Realfoodology - Yes, There Are Bad Foods! How to Stop Lying to Ourselves with HealthIllie

Episode Date: January 26, 2022

78: Illie Zeneli is a holistic and integrative nutrition coach and the creator behind the popular instagram page Healthillie.  In this episode we talk about food freedom, the harm dietitians do by telling people not to label foods as good or bad, we learn how to navigate the supermarket, fitness influencers, how to break up with calorie counting and fad diets and so much more. As always, if you have any questions for the show please email us at [e-mail].  And if you like this show, please share it, rate it, review it and subscribe to it on your favorite podcast app.  Check Out Illie: https://www.instagram.com/healthillie/ https://livehealthillie.com/

On today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. I just think there's a level of being honest with ourselves where if you're struggling with chronic migraines, and you're struggling with bloating, and you're struggling with painful periods, and you're struggling with acne, and you're struggling with all these things, and you're telling me, but oh, I only eat things in moderation. You're probably not. Hi, guys. Welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. I'm your host,

Courtney Swan. I am so happy that you're here and I'm very excited about today's episode. I brought on one of my new favorite follows on Instagram. You may recognize her. Her name is Illy and she is the founder behind the account Healthily. She's a holistic, integrative nutrition coach. She has worked in the health and fitness world for 10 years. And this girl really knows her stuff. What I love so much about her story is it's very relatable. You know, it's a similar story for a lot of people that find themselves in the holistic, natural, healthier realm is they had to go through personal health struggles in order to see the light, you know, get to this other side. She was counting macros and not really concerned about the

ingredients of her food and found herself not feeling good, was really struggling with acne, fatigue, bloating, really horrible periods. I'll let you hear more of her story from her own experience as she tells it, but it is interesting. I love hearing people's stories like this because like I said, it's very relatable. And she had to go through this own experience in order to get to the place that she is in now. We talk a lot about food freedom. So if this is something that you're struggling with, hopefully this conversation will help you. We also talk about this new fad of dietitians and people in general, not wanting to label foods good or bad and why both of us believe that it is doing people a disservice and it's lying to people.

As always, when I tackle more controversial topics like this, I like to remind you, the listener, that this conversation is not meant to elicit any sort of shame in anyone. I'm constantly in search of what it truly means to be healthy, how to truly get to a healthier place. Um, when we're lying to someone where we're doing them a disservice and we're not allowing you the opportunity, um, to fully get to that place of true health. So we spend a lot of time talking about that. She also shares her top tips for navigating the supermarket. What are some of the worst things for our health that we should be avoiding when we're looking at nutrition labels, her top tips on how to break up with calorie counting and fad diets, what moderation actually really means in a healthy, in a healthier mindset

and so much more. Let's just get to the episode. I hope you guys really enjoy it. As always, if you are loving this podcast, if you could rate and review it, it means so much to me. It really helps this show. And I just appreciate you so much. I'm so happy that you're here. Imagine having a metabolic coach in your pocket that you could access at any point, any time in the day, whenever you want. That's what Lumen is. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath. And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you tailored

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dot com slash realfoodology. I love it. I'm so excited about this conversation. I feel like you and I have so much to chat about. Like every post you do, I'm like, yes. Like, oh, this is so fire. Like, this is exactly what I've been wanting to talk about. And yeah. So I want to like dive into the food industry and all the like crap. I also really want to talk about, um, this new trend of not calling foods good or bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, yeah. Like how is that even a trend? Yeah. Like severe I switched mental gymnastics that I have to do to like, I get, I get like where it comes from. You know what I'm saying? Like, I get that. It's just, it's not helpful. No, especially when we live in a time where it's not like, it's not like we're, we're living like

our ancestors did and food was just food. It's like now everything's highly palatable made to be super addictive for a reason. And it's not because it's like, has our health in mind. It's because these companies want to sell more food. And then we're saying like, Oh, but we don't want to call anything bad. I'm like, no, but that is bad. That is bad. Like that is not food and you should not be putting it in your body. I'm sorry. Yeah, I just my whole thing is like I used to think like that, you know, like when people come to my page and like I get it, there's other people in the wellness space. Like I would say I'm like a newbie to the wellness groupies that are like the people that I've looked up to. Now I'm like one of them in the sense like I just entered like this wellness space and it's like really cool. Cause you know, I used to look up to so many other pages and it's like, obviously I've loved your page for like a long time and now it's like, I'm here. So clearly I'm doing

something right. I'm, I'm, I'm picking somebody's brain about something, but the whole thing is that I only recently started, you know, living this lifestyle. So when people come to my page, they assume that I just like grew up on an organic farm, like churning my own butter or something like no, I ate like that. And I had that mindset up until only like three years ago. So I used to think like, no food can harm me. I'm invincible. I can eat whatever I want, as long as it's in, you know, quote unquote, moderation. Until I started having like severe problems. And then all of a sudden, I was like, wait, could it be like my moderation is not as moderate as I think it is, you know, and it's hard to gauge like, what is moderation is having,

you know, McDonald's once a week, good for me or bad for me. And I really don't know. But obviously, I wasn't, you know, downing fast food every single weekend. I was having it like as a cheat meal or once every two weeks, but I was still struggling, you know? And I just think that because I didn't label foods and I saw everything as equal, I, it was very hard for me to be really in tune with my body and figure out like, okay, what is actually bothering me? What's contributing to my acne? What's contributing to my bloating when everything kind of is, everything's good, right? Quote unquote good. And it's just, it's such an, it was such an

unhelpful mindset that I had. And until I actually just considered food, what it is, like, this is real food, things that you find on the perimeter of the supermarket. And bad food is the foods that are being, you know, concocted in a lab by a food scientist to literally use data and the science of our taste buds and the sound of a crunch and how fast the flavor dissolves on your tongue so that it doesn't last long enough, like a strawberry would, it cuts off really short so that you're craving it as soon as you put it into your mouth, and you can't have just one. Like those are bad foods that there's an evil, there's an underlying evil vibe that I get from those foods. It's manipulation. Yeah, exactly. And I think addressing that isn't necessarily a negative thing, but I understand why dieticians use that as their first wall of defense from people who are coming out of super disordered eating where they've been taught to just fear food in general, right?

