've had a huge impact on a lot of people and just appreciate the fact that there's people like you that exist that are fighting the good fight.

And we'll do a round two at Erewhon in LA next time. Yes. I would love to take you guys to Erewhon. Thank you so much. Yeah. I really appreciate you guys having me on. Thank you. Thanks, Courtney. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. If you liked the episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a Resonant Media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie. Georgie is spelled with a J. For more amazing podcasts produced by my team, go to resonantmediagroup.com. I love you guys so much. See you next week.

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. Looking to build a more robust foundation

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