Like, you know, when you go carnivore, you're told to fear vegetables. And when you're vegan, you're told to fear meat. And when you're counting calories, you're told to fear vegetables. And when you're vegan, you're told to fear meat. And when you're counting calories, you're told to fear too many foods. So when you come out of that really disordered mindset, yeah, going into this food freedom mindset is very helpful. But is it sustainable long term? That's where I come in. And usually those clients end up being my clients where,

cause now they're at a point where they're like, okay, this isn't sustainable. I feel like absolute shit. Yeah. I'm not afraid to see anything, but like now what? Yeah, man, you just brought up so many good points and so many things that I wanted to address in this episode. Like I'm just like, yes, girl, I love this. So first of all, let's back it up. You brought up this concept of moderation. And this is something that I really want to talk about because you're right. Like there, there is, um, we have to find this balance, right. In this moderation, because obviously like we want to, we want to live and we want to be happy with what we're eating and not feel like we're depriving ourselves. But unfortunately, um, we have to be careful with using that word and quite literally

using this like concept of moderation around food, because at what point do we draw the line, right? Like you said, like, okay, so maybe one thing if let's say that I really have my diet, like dialed in, and I'm eating organic whole real foods for, you know, all week, and then I have one meal a week where I'm eating like McDonald's or something like that, that to me, I would consider true moderation. The problem is, is that we have completely changed what we, we've completely changed our food, uh, landscape first of all. And so now what people think is being moderation where they're like, Oh, well I had a salad from McDonald's. So like, I've been eating healthy all week. So I've been having salads from, you know, these like fast food places or whatever. So like now I'm going to have this like cheat meal of like a burger and French fries, but it's like, we don't like, I feel like a lot of

people don't understand this concept of we have, we have all these foods now that are highly palatable, highly addictive, highly caloric, um, full of pesticides and so many additives and everything that people don't even understand that there is no longer moderation. If you're living in that world of eating this like standard American diet, or we call it sad diet. Yeah. And I think moderation has, is going to look obviously different for everybody. And my like goal when I was taking clients was just to kind of help people figure out like, what is your moderation? Like no one's saying you can never have a McDonald's cheeseburger

ever again. I'm going to tell you right now, the last time I've had one was when I was on a road trip driving down to Florida and I had nothing else to eat because we all know like what roadside, you know, restaurants look like. Yeah. Like that's, that that was that was the last time I had something like a fast food chain restaurant and to me like that is my sense of moderation because I know if I make that a habit and I'm having it once a month or once every two weeks to me I have to be honest with myself and say like all right that is too much for me because do I really want to struggle with a breakout do I really want to struggle with blo because do I really want to struggle with a breakout? Do I really want to struggle with bloating? Do I really want to struggle with the fatigue? That's just how my body reacts to those types of foods. I think the issue comes is people just aren't willing to

be honest with themselves about where the moderation is. So we have this mindset that we're being told by dieticians and other food experts on the internet. They're like, you know, if you want a burger, eat a burger. It doesn't matter what kind, doesn't matter from where. And it's like, all right, we need to understand like, that's a great mindset, right? If I want a burger,

I'm going to go eat it and satisfy that craving. But there's another step to that. It's okay, what kind of burger am I going to have? And why am I feeling the need to crave this burger? Now, a burger is not that bad, but let's say it's like a cookie. What kind of cookie am I willing to have right now, right? And why am I craving that cookie?

Is it, did I eat enough today? Have I been, you know, really just binging on crappy food all week? So now my body is just craving like this excess sugar and carb. What's my stress like? All these other layers of like defining cravings and truly understanding our body is going to give us a better idea of is it moderation or is it all these highly palatable foods talking to me and convincing me that it's a craving and that, yeah, the moderation is fine because I only have a Coca-Cola like whenever I eat out, but then you eat out three times a week. Is that truly moderation? Yeah.

And that for some people, maybe they're like super on it and that's fine for them. They could truly handle that. But I just think there's a level of being honest with ourselves where if you're struggling with chronic migraines and you're struggling with bloating and you're struggling with painful periods and you're struggling with acne and you're struggling with all these things and you're telling me, but, oh, I only eat things in moderation. You're probably not, you know? So it's like, I can't be the one to tell you that you have to tell yourself that and be honest with yourself. And it does take ripping the bandaid. Like the way I moderate myself now would not have been when I first started my journey. You know, like I had to, I had to really go cold Turkey on a lot of these highly like, um, addictive foods before. Now I can

handle them and not be addicted. Cause like, they're not even satisfying to me anymore. You know? Yeah. Yeah. I, I am in a similar place now as well. And again, you brought up another great point and this might be a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow, but it comes down to, we have to start being honest with ourselves, you know, and take the judgment out of it. I think the biggest thing that this like label, like we're trying to get away from this labeling of good and bad foods. And I think what is at, what they're actually trying to accomplish, but failing is that we need to stop taking a moral judge or we need to take the moral judgment out of eating. And I think that's really what they're

trying to get out with this good or bad foods. And that to me makes sense. I'm like, yes, just because you gave into your craving, you really wanted a McDonald's burger and you did it. It doesn't mean anything bad about you. It just means that you ate some food that didn't nourish your body. You're probably going to feel the effects of it later. You're going to have a migraine or you're going to feel bloated or you're going to have the acne the next day or whatever it is. But if you go, if one, if you go into it being like, okay, you know what, like I'm doing this. I mean, the other night, my girlfriend and I had dinner on Sunday night, French fries are my freaking kryptonite. I cannot like the second they sit, they like place them in front of me. I turn into a monster about

them. And I have just accepted that. Like when that happens, I'm like, you know what? I'm not going to feel great later. I'm probably going to feel the effects of this tomorrow, but that's okay. And I've gotten to a place in my brain where I'm, I don't like assign any meaning to it. It doesn't mean that I'm quote unquote bad because I ate these French fries, but I'm also honest with myself. And I'm like, you know what? They were probably fried in canola oil and not great for me. Not great for my heart, not great for my overall health. And they're not feeding my cells in a nutrient dense way, but that's okay. I can wake up tomorrow and make better decisions and I'm not going to like beat myself up over it. Oh, and there was an another

thing that you brought up that I think is important to say, uh, when it comes to like, if you have a craving, for example, like you were saying, it's all about the education around what is in our food. And this is why I love so much what you do on Instagram, because people are not aware of the ingredients and the true detrimental effects of these foods that we're eating. If you want a burger, I tell people this all the time, eat a burger. I always crave burgers around my period because probably my body is craving iron. But what I do is I make sure that I either get it from a good organic place that I know in LA that has like grass fed organic burgers, or I make it at home grass fed meat, I get a keto bun or like an organic, you know, gluten free bun, because I have to eat gluten free. And then it's great. It's not even that bad for you. In fact, I would argue. And it's funny, because I, whenever I share about, you know, better food swaps and things like that, or just the way I like to eat, I always get people who are like, Oh, that's so restrictive. What do you even eat? And like, I eat anything and everything. If I if I want a cookie, I eat a cookie. If I want a burger, I eat a burger. If you want french fries, eat french fries, I just find better versions of those things. And that's it. Like, as long as I can recognize the ingredients, like, there's been times where I've had a lot of people who have said, Oh, I want a burger, I eat a burger. If you want French fries, eat French fries. I just find better versions of those things. And that's it. Like, as long as I can recognize the ingredients, blows my mind that people think we're, you know, obviously we're being, we're, we were getting pushed all like by media and just ads all day of, you know, every single amazing brand, right? Like Oreo and chips, ahoy and this and that.

And people just, when they think cookie, we think Oreo, we think chips, ahoy. Why do you have to pick the worst option on the shelf? It does not have to be the worst option. You know, you can always find a better option. That doesn't mean you have to, you know, be whipping it up in the kitchen every time you want a cookie. Thankfully, we live in a time now where we've had enough time where the crappy brands have long lived. And now we have a lot of small businesses coming forward and creating better options for us because obviously there only was good options until they started implementing all the GMOs and all the pesticides and all the canola oil and all these things. So now we have other brands kind of bringing it back to the basics. So we have the opportunity

now to shop smarter, shop better. And that's really all I do. I don't push any style diet on people, but I have seen people just simply find relief of, oh my God, I just love eating cookies. I can't imagine giving them up. And I'm like, so don't, don't. And they're like, what do you mean? Just find a better version. It's not that hard. Like I do not follow any style diet, as long as I can recognize the ingredients. That's the way I live. And I have no stress around food. I don't quote unquote fear food. And it's not a form of like fear mongering as people love to say, it's just, it's informed consent. I know my body reacts to certain things. I would like to know if these

foods are made with those certain things so I can avoid them and avoid the sitting in discomfort for three to four days after eating that food. Right. Like I still want to enjoy my food without avoiding absolutely everything. I love this. I feel very similarly around food, you know, and this is why I feel so passionately about this, this push to like not label foods good or bad, because I believe quite the opposite. I know dieticians think that by like not doing this, that we're keeping people from disordered eating, but I actually believe the exact opposite. I'm like, when we lie, we are literally lying to people when we say like, there's no good or bad foods. Okay. If we were talking in the context of real foods, yes, I would say, unless you have like an allergy or something, there are no bad foods, but we are talking about,

we live in a society where we have these highly addictive, highly palatable food, like products that are not considered real food. And those are not good for us. And I believe that when we are lying to people and saying like, oh, there's no good or bad foods, we are actually creating more unhealthy relationships with food. And then people get in these cycles of like addictive, you know, they get addicted to these foods and then they don't understand why they like can't get rid of their bloating or why they can't shed the excess weight or why they're having all these issues with their gut. And we're like, oh, it's fine. Just keep eating the way you're eating. But it's,

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off and make sure to use code real foodology at checkout for an additional 15% off. That's neurohacker N E U R O H A C K E R.com slash real foodology for an extra 15% off your purchase. Thanks to neurohacker for sponsoring today's episode. I 100% agree. And that's really what I try to portray to people, especially because like I said, you have people who are coming from calorie, like very restrictive calorie counting, where again, they're told to fear anything outside this number range. So then they go to a dietician who's telling them eat whatever you want, no food is good or bad. And that feels really good to them because now they can enjoy all the foods that they want, maybe within a much more lenient rule, like rule book, right? So now it's like, maybe we'll just count the macros or, you know, we'll do like a very intuitive eating, which is like, you want a cookie, eat a cookie. You want a burger, eat a burger. Or I saw the other day, someone was like, if you're really craving a certain food, just buy that food in bulk and keep it in your closet. And it was a post from a dietician. I was absolutely mind. Oh my God. Like you could have spent that $40 on something else instead of like buying Oreos in bulk. Like I've never

heard that in my life, but this is a mindset that's being kind of pushed on that side of, you know, the health Instagram, where then those people who are really struggling like myself with acne and just being afraid to like, eat anything because I would blow or I would get a, you know, acne or my periods would be horrible. And then they come to, you know, people who are more holistic in their way of eating. And when you start to introduce ingredients and just looking at ingredients, you realize like, wow, all these perceived healthy foods that I thought were healthy, that it was vegan or it was non-GMO or it was gluten-free because that's what I was

told was healthy are not really that great for me. And it's really, that's all it's about. And again, like we're lucky enough to have so many brands coming forward and creating better options for people. And I think that's great. And I think we just utilize them. You don't need to restrict yourself. I have like the least restrictive diet to most people. I think people actually get shocked that I say I don't restrict anything. And that's kind of like you said, it's because I eat food and it's real food. I don't eat food like products. I eat real food with ingredients that I could recognize. It really just comes down to that. It's just that ancestral eating that these pesticides and these additives never existed, which mind you, most of them are only like 30 years old, which they're as old as like you and I, um, this is how literally how our parents and grandparents were eating.

It's not that crazy to think about. Exactly. It was not even that long ago, you know, and we've changed our food landscape so immensely in the last like 20, 30 years. So how, well, okay. I have a couple of questions, but first of all, um, so then what is kind of your, uh, your mentality? Like, do you follow any sort of diet? I feel like you kind of already said this, but I'm curious to hear more a little bit about your like philosophy around eating. Yeah. I mean, I really don't follow a diet.

Like there's nothing to follow really. I'm not like keto. I'm not, um, vegetarian. I'm not, I wouldn't even consider myself plant-based because I'll, sometimes I'll go weeks, like just craving or like really needing steak or really needing chicken. And then I'll go like weeks. Like I used to be like pounding, sloshing down eggs, like nobody's business. And then for whatever reason, like the past two months, I've just like avoided eggs completely. I don't want them. I'd rather just have like avocado toast or like oatmeal in the morning. So I'm super intuitive when it comes to like what my body needs and

what my body's craving, depending where I am in my cycle. Like I'm just really in tune, but I think that just came with like the past few years of me just like really avoiding like these highly palatable foods and artificial foods. And then I can actually see kind of what my body actually needs food wise. So that's kind of where I'm at. Yeah. I don't really, if I want a cookie, I have my snacks. I have my like go-to brands that I always use. If I want a burger, I go out and I grab a burger, but even when it comes to eating out and I do love to eat out, like, oh my God, there's nothing like having like a nice dinner. I do try to find just better options, right? Like a place that's like a farm to table. And I really just don't stress it because I do think that sense of

community and going out and having fun is still a really important part of health, right? Like health is so multifaceted. So I don't really stress the eating part. It's just when I can control what I'm doing, I'm going to control, right? So everything that's in my house, like you're not going to find, you know, natural flavors. You're not going to find artificial dyes, artificial flavors. You're not going to find added sugars and like artificial sugars or anything like that, or artificial sweeteners. That's just my rule in my house. Cause I want to have control over the least of foods that I have access to on a daily basis. But when I go out, I really don't stress

it, but I'm also not going out every single night. So there is, that's my sense of kind of balance and moderation is I love to have a good dinner out or a lunch out or brunch. And I try to make the best option possible, but there's only so much you can control. And I just have to be honest with myself that it's like, it's around the holidays and I'm getting a little out of hand. I just need to support my body better, which that can look different for everybody, right? Some people, you know, do the whole digestive enzymes and they're just staying really hydrated. And I just make sure my, all my detox pathways are open. I'm sweating properly. I'm pooping properly. And if something seems off, then I know to like, all right, you need to ease up a little bit. So I think that's

really what it comes down to with my diet. It's just very, very intuitive and just very honest and like blunt with myself. Yeah. I had a similar experience as well. Um, when I started really focusing on more nutrient dense, whole real foods, it was almost like this veil kind of lifted and I wasn't being driven so hard by my cravings anymore. And I was being more driven by this intuitive, like, I mean, think about it. It's ingrained in our biology. You know, our ancestors knew what to forage and knew what to hunt and like what foods to eat. And we have that intuition in us of what we need and what our body really needs to fuel itself. But our palates and our brains have been hijacked with all of these additives and chemicals and, you know, everything in our

foods. And it's confusing us kind of like what we said earlier, where it's like, is this an actual craving? Or is this a craving because I'm addicted or is this an actual like my body needs iron right now and this is why I'm craving this burger. And that's what I find so interesting about when you stop eating all those kinds of foods, you really get more in tune again with what your body like actually truly really needs. And that to me is total food freedom. You know, like I've really gotten to a place where I'm just like, I haven't, I have no sort of like fear around food or I really do eat whatever I want as long as it's like whole real foods. And then obviously of course, you know, when I eat out, like I said, I'll have the French fries or whatever, but that's very rare for me. Like that doesn't happen that often. And that's not because I'm restricting. It's because I'm genuinely, I crave foods that feel good, you know? So for someone listening that is struggling

right now, like let's say they're struggling with calorie counting or yo-yo dieting or these fad diets, how can, um, how can they break up with this calorie counting? Like what, what are the steps maybe they can do to help? Oh, God, there's so many things. I literally created a whole master class around this because I just think it's so important because I know so many people who come from calorie counting and they're like, how do I just eat again? And there's a few things.

And I think the biggest thing for me when I started transitioning from the calorie and the macro counting into the true form of intuitive eating, not like this, like eat whatever you want kind of mindset is just understanding the myths around it. Right. Because there are so many myths around calorie counting. And like, I think the biggest one is that like, we're just calorie counting machines. Like our body does not strictly need calories to function. We have so many different hormones and vitamins and minerals that our body needs to just function on a daily basis that calories are just like, calories aren't even worried about those, right? Calories is just the

energy that the food has and that's it, right? So we aren't even nourishing ourselves properly by counting calories. So that's like the first thing. The second thing is from the top, top level is the FDA allows 20% of error on food labels. So we actually don't even know how many calories we're truly getting per food because they allow a large margin of error. 20% is a lot. So you could completely be under eating and very, very well. So under nourishing yourself, which can cause a slew of issues. And then another one is just calorie counting in general, just causes again, like this anxiety around food. I remember when I did it and I wasn't reaching my macros, for example, and it was

already like nine o'clock and I was like, Oh my God, I'm going to go to bed in an hour. I still have like 300, you know, calories that I need to get in. And then next thing you know, I'm like binging on cereal to get in those extra 300 calories. And I just had this, like, that's a form of disordered eating, like trying to shovel food into my mouth before my deadline of sleep time. So that was like the biggest thing for me is like understanding the myths of like why we do things. And then I think the biggest one is we all have such different functioning organs, right? So we are all not digesting calories the same way. Some people are more efficient at digesting food while others just

simply aren't. And I've seen people who are struggling with their weight and they're very low in calories. And it always makes me wonder like, what was going on with those people? Like I have, I know so many, some of my nurse friends who are overweight and they only get like one meal a day and they're not even eating that much. Sometimes it's like a protein shake, like one of those premier proteins or like an ensure. And it always made me wonder like, why are these people, you know, struggling with the weight loss? Um, and they're at such low calories and it's just inflammation, right? Like where they are just so inflamed with all the top, like when they do get a meal, it's full of toxins and artificial sweeteners. Their sleep is probably horrible.

So they're just going to store weight like that. They're just stressed. So their body's going into fight or flight mode. So they're going to store weight. So many different aspects than besides calories. Yeah. And sorry, they're undernourished, you know? I mean, if you're getting insurers as your main source of food every day, I mean, it's

canola oil, sugar, and like soy protein. Yeah. And who knows what else? Yeah. So it's, it's, that's like, usually my biggest thing is I just educate people on, I always ask people like, okay, why do you follow calories? Like, what does it do for you? And they're like, oh, it gets me to lose weight. And I'm like, all right, well, how long have you doing, how long have you been doing it? And how much weight have you lost? And usually it's, oh, well, I hit a plateau. So my, you know, my trainer or my dietitian told me to cut them even more. And I'm like, oh my God, your body is so stressed that you're working off stress and you're working off cortisol and your body's not going to efficiently shed weight when you're in such a stress state, right? The same

way you're not going to put on weight when you're very stressed. So it's always just getting to the root source and people need to understand that like nourishing your body. And when you start to eat a whole food based diet, that weight loss and weight maintenance is the plus side of that. It's just a side effect of all of that on top of clearer skin, better digestion, better libido, healthier periods, all these things, like all these are a beautiful side effect of just eating and focusing on real food as opposed to calories, which is so like you got blinders on when you're eating like that. You only see your eye on a number and it's just not a way to live. And that's usually kind of where I start with people is the understanding

the why and kind of debunking all of their myths. And then they're like, okay, so now what do I do? Since that clearly wasn't working for me. Yeah. Well, in the, the calorie thing is interesting because it's like, who, who are we to say what our body actually needs from a caloric standpoint? Because our bodies, I don't think that we give our bodies enough credit, you know, they work so efficiently, uh, and really know what they need and what they're doing. And then we come in thinking that we've hacked this and we're like, Oh, I need like 500 calories for this one meal. It's like, well, but you don't know that. What do we think we are? I mean, it's true. Like, who do we think we are? It's like, we're, and so this is why it's so amazing when you get to this point, like we were. I mean, it's true. Like, who do we think we are? It's like, we're in. So this is why

it's so amazing when you get to this point, like we were talking about earlier, where we are more intuitively led. And, you know, I will say for any women listening, listening, I've really learned to really lean in around my cycle as well. Like there are times for women, especially where we need more calories than normal. And then there are times where you need especially where we need more calories than normal. And then there are times where you need less. Like I've realized that, you know, the, maybe the like two weeks leading up to my period, I feel like almost like a bottomless pit. It's like, I'm eating way more food than I normally do.

I'm just like, raw, like I cannot stop eating. And then it's, you know, basically the second my period starts, I'm like, eh, like I don't care. And it's not that I'm, I'm even trying, I just don't need that many calories. And I really lean into those moments where my body's like, Hey, we're doing a lot of work over here. You know, like we need a little bit more calories. And then once your period starts, your body is like, Oh, we're good right now. You know? Yeah, I totally agree. And that's, that's also the part of like the intuitive eating that I think you and I

are kind of doing right now. We get the opportunity to do after, you know, having to rip the bandaid and then kind of getting back to this intuitive sense of what my body needs is like, yeah, we have like crazy hormones. So when you're on a very restrictive calorie diet, low calorie diet, and then you're around your period and you're craving all these bad foods and you can only eat 2000 calories. Those 2000 calories are going to end up being junk food because that's what your body is telling you that it needs right now, where now it's like, I eat whatever I want. Right. So I'm eating all these like nourishing foods. I'm upping my root veggies around my period. And then if I want chocolate, I just I'll eat chocolate,

right? It's just I'm not worried about Oh my god, my calories are like, I'm cheating. And yeah, your weight is going to fluctuate. But you're mostly going to stay within this general range of where your body feels good. So that's kind of where you want to stay. If you're constantly fluctuating in weight, where it's like 30 pounds either way, you know that you're, if you're constantly fluctuating in weight where it's like 30 pounds, either way, you know, that you're in, that you're fighting your body on what it truly feels good at. Right. Like I remember when I first started as a personal trainer, it was like, it was just becoming hot to be like slim, thick, and I'm tiny girl. I'm five, three, about like 120 pounds. So like, I, I'm tiny. And I remember I wanted to be thick. So I ended up just like shoving food down my throat. And I went up to about almost 140,

which is like, I was looking at pictures yesterday. I was like, well, no one told me. But of course, I was very fit. So I put on a lot of muscle, but also a lot of fat, just like eating protein powders and all these things. Um, but as soon as I stopped, as soon as I stopped, like I would go on vacation or something, I would drop in weight. Like it was nobody's business. And I was like, what the hell? Like I worked so hard. I worked like two years to look, you know, thick or whatever. Um, and I was just naturally going against my body's where my body felt safe and where my body felt good. And I think, especially with social media, which is another aspect that people don't talk about,

is especially with social media, we're told that we need to be thicker, we need to be thinner, but we never look at ourselves and say, all right, what feels good for my body? If I'm constantly chasing 20 pounds lighter than my maintenance or 20 pounds heavier than my maintenance, you're constantly going to be yo-yoing back and forth from diet to diet, 21 day challenge to 30 day challenge to eight week challenge. And I was doing that for such a long time, trying to maintain this like slim, thick body that I thought everybody wanted. When now I've just embraced that I'm a small girl, I have a small frame. I'm not going to be big booty Judy over here. And it is what it is. And I feel so great. And I like love how I look now. And it's just, it is what it is, you know? So that's another thing is like when you're counting calories, you're not listening to your body and you're doing all these things you're going, you're aiming for

something that your body might not even feel good at. And it's going to be 10 times harder and more stressful for you to even maintain it. So don't even bother. Yes. God, that is such a good point. I think we get so stuck on, well, I think like I have to look this way because you know, guys or girls or whatever I'm, whoever I'm into are, you know, this is what they want kind of thing. Instead of actually just tuning in and being like, you know what, this is the body that I was born with. You know? I mean, it's similar. Like if you and I were to stand next to each other, so I'm six feet, so I'm very tall. I'm like a giraffe. I'm like lanky and long. And you know, it's so funny. I actually was just talking to a girlfriend about this the other day. You know, it's, it's very trendy right now to have like big hips, a big butt. I, my body literally, if I tried, I would have to get like injections done in my ass to look

that way, you know, and that's okay. Like I'm okay with where my body is. And I've gotten to this place where, yeah, it's like I feel good in my body and this is where my body feels good and safe. I've stayed this, I've maintained the same weight for like two years, you know? And it's because I finally stopped fighting myself and going, like trying to fit my body into this mold of what I thought that I needed to look like

instead of just being like, okay, like you take the steering wheel body, show me what you need. And it's so rewarding because you feel so much better. And then you stop worrying so much about your looks and saying like, oh, I wish I had this big ass or I wish I was skinnier or whatever. You know, it's, I'm going to look very different than you because you are so much shorter than I am.

We probably have different body builds and that's okay. Totally. And like, I'm all for a fit body. I love just like exercise. And like, that's literally like, I'm very, I've always been very athletic. So I've always been very in shape. But like, the whole thing is like fighting your body. And it's like, we really want to get into it. Like, if you look at statues of goddesses, and just anything from like ancient Rome, ancient Greece, the women were much more curvy than what

we see today. Obviously Obviously we have like the artificial curves today, but naturally they were curvier. Why? Because they needed to have a little bit more meat on them so that they could provide babies for the family, you know? And now today we see so many issues with obviously calorie counting, over-exercise, like so many fits, those that are just running themselves to the ground trying to get as lean as possible. So many issues of infertility because of the severe lean body mass that we're all trying to achieve. But in reality, I think a woman's body is supposed to just feel good where it's at, whether that is super, like thin, like some people that's just their frame, or even a little curvier.

Like we just automatically think fat is bad when, again, we go back in time and we see that a little bit more cushion was actually better for fertility. So there's so many different ways to look at it and calorie counting and, you know, doctors dismissing patients just because they have some fat on them, I think is just not helpful at looking at the whole picture of what, you know, doctors dismissing patients just because they have some fat on them, I think is just not helpful at looking at the whole picture of what, you know, a woman's body is supposed to look like. And like I said, these are all just restrictive ways to eat the calorie counting, the macro counting, the no food is good or bad. Like, it's also it can't just be a free fall. And it can't be super restrictive either. I think everybody needs to find their balance. And I think that's kind of what wrapped up. Like everything we were saying is finding your own balance, finding that perfect amount of moderation that feels good for you. And not just like trying to cut calories because you're trying to look like someone on the internet that has a completely different body type than you and completely different health history than you and whatever else. Like we, as women, we need to stop fighting

our bodies and just feel good where we're at and just embrace how our bodies were made and created and just live there and feel good there. Yeah. Well, and we need to redefine what health really means, you know, and to me that is feeling good in my body. You know, if I'm carrying a bunch of extra weight, I don't feel good. And this is not to say like, I'm not like shitting on anyone else that is, I'm just you. Yeah. Like that's just how you feel. Exactly. And then also like we forget, we're so focused on the body and what the body looks like. And we forget that health actually starts from within. So like, I can't look at you and just say like, I, there are some signs that I can be like, oh yeah, she looks healthy. But honestly,

I don't really know until I see your blood work. I want to see your inflammation markers. Yeah. I want to see where your glucose levels are. So this mentality of where we are just now saying like, oh, well you, you know, you look healthy or whatever. And I, I will say like, I know this is very controversial and we don't have to go too into it, but there is a point where there is so much excess weight that it is unhealthy for someone, you know? And I think we also need to stop lying to people about that. But again, it all comes back to blood work and how you feel in your body and the signs and symptoms that your body is telling you. Like if you, if you, if you're feeling like your gut is bothering you or you have acne or you have terrible periods,

you can't sleep at night, whatever it is, I don't care how much weight or how little weight you have because it could also be very underweight. We need to look at your blood work and we need to look at your diet because that ultimately is what defines health. Yeah. And honestly, it's just like piggyback off of that because I know all too well that like of course having there are clear physical markers right having too much excess weight but the one that really that really gets people bamboozled is the bikini competitors the professional bodybuilders who are severely lean right they're not necessarily underweight um but they're severely lean to the point where they have zero, they have no period, completely no period. They've pretty much lost their fertility.

Their hormones are out of whack, but we glorify those bodies because they are fit. They have abs, they have a tight ass. And we glorify that where automatically when we see someone who's overweight, we're like, oh my God, you're this, you're that you should lose weight. You say all that you see all these negative comments, but then you see a bodybuilder pounding down cheeseburgers and Dunkin' Donuts flavored protein powder and cookies and cream protein bars. And we're like, Oh my God, babe, I wish I could look like you body goals. And that's, that's, that's my demographic right there. Those are the people that I say, that was me. It is false advertisement. I promise you these people feel like garbage

every single day. And we need to stop glorifying fit bodies because fit does not equal healthy periods. Yeah. Yeah. That's what really pisses me off yeah yeah that's what really pisses me off about it is because yeah obviously we know if you're very underweight and you're like very overweight those are clear you know you're clearly your health is not well but then we see the people who are extremely fit downing you know pre-gaming energy drinks and shotgunning you know like the can of energy drinks with a pre-workout. And we're like, oh my God, I wish I looked like you, like you, their insides are screaming. I promise. Because I know it was me not too long ago for like eight years.

That was me. So yeah, it's that, those are the bodies that we glorify. And I think that whole facade and like, if people really want to hone in, really pay attention to all the fitness influencers that are struggling with acne, that are struggling with chronic bloating, that are struggling with hormonal problems, with painful periods, with eczema, like all these chronic key markers of inflammation that they complain about. Even mental health, a lot of them have very poor mental health.

And it begs to ask the question, what does it, is their diet truly, truly healthy? And, you know, obviously I educate people all the time on how some of the top fitness brands on the market are absolute trash. It's some of them filled with canola oil. They're filled with gums. They're filled with artificial sweeteners. They're filled with carrageenan. Like it's, it's horrible, but of course, because you're fit and you have abs, it's glorified in this industry. And people are just chasing something that is going to lead them, um, in a really bad place, physically, mentally, all of it. Yeah. Which is again, back to the point that I made that we need to redefine health and

health is not what your body looks like. It's how you feel and what your signs and symptoms are. If you're a woman and you are so lean that you have lost your period, that's not healthy. Your period is your monthly report card telling you where your health is and where your body is at. And, you know, for women, because we have higher levels of estrogen. So both men and women have estrogen and we both have testosterone. Men have higher levels of testosterone because they are meant to be leaner and have more muscle. Women have higher levels of estrogen because that, that, uh, produces more fat for us to carry babies and to be fertile,

you know? And so we need to remember that. And I'm so glad that you brought up this point because it's a great point. Like we're, we're idolizing these fit bodies. And if you were actually to like really take an assessment, like just another period, super low fatigue, um, farting all the time from all the protein shakes, you know, like digestive upset, whatever it is, you know, and we need to bring that conversation back to not about looks, but how you feel and what your diet looks like. Okay. So I talk a lot about the reds and greens from Organifi and the gold, but I haven't shared with you guys about glow yet. Glow is

another one of their drink powders that I love. This one is for my vegan friends that are looking for natural collagen support that is plant-based. Also, you don't have to be vegan. I'm not vegan and I still drink it, but I do get a lot of questions from my vegan plant-based friends that do not want to consume collagen. So this is a great alternative. It has things like tremella mushroom, rosehip, aloe vera, bamboo silica, pomegranate, and just a bunch of fruits like lemon, raspberry, coconut water. It tastes amazing. It is full of antioxidants and it supports natural collagen growth.

My favorite thing to do is to add it into just plain sparkling water to give it a little bit of flavor. I really like the flavor of this stuff. As always with Organifi, it is USDA organic and it's also glyphosate residue free, which is great because we do not want glyphosate that causes cancer in our body. That's a huge one for me. So if you want to try Organifi, make sure that you go to Organifi.com slash real foodology. That's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash real food ology. And also make sure that you use code real foodology and you're going to get 20% off. I hope you guys love it. So you have referenced this a couple of times. Why don't you tell everyone a little bit about what's your background and kind of how

you got into all this and how did you kind of figure this out for yourself? Yeah, totally. Um, so I'm 28 now and I started working out when I was 20. Um, I really know much about it. I just knew I was always active and I always did sports, but I've never like worked out at a gym. Um, I remember getting approached by a trainer and to like come join this gym. And that was my first experience at a gym. I just was like the average person going in, um, this gym ends up having like a lot of like professional bodybuilders that worked out there. And I ended up really getting interested in kind of another sport, right? Because I wasn't really doing college sports, but I wanted something. I was such a competitive person. And I was always being told you have such a great frame, like you could definitely do this. And

other girls that were kind of my age or I've done it before, like, no, you'd be great at this. I was like, okay. So I kind of started pursuing bodybuilding and training like a bodybuilder, which I still kind of do, but not as intense and just really packaging my food and preparing my food and doing all of that. And so I started that around 20 years old, really started seeing like crazy results easily in like a few months, close to a year. I started booking photo shoots. I was looking really lean. And then I realized my health was getting really bad around the age of like 23. So it took me about three years to even notice that it was like getting bad, but it was getting really bad. So I was having like really, really bad acne, all hormonal, like all the way down my neck, really deep, like those deep pimples where it's like your whole jaw like hurts because of like how deep they are. Yeah. Super cystic. Um, I had really bad, bad periods where like I had to miss school. I couldn't go to work. It was really rough. And I also suffered with chronic bloating. Anything I ate bloated me, literally anything,

but I just assumed like, oh, it's because I ate or whatever. I had chronic migraines, which for like someone licensed to tell you that you have a chronic migraine, it needs to be more than 15 a month. So I was waking up almost every single day with like a splitting migraine. So it was really bad. And I went to a bunch of different doctors, I went to like four different gynecologists, I went to a neurologist for my migraines, I went to a gastro for my gut problems. I went to obviously my regular doctor for all my other issues. Um, my dermatologist just recommended me Accutane. My gynecologist just recommended me, I went on seven different types of birth, birth control. Like I was rotated in and out of so many different kinds. None of them helped.

They actually, I feel like they made things worse until eventually I got off. Um, my neurologist recommended me Percocets. So that was a fun one. Yeah. Percocets, which I didn't even know what that was. Um, like when I got it, my mom's like, please throw that out. I was like, okay. Um, my gastro said it's nothing. It's normal. People blow all the time. So I was kind of shit out of luck. So I went at once I was 23, uh, that I kind of did that for a year of like looking at different doctors. Um, at this time I'm a, I'm a certified personal trainer, right? So I kind of have like this education, right? I think I know everything I'm counting my calories and counting my macros. Um, so then the next, I was like about 24, I decided to make the

leap and like get off of birth control. So it took me about like a year to like mentally get off. And then finally, I kind of bit the bullet got off at 25. So after that, my health started to get a little bit better. But I still struggle with the acne. I still struggle with the bloating. And that's kind of when I started getting interested in more in like social media, like the health and wellness aspect. And I remember the first person I ever got introduced into the health area of like holistic anything was Dr. Jolene Brighton, who has the Beyond the Pill book. So I remember reading that. Yeah. I remember reading that and I was mind blown because I was like, Oh my God, birth control literally messed me up. So that was like the first intro I had. So as I'm starting to like heal my body, I'm seeing some relief when it came to my hormones, but there was still something else.

And this is kind of when I stumbled upon a few accounts just talking about ingredients. And I was like, what? Like, I eat healthy. What do you mean? Like, I eat protein bars and I'm fit and I count my calories and I eat veggies and I eat chicken and rice and broccoli every single day. Like, what know, I see like a research article here, started buying books. And I, that's when I really started getting into ingredients. And I noticed all these protein powders that I'm trying and drinking all these pre-workouts that I'm drinking, all these energy drinks and protein shakes have these ingredients that are linked to severe gut problems. The reason I'm bloating, um, I realized I'm having migraines because I'm so depleted in nutrients, so depleted in nutrients. I was actually so magnesium deficient. And as soon as I started like mega dosing magnesium, obviously speak to your doctor, but as soon as I started mega dosing magnesium, my migraines went away. So no no I didn't need painkillers and percocets from my neurologist but yeah I mean which is crazy that he even prescribed me that like 23 years old like I'm a child at that point um yeah so yeah

that's kind of how I got into it and it was just like really by accident and this whole time so now I'm like 25 26 years old and I'm just like sharing to like my 50 followers on Instagram where like my friends and family like I have acne and there's what I'm trying today um eventually I kind of started gaining traction and people started saying like oh my god wait that ingredients in this and I drink this every day and I also have gut problems so it kind of just sparked people having these aha moments with their perceived health products or their perceived fitness products. And that's kind of how my page kind of came to be. And then I pursued a holistic health coach certification through IIN. And that's kind of like my official thing. And then eventually I

started Live Healthily. So that's kind of like, long story short, how I got to who I am today as healthily, which is just to play on my own name, Illy. So there we go. Such a cool name, by the way. you're out like so before this I had first off my original Instagram name was silly Illy who do I think I am um like what is this like aim 1996 like okay um so silly Illy and then it was illustrator like I was the illest you know yeah okay and then after this is just like my name like just Illy um Illy's and ellie and then I was like I really want to start like a health account and then health illy I was like you think people were yeah you guys like you think people realize it's healthily like health maybe and then here we are so now I'm healthily my real my actual name is

illeriana but I've been called illy since I was literally in kindergarten. So that's how everybody knows me. But yeah, like it's weird. That's like, now I'm just like brand name. So cool. It works. Yeah. And you know, I mentioned this earlier. I'm so glad that I found you on Instagram. Cause I really, I love that you are tackling these conversations because they are very important. And I, I, I really care because I see, I struggled for a long time when I was younger, you know, with through everything that we've talked about in this episode. And so I feel very passionately about educating people on this because I didn't know either, you know? And so it's, and once you start to understand really like how our palates have been hijacked and what it really truly means to be healthy, what really healthy

food is, how you can feel better in your body. You don't have to like, just, you know, throw in the towel and be like, well, I guess I'm just going to be bloated and have acne and have horrible periods until I go into menopause. And like, you don't have to accept any of those. There is a way out of it. And this is why, yeah, I'm so passionate about sharing this with people. So for people listening that are like, okay, wow, like we want to get to that place. So what are some of your top tips for navigating the supermarket when you look for food products and maybe like, how do you read a nutrition label or what are things that you look for and try to avoid like top ones? Yeah. I mean, it's, it's different. It's going to be, I think slightly different for everybody, but I think the main, the main ones

obviously are going to be the, anything that says no added sugar. Cause we all know that is lies. You always want to flip it over and just look right at the other ingredients right at the right under this very fine print underneath the actual nutrition label where they that's yeah are they trying to hide it but we all know um that's that's the juicy part that's that's the good stuff right there so when i flip over a label that's where i go i forget what the i don't even care what the brand is. I don't care. I don't care what the friend says. I don't care what it says on the front of these little fake stamps that they put all over it. Cause most of them are fake. They could write anything. Um, and I look at the back, I looked at the other ingredients. So obviously

first, first you want to make sure there's no type of like synthetic flavor that just that gives you nothing right it gives you nothing i see people that pick up a pre-workout and the pre-workout is called candy blast and they they just think it's healthy for whatever reason and you flip it over and it just says natural flavor or art of most likely artificial flavor. Cause it's candy boss, but let's say artificial flavor, or it'll say natural flavor or else I'll pick up a pre-workout. It says peach, peach berry, and you flip it over and it just says natural flavor. It doesn't say natural peach flavor.

Doesn't say natural berry. It doesn't say anything. It's just this natural flavor. That's a big red flag to me because it's telling me they just, they just made this in a laboratory and just send it your way. So I always avoid natural flavors, obviously artificial flavors. And we have no way of knowing, sorry to interrupt you, but really fast. This is really important for people to understand. They try to make it sound healthy by like, oh, natural sounds really healthy. Well, the word natural is not regulated at all. And you know, and, and so it's not really any better than artificial flavors.

And all it's telling us is that there is, there could be so many different ingredients under that. Most of them are probably genetically modified. We have, we just have no idea. We have no idea what is in the natural flavors. And if they really were proud of their ingredients, they would, they would show them all. So yeah. And personally, I reached out, I reached out to like a, uh, a few fitness friends. And I remember one of them were willing to give me some of the ingredients that were in their natural flavor for their pre-workout. And it had maltodextrin which is corn derivative and spikes blood sugar and they're hiding that under this blanket term natural flavor which is so harmful for people who struggle with insulin resistance right if you have pcos or anything like that um and also it's a gmo

product so we're just hiding gmo products under natural flavor and you can never and who has the time to sit there at the supermarket and dm email all these damn brands? I'm like, what's in your natural flavor? So the brand probably won't tell you. And yeah, that's another thing. They won't even tell you because they hate us, but that's, that's, that's the main one that I like to avoid. And I might be like a little stickler about that because I know a lot of people are like more lenient, but unless I have the time to sit there and ask, I avoid so like I said there's brands now that I use because I had time to ask the brands like hey what's your natural flavor and then they told me and I now I use them but if I'm in the supermarket and I don't have the time then that's one obviously the second

one is going to be the artificial sweeteners, the Ace K, the sucralose. We want to avoid those because they hijack your taste buds, right? Your body thinks it's getting something sweet. When it doesn't get something sweet, you're going to eventually need to give your body something sweet. That's why we either keep craving those those artificially sweetened drinks that's why people are addicted to diet soda addicted to anything diet because it's these artificial sweeteners that are in them also they disrupt the gut in so many different ways so that would be my

second and the third is like the this one the dyes piss me off because it's so pointless yeah we don't even need them like you because you had to make it if it doesn't have cherry in it don't make it red I don't freaking care I'd rather yeah who cares like it's just they just make it because it's visually appealing but there is no nutritional value it only hurts you only hurts you so it's such a pointless ingredient it just aggravates me every single time. And when I say like, not to just to avoid it in your food, people overlook this in their like hygiene products. So your Dawn dish soap. Yeah. Okay. Has the, has the freaking dyes in it. Your body wash could have dyes, your shampoo can have dyes. So maybe if you're not eating them,

better check under the hood in your bathroom. Even like this drives me nuts too. Like your Advil and stuff like that, you know, I'm not saying that we should be taking that all the time, but there is a new company. I'll put it in the show notes. Cause I forgot. I need to look it up, but there is a company that creates dye free, um, just traditional like medicine cabinet kind of drugs. Yes, that's it. I love Genexa. I just posted about this too. Good timing. Cheers. Um, yeah, well it's frustrating cause when you need something like that, like if you actually do have a really bad fever, a cold or something, and you do need an Advil, like I, this drives me nuts. Like, um, or one time I needed Ben drill for my dog a couple of years ago that was having like a horrible reaction and I couldn't find like

dye free Benadryl. I was like, why does it need to be pink? Exactly. We don't need all this added crap in there. It is just so I'm with you. It is so infuriating. That one makes me mad. Like why, why does my Advil need to be blue? Like in case it rolls under the couch and I can't find it. Like, I don't understand. Like why, like why did they do that? That one pisses me off. But again, like I think people are like, well, I don't need anything dyed, but it's like, are you using anything dyed? Because again, those are still being absorbed absorbed our skin is the most absorbent organ that we got so if you're still using it in your dawn dish soap in your laundry detergent in your shampoo in your right even your makeup like I personally use like also clean makeup like I'm crazy like

that um unless it's like a special occasion and I get my makeup done or whatever I'll like usually mix and match like eyeshadows are really hard to find clean that are like good so sometimes I'll just use like yeah I mean they do but if I want like a crazy eye yeah which I guess you know that that they haven't done yet so if anybody wants to let a girl know yeah there's a market for your girl wants purple eyelids someone someone rip it up um so like things that. So I try to avoid makeup that uses like like dyes and they'll use just like regular colorants, but you know, like little things like that, like over time, if we're using it on a daily basis, like we are using soap every day, we're using body wash every day. Those things can really accumulate and really just add to

your toxic burden. So when it comes to stuff like that, not just eating it, but using it. Yeah, absolutely. It's a great point. I mean, people don't think about this, but we spend a third of our life sleeping. So think about those sheets that you, you know, what did you wash your sheets in that you're exposing yourself to? Wearing clothes pretty much all the time, unless if you're a never nude, but that's a whole other conversation. That's part two. But exactly, you know, it's like we're getting exposed through conversation. Word. That's part two. But exactly. You know, it's like we're getting exposed through laundry detergent. There's so much that people don't think about.

I'm going to add another one to this list that we're talking about. And I'm canola oil. This one drives me nuts. Oh, yeah. The oils. All the oils. Like anything canola. Yeah.

Everyone thinks sunflower. I love sunflowers personally. Not in myola. Yeah. Everyone thinks sunflower. I love sunflowers personally. Not in my food. No. Not as an oil in my food. So what people don't get is like, it's the heat point. Right. So the heat point is not high enough.

And you have to understand like people, whoever's listening, when a lot of these products are sitting in a hot ash truck yeah in somewhere in i don't know and they go rinse it by the time they hit the shelf right it's the same thing with aspartame i was just reading um the aspartame at 98 degrees turns into formaldehyde 90 degrees is the average temperature in like arizona so if your energy drinks with aspartame in them are getting shipped somewhere hot, guess what? That is formaldehyde you're drinking, ma'am or sir. It's also very close to our body temperature. So that's concerning. Oh, would you look at that? Yeah. Aspartame is a really scary one. If anyone's listening and they're still consuming

stuff with aspartame, drop that shit. It's yeah. Which isn't gum. Like if you're a gum chewer, yeah. Aspartame is like, that's scary. Yeah. Yeah. So you got to watch out. So I'm trying to think if there's any other ones that I really look out for, for people to look for. we covered the natural flavors, which is really important. Hydrogenated oils. I mean, I don't really see these anymore in products because I don't buy any of these kinds of products, but like you're Jiffy Skippy, like the, if you're buying, please don't buy those peanut butters anymore. If you are, but so many other brands, like so many other brands, if you have access, like, I mean, especially today, like you have so many online brands, if you have access, like, I mean, especially today,

like you have so many online websites to buy your produce from, like, I love thrive market. Obviously they're not perfect, but I, a lot of their stuff, I really do like, like to get the simple things like their flower, their oil. Um, like I have like the spray olive oil or whatever, um, like little things like that. I get off of thrive because I'm like, I don't want to sit through whole foods, like trying to, you know, spend $74 on olive oil. Exactly. And thrive has really great price points. So it makes it a lot more affordable. Yeah. And if you're a student, a veteran or low income, you get a free thrive market membership. Oh yeah. That's right. That's great. Yeah. They're doing a nice thing. Yeah. They do really good stuff and I really love them. So that's, I think that's great. Cause I know you have to pay like for the year. I forget how much

I pay for the year. It's, I think it's like 60 bucks or something. Right. It's like 60, which, you know, for some people they can't afford that. But yeah. When you can get like a dollar 29 peanut butter. I know it's right. Yeah. And it's, and it's pretty good quality. Like I really, a lot of their basic stuff is so good. And people beg me all the time to keep doing thrive market halls, but I'm like, I, I try to bulk everything. And like once every three months, like I just get in. And when I get it, I'm just like, I have to get this in. So I never have the energy like, or the time, but I have to like get on that. Cause they really do have so many good staple pieces. And even like, if you really want to go there and get like your skincare, you can really get everything on drive. Everything.

This isn't even sponsored. We're just like, I know I was just going to make a joke. I need them to sponsor this episode. Um, but yeah, you can get meat and get wine on there. I'm a huge fan. And you know, this is, uh, it's important part of the conversation because a lot of these foods unfortunately are less accessible for people and can be more expensive. But when you go to places like thrive market, they really do like everything they sell is at wholesale prices. So compared to like when you buy like your simple meals at whole foods versus like on thrive market, it is a big price difference. Yes. And you can even get pretty big containers too. And like, I get everything. I get my sponges on there. I got my dish soap.

I girl got it locked in. If you hear me, I love y'all sponsor your girl. Spend all my money. No, for real though. Like whenever people are like, I can't find these brands anywhere. I'm always like, girl, did I mark it? I got you. Yeah. Every single time. I love them. And like I said, they have free options for veterans, teachers, teachers, students, and like low-income families. So, you know, if you're any of those, I think that's such a great, like save $60 and get fricking cheap everything. Yeah. That's a great point. So before we go, I want to ask you what I ask every guest, what are your health non-negotiables? So no matter how busy your day is, these are things that you do

for your own health. It can be, you know, exercise. It can be, you know, my body, spirit, food, whatever it is, things that you do. Oh God, that's tough. I guess I feel like every day it changes, but, um, like my sleep can't tell me nothing. I am a, I am a slur for sleep. Like I will not miss, like if someone's like, Oh, let's stay up a little later. I'm like, absolutely the fuck not. So my sleep, like, obviously we all have to sleep, but like, I have a whole routine, like mouth tape on eye mask, red light on. Like I have a whole, my sleep routine is like down packed. That's it.

So that's, that is my like non-negotiable is like, cause you don't want to see cranky Illy. Like I'm hype and bubbly all the time. But like when I wake up and I don't get good sleep, no one should be around me. It's not a fun time. So my sleep routine is like my red light therapy. I have all my blue light stuff like gone.

I read for at least like 30 minutes to an hour. I have like my whole wind down routine. I have my mouth tape. I do my meditation. That's like my thing. So that's amazing. That's my, that's my ish. And I think like sleep is like the main pillar

of health. So you don't got that. You got nothing, honey. It's true. It really does start with sleep because our bodies do so much while we're sleeping. Oh my God. Yeah. You cleaning the brain, cleaning the gut. We've got to wake up, take a nice dumparoo and you're good to go. Yeah. So for me, like it's, it's, yeah, that's, I think if I, and that's what I love about it, that it's free. I spend zero monies. Exactly. I just spent money dialing in my bed. Yeah. Yeah, literally. But that's where all my sleep money went. Yeah. All my sleep money is cashed out tonight. So yeah. If anyone wants to know, I'm really

bougie about my sleep. So I even got like a brand new like my mattress, I just ordered a brand new non toxic mattress. I take my sleep very seriously. Okay, I know that's like, some people might say like, Oh, it's like my massage therapy gun. I don't know something crazy. Now I'm simple. I'm a simple woman. Give me a pillow and my eye mask. I'm good. And then she's good to go. For, for everyone listening, where can they find you and where they, where can they find your courses too, that you talked about? Yeah. So you find me at healthfully on Instagram. Um, you can also find my courses on my website at livehealthfully.com. And you can also shop my healthfully approved

fitness supplements, candles, toothpaste, everything, like literally anything you need. You could shop on there. And then I also have my courses on there, my shop healthily masterclass. If you want to learn about what ingredients to avoid, how to navigate the supermarket, and then how to also break up with calorie counting, how to actually nourish your body. Yes, I love it so much. Well, thank you so much for coming on today. This was a really I really enjoyed this conversation. Great, good time. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the real foodology podcast. If you liked this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resident media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Chris McCone.

The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie, spelled with a J. 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. you